April Beth Pitzer, 34, was last seen alive in June 2004 in Newberry Springs, California, after saying she planned to leave the Mojave Desert and return to Arkansas. She had told family she was working and caring for an elderly person but later admitted to homelessness and lack of medication. She also had a past as a cooperating witness in a federal drug case and reportedly feared her identity had been exposed.

On June 28, 2004, a friend named Chuck Hollister said he dropped her at a bus stop near the 30000 block of Caspian Way; she never reached Arkansas or contacted her mother again. Tips later pointed searchers to abandoned mines east of Barstow. In late 2005, belongings identified by her mother — including a suitcase, clothing, a nightgown tied like a hangman’s noose, duct tape fragments, and a mattress stained with blood and bodily fluids — were found near the Red Dog Mine and Indian Queen Mine.

Hollister and a friend who owned the Red Dog Mine, Dan Dansbury, were questioned; both denied involvement and later died without charges. Authorities describe April as a homicide victim but her body has not been recovered; she was declared legally dead on August 27, 2012.

If anyone knew April or was in the Newberry Springs area that summer, can you share what you remember?