Search For Missing Groton Woman Reaching A Year

GROTON, CT — It has been nearly a year since 22-year-old Sofia McKenna disappeared off the Connecticut coast over the 2018 Memorial Day weekend. In light of the forthcoming one-year mark of this unfortunate situation, family member Carol Fort reached out to Patch with a message to readers regarding her young missing cousin.

The message contains information regarding McKenna's disappearance and the Finding Sofia Mckenna Facebook group, as well as what anyone with information can do to help.

The following was written by Fort in an email to Patch:

There is an old saying – “It takes a village to raise a child.” But what if that child goes missing? That's when we call on surrounding communities and beyond for help to find a loved one. That's what the Finding Sofia Mckenna (What Happened to Sofia?) Facebook group is trying to achieve.

On May 27, 2018 Sofia went out on a small boat with her friend, Spencer Mugford, off Avery Point, on the coast of Groton, Connecticut, to visit the famous Ledge Light lighthouse. The next day, on May 28, the boat that Sofia and Spencer were presumed to be on was found several miles west of Ledge Light, upside down in the sandy rocks on Truman’s Beach, near Orient, New York. Twelve days later, on June 8, 2018, Spencer was found about 2-1/2 miles west of Ledge Light – unfortunately he had perished. Sofia never returned.

Natural process of thinking would be Sofia drowned like her friend. But thank goodness there are those who won't settle for the easy answer. Imagine, just for a moment, “what if...?”

It is not beyond comprehension to think that there are other possibilities when you take into consideration some of the very mysterious circumstances surrounding Sofia’s disappearance. There were three photos uploaded from Spencer’s phone to his Snapchat account. A video surfaced 11 months later. It appears that the photos were screenshots taken from the video.

The last photo of Sofia that we are aware of is a photo of her standing on the lower stairs of Ledge Light, wearing a grey sweatshirt, smiling and happy. All of the photos were uploaded to Snapchat at approximately 2 a.m. on May 27. But then, beginning at 2:05 a.m. and continuing until 2:09 a.m., seven consecutive phone calls were placed in rapid succession from Spencer’s phone to Sofia’s mother’s phone.

Although it was Spencer's phone being used to make the calls, it is believed that Sofia placed those calls, as Spencer did not know the number or have it. While we have no proof of this, it would seem that Sofia had possession of Spencer’s phone during this critical time period. As we know, Sofia’s mother was sleeping and did not know about the seven missed calls until the next day, when someone called Sofia’s mother to ask if Sofia had been heard from.

Numerous "lost" boaters have been found in the waters off the Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island shorelines over the past year, but there have been no signs of Sofia or the clothing she was wearing in her last known photo.

These events alone are enough to ask what happened at 2:05 a.m. on May 27, 2018? Why was Sofia so desperately trying to reach her mother? Why was Spencer found east of Ledge Light while the boat was found the very next day west of Ledge Light?

We needed answers, and on July 22, 2018, the Facebook group "Finding Sofia Mckenna" was created by administrator Valerie Sparkles Mayze to help Sofia’s family get answers. Since that time, hundreds of missing flyers have been distributed and posted. The page has grown to over 3,000 members, and those members – Sofia’s Army – are sharing Sofia’s story all over the country.

We have shared Sofia’s story to missing persons groups, to local fishermen and marinas, to the news media and via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sofia’s story has been posted on the Philosophy of Crime blog. We have contacted government officials, local police departments and canine search teams asking for assistance. We have researched every body that has been found in the Long Island Sound (and beyond) this past year until we were certain that it was not Sofia. We have designed a bumper sticker to help spread Sofia’s story. And working in the background, we have submitted every potential lead to the state police who are handling Sofia’s disappearance.

There’s another old saying: "If You See Something, Say Something!" We, along with the Connecticut State Police, have encouraged anyone who may have any information which might be helpful in our search to come forward and be heard. Being Memorial Day weekend, it is definitely possible that others were out on Avery Point that night.

May 27, 2019 will mark the one-year anniversary of Sofia’s disappearance. If Sofia were your daughter, wouldn’t you want to know what happened to her?

Thank you for your support.

Valerie Sparkles Mayze, creator and administrator of the Finding Sofia Mckenna Facebook group and Carol Fort, Sofia’s cousin and moderator of the group.

To visit the Finding Sofia Mckenna Facebook Group, click here.