Howdy from Texas, y'all.

I know that we lost Dana in May of 1999 (exactly 3 weeks before my
birthday!), but I hadn't really thought all that much about her for
the past few years, until just the other day when AOL ran a "Where
Are They Now?" story about "Diff'rent Strokes". When I got to the
page about her I was amazed to discover that my eyes welled up with
tears. Then I swear I sensed "something"; it was as if she reached
out to me from the great beyond and said "Please don't ever forget
me!". Well Dana, I've thought about you more these last few days than
I have the last few years, and I'm looking for everything and
anything I can find about you. Even though I never had the honor to
meet you I feel like I really knew you, and your passing far before
your time really hurts not just me but countless other fans. Rest in
peace beautiful lady, and I swear I WILL NEVER, EVER forget you
again!

That's why I'm here. I never thought I'd belong to a group like this,
but as we all know there was something special about Dana, otherwise
we wouldn't be here, right?

Which leads me to the following. I want to share with you a few
things I discovered about Dana's life in Las Vegas. I plan to
investigate more fully into this as time permits, and I welcome any
comments and assistance from members of this group.

I visit Las Vegas at least twice a year, so I have an interest in
where Dana might have been while she was living there. I obtained a
copy of the story about Dana's tragic passing from the Las Vegas
Review-Journal newspaper dated May 10, 1999, the reason being is that
I hoped it would give much more specific information on her life
there. To this end I was not too disappointed. (The full article
available upon request). I also have the story from the Las Vegas Sun
but it sheds very little additional information on her time in Las
Vegas. I do appreciate reading this from the Sun article:

"It's a shame when someone with so much potential dies so young,"
said District Attorney Stewart Bell, who as a private attorney in the
early 1990s represented Plato and twice won her probation for the
crimes to which she pleaded guilty. "She had a troubled young
adulthood but I know that for a while she was drug-free because she
was regularly tested while on probation."

There were several specific locations mentioned in the Review-Journal
story and I believe I have located their possible locations:

"She lived for months at the Anchor Village Apartments at The Lakes."

I was unable to locate any place by that name in Las Vegas but
evidence seriously supports my guess that it's known today as
the "Sunset Breeze" apartments, located at 3001 Lake East Drive. Lake
East Drive is a short street, and photos from GoogleEarth show only
one apartment complex on it. Evidence to support my guess is found in
this statement from the newspaper:

"Plato pleaded guilty to robbing Lake Video on Lake East Drive in
February 1991. Plato, disguised in a hat, coat and sunglasses, robbed
the store while brandishing a pellet gun. 'I was shocked when she
walked up to the front desk with a gun in her coat, demanding money,'
store clerk Heather Dailey said at the time. 'She was disguised in a
hat, sunglasses and a coat, but I recognized her through the window
before she even came in the door.

'It was shocking because she lives around here,' Dailey said
then. 'I've seen her in here before. When she brought the gun out, I
thought, 'You're kidding me' because I knew (who she was).'

About $140 of the stolen money was recovered, police said. After the
robbery, Plato apparently gambled about $20 at a bar in the same
shopping center as the video store.

I was unable to locate a business called "Lake Video" in the Las
Vegas area, and the article does not mention the name of the bar
either.

However, there is a shopping center with many detached buildings in
it on the west side of Crystal Water Way, just south of its
intersection with W. Sahara called "Lakes Park", located at the point
where Lake East Drive intersects with Crystal Water Way. I have not
found any info on the tenants at this location at this time.

"....she took a job at the Al Phillips cleaners on West Flamingo
Road...."

I was able to locate this place; I'm hoping it hasn't moved since
Dana worked there:

Al Phillips the Cleaner Inc.,
8645 W. Flamingo Rd., #101, Las Vegas, NV 89147.
Website: http://www.alphillips-thecleaner.com .

It's in the "Desert Breeze Plaza" shopping center at W. Flamingo Dr.
and S. Durango Dr., on the west side of town. Unfortunately I can't
get any decent ground level photos from GoogleEarth for this location.

"After leaving that job, she worked for several weeks at Crystal
Cleaners on Spring Mountain Road."

I was unable to locate this business on Spring Mountain Rd.; however
a "Crystal Cleaners" does exist just north of there on N. Jones
Blvd.; Spring Mountain Rd. and Jones Blvd. cross. Obviously they
moved since then.

Call me crazy, but I'm planning to check out these places on my next
visit to Las Vegas later this year. I'm sure there are no "memorials"
at any of them, but being the nut that I am, I want to see the places
where Dana spent part of her all-too-brief life. Hopefully I will
discover more before then and will gladly share with all on here.

Thank again, Chris in Texas.