True Crime with Kimbyr - The Tragic End of April Millsap: A Safe Community Shattered: Part 2

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

As we delve deeper into April Millsap's life, we uncover the close relationships she cherished with her family, friends, and beloved pets. A creative and kind-hearted teenager, April was full of dreams, including becoming a veterinarian. Yet, her story takes a chilling turn as we examine the eerie events leading up to her final day. What was supposed to be an ordinary evening walk became a series of unsettling clues—a fitness tracker’s data, unreturned texts, and a trail that once felt safe. What really happened on that quiet summer evening? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now I want to give you a more in-depth understanding of what the medical examiner found. Now, if you do not like to hear this about the injuries in detail, I'm going to be leaving a timestamp on the screen, and also below, you can just click it, and it will move you past the autopsy. I'm going to give you a moment because I am going to go into detail here. I already mentioned that her camisole type top and her pink braw were pulled down to her waist. The bra was ripped in between the two cups, and she had on a light, weight sweater and that was pulled off her shoulders. Her shorts were only around her left ankle and her underwear was pulled to her ankles, but there was no evidence of force intercourse. It

appeared as though the killer may have been interrupted and therefore in rage or to leave no witnesses. But there was no evidence of force intercourse. It appeared as though the killer may have been interrupted and therefore in a rage to leave no witnesses to what he intended to do to her, he killed April. There was some leafy material clutched in April's hand. She had on a necklace, and there were two earrings found inside her clothing. One was actually stuck against her back.

In photos given to the medical examiner, there was blood on her face and her hair. Now behind her right ear, there were what looked to be sawdust clumps, but these are actually fly eggs, which begin to form relatively soon, about 30 to 60 minutes after a body is deceased. So this gave a time frame.

for April's death. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and exphyxia due to neck compression. Now I want to go over the injuries described in the doctor's report. There was a bruise over April's right eyelid and in both eyes she had small hemorrhages. They are broken capillaries and similar hemorrhages were inside her mouth, inside on her upper and lower lip and along her gum line. This is caused by increased pressure in the head. There was a bruise to the the front of her tongue, the left eye was swollen, closed, and there was a cut below her eye, and a bruise above the left eye. There was a cut beneath her left eyebrow arch, and it was determined that this type of injury would have been caused by something smooth. It could be a hand,

but it was probably something heavier. Moving on, there was a bruise on the bridge of her nose, and keep in mind, the medical examiner went beyond skin deep. She pulled back the skin and went underneath to see how far these injuries extended and concluded that these injuries were not due to a mere slap or a punch. It took a lot of force. Next, there were three red linear cuts above her left eyebrow. There was bruising on both of her ears and tiny abrasions. And most significantly, there were red and purple herringbone patterns, a bruise on her skin, on her left jaw, as well as an abrasion to her right jaw. When April's scalp and skull were examined under the skin, there were hemorrhound.

or bleeding on both sides of her temples. Another hemorrhage on the top of her head as well as the back. And in the head area, more than a slop or a punch caused these injuries as well. Now the medical examiner used the saw to remove the top of the skull and found injuries even deeper into the brain tissue. There was bleeding underneath the dura all around the surface of the brain as well and multiple bruises on all sides of her actual brain. And this happens as a result of the head being struck with enough force

enough force that it moves the brain back and forth inside hitting the skull. This bleeding was actually inside the skull bone and it could be seen under a microscope, again, showing just how much force was necessary to cause these injuries. The medical examiner said that it was such extreme force that it's usually seen in car accidents, especially when a pedestrian is struck by a vehicle, or they fall from a very high surface. There were 23 separate injuries to the head alone, and they could not have been caused by one strike. Moving on to the neck, a six-inch red bruise in a herringbone pattern was across the front of her neck. There was an abrasion to the left lower neck, and when looking internally, the doctor examined bleeding underneath the skin of the neck, especially in the left area,

and that bleeding went deep into the muscles. There were hemorrhages on and throughout the trachea, and she believes that this is where the blood from the scene came from. Essentially, when a victim is in this state, they actually spit up blood. The thyroid cartilage also had hemorrhages in it. There were 14 additional areas of injury across the rest of her body, and one was internal bleeding above the oerda valve of her heart, showing an impact to April's chest. She had bruises and cuts and scrapes on her arms,

and there were bruises and abrasions on other extremities, but the bulk of her serious injuries were to her head and neck, which ultimately caused exphyxiation. What the medical examiner believed happened was that April was hit over the head multiple times, and at some point rendered unconscious or at least unable to move. The killer began his violation,

but something caused him to stop. At that point, the medical examiner believed the killer stomped on April's head, face, neck, and chest until she was no longer breathing, perhaps even holding their foot on her neck until she took her last breath, or stomping her windpipe for at least three or five minutes. This was the opinion because there were clear

shoe impressions on her forehead, cheek, and neck area in a herringbone pattern. When I heard this, I was stunned by how real it was. I do a lot of these cases, and it's unreal. I don't see how anyone would have had that much rage or anger to do this to someone like her. This is a young girl. The medical examiner said with that shoe tread indicating that someone had stood on her neck, this attack on April could have lasted over 10 minutes from the initial blow to her head until her her neck was compressed in order for her to completely stop breathing. Wow. Like this took time and she suffered, which is just terrible. Her estimated time of death was sometime between 6.30 and 8 p.m., but most likely sometime after she alerted Austin that she had almost been kidnapped.

The shoe prints were documented and studied. It was their biggest clue because they didn't have any DNA evidence to analyze at this point. They would use these impressions and try to match them to any of the suspects you wear as they moved through interviews and got tips. And a bunch of tips were coming in after that press conference, hundreds from Armada and beyond. Detectives may have been done investigating the scene, but they weren't done combing through Armada. They wanted to try to locate April's cell phone. First, they decided to ping it and see if they could get a GPS location, but with just one ping, the signal just died out. The phone was most likely dead or damaged. So at that point, they assembled a team of 40 people,

comprising of dedicated detectives and officers. And in order to maximize their efforts, the search area was expanded to encompass three counties, requiring the involvement of every available officer within those police departments. They sent a canine out to the trail. One particular bloodhound named Buster proved instrumental in this search.

Buster was given an article of clothing. It was actually a shoe of April's, and then the officer commanded Buster to track that odor. Buster tracked for several stories. into Armada and ultimately, he successfully tracked all the way back to April's house. When they realized that he definitely had April's scent, they continued to tell him to track and Buster took them west of Omo Road. I'm showing this on a map, but it's kind of on the back

of the McComb Orchard Trail. And ultimately, Buster took the officer to a driveway off of this road, then down that driveway into some brush on the side. And that is where Buster found April's phone in this location right next to a lakefront. front, half a mile east of where she was murdered. I am blown away by how amazing dogs are. It's unbelievable. I mean, look at that. Look at where the murder site was to where this dog was able to find this phone. The phone screen had cracks all over it. And sure enough, as they looked around, Buster located the case, which was split into two pieces about 60 feet away. At the crime lab, forensic experts embarked on a comprehensive analysis of April's cell phone. Their primary objective

was to uncover any valuable clues that could potentially lead them to April's murderer. By conducting a thorough examination, which included a data dump and analysis of her text, her calls, emails, things that she was doing on apps, the detectives were hoping to gain crucial insights into the circumstances surrounding April's murder. As the detectives anxiously waited for the state crime lab to extract the information from April's cell phone, they knew they had to pursue other leads. And one of their priorities was verifying the alibi provided by April's boyfriend, Austin, and to also look closer into their relationship.

The detectives decided to speak with Maddie, April's best friend, hoping to gain some insights into Austin and his bond with April. And Maddie assured the detectives that April and Austin were a great couple. They were deeply in love with each other, and she emphasized that their relationship seems strong and genuine. According to Maddie, Austin was always supportive and caring towards April, and she could not fathom him being involved in her murder. But how How many times have we heard that? Things aren't always what they seem on the outside. So detectives were dedicated to their efforts of verifying Austin's alibi during the time of April's

murder. Austin had claimed that he had visited a McDonald's drive-through with his friend Alex, which led detectives to believe there might be some CCTV footage. They did acquire that video evidence from McDonald's and the detectives were able to establish that Austin was indeed present at the McDonald's around 6.30 p.m., which coincided with the time when April had messaged him about her close encounter with a potential kidnapper. At this point in the investigation, Austin did not appear to be the perpetrator of April's murder because there would have not been enough time for him to leave town, go to the location where she was

murdered, go all the way back to his house, and Alex had been driving. He was with him the entire time. Once it became clear to the detectives that Austin was not responsible, their focus shifted towards a possibility of a stranger. Everyone they had questioned, who was close to April, had been ruled out. She was an ordinary, quiet teen that wasn't involved with anything nefarious. There was still a possibility that she made plans to meet someone at the trail, but who? They were hoping that her texts would help narrow their search. But before that information came back, a tip was called in.

After the image of the white van had been distributed, that tip line was flooded with an overwhelming number of phone calls. And among the numerous leads, one particular tip caught the attention in the detectives. A man came forward and claimed to be the driver of the white band. He confessed he was present in the vicinity of the young woman's house who took the video and he had been near the Macomb Orchard Trail. However, he provided an explanation. He was driving around with two of his employees to point out homes that he had done work on. As a builder, his intention was just to highlight the houses that he had constructed, not pointing to the woman, but the house. He was able to provide an alibi and business information, and the investigators were able to

obtain photos of the man and his fan, which that young woman positively identified. So they were able to rule him out. He was not involved. So the detectives find themselves back at square one. The media coverage surrounding this murder and the police presence was crucial in triggering recollections of several eyewitnesses on the trail the evening of April's murder. A father, Eric Rushkey and his two young daughters who were nine and thirteen, and it actually recognized April as one of their schoolmates. And Eric actually recognized April as someone in his daughter's confirmation class at church when they crossed paths with her on the trail. After finding out that April had been killed, Eric and his daughters went down to the police

station to talk to detectives. Eric told them that he and his daughters were riding bike starting about 6.10 p.m. on July 24th. They were getting into the part of the trail where it gets more foresty, approximately right here. And he distinctly remembered seeing April. She was wearing a backpack and walking her dog while looking down completely engrossed in her phone. He said it was sometime around 625 or so. She was walking westbound as they were coming towards her. The girls exchanged a smile, a hello, and a wave. However, what caught Eric's attention was the presence of a man, with the motorcycle, which were prohibited on the trail. No motorized vehicles were allowed.

This man wasn't riding it though. He was actually walking it alongside April. He still had his helmet on, which was a full face helmet, so Eric did not get a good look at his face. He couldn't provide any identifying characteristics except that he was wearing long pants, a black shirt with a backpack on. Eric and his girls rode down to Pit Road and turned around and went back the same way. They probably came up to that same area where they saw April on the

the way there at approximately 6.50 p.m. But by that time, they didn't see April, the man on the motorcycle, or the dog penny. Because motorcycles are not usually on the trail, this incident stuck out to this father. In addition to the fact he was quite a motorcycle enthusiast. He'd been riding dirt bikes since he was 10 years old. He actually knew what style the bike was. He said it was a converted street legal off-road dirt bike. It was blue and white in color, and according to Eric, The motorcycle was not an old model, it was a more modern one, most likely from the 2000s, and he classified it as an enduro bike, which featured a square headlight that he said was on at the time. And so was the motor on the bike. He could hear it even though it wasn't very loud.

Eric said it was idling. And he went the extra mile and searched for images of a similar motorcycle online. He successfully found a picture and handed it over to the detectives, allowing them a visual reference. As for the demeanor of the man on the trail with April, well, Eric described the two of them as not exactly talking, but almost like a parent scolding a child. The man seemed tense and it was a bit uncomfortable. It didn't seem like the two of them were together. The man appeared much older just from his mannerisms,

his height, and his build. He was around six feet tall and possibly 200 pounds or so. Armed with this new information, investigators wanted to narrow down their tips to anyone who had been on the trail on the evening of the July 24th, between approximately 6 and 8 p.m. And as they waited for more people to come forward, detectives looked up motorcycles that were registered in Michigan.

And in 2014 alone, there were 240,321 motorcycles. So almost 250,000. So that made it very challenging to pinpoint the exact owner of the bike described by the eyewitness. However, in a stroke of luck, one of the detectives that were working on April's murder case was returning to the command center. He was driving approximately 25 minutes outside of Rameda when something caught his attention. He noticed a long driveway leading up to a garage, and there stood a blue and white motorbike. It was so much of a coincidence, he wasted no time, and he snapped a quick picture of the bike, and of the address, and handed it over to the team for

further investigation. Meanwhile, more eyewitnesses came forward, so I want to go through all of them now. There aren't too many, but it's key in understanding what happened that night. I'm going to reveal what they saw in the order in which it was seen, not exactly in the order in which it was reported, if that makes sense. Mary Stein, a college professor in her 50s and her husband Douglas, were riding their bikes on the Macomb Orchard Trail in Armada on the evening of July 24th. And Mary remembers spotting April and her dog about 100 feet ahead of her, standing near a man who was beside his motorcycle around 6.25 p.m.

The two were standing in the middle of the path up ahead. So she was trying to navigate around them. And that's when the girl separated from the man and walked away, moving out of the middle of the road and to the side, walking west. And as Mary passed April, she was in her words, quote, walking deliberately and gave a tight smile, end quote. She said she either mouthed the words high or said it out loud, but there was tension in April's face.

Mary said that the man was a little ways behind with his motorcycle parked and helmet in his hand, not on his head. So she got a good look at him. When they passed him, he was staring in her direction towards where the girl had walked away. And to her, it seemed like there was some anger in his eyes. He had furrowed eyebrows.

And Mary said that the young girl in this older man, they weren't really talking. They were standing close together. And according to Mary, it just seemed odd. She said hello to the man and he remained silent and put his head down and she thought that was rude, especially considering this was a very community-centered area. Something about this encounter bothered both her and her husband so much so they talked about it and they don't usually have small talk on their bike rides.

But Mary couldn't help but wonder what that was all about. She asked her husband, what do you think that is, an older boyfriend or a stepdad? She doesn't know why she assumed it was a stepdad, but that's just what came to her mind. For one, the motorcycle being on the trail was strange. And she could tell that the man was much older than the girl. He wasn't dressed in summer or athletic type attire either. Her husband Douglas commented that it was really strange that they didn't hear the motorcycle start up at any point as they rode away.

They were in this approximate location on the trail when they had this encounter. This is known as the Liberty Trail area because there's a small trail that comes from Liberty Lane in the subdivision above down to McComb Orchard Trail. When Mary last saw the man and the young girl, the two of them were about 30 to 40 feet apart, and this was after they separated. Now, Mary and Doug proceeded on their bike ride for a few more miles to pit road, and then they turned around and they rode back the same way they came, and they passed the Liberty Trail area once again.

At that point, she did not see the young girl, the man, the motorcycle, or the dog. The next day on Friday, July 25th, Mary heard a news bulletin on the radio in the afternoon. It was about a young girl on the Macomb Orchard Trail that had been murdered. And she thought back to the strange encounter. The police were going to hear from Mary again. But for now, this was confirmation about the motorcycle being in the vicinity of the girl that matched April. And of course, the Dog Penny's description. Now, Mary was told that a composite sketch was being made from another eyewitness at the time,

which we'll get into in a moment. But that Mary would have the opportunity to review this composite and respond. so that she could add what she saw. And this was supposed to happen before it went to the public. Now for the next eyewitness, his name is William Buchanan, and he too saw a motorcycle on the trail. William was riding east on his bicycle all the way down to 33-mile road and then headed back. When he approached Omo heading back west,

he could see a light about a quarter of a mile away, and he thought it was odd in daylight that a light was on, and it was kind of flashing. At first he thought it was a bicycle light, but as he got closed, closer, he realized it was actually a motorcycle. And that's when he wondered what was it doing on the trail. Now, William is riding his bike fast. He's a speedbiker. He's going 17 miles an hour. And the motorcycle was facing him. So he was a bit concerned because he could tell it wasn't straight on the road. It was kind of a bit turned. But as he got even closer, he realized it was parked. The bike is off to the left of the road in the gravel. And there was a man on the bike, but it was not moving.

William said he was tall and slender about six feet tall, and he had on a full face helmet, so he couldn't really tell his age or his identity. But he nodded at the man and the man nodded back. Now after passing the man on the motorcycle, Williams saw a young girl heading west on the edge of the trail. She was looking down and walking fairly quickly with her hair down covering her face, so he did not get a good look at her. The next witness was a guy named Rick Land,

and he was also riding his bike quickly. He was speed biking. He saw a black dog on the side of the trail before the ravine that dropped down. The dog was by itself. So he thought, okay, maybe the owner was in the brush relieving themselves or something. So we didn't think much of it.

Now, at that point, he was heading east on Macomborchard Trail, and he went quite away. He went all the way to Gazebo Road, and then he came back to the west. At that point, he didn't see the dog, but he heard the dog. It was barking over and over again. When he gets to the area where he first saw the dog, the barking is coming from the north side of the trail. So Rick stops, he looks around and he realizes the dog must be inside the woods. He still didn't give this that much thought

until he got home later after he watched his bike, he put it away, and he was settling down, he put on the news. And that is when he heard the report of a crime on the trail. Now his nephew was a McComb County deputy. So he called him and he told him to call the tip line. So Rick did and he left a message for them to contact him, which they did. Now the next two witnesses, and I know this sounds like a lot, but it's giving you an idea of what people saw, Amy Spinella and her mother, Gail. Now Gail lives on East Main Street in Madison and when she got off work, she went on a bike ride with her daughter Amy. They left the house around 5.50 p.m. and went to the marathon gas station right here. Then they took Church Street to Depot Street and got onto the trail heading east towards Omo Road.

They were going at a very leisurely pace. They have beach cruisers. They're not going very fast at all. And while they're on the trail, both Amy and Gail see a young lady walking a dog. She's looking down on her cell phone around Liberty Trail area. Gail said hello, and the young lady said hi back. Right after they passed her, they heard a motorcycle behind them, and they thought it was really odd. At that point, the motorcycle was going in the same direction that they were.

And as it passed, the motorcycle rider actually cut in between Amy and her mother. Then he was able to get ahead, and that's when he made a U-turn and came back around in the direction where they saw the young girl walking. At that point, they couldn't get a good look at the guy's face because he was wearing a black helmet with a clear shield and it was down. Amy and Gail kept going until they got to Omo Road, and then they turned around and came back the other way. They said it probably only took them 10 minutes. When they were coming back, something caught their attention. They see a motorcycle, but this time it's parked on the left side of the trail on the shoulder. It's just past the Liberty Trail area.

Now they both thought it was weird, and Amy was cautious because she thought somebody was going to jump out of the brush. She doesn't know why. And Gail was wondering, where was the man that was on that bike? So they kind of slowed down, and they were looking around, and Gail actually said to her daughter, where's the guy in the bike? And she told Amy that she was going to look to the south and Amy should look to the north as they passed by. Gail didn't see anything.

But then, about 25 feet past the bike, Amy heard rustling in the bushes off to the right. And then she saw a dog. When her eyes went up towards the trees, she suddenly made eye contact with a man that was coming out of the bushes. And his eyes were piercing. She said it was almost like he had done something

wrong and had just gotten caught. She thought maybe he was just going to the bathroom. She couldn't really be sure and since the girl looked so young, in her mind she thought that this guy must have been young too and that they were somehow friends and he was just goofing off in the woods. When she caught up to her mom, Gail said maybe we should go back, but Amy said absolutely not that they were going home and she said it sternly so that's what they did. It wasn't until the next day afternoon when they found out that there was a murder on McComb Trail. Amy's dad had called and told them, and Amy's first question was, do you know if there was a black dog there? And he said yes, and she just began to cry because that's when it hit her, which she had witnessed.

She immediately got on her bike and she went down to the trail to find a police officer and tell them what she saw. She was the one that was asked to help create a composite sketch with a sketch artist. Amy described the man as having piercing eyes and kind of disheveled hair. She couldn't really make out the lips or the chin, so they kind of kind of and made some guesses as to what they might look like. Gail was also interviewed afterward, but she hadn't gotten a good look at the man. So now that you know how the composite I talked about was created,

remember the police had told Mary, the professor I witnessed, that she would have a chance to review the composite before it went live. Well, that actually didn't end up happening. She ended up seeing the composite a couple days later on Sunday the 27th. And that made her feel very uneasy, and she was upset, because in her mind, it wasn't accurate. She had seen more of the man than Amy had. But Amy had been at the police station first.

So they could have been a rush to get something out to the public. Mary thought there were elements of the composite that were accurate, but there were a lot of inaccuracies as well. So she felt she needed to call the police and let them know. First, she said that he looked way too young in that composite. The person she saw was at least in his 30s. The hair was wrong. It was lighter, it wasn't curly at all, and it was short.

And his face in the sketch was way too far. too full. However, the eyes and the nose matched what she remembered. But overall, she thought this was not on point. She knew that she got a good look at the man, but she was told that now that it was already out to the public, they didn't know what could be done. Maybe some minor adjustments, but that never happened. We will again hear from Mary because she calls in a third time, but for now, let's talk about April's phone data. And this is the craziest part of this case. This is my favorite part, the forensic technology. So I'm going to try to explain this the best I can because in my opinion it's the most important

part of this entire case. FBI Special Agent Matthew Zenz was examining the data that was downloaded from Maple's iPhone and this isn't like looking at a phone itself. It's a big folder with a lot of folders inside each from different apps on your phone and files that your phone stores, which can be coded files, applications that make your phone run, pictures we took and so much more. a lot. Well, as Agent Zense is combing through these files, something catches his eye. And I hope I'm going to explain this well because it is so interesting, but it can't be confusing. But you're all so

smart with this forensic stuff by now that I think you'll get it. What he was looking at appeared to be a screenshot of a text message, and most of us know what screenshots are. They're taken by the user of the phone, whoever's holding it, by pressing a couple buttons and it takes a picture of whatever's on the screen at the moment. Well, it's what's captured. That's throws Zence off guard. I'm going to put the actual screenshot on the screen. It's the text that Austin talked about receiving from April. It says, I think I almost got kidnapped. OMFG. But from the looks of it, as you can see, this was like April screenshoting her own text message, right? Because we can see the keyboard below and then above we can see Austin's name as the contact. So this

makes Zence wonder why in the world April would have taken a screenshot of her own text message. message. Well, upon digging deeper, each of these pieces of data have a name. And the name on this one wasn't a photo name like when a user takes a photo of something. Instead, it was an iPhone action. Here's the explanation. Have you ever switched apps on your iPhone? Let's say you go from texting to wanting to open another app and you tap up a little bit. And then you see panels of examples, which are kind of like pictures of the different apps that are open on your phone. And you can choose one of them. Well, the iPhone actually takes photos of where you left off in each of the applications that you were on. And this is in order to give you a

photo array that you're seeing here. So at some point, April had been in the middle of switching between different apps and that internal photo was actually created by her iPhone. She did not take a screenshot of that text. It's very eerie since we know that is her last text message. But this enabled Zense to look at what other apps were open. And here is the key to this case, the case cracker, if you will, a little throwback to my cousin Vinny. Zense sees there is another app that the iPhone took a screenshot at the time. And it's called Sports Tracker. It's a step tracking app for iPhone that helps you record your steps, your speed, the path you took on your walk, your run. This is important to Zence and to this case. If April was using this

app while she was on her last walk. And if it were to show her path, it could present them with such useful information. The only issue is that Zense doesn't have the physical phone. He's not looking at the app. It's only coding inside folders and he can't decode them. Well, he has to track down the Sports Tracker company and it's out in Denmark. So he has to get in touch with his attache in Copenhagen and they're able to retrieve the user data from Sports Tracker. When it's turned back into the FBI, it's in video format.

They kind of like recreated what April's phone would have looked like, what her screen would have shown at the time. You'll understand when I show you this, but this is huge. But it does take them a little while to get it back to the FBI. So we'll come back to this because remember the detective that saw that motorcycle and the driveway of that home? While the team determined it was similar enough to warrant going back over there to see if they could locate the owner.

That detective and a couple of other. officers arrive at the location but the motorcycle is no longer there. So they knock on the door and the man answers and he tells them his name is James Mews. When they question him about the motorcycle he seems a little standoffish. He says he doesn't own one and doesn't know anything about a motorcycle being in his driveway. While the detectives can tell he's being a little elusive, so they explain that this has to do with a murder investigation and finally Mr. Mews tells them. He has a friend that rides a motorcycle, and that friend was dropping off some weed to him. This friend's name was James Van Callis, and he doesn't know much about him, no exact address,

but he does tell the detectives that he lives out in Wales Township in Goodall's Michigan, which is about a couple towns over, maybe 25 minutes away from Armada. So the detectives go back to the command center and they look up the name James Van Callis. They get an address on Marquette Street, So they quickly have a briefing and they decide that even though it's 11.30 p.m., they're going to go out there and try to make contact with the supposed owner of this motorcycle. Now, this is a pretty big house. I'd probably call it a mansion out in the middle of nowhere. It's just on a lot of land. Land that's good for growing things. And you know what kind of exchange the guy in the motorcycle was making allegedly with his friend. So you can see what this house looks like. Pretty nice. Well, they knock on the door and a much-old little little bit of a much-old The older man answers.

They asked for James Van Callis and the older man says, I'm James, but they knew that the man they were looking for was in his 30s. He was actually 32. So they asked this older guy, well, is there a son maybe? And he says, oh, yes, my son. Yeah, he's also James Van Callas. So he calls him outside. Now the younger James, his father, his mother, Brenda, and his girlfriend, Crystal came out to the front porch to talk to the police. They informed the family that they're there to gather information to aid them any way.

murder investigation. And they asked James if he was out in Armada on July 24th, and he says, yes, he was. So the detectives ask him for a rough timeline. Like, what did you do? Why were you out there? James is friendly. He has a casual conversation with police. He said he left his house around 5 p.m. heading over to his brother Donnie's house. He says he has to pass Armada on his way to his brother's house. But he was about 10 miles out when he realized he forgot his sunglasses. So he drove back home, grabbed them, and then headed out a second time, which was about, he thinks, 5.30 p.m. He said on his way, he stopped by a marathon gas station to take a break because the seat on his bike was very uncomfortable, so he just needed to stretch his legs. Now, I want to point out that

this marathon gas station is in the middle of Armada. It's blocks away from the McComb Orchard Trail. And it's where Amy and Gale also stopped that day to put air in their bike tires. James said that he called his brother a couple of times trying to see if he was home yet from work and he didn't get an answer so he just headed out there anyway. When his brother wasn't home, he went out to Tim Hortons in a town called Romeo since apparently Donnie was supposed to be stopping there or worked there. I wasn't really sure. James said he rode through the parking lot, didn't see his brother, so he proceeded back to Donnie's house and by the time he got there, his brother was home. James says the two of them hung out and then he went back to his parents' house in Marquette and he knows it was before it got to

dark because he's always worried about deer's being on the road so he knows he left Donnie's before dark. So the detectives asked what he was wearing. He said he was wearing a helmet, a car heart hoodie, camo pants, and K-Swish shoes. And he pretty much brought all these items out and kind of just showed the detectives. And then he also showed them his motorcycle, which matched the one in the picture that the detective had taken earlier. They took pictures, they document the bike, the helmet and of course the tread pattern on the case with shoes, which if you look at it, it didn't have a herringbone pattern that they were looking for. So they're pretty sure they're at a dead end here. So they leave that night and they reconvene at the command center. The detectives

decide that they want to get a written statement and some more detail on the times that James was out in Armada. They also need a better picture of that motorcycle because of the time it was dark and they want it in daylight. So they go back out there the next morning around 10 a.m. This time, only James was home. They kind of go back over all the info from the night before, and James is polite, but he did say he couldn't come by to the station to give a statement at that time

because he did have some errands he needed to run, but he would stop by later. Detectives take pictures of the bike, and then they just part ways. But they do tell James to call them when he's free so that he can come down to the station later that evening. In the meanwhile, detectives tracked down

James' brother, Donnie Van Callis. This is James''s his brother, James's younger brother and he asked what did you do on July 24th and did James come over to your house. Now Donnie had already been notified by his family that they had been questioned the night before about the armate of murder. So Donnie explained that he worked that day and he spoke with his brother on the phone around he thinks six o'clock p.m. and then he did have a couple of miscalls from him earlier. Donnie says that he does remember his brother coming over but doesn't exactly remember what time he arrived. Donnie was very helpful. He was going through his phone trying to pinpoint the correct times.

And there was a text sent to James from Donnie at 6.44 p.m. And it just had one word, home, letting him know he had arrived. So it stands to reason. James wasn't there yet. So Donnie thought, okay, maybe he came there at 7 p.m. Detectives asked if they could take his phone for analysis, and Donnie said he'd rather not. But he said they can go through it while they're there. He also gave them the names of the people that were at his house when James was there. It was his sister's boyfriend Jonathan, his friend Matt, a friend named Samantha and her friend Leah. Maybe one of them could confirm the timeline.

That's all the information that they gathered from Donnie. But when James didn't reconnect later that afternoon, one of the detectives called him to check in about making that statement. And this time, James wasn't very nice. He was irate. He was yelling through the phone saying that they're on a witch hunt. How dare them ask to take his brother's phone and have it analyzed. He was just going off. And the detective tried to calm him down saying, listen, we're investigating the murder of a teenager. This is our job.

We're just doing our job. But James wouldn't let up. And he refused to provide a written statement to them. This was definitely a red flag. It also shows this man has a temper. And it made them even more suspicious about his whereabouts on the 24th. So they dug deeper into James and his family.