Memorial Day weekend marks seven years since Michelle McKenna’s 21-year-old daughter Sofia mysteriously vanished into the night after going on a boat ride with a friend.
Sofia called her mother seven times in the middle of the night on the night she disappeared, but Michelle didn’t pick up. Her daughter didn’t leave a voicemail. Sharing her heartache, Michelle told the Daily Mail those missed calls still haunt her today.
‘She called me at 2.05am…2.06am…2.07am..2.08am….2.08am….2.08am…..2.09am…,’ said Michelle as she grew emotional. ‘She was scared. Why didn’t she call 911?’
Her daughter, an aspiring model, and her friend Spencer Mugford, 20, had taken a boat off a wooden rack at the Avery point campus marina at the University of Connecticut to go out for a nighttime adventure.
In the darkness and eerie silence, the fearless duo headed to the ‘haunted’ New London Ledge Lighthouse on Fishers Island Sound and the Thames River in New London, Connecticut.
The 14-foot boat they were on had no mast or rudder and the pair were not wearing lifejackets.
In a video posted to Snapchat, Spencer is seen in the front of the boat paddling along the ocean waters as Sofia is documenting their journey.
A joyful Sofia is heard saying. ‘Yo, we’re out here in the f****** ocean!,’ as she pans out showing the dark abyss. ‘That is the land… like we still have to get there!,’ she says as she cajoles Spencer to ‘hurry up.’
Sofia McKenna, 21, was an aspiring model and was planning on becoming a nurse, her mother said. She is pictured modeling a pair of jeans from the denim line of NASCAR driver Danica Patrick’s fashion brand with Target but Michelle said that the deal fell through
The map above shows the locations where the two friends picked up the boat, headed to and then where Spencer’s body was found and the boat was found
Once they arrive at the deserted lighthouse Sofia is seen on the narrow ledge as Spencer snaps a photo of her. She cuts a playful look sticking out her tongue as a ‘No Trespassing’ sign loomed in the background.
Something then went terribly wrong. The last known activity from the duo is the series of phone calls that Michelle believes Sofia made from Spencer’s phone to her mom that went unanswered.
‘Something bad happened between 2.05am and 2.09am,’ Michelle said.
Spencer’s body was found nearly two weeks later near North Dumpling Island, approximately 4.5 miles from the lighthouse, but Sofia’s body was never found and still remains lost at sea.
Connecticut State PD confirmed to the Daily Mail that Sophia’s disappearance is still an active investigation.
Michelle, who has two other children, said she heard from Sofia’s boyfriend later on May 27 who told her that Sofia was missing. The couple had planned to go shopping that day.
She also found out that Spencer was also missing and that he didn’t show up for his sibling’s high school graduation that morning.
‘I was in shock,’ said Michelle, who recalled calling the police and every hospital in the area, but she added that parts of that day are a blur.
She explained the last time she had spoken to Sofia, she had told her that she was planning to go fishing with Spencer, an activity the friends often did together.
Michelle McKenna pictured with her daughter Sophia who went missing on May 27, 2018, over the Memorial Day holiday. On July 3, she would have turned 29
Sofia McKenna and her friend Spencer Mugford, 20, were last known to be at the New London Ledge Lighthouse located on Fishers Island Sound and the Thames River during the early morning hours of May 27, 2018
One of the last photos of Sofia that was taken at the lighthouse before she disappeared
The missed calls Sophia’s mother Michelle received from Spencer’s phone of the night the duo vanished
The Coast Guard intervened along with state and local agencies, including the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
They conducted a massive search of a 2,025 square-mile area using boats, helicopters and planes searching the ocean waters.
The boat believed to have been used by the friends was found on Truman Beach near Orient Point on the North Fork of Long Island, New York.
After 71 hours the search was suspended, as per local NBC Connecticut.
Michelle was devastated when the search was halted. ‘It wasn’t enough time. Why didn’t they keep looking? I don’t feel like they put in enough hours looking for them as separate individuals,’ she said. ‘But I can’t blame people.’
Commander Andrew Ely of the U.S. Coast Guard, and chief of response for the Coast Guard Sector of the Long Island Sound, told the news outlet that the water temperatures the night the two young boaters went missing was in the low 50s.
He explained that, ‘if a person’s immersed in waters like this they probably have less than 20 hours of what we would consider survival time if they don’t have a life jacket with them’.
Spencer, who was a student at the University of Connecticut, worked at the Red Door Salon where he had met Sofia, where she worked as a massage therapist. They had been friends for under a year.
The body of Spencer Mugford, 20, was found nearly two weeks after that tragic night
The pair struck up a friendship. Despite Spencer being romantically interested in Sofia, Michelle said her daughter was just happy being friends.
According to Michelle, her daughter had a difficult childhood with an emotionally abusive father.
She explained that Sofia’s boyfriend was someone she had been with since high school but also described their relationship as ‘volatile’.
After Spencer’s body was found Michelle said his family hired a private investigator who unexpectedly showed up at her house asking questions about Sofia.
She said they did not approve of the friendship Spencer had with Sofia and ‘thought she was bad news’.
Michelle told the Daily Mail: ‘I was angry. I felt like I was having a nervous breakdown.
‘They (Spencer’s family) had a body to bury, and here they are hiring a private eye. You know, I’m like, what the f*** is wrong with you people?’
Sofia stood at 5ft. 9inches tall and had striking features with blue eyes and dark hair. She is pictured leaning on an old pick up truck modeling the jeans from Danica Patrick’s line
Michelle believes that Spencer’s parents may be withholding information from her. ‘I feel like they’re not telling me something and that maybe their son had left a note,’ she said.
She also expressed her fury that Spencer was not able to protect her daughter and keep her safe.
‘Let Spencer rest in peace but I am so mad at him for putting her in danger,’ she said.
When she is asked what she really thinks happened to Sofia she pauses and says: ‘I don’t know, that’s when my body shuts down.’
After all this time, she said she knows ‘her daughter is no longer alive’ but hopes her body will be recovered.
Michelle said: ‘I don’t think pirates would be out there at two in the morning you know but where is she? Where are you Sofia?’ she asks.
‘She was in the Long Island Sound so she could be anywhere… submarines go through there you know. People don’t realize how deep it is,’ she added.
On July 3 Sofia would have turned 29 and Spencer 28. The friends shared the same birthday.
Sofia’s mom said that a year before she vanished 5ft 9in Sofia had been doing some modeling for NASCAR driver Danica Patrick’s denim line.
The New London Ledge Lighthouse has offered to bring Michelle and her family out to the lighthouse where they can hold a celebration of life for her daughter.
Michelle had been holding off since she is still trying to obtain her death certificate but said this may be the year to do it.
Boats at the Avery campus marina on the University of Connecticut and area where the two friends removed the boat from to go on their doomed journey
In September 2021, Sofia posted a photo of her cherry blossom tattoo with a butterfly. Her mom said that cherry blossoms were her favorite flower
She shared her gratitude to the lighthouse folks for their support and got choked up talking about it.
The century-old lighthouse that was built around the 1900s and is 58ft tall.
Legend has it that over the decades there have been wild theories that the spirit of Ernie, who was the former keeper of the lighthouse, remains.
Reality shows such as, Ghost Hunters and the Scariest Places on Earth have featured the lighthouse on their show, and allege strange happenings, but according to paranormal experts there was not enough evidence to prove that.
On Monday, Memorial Day, Michelle will go to the shore and say a prayer and place Sofia’s favorite flowers in the ocean. ‘Cherry Blossoms,’ her mother said. ‘They are not always easy to find. She loved hydrangeas too.’
Now she just wants closure. ‘If they can find the Titanic,’ she said, ‘I can only hope and pray for a miracle.’
