Serenity June Dennard

Case background and investigation

Serenity June Dennard, born May 12, 2009, was a nine-year-old resident of the Black Hills Children's Home, a residential treatment center for children with emotional and behavioral problems located on South Rockerville Road near Rockerville, South Dakota, about ten miles from Mount Rushmore. She had been placed at the facility in July 2018 after moving through multiple foster homes, and had been diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Staff and investigators later noted she had a documented history of running away.

On the morning of Sunday, February 3, 2019 — Super Bowl Sunday — Serenity was playing in the facility's gymnasium with other children and two staff members. According to the Pennington County Sheriff's Office, she and another girl made an impromptu plan in which the other child would distract staff so Serenity could run. Shortly before 11 a.m. she slipped out through an unlocked door and ran across the parking lot. Around 11:00 a.m., witnesses arriving at the campus saw her stumble near a cattle guard at the facility entrance and then walk north on South Rockerville Road, wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and snow boots but no coat, despite temperatures well below freezing. Staff searched the grounds themselves and did not call 911 until 12:26 p.m., a delay of roughly 100 minutes that authorities and later state and federal reviews sharply criticized. Investigative reports in 2019 by the South Dakota Department of Social Services and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services concluded that staff errors played a role in the disappearance, and two employees were fired.

The search that followed became one of the largest in South Dakota history. Over roughly two years, more than 1,200 personnel from over 60 agencies — figures later reported as high as 1,500 searchers from 66 agencies — conducted about 220 separate search operations, covering thousands of miles of rugged Black Hills terrain on foot and by air, with more than 100 dog teams, thermal imaging, and cadaver dogs. Within days the effort shifted from rescue to recovery, as officials concluded a child could not have survived long in the extreme cold. Cadaver dogs alerted in some areas, but no source for the scents was ever confirmed, and no physical trace of Serenity — no clothing, no remains — was ever found. The Pennington County Sheriff's Office formally suspended the physical search on January 28, 2021.

The investigation has remained open. Detectives tracked hundreds of leads from across the country and abroad — more than 350 by 2024 — interviewed or contacted over 500 people, and executed six search warrants. Investigators' working theory, according to the sheriff's office, is that Serenity became lost and died of hypothermia, and they have said no evidence points to abduction or foul play; because she has never been found, however, other possibilities have not been ruled out. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released age-progression images showing how she might look as a teenager, and the sheriff's office continues to receive periodic tips. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Pennington County Sheriff's Office at 605-394-6115 or NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST.