Overview

Last seen: June 9, 2010
Location: Lake Michigan off the shore of Holland, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
Age: 9
Classification: Lost/Injured Missing
NamUs: MP11138
Status: Sofia has never been recovered. Available case sources describe her as presumed drowned.

Main circumstances: Sofia Khan, a 9-year-old girl from the Chicago area, disappeared while her family was vacationing along Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. She drifted away from shore in a kayak without a life jacket. Strong winds prevented her father from reaching her, and another person who went after the kayak found it empty offshore. Despite an extensive search involving the U.S. Coast Guard and multiple dive teams, Sofia was never found.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Sofia Khan: The 2010 Disappearance of a 9-Year-Old Girl on Lake Michigan in Holland, Wisconsin

Brief Case Summary

Last seen: June 9, 2010
Location: Lake Michigan off the shore of Holland, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
Age: 9
Classification: Lost/Injured Missing
NamUs: MP11138
Status: Sofia has never been recovered. Available case sources describe her as presumed drowned.

Main circumstances: Sofia Khan, a 9-year-old girl from the Chicago area, disappeared while her family was vacationing along Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. She drifted away from shore in a kayak without a life jacket. Strong winds prevented her father from reaching her, and another person who went after the kayak found it empty offshore. Despite an extensive search involving the U.S. Coast Guard and multiple dive teams, Sofia was never found.

Sofia Khan Disappearance: What Happened on Lake Michigan in 2010?

Nine-year-old Sofia Khan was vacationing with her family in eastern Wisconsin when an afternoon on Lake Michigan became a tragedy. Sofia, whose family lived in the Chicago area, disappeared off the shore of the Town of Holland in Sheboygan County on June 9, 2010.

Sofia was described as 4 feet 2 inches tall and approximately 60 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. The Charley Project reports that she was wearing a lavender-and-black one-piece bathing suit. Wisconsin’s Missing notes that the bathing suit has also been reported as lavender and pink.

A Kayak Drifts Away From Shore

Sofia was in a kayak and was not wearing a personal flotation device when she began drifting away from shore. Strong winds were carrying the kayak farther onto Lake Michigan.

Her father attempted to swim after her. According to accounts attributed to the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department, however, the wind was moving the kayak farther and faster than he could swim.

A man from a nearby cottage then took a canoe onto the lake in an effort to help. When he reached Sofia’s kayak, Sofia was no longer in it. Contemporary reporting described the kayak as having traveled well offshore; later case summaries say it was found empty and adrift more than a quarter-mile from shore.

The attempted rescuer then encountered trouble himself when his canoe capsized. U.S. Coast Guard personnel rescued him.

Rescue Effort Becomes a Recovery Operation

Authorities initially responded in hopes of rescuing Sofia. By the following day, however, the operation had shifted from rescue to recovery.

Divers searched Lake Michigan on June 10. Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Capt. David Adams told reporters that authorities believed Sofia had almost certainly drowned.

ABC7 Chicago similarly reported on June 10 that rescue crews did not expect to find Sofia alive.

The search was extensive. A later account published in connection with Sofia’s family and the Sofia Khan Garden stated that the U.S. Coast Guard and four separate dive teams searched for her, but her body was never recovered.

By June 19, 2010, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that authorities had called off the search for Sofia.

Sofia Khan Remains Missing

Sofia’s disappearance continues to appear in missing-person resources years later. The Charley Project currently lists her as Lost/Injured Missing and states that she is presumed to have drowned. Her kayak was accounted for, but Sofia herself was never recovered.

Wisconsin’s Missing also maintains a page for Sofia and identifies her NamUs case number as MP11138.

The fact that no remains were recovered is important when describing the case. Although later accounts—including one featuring Sofia’s mother—refer to Sofia as having died or drowned, the missing-person record remains because her body was never found.

Latest Available Case Information

A review of currently accessible sources did not uncover a recently announced renewed search, recovery of remains, or new investigative development in Sofia’s case.

The most recent substantive missing-person information located continues to report the same basic status: Sofia disappeared from Lake Michigan on June 9, 2010, the subsequent search did not locate her, and she is presumed to have drowned. Wisconsin’s Missing published its dedicated case page in 2021 and updated it in January 2022.

A Websleuths discussion devoted to Sofia’s disappearance contains an anniversary post dated June 9, 2023, but it does not report a new law-enforcement development.

Accordingly, there is no verified evidence in the sources reviewed that Sofia has been located or that the official circumstances surrounding her disappearance have materially changed.

Sofia’s Garden and Her Family’s Efforts to Remember Her

Sofia’s story continued in Chicago through the people who knew and loved her.

A garden at Haas Park in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood was created in Sofia’s memory. Sofia had spent considerable time at the park, attending summer camp and playing sports there. The garden was formally dedicated in 2018.

Her mother, Sheri Khan, explained that because Sofia’s body was never recovered, the family had no gravesite. The garden provided a physical place carrying Sofia’s name while also becoming a place where other community members could remember people they had lost.

The garden remains part of community remembrance activities. A current page describing Sofia’s Garden says it is located in the southwest corner of Haas Park and continues to serve as a space for remembrance, grief and healing.

More than 16 years after Sofia disappeared, the fundamental unanswered fact remains unchanged: Sofia Khan was never recovered from Lake Michigan.