Dark Downeast - The Disappearance of April Dawn Pennington (Connecticut)

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

When a 15-year-old girl snuck out of her bedroom window one night in May of 1996, it was like she vanished right into thin air with no leads. Years later unsealed court documents revealed that police had a theory and a suspect from the earliest days of the case, but it would take over a decade to build a case strong enough for an arrest. View source material and photos for this episode at: darkdowneast.com/aprildawnpennington Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case 

When a 15-year-old girl snuck out of her bedroom window one night in May of 1996, it was like she vanished right into thin air with no leads. Years later, unsealed court documents revealed that police had a theory and a suspect from the earliest days of the case, but it would take over a decade to build a case strong enough for an arrest. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of April Dawn Pennington on Dark Down East. It was the evening of May 29th, 1996, and 15-year-old April Dawn Pennington sat down for a dinner of sandwiches with her mother, Hazel, her father, Walter, and April's grandmother at the Pennington family home on Orchard Drive in Montville, Connecticut. It was almost the end of the school year for April, who was finishing up her freshman year at Montville High School, and one of her younger brothers was graduating from elementary school that very night. After dinner, the whole family was going to attend

the ceremony, whether April liked it or not. According to reporting by Ethan Rowan for the day, April had complained about not wanting to go, but Walter quashed the conversation quickly. She didn't have a choice in the matter. Despite her apparent displeasure with her father's final ruling on the subject, Hazel remembers that April was actually in a pretty good mood that night. When they finished supper, the Heddington family loaded up for an evening of celebration in honor of one of its youngest members. When they finally got back home around 9.30 p.m., Hazel and Walter kissed their kids goodnight

before turning their attention to the lingering household tasks. Hazel sat up in the kitchen paying bills for a while before checking on her children one more time. When she peeked into April's bedroom, she could see the covers pulled up and April seemingly sound asleep in her bed. Around 5.30 a.m., Hazel started the morning roundup, rushing through her own morning routine so that her kids would make the 6.10 bus in time for school. But as Hazel threw back the blankets and sheets on April's bed, she froze on the spot. The silhouette

she saw under the covers the night before turned out to be a haphazard heap of stuffed animals. She looked around the room to see that a window was left open, but it wasn't the breeze that gave Hazel a chill. Her daughter April was gone. April was a good kid, albeit a good kid who was beginning a phase in her adolescence that some might describe as rebellious. The Penningtons moved

frequently since Walter was in the Navy, which left April to start over making new friends in a new place, but she truly blossomed as she entered high school in Montville. She made close friends and had a boyfriend and spent hours on the phone talking to all of them. With the new and exciting social scene she was part of, April seemed to lose focus when it came to her academics. In January of 1995, she came home with a bad report card, which sparked an argument with her mother. In the heat of their disagreement, Hazel ripped the phone from the wall.

No more long phone calls for April. But it was around this time that her parents think April started sneaking out of the house. When Hazel realized April wasn't in her room that morning, a number of scenarios ran through her mind. Maybe she was out with friends, or maybe she was upset about something. She and her boyfriend had recently broken up. No matter the reason April left, though, she hadn't come back yet, and that had Hazel and Walter immediately concerned. They called Montville Police to report their daughter missing. Karen Florin reports for the day that when Montville Police Corporal Scott Davis arrived

at the Pennington house, he believed he might be dealing with a pretty common scenario of teen sneaks out, teen turns up at a friend's house later that day, teen gets grounded, or whatever other consequences their parents have waiting for them back at home. Hazel directed Officer Davis to April's bedroom in the basement for him to take a look around. I think the word basement conjures up a dark, dungeon-y scene, but their home was built into the backside of a hill, which meant they had a daylight walkout basement with standard-sized, ground-level windows

and an exterior door that led to the backyard. Officer Davis glanced around the room, making note of the open window and the stuffed animals lined up in a human shape on the bed. April's parents said nothing seemed to be missing from the room except maybe a backpack and a coat. David interviewed Hazel and Walter about the last few days, likely asking about April's mood, if there had been any arguments, if she was upset about anything that would make her

leave home, or if they'd caught wind of any parties or social events that she wanted to attend but knew they wouldn't let her go if she asked. April's parents told the officer that April and her boyfriend had recently broken up, but other than that, things were pretty typical with April, and they didn't have any big fights or anything like that to report. Although the phone rang several times the night before with calls for April, that was also pretty typical. Leaving the Pennington home, Officer Davis made a call to Montville High School to see if April went to class that day, but attendance records showed she was absent. Police also checked April's locker at school to see if that contained any clues to her intended destination when she left that night. But there was nothing helpful there. The

only contents were a backpack and a coat, the same ones April's parents thought she might have taken with her. It meant that April left home with no bag, no clothing, and no money. Other than the open window and pile of stuffed animals, April left no trace either. It was quickly becoming clear that this was not the common and benign scenario Officer Davis thought he'd be dealing with that day. He issued a teletype alert with the missing person's report while Hazel and Walter waited for their daughter to come home. But she didn't show up that night or over the weekend. The first few agonizing days left both her parents and local law enforcement worried for April's safety.

Montville police interviewed the Penningtons several more times during the early investigation, trying to glean additional details about what their daughter could have been planning that night when she slipped out the window undetected. Officer Davis returned to April's bedroom and collected several items, including a few handwritten notes and poems. He also checked the caller ID for the night of May 29th. Reports state that at least five calls came in from the same person on the night April disappeared, a classmate of April's named Patrick Allain, who went by PJ. Officer Davis tried reaching out to PJ, but couldn't seem to track him down at first. About a week into the search for April, on June 5th,

Hazel got a call from a woman who said her granddaughter knew where April was hiding out, and she said that April would call or show up or somehow be in touch that coming weekend. When police went to talk to the girl, she admitted it was just a prank. She didn't actually know where April was. A few days later, on June 8th, the phone started ringing again at the Pennington household, and when Hazel picked up the receiver, an operator announced it was a collect call from someone named April. She quickly accepted the charges, only for the line to go dead before ever hearing a voice on the other end. Police couldn't trace where the call came from, and it was assumed to be another cruel prank.

Between the hoax phone calls, Montville police followed up on reported sightings. One tips that April was hanging around Howard T. Brown Park in nearby Norwich, so police conducted surveillance there. They never saw April, though. As conversations with April's friends and classmates continued, police learned that there may have been a party April was trying to attend on the night she disappeared,

but the details were nebulous and didn't turn into any real leads as to her whereabouts. Based on the news coverage during the first few weeks of the case, April was regarded as a runaway. There wasn't any talk, at least not publicly, about anything nefarious or suspicious about April's disappearance. But as the days dragged on without any legitimate tips or sightings, police began to consider other scenarios, including the possibility that April could have harmed herself. The letters that Officer Davis found in April's room seemed to suggest that she was very upset about the breakup from her boyfriend, and a friend would later say that April once talked about taking her own life if that relationship ever ended.

But there was no evidence to suggest that was what happened. Montfield Police stayed on the case for about three months until it was turned over to Connecticut State Police. I don't know exactly why the investigation became a state police case when it did, but reporting by Karen Florin in the day suggests it was a matter of resources. In the months following the change of hands, police searched the woods and waterways surrounding Montville and neighboring towns. They used search dogs and boats to perform detailed surveys of secluded areas where someone might hide or be hidden. Reports of sightings continued, but again, none panned out. There was little left for police to follow. Leeds, in April's case, dried up. From an outside view,

progress seemed to screech to a halt. That is, until several years later, when Hazel called a long-lost family friend. And what she told Hazel tilted her world completely upside down. Three years after they last kissed their daughter April Goodnight, the Penningtons were living back in their home state of North Carolina. It had been a while since Connecticut State Police had anything new to report in the ongoing efforts to find April, and the preceding years had been challenging for her family, to say the least. According to Ethan Ruins reporting for the day,

Hazel Pennington suffered a major heart attack and ongoing health issues after April disappeared, likely due to all the stress. In May of 1999, Hazel was making a few phone calls to friends they hadn't spoken to in a while. With her husband's military career, they moved a lot, and so did many of the people they befriended along the way. So, sometimes their phone numbers changed, and not everyone picked up when the phone rang. But Hazel's old friend, Janine, answered when she called, and both women were shocked at the news the other had to share. Hazel and Janine knew each other from the early 90s, when the Penningtons lived in Virginia Beach. Janine's

son Adrian and April were around the same age and seemed quite fond of each other. Hazel referred to Adrian as April's quote-unquote little boyfriend. As the two mothers started catching up on life, Janine quickly interjected to tell Hazel that her son Adrian saw April a few weeks earlier. She asked if they were back in Virginia Beach. Hazel was stunned. Janine didn't know, and neither did Adrian, that April had been missing for three years at that point. Hazel started to cry as Janine told her the story. Adrian was working at a blockbuster in Virginia Beach behind the counter one day when a vaguely familiar face approached him.

Adrian told his mother that he couldn't immediately place the woman, who had a young toddler, on her hip. But when she introduced herself as April Pennington, the memories of his old friend came back. They talked for about 15 minutes, maybe a half hour, before a man walked into the store and pulled April away without a real conclusion to their conversation. She didn't rent a movie. The whole thing was strange to Adrian, so much so that he told his mom about it. He said something was off. She didn't look like herself,

and her face appeared older than her actual age. Hazel was shaken by the account. Despite the years that had passed without seeing April, she was a mother who held out hope that her only daughter was still out there somewhere. There were days when she wondered if April had been kidnapped and possibly the victim of sex trafficking. The story from Adrian about an unknown man supposedly pulling April out of the blockbuster in Virginia Beach gave some credence to the theory. Hazel reported the

sighting to Connecticut State Police. According to Karen Florence reporting, Detective Martin Graham tracked Adrian down for a phone call. Adrian relayed the same story he told his mother about. The girl with the toddler, the tired face, the man who appeared at her side and pulled her out the door. By the end of it, Detective Graham felt Adrian was a credible witness, enough to warrant a more formal interview. Connecticut State Police called on the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to follow up with Adrian for more information. However, after further investigation, they learned that Adrian had at one point suffered a traumatic brain injury, which resulted in memory loss. His report of seeing April in Virginia Beach was discounted after that.

Since the woman didn't rent a movie, there really wasn't much they could do to confirm Adrian's sighting, and it doesn't seem like the lead went much further and the case went dormant once again. Several years after that, in December of 2002, state police seemed to reinvigorate the case when they appealed to the public for new information. According to Adam Bowles' reporting for the Norwich Bulletin, investigators had every reason to believe someone knew exactly what happened to April that night, and the investigation was very much ongoing. They'd conducted searches in wells and swamps, dug up areas in Montville, Ledyard, and Waterford, got additional media coverage for the case, and engaged with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, even worked with a psychic visionary

at Hazel's request. But nothing materialized from those efforts to push the case forward. Again, at surface level, it seems like detectives didn't have anything at all to even hint at what could have possibly happened to April when she left her home that night. But there's always so much we can't see below the surface. Law enforcement were holding their cards close to their vests, and the investigative findings wouldn't be revealed until

almost 12 years later. Connecticut State Police tipped their hand just a bit when unsealed search warrant affidavits detailed a theory that had been developing since the earliest days of the case. The night April disappeared, the caller ID at her house showed at least five calls from that classmate of hers, Patrick P.J. Elaine. Reports said that police had a hard time tracking him down at first, but when they finally caught up for a chat, investigators got the sense P.J. wasn't being entirely forthcoming with what he knew about the night of May 29th, 1996. PJ hung around an older guy named George Leniart. George was 30 years old at the time of April's disappearance, exactly twice both PJ and April's age. Also at the time of April's disappearance,

George was out on bond and awaiting trial for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl just a few months before. PJ was later charged as an accomplice in this assault. According to one of PJ's statements to police, on the night April disappeared, she snuck out of her bedroom window and hopped into a waiting truck with PJ and George inside. PJ told investigators that the three of them drove across the Mohegan Pequot Bridge and towards George's mom's property where he lived and found a secluded spot in the woods to drink and smoke pot. He claims that both he and George had consensual sex with April before PJ said that they had to get home since it was a school night.

He said that when George dropped him off at home, April was still in the truck. That was one of a few versions of the story PJ would share throughout the years, but each one got more devastating than the last. In subsequent conversations and during a polygraph examination, PJ revealed that he and George had in fact sexually assaulted April that night, and that George told him he planned to kill April. PJ also told police that when he got home that night, he wanted to call police before anything bad could happen to his friend, but he didn't know what to say and he was afraid for his own safety. When PJ saw George

the next day, he says George confirmed that April was, quote, gone. These statements from PJ are what directed those early searches in the woods around Montville and neighboring towns. Investigators had been building a case against George Leniart since 1997 when they searched a wooded area near Fort Shantuck, which was in the same area that the three of them supposedly went to hang out that night. An affidavit states that this search turned up several items of interest, including duct tape with hair fibers, a woven rope, a blue Dallas Cowboys sweatshirt, and a jacket.

Both of the articles of clothing were later identified as similar to what April was known to wear. Forensic testing and mitochondrial DNA comparison was in progress as ground and water searches for more evidence in April's remains continued. Several years later, in 2004, police obtained a search warrant for property owned by George's mother, but that search didn't turn up anything helpful to the case. State police interviewed George throughout the years, and he knew they were looking at him for April's case, but he claimed that he didn't even know PJ Elaine, and he didn't know April except for missing persons posters he might have

seen around town. And besides, he was incarcerated at the time she disappeared, so how could he be the one responsible? None of it was true, though. Police had a record of an interview with George during which he admitted to knowing PJ for six or seven years as of 1996, and he wasn't in prison in May of that year. He didn't begin serving his sentence for his previous sexual assault conviction until that fall. The statements by PJ about George killing April were alarming, no doubt, but without

any physical evidence to back it up, no body, no other witnesses to what happened that night, the case wasn't strong enough to bring it to a jury, and prosecutors knew that. A no-body murder case wasn't unprecedented in Connecticut at the time, but it was uncommon to charge someone with a homicide when you didn't have conclusive evidence their alleged victim was actually deceased. So police kept at it, assembling what they hoped would be a solid slate of evidence against their suspect, when in the summer of 2007, an unexpected witness walked into Norwich Police Department to give a statement about April's murder. Karen Florin writes for the day that in August of 2007, a man named Z. Ching walked into the police station asking to speak with a homicide detective in regards to the April Pennington case.

Norwich PD called Connecticut State Police Detective Joseph Mason, who arrived at the station within 10 minutes to take a statement. Zee said that he shared a cell with George Leniart when they were both incarcerated earlier that year, and George seemed to speak freely about the suspicion that surrounded him for April's disappearance. Z claimed that George told him he and a younger friend went out on a boat with a girl, got her drunk, and then sexually assaulted her. He wanted his young friend to help kill the girl, but he wouldn't, so George did it

himself and hid her body. He apparently bragged that police would never find her body because he dumped it in Long Island Sound. As a former cellmate of George Lenny Arts, Z. Ching was considered a quote-unquote jailhouse informant. The use of jailhouse informant testimony in investigations is heavily debated, because in many scenarios, the informant is either offered or believes they'll be offered some form of reward for their cooperation, like a reduced sentence or leniency or some other perk. Now, Z. Ching might have had a criminal record, but as of August 2007, he'd served his time and wasn't on probation or parole and seemingly had nothing to gain by telling police what he heard. And this version of events kind of tracked.

You see, George Leniart was a commercial fisherman and he had access to a boat at the time of April's disappearance. So was it possible he killed April and then disposed of her remains using a boat? Yeah, it was possible. It was also possible that if George confided in one cellmate about his crimes, he told others too. And so investigators began tracking down others who may have been on the receiving end of George's prison confessions. And there were at least two more, though the stories they heard from George were a little different. One cellmate stated that George bragged about killing April

and said some version of, nobody, no crime, thinking he'd never be caught for what he did to the teenage girl. An affidavit obtained by Tracy Gordon Fox of the Hartford Courant describes one statement by a different cellmate who said George told them he strangled April, and another said George talked

about slitting her throat and putting her body in a lobster pot before dumping it in the river. With the statements from PJ Elaine about that night, the additional statements from cellmates and acquaintances of George Leniart, all combined with the fact that in the more than 10 years since April disappeared, she never once reached out to family members or used her social security number, the case was getting stronger and stronger, even without physical evidence or a body. Finally, in April of 2008, the Attorney General's office issued an arrest warrant. George Leniart was in custody on charges of sexually assaulting a teenage boy

when Connecticut State Police paid him a visit at Corrigan Correction Center. George was arrested on April 1st, 2008 and charged with the murder of April Pennington, as well as three capital felony counts, kidnapping, sexual assault during a murder, and the third count relating to April's age at the time of the murder. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. According to an AP report in the New Times, prosecutors said they were not pursuing the death penalty in this case, despite the capital charges, because they still hadn't recovered April Pennington's body. The arrest of George Leniart came as a shock to Hazel Pennington. After the sighting by a family friend in Virginia Beach all those years ago, she maintained her hope that April was still alive. She told a reporter, quote, I believe she's alive and I believe they're wrong. I'm shocked.

I don't know why this couldn't have been done sooner. End quote. The affidavit filed as part of the arrest warrant was initially sealed to protect witnesses and potential witnesses, but it was finally made public a few weeks later. The details inside convinced Hazel that April really was deceased

and likely died the same night she arranged her stuffed animals in bed and snuck out her bedroom window. It would take about two years for the case to finally go to trial, and in that period of limbo, the prosecution continued to build their case and secure witnesses to testify in front of a jury. Yet another so-called jailhouse informant

surfaced after George's arrest, but this one had a track record of cooperating with investigations. According to a piece by Karen Florin in The Day, Kenneth Buckingham was a serial bank robber who had testified for the prosecution in at least one other unrelated case. When prosecutors tracked him down after George was charged with April's murder, Kenneth agreed to tell the jury about the time George admitted to killing April because he wanted to be known as a murderer, not a quote-unquote ripper, which is what other inmates labeled those with sexual assault charges. Patrick P.J. Allain was also expected to testify

against his old friend George, and so was the survivor of a 1995 sexual assault committed by George Leniart. Though the defense tried to argue that any discussion of George's previous crimes shouldn't be allowed, the judge ruled that the 1995 sexual assault for which George was convicted was similar enough to what the state alleged happened to April that the jury was permitted to hear what the survivor had to say. Meanwhile, the defense was building their roster of witnesses to testify at George's trial too. George's defense team wanted the jury to hear from an expert who could demonstrate

all of the issues that come with using jailhouse informants, including their documented role in many wrongful convictions. However, the judge presiding over the case would later rule that the defense could not introduce this expert testimony at trial. Still, when proceedings finally opened, the defense was prepared to poke holes in every last piece of the state's case. As the trial of George Leniart began in February 2010,

the prosecution introduced several of the original investigators on April Pennington's case who laid the groundwork of the investigation and detailed all the early steps taken to find April. Then Patrick P.J. Olain took the stand and told the jury what he remembered about the night April disappeared, including his own admitted sexual assault of April. In his testimony, PJ said that George told him he needed to kill April because he was in a cult and wanted a body for the altar. The jailhouse informants all took the stand too, though one ultimately refused to testify once there. Still, both Zicheng and Kenneth Buckingham told the jury about their conversations with George

about April Pennington, and then the defense did all they could to undermine their credibility. The defense attorney targeted Kenneth Buckingham specifically. They'd previously met on the stand in a past case. The defense attorney labeled Kenneth as a professional snitch and asked Kenneth if he was testifying in hopes of getting some leniency for his own charges. Kenneth admitted that, yeah, he hoped there'd be some benefit for his cooperation, but there was no existing deal

on the table. Finally, though the defense tried to fight it, the woman who survived a sexual assault by George Leniart when she was just a teenager in 1995 courageously took the stand to tell her story. She told the court how she was dating PJ Elaine at the time, and he brought her to George's trailer and left her alone there while they drank alcohol. George locked her inside, sexually assaulted her, strangled her until she lost consciousness, and when she awoke the next morning, he threatened to kill her if she tried to leave. But she was able to escape, running to the neighbor's house to call her father and the police. When the case was

finally turned over to the jury for deliberation, the biggest question hung in the air like a dense fog. Would George Leniart be found guilty of murder when April's remains had never been recovered to prove that a murder ever occurred? Did the prosecution do enough to convince the jury that George Leniart was responsible for her death? The deliberations continued for several days, with members of the jury asking to revisit testimony from several witnesses before they issued a verdict. When they returned, it was to a full but hushed courtroom. On March 2nd, 2010, nearly 14 years after April Pennington disappeared, the jury found George Leniart guilty of murder and all other charges. At his sentencing a few months later,

George received life in prison without possibility of release. As far as I can tell, Patrick P.J. Elaine was not charged with any crimes as it relates to April's disappearance and presumed death, despite his admission under oath that he participated in the sexual assault on her. The statute of limitations had run out. Walter Pennington told Jennifer Fernandez of the News and Record that the trial and conviction gave him and his family some version of closure, but it would never change the reality that they'd continue to live with for the rest of their days. Quote, she's not here. I'm always gonna feel that. End quote. After conviction, George Leniart and his defense team began working

the legal system for some form of relief from the future he faced behind bars. According to Karen Florin's reporting for the day, in 2014, George appealed his conviction and sent a letter asking a judge to take his name off the state sex offender registry. He also filed a civil rights lawsuit claiming police and parole officers violated his rights when they conducted warrantless searches and unlawfully arrested him. However, the civil rights violation lawsuit was decided the next year, ruling in favor of law enforcement. The judge decided police did not conduct illegal searches and arrests. Then in May of 2015, a new piece of evidence, an item once believed to be lost, happened to turn up.

It was a tape that George said contained audio that he recorded of conversations between himself and two detectives from Connecticut State Police. This tape had been seized during a search of George's home in 2007, and court records state that the recorder and tape inside were given to the state forensic laboratory to create a copy of it. Those items were then checked out of the lab in 2010 by a state trooper and stored at state police headquarters for seven months. Next in the chain of custody, another trooper gave the tape and recorder to a parole officer

in 2011, and then 13 days after that, they were handed over to the Attorney General's office, and that's where they should have been when George requested a copy. George did receive a tape from the AG's office, but he said it only had one side of the recording and the other side was blank. Repeated requests by George for the complete recording were met with the same response. The AG's office kept looking, but that was the only version of the tape they had. However, it seems the complete tape eventually did show up in 2015, long after his trial and conviction. Although it was essentially inaudible when played at a hearing, George claimed it contained audio of two detectives threatening to frame him for April's murder with the help of

jailhouse informants. George claimed the prosecution withheld the tape and suppressed evidence that could have helped his defense. The missing tape was part of his argument when an appellate court heard George's appeal in October of 2015. George's attorney also argued that the prosecution's case had insufficient evidence and still no body.

The defense also argued that the original judge ruled incorrectly when they didn't allow expert testimony that would demonstrate the issues with jailhouse informants. Plus, the judge didn't let the jury see a recording of a pre-polygraph interview with PJ Elaine, which could have helped George's defense. In June of 2016, the appellate court ruled on the appeal and actually overturned George Leniart's conviction. In the decision, the court ruled that the judge improperly excluded key evidence, including the videotape of P.J. Elaine's interview and expert testimony about

jailhouse informants. But that wasn't the end of the process. The decision went to the state Supreme Court for review. Three years later, in September of 2019, the state Supreme Court disagreed with the lower court and upheld George Leniart's conviction, keeping him in prison where he remains today. George and his public defender have taken additional action in recent years, but in June of 2020, he lost another appeal. The most recent activity was in March of 2023. He's trying again to get a new trial, pointing to newly uncovered evidence in a habeas corpus petition. According to reporting by Greg Smith for the day, George claims he was framed for April Pennington's murder by a group of teenagers, quote, engaged in Satanism, paganism,

and other cult-like activities, and that the investigating authorities overlooked these details in order to develop a false theory that Leniart himself was engaged in Satanism, end quote. Since then, multiple motions for continues and extensions have been filed and granted. The last activity on this most recent legal maneuver was in February of 2024, granting a motion for an extension of time to file a brief. According to the Superior Court Case Lookup System, there are no court dates scheduled, as of the original recording of this episode. Following the conclusion of the trial,

April's friends gathered in her honor, feeling it was the right time to reflect on the person they loved and lost. April always knew how to make her classmates laugh and liked to crack jokes at the expense of their teachers. She was creative and loved to sketch fashion designs and paint self-portraits. She was a social butterfly, a 15-year-old girl only just beginning to spread her wings. April's friend Stephanie told Karen Florin of the day that they used to sing

a Mariah Carey song called One Sweet Day together. The lyrics have made her tear up ever since. It goes, And I know you're shining down on me from heaven, like so many friends

we've lost along the way. And I know eventually we'll be together. We'll be together one sweet day. It's now been nearly 30 years since April Dawn Pennington disappeared, and still her remains have not been recovered. Though she is presumed dead and her killer is serving a life sentence,

April is still listed as missing by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The hope remains ever-present that one day, she will be found and reunited with the people who continue to miss and love her, no matter how much time has passed. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at darkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones

and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time i'm kylie lowe and this is dark down east dark down east is a production of kylie media and audio chuck so what do you think chuck do you approve