Missing Monday: Sophie Reeder

 Fifteen-year-old Sophie Reeder walked out of her Fort Lauderdale home just before midnight — leaving a candle burning in her room and a mystery that’s haunted her family ever since.
 Her diary spoke of loneliness, her searches revealed danger, and her final phone ping traced to a place she never left.
 Eight years later, her story still echoes through the Florida night. 

Transcript

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Hey y'all. Welcome back to Missing Monday. A short story series brought to you by True Crime consumes me. Each week we shine a light on a missing person's story because being missing isn't the same as being gone. Tonight we're heading to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A city laced with canals, bridges, and the sound of the sea in every gust of wind, but on one warm May night. In 2017, a 15-year-old girl named Sophie Reader slipped out of her home just before midnight. And vanished into the Florida darkness. It was Friday, May 19th, 2017. Sophie had spent the evening at home with her dad in their quiet home on citrus aisle Around 10:00 PM she quietly slipped out with no sound and no note. Hours later, in the early morning of May 20th. Surveillance cameras. Caught her walking down Davy Boulevard, black shorts, striped top white headphones and her curly hair bouncing as she walked alone under the streetlights, she looks calm, maybe even a little determined. That's the last confirmed image of Sophia Alive. The next morning her father found a candle still burning in her room. Her computer was still on and she had cash that was untouched. All signs that she planned on coming home. Her phone pinged one last time near Southwest 11th Court, just blocks from Stranahan High School, and then it went silent. And from that point on, everything did Sophie Elizabeth Breeder was just 15 years old. She was five foot one. Around a hundred pounds biracial with brown eyes and a quiet smile that made everyone feel safe. Her parents, they were divorced and she was living with her dad at the time of her disappearance. Friends, they described her as sweet, creative, and kind, a soft-spoken girl who never quite fit in with the noise around her. Over the years, Sophie's home life has been questioned online. But investigators have found no evidence of abuse or neglect. There was no police reports, no history of violence, and no reason to believe that she left that home to escape anything. Her father reported her the next morning and both of her parents have remained active and diligent in the search ever since. But still, Sophie was struggling quietly and deeply. She was dealing with untreated depression and anxiety, something her family didn't fully see or understand until it was too late. Her journal revealed a girl who felt invisible writing things like I'm used, unwanted, unloved, and lonely. Those weren't acts of rebellion. They were quiet Cries for help. Sophie's father, Patrick told investigators and reporters that when Sophie was around 12, she asked to live with him full time, but he agreed only under one condition that she would go to therapy. He wanted her to have someone to talk to, someone she can open up to in ways teenagers often can't open up to their parents. And she agreed. She went every week for a full year, and then just as she started high school, the session stopped. Her dad said she told him she didn't need it anymore and believing she had turned a corner. He let her stop going. Years later, he admitted he wished she wouldn't have. He said, I thought she was doing better. I really did. I wish I'd kept her in. I's a haunting reflection on how easy it is to think a storm has passed when it's only just quieted. When detectives search Sophie's room and computer. They found something that changed everything in her journal. She had written about wanting 10 sugar daddies. At first glance, it was shocking, but investigators say it wasn't fantasy or rebellion. They believed it was confusion. She'd been exploring adult sugar daddy websites where older men promise gifts or affection in exchange for attention. And for a 15-year-old girl battling depression and loneliness, those promises can sound like safety, but they are anything but her writing mixed with her chat logs painted the picture of a child being groomed, manipulated by adults who knew exactly what kind of pain to exploit, and at first police treated her as a runaway she'd left home once before. But this time the signs did not match. Her belongings were untouched. Her money was left behind, and her phone went completely dark. Detectives ended up following her digital trail to a small apartment complex near Stranahan High School, the same area where her phone last pinged, and in the direction that the cameras caught her on. A search warrant was issued for one of the apartments, listing possible crimes as kidnapping, human trafficking and murder. Inside officers found over 20 cell phones, two computer towers, boxes of ammunition, and a pair of white headphones. Just like the one Sophie was wearing in the footage and the tenant. He was a convicted felon. But despite all of that, still to this day, no arrests have ever been made. Whatever secrets those devices held have never been released. Sergeant Don Geiger later explained. Her last ping of her cell phone was in an area where we believe she may have gone to purchase marijuana or something to that nature. We don't believe she just left that location. Some believe she went there to buy something small. Others think she was meeting someone. She trusted someone who had been waiting for her. Either way, Sophie never came back. As detectives dug deeper into her online life, they saw just how dangerous her digital world had become. Sophie's internet activity, the chats, the adult sites, the diary entries all pointed towards grooming and exploitation. Detective Jennifer St. Jean later said, we know she's been dabbling in adult material websites, which could have gotten her entangled into human trafficking. That was one of our biggest theories. Eight years later, four majors theories remain the first human trafficking. Sophie may have even groomed by someone online and lured out that night. The warrants wording supports it. no confirmed trafficking link has surfaced to this day, the second overdose or foul play. Investigators have said it's possible Sophie overdosed or was harmed by someone who panicked and covered it up. Sergeant Geiger said if it was a homicide, somebody eventually talks and the third theory, abduction or murder. Her phone died in a high crime area and she was never seen again. Police and her family alike fear. She met someone dangerous that night. The final theory, a runaway once a working theory, now ruled unlikely. Sophie left money. Why would she leave it if she was running away? She left all of her personal items and she has never reached out to anyone again. If she's alive today, Sophie would be 23 years old. Ncmec, the National Center for Missing and Exploded Children has released the age progressed photo, her same eyes, her same gentle expression, just older now. Her mother has never stopped believing she'll be found. She told the reporters, I know Sophie. Sophie would go home. A$25,000 reward remains in place for information leading to her recovery or an arrest in her disappearance. If you or someone you know knows anything, contact the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. At 9 5 4 8 2 8 5700, or the National Center for Missing and Excluded Children at one 800. The Lost, when I pictured Sophie that night walking down Davy Boulevard headphones glowing white under the street lights. I think about how fragile those teenage years can be. How quickly loneliness can sound like love when the wrong person is listening. Eight years later, that candle that burned in her room might as well still be burning a quiet symbol of hope for a girl who deserves to be found. Her father stated that her room remains exactly the way she left it. Absolutely nothing has changed. And that brings us to the end of this week's missing Monday. This series was created with one purpose to keep their names alive because somewhere out there someone knows the truth. Someone knows where Sophie Reader's story really ends. Maybe they've kept it buried for eight long years, or maybe they convinced themselves it doesn't matter. But secrets don't stay silent forever, and maybe just maybe the right ears will finally hear it. I appreciate you listening and for standing with me as we keep the light burning for the missing. I'll be back next Monday. Same time, same purpose, right here on missing Monday. Until next time. Take care of y'all.