059 - The Vanishing of April Pitzer

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2018

⏱️ 107 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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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Music Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sources: https://www.trace-evidence.com/april-pitzer

Transcript

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0:00.0	April Beth Pitsner, a former model and mother of two, had gotten herself into a world of danger.
0:16.8	Prior to moving to Texas, where she married and later had two daughters, she was on the
0:22.4	wrong side of the law.
0:25.2	Following a DWI arrest, April was offered the chance to clean the slate, work as a confidential
0:31.7	informant and infiltrate the drug culture of Arkansas and her past mistakes would be forgotten.
0:39.5	Wired for sound and with video surveillance watching, April worked the clubs and bars
0:44.6	of Arkansas, making connections to numerous buyers, sellers and individuals in the drug
0:50.7	trade.
0:52.1	She had no way of knowing how far and wide it all reached though and that she was in the
0:56.7	middle of a major drug ring which stretched from the mountains of Arkansas all the way to
1:02.5	Southern California.
1:05.2	When her identity was compromised, April fled to Texas, where she began her life anew.
1:12.3	She met a man, got married and was pregnant with her first daughter when the past came
1:17.8	back to haunt her.
1:20.0	April was forced to return to Arkansas, where she testified in a trial that sent dozens
1:25.8	of people connected to the ring to federal prison.
1:30.1	After that, April was never quite the same.
1:34.3	Paranoid and worried that her life was in danger, her stress eventually led to drinking
1:39.9	and a mental breakdown.
1:42.2	Her marriage collapsed and her two young daughters were removed from her custody.
1:47.7	Devastated, not knowing what to do and seeking refuge, April fled to California to put her
1:54.8	life back together.
	...

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