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1991 Pentilla, Jennifer Lynn October 17 1991; MISSOULA 18/ YO
Topic Started: Jun 27 2010, 08:55 AM (679 Views)
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Name: PENTILLA, JENNIFER LYNN
Aliases:
Gender: FEMALE
Date of Birth: 04/04/1973
Race: WHITE
Hair Color: BLOND OR STRAWBERRY
Eye Color: BLUE
Height: 5' 5''
Weight: 125 LBS.
Date of Last Contact: 10/17/1991
Investigating Agency: MISSOULA POLICE DEPARTMENT
http://www.doj.mt.gov/enforcement/missingp...?RecordKey=5711
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http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/...opic=1805&st=0&
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/pentilla_jennifer.html

Jennifer Lynn Pentilla



Top Row: Pentilla, circa 1991;
Bottom Row: Age-progressions to an unknown age


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: October 17, 1991 from Deming, New Mexico
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: April 4, 1973
Age: 18 years old
Height and Weight: 5'5, 112 - 125 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Pentilla has a mole on her left forearm. She has a gap between her upper front teeth. Pentilla has diagonal scars on the tips of her index and middle fingers. She wears Iazza Fortell eyeglasses with brown-colored frames. Pentilla's nickname is Jen. Her blood type is O-positive.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A blue Bum sweatshirt, a tank top, denim shorts, socks, brown hiking boots, dog tags, a friendship bracelet, a silver ring with the words "Loves Jesus" on it, and a watch with the Rice Krispies cartoon characters Snap, Crackle and Pop imprinted on it.


Details of Disappearance

Pentilla left her home in Missoula, Montana in late September 1991. She planned to travel to San Diego, California to meet with a missionary group. Pentilla was in Los Cruse, New Mexico in mid-October 1991. She was riding her white Fuji mountain bicycle and carrying her backpack, camping gear and two Bibles. Pentilla evidently decided to bike to Mexico and work with another mission at that time.
Pentilla called her mother in Montana eight times between October 1 and October 13 to report her trip progress. She called home the last time on October 17 from Deming, New Mexico. She placed the call a pay phone from the Shell gas station on Main Street, which is no longer in operation. Pentilla said that she heard Mexico could be dangerous for a single woman who traveled alone, so she had changed her plans. She decided to travel to Minnesota to visit a friend instead. Pentilla never arrived at the friend's home and has not been heard from again.

Pentilla's camping gear and journal were discovered by hunters under a tree in Hatch, New Mexico in 1992, approximately one year from the time Pentilla had disappeared. Hatch is approximately 46 miles northeast of Deming, New Mexico. There has been no trace of Pentilla since that time.

Pentilla's mother received a phone call from a woman who claimed she may have spoken to Pentilla in San Francisco, California in 1998. The witness said that the unidentified girl was in the China Basin area of San Francisco near the third and fourth piers at Fisherman's Wharf. It has not been confirmed that the girl was Pentilla. Other evidence suggests that Pentilla may be living in the southwest part of the United States, specifically New Mexico. She may be in the company of a street woman named Teresa.

Pentilla is originally from Great Falls, Montana. She moved to Missoula, Montana shortly before beginning her travels in September 1991. She usually wears a silver ring engraved with the phrase "Loves Jesus." Her case remains unsolved.



Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Deming Police Department
505-546-3481
OR
505-524-6111



Source Information
The Garden Of Missing Children Society
Child Quest International Inc.
Rino Kids Online
The National Center for Missing Adults
Cyd International
New Mexico Department of Public Safety
The Doe Network



Updated 1 time since October 12, 2004.

Last updated March 7, 2006; distinguishing characteristics updated.

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On October 1, 1991, Jennifer left her home in Missoula, Montana and flew to San Diego. Among her possessions were her white Fuji bicycle and a return airplane ticket. Jennifer made frequent contact with family and friends via telephone from October 1 through October 17, 1991. She was last seen at a Shell service station on Pine Street in Deming, New Mexico. From there she called her mother at approximately 9:00 a.m. on October 17. A missing persons report was generated on November 1, 1991, by the Missoula Police Department.

On September 4, 1992, hikers discovered several items belonging to Jennifer under a tarp in a remote area between Hatch and Deming off of State Road 26. The investigation of Jennifer’s disappearance was the subject of national news coverage but no information as to her location has surfaced. Jennifer is 5’ 5” tall, 125 pounds, blonde hair and blue eyes. Her date of birth if 4-4-73. Anyone with information concerning the disappearance of Jennifer can contact New Mexico State Police Criminal Investigations in Las Cruces, NM, Agent Norman L. Rhoades, at 505-524-6111 or e-mail at nrhoades@dps.state.nm.us
http://www.dps.nm.org/cis/cold_cases.htm
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years later, missing Great Falls grad's mother searches, hopes
By KAREN OGDEN
Tribune Enterprise Editor

Jennifer Pentilla had a hunger for adventure and a heart for those less fortunate.

Months after she graduated from Great Falls High, the young missionary flew with her new mountain bike — a graduation gift — to San Diego.


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From there the intrepid 18-year-old was to embark on a solo bicycle trip to Mexico, where she planned to join missionary groups to help the poor.

As far as her family knows, Pentilla never made it to the border.
And she never came home.

Fourteen years ago this week, the Great Falls Tribune ran a front-page story about Pentilla's disappearance.

She was last heard from when, after a detour, she called her mother from a gas station in Deming, N.M., on Oct. 17, 1991.

Dozens of sightings, tips and disappointments later, Pentilla's family hasn't given up hope that she could be found alive.

Her mother was glued to the TV last week as news broke of two kidnapped boys in Missouri who were reunited with their parents. One of the teens was missing for more than four years.

"I still feel she's out there," said Lynn Harris, who now lives in Missoula.

"It's a 50-50 thing," said Harris' twin sister, Linda Blumer, who has made finding her niece her life mission. "You can't give up."


Pentilla's wanderlust started early.

Her junior year in high school, she traveled through an exchange program to Ivory Coast in Africa, where, her mother recalls, she was disappointed to be staying in a nice, large house.

"She would have rather been in the little huts with the poor people helping them out," Harris said.

Right after graduation, Pentilla traveled to Mexico with a teen group to paint churches and feed the poor.

Moved by the experience, she decided to return alone in the fall, brushing off her mother's warnings about the danger of a solo trip.

Her father, Nick Pentilla, died of cancer the previous autumn.

Jennifer Pentilla flew from Missoula to San Diego, where she stayed briefly with a friend.

She then pedaled her bike south with $450, a tent, a sleeping bag, Bibles and books about Mexico.

Her ambitious itinerary was to take her as far south as Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara.

But at a campground in California, Pentilla bumped into a missionary whom she met on her prior Mexico trip.

He convinced her that a solo ride through Mexico was risky.

Pentilla got back on her bike, this time pedaling east, for a tour of the Southwest.

"She just wanted to do some thinking I think," said her mother, who would later receive her journals from the trip.

Pentilla phoned her mother every few days as she rode across the desert.

She rode a bus for one stretch. She rode another with a family she met at a campground.

On Oct. 17, 1991 she called from a gas station in Deming, N.M.

She told her mom she might head north to visit a friend at Concordia College in Minnesota.

With winter setting in, Harris offered to buy her daughter bus or plane tickets, either home or to Minnesota.

Pentilla said she would decide on a plan, and call again that evening.

The call never came.

Worry turned to panic two days later when Harris' birthday came and went, and still no call.

The months and years following Pentilla's disappearance were nightmarish for Harris.

Shewas caring for her mother-in-law, who died the same month her daughter disappeared.

She struggled to convince authorities that Pentilla was not a runaway.

Then came a call the following September from an older New Mexico couple.

They were dove hunting near the town of Hatch, 50 miles northeast of Deming, when they found Pentilla's belongings piled up and covered with her tent near some mesquite bushes.

The pile was about a mile off remote state Highway 26, roughly seven miles from Hatch along Interstate 25. Harris believes her daughter was headed for the interstate, which would have taken her north to Albuquerque.

The couple reported the belongings to authorities, and went on their way.

When they returned to the area several days later, the pile was still there. They collected the belongings, including Pentilla's journals, and found Harris' phone number in the backpack.

Their well-meaning gesture alerted Harris, but may have destroyed valuable evidence.

Harris believes someone abducted Pentilla from the road, then dumped her belongings.

"Her helmet was there. Her Bibles were there," Harris said. "She would never have left her Bibles."

Pentilla's white Fuji bike was never found.

To this day, Harris cries when she talks about her daughter.

She's haunted by "what-ifs."

What if Pentilla had stuck with her plan and gone to Mexico?

What if she had headed a different direction that October day?

"I wish I hadn't bought her a bike," Harris says.

And, she also wonders, what if Pentilla were home?

Pentilla's younger sister, Carrie Rusk, lives in Corvallis, Mont., and has two young children.

"There's nieces and nephews (Pentilla) doesn't know about," Harris said tearfully.

Pentilla's aunt, Joanne Weir, lives in Great Falls with her husband, Don.

When Harris feels down, she thinks about her daughter's strong faith.

She looks every day at an inspirational magnet on her refrigerator: "Where there is hope there is faith and where there is faith there is everything."

But her life is forever changed.

Blumer said she and Harris haven't celebrated their shared birthday, now tainted by memories of Jennifer's disappearance, since she vanished.

Blumer calls authorities every few months — the case has gone through at least five detectives — to keep the investigation alive.

She's hired psychics and private detectives.

She's also paid to have photos of Pentilla age progressed, most recently as a 27-year-old woman. Pentilla would now be 32.

One photo portrays Pentilla as if she suffered amnesia, but is living a secure life as, say, a secretary.

A second shows what she would look like as a street person — an image that was difficult for her mother.

Blumer has sent the posters from Maine to California in response to possible sightings of Pentilla.

Her image still hangs at truck stops, churches, bicycle shops and pawnshops across the area where she disappeared.

In her free time, Blumer combs the Internet, newspapers and magazines for possible leads.

About eight years ago, Pentilla's case was featured on Geraldo Rivera's show and on the "Maury Povich Show."

But Blumer has since struggled to get TV publicity on shows such as "Unsolved Mysteries."

Pentilla is featured on the Web site of the National Center for Missing Adults, Blumer said.

However that agency is on the brink of closure. Federal budget cuts, coupled with the strain of missing persons cases from Hurricane Katrina, left the Arizona-based center broke.

"We just need everyone to solicit the government and their senators to fund this project for missing adults," Blumer said.

She plans to press on with her search.

Not knowing what happened to Pentilla is the worst cruelty a family could suffer, she said.

"If something has happened to her and she is not with us, it would be nice to at least find her and bring her home instead of being out in the cold, lonely desert."


http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs...EWS01/701210303



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Deming Headlight (New Mexico)
April 23, 2010 Friday

Missing person case reaches 19 years

It has been almost 19 years since Jennifer Lynn Pentilla called home.

She was last seen in Deming, Oct. 17, 1991. She called her mother from a phone at a Shell gas station on East Pine Street. She was bound for Las Cruces and was considering turning north to visit a friend in Minnesota. She was on a bicycle, and had ridden from San Diego, after deciding not to travel into Mexico.

She has not been heard from since she spoke to her mother, Lynn Harris, nor has she been seen.

The New Mexico State Police are still seeking information on the Missoula, Mont., woman, born April 4, 1973.

There are numerous online links to this search, including a January 2007 article from the Great Falls Tribune by Karen Ogden, then the paper's Enterprise Editor.

There is a Missoula Police case number - 050404 - and a National Crime Information Center case number - M-527106230. There are photos of Pentilla at 18 and photos depicting her age progression.

Missoula Police report no activity on the case in recent years, other than NCIC reports which proved unfounded.

Pentilla was 5-foot-5, weighed about 125 pounds, with blonde hair, blue/green eyes, a brown birthmark just above the left wrist and a laparotomy scar. She had a gap between her front teeth.

It was reported Pentilla was going to consider her mother's offer, made in that last phone call, of a bus ticket or airline ticket home or to Minnesota, as Winter was approaching. Pentilla was to call home that night with a decision.

Ogden, the Great Falls Enterprise Editor, wrote Pentilla had flown to San Diego, Oct. 1, taking with her a new Fuji bicycle, and was going to make a solo bike trip into Mexico. She planned to join missionary groups to help the poor. She carried $450, a tent and sleeping bag, Bibles and books about Mexico. In California, Ogden wrote, Pentilla met a friend from an earlier trip to Mexico in which a group of teenagers had painted churches and helped feed the poor.

The friend convinced her a solo trip to Mexico was dangerous, and Pentilla turned her bike eastward, to cycle across the Southwest.

"She spent the night with a church couple in Deming," says NMSP Investigation Agent Charles A. Boylston. "They dropped her off at McDonald's (the morning of Oct. 17, 1991). She went to an old Shell gas station, made a phone call to her mom, saying she was en route to Las Cruces and never made it to Las Cruces."

She had, Boylston says, called Las Cruces to arrange accommodations. When she didn't arrive, a pastor called police.

Her bicycle was never found, but in September 1992, a couple hunting doves near Hatch found Pentilla's personal belongings, including her cycling helmet, tent, Bibles and journals. Harris' phone number was among the items, found about a mile off State Road 26, about 7 miles from Hatch and Interstate 25.

Pentilla's family, Ogden wrote, hired private detectives and psychics. An aunt, Linda Blumer - Lynn Harris' twin - had the photos showing Pentilla's age progression made and sent posters from coast to coast. Geraldo Rivera and Maury Povich featured Pentilla's case on television shows.

The NMSP, Boylston says, questioned David Parker Ray, a serial killer operating in the Truth or Consequences area who may have killed as many as 60 people, but could not connect Ray to Pentilla's disappearance.

Boylston asks anyone with information on Pentilla to call him at (575)525-4851.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUs...3528621&start=1

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