CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio - Family Hopes For Clues In Case of Woman Missing Since 1999

OFF THE WIRE

wlwt.com
The case of Sharon Apgar is still open and active, nearly 11 years since her disappearance.
Donna Penker said not a day goes by that she doesn't think about her big sister. Her grief is compounded because the family has no closure, and no place to grieve. Detectives believe Apgar was murdered, but they still don't know what happened to the young mother.
The last time anyone saw or heard from her was in November 1999, at a Fort Mitchell hotel. She told a friend she was going to meet her ex-husband, a member of the Iron Horsemen motorcycle gang.
Thanksgiving came and went. Family members like Penker, who talked to Apgar on a daily basis, got worried, and filed a police report.
Lori Saylor, an investigator with the Clermont County Sheriff's Office, was handed the case. She said she's come to know a person she's never met. "She just literally disappeared and that's not like her."
Saylor has interviewed dozens of people, and she's kept meticulous notes. However, speculation still surrounds the case, as the people who likely know what happened won't come forward.
"If we could just figure out a way to get around that fear with people, I feel this case could be easily solved and we could find her," she said.
They've had dozens of phone calls, rumors, and "tips" about what may have happened to Apgar. "Everything from strangled to dismembered to thrown in a well to a drug overdose, so quite honestly, all of those are possible," Saylor said.
All are possible, and none of them are substantiated. Family and friends say Apgar had hit a low point in life. She was surrounded by volatile relationships. Just when it couldn't get worse, Apgar discovered she was pregnant. Penker said her sister was struggling. "She was living in a lot of fear, very confused, and not real well, I'd say, not well."
Penker has done her own research. She traced Apgar's last steps and wonders about members of the Iron Horsemen. She knew her sister was running with the wrong crowd.
"I think she'd been around it for a very long time. It's just not something you walk away from quietly," she said.
Penker said she hopes her sister's case will remain in the public eye, maybe encourage someone to come forward. "I think it's time and I hope that somebody believes it's time that we put her where she needs to be ."
New technology has helped move the investigation along. A new federal database called NAMUS, or the NAtional Missing and Unidentified persons System, has Apgar's DNA on file. It's already been compared in nine different cases, but none of them matched the missing mom.