A New Beginning : Missing Woman’s Parents Leaving Newport
- Share via
NEWPORT BEACH — It has been three years to the day since her daughter, Denise, disappeared without a trace in the middle of the night, but Ione Huber feels the pain of not knowing what happened to her as if it were yesterday.
At least now, however, there is something in her future other than anguish-filled days and nights waiting for the phone to ring with news about her only daughter. In July, Ione Huber and her husband, Dennis, will move back to their native North Dakota.
“We need a new beginning,” Ione Huber said Thursday. “We’re going back to where we grew up, and that is going to be better for us.”
Twenty-seven years ago, the Hubers rolled out of neighboring South Dakota--where they had moved after marrying--on a journey that would take them to Modesto, where Denise was born, to Sacramento, to Northridge, to Richardson, Tex., and back to California--this time to Newport Beach, where they established a home seven years ago.
The couple leave distraught that three years have passed and they still have no word on their daughter’s fate, angry that someone they believe has information that could give them peace is withholding it.
“Who’s responsible for not letting us know what has happened? That’s what embitters you,” Ione Huber, 51, said. “The torture of not knowing--that embitters you. What did they do with her body? Where is she so that we can put (an end) to all of this?
“It’s hard to deal with it. Those are the things I wish we could find out. It would make the move a lot easier.”
Ione Huber is sure, however, that if her daughter were alive, she would have found a way to communicate with them.
“She was too caring a person . . . to put us through that,” Ione Huber said.
Early on June 3, 1991, Denise Anette Huber, then 23, dropped off a friend at his Huntington Beach residence. They had been at a rock concert at the Forum in Inglewood earlier that night.
That was the last time Denise was seen. The next day, police found her 1988 Honda Accord abandoned on a shoulder of the Corona del Mar Freeway, a few dozen feet south of the Bear Street off-ramp and just 2 1/2 miles from home.
The car had a flat tire. But police were never able to determine exactly what happened at the scene, and Huber’s body has never been found. Tracking dogs followed her scent for a while but lost it abruptly, causing investigators to believe she might have entered another vehicle.
*
An intense search by police, family, friends and scores of volunteers followed. Thousands of flyers and bumper stickers seeking information on Denise Huber’s whereabouts were distributed throughout Orange County. Billboards and banners asked for help. A huge sign with the missing girl’s likeness was posted near the spot where her car was found.
Relatives and friends raised a $10,000 reward, and the television shows “America’s Most Wanted” and “Inside Edition” publicized the case nationwide.
The family hired a private detective and psychics. Police checked every lead--including human bones unearthed in February, 1992, near Interstate 10 in Indio. All to no avail.
But Costa Mesa police continued the investigation. Sgt. Tom Boylan, who was assigned to the case five months ago, said recent news reports on the sensational disappearance are bringing fresh leads in an otherwise extremely tough case.
The case “is fairly unusual (because) in almost three years there’s been no substantial leads and she hasn’t turned up,” Boylan said. “That doesn’t happen every day.”
Ione Huber, who since the disappearance has successfully battled breast cancer, says she recently found the strength to begin cleaning out Denise’s room. She has begun giving away her daughter’s clothes and is keeping souvenirs and mementos--”things that were important to her.”
She has also kept possessions that are important to her as a mother: “Things from preschool, elementary (school) and high school, things that were kind of special--Mom’s Day cards and drawings” among them, she said.
The Hubers will move at the end of July to Mandan, N.D.--a small town near Bismarck--to a home that abuts the Mississippi River.
Dennis Huber, 55, a mortgage banker here, plans to sell computer software that can be used in that industry. Ione Huber, who has worked as a substitute teacher in this area, said she plans to sell real estate.
Ione Huber said she wants her son Jeff, 24, and his family--including his 21-month-old daughter Ashley Denise--to move to Mandan sometime in the future because, she believes, Southern California is getting too dangerous.
“Every day you read about crime. It just seems like it’s getting worse,” she said.
That is why, she said, “we’re getting back to where we grew up and that is going to be better for us.”
But Denise will forever be there, a part of them, she said.
“Denise will always be part of our lives, part of our memories,” she said. “She will always be with us.”
More to Read
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.