New leads give direction to search for missing woman

LUDLOW • Gloria Denton is hoping that new leads will help authorities find her daughter during a search in Ludlow this weekend.

Search and rescue teams, members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and officers from other law enforcement agencies will be working with Denton to search mines in the Ludlow area for April Beth Pitzer, according to Det. Steve Pennington of the sheriff’s department’s homicide unit.

Pitzer, 30 at the time of her disappearance, was on her way to her mother’s Arkansas home when she went missing in June of 2004, according to Denton. She had been living in Newberry Springs since she took a trip to the area in 2003 after her marriage fell apart.

Pennington said the search will focus in one mine that a primary suspect, whose name has not been released, had been working around the time Pitzer went missing. Some of Pitzer’s clothing was recovered from a mine in Ludlow in December 2005. Pennington said the search team plans on lowering a cadaver dog team into the mine to try and locate Pitzer’s body.

The suspect and another person of interest in the case have both died, Pennington said. Denton said that people have come forward with information that points to the Ludlow area since the suspect’s death.

“Since both (the suspect and person of interest) are now deceased the searches are about recovering her body,” Pennington said. “There is no one for us to prosecute at this point.”

Denton said she wants to find her daughter’s body to help give her and Pitzer’s two daughters closure.

“My hope is that this will all be over this weekend,” Denton said. “April’s little girls need to know where there mother is. I will never give up searching. Stephanie (Thompson) got Catherine (Lique) back and Deborah (Welch) got Leisa (Hurst) back so I know it’s possible.”

Lique’s remains were found in Death Valley in 2008 and identified at the end of October. She had last been seen in Barstow in 2003. Thompson, Lique’s daughter, has worked with Denton on cooperative searches this year.

Jeami Chiapulis led authorities to Hurst’s body in October after accepting a plea deal for second degree murder. Hurst was reported missing on Jan. 22. Welch, Hurst’s mother, had searched for her for nine months before the plea deal.

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(760) 256-4126 or dheldreth@desertdispatch.com