A Dodge County judge set bail at $2 million on April 17 for Gary Day, the man facing four felony charges of child enticement and abduction of a child in connection to the disappearance of a Beaver Dam teenager from her home that triggered multi-state Amber Alerts before he was apprehended in Nebraska.
The initial court appearance was the first time 40-year-old Day, of Cabot, Arkansas, appeared in a Wisconsin court after Sophia Franklin, 17, was taken from her home on Feb. 3. Franklin is five months pregnant with Day’s child.
Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Brian Pfitzinger also stipulated that Day should have no direct or indirect contact with Franklin or any members of her family and no contact with any minors, according to online court records.
Day first appeared in a Nebraska courtroom on April 10, where he voluntarily executed waivers of extradition to Wisconsin and Arkansas, two states where he faces charges. He and Franklin had been reported and apprehended by officials in Omaha, Nebraska, after a truck driver and his wife felt their interaction with the two was suspicious.
Gary F. Day, of Arkansas, has been charged with two counts of child abduction and two counts of child enticement in connection with taking Sophia Franklin, 16, from her Beaver Dam home.
Franklin was returned home safely. Sophia Franklin’s parents said they had been living in a near-constant state of mental anguish since she was taken for the second time from their Beaver Dam home by Day, a man more than twice her age.
Leah Franklin, Sophia Franklin’s mother, told the Journal Sentinel in an interview the day her daughter returned home that a priority is getting Sophia the help she needs after being under the control of a man they call a “predator.” Sophia’s parents believe their teenage daughter was strategically being taken to states where the legal age of consent is 16, her mother said. The experience has her parents eyeing advocacy efforts to address cellphone and internet accessibility issues they believe contributed to their daughter’s situation.
Day and Franklin first met online in April 2024. Day first took the teenage girl from her home and back to his home in Arkansas in August 2024.
Sophia’s parents first learned she was living with Day in Arkansas four months later when officers with the Austin Police Department went to Day’s home on Dec. 10. He was on probation and parole and was being investigated for crimes against children, according to the complaint.
Sophia remained with her family in Beaver Dam until Day returned to her home and again took her out of state in February, authorities say.
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: $2 million bail set for man charged with Beaver Dam teen’s disappearance