I think it will be 10 years this May sweet Dana lost her life. I am
such a big fan that I have no words to do her justice. Sweet Dana.

--- In rememberingdanaplato@yahoogroups.com, Michael Gonzales
<mikeg77852000@...> wrote:
>
>
> Hey Chris, it is good of you to remember Dana. Not many people seem
to care about her now that she has been gone almost 9 years now. But
I never forgot her. And I never forgot the autograph picture that she
sent me several years before when she was still on Different Strokes.
I would have given anything to try to save her. If you want a good
place to see a good memorial to Dana, go to danaplato.net. It is a
great web site and you will truly enjoy it. Take care and have a good
day. Mike G.
> --- On Thu, 1/22/09, chrisk0529 <chrisk529@...> wrote:
>
> From: chrisk0529 <chrisk529@...>
> Subject: [Remembering Dana Plato] Dana's time in Las Vegas.
> To: rememberingdanaplato@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Thursday, January 22, 2009, 5:12 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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.alphilli ps-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.
>