Missing 16-year-old Beaver Dam girl previously spent months in Arkansas with alleged abductor

The missing 16-year-old Beaver Dam girl Sophia Franklin was previously taken to Arkansas by Gary Day, the man thought to have abducted her Monday, according to a criminal complaint against Day. Day is charged with two counts of child enticement and two counts of abduction of a child. The first count of child abduction stems not from Monday, but from sometime between July 29 and Aug. 1 last year. According to the complaint, a Dodge County sergeant was on duty on Dec. 10 in Beaver Dam about a missing juvenile. The parents said in July of 2024, she had not returned home one night. They believed she was still around Beaver Dam and working at a local McDonald’s, so she was not reported as a missing juvenile. The parents said they had been in regular contact with her by phone. Franklin was found in Austin, Ark. in December where it was believed she met Day online. According to the complaint, the victim told police her parents believed she was staying with a friend. She decided she would rather stay with Day than at home. She said Day did know she was 16. She said they waited until they arrived in Arkansas to become sexually active because the age of consent is 16 there compared to 18 in Wisconsin. Day faces a fine of up to a maximum of $100,000 and a maximum of 25 years of imprisonment.