Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We had a podcast recently when I asked, like, if
there's anyone out there in the medical profession who can
tell us whether or not things get weirder during the
full moon.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And everyone that responded.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
One person talked about how she was working at a
retirement home and all the patients would like just get
up and like really really be confused, and we're mobile
and getting in sites like during the full moon. It
was just crazy for them. Hey, guys, welcome back to
my channel. Welcome to another true crime video today. I'm
(00:30):
gonna be telling you about a case that is very upsetting,
like for real, this one is sad. There is a
bit of good news to this story that recently broke
this summer, and some of you may have already heard
about this case recently in your just you know news
cycle because it was pretty interesting how this case finally
came to an end and it happened over thirty years ago.
So this is April Tinsley. She's the cutest little thing, right.
(00:53):
I cannot get over how adorable she was.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
She was born on.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
March eighteenth of nineteen eighty and lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
and she was described as a very sweet girl, very
well liked in school, just kind of a little angel.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
No one ever had.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Anything negative to say about her. Her mom said she
was just a really fun, loving person and that everyone
she knew adore to April. At the time, April was
in first grade, and coincidentally, it was April first, nineteen
eighty eight. She had gotten out of school early that day.
She came home, hung out with her mom a little bit,
had lunch, and then she asked her she could go
over to a friend's house to play. So April's mom, Janet, said,
(01:27):
of course, you can go. Just call me as soon
as you get there. So when April got to Nicole's house,
she called her mom let her know that everything was good,
and her mom reminded her to be home between three
thirty and fourish, and she was normally really good about
coming home when her mom said to she specifically wanted
her to come home because it was cloudy and it
was going to rain. By the time four pm rolled around,
(01:48):
April had not made it back home, so her mom
kind of waited a little bit, but then eventually just
called Nichole's mom and she told her that April and
Nicole were playing at a playground and they left this
playground a little after three pm, and she was just
about to start heading home from the park, she realized
that she had left her umbrella at Nichole's house, so
Nicole actually was going to a different friend's house. So
(02:09):
they kind of parted ways there and then April made
the walk by herself back to Nicole's house. However, Nichole's
mom said that she never made it to the house
to get her umbrella, so this is what her mom
started to panic. Obviously, you'd be very very concerned at
this point. I mean, she was only eight years old.
This is in nineteen eighty eight. So her and her
husband and a bunch of friends and neighbors went out
(02:30):
and looked for her physically, and after they didn't find her,
they decided it was time to go ahead and call
the police. At around six pm, Janet called the Fort
Wayne Police and she told the dispatchers that her daughter
went missing after playing with a friend. And when the
officers arrived, she gave them a picture of April and
she tried her best to describe everything.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That she was wearing that day.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
She was wearing a blue turtleneck sweater, a pink and
red jacket, light blue pants with three hearts.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
On the left leg, and pink shoes.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Detectives went out looking for April. They looked in a
twenty block area from where she was last seen. They
didn't find anything, and they weren't able to come up
with any explanation or any answers, so they assumed that
she had been abducted on April fourth, and this was
seventy two hours after she had gone missing. A police
task force of twenty five fort Wayne officers joined up
with a search party that was formed by civilians that
(03:20):
already had fifty people in it, and they began to
look all over this area. But then around three thirty pm,
a man was on a jog and he was just
running along when he saw a body. It was off
the side of the road, about forty feet away in
a ditch, and unfortunately this was April's body.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
The officers came and they showed me the picture. Now
sitting here just locking shock. You were destroyed, Yeah, I
kind of snapped.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Janet had wanted to be a mother her whole life,
and April was the daughter she had always dreamed of.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So now obviously this case has taken a tragic turn
from a missing.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Person's investigation to a murder, and based.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
On the physical evidence, police believed that April was sadly suffocated.
She was fully clothed except for one of her shoes
was missing, and then sadly, the autopsy confirmed that she
had been sexually assaulted, which is like everyone's worst nightmare
and happens so often in cases of abduction. Investigators believed
that this person was probably someone that lived in Fort
(04:27):
Wayne because this area was kind of a space that
you would know about if you lived there.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It was like a.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Wooded rule spot where no one would really see him
putting her there. But detectives also think that because her
body was just kind of like set on the ground
forty feet from the road, it's not like he tried
that hard to hide her, and it seemed to them
like he wanted someone to find her body, so obviously
officers searched the surrounding area and that is where they
found her other shoe. It was about eight hundred feet
(04:55):
away on the opposite side of the road, and they
basically think that the person was driving away realized that
her shoe was in the car and threw that out
too on their way out.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Of the scene.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But then on April fifth, a motorist came forward and said,
I saw a blue truck just kind of chillin' on
Declubb County Road. People were definitely on the lookout for
a blue truck, and there was also a reward set
up by two local radio stations. Two different funds, one
for the Tinsley family and one.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
For her burial, were opened.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
On April eighth of nineteen eighty eight, one hundred and
fifty mourners gathered at the Faith United Methodist Church for
April's memorial service, and soon after that a witness called
the police and let them know that she had actually
seen a little blonde girl walking on the side of
the road. She had hearts on her pant legs, and
she was walking where April was last seen.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And the witness said that when April.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Tried to cross the street, someone in a blue pickup
truck pulled up next to her. Said that April didn't
seem to be scared or looked like she didn't know
this person, so she figured everything was okay. She basically
just said that she saw the truck pull up and
then the truck and April were gone, and she really
thought it was an arranged pickup, like just a father
picking up his daughter and didn't think anything of it. Now,
(06:07):
a lot of us have seen, you know, people getting
picked up by people you don't always think to call
the police. Witness described this driver as a white male
in his thirties with blondish sandy colored wavy hair, who
weighed about one hundred and fifty pounds, and on April seventh,
police released a sketch of what the witness described the
man to look like, and people in Fort Wayne were
really freaked out thinking that there was a potential killer
(06:29):
on the loose. And when that sketch was released, a
ton of tips and information came into the police from
just local community members who wanted to help, and many
of these leads had mentioned a.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Man named Moose.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Basically Moose was in a local gang and he looked
really similar to the sketch that was put out. The
witness was able to pick out his photo from a
lineup of pictures, but that was really it as far
as evidence went. He didn't own a blue pickup truck,
but he did have access to a blue.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Pickup truck if he needed it.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
People were claiming that this Moose got I was going
up to children at the park and saying inappropriate things
to them, scaring them, and police were also told that
the gang that Moose belonged to was some type of
Satanic cult. The investigators started to become concerned that maybe
April was in some type of Satanic ritual or sacrifice,
and this obviously scared her parents so bad, But there
(07:20):
really wasn't any evidence of this happening. Just like people talk.
It was a lot of speculation in hearsaying. For weeks,
Moose was the prime suspect in the case, but detectives
were never able to find any physical evidence that linked
him back to the crime scene. And then he also
passed several polygraph tests and at that point they decided
that he just couldn't be a suspect anymore. Now we're
(07:40):
going two years forward to May twenty first of nineteen ninety.
Police received a call from this guy saying that someone
had written a message on his barn. The message said,
I kill eight year old April Rudy Tinsley.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Did you find her other shoe? Haha? I will kill.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Again, And this note was found ten miles from where
her body was found and obviously this could be some.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Type of poser.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Weird stuff happens in cases all the time, where people
just pretend they're involved in it somehow or just want
to scare people. They'll leave a scared note like that.
But they thought that there was a lot of credibility
here because they mentioned the shoe. The shoe that they
believe was thrown out of the car was separated from
the crime scene. Now this wasn't like hugely publicized, so
it seemed like this really was April's killer that wrote
(08:26):
this little note on a barn door two years later.
So they looked around this area of this barn trying
to see if they could find any clues.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
They did find some krantz.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
However, these crants had no fingerprints on them and were
useless in the case. And then they looked at the note,
which had a lot of spelling issues and grammar problems,
as you've probably noticed, especially the way they spelled again, like, really,
who's spelling it again. Police basically figured that this person
was trying to seem like they were dumber than they
actually are, and when this surfaced, really scared of the community.
(08:54):
People started calling in tips again, saying hey, I know
someone that writes like this. I know someone who says aha,
which wasn't as common of a thing to say ha
ha because there wasn't texting yet. That's really like post
texting that everyone says that now. So it was a
little odd that he wrote that, but police weren't able
to come up with anything solid, and the case went
(09:14):
cold again for fifteen years. On March twenty fifth of
two thousand and four, a little girl around the same
age that April was when she was taken found a note.
It was in a ziploc bag and was on a
yellow paper. The note was like inside the bag and
it said, Hi, honey, I've been watching you. I am
the same person that kidnapped, raped, and killed April Tinsley.
(09:37):
Here's a present for you. You are my next victim.
And as you can tell, this note had similar punctuation
and grammar errors that the other one had. And this
is really disturbing. But the present that he left her
inside of the bag was.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
A used condom.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And this wasn't the only note that was found. There
were two other notes that were found with the same
message and the same present.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Another note said Hi honey, I been watching you.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I am the same person that kidnapped, aunt, rape, and
kill April Tinsley.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You are my next victim.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
If you don't report this to police and I don't
see this in the paper, I will blow up your house.
Everyone that was getting these notes, which was obviously scaring
the living hell out of everybody, had young daughters between
the age of five and nine, and police believe that
this killer was stalking these children, and so they kept
an extra watch on this whole area. Definitely were having
(10:27):
more patrolling in neighborhoods, staying on hy alert. And soon
after this, a fourth letter showed up, and this time
he included nude pictures of himself. It seemed like this
person wanted to get caught. They left her body in
a really weird spot, left that note, left condom with
DNA inside of it. People will probably be asking, well,
how come they didn't find the killer with the DNA.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Well, it's hard to just find someone.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It's not like it says, oh, yeah, here's the DNA,
this is Bob so and so, and here's where they lived.
It's way harder than that. You have to have their
DNA in a database in order to find them. And
when they tested all these packages.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
They all had.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
DNA that was the same DNA that was found at
April Tinsley's crime scene. So this confirms that the person
who's writing these notes isn't just like some weirdo trying
to get some attention from this case. It is actually
April's killer. But the DNA didn't match anyone in the
national database. They had no specific suspect, and at this
point they were desperately trying to figure it out, so
they ended up releasing some of these letters to the public.
(11:26):
They hoped that this would bring up something that someone
would have an idea, and obviously the community was very
concerned again because this time there are multiple kids being stocked.
The person is making threats. They've already carried out at
least one murder that we know of. Tons of tips
came in, but one tip came in that was really important.
It was someone who called and accused his own father
(11:47):
of being April's killer.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
This man actually lived really close.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
To where April lived and to where April was taken,
and he also had a history of child molestation. He
also used to own this polaroid camera and would take
pictures of random disturbing things. He also believed it was
his father because he said his father would write high
honey and ha ha, which are really general things like
a lot of people could have said that. But this
young man's father also had a blue pickup truck, and
(12:13):
a few days after April's murder, he painted the truck
a different color.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
That was very very interesting to police, so they.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Brought him in for questioning, and he claimed he had
never met April, but his daughter used to play with April,
so he knew of her. And when he first sat
down with investigators, he brought up the fact that he
was working on the day that April was killed. Now,
this is really weird to remember one specific day from fifteen.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Years ago exactly what you were doing.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
This was a major red flag to them, and they
ended up following up with his employer and found out
that he actually was not working on those days. He
also wasn't working on April fourth, which is the day
that her body was found and likely put there. So
investigators did a huge search of his home and they
found more evidence. They got a yellow notebook which looked
similar to the one that the person had written notes on,
(13:00):
and they also found a polaroid camera. At this time,
they really considered this man to be the prime suspect.
I'm not sure if his name has ever been released.
I have been able to find it, and they felt
really confident that maybe they had found the killer and
they could finally put this thing to rest. But unfortunately,
they test his DNA and it did not match any
of the DNA from any of the evidence and the
crime scene. So obviously, if it's not his DNA, it
(13:22):
wasn't him, So now they were back to square one.
On June twenty fourth, two thousand and five, the family
had like a little press conference trying to update people
on the case and just remind people that it was
still an unsolved case.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
A day after hearing new details of her murder, which
happened twenty four years ago, April Tinsley's family is speaking out.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
They are hopeful another round of national attention could help
track down the young girl's killer. Jim Tinsley says, it
feels like the crime that shattered his family just happened.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It's been twenty four years. Does it feel like that, No,
it seems like yesterday.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
It does when it's brought to the family, and now
it seemed like it it it it took place yesterday.
You know, it don't seem like twenty four years.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
April was attached to her uncle Jimmy. In her eight
short years of life.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
She was well liked, well loved, and so it it's
just horrible. And I know somebody out there has to
know something. I mean, this can't go on forever and ever.
I just hope you know it it it it comes
tuned in, you know. I mean, family's grieving enough and
and we we all we wanted to do is just
see that April was r you know, rest in peace
(14:34):
for now. Reporting in Fort Wayne, Drew Blair, News Channel fifteen.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
And as time goes on, obviously technology is getting better
in the crime world. We're seeing a lot of crimes
get solved with newer technology that just wouldn't have been
able to be solved, you know, like thirty years ago.
And one of the new technologies is called phenotyping. There's
this company called Paravian Nano Labs, and they basically use
a DNA sample from the crime scene and it creates
a digital sketch picture of what the person would look
(15:00):
like based on their DNA. So it's pretty incredible stuff
and after they ran the report, the results showed that
this person was British or German, had brown hair, green
or hazel eyes, and.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Very fair skin.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Investigators believed that the man was around thirty at the
time of the attack. And what was very interesting about
it is like the DNA description looked really similar to
the witness sketch, but obviously some time it passed at
this point, so they decided to actually run this sketch
again for him at age fifty and that's about how
old he would be today. But unfortunately, nothing really came
out of this. There just wasn't enough to grasp onto
(15:35):
or to connect anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
To this crime.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I really wanted to share this case because this is
an example of a crime that is being solved with
new technology. You know, I always talk about Thorn and
how they're developing new technologies to find human traffickers.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
This is the same type of thing.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Technology is getting so good that they are solving cases
that they just wouldn't have been able to solve before.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
In just three months, Parabon has identified four other killers
and is working forty more cases.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Thanks to new DNA technology and new developments and genealogy,
they were finally able to track down April's killer.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
This summer.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
July fifteenth, twenty eighteen, John D. Miller, who is fifty nine,
was charged with her murder. And basically what has been
happening nowadays is, you know, more and more people are
spitting in the little tube for ancestor DNA or whatever.
I've done it, and there's a ton of different gene
databases that have thousands of DNA records stored and even
(16:30):
if someone in your family has done one of these
DNA tests, it can be traced back to you. Now
recently they found the Golden State Killer this way. Basically,
they found his DNA and they always had it, but
it wasn't until recently that they were able to plug
it into a public database of genealogy, track it back
to one of his relatives, get some trash out of
his trash can, and then they were able to connect
(16:51):
that DNA back to him. I know it's kind of complicated,
but it's very very cool how this is happening.
Speaker 7 (16:57):
That huge break in a cold case harise in California
for decades, police say they now have the Golden State
Killer in custody.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
A police say this man seventy two year old Joseph
James Dangelo is the elusive Golden State Killer.
Speaker 8 (17:12):
We were able to get some discarded DNA and we
were able to confirm what we thought we already knew
that we had our.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Man DiAngelo seemingly hiding in plain sight, police surprising him
and taking him into custody on Tuesday as he was
leaving his hall.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And just like they did with the Golden State Killer,
a few weeks after they found the match, they went
to John D. Miller's house took some of his trash.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
After all these years, it only took weeks to solve
the case. Using a new cutting edge DNA analysis, They
found distant cousins to build the family tree backward, then
looked for descendants and narrowed the search to two brothers.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It really had to be one or the other because
they were carrying the right mix of DNA ancestors to
fit that profile.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Investigators collected DNA from one of the brothers trash.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Once the match was confirmed and they were positive that
this man was the killer. Who's an idiot thinking that
he's going to get away with this and purposely leaving
little DNA clues to all these different people in these
creepy notes. He clearly did not think they were going
to be able to do this. Clearly he had no
idea where technology was going, and so they approached him
at his house. They knocked on the door, asked him,
(18:28):
do you know what this is about?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And he said April Tinsley.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
John Miller was arrested Sunday. Rafa David says Miller admitted
to killing April Tinsley. He has not filed a plea
in court and has no attorney.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
There's only one word I want to ask him.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
This is why he's actually scheduled for court on August third,
which by the time you're watching this video, it may
already be August third or after August third.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
So as horrible as this.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Whole case is, how heart wrenching and terrible for the family,
you have to at least smile for the fact that
they have answers. You know, this family can finally know
what happened, know that this person's going to be incarcerated
and justice will be served for April.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
There's only one word I want to ask him, is why.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
For April's mom hope that justice may finally be within reach.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
I never imagined this wouldever come.
Speaker 7 (19:17):
April Tiensley's mom, Janet is taking things in stride.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
That's what we've been wanting for so many years, and
now it's.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
Here today Like so many other days, friends, neighbors, and
strangers surround the Janet to show their support and to
let her know that April was loved and still is.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's kind of a victory lap.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
We wanted to give back to the family and they've
had a rough time over.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
This last thirty years.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
We're all now pretty much at peace right now, and yeah,
we can be a little bit calmer and we can sleep.
Speaker 7 (19:54):
Janet knows the arrest won't bring back the daughter she
didn't get to see grow up, but she says it's
a good dark and seeking justice for April.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
But it certainly doesn't make up for all the time
that April's family has spent without her, all the things
that she was going to do in her life, maybe
a future family that she was going.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
To have, that was all just shattered.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Friends and family have set up a garden dedicated to April.
Speaker 8 (20:16):
April's Garden, I'm live at the intersection of Masterson and
Hogland Avenues and for three years, family, friends and total
strangers have been coming here to April's garden to pay
their respects and memorialize April Tinsley. This morning, the community
continues their support of the family with these messages we
love you, April, we stand with you, Our fight is
(20:39):
your fight, and many more along this area. It comes
just hours after the news broke that an arrest had
finally been made, and it's just kind of.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
A place where they can remember her and feel her
spirit and feel all the love that other people around
her had for her. What do you think about this
new DNA that's being used. Do you think it can
be used to solve other major cases? For example John
Biday Ramsey. The more and more people spent in the tubes,
the more crimes we're gonna solve.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
But that's it for me today. Guys.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I hope you're having a great day, Stay safe, and
I will talk to you next day.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
By her growing up, what would she look like, act like?
Would she be married? It would have been nice to
see Nat, But my memory of hers when she was
just a little girl, that's when it ends.
We had a podcast recently when I asked, like, if
there's anyone out there in the medical profession who can
tell us whether or not things get weirder during the
full moon.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And everyone that responded.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
One person talked about how she was working at a
retirement home and all the patients would like just get
up and like really really be confused, and we're mobile
and getting in sites like during the full moon. It
was just crazy for them. Hey, guys, welcome back to
my channel. Welcome to another true crime video today. I'm
(00:30):
gonna be telling you about a case that is very upsetting,
like for real, this one is sad. There is a
bit of good news to this story that recently broke
this summer, and some of you may have already heard
about this case recently in your just you know news
cycle because it was pretty interesting how this case finally
came to an end and it happened over thirty years ago.
So this is April Tinsley. She's the cutest little thing, right.
(00:53):
I cannot get over how adorable she was.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
She was born on.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
March eighteenth of nineteen eighty and lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
and she was described as a very sweet girl, very
well liked in school, just kind of a little angel.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
No one ever had.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Anything negative to say about her. Her mom said she
was just a really fun, loving person and that everyone
she knew adore to April. At the time, April was
in first grade, and coincidentally, it was April first, nineteen
eighty eight. She had gotten out of school early that day.
She came home, hung out with her mom a little bit,
had lunch, and then she asked her she could go
over to a friend's house to play. So April's mom, Janet, said,
(01:27):
of course, you can go. Just call me as soon
as you get there. So when April got to Nicole's house,
she called her mom let her know that everything was good,
and her mom reminded her to be home between three
thirty and fourish, and she was normally really good about
coming home when her mom said to she specifically wanted
her to come home because it was cloudy and it
was going to rain. By the time four pm rolled around,
(01:48):
April had not made it back home, so her mom
kind of waited a little bit, but then eventually just
called Nichole's mom and she told her that April and
Nicole were playing at a playground and they left this
playground a little after three pm, and she was just
about to start heading home from the park, she realized
that she had left her umbrella at Nichole's house, so
Nicole actually was going to a different friend's house. So
(02:09):
they kind of parted ways there and then April made
the walk by herself back to Nicole's house. However, Nichole's
mom said that she never made it to the house
to get her umbrella, so this is what her mom
started to panic. Obviously, you'd be very very concerned at
this point. I mean, she was only eight years old.
This is in nineteen eighty eight. So her and her
husband and a bunch of friends and neighbors went out
(02:30):
and looked for her physically, and after they didn't find her,
they decided it was time to go ahead and call
the police. At around six pm, Janet called the Fort
Wayne Police and she told the dispatchers that her daughter
went missing after playing with a friend. And when the
officers arrived, she gave them a picture of April and
she tried her best to describe everything.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That she was wearing that day.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
She was wearing a blue turtleneck sweater, a pink and
red jacket, light blue pants with three hearts.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
On the left leg, and pink shoes.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Detectives went out looking for April. They looked in a
twenty block area from where she was last seen. They
didn't find anything, and they weren't able to come up
with any explanation or any answers, so they assumed that
she had been abducted on April fourth, and this was
seventy two hours after she had gone missing. A police
task force of twenty five fort Wayne officers joined up
with a search party that was formed by civilians that
(03:20):
already had fifty people in it, and they began to
look all over this area. But then around three thirty pm,
a man was on a jog and he was just
running along when he saw a body. It was off
the side of the road, about forty feet away in
a ditch, and unfortunately this was April's body.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
The officers came and they showed me the picture. Now
sitting here just locking shock. You were destroyed, Yeah, I
kind of snapped.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Janet had wanted to be a mother her whole life,
and April was the daughter she had always dreamed of.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So now obviously this case has taken a tragic turn
from a missing.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Person's investigation to a murder, and based.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
On the physical evidence, police believed that April was sadly suffocated.
She was fully clothed except for one of her shoes
was missing, and then sadly, the autopsy confirmed that she
had been sexually assaulted, which is like everyone's worst nightmare
and happens so often in cases of abduction. Investigators believed
that this person was probably someone that lived in Fort
(04:27):
Wayne because this area was kind of a space that
you would know about if you lived there.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It was like a.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Wooded rule spot where no one would really see him
putting her there. But detectives also think that because her
body was just kind of like set on the ground
forty feet from the road, it's not like he tried
that hard to hide her, and it seemed to them
like he wanted someone to find her body, so obviously
officers searched the surrounding area and that is where they
found her other shoe. It was about eight hundred feet
(04:55):
away on the opposite side of the road, and they
basically think that the person was driving away realized that
her shoe was in the car and threw that out
too on their way out.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Of the scene.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But then on April fifth, a motorist came forward and said,
I saw a blue truck just kind of chillin' on
Declubb County Road. People were definitely on the lookout for
a blue truck, and there was also a reward set
up by two local radio stations. Two different funds, one
for the Tinsley family and one.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
For her burial, were opened.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
On April eighth of nineteen eighty eight, one hundred and
fifty mourners gathered at the Faith United Methodist Church for
April's memorial service, and soon after that a witness called
the police and let them know that she had actually
seen a little blonde girl walking on the side of
the road. She had hearts on her pant legs, and
she was walking where April was last seen.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And the witness said that when April.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Tried to cross the street, someone in a blue pickup
truck pulled up next to her. Said that April didn't
seem to be scared or looked like she didn't know
this person, so she figured everything was okay. She basically
just said that she saw the truck pull up and
then the truck and April were gone, and she really
thought it was an arranged pickup, like just a father
picking up his daughter and didn't think anything of it. Now,
(06:07):
a lot of us have seen, you know, people getting
picked up by people you don't always think to call
the police. Witness described this driver as a white male
in his thirties with blondish sandy colored wavy hair, who
weighed about one hundred and fifty pounds, and on April seventh,
police released a sketch of what the witness described the
man to look like, and people in Fort Wayne were
really freaked out thinking that there was a potential killer
(06:29):
on the loose. And when that sketch was released, a
ton of tips and information came into the police from
just local community members who wanted to help, and many
of these leads had mentioned a.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Man named Moose.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Basically Moose was in a local gang and he looked
really similar to the sketch that was put out. The
witness was able to pick out his photo from a
lineup of pictures, but that was really it as far
as evidence went. He didn't own a blue pickup truck,
but he did have access to a blue.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Pickup truck if he needed it.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
People were claiming that this Moose got I was going
up to children at the park and saying inappropriate things
to them, scaring them, and police were also told that
the gang that Moose belonged to was some type of
Satanic cult. The investigators started to become concerned that maybe
April was in some type of Satanic ritual or sacrifice,
and this obviously scared her parents so bad, But there
(07:20):
really wasn't any evidence of this happening. Just like people talk.
It was a lot of speculation in hearsaying. For weeks,
Moose was the prime suspect in the case, but detectives
were never able to find any physical evidence that linked
him back to the crime scene. And then he also
passed several polygraph tests and at that point they decided
that he just couldn't be a suspect anymore. Now we're
(07:40):
going two years forward to May twenty first of nineteen ninety.
Police received a call from this guy saying that someone
had written a message on his barn. The message said,
I kill eight year old April Rudy Tinsley.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Did you find her other shoe? Haha? I will kill.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Again, And this note was found ten miles from where
her body was found and obviously this could be some.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Type of poser.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Weird stuff happens in cases all the time, where people
just pretend they're involved in it somehow or just want
to scare people. They'll leave a scared note like that.
But they thought that there was a lot of credibility
here because they mentioned the shoe. The shoe that they
believe was thrown out of the car was separated from
the crime scene. Now this wasn't like hugely publicized, so
it seemed like this really was April's killer that wrote
(08:26):
this little note on a barn door two years later.
So they looked around this area of this barn trying
to see if they could find any clues.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
They did find some krantz.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
However, these crants had no fingerprints on them and were
useless in the case. And then they looked at the note,
which had a lot of spelling issues and grammar problems,
as you've probably noticed, especially the way they spelled again, like, really,
who's spelling it again. Police basically figured that this person
was trying to seem like they were dumber than they
actually are, and when this surfaced, really scared of the community.
(08:54):
People started calling in tips again, saying hey, I know
someone that writes like this. I know someone who says aha,
which wasn't as common of a thing to say ha
ha because there wasn't texting yet. That's really like post
texting that everyone says that now. So it was a
little odd that he wrote that, but police weren't able
to come up with anything solid, and the case went
(09:14):
cold again for fifteen years. On March twenty fifth of
two thousand and four, a little girl around the same
age that April was when she was taken found a note.
It was in a ziploc bag and was on a
yellow paper. The note was like inside the bag and
it said, Hi, honey, I've been watching you. I am
the same person that kidnapped, raped, and killed April Tinsley.
(09:37):
Here's a present for you. You are my next victim.
And as you can tell, this note had similar punctuation
and grammar errors that the other one had. And this
is really disturbing. But the present that he left her
inside of the bag was.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
A used condom.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And this wasn't the only note that was found. There
were two other notes that were found with the same
message and the same present.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Another note said Hi honey, I been watching you.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I am the same person that kidnapped, aunt, rape, and
kill April Tinsley.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You are my next victim.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
If you don't report this to police and I don't
see this in the paper, I will blow up your house.
Everyone that was getting these notes, which was obviously scaring
the living hell out of everybody, had young daughters between
the age of five and nine, and police believe that
this killer was stalking these children, and so they kept
an extra watch on this whole area. Definitely were having
(10:27):
more patrolling in neighborhoods, staying on hy alert. And soon
after this, a fourth letter showed up, and this time
he included nude pictures of himself. It seemed like this
person wanted to get caught. They left her body in
a really weird spot, left that note, left condom with
DNA inside of it. People will probably be asking, well,
how come they didn't find the killer with the DNA.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Well, it's hard to just find someone.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It's not like it says, oh, yeah, here's the DNA,
this is Bob so and so, and here's where they lived.
It's way harder than that. You have to have their
DNA in a database in order to find them. And
when they tested all these packages.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
They all had.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
DNA that was the same DNA that was found at
April Tinsley's crime scene. So this confirms that the person
who's writing these notes isn't just like some weirdo trying
to get some attention from this case. It is actually
April's killer. But the DNA didn't match anyone in the
national database. They had no specific suspect, and at this
point they were desperately trying to figure it out, so
they ended up releasing some of these letters to the public.
(11:26):
They hoped that this would bring up something that someone
would have an idea, and obviously the community was very
concerned again because this time there are multiple kids being stocked.
The person is making threats. They've already carried out at
least one murder that we know of. Tons of tips
came in, but one tip came in that was really important.
It was someone who called and accused his own father
(11:47):
of being April's killer.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
This man actually lived really close.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
To where April lived and to where April was taken,
and he also had a history of child molestation. He
also used to own this polaroid camera and would take
pictures of random disturbing things. He also believed it was
his father because he said his father would write high
honey and ha ha, which are really general things like
a lot of people could have said that. But this
young man's father also had a blue pickup truck, and
(12:13):
a few days after April's murder, he painted the truck
a different color.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
That was very very interesting to police, so they.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Brought him in for questioning, and he claimed he had
never met April, but his daughter used to play with April,
so he knew of her. And when he first sat
down with investigators, he brought up the fact that he
was working on the day that April was killed. Now,
this is really weird to remember one specific day from fifteen.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Years ago exactly what you were doing.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
This was a major red flag to them, and they
ended up following up with his employer and found out
that he actually was not working on those days. He
also wasn't working on April fourth, which is the day
that her body was found and likely put there. So
investigators did a huge search of his home and they
found more evidence. They got a yellow notebook which looked
similar to the one that the person had written notes on,
(13:00):
and they also found a polaroid camera. At this time,
they really considered this man to be the prime suspect.
I'm not sure if his name has ever been released.
I have been able to find it, and they felt
really confident that maybe they had found the killer and
they could finally put this thing to rest. But unfortunately,
they test his DNA and it did not match any
of the DNA from any of the evidence and the
crime scene. So obviously, if it's not his DNA, it
(13:22):
wasn't him, So now they were back to square one.
On June twenty fourth, two thousand and five, the family
had like a little press conference trying to update people
on the case and just remind people that it was
still an unsolved case.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
A day after hearing new details of her murder, which
happened twenty four years ago, April Tinsley's family is speaking out.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
They are hopeful another round of national attention could help
track down the young girl's killer. Jim Tinsley says, it
feels like the crime that shattered his family just happened.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It's been twenty four years. Does it feel like that, No,
it seems like yesterday.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
It does when it's brought to the family, and now
it seemed like it it it it took place yesterday.
You know, it don't seem like twenty four years.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
April was attached to her uncle Jimmy. In her eight
short years of life.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
She was well liked, well loved, and so it it's
just horrible. And I know somebody out there has to
know something. I mean, this can't go on forever and ever.
I just hope you know it it it it comes
tuned in, you know. I mean, family's grieving enough and
and we we all we wanted to do is just
see that April was r you know, rest in peace
(14:34):
for now. Reporting in Fort Wayne, Drew Blair, News Channel fifteen.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
And as time goes on, obviously technology is getting better
in the crime world. We're seeing a lot of crimes
get solved with newer technology that just wouldn't have been
able to be solved, you know, like thirty years ago.
And one of the new technologies is called phenotyping. There's
this company called Paravian Nano Labs, and they basically use
a DNA sample from the crime scene and it creates
a digital sketch picture of what the person would look
(15:00):
like based on their DNA. So it's pretty incredible stuff
and after they ran the report, the results showed that
this person was British or German, had brown hair, green
or hazel eyes, and.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Very fair skin.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Investigators believed that the man was around thirty at the
time of the attack. And what was very interesting about
it is like the DNA description looked really similar to
the witness sketch, but obviously some time it passed at
this point, so they decided to actually run this sketch
again for him at age fifty and that's about how
old he would be today. But unfortunately, nothing really came
out of this. There just wasn't enough to grasp onto
(15:35):
or to connect anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
To this crime.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I really wanted to share this case because this is
an example of a crime that is being solved with
new technology. You know, I always talk about Thorn and
how they're developing new technologies to find human traffickers.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
This is the same type of thing.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Technology is getting so good that they are solving cases
that they just wouldn't have been able to solve before.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
In just three months, Parabon has identified four other killers
and is working forty more cases.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Thanks to new DNA technology and new developments and genealogy,
they were finally able to track down April's killer.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
This summer.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
July fifteenth, twenty eighteen, John D. Miller, who is fifty nine,
was charged with her murder. And basically what has been
happening nowadays is, you know, more and more people are
spitting in the little tube for ancestor DNA or whatever.
I've done it, and there's a ton of different gene
databases that have thousands of DNA records stored and even
(16:30):
if someone in your family has done one of these
DNA tests, it can be traced back to you. Now
recently they found the Golden State Killer this way. Basically,
they found his DNA and they always had it, but
it wasn't until recently that they were able to plug
it into a public database of genealogy, track it back
to one of his relatives, get some trash out of
his trash can, and then they were able to connect
(16:51):
that DNA back to him. I know it's kind of complicated,
but it's very very cool how this is happening.
Speaker 7 (16:57):
That huge break in a cold case harise in California
for decades, police say they now have the Golden State
Killer in custody.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
A police say this man seventy two year old Joseph
James Dangelo is the elusive Golden State Killer.
Speaker 8 (17:12):
We were able to get some discarded DNA and we
were able to confirm what we thought we already knew
that we had our.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Man DiAngelo seemingly hiding in plain sight, police surprising him
and taking him into custody on Tuesday as he was
leaving his hall.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And just like they did with the Golden State Killer,
a few weeks after they found the match, they went
to John D. Miller's house took some of his trash.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
After all these years, it only took weeks to solve
the case. Using a new cutting edge DNA analysis, They
found distant cousins to build the family tree backward, then
looked for descendants and narrowed the search to two brothers.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It really had to be one or the other because
they were carrying the right mix of DNA ancestors to
fit that profile.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Investigators collected DNA from one of the brothers trash.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Once the match was confirmed and they were positive that
this man was the killer. Who's an idiot thinking that
he's going to get away with this and purposely leaving
little DNA clues to all these different people in these
creepy notes. He clearly did not think they were going
to be able to do this. Clearly he had no
idea where technology was going, and so they approached him
at his house. They knocked on the door, asked him,
(18:28):
do you know what this is about?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And he said April Tinsley.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
John Miller was arrested Sunday. Rafa David says Miller admitted
to killing April Tinsley. He has not filed a plea
in court and has no attorney.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
There's only one word I want to ask him.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
This is why he's actually scheduled for court on August third,
which by the time you're watching this video, it may
already be August third or after August third.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
So as horrible as this.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Whole case is, how heart wrenching and terrible for the family,
you have to at least smile for the fact that
they have answers. You know, this family can finally know
what happened, know that this person's going to be incarcerated
and justice will be served for April.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
There's only one word I want to ask him, is why.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
For April's mom hope that justice may finally be within reach.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
I never imagined this wouldever come.
Speaker 7 (19:17):
April Tiensley's mom, Janet is taking things in stride.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
That's what we've been wanting for so many years, and
now it's.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
Here today Like so many other days, friends, neighbors, and
strangers surround the Janet to show their support and to
let her know that April was loved and still is.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's kind of a victory lap.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
We wanted to give back to the family and they've
had a rough time over.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
This last thirty years.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
We're all now pretty much at peace right now, and yeah,
we can be a little bit calmer and we can sleep.
Speaker 7 (19:54):
Janet knows the arrest won't bring back the daughter she
didn't get to see grow up, but she says it's
a good dark and seeking justice for April.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
But it certainly doesn't make up for all the time
that April's family has spent without her, all the things
that she was going to do in her life, maybe
a future family that she was going.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
To have, that was all just shattered.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Friends and family have set up a garden dedicated to April.
Speaker 8 (20:16):
April's Garden, I'm live at the intersection of Masterson and
Hogland Avenues and for three years, family, friends and total
strangers have been coming here to April's garden to pay
their respects and memorialize April Tinsley. This morning, the community
continues their support of the family with these messages we
love you, April, we stand with you, Our fight is
(20:39):
your fight, and many more along this area. It comes
just hours after the news broke that an arrest had
finally been made, and it's just kind of.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
A place where they can remember her and feel her
spirit and feel all the love that other people around
her had for her. What do you think about this
new DNA that's being used. Do you think it can
be used to solve other major cases? For example John
Biday Ramsey. The more and more people spent in the tubes,
the more crimes we're gonna solve.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
But that's it for me today. Guys.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I hope you're having a great day, Stay safe, and
I will talk to you next day.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
By her growing up, what would she look like, act like?
Would she be married? It would have been nice to
see Nat, But my memory of hers when she was
just a little girl, that's when it ends.
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