South Dakota
Have you seen her? 10-year-old Serenity Dennard vanished in 2019. Here’s how she might look now, at age 14
![Have you seen her? 10-year-old Serenity Dennard vanished in 2019. Here’s how she might look now, at age 14](https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/873a68b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2500x1556%200%200/resize/1713x1066!/quality/90/?url=https://forum-communications-production-web.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/brightspot/bd/db/ade6a7ac4c3c9b9b4690b79627c8/untitled-design.jpg)
Serenity Dennard’s 2019 disappearance from a rural Black Hills children’s facility still stuns South Dakota residents.
Dennard was just 10 years old when she escaped from Children’s Home Society in Rockerville, a locked facility for children with behavioral struggles.
She walked into the cold February day without appropriate winter clothing necessary for survival. With no coat or boots, Dennard simply left – and was never seen again.
By the time local authorities were called, more than an hour had passed. A large-scale search effort was conducted, but failed to provide investigators with any clues as to where the young girl had gone.
Now, more than four years later, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office in Rapid City are urging the public to take note of an age-enhanced photo of Dennard. She would be 14 years old.
Photo courtesy of National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
“We’re all watching Serenity grow up before our eyes through these images and it’s surreal,” NCMEC’s Communication Director Angeline Hartmann said in a statement. “At NCMEC, we know that our age progression images can be a catalyst in a missing child investigation and we’re hoping this will somehow generate fresh leads.”
For two years, investigators didn’t stop searching for Dennard.
Large-scale search efforts scoured the areas surrounding the children’s home – from the air and on the ground. More than 60 agencies joined in the efforts, using aircraft, thermal technology and specialized cadaver dogs to locate Dennard.
Photo courtesy of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
No clues related to Dennard’s whereabouts were ever uncovered.
From the start, investigators theorized that Dennard had run off into the Black Hills, where she could have possibly succumbed to the harsh South Dakota winter. Yet, even after two years of searches, no evidence was discovered to support that theory.
The facility where she disappeared from is located within a remote, rural area. Following Dennard’s disappearance, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office indicated they did not suspect any one individual as being responsible for her disappearance.
Now, Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller is hoping that the age-enhanced photo will lead to answers for this puzzling and heartbreaking mystery.
“This is another investigative tool in an open and active investigation,” Mueller said in a statement sent to Forum News Service. “Although the physical search has been exhausted, we follow up on all leads as we look for answers in this painful and difficult missing person case.”
If you have information regarding Serenity Dennard’s whereabouts, contact the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office at 605-394-6115 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.
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South Dakota
Final Day: Almost Arkansas
![Final Day: Almost Arkansas](https://dakotafreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_4085-1024x768.jpeg)
I don’t know what the Internet thinks of my travels, but the pond butterflies at Fort Crowder shooting range found my bicycle (and me) quite interesting:
A few of these scaly-wingers tagged along for a few meters, but they all headed back to the water well before I reached the exit. Too bad—I could have used their help lifting my gear over the gate.
Yesterday was Day 5, the final planned day of my ride from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Bentonville, Arkansas. My dear wife is coming to retrieve me today—we’ll spend this evening and all Friday enjoying the local trails and shops, then head back en auto Saturday. Knowing Wednesday was my last hard day in the saddle, I could give it my all.
Morning in Pittsburg was humid, and the radar showed rain west. But the sun wasn’t pounding yet, and the wind was down from yesterday, now just light and southwesterly. I think I can, I think I can…
But boy, all those woods and fields and curvy roads do make a guy hungry:
But then, just past Jane, Missouri, the one real disaster of the trip:
Plam! went my back tire! Grind grind grind went my less protected rim. I braked fast, looked under me, and saw a flat. The instantaneous deflation told me this was no simple thorn prick that my tire slime would fill, no nail or branch jab that I could plug. This was a one-inch tear in my rear tire. I don’t know if I hit some sharp metal or if the tire just gave out from some defect or the heat or the strain, but I didn’t spend a lot of time scanning for the cause. I was done riding. After 460 miles, just ten miles from terminus, not quite to the Arkansas border, I was done.
So, alas, the bicycling portion of my trip was only three states—Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. I don’t get to put any Arkansas miles on the Trek 1120, an otherwise mighty and comfy bike that experienced just one catastrophic failure. And boy, if the bike had to give up, it picked about the best place to quit that it could have, just a short hitch to my intended lodging rather than out in the rain Monday morning in Admire, Kansas, or any place else much farther from where I hoped to be.
South Dakota
Sioux Falls, South Dakota Burger King worker retires after 48 years
![Sioux Falls, South Dakota Burger King worker retires after 48 years](https://cdn.abcotvs.com/dip/images/15028890_070424-wls-bk-retired-11a-vid.jpg?w=1600)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (WLS) — A Burger King employee in South Dakota is retiring after 48 years.
Jane Aulner started her career with the fast food restaurant in 1976. She said the feeling of family with her coworkers is one of the reasons she never left the restaurant for nearly half a century.
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She also said she felt comfort in ggetting to know people and watching the grow.
“It warms my heart when I got somebody coming inside or come through the drive through, they go ‘Wow, you’re still here. Do you remember me?’” she said. “And they’ll tell me their name like maybe I trained them or had them when they were in college, before they moved off and got married and had their own lives. So that was, that was really fun.”
As much as Aulner’s coworkers made an impact on her, they said she has left an impression on them.
“She’s huge, she’s the cornerstone,” said manager Belvie Kennerly. “I mean, you can’t do anything without a team member like June to help keep things running for you.”
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South Dakota
South Dakota plans celebration for America's 250th anniversary
![South Dakota plans celebration for America's 250th anniversary](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ed63524/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1008+0+36/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fprod%2Ffiler_public%2Fkusd-bento-live-pbs%2FJAN21%2F13fbcb57cc_Flags.jpg)
The South Dakota commission planning a celebration for America’s 250th anniversary officially launches its campaign this week.
The goal is to inspire individuals to accomplish 250 miles of outdoor related activity from July 4, 2024 leading up to the nation’s 250th celebration on July 4, 2026.
Challenges and prizes have been established with a partnership between the commission, City of Deadwood, Department of Game, Fish, and Parks, the Battleship South Dakota Memorial, and the South Dakota State Fair.
Smaller prizes can also be earned by completing 80 miles in honor of 80 years since operation OVERLORD during World War II, or walking 150 miles to celebrate Deadwood’s anniversary.
The commission said additional challenges and prizes will be announced soon.
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