Missing Aurora Teen's Family Tries To Spark New Interest In Case
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (CBS4) - The family of a missing Aurora teenager held a fundraiser Sunday afternoon to try to spark new interest in the case.
Kenia Monge, 19, disappeared April 1 during a night out with friends in LoDo. On the night Monge disappeared a man claimed to have given her a ride from a local bar to a gas station. He was questioned extensively, then let go. Monge hasn't been seen since.
"What we have to believe in is what testimony is out there and what they are saying. And that testimony is from the last person who was with her and about him dropping her off at a gas station and she leaving with some other guy," said Tony Lee, Monge's step father. "So until that is disproven, that's all we've got."
The family hopes the fundraiser will generate some answers and provide additional reward money.
Since Monge's disappearance the trail has grown cold.
The fundraiser was held at the Royal Gorge Tavern in Greenwood Village. The owners donated half of all proceeds from the pizza buffet in hopes that a witness will come forward.
Lee says the money raised will be added to the Crime Stoppers reward of $2,000 in hopes that maybe money will bring the family answers.
"We want to try to get that reward up as high as we can because we really do feel that there are two or three people out there that know something," Lee said.
The fundraiser was organized by Samantha Ramage. She didn't know Monge's family, but knows all too well what it's like to go through the torment of a missing persons case -- one that ended tragically.
Ramage was a good friend of Carrie Heiden. She and her boyfriend Shawn Cerniglia were both teenagers in 2003 when they were kidnapped. They were missing for months. Their bodies were later found in a field east of Denver. They had been shot execution style in an attempt to silence Cerniglia, who had witnessed a crime.
"You don't know what's going on, and I remember that," Ramage said. "It can happen to anybody at any time and I wanted to do anything I could to help."
Monge's sister says she, ironically, wanted to be a crime scene investigator. They were best friends and talked every day on the phone. Now every day for the family is filled with hope, fear, unrest and torment.
About 250 people attended the fundraiser.
