Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
April Dawn Pennington
April, date, approximate 1996; Age-progression to age 32 (date, approximate 2012); George Leniart in 2008; Patrick Allain, date, approximate 2009
Date Missing 05/29/1996
Missing From
Montville, Connecticut
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 08/22/1980 (42)
Age 15 years old
Height and Weight 5'2, 100 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, hazel eyes. April has a tan-colored birthmark on her right tricep. Her ears are pierced.
April was picked up by a 15-year-old classmate, Patrick J. "P.J." Allain, and a 30-year-old man, George Leniart, after she left her home. Photographs of both of them are posted with this summary.
Allain later stated he, Leniart and April went into the woods, drank beer and smoked marijuana that night. He stated he and Leniart both had consensual sex with April. Later, he changed his story and said he and Leniart had raped her and Leniart had planned to murder her.
Allain told investigators that he became nervous when he realized Leniart planned to kill April. He said Leniart dropped him off at his house and left with April, and he did not know what happened to her after that. Allain said he and April had sneaked out of their homes at night to meet each other before, and that they had had sex before.
Leniart was awaiting trial for raping a thirteen-year-old girl when April disappeared in 1996; he was later convicted. In 2007, he was convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.
Leniart told investigators he knew Allain, but he later denied this. In fact, he and Allain were longtime friends. He also denied having ever met April, but it was proven that he called her house five times on the day of her disappearance.
April's mother never believed her daughter ran away. There was $950 in cash in the house for the family's rent payment on the night April disappeared and she knew where it was, but she did not take it when she left her home. She also took no personal belongings with her, not even her purse. She was originally thought to have taken her black bookbag, but it was later found in her locker at school.
April had sneaked out of her home before, but she was always back in bed by morning. She had broken up with her boyfriend a few days prior to her disappearance and was so upset that she reportedly threatened to commit suicide. April's father denies that she had any real mental health issues, however, and described her as an attention seeker.
A family friend, James Adrian Butler, told authorities that he spoke to April for fifteen to thirty minutes at a Blockbuster video rental store in Virginia Beach, Virginia in 1999. He didn't realize at the time that she had been reported missing.
Butler stated he didn't recognize April until she introduced herself, and that she looked haggard, as if she had been abusing drugs. He said she was accompanied by a toddler while he spoke to her, and that they stopped talking after a man in his late twenties walked into the store and insisted April leave without renting a movie.
Butler told the Penningtons about seeing their daughter after they called him three weeks after the alleged sighting. Investigators later found out he had suffered memory loss from a traumatic brain injury, and they have discounted his story.
In April 2008, Leniart, who was still incarcerated for the 2007 sexual assault conviction, was charged with capital murder, kidnapping and sexual assault in April's . Although Allain admitted he had raped April on the night of her supposed murder, he cannot be prosecuted for the assault because the statute of limitations has passed. He is currently serving a ten-year sentence for an unrelated sexual crime.
He testified against Leniart at his trial, stating Leniart told him about April's murder in detail. Leniart allegedly claimed he had choked April to death in the woods near Mohegan School and put her body in a lobster trap.
The defense attempted to undermine Allain's credibility by bringing up his criminal record and the many different stories he told about April's disappearance. Several other informants, most of them criminals who were offered leniency in exchange for their cooperation, also testified against Leniart and said he had confessed the murder to them also. The girl who was raped by Leniart before April vanished testified about his assault against her.
Leniart was convicted of all charges against him in March 2010 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In June 2016, however, his conviction was overturned on appeal. He is now awaiting a second trial.
April's family moved to Montville in 1994; her father, a mechanic, was transferred to the area by the United States Navy. They were planning to move again to New Jersey, which April was unhappy about because she did not want to leave her friends. She was enrolled in Montville High School as a freshman.
She had been a good student, but she started getting poor grades in 1996 and she argued with her parents over it. Her parents knew she had tried marijuana and had deliberately cut herself on two occasions. Her mother believes that her daughter was involved with a rough crowd at the time of her 1996 disappearance.
However, her mother stated she believed her daughter was just going through a normal rebellious phase and was not having any serious problems. Her friends described her as a normal teenager who made friends easily.
April's father has since retired from the Navy and her parents have moved to North Carolina.Some agencies state that April vanished from Uncasville, Connecticut. Her body was not been recovered, but foul play is suspected in her due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Connecticut State Police
860-886-6603
860-848-7510
800-953-7747
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Connecticut State Police
The Norwich Bulletin
The Hartford Courant
The New London Day
Newsday
WFSB Eyewitness News 3
NBC Connecticut
Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
