Criminology - April Marie Tinsley

Episode Date: October 20, 2018

In 1988, 8-year-old April Marie Tinsley was abducted and murdered in her hometown of Fort Wayne Indiana. The senseless murder rocked the entire town of Fort Wayne. Investigators struggled to find April's killer even though he left DNA behind. Her killer would terrorize the town through the years through his writings, some of which he put in the bicycle baskets of little girls. It would be 30 years before investigators, using a combination of DNA and genetic genealogy, would identify the man they believed murdered April. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'd like to welcome everyone to episode four, season four of criminology. We're continuing our coverage of these 2018 cases solved with DNA and help from Parabon, Jedmatch, and genetic genealogy. In the last episode, we covered the case of Tanya Van Kylanborg and Jay Cook, who were murdered in 1987. And their case was finally solved after 30 years. In this episode, we're going to cover another case that was solved after 30 years. And this is a tough one.

It's the case of eight-year-old April Marie Tensley. But before we dive into this episode, let's take care of some quick business. Starting off with our Patreon shoutouts. I want to give a big shout out to Molly Villarie. Al and Maggie Lawrence for becoming Patreon supporters. We appreciate that very much. And thanks as always for your continued support. We can't tell you enough how much we appreciate it.

And Patreon supporters get some different goodies, which include ad-free, early access to our episodes. If you'd like to support Criminology on Patreon, please visit patreon.com slash criminology. And more, if we have to talk about our new book, The Golden State Killer Book is out now in paperback based on our coverage in season two of the case. It's titled Criminology True Crime Podcast Presents the case of the Golden State Killer. And you can find that right now out on Amazon.

And finally, we have one more thing we'd like to tell you about. And that's something we talked a little about in last week's episode. The website, Discoverpods.com, is accepting nominations for the best podcast of 2018. If you think criminology is worthy of being on that list, please visit Discoverpods.com to fill out your ballot right away because voting ends on October 26th. All right, Morif we have all of that out of the way. Let's get into the case for this episode.

You know, all of these cases, all of these crimes that were solved in 2018 using DNA along with Paribon, Jedmatch, and genetic genealogy, they're remarkable. And they're long overdue. All of these cases were so very deserving of being sold. And all of the killers in these cases were predators that thought they could get away with what they did. But perhaps none of these cases has been harder on a community than the 1988 abduction, rape, and murder of eight-year-old April Marie Tensley in Fort Wayne, Indiana. When that little girl was killed, it rocked that city, and people would not let their children out of their sights.

And it changed the easygoing Midwestern landscape there forever. And what made matters worse is that instead of slipping out of sight and staying quiet, or maybe even showing some remorse or a regret for what he did, April's killer continued to taunt and terrorize the residents of Fort Wayne for years after, almost as if he was proud of what he had done, and he seemed to take pleasure and instilling fear in the residents of the community, and specifically the children in that community. And there's no doubt.

This is not going to be an easy episode. We're covering some very difficult subject matter and the details and the facts behind the case are disturbing. They're disgusting. But we have to tell April's entire story. And if you don't already appreciate. these cases that have been solved in 2018, using all of this technology, you will by the end of this episode. And we have an amazing interview with April's mother that you just don't want to miss. But let's go back to Fort Wayne, Indiana in the 1980s. Fort Wayne was a staple of the Midwest.

This is a big city, but with a small city feel where everyone somehow seemed to know each other. But in reality, Fort Wayne is the second largest city in the state of Indiana. In 1988, it had a population of roughly 173,000 people. It's located in Allen County in the northeast part of Indiana. It was back then, and it still is, a middle-class. class, mostly blue-collar area of the Midwest. In the 1980s, Fort Wayne and some of the surrounding areas were hit hard by a downturn in manufacturing jobs and an increase in crime. But people there stuck it out and stayed there because it was their home. And they liked the

way of life that they had there. One of these families there at that time was the Tinsley family. Michael and Janet Tinsley lived on the south side of Fort Wayne on the 300 block of West Williams Street, along with their children, 8-year-old April, and 2-year-old Paul. They were happy to call Fort Wayne home. They had extended family in the area, and they pictured their kids growing up there. Eight-year-old April was a little girl with blue eyes, a hint of a mischievous smile, and a head full of curly, sandy blonde hair. The shy Fairfield Elementary School first grader enjoyed roaming around her neighborhood and visiting friends. on April 1st, 1988, that's what April had planned to do. It was both April Fool's Day and Good Friday.

It was an overcast day with rain in the forecast, but as is the case with most kids that age, a little bit of rain was not going to stop April. She was extremely excited to start her weekend because she had been let out of school early that day. After school, April came home and had lunch. She then asked her mom, Janet, if she could go to her friend Nicole's house, who lived a couple blocks away on the 2,300 block of West Hoagland Avenue. Janet told April that she could go as long as she called home when she got to Nicole's house to let Janet know she made it okay. April promised she would and walked out the door.

Janet stopped April as she was walking out the door and told her to take her umbrella with her. A short while later, April called her mom to let her. her know she had made it. Janet told April to make sure she was home before 4 p.m. Because it was supposed to start raining around that time. April assured her mom that she would be and that she had her umbrella with her. She told her mom goodbye and hung up. That would be the last time Janet ever spoke with her daughter. Janet passed the time taking care of Paul. She eventually noticed that it was 4 p.m. and April wasn't home. Worried that April might be out in the rain more than anything, she called over to Nicole's house and spoke with Nicole's mother.

This call would be the start of something that would change Janet's and the entire Tensley family's lives forever. Nicole's mom told Janet that the girls had gone to a nearby playground for a little while. Around 3 p.m., April left the playground to head home, but she realized that she had left her umbrella at Nicole's house. So she told her, she told Nicole that she was going to walk to her house to get it before going home. At that point, Nicole left the playground as well, but she went to another friend's house. Nicole's mom told Janet that April never came back for her umbrella and Janet's heart sank. That playground was located near the 300 block of West Sutton Feld Street, not far from Nicole's house.

Janet immediately told her husband Michael that April was missing, and they quickly organized some neighbors, and in a very short time, several residents were out searching the areas between April's and Nicole's homes. After a couple of grueling hours of searching and not finding any sign of April, the Tinsley's decided that they needed to call the police. When police arrived at the Tinsley home, Janet was a wreck, understandably. But she managed to supply police with a photo of April, as well as a thorough description. description of what she was wearing that day, which was a pink and red jacket and light blue jeans with hearts on them. Police wanted to focus on the area around the playground and then trace April's route back to Nicole's, which was only a few blocks away.

As they did this, they found no signs of 8-year-old April, and they gradually spread the search out over several blocks. And by that point, there were nearly 100 police and residents looking for April. April, but still there was no sign of her. As the hours passed and it began to get dark, both the police and the Tensley's feared that something was terribly wrong and that this wasn't just a case of April being lost or hurt. Instead, they started to think it was very likely that she was abducted.

Word began to spread through Fort Wayne that there was a child abductor on the loose and scared parents kept a close eye on their children. By the next day, there was still no sign of April, and police intensified their efforts in scouring the neighborhood. But they came up empty. Two more days would pass with no sign of April. Then on April 4th, three days after April went missing, there was heartbreaking news. A jogger had found the body of a young girl in a rain-filled roadside ditch along County Road 68, a mile west of the town of Spencerville. This was in DeKalb County about 18 miles northeast of Fort Wayne. When police arrived at the scene where the body was found,

a little after 3.30 p.m., many of them knew in their gut that the body would turn out to be that of April Marie Tinsley. And sure enough, when the young girl's body was retrieved, the clothing on the body matched April's. Police soon verified that the remains were indeed that of April Tinsley. This was a devastating discovery for police, and they had to break the news to April's parents that their little girl was dead.

but they also still had the job of figuring out what happened to April. April's body didn't show obvious signs of how she was killed. Police theorized that she was murdered and most likely suffocated. Police determined that April was killed elsewhere and dumped where her body was found. She was completely clothed other than one missing shoe. As police searched the area where April's body had been dumped, they found a sex toy wrapped in a Sears bag. And this was a very odd sex toy. It was unusual.

It was described as a dildo with a crank on one end. Now, this is information that police chose not to release to the public because they definitely thought it was connected to April's murder. but what this did was it led police to speculate that April was sexually assaulted. Police did eventually find April's missing shoe in the surrounding area. It was on the opposite side of the road, almost 300 yards from where her body was found. This was yet another piece of information that police chose not to release to the public. An autopsy performed on April verified investigators early suspicators. Apricians. April had indeed been suffocated, and despite being almost fully clothed, she had been

sexually assaulted. Police knew that they had a monster on their hands, and they needed to kick their investigation into overdrive in an effort to catch this predator. Fort Wayne Police asked the public for help and received several tips. One of them in particular seemed to be very credible. On April 5th, a witness came forward and reported that she had seen a girl that she believed was April Tinsley, walking in the area where she disappeared from on Friday, April 1st. The witness told police that as the young girl crossed the street, a beat-up blue truck with loud tailpipes pulled up alongside of April. After a moment, the truck pulled away, and the young girl was gone. The witness didn't actually see the girl get into the truck.

This witness described the driver of the truck as being a white male, possibly in his early 30s, with dirty blonde or brown wavy hair. Based on the eyewitness description, police felt that this person actually saw April's abductor and they created a composite sketch that they immediately released to the public on April 7th. Their hope was that someone in the public would recognize the man in the composite or his blue truck. On April 8th, a week after her abduction,

Over 150 mourners attended April's memorial service at the Faith United Methodist Church. Trying to pull out all the stops, the FBI was also called into trying to identify April's killer. Police dug through any known sex offenders in the area. Investigators left no stones unturn to catch this killer. Tips continued to come in, and one by one, police check them out. But none of the tips led anywhere. police did become interested in the 34-year local man with reported ties to Satanism. Although police arrested him for another crime,

they didn't have any information or evidence linking him to April's murder. In late April, less than a month after the murder, police announced that they had DNA evidence collected from April's underwear, and that if they found the right suspect, they would know it for sure. Now remember, this is 1988. This is the very early stages of DNA signs. The sample was examined by a lab in Maryland, who at the time were doing groundbreaking work with DNA. This DNA didn't lead anywhere immediately, but it was a harbinger of things to come.

Over several weeks, the tips and leads dwindle. Weeks turned into months with no arrest. During this time, the Tinsie family was heartbroken and devastated by the loss of their only daughter. But they tried to go on as best they could for their son, Paul. A year passed with no breaks in the case, and then another year, the April Tinsley murder case was cold, and it looked like a killer might get away. The city of Fort Wayne began to loosen up a little over time, and eventually parents let their children have more freedom.

After all, there hadn't been any more child murders or abductions. But in May 1990, just a little bit past the two-year-old. anniversary of April's murder, something happened that once again put both police and area residents on alert. On May 21st, a young boy discovered a shocking message scrawled on the side of his family's barn and reported it to police. The barn in question was located in DeKalb County about 10 miles from where April's body had been found. The message written in crown with a shaky hand and filled with spelling errors right as follows. I killed eight-year-old April Marie Tinsley. Did you find her other shoe? I will kill again. Ha, ha, ha. Police knew that this message was

from the killer and not a cruel hoax. The line, did you find her other shoe, was something that caught their attention, something that only the killer could know. Police made the decision to release images of the handwriting, hoping that someone would read it. recognize it and come forward. And although tips came in, none of them led to any new breaks in the case. It did, however, lead to renewed concerns in Fort Wayne among its residents. Then in June, only a few weeks after the barn riding was discovered, the unthinkable happened. The body of a young girl was discovered in a ditch off Coldwater Road in Fort Wayne. The body was identified as that of seven-year-old Sarah Jean Balker.

The coroner, Dr. Philip O'Shaughnessy, determined that Sarah had been raped and suffocated, just like April Marie Tensley two years prior. He had also been the medical examiner in April's case. And in his opinion, he thought that the same person that killed April may have killed Sarah. And this was based on the first person. fact that the crimes and injuries were just so very similar. So you have the second murder of a little girl in Fort Wayne in less than two years. And this set off shockwaves in the city. And people were once again on high alert and afraid to let their kids out of their sight. FBI profilers didn't

agree with Oshonnessy. And based on evidence that they found, they felt that Balker and Tinsley were killed by two different people. Police investigated the Balker case, and five years later in 1995, they concluded that a man named Roy Hensley, who was a family friend of the Balker family, was likely Sarah's killer. The problem was that Hensley had died the year before in 1994, but based on the circumstantial evidence, they closed the case. It wasn't long after Sarah Balker's body was found that April Tinsley's parents, Janet and Mike, decided that the spotlight was too much to handle and that they were having to relive April's case over and over again. It opened up old wounds for them, and they decided to move away from Fort Wayne in 1991.

After the barn riding incident, just as quickly as the killer had come back to taunt police, he vanished. For the next several years, there was no sign of the killer. It wasn't until March 25th, 2004, this is almost 16 years. After April's murder, that the killer would once again come out of hiding to taunt police and frighten Fort Wayne. A young Fort Wayne girl discovered a plastic Ziploc bag inside of her bicycle basket. She took it to her parents who called police. Inside the bag was a note written on yellow lined paper, was scrawled in messy, unstable writing, and it read,

Hi, honey, I've been watching you. I am the same person that kidnapped and raped and killed April Marie Tinsley. Here is a present for you. You are my next victim. If you don't report this to police, or I don't see this in the paper tomorrow or on the local news, I will blow up your house killing everyone but you. You will be mine. Police quickly determined that the note was written by the same person who had written,

written on the barn door 14 years earlier. Even more disturbing was what else was in the bag. Investigators found a semen-filled condom. DNA testing on it would conclusively link it to April's killer. This sinister correspondence was not the last from the killer. Over the next few months, other bags turned up attached to young girls' bicycles. One was found in a mailbox. One of the letters read,

I am the same person that kidnapped, raped, and murdered, April Tinsley. Ha ha. In total, there were three bags left with letters and each contained a used, semen-filled condom. The fourth and last bag left by the killer included a letter that read in part, Hi, honey, I've been watching you. Here is a picture of my, but we don't know what the my is. that part was redacted by police. Now part of it also read,

I can't wait to get my hands on you. Along with the letter were several Polaroid photos of the killer's nude lower body and his penis. So most likely that is what he's referring to in that first part of the letter. It appeared that he was masturbating in the photos. And these photos gave police some valuable insights and clues to work with.

First off, Polaroid cameras and film were not widely used or available in 2004. So they knew that the killer owned or at least borrowed one. In one of the photos, police noted a distinct green paisley pattern bedspread. Some portions of these photos and letters were released to the public, but none of it led to anyone coming forward with information. After this 2004 correspondence, the killer dropped from sight and there was no confirmed contact from him again. The photos and letters revealed clues about the killer. In 2009, the FBI released a profile of April Tinsley's killer based on the correspondence and all of the other information that they had about him. He was a white, circumcised

male. In 2004, he was in his 40s or 50s. He lived. lived and or worked in the northeast section of Fort Wayne or Allen County. He frequented places where children were likely to be and focused on young girls. He had low to medium income. He owned or borrowed a Polaroid camera in 2004. In 2004, he had hair on his lower legs. And in 2004, likely owned or borrowed a forest green pickup truck with a matching camper shell. This last item was due to a witness seeing a similar vehicle pulling away from one of the girls'

where a note was left. Despite the 2009 FBI profile, there were no leads. There were no breaks in this case. And this is a good spot to assess what this monster had done up to this point. In 1988, he abducted, raped, and murdered April Tensley. Two years later, he wrote on a barn door as if to brag about it and taunt police almost saying, you know what, screw you. You can't catch me. Then 16 years after the murder, he came back again to terrorize the city and lead disgusting, vulgar, and threatening letters and semen-filled condoms where young girls would find them. All of this was beyond sick and all definitely appointed to a man that had no remorse and got off on terrorizing people, specifically young girls. This was definitely someone that needed to be caught.

If there's good news, it's that he left a lot of DNA along the way, and that would eventually be his downfall. It would take time, but DNA science and tools were advancing steadily, and in 2016, investigators in the Tinsley case turned to Parabon Nanolabs, who were making headlines for generating composite sketches of what an offender might look like based on his DNA. Using the killer's DNA, they create a snapshot composite and profile of some physical traits of the killer. This snapshot concluded that the killer either had fair or very fair skin, hazel or green eyes, and brown or black hair. His ancestry was also 70% Central East European. This wasn't a lot to go on. But it's only one of the tools that investigators had at their disqualmie.

disposal. Two years later, in 2018, it would be genetic genealogy coupled with DNA that would blow this case wide open. And it would be Parabon. Parabon Nanolabs, the same company that did the composite, they took the next steps to identify April Marie Tensley's killer by submitting his DNA profile into Jedmatch. And it didn't take long to link the killer's DNA to relatives and ancestors in the Jedmatch database. And from there, that's where the genetic genealogy came into play. But as we know, as we've talked about, that's not an overnight process.

But you have to imagine these detectives in the Tinsley case that have been searching for this scumbag for 30 years, thinking that in a matter of, of weeks, they likely would know the person they had been chasing for so long. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Wood. Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Finally, that day came. Parabon's genetic genealogy team had narrowed the list of family members down to a pair of brothers in the Fort Wayne area. The names of these brothers were given to investigators, and from there, police needed to figure out which brother was the killer. Police put the brothers under surveillance and removed trash from the yards looking for DNA that matched the killers. And after searching for April's killer for 30, years, the DNA of one of those brothers, 59-year-old John D. Miller was a complete match to April's killer. On Sunday, July 15, 2018, Fort Wayne Police confronted John Miller and asked him to come to the station to answer questions. He agreed, and at the police station, he confessed to killing

April Tinsley. Miller was charged with murder, child molesting, and confinement. The news was long overdue for residents in the Fort Wayne area and for April Tinsley's family. Here's the Allen County press conference about that arrest. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Karen Richards, and I am the Allen County prosecuting attorney. Anytime there is an abduction and murder of an innocent child, it is devastating to a community. And I think the anguish is only compounded when that crime is not immediately solved. The abduction and death of eight-year-old April Tinsley that finally culminated in an arrest on Sunday has haunted this community for over 30 years. I will remind you that in

Indiana, as we discuss this case, all persons charged with crimes are considered to be innocent until and unless they are proven guilty. Therefore, we are prohibited in any way from discussing with you the details of this case. And that really is not the purpose of this news conference. Our Supreme Court dictates that we try our cases in court. We do not try them in front of the media. That being said, many of us, myself included, were part of the investigation that began on April 1, 1988. This case was solved.

by the tireless efforts of many of the people in this room and many of the agencies who are represented by the folks standing behind me. The purpose of this news conference is to thank them for all of the work that they have put into this investigation over the last 30 years. I will tell you that I was in the office. I was part of this investigation when it started, and there has not been a day, a month, or a year that has gone by without someone in this room working on this case. There were so many different law enforcement agencies involved that it's hard for me to remember all of them I'm going to try, that they have tirelessly been following every single weed that has been coming to them and investigating every possible new type of scientific technology to determine if that would assist them in solving this crime.

Their dedication makes me very proud to be a prosecutor. It makes me proud to be part of law enforcement, and it makes this community proud of. them. But it started out with the Fort Wayne Police Department, the Allen County Police Department, the Indiana State Police, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, crime scene detectives, the Allen County Prosecutor's Office, the DeKalb County Prosecutor's Office, the Media, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has been so helpful to us, I want to tell you how much I thank them. And Parabon. They have done a fabulous job for us in this case. This case has haunted this community

for 30 years, and I believe you have given us some closure. That being said, the few details that I can give you include the fact that the defendant's next court date is July 19th. At that time, formal charges will be filed. Other than that, there really are not details that I can give you on the case. Do you think that genetic genealogy is a game changer in cold case investigation? In general, yes, I do. What would you say to those out there who think they got away with their crimes? I think this case should tell them something different. Miller appeared in court before an Allen County judge the next morning,

and the judge ordered him held without bond, and he gave prosecutor 72 hours to formally charge Miller. This arrest made headlines across the country, and residents in the Fort Wayne, Indiana, area knew that they were safer. John Miller's brother talked about how shocked he was to find out that his own brother did this. But it's very clear that he didn't have any pity for his brother. As far as I'm concerned, when they told me that he confessed to this crime, my brother died. I'm done. The brother of John Miller, the man arrested for the 1988 abduction, rape, and murder of 8-year-old April Tinsley,

asked that we not use his name or show his face. He says John stopped by his house at about 7.30 Sunday morning, as usual, to pick up some meals in the Sunday paper. Police arrested him at his Grable trailer about an hour later. The brother rushed there after a neighbor called and said police questioned him for about an hour and a half, and that he willingly gave a cheek swab for a DNA sample. They asked, have you heard of the April? I said, don't tell me he's here for that. The brother says John was born a little slow and never had a girlfriend.

He says John has worked at the Kendallville Walmart for about a dozen years, stocking the electronics department on overnight shifts. He also says in the early 70s when he was a young teenager, John Miller spent time at Wood Youth Center than a reform school, but he doesn't know why. His mom told him some information. I don't know if she knew for fact or, but she said he got. molested in there. If that happened, you know, maybe that triggered something in him that he thought it was all right or something. I don't know. He says John's always had a temper, but he never imagined

he might be involved in this case. What he did is just sick. I'm done with him. You know, like I said, his arraignment was today. I didn't go to that. And, you know, if they, if they want me for a witness or something in court, they're going to have to subpoena me or something, because I don't have any tensions and go and seeing him or anything. The brother says in hindsight he should have picked up on an important detail years ago, but didn't. The handwriting on the paper that I seen on the news yesterday, that's his handwriting. He says he's glad their parents didn't live to see this, adding that like everyone else, they both knew about the Tinsley case. And he says the whole thing makes him sick to his stomach. Whatever he gets, he deserves. You know, I just,

just wish he would have got caught a long time ago. He's going to have to pay for what he did. Even if that's the death penalty? That little girl died, didn't she? There really isn't a whole lot that's known about John Miller other than what his brother mentioned. He would have been 29 years old when April Tensley was killed. He wasn't married, never had a girlfriend, lived alone, and to support himself, he stocked shelves at Walmart. Now, we know his DNA matched, but he also does look a lot like the sketch

circulated in April's case. And as you heard in that segment with his brother, he thought that John Miller's handwriting matched the killers. John D. Miller for much of his adult life lived in the town of Grable, Indiana. It's about 15 miles northeast of Fort Wayne, but for a time in the 1980s, he used an address on the 4,100 block of Bellow Drive in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have to say, this has been a case that I've followed closely for a long time since I was just out of high school. I've researched this case and written about it, and I had an image in my mind of what this guy would look like when he was caught, and he fits that to a T. Just imagine serial killer, oddest tool with the jagged, unkept teeth. This guy looks the part.

He looks like the guy you could picture doing something like this. I know he's presumed innocent until proven guilty, but one thing I know by now is DNA, don't lie. Seeing this case solved was at the top of my true crime wish list, and I knew that covering this case wasn't going to be easy. Yeah, Morph, as parents, covering cases involving murdered children, is never easy. April's mother, Janet Tinsley, agreed to talk with us about April's case, and what the last 30 years have been like for her and her family as they've waited for justice for April's murder.

Hi, Janet. Thanks so much for coming on to discuss April's case with me today. You're welcome. And I wanted to say right from the beginning just how happy I was when I saw that police had made an arrest in April's case. How good did that feel when police let you know that the man who did this to April had been caught? It felt real good. We were excited, and then in the same frame, we were like shocked if we wasn't really expecting it. I mean, it's been this long, and it was like, are you for real?

Are you actually really happening? And so you wanted it for so long, but then it actually happened, you almost didn't believe it was real. Right. And I imagine it was bittersweet for you. because on the one hand, you have an answer about who did this, but on the other hand, having that information doesn't bring back April. How tough has the last 30 years been for you and your family to deal with all this? Well, we've been through a lot, and we're still trying to cope with it

and trying to figure out if it's, you know, actually reality. And it's slowly, I mean, it's slowly coming together. And I followed April's case for so many years. And I've wanted to see this case solved so badly. And I was happy to see that news that day that they had made this arrest. And I can only imagine, you know, how happy everybody in your area where you live was as well to find out that. somebody that had done some bad stuff like that had been caught? Yeah.

At first, everybody kept saying, are you sure it's him? You know, is the right person. It had to be like more than one. That's something there. Well, he admitted it. And I said, well, we'll just have to, you know, take it by day by day and see how it pans out. And I know crimes like this against children are hard to discuss. But at the same time, our kids are the most.

most valuable thing we have in the world. So we need to let, you know, we need to not let cases like April's fly under the radar. And it's important to remember them and talk about them, to keep them from happening again. I talk about her all the time. I bring her name up. I got her pictures all around. Anybody that talks about her, they act like they're afraid to say something. I said, don't be afraid.

You know, mention her name. You know, talk about her. I mean, she was a little, she was a child. She was a human. And like it's, you know, she wasn't there. So I bring her, I bring her up a lot. Yes, you don't want her to be forgotten, basically. No.

Yeah. And if you can, I know this may be hard on you. But can you take us back to that day in 1988 when April went missing and walk us through what happened that day? that day it was April Bulls and Good Friday fell in the same day and all the children got out of school half a day and she come home

ate lunch, changed clothes and then she stole some of her Easter candy that was in her basket and she goes I'm going I want to go over to her friend's house in place and I watched her you know, go partially away, and then she crossed the street, knew she was right there, and they were there playing for a while, and then she'd been home like round four.

And when she never came back, we all went up there, looked around, went to Nicole's house. They all came out, and then we went to the little girl's house that lived two doors from her. around the corner and they said that Nicole stayed at the little girl's house and April went out to go around the corner to get her umbrella that she left and they said at time she left at one little girl's house to go around the corner she never made it to her friend Nicole's house. We were, that's when we all started to panic like where where she'd go, well, she knew. And she knew she don't want her off because with her being shy and basketball.

So it wasn't like her to just wander off and go someplace where she wasn't supposed to go. No. And how quickly did you get, you know, that panic to where you went out looking all over for her? And how scary was that? Oh, it was pretty scary. I mean, not if you don't know what you're, you know, you're doing, not expecting to, you know, go wandering up and down alleys and trying to figure out, you know, what all friends she knew because she only knew a couple of people that lived around there. And she, um, we went to each and every place and looked and didn't find nobody. Then it was like, I waited until like 6 p.m.

They said you had to wait a couple hours, and then we called the police and had them help find her. And that's when we had over 300 some people's search party going on. And what was it like to have so many of those people, your neighbors and friends and people out there helping you to search for April? It was overwhelmed. I mean, not knowing the outcome and everybody, most of the people that was helping, they had kids. They were all out trying to make sure she came home. So they really cared and they wanted to help you? Yeah.

As a parent myself, I can't even imagine how hard that day must have been for you. What went through your mind after April, after you guys couldn't find her in your? were looking so hard. What were you thinking at that point? Well, so many things were going through my mind. It's like, where is she? Who's got her? You know, is she hurt somewhere? You know, things like, hey, you just never know. It was going through your mind. And for a few days, you're sitting around waiting, hoping for something good to happen, and the police are out looking for her. But then you've got the worst possible news that you could get.

How did police break the news to you that they had found April and that she was dead? That day I was supposed to do a TV interview and was getting ready to do the interview and all of a sudden a Mark Carr pulled up and the detective said that the interview was over. there wasn't going to be no TV interview and wanted to speak to me by myself. So we went where we lived there. We lived upstairs and we went upstairs. And that's when they told me, they showed me a picture. And when they showed me it is.

And I knew way she was laying, it was her. So they showed you a picture of her actually after they found her just to make sure it was her? Yeah. And that must have been very difficult to see. Oh, yeah, it was. And after that happened, after the police started looking, and you had to deal with all of that that happened, how did you cope?

How did you go through those days afterwards and get by, especially since you had a family and another child that you still had to care for? Well, it was like you're sitting there and you're still not. You don't know what the next move you got to make. You don't know what family and everybody, they kept telling me, they go, it'll be all right. You're strong. You're going to make it.

It's like you just don't know what's inside someone's head when you're something like that happens. It's like, yeah, you're going to be all right, but it's just going to take time. And we're still not used to it. Yeah, even 30 years later, it's still. Yeah. It's still a big thing for you. Oh, yeah. And during that time that, you know, you're trying to heal and you have to, you know, have a funeral for her and all this hard stuff that you've got to do, the police are out there looking for whoever did this.

Did they stay in touch with you the whole time and keep up to date with what they were doing? Yeah. Yeah. For a while there, we were up to date. every day, even if it was something small. And then when they change out throughout the years,

they changed out so many de-tects. You get used to, you know, first couple people and you get close to them, and then all of a sudden you got some new ones. And then there'd be

maybe a gap in between letting us know anything. Like I thought, I don't care if it's a piece of paper with a drawing on it, if it's a mark, let us know if you found anything. And they all go, well, yeah, we'll let you know. But then at the same time, you get that little gap. It'd be like a year or two, you may not hear nothing.

And it's like going through your mind. Are they still working on the case? Do they even, you know, care? And, I mean, that's what you're thinking yourself, but actually they're still working on it. And during that time afterwards, did you ever wonder if you knew the person that did this or if the person that did this might have known April or known your family? Did you start to wonder about people and think they might have been the person that did this? Yeah, at first we kind of think who would do this.

First they thought it was like a family member. And we're thinking, like who in the family would be stupid. enough to lower themselves to do something like this. And then we're thinking, no, it just had to be somebody random, you know, out picking up, you know, kids. And then they asked us if we knew anybody that would do it. And then when we found out who it was, then we were asked if we knew who he was and we were seeing him before. and I never, I never seen anymore.

I only, less than I knew anybody that named Miller, it was when I was in, I'll say, elementary school. At first we didn't know who it was. So there was nobody that jumped out at you, that you thought this might be the person that did this? Not at first, but I knew my one neighbor, when she was having problems, where they took her kids,

and she kind of playing me at first and her boyfriend was always drunk all the time and when the police and that came to her house and they were, I guess they were doing like a welfare check and check and see if her house was clean like it was supposed to be and apparently I guess they didn't like the way her house and that stuff was, so they called the people in and had removed her three kids. And I wasn't at home at the time.

I was that I took son to the doctor. And I was coming around the corner and everybody kept telling me, don't go home. You stay here. I was saying, they're like, why can I go home? And that's when I found out her kids were taken away from her and they were blaming me. And I was saying, well, I said, took a child and everybody, it wasn't me. I didn't know nothing about this. And then they said it might have been like a revenge towards me.

But I guess we had to give a list of people that we lived around. And the police interviewed everybody. And I guess they cleared him. So you thought that it was possible that this person may have been mad because they thought you were the one that turned them in and had their kids taken away and they might have tried to get revenge by taking April. Yeah. That's what they saw at first, but then it turned out it wasn't because I guess they talked to him, DNA and everything.

He got cleared. So then we were like back at the beginning trying to figure out who could it be. And so a lot of years go by and then this killer starts writing letters and mailing letters about, you know, what he had done to April, and that scared, you know, people in that area where you lived. How frightened were people when he started writing those letters at the time? It very much got everybody's attention again because he was doing pretty good for a while. Then all of a sudden it was like a few years went by, and then when the 90s hit, he started doing, going on the barns and the notes.

And it seemed like when he was putting them notes in the baggies and putting them on bicycles, it was always the little girl's bikes. He never had them on boys' bikes. It was always girls, like he was just targeting little girls. And then when he was putting his pictures of himself in a couple of them, and then his DNA was in a couple of them. At first they couldn't find him in the database because they had his DNA and everything,

but they just couldn't find him. And I kept questioning, why can't you find him? He said, well, he may never killed before. If he did, he didn't leave any DNA behind or he did like robbery or some kind of theft that they don't do DNA on. And so his DNA wasn't in the database that the criminals go into. So that's what they're trying to find to see if he was in there, but it didn't match to any of those.

No. And when those letters were sent and you saw that he was doing this to those little girls and leaving stuff on their bikes, did that sort of scare you or open up those old wounds for your family? you know, did that bring back, what he had done to April back fresh into your mind? Oh, yeah. It's like, here we go again. It's like, is this dude ever going to give up? And actually, who is he?

So, yeah, well, he was terrorizing everybody, especially the family. It's like we never get a break. You know, eventually a lot of time passes several years and then, you know, decades go by. and the case is still not solved. Were you thinking that entire time that this case might not ever be solved, or were you always hopeful that eventually he would be caught? At first, it was it being, you know, 30 years, you're thinking it's never going to be solved.

We're going to be like most of these out here that they're just going to, you know, get about you and nothing's going to come out. of it, then all of a sudden, boom. Because first we told them they needed, try the Ancestry.com stuff. But they said they couldn't do it because it's invading people's privacy. That's another in this case. They ain't nobody got any privacy. So they tried it, and that's how they found this dude.

In 2018, they finally announced that they had arrested April's killer. Right. What did that news feel like for you and your family? How good was it to finally hear that? We were just doing our everyday thing. What we do every day? And then all of a sudden I looked up to kitchen window, and I've seen a police cruiser and a black SUV coming down.

I said, well, somebody's in trouble. Not thinking that they're coming to my house. And then all of a sudden they pulled up in front of the house, and it's like, okay, who's in trouble? trouble. And then all the prosecutor and a couple of the testers and everybody come out, they come in and they go, we got some news for you. And I'm sitting there. Okay. And then they showed us a picture,

the flyer that they had. And they go, have you seen? Or do you know anybody that looked like this? And we all looked at them and said, I have never seen anybody that I can remember throughout the years, and they said that they told us his name and how old he was, and they said that they went to his house and they knocked on his door and asked him, do they know, does he know why they are here? And he said, yeah, said, you're here to arrest me for April and Marie Chisley Kim. So he knew that his time was, you know, about the end.

He knew probably from watching in the news that these other people had been arrested, and he knew it was only a matter time before he'd be arrested. Yeah. And that must have been a really good feeling for you at that moment, just to know and see the person that did this and know that he wasn't going to get away with it. Yeah, that's true. And you said that was that guy that did it, is not somebody that you knew or your family knew. He was a total stranger.

Yeah. I mean, like I told him, none of us knew who he was. And because they said they got him from pretty much the sketches that they had out. And you're looking at him and you're trying to think, you know, if he looked like the sketch, but that was probably, you know, the sketch that they made was when he was younger. Then you're sitting there staring at him trying to think, are you the soul person or is there somebody else that you're covering up for. So there's still some questions in your mind if he was the only person or if there was

anybody else that wasn't involved? Yeah. I got told the police department, I said there was her being shy and basketball. And they said that she probably just, you know, got in the car with them. I said there, no, she won't even do that if it was a family member. She hide behind somebody. She was always scared to go to anybody's car. And then when this all happened, it's like, yeah, she might have just, you know, was tired and they thought that he was going to give her a ride home.

And I said there, no, the only way that she would get in the car, and he would have to get out and grab her. She wouldn't volunteer herself. So we had so many different thinking, like, how did it go? and none of us still can't, you know, figure out. But like I told him, there has to be more than just him. Because one person can't just do that. And, you know, now you've had some time from the go to court and all. And do you still think that or you think now after a little bit of time that you've had that he is the only one?

Sometimes there's a little part of me in back of my mind that he got a half have somebody else, and then you stare at him and you're trying to think, how are you the only one that can do it? Is there any other ones that you might have done that they haven't figured out yet? And you just said they're staring at him, like, you got so much going through your, like, you just don't know what the answer will be because ain't nobody wants to answer your questions. And I know you went to the court for one of the proceedings that he had and that you're not that far from him. What was that experience like being in that courtroom so close to him? It was kind of scary.

I mean, I had like knots in my stomach, like, you know, not knowing what to expect. And you have the prosecutors that's on the case talking to you and telling you what's going to be. this, what they're going to do. And you have all kinds of family members. I'll have my side. I'll have my husband's side. We're all sitting right there. And they'll have me, if they need to talk to me privately, they'll get me off the side

or we'll go out the doors. And then when they bring him, if they have other cases before then, then his case would be the last one. And they'll bring him in there. and you hear all the family members underneath the breast say and calling him this, calling him something else. What I said, are y'all shut up? I got my own words I like to say, but I can't. Did it make you angry?

Did you have any kind of feelings when you saw him or you were close to him? What went through your mind? Oh, where we were sitting out of the front row, and he's probably, I don't know, 50 feet maybe. It wasn't too far, I mean, far enough, but I sit there and everybody else be crying. I'm sitting there just staring a hole from the side of his head. I don't, I never blink. I just stare. And the more I stare at him, the more I keep thinking, like, yes, I finally got you.

And you ain't getting away. I'm going to fry. I'm going to have you fried. I had all kinds of things going through your mind. and the last court proceedings we had, he got him two lawyers, and they're trying to get moved out of the city of Fort Wayne to somewhere else so people don't remember. But like we said, I don't care if you're part of Indiana you go to.

Everybody knows about the case, yeah. Oh, yeah. And are you worried that when you go to court and you have to hear some of these things that it's going to be very difficult to hear some of the details that they talk about. Oh, yeah, because the prosecutors did tell me, they go, don't be discouraged. You're going to hear things and you're going to see things that has happened throughout the 30 years. I mean, we had 30 years of this. And I said, yeah, most of it, I was in the dark.

But they said, you're going to be like, it's going to be like, from day one, it's going to start all over again. But at the end, the results are going to be so much sweeter. And I said, yeah, I made a joke about it. I said, yeah, we're going to party like it's 1999. You know, instead of focusing on the way that April died, I wanted to talk a little bit about her life and what kind of person she was. What kind of daughter was she for you?

And what was it like having her in your life? she was shy basketball they said everybody told me when the way she acted

and carried herself was like it was me reincarnated all over again and she looked like me

when I was younger and they could swore she was like my sister and but when I was

16 I told everybody when I get married my first child if it's a little girl, it's going to have blonde hair, blue eyes, a little bit of curl in it.

She got the curl from her daddy. And when she was born, everybody goes, you ain't got a name, you ain't got to tell us her name because we already know. Because I had it written down on a piece of paper. I even had my mom go get it notarized. This is what it's going to be. This was actually going to happen. And I got, I got my wish.

So you had been planning on having April in your life even before she came along. Yeah. And then when she came along, she was exactly what you were hoping for. Oh, yeah. I wish you had more time with her instead of the eight years. I wish I had to because you think throughout the years, so she could have been graduated. She got married, and then you had one or three kids or whatever how many she wanted to wanted and I mean she could have had a different outlook.

Yeah, but when she died the way she did, it's like, you know, they took that away from me. And every time when you go to court, you look at him and I was thinking, you took something from me, I'm going to take something from you. And it's heartbreaking. Knowing what the Tensley family endured for three decades. But if there's a face to this new era in crimes being solved through genetic genealogy, that face might just belong to April Tensley. I think it really helps us to understand just what's at stake here in these cases being solved. John D. Miller appeared in Allen County Court on July 19, 2018, and his public defender entered a plea of not guilty.

Miller then appeared in court again on August 8th, handcuffed and shackled at the wrist and ankles, in an orange and white prison jumpsuit. He stood silent and appeared to shake as Janet Tinsley looked on from the front row only yards away. This was the second and a series of court appearances that will likely result in a trial in 2019. If found guilty of the abduction, molestation, and murder of April Marie Tinsley, Miller could face the death penalty by lethal injection, so we'll have to keep an eye on this case and see what happens. And hopefully, justice winds up being served.

That's all we have right now for the case of April Marie Tensley. It was a horrific murder of a very young girl. And then so much time went by before they identified her alleged killer. And hopefully soon, Morph, we will be able to remove that word because he'll be convicted. But join us for our next episode next week for yet another case solved this year, 2018, with help from Parabon, Jedmatch, and Genetic Genealogy. That's the case of serial predator Robert Eugene Brasher's, who was tied to a series of attacks, sexual assaults, and murders across multiple states.

This was a very, very bad guy. And we will discuss in detail his crimes and identification in episode five. If you like the show and you haven't done so yet, please take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating. You can give us a review if you want to. All of that goes a long way towards helping new people find the show. If you'd like to connect with us on social media, we're easy to find. We're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. you can also find us on Facebook by searching Criminology Podcast

or by joining our Facebook discussion group called Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. As we leave you, we'd like to play a preview of a podcast called Murderish hosted by our friend Jamie. Her show's great and I think you'll really enjoy it. By the way, Jamie happens to be my co-host on my other podcast, Crime Sphere. If you haven't had a chance to listen to Crimesphere, you can find us wherever you listen to podcast.

Hey everyone, I'm Jamie, and I host a podcast called Murderish, which takes you inside stories of murder and other creepy events. The first episode of Murderish lets listeners be a fly on the wall for a first-degree murder trial. The story is told from a juror's perspective as I was that juror. If you are a true crime junkie and need to know every detail, you'll feel right at home with this podcast. Follow Murderish on Twitter at Murderish Pod and on Facebook. Facebook at Murderish Podcast. And don't worry, this doesn't mean you're a murderer. It just means you're murder-ish.