APRIL DAWN PENNINGTON - 15 yo (1996) - Montville CT

Early on the morning of May 29, 1996, April Dawn Pennington left her Montville
home. The 15-year-old girl was carrying a duffel bag but left her purse
and most of her belongings behind. That was the last time her family
saw her.
On Tuesday, a jury convicted her killer, George Leniart, 44, of Montville,
of capital felony and murder in the rape and killing of Pennington.
Leniart was arrested in 2008. He was incarcerated at the time for raping and
choking a 13-year-old girl when he allegedly told his prison cellmate
that he kidnapped, raped and killed Pennington.

On that May night 13 years ago, Pennington had sneaked out her bedroom to
meet Patrick “PJ” Allain and Leniart that night, the Norwich Bulletin reports.
They drove to a secluded are in Ledyard, drank and smoke marijuana,
Allain told police, according to the newspaper. That is reportedly when
Leniart’s behavior turned dark.
“He said he needed a body. He said he was in a cult and wanted a body for
the altar,” Allain testified, according to the Bulletin. “I know if I
didn’t cooperate he was going to hurt me and hurt April.”
At some point, Leniart dropped Allain off at his home and later admitted
to strangling Pennington and disposing of her body in a lobster trap,
the Bulletin reports.
Pennington’s body was never found.
Leniart will be sentenced on April 27 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
April’s parents, Walter and Hazel Pennington of Pleasant Garden, N.C., say
they're frustrated that Leniart has never said exactly what happened to their daughter.
“Everybody in this family has gone through hell,” Hazel Pennington told the
Bulletin. “We may never get the whole story — the real story.”

Walter and Hazel Pennington don’t agree on what happened to their daughter 14 years ago.
April Dawn Pennington, then 15, disappeared from the family’s home
in Uncasviile, Conn., in the middle of the night, May 29, 1996.
Walter Pennington, 49, believes that a jury got it right this week
when it convicted George Leniart, 44 , of kidnapping, raping and
killing April.
Newspapers reported during the two-week trial that testimony showed
Leniart, a longtime suspect in April’s disappearance, had bragged to
prison cellmates about the killing.
Patrick J. “PJ” Allain testified that he and Leniart raped April but she was alive when he left her with Leniart.
But Hazel Pennington, 52, doesn’t believe the men killed her
daughter. A childhood friend reported seeing her alive, with a small
child and older man, about 18 months after she disappeared, Hazel
Pennington said Thursday from the Penningtons’ home in Pleasant Garden.
“Hazel, she’s a hopeful person. She’s a mother,” Walter Pennington
said. “But I try to look at the reality of situations. Looking at
things logically and all, I just don’t believe that she’s (alive).”
The parents agree that Leniart, a registered sex offender, harmed their only daughter. He’ll be sentenced April 27.
“He belongs in jail,” Hazel Pennington said. “He devastated our
family.” The couple has two sons, who are April’s younger brothers.
The Penningtons moved to Connecticut in 1994 when Walter was
transferred to the naval base there. He was a nuclear machinist mate,
often taking six- and nine-month tours of duty on carriers. Hazel
Pennington worked in a drugstore.
April was a sophomore in high school. She had sneaked out of the
house before, but Hazel Pennington knew something was wrong on the
morning April was missing.
“She was a pretty good kid, one of the best,” she said.
They had long suspected that Allain, a local teenager, was involved.
He had left several messages on their phone the night April left, Hazel
Pennington said.
But it wasn’t until 1998 after they had moved back to the Triad to
be near family, that a detective who had interviewed Allain told the
family what investigators believed had happened. Investigators believed
Allain and Leniart raped and killed April, but they had no body and no
physical evidence. The case had stalled.
Less than two weeks later, Hazel Pennington suffered a massive heart attack. She was 38.
The years crawled by with no new information — just rumors.
Then in April 2008, Connecticut state police arrested Leniart after
new information came to light, including Allain’s agreement to testify.
But Allain has never been charged in April’s disappearance, which frustrates the Penningtons.
“I feel he should be charged with something,” Hazel Pennington said.
Prosecutors told her the statute of limitations for rape had
expired, and there was no evidence connecting Allain to April’s death.
She refused to testify at Leniart’s trial because of health issues.
“I was not going to go on that stand and stress through everything we had been through and have another heart attack.”
She’s torn about going to the sentencing.
“I would love to go,” she said. “But I don’t even know if I can handle it.”
Walter Pennington sees no reason to be there.
“I don’t think there’s anything I need to say that people aren’t thinking,” he said.
As for the conviction, the husband and wife are again of two minds.
Hazel Pennington said it doesn’t end the nightmare for her.
For Walter Pennington, the conviction brings some closure. But he said it doesn’t change the fact that his daughter is gone.
“She’s not here,” he said. “I’m always gonna feel that.”

A Montville man convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a
15-year-old girl in 1996 has been sentenced to life in prison without
the possibility of parole.George Leniart was found guilty in the
death of April Dawn Pennington in March.The state did not seek
the death penalty in the case because the girl's body was never found.During
Tuesday's sentencing, Judge Barbara Jonbloed said, "IT is clear to the
court you are not capable of rehabilitation. You took the life of a
young 15-year-old girl for your own gratification. You are a sexual
predator in every sense of the word."Leniart, a convicted sex
offender, was arrested in 2008 after authorities said he told his prison
cellmate that he raped and killed Pennington. Leniart was in prison at
the time for raping a 13-year-old girl just six months before Pennington
disappeared.During Tuesday's sentencing, Leniart said, "First, I
didn't murder, kidnap or rape and I didn't confess in jail. The whole
case is based on conjecture and prejudice. I look forward to my appeal
and future litigation."Pennington's parents, Walter and Hazel
Pennington, who now live in Pleasant Garden, N.C., have said they're
frustrated because they still don't know what happened to their
daughter.