Girl, 11, Reported Missing In The US Is Found In Foreign Country 5 Months Later

An 11-year-old girl, who went missing from the U.S. in the month of July, has been found alive in a foreign country with her father. Sophie Long was allegedly abducted by her father who refused to hand her over to the child's maternal aunt after losing the custody battle.

The police did not disclose the country in which the Texas girl and her fugitive father were located, but they noted that they may have been on the way to Argentina or Mexico, according to Yahoo News Australia.

Sophie was placed in protective custody after authorities located her, and plans are being made to reunite her safely with her family in the U.S., the Collin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a statement.

"Many months of determined work by my deputies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Marshals paid off this morning," Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner said in a statement Saturday. "We are so happy Sophie is safe.”

Before Sophie went missing in July, her 42-year-old father, Michael Long, was involved in a heated custody battle with his ex-wife Kelly, whom he shares three children with. Michael spearheaded a campaign called “Stand With Sophie” after making claims of the child being sexually abused by Kelly’s fiance.

A video in 2020 went viral and showed Sophie saying she did not want to visit her mother. Michael also allegedly took his children to a doctor and claimed they were sexually abused. However, the doctor did not find any signs that indicated the allegations were true.

Kelly denied all the allegations and said the campaign was part of Michael’s personal vendetta against her, according to nzherald.co.nz.

Earlier in July, Michael refused to return Sophie to her mother’s family, and the girl went missing the same month. “A psychological evaluation reported Michael is not a stable person for Sophie to be with and he has threatened to flee the country with her,” Michael’s wife and Sophie’s stepmother, Kourtney Chalmers, said on Facebook.

Sophie was last seen on July 12 before finally being found in a foreign country five months later.

The father was arrested on a felony warrant for interference with child custody, and authorities are working towards extraditing him back to Collin County, according to 25 News KXXV.

“No addition information regarding this case will be released until Sophie is back on US soil,” the Collin County Sheriff’s Office said in their statement.