It was revealed that for two months, Wise had reportedly been living with a 44-year-old man she met hours after running away, telling investigators that they were engaged to be married.
As reported by WZZM-TV, Wise told investigators that she met the 44-year-old Rockford man on June 1st, a matter of hours after she left her parent's home. He was a complete stranger at the time, detectives said. She then moved in with the man at his home and lived there with him until she was found.
Speaking with reporters, detectives said they believe she was living there willingly and that the two were working proactively to avoid detection, taking steps to conceal her identity.
The neighbor who spotted Wise told Fox17, "I know not everybody believes in God, but I really believe that he put us in the right place, at the right time to see her. I think it was divine."
On condition of anonymity, the neighbor continued, "As I stopped at the stop sign, I saw a girl with her bike and she was crouched down. She's looking at me, I'm looking at her, and as we were driving, I was like, ‘Mom, that's the missing girl from Cedar Springs.'”
Naturally, they did not cooperate with law enforcement efforts to reunite Wise with her family. A massive search ensued with investigators from the FBI, US Marshals Service, Michigan State Police, and the Rockland Department of Safety taking part, according to The New York Post.
Kent County Undersheriff Brian Muir told the outlet, "Everything that we know right now is that it was just happenstance. They never had any connection. There was no digital trail that we could have followed that would have led to this location. They just happened to meet each other and have a bond."
According to MLive, the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office has not authorized charges against the 44-year-old man Penny was living with. However, the outlet reports that the Kent County sheriff's detectives are continuing their investigation.
Fox17 reported that the unnamed 44-year-old man does have previous, unrelated criminal convictions, such as felony domestic violence involving a pregnant individual, misdemeanor child abuse, and assault with intent to do great bodily harm.
However, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker told reporters, “You’d think there'd be some sort of law that would prevent this, but we looked at it. It's clearly troubling, but we can't just charge things that we find troubling. We have to follow the law, and that's what we did.”
A woman in Rockford says God put her in the right place at the right time to spot 17-year-old Penelope Wise this weekend. https://t.co/fBcX5zmy4m
— FOX 17 (@FOX17) July 23, 2024
Becker's office investigated charges, including contributing to the delinquency of a minor, or harboring a runaway, but both only applied to victims under the age of 16. “If this was under 16, there's a whole different ballgame,” Becker noted. Even custodial interference was considered, but that law only applies to parents interfering in custody matters.
“We were just left without anything to charge," he concluded.
Penny's mother Mishael Wise told the outlet on Monday, "We're happy that she's been found. We are trying to heal and put our family back together."
