A Florida teenager who disappeared from her home in the middle of the night has been found safe more than 1,000 miles away in New Jersey, nearly two weeks after unsettling surveillance video captured her slipping into the darkness.
Sophia Veronica Cover, 16, left her family’s home in Naples during the early hours of July 31. The last images of her before she vanished showed the teen with a sweatshirt pulled over her head as she moved away into the night.
After days of searching, detectives with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office tracked Sophia to a friend’s home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Her father, Richard Cover, shared the long-awaited update earlier this week, saying he was relieved and eager to fly to New Jersey to bring his daughter home.
The ordeal for the Cover family came to an end on Thursday, when the missing teen was reunited with her father.
Cover posted photos of Sophia at the airport and aboard the plane Thursday, writing: “Today, I’m sitting on a plane, bringing Sophia home.”
“After everything that has happened, just being able to look over and see her sitting beside me is something I will never take for granted,” he added.
He also thanked the community for its support throughout the search, including those who hung flyers, made videos, prayed and reached out to help the family.
Cover said that all he had wanted this month was for his daughter to return home, and he was grateful for their community that supported them
Cover shared photos of Sophia on the plane and at the airport on Thursday, writing, ‘Today, I’m sitting on a plane, bringing Sophia home. After everything that has happened, just being able to look over and see her sitting beside me is something I will never take for granted’
Sophia’s father said that she was found at her friend’s house in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and was interviewed by the FBI earlier this week
Cover promised to ‘never forget’ how loved ones and strangers rallied around their family during this nightmare.
He confessed that there was ‘a lot to unpack’ and he would share further details about what happened to Sophia, but for now the family needed time to decompress.
‘I’m going to hug my little girl, get her home to her brothers and sisters, and start getting to the root of how we ended up here so we can begin moving forward,’ Cover continued.
‘For days, all I wanted was one thing: To bring my Sophie girl home. Today, I get to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sophia is safe. Sophia is with her dad. And Sophia is going HOME.’
Cover announced earlier this week that after detectives located her, the FBI picked her up for questioning.
‘All the bad things that I thought were happening and could happen, it sounds like just some teenagers deciding that they were smarter than everybody else and decided to go hang out together for a few days, then it turned into 11,’ her father said in a tearful social media video.
Through tears, Cover said that his daughter was safe and healthy, adding that the next part of being a dad was ‘figuring out what to do next.’
Cover thanked the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and Detective Marisol Rodriguez in a separate post on Facebook, acknowledging that he put a ‘tremendous amount of pressure’ on them.
The teenager was last seen in the early hours of July 31 on surveillance camera footage leaving her Florida home
Sophia’s father thanked strangers and loved ones for promoting her story after she went missing
Sophia’s father, Richard Cover, had launched a viral social media campaign to find his daughter
‘I’m Sophia’s dad, and I was scared, frustrated, emotional, and determined to find my daughter. Detective Rodriguez handled all of that while still doing her job and keeping this investigation moving,’ he wrote.
He told Gulf Coast News Now that the sheriff called him at 4pm on Monday and said, ‘We got her!’
Cover added that he was praying Sophia’s disappearance was the result of rebellion, confessing that even though he does not like that she ran away, he was grateful that she kept herself safe, and that kids make mistakes.
He shared online that Sophia came to live with him in Pennsylvania in 2014 after staying with her mother in Panama.
Cover previously told Gulf Coast News Now that they moved to Florida just four months ago.
The worried father had feared the worst after his daughter disappeared, telling the outlet: ‘I think that she left the house because someone either convinced her to, or promised her something and I think that she’s in trouble right now. I think someone has my daughter, is what I believe.’
‘That’s what I believe, and I hope I’m wrong.’
Nearly two weeks later, Cover was proven wrong and shared photos online of Sophia smiling on the plane ride home.
