The Vanishing of April Pitzer

Episode 059

In her early twenties, April Pitzer found herself on the wrong side of the law. In order to wipe the slate clean, she agreed to become a confidential informant. She had no idea the dangerous world she was entering, and ultimately had to flee Arkansas when her identity was compromised. Years later, she was brought back to testify in a trial which sent over twenty members of a major drug ring to federal prison.

April was never the same after that, scared and paranoid she began to fall into alcoholism and was diagnosed with bi-polar. After losing her marriage and having her children taken away, April decided to go to California in search of perspective and to put her life back together. Unfortunately, she would never make it back.

In a terrifying twist of fate, a chance encounter with a woman from Arkansas revealed April's history as a drug informant and many of the people she found herself surrounded by had been involved in the very drug ring that she had testified against. Frightened and desperate, April wanted to come back home. Before she could, she would mysteriously vanish and rumors spread rapidly that she had been murdered and dumped in one of the 20,000 mines in the area. What became of April Pitzer and who took her life?

Join host Steven Pacheco as he examines this heartbreaking case of deception, arrests, undercover work and murder.

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Watch the Mojave Underground Searching Mines for April Pitzer

Sources:

https://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20160729/county-has-cold-case-backlog

https://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/2009/11/22/desert-search-continues-for-woman-missing-five-years/

https://www.abqjournal.com/rio-rancho-observernews/article_cedb74b4-ed5c-11e5-911d-2bcdc3686fc5.html

http://missingpiecesshow.homestead.com/MissingPiecesEpisode14Archive.html

https://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20161012/authorities-ask-for-publics-help-in-locating-remains-of-missing-woman

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/ca-april-pitzer-30-newberry-springs-28-june-2004.35151/

http://www.ghosttowngallery.com/htme/april-novsearch.htm