SD SD - Serenity Dennard, 9, Children’s Home Society, Pennington County, 3 Feb 2019 #4

[mickey2942]

@Seattle1 I can't imagine a scenario where I would be with one other staff member, if we lost a child, that it would take us over an hour and a half to report her missing. Especially a child who has a history of emotional disturbance.

 

[Seattle1]

@Seattle1 I can't imagine a scenario where I would be with one other staff member, if we lost a child, that it would take us over an hour and a half to report her missing. Especially a child who has a history of emotional disturbance.

Yup, and the executive director responsible for overseeing the
"disorganized", and the 101-minute delay in calling 911-- decided to retire.

 

[SkipperKey3]

From the link:

Details of Disappearance​

<snip>

A person coming onto the BHCH campus at 11:00 a.m. was the last person known to have seen Serenity. She was walking northbound on south Rockerville Road, near the cattle guard in front of the home. She was not wearing a coat in spite of the sub-zero temperatures. She has never been heard from again.

<snip>

Small point of clarification. At the time Serenity bolted and went outside, it was not in "sub-zero temperatures" The temperatures were just in the process of dropping, and at 11 am, if I remember correctly, the temperatures were still in the 30s. She was not wearing a coat, but it was not yet "sub-zero temperatures". That didn't happen until later in the day, when the temps continued to plummet and the snow began to fall. Part of what hindered the search was that there was not yet any snow when she left, and the other part is that the temperatures dropped drastically between the time she left and the time the search got organized.

 

[SkipperKey3]

I still find if strange that if someone drove by and saw Serenity walking on the side of the road, they didn't stop or call 911.

She was nine, and this wasn't exactly an area where she would be walking over to a friend's house. Seeing a 9 year old, alone, walking on the side of a very rural road, should have sparked at least some concern, imo.

It was a Sunday morning, the weather forecast was bad. It was early February. I would imagine that the amount of traffic was minimal at best. But the last people to see here were, in fact, concerned. It has never been said beyond that whether anybody knows if there was any more traffic in that somewhat remote area.

 

[SkipperKey3]

I don't think the timeline is tight on this case. The reaction to the situation brings about all kinds of questions. Many think she is dead in the woods nearby. I think the possibility of a few different outcomes remains. Examples: being picked up on the road, or perhaps a staff member lost their temper?

One thing to remember about Serenity's nature, however, is that she tended to hide, and if she though somebody was stopping, she probably thought they meant to take her back, so it would have been natural for her to simply flee and hide. And, by what we've been told, she was pretty good at hiding in tight or out-of-the-way places.
As for a staff member losing their temper, we've no evidence of that, especially since the last people to see here were not staff members, and she was outside.
But at this point, nobody knows for certain what happened to her.

 

[Seattle1]

Interesting statement by RCPD about missing children in this region...

11/2021

RCPD talks missing versus runaway, why they don't notify the public for every missing kid - KNBN NewsCenter1

RAPID CITY, S.D. — As of November 4, 19 minors from Rapid City, Pennington County, and Box Elder are listed in the South Dakota Missing Persons Clearinghouse. 14 of those went missing within the last month. So how come the public isn’t notified every time a minor is reported missing? Rapid City...

www.newscenter1.tv

 

[LR1]

Small point of clarification. At the time Serenity bolted and went outside, it was not in "sub-zero temperatures" The temperatures were just in the process of dropping, and at 11 am, if I remember correctly, the temperatures were still in the 30s. She was not wearing a coat, but it was not yet "sub-zero temperatures". That didn't happen until later in the day, when the temps continued to plummet and the snow began to fall. Part of what hindered the search was that there was not yet any snow when she left, and the other part is that the temperatures dropped drastically between the time she left and the time the search got organized.

According to the almanac for Rapid City, about 12 miles away as the crow flies, the temp was 14 degrees at 11AM and in the single digits by 3PM. Snow started around Noon.

 

[Seattle1]

According to the almanac for Rapid City, about 12 miles away as the crow flies, the temp was 14 degrees at 11AM and in the single digits by 3PM. Snow started around Noon.

Whether the ambient temperature was 14 or 30 degrees, it doesn't account for wind chill and freezing mist in the air when the 9-year-old child walked away wearing only jeans, a t-shirt, and her snow boots. I think the main point of the report citing sub-zero temperatures was she wasn't prepared to be outdoors for an extended period of time and was at risk from the moment she left the home. MOO

 

[LR1]

Whether the ambient temperature was 14 or 30 degrees, it doesn't account for wind chill and freezing mist in the air when the 9-year-old child walked away wearing only jeans, a t-shirt, and her snow boots. I think the main point of the report citing sub-zero temperatures was she wasn't prepared to be outdoors for an extended period of time and was at risk from the moment she left the home. MOO

Yeah without getting picked up she was in a unsurvivable situation for sure. I get the animal predation narritive, but with all the searching done in the weeks and months that followed you would think at least an article of clothing or a shoe would've been found. This is what makes her case so perplexing.

 

[SkipperKey3]

According to the almanac for Rapid City, about 12 miles away as the crow flies, the temp was 14 degrees at 11AM and in the single digits by 3PM. Snow started around Noon.

I was going by memory. It's been awhile since I looked at the details. According to what I found, it made it to 60 the day before and was still in the upper 30s at 3am, but then started dropping. When she left, it does appear to be around 15. And, like you said, way too cold to be outside without a coat. It didn't drop to "sub-zero" until that evening. She left no tracks, because the snow didn't start falling until several hours later. One has to wonder if she tried to find a place to get warm, or at least ward off the cold. I doubt she had any idea that it was going to get so much colder.

 

[SkipperKey3]

Yeah without getting picked up she was in a unsurvivable situation for sure. I get the animal predation narritive, but with all the searching done in the weeks and months that followed you would think at least an article of clothing or a shoe would've been found. This is what makes her case so perplexing.

We just don't know what her actions were. We know that she crawled into tight places to hide sometimes. It was why I was not surprised that searchers just walking across the terrain didn't find anything.
What always struck me as curious was that she didn't turn around and try to get back inside when she realized how cold it was. But her primary impulse was to get away.

 

[Catmommy]

A child her age has a much smaller body surface so it would take much less time for the already bitter cold to affect her, especially how she was dressed when she bolted. If she found a place to tuck up out of the direct weather, it isn't hard to imagine that she fell asleep and hypothermia did the rest.

 

[LR1]

We just don't know what her actions were. We know that she crawled into tight places to hide sometimes. It was why I was not surprised that searchers just walking across the terrain didn't find anything.
What always struck me as curious was that she didn't turn around and try to get back inside when she realized how cold it was. But her primary impulse was to get away.

If the assumption is she succumbed to the elements, part of me says, from all her running let her rest. The other part is like, with her being failed so many times in her short life it's like we're failing her again by not finding her.

 

[Rural_PC]

But at this point, nobody knows for certain what happened to her.

Correct.

 

[Ragnarok]

I still find if strange that if someone drove by and saw Serenity walking on the side of the road, they didn't stop or call 911.

She was nine, and this wasn't exactly an area where she would be walking over to a friend's house. Seeing a 9 year old, alone, walking on the side of a very rural road, should have sparked at least some concern, imo.

If I remember correctly didn't dogs track Serenity to the road? Based on that I've always believed she was picked up. If a relative I would think she would of surfaced by now so believe she fell into the clutches of someone with evil intent. Sad.

 

[SkipperKey3]

If I remember correctly didn't dogs track Serenity to the road? Based on that I've always believed she was picked up. If a relative I would think she would of surfaced by now so believe she fell into the clutches of someone with evil intent. Sad.

At this point, nothing is outside the realm of possibility. I don't really think she was picked up, but she may have been. However, it was a Sunday morning, the temperatures were in the teens and falling with a storm moving in. Combine that with the fact that Serenity's tendencies were to run and hide, and it seems unlikely (but not impossible) that she was picked up. Knowing that they would be looking for her, her reaction would be to hide rather than go with anybody. According to at least one MSM report (I think South Dakota News Watch), the last people who saw Serenity actually saw her go across the road and up into the trees.
But no search since then has been successful.
The dogs were only able to track her to the road, but not beyond. That has been blamed largely on the weather.
So again, we just don't know.

 

[helenlouise426]

I've been following this case since the beginning but just noticed how on the GPS searchers map they extensively search East of the childrens home but not west. If she went North it would make sense she turned off where the road going west is. If that's the case than there is a good possibility she ended up west of the home in those wooded areas. They say she liked to watch people search for her. She could've hidden in those trees easily and then just got herself lost.

 

[mickey2942]

I've been following this case since the beginning but just noticed how on the GPS searchers map they extensively search East of the childrens home but not west. If she went North it would make sense she turned off where the road going west is. If that's the case than there is a good possibility she ended up west of the home in those wooded areas. They say she liked to watch people search for her. She could've hidden in those trees easily and then just got herself lost.

That is perceptive. A lot of children with reactive attachment disorder like to hide from people, and watch them look for them. They say absolutely nothing. And the weather was so mild that day, Chinook, or Foen wind, comes in from the West, warm air, melts everything. And that night, a raging blizzard.

 

[SkipperKey3]

I've been following this case since the beginning but just noticed how on the GPS searchers map they extensively search East of the childrens home but not west. If she went North it would make sense she turned off where the road going west is. If that's the case than there is a good possibility she ended up west of the home in those wooded areas. They say she liked to watch people search for her. She could've hidden in those trees easily and then just got herself lost.

I agree in that I assumed she headed northwest, not east. The last eyewitness reportedly saw her go to the road and then go up into the trees, which seemed to me to be on the west side of the road. And that offshoot road just north of there was on the west side.
I thought the last map I saw showed that they searches pretty extensively on both the east and the west sides of the road. It's been awhile since I've seen that search grid map though. It seems to me the terrain to the west of the Home gets pretty rough pretty quickly.

 

[SkipperKey3]

That is perceptive. A lot of children with reactive attachment disorder like to hide from people, and watch them look for them. They say absolutely nothing. And the weather was so mild that day, Chinook, or Foen wind, comes in from the West, warm air, melts everything. And that night, a raging blizzard.

It was mild the day before, and even somewhat mild overnight. By the time she bolted, though, the temperatures had already dipped down below freezing. I think the history on the temperatures for that time of day was around 15 degrees, which is pretty cold to be just watching. The snow didn't start until later in the day, while the temps continued to plummet until getting below zero later that night.