April Dawn Pennington

• Missing Since 05/29/1996
• Missing From Montville, Connecticut
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 08/22/1980 (44)
• Age 15 years old
• Height and Weight 5'2, 100 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, hazel eyes. April has a tan-colored birthmark on her right tricep. Her ears are pierced.

Details of Disappearance

April was last seen leaving her family's residence on Orchard Drive in Montville, Connecticut during the early morning hours of May 29, 1996. She climbed through her brother's window and planned to meet friends, but she never returned home. Her mother discovered her missing at 5:30 a.m. when she went to wake her for school. The window was left open and one of April's stuffed animals was tucked in the bed.

April was picked up by a 15-year-old classmate, Patrick J. "P.J." Allain, and a 30-year-old man, George Michael Leniart, after she left her home. Photographs of both of them are posted with this case summary. 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.

Allain later stated he, Leniart and April went into the woods behind the Mohegan School, 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.

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. Leniart 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 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 case. Although Allain admitted he had also raped April on the night of her disappearance, he cannot be prosecuted for the assault because the statute of limitations has passed. He testified against Leniart in order to have his own sentence for an unrelated sexual assault reduced.

Allain testified that after he and Leniart raped her, April pretended not to be upset because she feared they would harm her further. He said Leniart told him he was in a cult and "wanted a body for the altar" and wanted to "do" April. Allain said 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.

The day after she disappeared, Allain found one of April's shoes and concealed it, as he feared he might be accused of murdering April and that he might face the death penalty. Allain stated Leniart told him about April's murder in detail, claiming he had choked April to death. Leniart worked as a commercial lobster fisherman at the time, and supposedly told Allain he had put her body in a lobster trap and left it lying on the muddy bottom of the Thames River.

Three jailhouse informants testified against Leniart, saying he had confessed to raping and killing a teenage girl. Two of the witnesses said Leniart told them he had dismembered her body and put the parts in lobster pots in Long Island Sound; another jailhouse informant said Leniart told him April's body was in the river and had been eaten by crabs. Leniart's ex-wife also testified and said she asked him if he was involved in April's disappearance and he replied that the less she knew, the better off she would be.

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, his conviction was overturned on appeal, but the prosecution appealed to a higher court, which in 2020 reinstated the conviction.

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 case due to the circumstances involved.