Mother of missing woman believes ex-MMA fighter is involved in her disappearance

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (FOX 9) - The mother of a missing woman, who disappeared from a women's shelter in Bloomington nearly 10 years ago, is pleading for information to bring her home.

“I know that one of the girls that he’s been with then or now, they know. They know something and I’m just hoping that they will tell what they know,” said Dottie Pease, mother of April Pease. 

Cedric Marks, April’s former boyfriend and the father of her child, is being held in jail in Texas, facing murder charges in the deaths of a man and woman there. 

The former MMA fighter made national headlines earlier this month when he escaped from a prison transport van and led police on a nine-hour manhunt. He was found hiding in a trash can in a Texas neighborhood. 

Bloomington police say Marks is also a person of interest in the disappearance of April Pease, who has not been seen since March of 2009. 

“April, when she was clean, very giving, she would help anybody,” Dottie Pease said. “She had a smile that would just light up the room. And just fun loving, she liked to joke around. She was my little girl.”

Dottie says April and Marks met online in Washington State in 2005. They had a son together, but their relationship turned ugly.

“When things just didn’t seem to be working, she wanted to end it with him and he wouldn’t let her. He just would not leave her alone,” Dottie Pease said.

Dottie says Marks was physically abusive and in 2008, April wanted out. She moved to Minnesota to find refuge at a women’s shelter in Bloomington. 

Dottie says April had been doing well in her new surroundings until one day in March of 2009, when she was told April had checked out and never came back. A woman had dropped off April’s son.

“Instead of thinking that maybe he had something to do with it, I just figured she had relapsed again, but she had been doing so good. I’ll never forgive myself for thinking that,” Dottie Pease said.

Dottie started suspecting Marks was involved when he was recently connected to the murders of Jenna Scott and Michael Swearingin in Texas. They had been missing for more than a week when their bodies were found buried in a shallow grave in Oklahoma last month.

Dottie now believes Marks has something to do with her daughter’s death.

“I’m hoping that they find my daughter's remains and charge that animal and I am able to bring my daughter home,” Dottie Pease said.

Friday is April Pease’s 40th birthday. 

Marks’ bond is set at $1.75 million.