Missing Michigan teenager Penelope “Penny” Wise found after two months, engaged to a 44-year-old stranger

A young woman who had been missing for nearly two months after vanishing from her family’s Michigan home in May was found Sunday living with and engaged to an older man she had just met, officials said.

Penelope “Penny” Wise, 17, was reported missing by family members after she ran away from her Cedar Springs home around 6 p.m. on May 31, according to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.

She was last seen on surveillance video around midnight on June 1, walking alone near a bar in Rockford.

Wise apparently met her 44-year-old fiancé that same evening, the sheriff’s office said Monday in an update on her missing person case.

It was assumed that the teenager with braces had left her home voluntarily, but in the nearly two months since she was spotted near the bar, there has been no sign of the girl.

Neither passersby nor surveillance cameras in the area had seen them, which led to a large-scale search by investigators from the FBI, the US Marshals Service, the Michigan State Police and the Rockland Department of Safety.

“We believe she left home intentionally, but due to the length of time and lack of sightings, KCSO (Kent County Sheriff’s Office) and her family are concerned for her well-being,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a June 7 update.

Despite assistance from other law enforcement agencies and volunteers, additional field searches, and a hotline for tips on Wise, investigators had no leads in her disappearance as of Sunday morning.

An “alert” member of the community called the police around 11am after seeing the young girl on a bicycle and recognising her from the missing persons flyers.

Investigators responded and discovered that Wise had been living with the unnamed man, 27 years her senior, since the night she ran away from home.

She had met him on June 1 at around 2 a.m. and lived in his house from that day until last Sunday – until she left the house on a bicycle and was discovered by the resident.

Investigators also learned that Wise and the man had become engaged between her disappearance and this weekend.

They said the teenager was found “safe and sound” and that sheriff’s detectives were still investigating the case.

According to M Live, the Kent County District Attorney’s Office has not filed charges against Wise’s new fiancée.