ROCKFORD, Mich. (WOOD) — One of the Rockford women who spotted a missing Cedar Springs teen Penelope “Penny” Wise, 17, Sunday credited divine intervention for the sighting.
“I honestly feel like it was a God thing,” the woman told NewsNation affiliate WOOD on Monday. “That we passed her at that time, that she looked up, that we made eye contact, that I saw her face. It was like God wanted me to see her there and the jolt hit me. I was like, ‘That’s her! We have to do something, now!’”
The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, lives a few houses from the Northland Drive home where Wise had allegedly been staying with an older man.
The woman told Target 8 she was driving to church Sunday around 10:30 am with her mom and four young children in the car.
“We’re pulling up to the end of my mom’s street, and we go to turn right,” she recalled. “We look over to the left, and we see a young girl with her bike and a bike cart,” she said, referring to a zippered trailer designed to carry a small child.
The woman and her mom told WOOD that Wise was bending down next to the bike and appeared to be loading the trailer with clothes and food items.
‘OH MY GOSH. I KNOW THAT PERSON’
“Then, as we started to go by, she looked up right at me, we made eye contact, and she probably saw me doing a double take. I was just kind of startled… ‘Oh my gosh. I know that person.’ And as we’re driving away, I was like, ‘Mom, that looks just like that missing girl from Cedar Springs,’ and my mom said, ‘You mean Penny?’”
Like so many in West Michigan, the family had been watching the story unfold, wishing for Wise’s safe return.
“It was on our mind. Every time you saw her picture,” said the woman’s mother. “And we had sheriff’s deputies canvassing the neighborhood stop by asking for camera footage.”
Now the women wonder if deputies had also knocked on the door of the duplex where investigators said Wise was living.
Detectives reported that Wise, 17, did not know the man, 44, when the two strangers met in downtown Rockford around 2 a.m. June 1.
That was the morning after Wise left her Cedar Springs home following an argument with her parents.
Deputies said Wise had been living in the man’s duplex since June 1, and the two are now engaged.
‘KIND OF STUNNING’ NO LAW EXISTS
Kent County prosecutor Chris Becker told Target 8 that his office is not charging the man because there’s no law addressing what occurred.
“It’s kind of stunning,” said Becker. “We’d like to charge him, but there’s nothing in the law that prevents this.”
Becker said charges like “harboring a runaway” or “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” only apply when the victim is under 16.
For a “custodial interference” charge, the offender must be a parent.
News 8 is not naming the man with whom Wise was staying because he has not been charged. But online records show he has a substantial criminal history, including two domestic violence charges for which he pleaded guilty.
PRIOR CONVICTIONS FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, FELONY ASSAULT
In 2021, he pleaded no contest to felony domestic violence (3rd offense), according to a state police database.
He’s also been convicted of felony assault with intent to do great bodily harm, misdemeanor child abuse and misdemeanor operating while impaired.
When the women on their way to church realized who they thought they’d seen, they turned their vehicle around.
Initially, Wise had been standing next to the bicycle on the side closest to the street, the women told Target 8.
“Then, by the time we turned around, she had moved to the other side and was kind of crouched behind the bike,” said the woman.
‘HONEY, ARE YOU OKAY?‘
“I called out, ‘Hey, honey, are you okay?’” recalled the driver’s mom. “And she looked up, she did make eye contact, and she said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ Then she was loading the bike trailer.”
The driver said she then asked the girl, “Do you need any help?”
“She said, ‘Nope, I’m good.’ So, she was back to doing her thing. So, we put up the window, and I said (to my mom), ‘We’ve got to call 911.’”
The women said they struggled to focus once at church, wondering if they’d called in time for deputies to connect with the girl.
“It’s scary. To know she was so close, and we had no idea. It’s sad. He must have done a good job hiding her,” said the woman.
Mom and daughter noted that the morning’s sermon was fitting.
“(It was) on the prodigal son, the child who ran away from his father and was returned back,” said the daughter.
“And was welcomed with loving arms,” her mom finished.
A second neighbor told Target 8 she also called 911 Sunday after seeing Wise standing across Northland Drive.
SECOND 911 CALLER: SO DISAPPOINTED
“We are so glad that the parents at least have peace of mind that she is OK,” said the neighbor, who did not want to be identified by name. “(But) we are so disappointed that a 43-year-old man can carry on with a 17-year-old kid, and that is not OK.”
The neighbor described the man who housed Wise as a “menace and dangerous to women.”
“We hope and pray that Ms. Wise will get the help she needs to get through whatever she is going through,” she said.
The neighbor also expressed concern regarding the immense law enforcement resources expended in a case where the subject appeared to be consenting.
She hoped the investigation did not pull resources from other cases.