Dateline Missing in America – Ep. 25: Marked with an X

Summary

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Dateline Missing in America – Ep. 25: Marked with an X

Date: September 5, 2025

Host: Josh Mankiewicz (NBC News)

Guests: Patrick Reeder (Sophie's father), Kirsten Milhorn (Sophie's aunt), Brittany Walman (Investigative Reporter), Sgt. Don Geiger (Fort Lauderdale PD)

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Overview

This episode examines the unresolved case of Sophie Reeder, a 15-year-old who vanished from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on May 20, 2017. Through interviews with her family, police, and journalists, the episode explores the circumstances of her disappearance, personal struggles, the investigation’s complexities, and the enduring efforts of those searching for the truth. Central to the case is a mysterious "X" on Sophie's calendar, her secret online activities, a troubled investigation, and the haunting possibility of several outcomes including overdose, trafficking, or foul play.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Sophie's Final Night and Disappearance

• Timeline:
  • [01:05] Sophie leaves home at 12:45am, captured on camera at 2:16am walking alone on Davie Blvd, last seen in a black dress, fur coat, headphones, and sneakers.
• Notable Detail: The final image shows her walking purposefully, but the reason she left has remained a mystery.
• Father’s perspective:
  • "It's like a living nightmare. A living nightmare. You got to deal with it every day." — Patrick Reeder [01:49]

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2. Background: Sophie's Early Life and Struggles

• Family Dynamics:
  • Parents divorced; Sophie lived alternately with both until age 12.
  • Difficult relationship with her mother led to asking to live with Patrick full time, with the condition of weekly therapy.
• Mental Health and Behavior Difficulties:
  • [04:31] Patrick describes troubling behaviors: burning objects, cutting dolls/stuffed animals, and self-harm.
    • "She'd burn things...and start cutting her dolls and stuff like that." — Patrick Reeder [04:31]
  • Sophie expressed feeling out of control emotionally.
  • Therapy, then medication for mental health, produced mixed results and compliance was challenging.

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3. Sophie's Activities Leading Up to Disappearance

• Social Withdrawal & Risky Behavior:
  • Skipped school, transitioned to online classes, began associating with a riskier crowd.
  • Shoplifting incident and threats of self-harm in early 2017, leading to a prescription.
• Hopeful Signs:
  • [07:40] On May 18, she cooked dinner for her family—a rare positive gesture before her disappearance.

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4. The Day She Vanished

• Family’s Initial Reaction:

  • Patrick not immediately alarmed when Sophie was missing on Saturday; thought she was staying at her mother's.
  • Delayed missing person report due to mistaken belief about waiting period. Police response was dismissive—"teenage girls usually run away and come back." [09:36]
  • [10:44] Discovery of $300 cash left in Sophie's room suggested she did not intend a long absence.

• The "Marked X":

  • Calendar in Sophie's room had May 19th marked with an X. [11:11]
  • "[Sophie's] room does not suggest somebody who was leaving forever." — Interviewer [11:13]
  • Meaning of X remains a mystery.

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5. Clues and Investigation

• Digital Footprints:

  • Sophie had two phones; she left with one.
  • Computer revealed she had explored "sugar daddy" websites but did not engage.
    • "There was no indication that she'd ever engaged in anything on those websites. It was just merely signing up." — Sgt. Don Geiger [14:13]
  • Instagram messages indicated discussions with friends about charging for sex acts. [24:52]

• Social Media and Diary:

  • Diary entries showed deep loneliness and plans: "I'm used. Unwanted, unloved, lonely..." and "get 10 sugar daddies." — Brittany Walman, reading Sophie's diary [22:05]
  • Family unaware of these contents; Patrick regrets respecting her privacy.
    • "I'm kicking myself in the ass." — Patrick Reeder [24:13]

• Final Cell Phone Activity:

  • [14:46] Last phone ping at an apartment complex in Fort Lauderdale at 9:13am, May 20.
  • That location: Apartment of Leonard Jennings, convicted felon and local weed dealer.
  • Phone records: Only two people Sophie called most—her father and Jennings.

• Leonard Jennings Connection:

  • Jennings, 37, had a lengthy criminal record (mostly drugs/theft), but no sex-related crimes.
  • Friends said Sophie bought marijuana from him.
  • Multiple inconsistent statements by Jennings and family.
  • [17:25] Police interviews, apartment searches (Jul 2017, Sep 2018) yielded no conclusive evidence.
  • Links to a neighbor reportedly associated with sex trafficking, but no convictions or direct ties found.
  • "[Jennings] is no longer considered a suspect...he may have information about what happened to Sophie... I would still say he's a person of interest." — Sgt. Don Geiger [36:43]

• Law Enforcement’s Investigative Gaps:

  • Criticism over delayed apartment search, despite phone records placing Sophie at Jennings’ address.
    • "Why did it take that long?" — Brittany Walman [29:05]
    • Sgt. Geiger cites limitations of cell phone ping technology at the time, requiring more to justify a warrant. [32:30]
  • Sheriff’s cruiser caught on video passing Sophie without stopping, less than an hour before her last known destination.
    • "Every time I watch that, I just... It's so sad because she looks like a child." — Brittany Walman [27:33]
    • "I probably would have stopped..." — Sgt. Don Geiger [33:05]

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6. Theories and Unanswered Questions

• Sex Trafficking:

  • Some, including a PI and reporter Brittany Walman, suspect Sophie was trafficked due to her online activity and vulnerable state.
  • Police found no direct evidence of trafficking.
    • "I don't believe that she was trafficked, but nothing's 100% in law enforcement." — Sgt. Don Geiger [36:03]

• Overdose Theory:

  • Sgt. Geiger, with narcotics experience, believes an accidental overdose (e.g., due to synthetic drugs like flakka) is plausible.
    • "If it was a homicide, somebody eventually talks. With nobody talking, it leads my investigative mindset to go more...towards an accidental overdose..." — Sgt. Don Geiger [33:54]
  • Extensive but fruitless searches for Sophie's body in local waterways and woods.

• Family Frustration with Investigation:

  • Family (especially aunt Kirsten) sent numerous leads to police, perceived as not being acted upon; police say every tip is followed up as of May 2025.
  • "[You] become a back burner, and it's horrible. I mean, it really is." — Patrick Reeder [38:36]
  • "[There are] people who know something and they just won't say." — Brittany Walman [39:48]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Sophie's struggles and parenting conundrums:

  • "Either you want trust or you don't trust them. So, I mean, like, I wanted to give her privacy...but that stuff in a diary, I didn't know."
    — Patrick Reeder, on respecting Sophie's privacy [23:39]

• The sorrow of hindsight and missed intervention:

  • "If you had stopped, everything could be different today."
    — Interviewer, regarding the sheriff's car that passed Sophie [27:41]

• Community and Media Reflections:

  • "To be a cynical journalist, she's a mixed race child. Her mother is black, her father's white."
    — Brittany Walman, on why Sophie's case faded from news [20:17]
  • "Any picture of 10 girls, one of them could end up being a Sophie Reeder."
    — Brittany Walman [40:35]

• A Family on Edge Without Closure:

  • "Sophie's room exactly the way she left it...Frozen in time."
    — Patrick Reeder [41:00]
  • "I'm more realistic, maybe it's been a long time. If she's alive, she's against her will somewhere."
    — Kirsten Milhorn [41:31]

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Important Timestamps

| Time | Segment/Quote Summary | |--------|----------------------| | 01:05 | Sophie's last known movements described | | 01:49 | "It's like a living nightmare." – Patrick Reeder | | 04:31 | Description of Sophie’s troubling behavior | | 07:40 | Sophie cooks dinner, sign of possible improvement | | 09:36 | Police initially dismiss missing person report | | 11:11 | The "X" marked on the calendar | | 14:13 | Sgt. Geiger: No engagement on sugar daddy websites | | 14:46 | Last phone ping at Jennings’ apartment | | 17:25 | Police searching and suspicion of Jennings' family | | 20:17 | Discussion of race and media coverage | | 22:05 | Sophie's diary: "I'm used. Unwanted, unloved, lonely..." | | 24:13 | Patrick regrets not reading her diary | | 27:33 | Sheriff's car drives by Sophie; no intervention | | 29:05 | Why police delayed searching Jennings' apartment | | 33:54 | Geiger’s overdose theory | | 36:03 | Sgt. Geiger: No evidence of trafficking, but not 100% ruled out | | 38:36 | Parental frustration with law enforcement | | 40:35 | "Any picture of 10 girls, one of them could end up being a Sophie Reeder." | | 41:00 | Sophie’s room remains unchanged – "Frozen in time." | | 41:10 | Patrick and Kirsten on their hopes (or doubts) for Sophie's return |

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Conclusion & Call to Action

The episode ends with a public appeal: Sophie Reeder was 15 at the time, with brown curly hair and brown eyes, 5'1", 100 lbs at disappearance. A $25,000 reward is offered for credible leads. Listeners with information can contact Fort Lauderdale PD at 954-828-6677 and find more resources at datelinemissinginamerica.com.

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Episode Tone

The tone is empathetic, investigative, and at times somber and frustrated—balancing the anguish of loved ones with the measured diligence of reporting and policing. The episode is a call for both remembrance and action, pressing listeners for possible help and holding up a mirror to law enforcement and society’s treatment of missing and at-risk youth.

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Transcript

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

It was 12:45am When Sophie Reeder started her journey, slipping out of her house and into a syrupy Florida night. At 2:16am a security camera recorded her walking along Davie 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 20, 2017, the day she disappeared. Patrick Reeder is her father.

[Interviewer/Host]

Patrick, I can't imagine how difficult this has been for you.

[Patrick Reeder]

Yeah, it's like a living nightmare. A living nightmare. You got to deal with it every day.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Interviewer/Host]

She got there after that long walk.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

What does that tell you?

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

That puts us in the vicinity to start the investigation. We call it a last scene point.

[Brittany Walman]

It is not a place for a 15 year old in the dark at all.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That's a reporter who dug into Sophie's case.

[Brittany Walman]

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

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is missing an emergency. Welcome to America, a podcast from Dateline. This episode is marked with an X. Please listen closely because you or someone you know may have information that could help Sophie Reeder's family find the answers they're still looking for. Sophie Reeder is Patrick Reeder's only child. He says long before she could talk, it was obvious she had a spark.

[Patrick Reeder]

Before she could even, like, walk completely, she would pull herself on the coffee table and start, like, trying to dance to the music, you know, she was kind of like an entertaining kid.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Kirsten Millhorn is Patrick's sister. She remembers when her niece was a lively little girl with a big personality.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

She was just a sweetheart, like, creative, and she just loved being around people, like, super outgoing, gregarious.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Patrick Reeder]

She was different, definitely different. But I told her one condition was she has to go to therapy for a year weekly. And she agreed to it. Every week, I'd drive her to therapy, get her into a therapist.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

In between those weekly appointments, Sophie was giving Patrick a long list of reasons to worry.

[Interviewer/Host]

What are we talking about here?

[Patrick Reeder]

She'd burn things, like, she'd make little fires, like, burn things outside like wood, like stuffed toys. And she'd, like, you know, start cutting her dolls and stuff like that.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Patrick says Sophie was also cutting herself.

[Patrick Reeder]

One time she told me, hey, Dad, I just can't control myself. I said, well, you got to control your emotions, you know? And then she goes, I can't. I go, you can if you try.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

After a year of therapy, Patrick says he did not argue when Sophie gave it up because that was the deal they had made.

[Patrick Reeder]

I stopped the therapy because I made a promise to her. I honored the promise, and maybe I shouldn't have, but I try to, like, keep my word with her to keep their trust.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Patrick Reeder]

The medicine just made her like Drowsy and like she. She couldn't really, you know, function, you.

[Interviewer/Host]

Know, it sounds to me like you did do everything you could think of and you're kind of swimming against the tide.

[Patrick Reeder]

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

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Kirsten watched her brother's struggle to manage his daughter, including her medications.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

When Sophie stopped taking her meds, Patrick again did not force it. Instead, he looked for ways to provide emotional support.

[Patrick Reeder]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Sophie also liked to take long walks.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Near the end of January 2017, a couple of weeks before she turned 15, Sophie asked Patrick's girlfriend to cut her hair.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

Dad, do you want to film it?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Patrick had already hit record. So how are you feeling?

[Patrick Reeder]

I'm feeling good.

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How about you?

[Kirsten Milhorn]

I'm excited, nervous.

[Patrick Reeder]

What is that?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

You want your haircut?

[Kirsten Milhorn]

Yeah.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I don't know. I've never had short hair before.

[Brittany Walman]

I mean, it's pretty short now. It's gonna be cute.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Almost four months after that haircut came a sign. Sophie might have turned a corner. On Thursday, May 18, she did something unexpected for Patrick and his girlfriend.

[Patrick Reeder]

She made us a big dinner, and I was like, wow, that's great. You know, it was really nice. You know, chicken, vegetables, everything, you know, like she could think of maybe.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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 19, Patrick says he was getting ready to go to sleep. It was around 11:30pm and Sophie was wide awake, texting on her phone.

[Patrick Reeder]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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. She 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.

[Patrick Reeder]

She left it on one candle.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Her leaving a candle lit.

[Interviewer/Host]

I mean, that feels like somebody was going to be back in a minute.

[Patrick Reeder]

Yeah, exactly.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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. They did not. Patrick asked his brother to check with Sophie's mom because sometimes Sophie took the bus to visit her.

[Interviewer/Host]

So her being out of touch for a period of time was not immediately alarming.

[Patrick Reeder]

Not at all. No, not at all.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

By Sunday, they had heard back from Sophie's mom, and she did not know where Sophie was either. Now alarms were starting to go off. Patrick says he thought he had to wait 48 hours to file a missing persons report, so he waited until Monday.

[Patrick Reeder]

When I made the police report, the lady took it. She's like, it's a teenage girl. They usually run away and they'll come back in a week or two. Like, you know, seems strange, but, I mean, I got to believe what you're saying because that's my first teenage daughter.

[Interviewer/Host]

You thought, okay, that seems plausible.

[Patrick Reeder]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Definitely seemed plausible. She made it seem so like. Like that's a normal thing. Like a lot of teenage girls do that. You know, they. They go missing, and then they show up at their friend's house like, a week or two later.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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

[Interviewer/Host]

Police find $300 in her room, and they say to you, where'd she get that money? And you have no idea?

[Patrick Reeder]

I have no idea. I had no idea how she got $300, but it was there.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Interviewer/Host]

That makes you think she's planning something for that day, Even though her room does not suggest somebody who was leaving forever.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

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?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That is Sergeant Don Geiger. He was assigned 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. Soon, Sophie's computer would reveal another clue, one that stunned and worried her family. She had been visiting websites where young, attractive women can connect with rich older men, also known as sugar daddies.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

She was researching, kind of putting herself out there to see what happened.

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

Learning your 15 year old daughter has been visiting sugar daddy websites is not what any parent wants to hear. For Patrick Reeder, it was hard to process.

[Patrick Reeder]

It shocked me because I had no idea. Of course you know now.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Once the forensics investigation was done on the laptop, there was no indication that she'd ever engaged in anything on those websites. It was just merely signing up for.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Of course, websites were not the only way Sophie could have met someone. Her cell phone data was about to 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.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Her last ping of her cell phone was in an area that we believe that she may have been going to maybe purchase marijuana or something like that. We don't believe that she left that.

[Interviewer/Host]

Location or her phone didn't anyway.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Correct.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The location he's talking about is an apartment complex in the 1700 block of Southwest 11th Court in Fort Lauderdale. 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.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

We've determined that she had frequented that area, according to some of her friends, to purchase marijuana.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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 the 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 3:07am on May 20, the night she disappeared. When she arrived at his address. After that call ended, her phone continued pinging from that location until 9. 13am when it stopped connecting to the cellular network. Police believe she was inside Jennings apartment at that time.

[Interviewer/Host]

When her phone shuts off, does that mean somebody just turned it off or somebody stepped on it or the battery ran down?

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

It could have been all you. We don't know.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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, that 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, headphones, two computer towers, a journal, a hard drive, some live ammunition, and a wig. Police could not link any of those items to Sophie Reeder, and none of her belongings were found at the Jennings residence.

[Interviewer/Host]

All the Jennings brothers Were interviewed, yes. All tell the same story. We didn't see her or we didn't see her that night. We don't know her at all, or we didn't see her that night.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

They haven't seen her. And there's just not enough, you know, probable cause there to move forward.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

There was talk that he had ties to sex trafficking and things like that, but I don't believe there was ever any convictions of any sex trafficking.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The Fort Lauderdale 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 upped their game, using luminol to check for any traces of blood. They did not find that and they did not find any other evidence linked to Sophie Reader. Brittany Walman is an investigative reporter at the Miami Herald. And she remembers the moment in 2017 when she heard Sophie Reader was missing.

[Brittany Walman]

I heard it on tv. I was in the newsroom back then.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Brittany worked at the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, and she recognized Sophie's name immediately because a decade earlier, Brittany's daughter and Sophie had gone to the same preschool.

[Brittany Walman]

And I knew she was a well loved, well cared for child that came from a nice neighborhood and all of that.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Brittany thinks race was a factor in how much coverage Sophie's story received. Sophie has brown skin and brown curly hair.

[Brittany Walman]

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

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Brittany Walman]

Originally I just thought Sophie's missing. I didn't know that there was any nexus potentially with trafficking.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Interviewer/Host]

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

[Brittany Walman]

I do. I don't think it's anything about her upbringing or parenting or her status in life. She's just a teenage girl online, you know, and attractive.

[Interviewer/Host]

And lost.

[Brittany Walman]

Yeah.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Sophie's diary revealed just how lost she felt. It was among the evidence police collected from Sophie's bedroom. Her aunt Kirsten Milhorn let Brittany read the diary after police returned it. And two entries stood out.

[Brittany Walman]

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 daddies.

[Interviewer/Host]

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 addressing what's some significant dangerous feelings there. But I gather nobody did read her diary.

[Brittany Walman]

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 and was doing online school and which, I mean, it was probably even worse for her because she's not finding good things online.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I asked Patrick about what Sophie wrote in her diary.

[Interviewer/Host]

She wrote, what to do when I'm 15, make 10 new friends, go to the beach three times a week, get 10 sugar daddies.

[Patrick Reeder]

Wow, that's a 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.

[Interviewer/Host]

Reading her diary would have tipped you off about that. It also unquestionably would have been seen by your daughter as a giant violation.

[Patrick Reeder]

Yes, absolutely. Anything like her personal, I gave her respect in her, her, her room. Like some parents, like, no, you gotta go through everything, right? And then some are like, no, you gotta respect their privacy. Which one do you wanna fall on? I mean, either you want trust or, you know, you don't trust them. So, I mean, like, I wanted to give her a privacy, but I mean, if I saw red flags, I'll deal with them. But that stuff in a diary, I didn't know.

[Interviewer/Host]

And today you're kicking yourself because you didn't go through her diary now.

[Patrick Reeder]

Yeah, yeah, now I'm kicking myself in the ass.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Patrick's sister Kirsten did read Sophie's diary when police returned it, including the entry about finding sugar daddies.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

Of course, that's not something you'd want your kid to say, but if you knew that information now, what can you do with it? I don't know. I just feel like you shouldn't kick yourself about stuff like that. You have no control over it, you know?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

While 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.

[Brittany Walman]

They found a very long Instagram message between her and her best friend talking about how much to charge for different sex acts.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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 whose apartment she visited on the night of her disappearance.

[Brittany Walman]

That was who she was buying marijuana from? That's what her friends 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.

[Interviewer/Host]

I mean, okay, a habitual offender and maybe a bad guy, but I don't hear a record of crimes against kids or anything sex related.

[Brittany Walman]

Nope, nope. And so the fact that she was at his place, I mean, maybe she was meeting somebody there.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Brittany interviewed several of Sophie's friends for her article on the case. She also spoke with Leonard Jennings.

[Brittany Walman]

I talked to him on the phone, I mean, actually took my call. I was shocked and sort of mixed between denying that he even knew who Sophie Reeder was, which is impossible, and saying I don't know where she Is. I mean, so it was like not even a good lie.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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 persons flyer. The document goes on to state, quote, these lies directly contradict all of the obtained records and statements from friends regarding Sophie Reeder's relationship with the Jennings family, unquote. On the night Sophie walked to Leonard Jennings apartment, there's a moment where she walks past a security camera on Davie boulevard. It is 2:16am 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.

[Interviewer/Host]

The sheriff's department passes her and doesn't even slow down.

[Brittany Walman]

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 ponytails.

[Interviewer/Host]

I mean, we don't know, maybe they'd just gotten a 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 had stopped, everything could be different today.

[Brittany Walman]

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?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

At midnight, Brittany and other reporters at 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 head west toward Leonard Jennings apartment, as Sophie did, the neighborhood changes significantly.

[Brittany Walman]

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 pinged there until early the next morning.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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?

[Brittany Walman]

She had a phone on her, you know, so why did it take that long?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

You know, that's a question I had for Sergeant Don Geiger.

[Interviewer/Host]

Her phone pinged right near there, and.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

She'D called Jennings a bunch of times.

[Interviewer/Host]

That doesn't get you through their door.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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[Sergeant Don Geiger]

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

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. Fort Lauderdale police and Patrick Reeder 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.

[Interviewer/Host]

Execute a search warrant at the Jennings apartment?

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Well, we didn't have enough probable cause initially based on, I mean, I don't.

[Interviewer/Host]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And she'd called Jennings a bunch of times.

[Interviewer/Host]

That doesn't get you through their door.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

No, no, it wasn't enough because it didn't. It wasn't enough to pinpoint her at that residence at the time.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

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 generalized location, whereas now it's more isolated, and it could have put you almost on top of where the phone is today.

[Interviewer/Host]

You would know what house I was in back then. You would only know what neighborhood I was in.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Correct? Yeah.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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

[Interviewer/Host]

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

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Yeah, no, I listen, you know, we watch the same videos and we see the same things. In 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 questioned what was going on.

[Interviewer/Host]

She's 15.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

She's 15. I mean, yeah, absolutely. It's one of those we kick ourselves in the butt. Right? You know, could we have done something differently? Yeah, absolutely. But we don't know what was going on at the time.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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 apartment on May 20, 2017. And it does not involve sex trafficking.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

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. Of narcotics. And then, you know, a panic mode set in from the people involved.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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 called flakka was popular in South Florida. It was dangerous, and its victims were often unsuspecting.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

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 causes the overdoses. And that's where my gut kind of leads me more towards an accidental overdose based on the history of what was going on at the time.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

If this was an overdose, what do you think happened to her body?

[Interviewer/Host]

Why haven't we found it?

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

You know, that's the, that's the million dollar question. There's, you know, miles and miles of Waterway in Fort Lauderdale. The Everglades are 20 minutes to the west. We've had dive teams search different canals. We've had the dive team search behind our residents. There's cadaver dogs throughout the wooded areas next to the Jennings house. And it's, you know, nothing's come up from it.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Geiger has no proof Sophie died of an overdose. He says there's also no proof she was trafficked.

[Interviewer/Host]

When you say there was nothing there, what would you look for that you did not find?

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

You would look for anything on those, on those, those sites and things that you were on where, you know they're being groomed, right. They're in 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, preying 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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Have you ruled out trafficking or you.

[Interviewer/Host]

Just think it's less likely?

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Police have not found definitive evidence that Sophie Reeder left Leonard Jennings apartment alive on May 20, 2017, or that she did not. Jennings still lives in Fort Lauderdale and Sgt. 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 has not responded to our requests for comment.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

I would still say he's a person of interest.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Over the last two and a half years, Sophie's aunt Kirsten Milhorn says she has sent 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 ad from Atlanta. Kirsten says she, Patrick and other relatives all thought the woman in the ad wore a striking resemblance to Sophie.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

And I immediately sent it to the police, Fort Lauderdale Police Department. No response. Nothing. Not even a received acknowledgment.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I asked Sergeant Geiger about that lead.

[Interviewer/Host]

The family talks about a escort ad in Atlanta in which they think the woman in there looks like Sophie. Did you guys follow that up?

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Yeah, we did. We've had several tips for escort ads, and every one that we've had, we've followed up on, and they've all led to negative results.

[Interviewer/Host]

Do some of the photos look like Sophie?

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, they do.

[Interviewer/Host]

But you follow it up, and it isn't her.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Yeah, yeah, they've been followed up on, and it's not her.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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.

[Patrick Reeder]

To believe that the professionals are doing their best job possible to get an end result that you want. However, a lot of times, no, they. 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.

[Interviewer/Host]

It is. And you're not the only family that I've talked to that feels exactly that way. It's. 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.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

Right, Exactly.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Don Geiger told me Fort Lauderdale police have not forgotten Sophie's case. It remains open and active.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

We're not gonna stop. You know, sometimes cases go cold, but that doesn't mean they go. They get closed. We're not gonna stop looking.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And that mysterious X on Sophie's calendar marking May 19th remains to this day a mystery to police.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

You know, we haven't been able to pinpoint what that connection was or is.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Reporter Brittany Walman has interviewed several of Sophie's friends, and she believes they know more than what they have told police.

[Brittany Walman]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Brittany still has a photo of Sophie taken back in preschool at a birthday party for Brittany's daughter.

[Brittany Walman]

I think it was, like, her fourth birthday. Wedding themed. I had them all wear, you know, some kind of fancy dress.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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 and her hair is in pigtails. 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.

[Brittany Walman]

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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

At the house Patrick once shared with Sophie, time stands still in his daughter's bedroom.

[Patrick Reeder]

Sophie's room exactly the way she left it. All the same pictures on the wall, her same painting. Candles are still there. Everything is the same way that she left it.

[Interviewer/Host]

Frozen in time.

[Patrick Reeder]

Frozen in time.

[Interviewer/Host]

Not pleasant to ask this, but you think Sophie's still alive?

[Patrick Reeder]

Well, I have hope and belief that she is. You know, nobody ever wants an know that their kid has gone before them. I believe I can handle it either way. But I would like the hope and the happiness of seeing her alive one day.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I asked Sophie's aunt Kirsten Milhorn the same question.

[Kirsten Milhorn]

I'm more realistic, maybe it's been a long time. If she's alive, she's against her will somewhere. And I, 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.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Here is how you can help. At the time of her disappearance on May 20, 2017, Sophie Reeder was 15 years old with brown curly hair and brown eyes. At that time, she was 5 foot 1 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 Reeder. 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 or there you'll also be able to submit cases you think we should cover in the future. Thanks for listening. See you Fridays on Dateline on NBC. Missing in America is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Kate Vidic is the producer of this episode. Brian Drew is the audio editor. Keani Reed is associate producer. 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. Possibility means you have a chance.

[Interviewer/Host]

Passion opens the door to all possibilities.

[Brittany Walman]

When I feel like anything's possible, I feel kind of giddy.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I want to be an astronaut, an.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

Artist, an actress to visit another country.

[Interviewer/Host]

All I need is a backpack and.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

A pair of shoes, and I'll find.

[Brittany Walman]

A way I'm able to do anything.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I set my mind to.

[Sergeant Don Geiger]

I've never felt like more things are possible than right now.

[Patrick Reeder]

In the right shoes, anything's possible.

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