Marked with an X

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It's subscription automatically renews each year at 6599 plus taxes and fees until canceled offerings July 31st, 2026, prices subject to change, visit today.com/start for full-offer terms and details. What drives a person to kill is it uncontrollable rage, overwhelming fear, unbearable jealousy,

“or is it something deeper, something in the darkest corners of our psyche?”

Every Monday and Thursday, the Crime House Original Podcasts serial killers and murderous minds dives deep into the minds of history's most chilling murderers. From infamous serial killers to ruthless cult leaders, deadly access and terrifying free killers. I'm Dr. Tristan Engels, a licensed forensic psychologist, along with Vanessa Richardson's immersive storytelling full of high stakes, twists and turns, in every episode of serial

killers and murderous minds, I'll be providing expert analysis of the people involved,

not just how they killed, but why. Listen to and follow serial killers and murderous minds, available now wherever you get your podcasts. It was 1245 a.m. when Sophie Reader started her journey, slipping out of her house, and into a therapy floor at a night. At 216 a.m., a security camera recorded her walking along Davey Boulevard in South Fort

Lauderdale.

“She was wearing a short black dress, a brown fur coat, headphones, and high-top sneakers.”

Sophie Reader was 15 years old, and that video is the last known image of her on May 20th, 2017, the day she disappeared. Patrick Reader is her father. Patrick, I can't imagine how difficult this has been for you. Yeah, it's like a living nightmare, a living nightmare.

You gotta do it that every day. Police would later discover where Sophie went on her middle of the night walk. The mystery they have not solved is what happened after she arrived. She got there after that long walk. Yeah.

This is that tell you, that puts a city of vicinity to start the investigation. We call it a last scene point. It is not a place for a 15 year old in the dark at all. That's a reporter who dug into Sophie's case.

I just always think about how she had that date circled on her calendar.

“A May night in 2017, could that mark on Sophie's calendar be the key to solving her case?”

Sophie's aunt is on a mission to uncover the truth. If she's alive, she's against her will somewhere, and I feel like somebody needs to do something, interview the people that we know have information to find her. And Josh Mankowitz, and this is Missing in America, a podcast from Date Line. This episode is marked with an X.

Please listen closely, because you or someone you know may have information that could help Sophie Reader's family find the answers they're still looking for. Sophie Reader is Patrick Reader's only child. He says long before she could talk, it was obvious she had a spark. Before she could even walk completely, she would pull herself on the coffee table and start

like trying to dance to the music. She's kind of like an entertaining kid. Kirsten Millhorn is Patrick's sister. She remembers when her niece was a lively little girl with a big personality. But she was just a sweetheart, like creative, and she just loved being around people, like

super outgoing, or curious. Sophie was about to start preschool when Patrick and her mom split up, but they shared custody of Sophie until she was almost 12. By then, Patrick says Sophie and her mom weren't getting along. And he says that was when Sophie asked him if she could live with him full time.

She was different? Definitely different, but I told her one condition, but she has to go to therapy for a year, weekly. And she agreed to it. We could drive her to therapy, get her into a therapist.

to worry.

What are we talking about here?

“She had burned things, like she'd make little fires, like burnt things outside, like”

wood, like stuffed toys, and she'd like, you know, start cutting her dolls, and stuff like that. Patrick says Sophie was also cutting herself. One time she told me, "Hey, Dad, I just can't control myself," and I said, "Well, you got to control your emotions," you know.

And then she goes, "I can't. I go, you can't if you try." After a year of therapy, Patrick says he did not argue when Sophie gave it up, because that was the deal they had made. I stopped the therapy because I made a promise to her.

I earned a promise. And maybe I shouldn't have, but I tried to keep my word with her to keep her trust. High school only seemed to accelerate Sophie's free fall. Patrick says she started skipping school and hanging out with friends he thought were trouble. In January 2017, Sophie switched to an online high school, but kept spending time with

those friends.

“Patrick says Sophie and one of them were caught shoplifting.”

Soon after that incident, Sophie got into a fight and threatened self-harm. So a psychiatrist prescribed medication. She couldn't really function, you know. It sounds to me like you did do everything you could think of, and you're kind of swimming against the tide.

Yeah, yeah. I didn't know what I was getting into taking a teenage daughter with mental issues by myself, you know. It was really challenging.

First and watch her brother's struggle to manage his daughter, including her medications.

Whatever the psychiatrist had given her, you know, it takes a while to kick in and of course, I don't know any teenager that wants to be medicated. When Sophie stopped taking her meds, Patrick again did not force it. Instead, he looked for ways to provide emotional support. She loved to go on car rides and listen to music so anytime at night, we would just, you

know, hop in the car, turn on music, whatever she liked, and drive for like an hour or two, and it really helped her out. She really liked it.

“Sophie also liked to take long walks by herself.”

When she would visit my dad's house, you know, she'd walk up and down the beach for hours. It seemed like, you know, just to clear her mind. Near the end of January, 2017, a couple of weeks before she turned 15, Sophie asked Patrick's girlfriend to cut her hair. "Dad, do you want to film it?"

Patrick had already hit record. "So how are you feeling?" "I'm feeling good, I'm on you." "I'm excited. I'm nervous."

"Is that a little bit haircut?" "Yeah, I don't know. I'm not going to show you. I mean, it's pretty short now. It's going to pick you."

Almost four months after that haircut came a sign, Sophie might have turned a corner. On Thursday, May 18th, she did something unexpected. But for Patrick and his girlfriend. She made us a big dinner, and I was like, "Wow, that's great. You know, it was really nice, you know?

Check in, vegetables, everything, you know, she could think of."

Maybe Sophie was finally on the other side of a very rough stretch.

It can be hard to tell with a troubled teenager. The next night, Friday, May 19th, Patrick says he was getting ready to go to sleep. It was around 1130pm, and Sophie was wide awake, texting on her phone. She was pacing up and down the house from the front to the back, front to the back, front to the back.

And I said, "Sophie, go to bed. You know, it's getting late. You got to go to bed. She's okay." When Patrick got up the next morning, Sophie's bedroom door was closed, and he figured she

was sleeping in that Saturday as usual. So he left to do errands, and texted her while he was out. He didn't reply, and when he got home, she was not in her room. That's when Patrick noticed Sophie had left a candle burning. "She left it on, one candle."

"Hirly we had a candle lit. I mean, that feels like somebody was going to be back in a minute." "Yeah, exactly." She was not back in a minute, or in an hour, or two hours, or three. Patrick checked with his brother and father to see if they knew where she was.

He did not. Patrick asked his brother to check with Sophie's mom. Because sometimes Sophie took the bus to visit her. So her being out of touch for a period of time was not immediately alarming. Not at all, no, not at all.

By Sunday, they had heard back from Sophie's mom, and she did not know where Sophie was either.

Patrick says he thought he had to wait 48 hours. The final missing person's report. So he waited until Monday.

“When I made the police report, the lady that said in Tucket, she's like, "It's a teenage”

girl. They usually run away. I'll come back in a week or two." "Oh, you know, seems strange, but I got to believe what you're saying, because that's

my first teenage daughter."

"You thought, okay, that seems plausible." "Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's the only thing plausible." She made it seem so like, like, that's a normal thing, like, a lot of teenage girls do that, you know, they co-missing and they show up at the friend's house, like, a week or two later.

Sophie did not show up anywhere. The Fort Lauderdale police told us Sophie's name was entered into the National Missing Persons database. The day Patrick filed a missing report.

“Officers looked for clues online and searched the area around Sophie's home and inside”

it. Also, Sophie's bedroom, they found crumpled cash in a bag by her bed.

Police find $300 in her room, and they say to you, "Where'd you get that money?"

And you have no idea. "I have no idea." I had no idea how she had $300, but it was there. Sophie did not have a part-time job or a big allowance. That stash of cash seemed to suggest she had not planned to be gone for long.

Otherwise, why leave that behind. Soon detectives found another clue. This one in plain sight on Sophie's wall calendar. Friday, May 19th, the last day Patrick had seen her, was marked with an X. That makes you think she's planning something for that date, even though her room does

not suggest somebody who was leaving forever. Right.

Yeah, you hit certain areas in an investigation where you see certain things that stand

out and you look back and say, "What was the connection there?" That is Sergeant Dom Geiger. He was a son, Sophie's cold case in 2024. Unraveling the meaning of that X would be a quest for detectives. Sophie had two phones, and she left with one of them.

“Both held potentially crucial information.”

And Sophie's computer would reveal another clue, one that's stunned and worried her family. She had been visiting websites where young, attractive women can connect with rich, older man. Also known as Sugardatties. She was researching, kind of putting herself out there to see what happened.

I'm Craig Melvertir, cheers. I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way too. Some really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, challenges, their stories, their funny, and my candy, so I hope you'll join me each week and who knows. You might just come away with your own glass asshole.

Search Glass Apple with Craig Melvert from today on YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. I don't know what you've come to expect from a true crime podcast, but I guarantee you crime junkie is all of that and more. I'm Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brett, and every Monday we dissect some of the most mysterious

cases. But listen, we're not just rehashing what you can read for yourself online. We have a team of dedicated investigative reporters and producers who I work with for months on every single episode. But the show still feels like having a conversation with your best friend if your best friend

was attractive, but like a good detective. So join us and tune into crime junkie every Monday wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Willie guys here reminding you to check out the Sunday sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with the hilarious Ken Jong to talk through a career of unforgettable roles from the hangover movies to the cult favorite show community and his

latest in the Netflix cultural sensation, Kpop Demon Hunters. You can find our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts. Learning your 15-year-old daughter has been visiting Sugar Daddy websites is not what any parent wants to hear. For Patrick Reader, it was hard to process.

It shocked me because I did no idea, of course you know. Police needed to find out if Sophie had actually found a sugar daddy online. Sergeant Don Geiger says, "The answer to that question appeared to be, no." Once a forensic investigation was done on the laptop, there was no indication that she'd ever engaged in anything on those websites.

It was just mirror, um, signing up for me.

Her cell phone data was about the point investigators to another corner of her secret life.

“Police used that data to reconstruct her movements before her disappearance.”

Two weeks after Sophie was reported missing, they zeroed in on her last known location. Her last ping of her cell phone was in an area that we believe that she may have been going to, uh, maybe purchase marijuana or something like that. We don't believe that she left that location. Or her phone didn't, anyway.

Correct. The location he's talking about is an apartment complex in the 1700 block of Southwest 11th Court in Fort Waterdale. It is less than two miles from Sophie's house, but it's a world away from the waterfront

homes and pools in her neighborhood.

She had determined that she had frequent in that area, according to some of her friends, to purchase marijuana. Police believe a man who lived in that apartment complex was selling weed to Sophie. His name is Leonard Jennings, and he is a convicted felon.

“Police said Sophie's phone record showed that two people she called most frequently were”

her father and Leonard Jennings. They also determined Sophie had placed one of her many phone calls to Jennings at 307 a.m. on May 20th, the night she disappeared when she arrived at his address. After that call ended, her phone continued pinging from that location until 9.13 a.m. When it stopped connecting to the cellular network, police believe she was inside Jennings

apartment at that time.

When her phone shuts off, does that mean somebody just turned it off or somebody stepped

on it or the battery ran down? It could have been all we don't know. Based on Sophie's phone records and the pings that placed her at Jennings apartment, police considered Leonard Jennings a suspect in her disappearance. However, it was not until July 2017.

More than five weeks after they had learned Sophie's last location, the police searched the apartment Jennings and two of his brothers shared with their mom. All three brothers had lengthy criminal records. Leonard Jennings had served time for offenses including aggravated assault, stalking, grand theft, and possession of cocaine.

Among the items police took from the apartment were 25 cell phones, two media players, three dead phones, two computer towers, a journal, a hard drive, some live ammunition and a wig. Police could not link any of those items to Sophie Reader, and none of her belongings were found at the Jennings residence.

All the Jennings brothers were interviewed. Yes. All tell the same story we didn't see her or we didn't see her then. We don't know. We don't know her at all or we didn't see her that night.

They haven't seen her and they're just not enough, you know, probable cause there to move forward. Police did not arrest any of the brothers. They told us there was not sufficient evidence to continue considering Leonard Jennings a suspect.

Still back in 2017, there was someone else police wanted to interview. They found out Jennings had called a neighbor who was a suspected trafficker. That was three days after Sophie's disappearance. There was talk that he had ties to sex trafficking and things like that, but I don't believe there was every any convictions of any sex trafficking.

Sergeant Geiger was right. As of June 2025, Jennings neighbor had no convictions on any sex trafficking charges. Geiger says the suspicions police had in 2017 were based on what they were hearing on the streets.

“It was just brought up through other persons and you know how the streets are, right?”

Like when you get somebody for something, they go, oh well, so and so does it too, you know. So that's where some of that came up from. The Fort Waterdale PD told us they tried to speak with that man when they passed out missing persons flyers in their initial search for Sophie.

They said he opened his door when officers knocked, but became uncooperative when Sophie's name was mentioned and refused to continue speaking with them. In September 2018, 16 months after Sophie's disappearance, police searched Leonard Jennings apartment again and they also searched his neighbor's apartment. By then, both men had moved out and the units were vacant.

During those searches police up their game, using lumenal to check for any traces of blood.

Brittany Walman is an investigative reporter at the Miami-Herald and she remembers the moment

“in 2017 when she heard Sophie Reader was missing.”

I heard it on TV, I was in the newsroom. Back then, Brittany worked at the Sun Sentinel in Fort Waterdale and she recognized Sophie's name immediately because a decade earlier, Brittany's daughter and Sophie had gone to the same preschool. And I knew she was a well-loved, well-care for child that came from a nice neighborhood and all of that. Brittany thinks race was a factor in how much coverage

Sophie's story received. Sophie has brown skin and brown curly hair.

To be a cynical journalist, she's a mixed race child, her mother is black or father's white.

Even as local news outlets including her own moved on to other stories, Brittany kept in touch

“with a private investigator who was helping Sophie's mom look for her daughter. He was a retired”

Miami-Dade police detective and believed Sophie was targeted by sex traffickers. In part because he had learned she was exploring those sugar daddy websites. Originally, I just thought, Sophie's missing. I didn't know that there was any nexus potentially with trafficking. Four years after Sophie went missing. Brittany and other reporters at the Sun Sentinel began a year-long investigation into sex trafficking in Florida. As part of that project,

Brittany did a deep dive into Sophie's case. And that's when she read the affidavit for the search of Leonard Jennings' apartment back in 2017. The document listed the potential crimes being investigated. And it was a chilling list, kidnapping, human trafficking, and murder.

“You think Sophie is sort of a classic example of somebody who gets preyed upon by a trafficker?”

I do. I don't think it's anything about her upbringing or parenting or her status in life. She's a teenage girl online, you know. And attractive and lost. Yeah. Sophie's diary revealed just how lost she felt. It was among the evidence police collected from Sophie's bedroom. Her aunt, Kirsten Millhorn, let Brittany read the diary after police returned it. And two entries stood out. She said, I'm used, unwanted, unloved, lonely.

I'm like the penny you dropped under the sofa, but you don't care because hell, it's just a penny. And then another time she wrote, what to do when I'm 15? Make 10 new friends, go to the beach three times a week, get 10 sugar daddy's. Okay. I'm going to say that any parent who read those words in their child's diary should be getting some intervention for that child. Should be taking that kid to therapy or at least, you know, addressing what some significant dangerous feelings there.

But I gather, nobody did read her diary. I don't think so. I don't know that who has all the tools to parent a troubled teen daughter? I know they did try some things, but then she ended up dropping out of regular high school. I was doing online school and which, I mean, it was probably even worse for her because she's not finding good things online. I ask Patrick about what Sophie wrote in her diary. She wrote, what to do when I'm 15? Make 10 new friends, go to the beach three

times a week, get 10 sugar daddy's. Wow. That's shocking. I never read her diary because

I didn't want to know. It was her personal information. So that's brand new information to me today. So that is shocking. Reading her diary would have tipped you off about that. It also unquestionably would have been seen by your daughter as a giant violation. Yes, absolutely. Anything like her personal. I gave her respect in her room. Some parents are like, "No, you got to go through everything." And then some were like, "No, you got to respect her privacy."

Which one you want to fall on? I mean, either you want to trust or you know, you don't trust them. So I mean, I like, I wanted to give her a privacy, but I mean, if I saw red flag to deal with them, but that stuff in a diary I didn't know. And today you're kicking yourself because you didn't go through a diary? No, yeah, yeah. Now I'm kicking myself in the attic. Patrick's sister, Kirsten, did read Sophie's diary when police returned it, including the entry about finding

sugar daddies. Of course, that's not something you'd want your kid to say, but if you knew that

about stuff like that. You have no control over it, you know. Well, police did not find evidence

Sophie was in direct contact with anyone on a sugar daddy website. They did find something else in her social media that convinced Brittany. Sophie had become involved in the world of commercial sex. They found a very long Instagram message between her and her best friend talking about how much to charge for different sex apps. Could that explain why Sophie had $300 in cash in a bag in her bedroom? Wherever it came from, police believed Sophie was spending some of that money on drugs,

which may have been how she met Leonard Jennings, the man who's apartment she visited

“on the night of her disappearance. That was who she was buying marijuana from. That's what her”

friend said. He was a 37-year-old felon. At that time, he had 31 felony charges, nine felony

convictions and three imprisonments. Mostly for drugs, theft, assaults. I mean, okay, habitual offender and maybe a bad guy, but I don't hear a record of crimes against kids or anything sex related. Nope. Nope. And so the fact that she was at his place, I mean, maybe she was meeting somebody there. Brittany interviewed several of Sophie's friends for her article on the case. She also spoke with Leonard Jennings. I talked to him on the thought of me. I actually took my

call. I was shocked and it sort of mixed between denying that he even knew who Sophie reader was,

“which is impossible and saying I don't know where she is. I mean, so it was like not even a good”

lie. According to the search warrant application police filed back in 2017, Leonard Jennings,

his brothers and their mother had all denied knowing, seeing or communicating with Sophie. When they were shown her photo and the missing person's flyer, the document goes on to state, quote, "These lies directly contradict all of the obtained records and statements from friends, regarding Sophie reader's relationship with the Jennings family." On the night, Sophie walked to Leonard Jennings apartment. There's a moment where she walks past

a security camera on David Boulevard. It is 2016 AM and the area is desolate. In the video,

“a car drives past Sophie and it's not just any car. It's a marked cruiser from the”

Broward County Sheriff's Office. I've watched that video over and over. The sheriff's department passes her and doesn't even slow down. Isn't that so sad? Every time I watch that, I just, it's so sad because she looks like a child. She had her hair up in little pony tails. I mean, we don't know. Maybe they just got in the call. Maybe they got a prisoner in the back and they're transporting him in. I mean, we don't know. But, man, you look at that piece of video and

think if you would stop everything could be different today. It's true. I mean, you know, you could come up with a hundred excuses why that person didn't stop. But just to be as a human being, you just wish that they're like, "Why is this child walking at midnight?" Brittany and other reporters of the Sun Sentinel actually walked the walk Sophie took on the night of her disappearance. They wanted a sense of what she would have seen, how long it took, how far it really was.

Brittany says, "If you had West toward Leonard Jennings' apartment as Sophie did, the neighborhood changes significantly." It's not a good neighborhood at all. I mean, it is not a place for a 15-year-old, you know, in the dark at all. And that's where she was, her phone ping there until early the next morning. And that brings us to the question a lot of people have asked, including Brittany about the investigation into Sophie Reader's disappearance.

Why didn't police search Leonard Jennings' apartment sooner? She had a phone on her, you know, so why didn't it take that long, you know? That's a question I had for Sergeant Dom Geier, her phone pinged right near there, and she'd called Jennings a bunch of times. That doesn't get you through their door. I don't know what you'd come to expect from a true crime podcast, but I guarantee you,

we dissect some of the most mysterious cases. But listen, we're not just rehashing what you can

read for yourself online. We have a team of dedicated investigative reporters and producers who I work with for months on every single episode. But the show still feels like having a conversation with your best friend, if your best friend was attractive, but like a good detective. So join us and tune into crime junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's Kate Snow, NBC News Anchor, and host of the NBC News Podcast, The Drink. And this month, I'm having Mojito's with comedian

Eric Andre. Was I a little bit worried he might prank me? Absolutely, but he promised he'd behave, mostly did. Here at The Drink, we are all about the journey, and Eric's journey to success is anything but typical. We talk about his childhood, his brief run in music, and the decade he spent hustling in New York City before his hit TV show changed everything. It's a conversation peppered with humor, but also a real look at the path behind his larger-than-life persona.

We hope you'll join us for the drink, listen, and follow wherever you get your podcasts. For years, a deranged man in Wichitaot known as the poet stalked Ruth Finley. He sent her letters, gifts, and poems. But no one could have guessed how this would end. From Sony Music Entertainment and New Metric Media, this is the poet. I'm Rachel Brown. The poet is available now on the binge. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts to start

listening today. Subscribers to the binge can listen to all episodes all at once, add free.

In any missing person's case, the last known location of the missing person is a crucial

piece of information. And the missing person's cell phone number can be a key to finding that location. For Waterdale Police and Patrick Reader disagree, about when Patrick gave investigators Sophie's cell phone number. What they agree on is that after police determined Sophie's phone last pinged at the apartment building where Leonard Jennings lived. Police did not search his apartment until more than five weeks later. In July 2017, I asked Sergeant Don Geiger about that.

“Why did it take so long to execute a search warrant at the Jennings apartment?”

Well, we didn't have enough probable cause initially based on, I mean, I don't know what your relationships are with the judges and magistrates who issue search warrants, but I mean, her phone pinged right near there. She's a missing 15-year-old girl and she'd called Jennings a bunch of times. That didn't get you through their door? No. No, it wasn't enough because it didn't. It wasn't enough to pinpoint her at that residence at the time. Meaning they could identify the

building, but not the specific apartment. Sergeant Geiger says that since 2017, technology has evolved in ways that make pinging a cell phone more precise. The technology we were getting then on the cell phone data was not as accurate as it is in 2025. It was more of a ping of a general rise location whereas now it's more isolated and it could have put you almost on top of where the phone is. Today, you would know what house I was in. Back then, you would only know what neighborhood I was

correct. Yeah. I also asked Sergeant Geiger about that sheriff's car that drove past Sophie on Davy Boulevard. Less than an hour before she reached Leonard Jennings apartment.

“Every time I see that, I think, man, that could have changed everything.”

Yeah, no, I listen. You know, we watch the same videos and we see the same things and no

way is it a justification of what happened. But I think we always Monday morning quarterback.

That area is close to the main jail. It could be a prisoner transport. You know, my heart wants to tell me if I was a patrol officer, I probably would have stopped and, you know, kind of at least question what was going on. She's 15. She's 15. Yeah, absolutely. It's one of those we kick ourselves in the butt, right? You know, could we have done some differently, yeah, absolutely, but we don't know what was going on at the time in the situation.

At the time of Sophie's disappearance, Sergeant Geiger worked in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department's Narcotics Unit. He has a theory about what happened to Sophie at Leonard Jennings Department on May 20th, 2017. And it does not involve sex trafficking.

“I believe accidental overdose. I don't have the crystal ball to tell me, but I feel like if it was”

a homicide, somebody eventually talks with nobody talking. It leads my investigative mindset to go more along the angles of like an overdose of narcotics and then, you know, a panic mode set in from the people involved. Sophie had bought weed from Jennings in the past and police think that's why she went to see him on the day she disappeared. In 2017, Geiger says a potent synthetic drug

People were buying what they thought was just marijuana or any other type of drug that was

“laced with this alpha PvP substance and that's what's what it calls it, the overdoses.”

And that's where my gut kind of leads me more towards an accident or overdose based on the history of what was going on at the time. If this was an overdose, what do you think after we're body?

Why am we found it? You know, that's the million dollar question. There's, you know,

miles and miles of waterway and Fort Lauderdale. The Everglades are 20 minutes to the West. We've had dive team search, different canals. We've had the dive team search behind our residents. There's cadaver dogs throughout the wooded areas next to the Jenning house and it's, you know, nothing's come up from it. Geiger has no proof. Sophie died of an overdose. He says there's also no proof. She was trafficked. When you say there was nothing there,

what would you look for that you did not find? You would look for anything on those, on those

“those sights and things that you were on where, you know, they're being groomed, right? They're”

an instant message chat rooms and things like that, talking to older gentlemen that are trying

to feed them this life of luxury or, you know, praying on the innocence of a child to promise them, you know, money or security or love or whatever that child is desiring. And we didn't see any of that. Have you ruled out traffic or you just think it's less likely? We've had many tips that have been sent to us and we'll investigate every one of them. I don't believe that she was trafficked, but nothing's 100% law enforcement. Police have not found definitive evidence

that Sophie reader left Leonard Jenning's apartment alive on May 20th, 2017, or that she did not. Jenning still lives in Fort Lauderdale and Sergeant Geiger says he is no

longer considered a suspect in Sophie's disappearance. However, police believe he may have information

about what happened to Sophie. We have reached out to Leonard Jennings, but he is not responded to our requests for comment. I would still say he's a person of interest. Over the last two and a half years, Sophie's aunt cursed the mill horn, says she has said at least 15 leads to the Fort Lauderdale police, and she's not convinced anyone has checked them out. One lead she sent was an escort add from Atlanta.

Kirsten says she, Patrick and other relatives all thought the woman in the ad were a striking resemblance to Sophie. And I immediately sent it to the police for Lauderdale police department, no response, nothing, not even a received acknowledgement. I asked Sergeant Geiger about that lead. The family talks about a escort add in Atlanta in which they think the woman in there looks like Sophie. Did you guys follow that up? Yeah, we did. We've had several tips for escort adds,

and everyone that we've had, we've followed up on and they've all led to negative results. Do some of the photos look like Sophie? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, they do. But you follow it up and it isn't her. Yeah. Yeah, they've been followed up on and it's not her. Fort Lauderdale police told us every tip they've received in Sophie's case has been investigated, including the ones her family provided. In May 2025, Kirsten became the main point of contact

for the family. And police say since then, she has been notified following every tip they have received. Separately, Sophie's mother and Patrick have spent years trying to find their daughter on their own, and with the help of private detectives. It has been more than eight years since they've seen Sophie, and they're learning some of the hard truths that all families of the missing eventually run up against while working with law enforcement. You want to believe that the professionals are doing their best

job possible to get an end result that you want. However, a lot of times now, they burn through cases and they pick up another one, you know, so you become a back burner. And it's horrible. I mean, it really is. It is, and you're not the only family that I've talked to the feels exactly that way.

“It's a terrible thing to have to go through. When you realize this is not the most important thing”

for law enforcement anymore, because it still is for you. Right, exactly. Don Geiger told me Fort Lauderdale police have not forgotten Sophie's case. It remains open and active. We're not going to stop, you know, sometimes cases go cold, but that doesn't mean they go, they get closed. We're not going to stop looking. And that mysterious X on Sophie's calendar,

what that connection was or is. Reporter Brittany Walman has interviewed several of Sophie's friends,

and she believes they know more than what they have told police. One of the most frustrating things about this story to me is that there are people who know something and they just won't say. Brittany still has a photo of Sophie taking back in preschool at a birthday party for Brittany's

“daughter. I think it was like her fourth birthday, wedding themed. I had them all where, you know,”

some kind of fancy dress. In the photo, the little girls are standing in a row in their fancy dresses, smiling and laughing. Sophie's dress is green with pink flowers at her hairs and pig tails.

It is the picture of innocence. Brittany says that photo is why she wanted to include Sophie's

story in the Sun Sentinel's investigation into sex trafficking. I just couldn't help but think that, you know, that any picture of 10 girls, one of them could end up being a Sophie reader. At the house Patrick once shared with Sophie, time stands still in his daughter's bedroom. Sophie's room exactly the way she left it. All the same pictures of the wall, her same painting, candles are still there. Everything is the same way that she left it. Frozen and time.

Frozen and time. Not pleasant to ask this, but you think Sophie's still alive. Well, I have hope and belief that she is. You know, nobody ever wants to know that their kid

“has gone before them. I believe I can handle it either way, but I would like to hope in the”

happiness of seeing her alive one day. I asked Sophie's aunt, Curse the Millhorn, the same question. I'm Maria Moore Realistic, maybe. It's been a long time. If she's alive, she's against her will somewhere, and I feel like somebody needs to do something, interview the people that we know have information to find her. That's what we want. Here is how you can help. At the time of her disappearance on May 20, 2017,

Sophie Reader was 15 years old, with brown curly hair and brown eyes. At that time she was five foot one and weighed 100 pounds. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department is offering a reward of up to $25,000,

“for credible information that leads to the recovery of Sophie Reader. If you have any information”

about her disappearance, please call the Fort Lauderdale Police Department at 954-828-6677. To see photos of Sophie, and to learn more about other people we've covered in our Missing In America series, go to datelinemissingInAmerica.com. There, you'll also be able to submit cases you think we should cover in the future. Thanks for listening. See you Friday's on dateline on NBC. MissingInAmerica is a production of dateline and NBC News. Kate Vidak is the producer of this

episode. Brian Drew is the audio editor. Keani Reed is a socioproducer. Bradley Davis is senior producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, sound mixing by Rich Cutler, Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. My name is Sarah Terny. I spent years fighting for justice for my Missing Sister Alyssa Terny.

The four in arrest was finally made in our case after nearly 20 years. But after my experience with

the media, law enforcement and the court system, I knew I couldn't stop with Alyssa's case. I know what it's like to fight for media attention, for answers, and for justice. After I stopped telling my sister's story, I knew I wanted to help as many other victims, survivors, and families as I could. On my podcast, Voices for Justice, I provide unique insight into these tragic cases. Because I know what it's like to not just listen to these stories, but to live them.

And more importantly, how to help them by being a true voice for justice. Listen to Voices for Justice in your favorite podcast player today. You can be so much more than just a passive consumer of Drew Crime. You have the power to help.