ACTIVE SEARCH SD - Serenity Dennard, 9, Children’s Home Society, Pennington County, 3 Feb 2019 #2

[Bugurl747]

BBM

I share many of these same thoughts and questions. If the cameras, door locks and monitoring were all working and employed, then I fail to see how this happened. And if it did happen, they should have plenty of evidence of it the way it sounds based on all of those things too and employees as well. I too have wondered if anyone knew she was gone right away, I have even went so far as to wonder if she had been gone from the day or night before but do not suppose that is likely. It gives some hope though as if the day before, it was nicer out, different vehicles and people may have been around. What she was wearing sure fits with that weather better. And clearly there were visits that day, did more families have visitors too, meaning more were coming and going and she could have more easily slipped out amongst them as they did come and go.

That takes me back to her getting into someone's car or trunk or pickup bed unbeknownst to the owner or to someone willingly helping her. Or her running and reaching someone that did.

But then where would she be or have been for all of this time?

My prayers continue.

I agree, ilovechili.

From what I am seeing, this is a highly regarded facility, One that received a $55 million dollar donation ,
so my question is if they didn't have cameras WHY NOT? And if they do have cameras and they weren't working WHY NOT?

Who does it behoove to not have cameras and or functioning cameras and or better monitoring?
Hmmm.


https://www.argusleader.com/story/n...me-society-south-dakota-nonprofit/2506027002/

 

[SkipperKey3]

SBM
I'm playing devils advocate here...If there was a car or person waiting over yonder for Serenity, wouldn't it be less obvious for her to not have a coat on and then cover their tracks by suggesting that she simply ran away? MOO

No. If the temps were just above 20 (and dropping rapidly) with a high wind, making the wind chill around 0 already, and with the building sitting well off the road, that would be extremely irresponsible. Besides, in which case I don't think she would have been seen just walking, but would be sprinting toward the waiting car. Especially in that weather.
Just my two cents worth.

 

[Bugurl747]

I would like to say I get entirely where you are coming from.

Questioning protocol, cameras, LE, events, misreported news and facts, does not always mean a person thinks anything is nefarious, they are looking for the answers and for hope that the person is alive or the perp is caught. In every case, we do not know the workplace, the home, the families, the LE, the circumstances so it is never anything personally accusatory at anyone, how could it possibly be, we do not know the people involved or the facility, etc? And if something is bad in a case, it only takes one bad apple and does not mean the rest are either.

Only to speak for myself, I am not speaking for you or anyone else, but I question, I speculate. Our goals are always the same though.

The intent is only always to find out what happened and find some hope and hopefully hear the missing person, etc. has been found. If someone slipped up but with no ill intent, address it. If someone had an ill intent, find them and arrest them. If a protocol could have been better, discuss it and change it if one can these days, it probably is not easy to do so and maybe they are dam*ed if they do give chase and are dam*ed if they don't. If she took off and that is exactly what happened, well then they will be able to show that with video, the witness in the car, employee interviews, timelines and more facts maybe they have than we do at this point.

There are things people question and I believe we are still so far as I know a nation that allows one to think for themselves. One example is she had winter boots on but no coat. It is a perfectly normal question and normal curiosity to wonder why or so I would think.

Again entirely, jmo and thoughts.

My prayers and hope for Serenity will continue.

Great post, I completely agree!

 

[CaseyLPC]

Is there camera evidence of the ratio?

I ask because they talk about what is usual as 1:6. If they were not actually staffed as they should be during that period, would the staff admit it? Would they make something up, like "yeah we were actually overstaffed that day", when the ratio was 1:8 or 0:2 for example.

And if a staff member(s) was involved in the disappearance, then the account is obviously in question here. Could they have facilitated a hand off of the child? Or worse?

Sorry, I am starting to question "last person to see someone" accounts lately.

I figure that there is camera evidence of the staff to patient ratio, but we will likely never see it due to HIPAA issues. That is one of the reasons we are not able to get much good info. The staff at the center are prohibited from discussing anything to anyone except for law enforcement and the family, provided they have custody and proper consents are signed.

 

[Jim_M]

I would like to say I get entirely where you are coming from.

Questioning protocol, cameras, LE, events, misreported news and facts, does not always mean a person thinks anything is nefarious, they are looking for the answers and for hope that the person is alive or the perp is caught. In every case, we do not know the workplace, the home, the families, the LE, the circumstances so it is never anything personally accusatory at anyone, how could it possibly be, we do not know the people involved or the facility, etc? And if something is bad in a case, it only takes one bad apple and does not mean the rest are either.

Only to speak for myself, I am not speaking for you or anyone else, but I question, I speculate. Our goals are always the same though.

The intent is only always to find out what happened and find some hope and hopefully hear the missing person, etc. has been found. If someone slipped up but with no ill intent, address it. If someone had an ill intent, find them and arrest them. If a protocol could have been better, discuss it and change it if one can these days, it probably is not easy to do so and maybe they are dam*ed if they do give chase and are dam*ed if they don't. If she took off and that is exactly what happened, well then they will be able to show that with video, the witness in the car, employee interviews, timelines and more facts maybe they have than we do at this point.

There are things people question and I believe we are still so far as I know a nation that allows one to think for themselves. One example is she had winter boots on but no coat. It is a perfectly normal question and normal curiosity to wonder why or so I would think.

Again entirely, jmo and thoughts.

My prayers and hope for Serenity will continue.

~~~ Totally agree ~~~ Thread’s been moving but I do not think I replied to this well stated IMO posting.

 

[Jim_M]

Great post, I completely agree!

Ditto

 

[Bugurl747]

@Bugurl747 I am torn on whether she actually ran away. I certainly believe she could have run or did run and someone picked her up (however unlikely). But I can also see something much more nefarious involving the parking lot people or home staff.

As a lawyer, I tend to focus on details that seem “coincidental.” In my experience, these things tend to be important. Here are the things that bother me:
- The change in home directors story re time she went missing and calling 911. I’m not suggesting it was nefarious on his part but it suggests that the home staff wasn’t truthful when he asked or he knew it was bad and lied to media/LE initially.
- The parking lot people. Not to beat a dead horse, but it seems strange that more than one adult happens to be in the parking lot and sees Serenity but lose sight of her. Again, maybe it is a coincidence but strange nonetheless.
- The search warrants for phone records. Makes me think LE caught the home lying about time between serenity running and 911 call.
- serenity seen standing by the gate more than 20 mins after she initially ran. If she was really attempting to run away, why was she standing there more than 20 mins later? Could be that she was cold. But it bothers me.

I am curious as to what LE will unfold during their thorough investigation into Children's Home Society.

Something I have been tossing around is that this facility is seemingly held in high regard by the community, will there be a thorough investigation?

We are talking about a facility that was established in 1893 with thick, deep roots, has a lot of money, and where it is likely that politics will come to play, IMO. We will see. MOO

"We are very fortunate as a community to have this resource for families that might need this,” Jegeris said. “We are talking about psychological issues with children that can get very complicated with behavior and such, so I will say Black Hills Children’s Foundation has been a great partner for the Rapid City Police Department and Pennington County Sheriff’s Department. They assist us with our child advocacy center, when a major crime happens involving a young child, they are working behind the scenes to help us with our investigative process so that we handle them in the best way possible without adding any further trauma for the children involved.”
Search for missing girl continues | Hill City Prevailer News

 

[Bugurl747]

Let me modify what I said. I don't think 911 should be called simply because she was seen outside. The staff member went outside to get her. But at the point the staff member reached the road, did a quick search and realized she wasn't visible, and a more thorough search was in order because she went up into the hills, at that point 911 should have been called. I really only means that 911 shouldn't be called every time a child runs, because generally the child is not out of site and easily retrieved.
So an hour and a half is too long to wait, but 5 minutes would be too short, as it would take longer than that to see her, get to where she was seen, realize that she was not visible and off the grounds, and get back to the building.

Thanks for the break down and clarity. Great points.

 

[Jim_M]

I am curious as to what LE will unfold during their thorough investigation into Children's Home Society.

Something I have been tossing around is that this facility is seemingly held in high regard by the community, will there be a thorough investigation?

We are talking about a facility that was established in 1893 with thick, deep roots, has a lot of money, and where it is likely that politics will come to play, IMO. We will see. MOO

"We are very fortunate as a community to have this resource for families that might need this,” Jegeris said. “We are talking about psychological issues with children that can get very complicated with behavior and such, so I will say Black Hills Children’s Foundation has been a great partner for the Rapid City Police Department and Pennington County Sheriff’s Department. They assist us with our child advocacy center, when a major crime happens involving a young child, they are working behind the scenes to help us with our investigative process so that we handle them in the best way possible without adding any further trauma for the children involved.”
Search for missing girl continues | Hill City Prevailer News

Hmmmm. Until such time that young SD is found, would it not behoove LE to cover all lines of inquiry?

 

[sodakblackbird]

I’ve been wondering.... while a door leading from the gym to a hallway could be locked, I would imagine that any door that leads to the outside would have to be able to be opened from the inside, for fire safety reasons right? It might be alarmed so they would know if someone went through it but I would doubt that an exterior door would be locked in a way that prevented someone getting out sign during an emergency. Would that be true?

The doors are supposed to open when a fire alarm goes off

 

[human]

The doors are supposed to open when a fire alarm goes off

There is the discrepancy of what the school says. They say the doors are not locked from the inside.

Why do you think this is so different from what you saw?

 

[Bugurl747]

I recall discussion about hypothermia and that a victim typically discards clothing as they feel they are ‘heating up.’ The fact that they have not found any items of clothing during the searches could mean what?

That she crawled/climbed into a hiding spot before she got to the point of delusion?

That she really did get whisked away?

Or....?

I could see her hiding somewhere at some point after she took off.

As far as recovering anything by the searches, she wasn't really wearing much.

For reference and per the medical dictionary, paradoxical undressing is seen in less than 50% of cases which IMO, seems high.
If I had more time, I would dig deeper into evidence based research to verify if that percentage is accurate and current.
We see a lot of pt's in the ED with hypothermia and majority are clothed except for the substance induced psychosis pt's, MOO

paradoxical undressing

 

[human]

By the time LE was called to search, if SD was outside, she was dead. She could not live 11/2 hours outside in that weather wearing what she had.

As far as her wearing boots, we don’t know what kind of boots they are. Not all boots are outdoor boots.

And it could be that she insisted on wearing boots and it was not worth it to get into a power struggle.

If another child ran first, she may have decided to run then as well. There can be no great meaning for it. It can simply be impulsive

 

[human]

Actually, they do have autistic kids there.
They have a really rigid routine they put all the kids on from day one, and if a kid starts stressing out or acting up, they are immediately taken care of.

I am curious how you know this as a child’s diagnosis is private and protected by law

 

[Monkey boy]

The children's home in rockerville only received a small portion of the $55 million that was donated most of it stayed in Sioux Falls SD

 

[Bugurl747]

Those two quotes don't really fit together well, do they? On the one hand, he says the staff saw her leave the school building, but on the other hand it indicates they didn't know she was outside until the woman reported it.
I'm guessing that there is a mistake in the first, and that what the adults in the gym actually said was that they saw her leave the gym, not that they saw her leave the building. But that's just my guess.

I agree, there have been a lot of contradictions in this case. The truth lies somewhere between, IMO.

 

[MommyStephV]

For the locals, when do you think snow melts. April?

I'm in Nebraska not too terribly far away...at the rate this winter is going...NEVER. Sorry, this just seems to be the winter that keeps on giving. And I'm over it!

I was actually looking at our weather patterns this morning and if the amount of snow here is anything like up there, with the forecasted temps for the next 2 weeks, I think April is probably a fair guess.

 

[Bugurl747]

The children's home in rockerville only received a small portion of the $55 million that was donated most of it stayed in Sioux Falls SD

Curious, do you know of any documents notating the disbursement of funds?

A small portion, so what are we talking here... 2 mil, 5 mil, 10?

That is still a lot of money and if push comes to shove could those funds be moved to their sister facility if need be? MOO

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 7, 2019
Children's home focused on supporting children and staff
Colson explained that doors are locked from the outside to prevent unauthorized entry, but they're unlocked from the inside.

"We are not a lockdown facility," he said, explaining that similar facilities also have unlocked exits.

Facilities that are locked from the inside include some jails, prisons, mental health hospitals and care centers for people with dementia. They often include elaborate systems, such as video cameras and human monitors, to make sure people can escape in case of a fire, riot or other emergency.

"The children we serve are closely supervised by staff 24-7," Colson said.

A staff member can supervise up to six children at a time, but the Children's Home tries to have a lower ratio, Colson said. When Dennard ran away, it was a lower ratio of one staffer per two children.

"Once this crisis has passed, we will review our practices to be certain they are what they need to be, and that is our typical approach," Colson said.

Colson said investigators have interviewed the center's staff and students, and that he's incredibly thankful for the work of the Pennington County Sheriff's Office and all other agencies involved in searching for Dennard. They're "incredible folks," he said.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

The change in time - odd, but I need to go back and see the original report. It may be a misunderstanding.
The parking lot people - that is not strange at all. The parking lot is down a hill from the road, with trees around it. So she was spotted, they reported it, but she disappears from their vantage point.
The search warrants - that has never been answered and I have wondered about that since they mentioned it. I don't think they would need a search warrant to verify time of the 911 call though, as that would have been logged.
Serenity standing by the gate for 20 minutes - that is pure speculation, and I don't think it is true. Just because she was seen there does not mean she was standing there the whole time. First she had to find a way out - again, something that is unclear - does the gym door go directly outside or to a hallway? Then once out did she run directly to the gate and wait? I don't think so. Neither the parking lot people nor the staff member indicated that she was merely waiting. They both reported her as moving - to the road, along the road, then up into the hills. At no point was she seen simply standing and waiting. I don't think it is a valid assumption to say that when she left the gym, she ran as fast as she could for the cattle guard and then simply stood there for 20 minutes. That still doesn't explain entirely what Serenity did for those 15 or 20 minutes, but I think the parking lot people didn't say she was running, just walking. And it does take time to walk from the gym to the road.

With regard to whether she was moving or standing while at the cattle guard, remember that cattle guards are very tricky to walk across, even for adult-sized feet. She might well have appeared to be stopped/standing there when in actuality she was just figuring out how to cross it.