STATE POLICE MAKE ARREST IN 1996 MISSING PERSON COLD CASE

   Today 04/01/08 at 7:30 a.m. the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Detectives at Troop-E  Montville took an accused into custody and charges him in the 1996 disappearance of April Dawn Pennington.

   This case involved a 15 year old girl April Dawn Pennington `who was reported missing by her parents Hazel and Walter Pennington in May 1996. She was reported to be missing from her home located 43 Orchard Drive in Montville.  That was the last time April Pennington was seen in the  town of Montville.  Since her disappearance there have been few leads of information as to the whereabouts of April Pennington and to date she has not been heard from or seen since that initial missing person report in 1996.  Connecticut State Police Major Crime Detectives have been actively involved in conducting a criminal investigation into her disappearance.

   During this extensive criminal investigation State Police Detectives interviewed numerous potential witnesses. Over this period of time Detectives were able to identify leads and/or witnesses in this case. During the last several months State Police Detectives working with other law enforcement agencies were successful in the development of  leads and information in this criminal investigation. 

   State Police Detectives worked thousands of man hours of police work interviewing untold number of witnesses and searching for leads in this case State Police Detectives submitted an application for an arrest warrant to Superior Court in New London for the arrest of the accused in this case. On 04/01/08 the accused who is presently incarcerated and accused of sexual assault involving a teen age boy. He was formally arrested and charged in this case.

   The accused was processed and formally charged in this case.

ARRESTED: LENIART, George M.  DOB: 01/08/66

                Corrigan Correction Center 

CHARGES:  Murder 

               Capitol Felony  (3-cts)

   The accused was held on $2 Million dollar court set bond and arraigned at New London Superior Court. 

below is a photograph of April Pennington from 1996:

below is the link to the cold case infomation from this case:

http://ct.gov/dps/cwp/view.asp?a=2143&q=294126

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Lt. J. Paul Vance