Missing girl’s brother shares concerns

If April Andrews were alive, she would have gotten in touch with someone in the family sometime during the more than six years she’s been missing, her halfbrother Alfred Goldberg said.

Goldberg, 40, is an older halfbrother to Andrews, who would be 22 now. She has been missing since November 2006.

“I wasn’t in the state” when April disappeared, Goldberg said. “I didn’t know she come up missing until a week after. It just seems awful strange that people that lived with her, her brothers, sisters, mother — they know something, but they don’t want to say nothing.”

April’s case vaulted back into the public spotlight last week when, acting on an anonymous letter, the Benton County Sheriff ’s Office drained and dredged a pond south of Pea Ridge. A Sheriff ’s Office spokeswoman said the letter claimed the girl’s body had been dumped in the pond.

Alfred said his father was Clar- ence Thomas Andrews, who died in 2002. He said his father had 11 children. His mother, Brenda Goldberg, lives in Oklahoma. His stepmother, Tina Johnson, is April’s mother.

Goldberg said Tina had six children, all with Andrews. The three youngest, April (born on April 14, 1991), Truman and Jubal were living with Tina when April disappeared, Goldberg said.

“I know this for a fact, they’re scared of something. I’ve talked to all three. They just clam up,” Goldberg said.

“Me and April were close. She loved me to death. I was the only one who would listen to her when she had problems. She would call me, when her mother would let her, when she needed to talk,” he said.

The search, which began on June 17, ended Friday. The Sheriff ’s Office declined to say if anything was found by searching the pond. Detectives have developed new leads and the investigation continues, according Keshia Guyll, spokeswoman for the Sheriff ’s Office.