The father of missing Florida teenager Sophia Cover told The Post he fears his daughter may have been pressured or manipulated into leaving the family home — and said her cellphone stopped working only hours after she disappeared overnight.
Richard Cover, 54, said there were no obvious warning signs before his 16-year-old daughter vanished at about 12:45 a.m. on July 31, less than two weeks before she was due to return to high school.
“That’s why I think that somebody convinced her to leave under the false pretenses,” Cover told The Post on Friday evening.
Cover said Sophia liked attention from other people, adding that he “could see my daughter being coerced” by someone who persuaded her to walk out of the house.
“I think someone has my daughter. That’s my best answer,” he said.
Sophia was last captured on surveillance video leaving the family’s home in Naples, Florida, around 12:45 a.m. on July 31, her devastated father said. She appeared to be carrying a bag packed with numerous clothes, a new pair of Nike sneakers she loved and a flatiron hair straightener.
At about 6:15 a.m. that same morning, Cover said he heard Sophia’s 14-month-old dog crying inside her bedroom.
He knocked on Sophia’s door several times but got no response. Then he realized the bedroom door was locked — something he described as “weird” — before finally discovering that his daughter was gone.
Cover, who lives with his girlfriend and their combined four children — including Sophia — woke his girlfriend up in a panic.
“She jumps up like she saw a ghost,” Cover said of his girlfriend.
The couple checked their security cameras and saw Sophia had left in the early hours of that morning with a bag.
Her location-sharing app had also been disabled and her phone was going straight to voicemail.
The distraught father said that the family had relocated back to Florida five months ago and that Sophia was excited to be living in the Sunshine State and to return to school in less than two weeks.
He does not believe his daughter would voluntarily leave their home or put him through such worry.
“So there’s no issue with her not wanting to be here. There’s no issue with not loving where she lives. She was excited about going back to school in a couple of weeks,” he said.
Collier County authorities have reportedly launched a multi-agency investigation into the case while Cover began an online and in the community search effort, hoping for clues into her mysterious disappearance.
