Cops Search Around Landfills for Missing Teen Kenia Monge
19-year-old Kenia Monge was last seen at a Denver nightclub.
April 9, 2011— -- Police have been searching in and around a Weld County, Colo., landfill for any sign of a 19-year-old Aurora woman who disappeared after mysteriously leaving friends at a Denver nightclub.
Kenia Monge, a recent high school graduate, went to the 24K Lounge, a downtown Denver hot spot the night of Saturday, April 2, where a group of underage friends had been drinking.
Her friends told police that she excused herself from the table to go to the restroom and never returned.
She left behind her purse and cell phone but few clues.
Monge was last seen several hours later at a Conoco gas station a few miles from the club at 3 a.m. Sunday, according to the Denver Police Department.
ABC News affiliate KMGH-TV in Denver reported that it had learned exclusively that Denver Police Department investigators were at a landfill in Keenesberg early in the week, searching for evidence along the highway just outside the landfill.
Police say the case is not a typical missing person investigation. Officials from the Denver Police Department have called in the FBI and Center for Missing and Exploited Children to help in the investigation, an indication that they do not believe Monge simply ran away.
"We get lots of missing cases," said Denver Police spokesman Lt. Matthew Murray. "No one thinks this girl ran away. We have reason to believe that what took place is not good. We are very concerned."
For the family, he added, "this is a nightmare scenario."
As the first week following Monge's disappearance comes to a close, Murray said they're treating it as a missing person case but said "there is something different" about it. He would not say what made it so strange.
Monge's stepfather, Tony Lee, told KMGH that a "good Samaritan" came forward and told police that he picked up the girl and was with her at the gas station early Sunday morning where she met and left with another man.
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