Black Hills Mystery
Where is Serenity Dennard?
Super Bowl Sunday — And a Tragic Disappearance
On February 3, 2019 — Super Bowl Sunday — much of the country was focused on the matchup between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams in Atlanta. But 1,300 miles away, just outside Rapid City, a crisis was unfolding in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
At approximately 10:45 a.m., inside the gymnasium of the Black Hills Children’s Home on South Rockerville Road, nine-year-old Serenity Dennard bolted toward an exit door. Lt. Paul Stevens of the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office explained that Serenity was playing in the gym with 5 other kids under the supervision of 2 staff members. “One of the other juveniles ran, left the gym, caused the distraction and Serenity took off out some other doors,” he said.
According to investigators, the distraction was deliberate. Police and family said that Serenity had a history of running away, and in this incident, she had strategized her flight with another child. Serenity’s father, Chad Dennard, believes his daughter understood exactly how the facility’s supervision policies worked.
“She tried to convince a kid to go off in this direction, and then she went that direction… if they go after this person, the other person has to stay here and can’t go after her…”, said Chad Dennard.
Staff members began searching the grounds immediately. They checked buildings and the immediate area around the children’s home, but they didn’t call law enforcement right away.
An 80-Minute Window
Chad Dennard said that Serenity had run from the children’s home before, as well as from their home, school and day care. He said that because of previous instances, some of those with Serenity watching while others searched for her, staff did not appear to be gravely concerned.
But this time would be different. Roughly 80 minutes passed with no sign of her. Lt. Stevens told APB Cold Case that his office received the first call from the children’s home at about 12:30 PM.
When Serenity exited the building, the temperature was 13 degrees. She was wearing only a gray long-sleeve T-shirt, sweatpants, and snow boots. She had no coat, gloves, or hat. It began snowing shortly after she left. By the time deputies arrived, the temperature had dropped to 10 degrees — and it was falling.
“The weather deteriorated very rapidly,” Lt. Stevens said. Soon after police arrived, they requested search and rescue to be deployed in the search for Serenity.
Who Is Serenity?
Serenity Dennard’s nine years had already been marked by instability. According to reporting by the Rapid City Journal, both of her birth parents had been incarcerated. She moved through approximately 12 foster homes over a two-year span before being adopted at age five by Chad Dennard and his wife. The couple later divorced in early 2015.
“I ended up having full physical custody of Serenity after our divorce,” Chad said. “And that was a hard time. You know, here I am, like, dealing with all that divorce stuff, …a single dad with two kids...”
Later, Chad met KaSandra while working at the Veteran’s Administration in Fort Meade, South Dakota. She quickly became a mother figure to Serenity. “She was a rock star. She helped me through so much...”
Chad described Serenity’s electric personality, her beautiful smile, and contagious laugh. “She was goofy… she was a little wild child, though… whenever she went into a room, she commanded attention.”
Chad said Serenity had an aversion to most animals — except for dogs. Dogs were different. She also loved riding her bicycle. “That was a big one. I think it was a freedom thing. But you had to be careful with that one,” he added. And then there were her dolls. “She would dress them and take them everywhere,” Chad recalled. “She had some favorites. She had some at the children’s home. They’re still in a box that I have.” Those dolls remain packed away — small, quiet reminders of a child who filled rooms with life and laughter.
But Chad also acknowledged the depth of her past trauma. Serenity had been diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder. He said that Serenity had some behavioral and emotional issues from being in the child welfare system. “She doesn’t have boundaries.… she has to control everything around her.” He continued, saying that when she began feeling comfortable in a new situation, she would run.
“Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is a trauma-related condition,” said Alyssa Stolarcyk, a nationally certified school psychologist (who did not treat Serenity). Stolarcyk added that RAD is“…often induced by stressors that impact a child in their early development… kids who experience maybe severe neglect, instability, or just lack of consistent caregiving early on in life… struggle to form that initial attachment.” She continued, “People are usually familiar with that fight-or-flight response. When they encounter stressful situations… children may run away. Not because they’re being bad, it’s just their brain hasn’t developed those healthy pathways…”
Running away, for Serenity, had become both coping mechanism and control. “I think she just liked to watch people look for her… because she’s making somebody do something,” Chad said.
Serenity’s need for control often showed up as calculated manipulation. “She convinced a little girl to run away with her at daycare once, which caused a lot of issues,” Chad told APB Cold Case. Other times, she tested boundaries in quieter but equally deliberate ways. “She would go knock on random doors say that she was looking for her sister,” Chad said. She used her persuasion skills on a school staff member on one occasion. “There was the time when she convinced a lady at the school cafeteria to make her a sandwich to go.”
The Last Sighting
As Serenity fled the gym that morning, a witness saw her near the road.
Lt. Stevens said, “…we did find one person that had seen her run that was independent of the Children’s Home. There was a grandmother and a child who were dropping off another child at the Children’s Home that day, and they’d seen Serenity running.”
Chad confirmed that woman was the last person to see Serenity. “She saw her at, kind of, like, there’s a little culvert going up onto the road, and she saw Serenity right there. She went off into the woods, and was never seen again.”
The Search
By 12:30 p.m., deputies were on scene. They checked Serenity’s room and the immediate area surrounding the children’s home, confirmed Lt. Stevens. But at least 80 minutes had elapsed since Serenity ran from the gym, and fresh snow was covering any traces indicating where she may have gone.
Search and rescue teams were deployed, but there was no sign of Serenity. Chad told APB Cold Case that the National Guard was grounded from searching because of the storm, something that he believed could have helped in the search as they could have used FLIR, an infrared heat-seeking camera to detect a person in open ground.
By 8 p.m., temperatures hovered near 2 degrees, and the snow persisted.
At one point during the search, woodcutters reported seeing someone moving through the trees. For a brief moment, there was hope. Was it Serenity?
But when rescue teams followed up, the sighting turned out to be another volunteer searcher combing the area. In a landscape filled with first responders, dogs, and volunteers, potential breakthroughs could dissolve quickly.
The Black Hills region encompasses roughly 8,500 square miles of rugged terrain — hills, canyons, dense forest, creeks, and ravines. Just up the road from the children’s home, the landscape opens into something strikingly beautiful. From certain vantage points, you can see Mount Rushmore in the distance. The Black Hills rise and fall in sweeping ridgelines carved by gullies and steep canyons. But beauty doesn’t mean accessible.
According to reporting by South Dakota News Watch, more than 6,000 miles of terrain were physically searched over hundreds of operations. The terrain is physically exhausting to traverse — uneven, wooded, and unforgiving. Beyond the facility, there is little development: a handful of houses scattered within a mile or so, a single main road in and out, and no nearby businesses. It is, in many ways, isolated country.
Initial ground searches were impeded by the accumulation of snow that had fallen following Serenity’s flight, and base layers of earth would not become visible until the Spring thaw. It was only then that searchers would begin finding items to be scrutinized to see if they were relevant to Serenity.
Lt. Stevens said that in the course of two years, 200-250 searches have been conducted for Serenity, using various agencies and canines. Chad said that specialized avalanche dogs were brought in from Colorado, but again, without a trace of his missing daughter.
The Dennard’s are grateful to all of the people who logged untold hours in the searches for Serenity. Chad recounted an observation by his mother during one of those searches. “This guy had his pickup parked by my Mom’s car, he had a big beard and it was completely frozen. He just sat and leaned on the tailgate of his pickup, because he was so exhausted, he couldn’t even get into his truck,” said Chad.
What Investigators Believe
Beyond the physical search, investigators pursued more than 370 leads in 37 states, coordinating with agencies across South Dakota and the FBI.
Stevens said that in addition to interviews of staff at the children’s home and Serenity’s family members, they questioned sex offenders and anyone whose telephone number pinged on a cellular telephone tower in the area. All were visited and vetted, he said.
Given the weather, rural setting, and limited traffic on Super Bowl Sunday, Stevens expressed his professional assessment. “I mean, personally, I don’t believe, she is anywhere other than that in those hills somewhere.” He emphasized, however, “…we can’t rule anything out until she’s found, and we and we won’t rule anything out.”
Chad Dennard said that Serenity’s decision to run from the children’s home was most likely spontaneous – since it was something she had done several times before – and she may have decided to hide and watch the response of staff as she had also done before. But he believes that the answer to her whereabouts lies somewhere in the Black Hills, “I think the weather just got her.”
Scrutiny and Aftermath
An oversight investigation later criticized the Children’s Home’s response and policies regarding runaways. Reporting by Seth Tupper in the Rapid City Journal cited findings of “failure to follow established procedures” and “disorganization” in the initial search effort.
Whether the 80-minute delay changed the outcome is unknown. What remains is this: no confirmed clothing, no remains, no definitive evidence of what happened after Serenity entered the woods.
Investigators continue to test evidence. “We’ve tested various pieces of hair, we’ve had lots of different bones analyzed by anthropologists, we have done DNA testing… But nothing’s come back with any evidentiary value so far,” Stevens said.
A Father’s Hope
The Dennard’s cling on to their last memories of their beautiful little girl. Chad’s final moments with Serenity came just one day before she fled the children’s home. He, KaSandra, and their 3 other kids had stopped by for what he remembers as a happy, uncomplicated visit — just time together, talking and laughing. At one point, Chad snapped a photo of Serenity. He didn’t know it then, but that image — taken during an ordinary, joyful afternoon — would be the last photo he would ever take of her and would become the photograph used on her missing persons poster.
The case remains active. The hills near the children’s home are heavily used for recreational activities like hiking, hunting, ATVs, and UTVs, and leads still continue to come in.
Lt. Stevens asks that anyone with information to contact police.
For Chad, hope persists in the possibilities of finding evidence, hoping that perhaps a hiker or hunter will find something of significance. “God, I want answers so bad. Oh my god.”
And in the absence of answers, he holds on to memories. “When she would hug you, like a… like a for-real hug, it just filled your soul.” He remembers a photo his mother took in a movie theater — Serenity sitting on her grandfather’s lap. “…you could just tell, like, those two… were buddies, that was a true Serenity moment, where she was just happy as hell.”
If you have any information regarding Serenity Dennard’s whereabouts, contact the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office at 605-394-6115 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.
Click button below to listen to this episode. And check out our show notes including maps and photos at apbcoldcase.com
© 2026 The Spawn Group, LLC; All rights reserved