In the pre-dawn hours of May 27, 2018, a holiday weekend, 21-year-old Sofia Mckenna and her friend, 20-year-old Spencer Mugford, embarked on an impromptu adventure off the coast of Groton, Connecticut. The pair drove to the University of Connecticut's Avery Point campus, where Spencer was a student, and took a 14-foot sailboat that lacked a mast. Their destination was the New London Ledge Lighthouse, a historic and reportedly haunted landmark approximately a mile from shore.
Their journey was documented through social media posts from Spencer's phone. A video posted shortly before 2:00 a.m. showed Spencer paddling the vessel as Sofia filmed, and a final Snapchat photo, timed at exactly 2:00 a.m., captured Sofia smiling in front of a "No Trespassing" sign on the lighthouse ledge.
The joyful tone of their social media posts took a sudden and mysterious turn just minutes later. Between 2:05 a.m. and 2:09 a.m., seven calls were placed from Spencer Mugford's phone to Sofia’s mother, Michelle. Because her phone was on "do not disturb" and the number was unknown to her, she was asleep and did not answer. No voicemails were left, and no attempt was made to call 911. Concern grew later that day when Spencer failed to attend his brother's high school graduation and Sofia missed plans to go shopping with her boyfriend. After her boyfriend contacted Sofia's mother, she discovered the series of missed calls from the unrecognized number and, upon calling back and hearing Spencer's voicemail, realized something was wrong. The two were officially reported missing that evening, prompting a search. The following day, May 28, the sailboat they had taken was discovered overturned on Truman's Beach, near Orient, New York, miles away from the lighthouse.
The search for the missing friends continued for days. On June 8, 2018, a boater discovered Spencer Mugford's body in the water about two miles south of Avery Point. The cause of his death was later determined to be drowning. Sofia Mckenna, however, has never been found. At the time of her disappearance, she was 5'9" and weighed 130 pounds, with long brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a grey sweatshirt. Sofia has several distinct tattoos, including cherry blossoms on her back, the phrase "Searching for the thrill of it" on her ankle, the Cancer zodiac sign behind her ear, and the words "Thy world is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" on her foot. The case remains an active and unresolved investigation. An overview of the case presents a perplexing series of events: a late-night excursion to a lighthouse that was documented on social media, followed by a series of unanswered phone calls, the discovery of her companion's body days later, and the enduring mystery of what happened to Sofia in the waters of Long Island Sound.Last Seen: May 27, 2018
