{"id":368127,"date":"2026-08-11T05:50:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368127\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T05:50:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:50:24","slug":"missing-florida-teen-sophia-cover-found-in-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368127\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing Florida teen Sophia Cover found in New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Missing Collier County 16-year-old Sophia Cover found in New Jersey over a week after disappearance<\/p>\n

\"James\"Edward<\/a>GOLDEN GATE ESTATES, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

Sophia Cover, a 16-year-old girl reported as missing from her home in Golden Gate Estates on July 31, has been found in New Jersey, following an 11-day search.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Sophia’s dad, Richard Cover<\/a>, told Gulf Coast News that the Federal Bureau of Investigation found her in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and she was being interrogated.<\/p>\n

Richard Cover said he plans to fly out as soon as possible to reunite with Sophia<\/a> and pick her up.<\/p>\n

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office also confirmed Sophia has been found and she is safe. <\/p>\n

“Sophia has been found safe. Totally safe,” Richard Cover said in an emotional video shared on social media. <\/p>\n

Cover said he received the news from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office around 4 p.m. Monday.<\/p>\n

“Her exact words are, ‘We got her!’ And what she said to me, she goes, ‘We got her!'” Cover said. <\/p>\n

Sophia was last seen leaving her home on 62nd Street Northeast in Golden Gate Estates, Florida, as shown in surveillance footage. <\/p>\n

“This is what I was praying for. I was praying for a rebellious daughter that’s smart enough not to get in the car with a stranger, that’s smart enough to keep herself safe. I don’t like the fact that she did what she did, but I’ll be honest with you, you know, kids are going to make mistakes!” Cover said. <\/p>\n

According to Cover, Sophia was found staying with friends. <\/p>\n

“We’re going to take it a day at a time. I’m going to go up and get her. We’re going to find out exactly what happened,” Cover said. <\/p>\n

Cover, who described Sophia as his “little girl,” said she lives with him full-time.<\/p>\n

“It’s just me and her. So she’ll be back,” he said. <\/p>\n

Cover plans to fly to New Jersey early Wednesday morning to reunite with his daughter. He is still waiting for more information from the Department of Children and Families about how she got to New Jersey and when he can bring her home.<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Missing Collier County 16-year-old Sophia Cover found in New Jersey over a week after disappearance GOLDEN GATE ESTATES,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[149135,1185,149133,5926,124906,29835,613,29069,104,149130,2362,2364,28,30,29,34965,149132,897,149126,149134,29332,4329,667,149128,213,32523,1198,217,20339,149129,148015,149131,130688,148012,197,149127,221],"class_list":["post-368127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-11-day-search","tag-alert","tag-cherry-hill","tag-collier-county","tag-collier-county-sheriffs-office","tag-dad","tag-department-of-children-and-families","tag-disappearance","tag-entertainment","tag-family-reunion","tag-fbi","tag-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-teen","tag-florida-teen-sophia-cover","tag-fort-myers","tag-found-in-new-jersey","tag-found-safe","tag-golden-gate-estates","tag-gulf-coast-news","tag-investigation","tag-july-31","tag-late-news","tag-missing-girl","tag-missing-teen","tag-monday","tag-new-jersey","tag-over-a-week","tag-richard-cover","tag-search-update","tag-sophia","tag-sophia-cover","tag-sport","tag-teen-found","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}