SOLVED 30 Years Later: April Tinsley Case

we had a podcast recently when I asked like if there's anyone out there in the medical profession who can tell us whether or not things get weirder during the full moon and everyone that responded one person talked about how she was working at a retirement home and all the patients would like just get up and like really really be confused and we're mobile and getting through sites like during the full moon it was just crazy for them hey guys welcome back to my channel welcome to another true-crime video today I'm gonna be telling you about a case that is very upsetting like for real this one is sad there is a bit of good news to this story that recently broke this summer and some of you may have already heard about this case recently and you're just you know news cycle because it was pretty interesting how this case finally came to an end it happened over 30 years ago so this is April Tinsley she's the cutest little thing right I cannot get over how adorable she was she was born on March 18th of 1980 and lived in Fort Wayne Indiana and she was described as a very sweet girl very well-liked in school just kind of a little angel no one ever had anything negative to say about her her mom said she was just a really fun loving person and that everyone she knew adored April at the time April was in first grade and coincidentally it was April 1st 1988 she had gotten out of school early that day she came home hung out with her mom a little bit had lunch and then she asked if she could go over to a friend's house to play so April's mom Janet said of course you can go just call me as soon as you get there so in April got to Nicole's house she called her mom let her know that everything was good and her mom reminded her to be home between 3:30 and 4:00 ish and she was normally really good about coming home when her mom said to he specifically wanted her to come home because it was cloudy and it was going to rain by the time at 4:00 p.m. rolled around April had not made it back home so her mom kind of waited a little bit but then eventually just called Nicole's mom and she told her that April O'Neill were playing in a playground and they left this playground a little after 3:00 p.m. and as she was just about to start heading home from the park she realized that she has left her umbrella at Nicole's house so Nicole actually was going to a different friend's house such kind of parted ways there and then April made the walk by herself back to Nicole's house however Nicole's mom said that she never made it to the house to get her umbrella so this is what her mom started to panic obviously you'd be very very concerned at this point I mean she was only eight years old this is in 1988 so her and her husband and a bunch of friends and neighbors went out and looked for her physically and after they didn't find her they decided it was time to go ahead and call the police at around 6:00 p.m. Janet called the Fort Wayne police and she told the dispatchers that her daughter went missing after playing with a friend and when the officers arrived she gave them a picture of April and she tried her best to describe everything that she was wearing that day she was wearing a blue turtleneck sweater a pink and red jacket light blue pants with three hearts on the left leg and pink shoes detectives went out looking for April we looked in a 20-block area from where she was last seen they didn't find anything and they weren't able to come up with any explanation or any answers so they assumed that she had been abducted on April 4th and this was 72 hours after she had gone missing a police task force of 25 Fort Wayne officers joined up with a search party that was formed by civilians that already had 50 people in it and they began to look all over this area but then around 3:30 p.m. a man was on a jog and he was just running along when he saw a body he was off the side of the road about 40 feet away in a ditch and unfortunately this was April's body the officers came and he showed me the picture now sitting there just like in shock you were destroyed yeah I kind of snapped Janet had wanted to be a mother her whole life and April was the daughter she had always dreamed of so now obviously this case has taken a tragic turn from a missing-persons investigation to a murder and based on the physical evidence police believe that April was sadly suffocated she was fully clothed except for one of her shoes was missing and then sadly that autopsy confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted which is like everyone's worst nightmare and happens so often in cases of abduction investigators believe that this person was probably someone that lived in Fort Wayne because this area was kind of a space that you would know about if you lived there it was like a wooded rule spot where no one would really see him putting her there but detectives also think that because her body was just kind of like set on the ground 40 feet from the road it's not like he tried that hard to hide her and it seemed to them like he wanted someone to find her body so obviously officers searched the surrounding area and that is where they found her other shoe was about 800 feet away on the opposite side of the road and they basically think that the person was driving away realized that her she was in the car and threw that out - on their way out of the scene but then on April 5th a motorist came forward and said I saw a blue truck just kind of chillin on decklid County Road people were definitely on the lookout for a blue truck and there was also a reward set up by two local radio stations two different funds one for the Tinsley family and one for her burial were opened on April 8th of 1980 150 mourners gathered at the faith United Methodist Church for April's memorial service and soon after that a witness called the police and let them know that she had actually seen a little blond girl walking on the side of the road she had hearts on her pant legs and she was walking where April was last seen and the witness said that when April tried to cross the street someone in a blue pickup truck pulled up next to her said that April didn't seem to be scared or look like she didn't know this person so she figured everything was okay she basically just said that she saw the truck pull up and then the truck and April were gone and she really thought it was an arranged pickup like just a father picking up his daughter and didn't think anything of it now a lot of us have seen you know people getting picked up by people you don't always think to call the police witness described this driver as a white male in his 30s with blondish sandy colored wavy hair who weighed about 150 pounds and on April 7th police released a sketch of what the witness described the man to look like and people in Fort Wayne were really freaked out thinking that there was a potential killer on the loose and when that sketch was released a ton of tips and information came in to the police from just local community members who wanted to help and many of these leads had mentioned a man named loose basically moose was in a local game and he looked really similar to this sketch that was put out the witness was able to pick out his photo from a lineup of pictures but that was really it as far as evidence when he didn't own a blue pickup truck but he did have access to a blue pickup truck and he needed it people were claiming that this moose guy was going up to children at the park and saying inappropriate things to them scaring them and police were also told that the gang that moves belonged to was some type of satanic cult so investigators started to become concerned that maybe April was in some type of satanic ritual or sacrifice and this obviously scared her parents so bad but there really wasn't any evidence of this happening just like people talk it was a lot of speculation in here saying for weeks mousse was the prime suspect in the case but detectives and were never able to find any physical evidence that linked him back to the crime scene and then he also passed several polygraph tests and at that point they decided that he just couldn't be a suspect anymore now we're going to years forward to May 21st of 1919 police received a call from this guy saying that someone had written a message on his barn the message said I kill eight-year-old April Rudy Tinsley did you find her other shoe haha I will kill again and this note was found ten miles from where her body was found and obviously this could be some type of poser weird stuff happens in cases all the time where people just pretend they're involved in it somehow I just want to scare people to leave a scary note like that but they thought that there was a lot of credibility here because they mentioned the shoe the shoe that they believe was thrown out of the car was separated from the crime scene now this wasn't like hugely publicized so it seemed like this really was April's killer that wrote this little note on a barn door two years later so they looked around this area of this barn trying to see if they could find any clues they did find some crayons however these crayons had no fingerprints on them and we're useless in the case and then they looked at the note which had a lot of spelling issues and grammar problems as you probably noticed especially the way they spelled again like really whose spelling it again police basically figured that this person was trying seemed like they were dumber than they actually are and when this surfaced really scared at the community people started calling in tips again saying hey I know someone that writes like this I know someone who says haha which wasn't as like common of a thing to say haha because if there wasn't texting yet that's really like post texting that everyone says that now so it was a little odd that he wrote that the police weren't able to come up with anything solid and the case went cold again for 15 years on March 25th 2004 a little girl around the same age that April was when she was taken found a note it was in a ziplock bag and was on yellow paper the note was like inside the bag and it said hi honey I've been watching you I am the same person that kidnapped raped and killed April Tinsley here's a present for you you are my next victim and as you can tell this note had similar punctuation and grammar errors that the other one had and this is really disturbing but a present that he left her inside of the bag was a used condom and this wasn't the only note that was found there were two other notes that were found with the same message and the same present another note said hi honey I've been watching you I am the same person that kidnapped and rape and kill animal Timmy you are my next victim if you don't report this to police and I don't see this in the paper I will blow up your house everyone that was getting these notes which was obviously scaring the living hell out of everybody had young daughters between the age of five and nine and police believe that this killer was stalking these children and so they kept an extra watch on this whole area definitely were having more patrolling in neighborhoods staying on high alert and soon after this 1/4 letter showed up and this time he included nude pictures of himself it seemed like this person wanted to get caught they left her body in a really weird spot left that note left condom with DNA inside of it people will probably be asking well how come they didn't find the killer with the DNA well it's hard to just find someone it's not like it says oh yeah here's the DNA this is Bob so-and-so and here's where they live it's way harder than that you have to have their DNA in a database in order to find them and when they tested all these packages they all had DNA that was the same DNA that was found at April Tinsley's crime scene so this confirms that the person who's writing these notes isn't just like some weirdo trying to get some attention from this case it is actually a pulse killer but the DNA didn't match anyone in the national database they had no specific suspect and at this point they were desperately trying to figure now so they ended up releasing some of these letters to the public they hope that this would bring up something someone would have an idea and obviously the community was very concerned again because this time there are multiple kids being stalked the person is making threats they've already carried out at least one murder that we know of tons of tips came in but one tent came in that was really important it was someone who called and accused his own father of being April's killer this man actually lived really close to where April lived and to where April was taken he also had a history of child molestation he also used to own this Polaroid camera and would take pictures of random disturbing things he also believed it was his father because he said his father would write hi honey and ha ha which are really general things like a lot of people could have said that but this young man's father also had a blue pickup truck and a few days after April's murder he painted the truck a different color that was very very interesting to police so they brought him in for questioning and he claimed he had never met April but his daughter used to play with April so he knew of her and when he first sat down with investigators he brought up the fact that he was working on the day that April was killed now this is really weird to remember one specific day from 15 years ago exactly what you were doing this was a major red flag to them and they ended up following up with his employer and found out that he actually was not working on those days he also wasn't working on April 4th which is the day that her body was found and likely put there so investigators did a huge search of his home and they found more evidence they got a yellow notebook which looked similar to the one that the person had written on and they also found a Polaroid camera at this time they really considered this man to be the prime suspect I'm not sure if his name has ever been released I haven't been able to find it and they felt really confident that maybe they had found the killer and they could finally put this thing to rest but unfortunately they tested his DNA and it did not match any of the DNA from any of the evidence and a crime scene so obviously if it's not his DNA it wasn't him so now they were back to square one On June 24th 2005 the family had like a little press conference trying to update people on the case and just remind people that it was still an unsolved case a day after hearing new details of her murder which happened 24 years ago April Tinsley's family is speaking out they are hopeful another round of national attention could help track down the young girl's killer Jim Tinsley says it feels like the crime that shattered his family just happened it's been 24 years does it feel like that no it seems like yesterday it does when it's brought up to the family and there it seemed like it took place yesterday you know I don't seem like 24 years April was attached to her uncle Jimmy in her eight short years of life she was wrong like well loved it was just horrible and I know somebody out there has to know something I mean this can't go on forever and ever I just hope you know it comes to an end you know I mean families grieving enough and we all we wanted to just see that April rest in peace finale reporting in Fort Wayne drew Blair newsChannel 15 and as time goes on obviously technology is getting better in the crime world we're seeing a lot of crimes get solved with newer technology that just wouldn't have been able to be solved you know like 30 years ago and one of the new technologies is called phenotype II there's this company called paraben nano labs and they basically use a DNA sample from the crime scene and it creates a digital sketch picture of what the person would look like based on their DNA so it's pretty incredible stuff and after they ran the report the results show that this person was British or German had brown hair green or hazel eyes and very fair-skinned investigators believe that the man was around 30 at the time of the attack and what was very interesting about it it's like the DNA description looked really similar to the witness sketch but obviously some time had passed at this point so they decided to actually run the sketch again for him at age 50 and that's about how old he would be today but unfortunately nothing really came out of this there just wasn't enough to grasp onto her to connect anyone to this crime I really wanted to share this case because this is an example of a crime that is being solved with new technology you know I always talk about thorn and how they're developing new technologies to find human traffickers this is the same thing technology is getting so good that they are solving cases that they just wouldn't been able to solve before in just three months paraben has identified four other killers and is working 40 more cases thanks to new DNA technology and new developments and genealogy they were finally able to track down April's killer this summer July 15th 2018 John Dean Miller who is 59 was charged with her murder and basically what has been happening nowadays is you know more and more people are spitting in the little tube for ancestor DNA or whatever I've done it and there's a ton of different gene databases that have thousands of DNA records stored and even if someone in your family has done one of these DNA tests it can be traced back to you now recently they found the Golden State Killer this way simply they found his DNA they always had it but it wasn't until recently that they were able to plug it into a public database of genealogy track it back to one of his relatives get some trash out of his trash can and then they were able to connect that DNA back to him I know it's kind of complicated but it's very very cool how this is happening that huge break in a cold case terrorized in California for decades police say they now have the Golden State killer in custody police say this man 72 year-old Joseph James D'Angelo is the elusive Golden State killer we were able to get some discarded DNA and we were able to confirm what we thought we already knew that we had our man D'Angelo seemingly hiding in plain sight police surprising him and taking him into custody on Tuesday as he was leaving his Hall and just like they did with the Golden State Killer a few weeks after we found the match they went to John Dee Miller's house took some of his trash after all these years it only took weeks to solve the case using a new cutting-edge DNA analysis they found distant cousins to build the family tree backward then looked for descendants and narrowed the search to two brothers it really had to be one or the other because they were carrying the right mix of DNA from ancestors to fit that profile investigators collected DNA from one of the brothers trash once the match was confirmed and they were positive that this man was the killer who's an idiot thinking that he's gonna get away with this and purposely leaving little DNA clues to all these different people in these creepy notes he clearly did not think they were gonna be able to do this clearly he had no idea where technology was going and so they approached him at his house they knocked on the door asked him do you know what this is about and he said April Tinsley John Miller was arrested Sunday affidavit says Miller admitted to killing April Tinsley he has not filed a plea in court and has no attorney I won't worried I'm gonna ask him is why he's actually scheduled for court on August 3rd which by the time you're watching this video it may not even be August 3rd or after August 3rd so as horrible as this whole case is how heart-wrenching and terrible for the family you have to at least smile for the fact that they have answers you know this family can finally know what happened know that this person is going to be incarcerated and justice will be served for April there's only one word I'm gonna ask him is why for April's mom hope that justice may finally be within reach I never imagined this would ever come April 10 sleaze mom Janet is taking things in stride what we've been wanting for so many years and now it's here today like so many other days friends neighbors and strangers surrounded Janet to show their support and to let her know that April was loved and still is it's kind of a victory lap we wanted to give back to the family they've had a rough time over this last 30 years you know we can relive the khamar week asleep Janet knows the arrests won't bring back the daughter she didn't get to see grew up but she says it's a good start and seeking justice for April but it certainly doesn't make up for all the time that April's family has spent without her all the things that she was going to do in her life maybe a future family that she was going to have that was all just shattered friends and family have set up the garden dedicated to April April's garden I'm live at the intersection of Masterson and Hoagland avenues and for three years family friends and total strangers have been coming here to April's garden to pay their respects and memorialize April Tinsley this morning the community continues their support of the family with these messages we love you April we stand with you our fight is your fight and many more along this area it comes just hours after the news broke that an arrest had finally been made and it's just kind of a place where they can remember her and feel her spirit and feel all the love that other people around her had for her what do you think about this new DNA that's being used you think it could be used to solve other major cases for example JonBenet Ramsey and more and more people spit in the tubes the more crimes were gonna solve but that's it for me today guys I hope you're having a great day stay safe and I will talk to you next time I miss her growing up what was she look like act like would she be married it would be nice to see that but my memory of her when she was just a little girl that's when it ends [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Kendall Rae

Views: 2,608,055

Rating: 4.9579463 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: i3TK2ehLotI

Length: 21min 58sec (1318 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 02 2018