Latest / Hell and Gone: Murder Line / Hell and Gone Murder Line: Doug Janis Part 3
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: School of Humans.
- 0:13Speaker 2: We're in Sabine County, Texas, walking around the area where
- 0:17Speaker 2: Doug Janis was murdered. All I can think about is
- 0:21Speaker 2: a passage from Bob Thompson's book, the part where he
- 0:24Speaker 2: was talking about the wildlife that hide in these woods.
- 0:28Speaker 2: Bob said that the Fish and Game Department released a
- 0:31Speaker 2: couple thousand rattlesnakes back into the wild in Sabine County,
- 0:35Speaker 2: apparently to control the rodent population. That was a while ago,
- 0:40Speaker 2: but presumably they're still out there. One of Doug's neighbors
- 0:44Speaker 2: lived in a house on a nearby property, but he
- 0:47Speaker 2: has since passed away. The house is abandoned, and there's
- 0:51Speaker 2: a porch with a really good view. The wood looks
- 0:54Speaker 2: like it might be rotten, but I decide to give
- 0:57Speaker 2: it a shot anyway. I climb up on a ladder
- 0:59Speaker 2: and from here we have a clear view of Doug's houseboat,
- 1:02Speaker 2: the one that burned to the ground. We've talked a
- 1:06Speaker 2: lot about April and Doug's relationship, the one that went
- 1:09Speaker 2: on for years and was very intense and complicated. But
- 1:13Speaker 2: what I wonder is, if April did kill Doug, why
- 1:16Speaker 2: did she choose that day? December thirteenth, twenty twenty. What
- 1:22Speaker 2: was her motive? What happened? I think that solving Doug
- 1:25Speaker 2: Janis's murder starts with figuring out what really happened to
- 1:29Speaker 2: April's mother, Anna Thompson on the night she was fatally
- 1:32Speaker 2: shot in the early morning hours of September fourth, two
- 1:36Speaker 2: thousand and four, the night when April went to the races,
- 1:39Speaker 2: and the night when Anna told her friend Yvonne that
- 1:42Speaker 2: she had found out that April was being molested by
- 1:45Speaker 2: Doug Janis. Last week we heard from April's father, Bob,
- 1:49Speaker 2: who gave his version of what happened on the night
- 1:52Speaker 2: his wife was fatally shot. Yvonne has a very different
- 1:56Speaker 2: version of what she says went down that night.
- 1:59Speaker 3: I have, you know, conversations I had with Anna. Let
- 2:02Speaker 3: me write up to the day, you know, and she
- 2:05Speaker 3: was that night than wee hours of the morning. He
- 2:09Speaker 3: came over and begged us to take her and watch
- 2:11Speaker 3: her because he was so tired and he needed sleep,
- 2:16Speaker 3: and that he was afraid to go to sleep around her.
- 2:18Speaker 3: Were called over there the night she was killed, and
- 2:21Speaker 3: after like that was a setup itself. You know, maybe
- 2:24Speaker 3: what I should do is just tell you in the
- 2:26Speaker 3: very get go here that I believe that there were
- 2:31Speaker 3: several people involved in all of this, and I believe
- 2:35Speaker 3: that it all had to do with April. I believe
- 2:37Speaker 3: she was being I know, to being molested, and I
- 2:42Speaker 3: believe she might have been being trafficked by people with
- 2:45Speaker 3: prominent positions in that town, and that Anna was pretty
- 2:49Speaker 3: much taken out because she was probably gonna blow the
- 2:52Speaker 3: lid off of it. And I think Bob knows.
- 2:56Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making
- 3:00Speaker 2: my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I have learned that
- 3:03Speaker 2: there is no such thing as a small where murder
- 3:06Speaker 2: never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people
- 3:10Speaker 2: all around the country asking for help with an unsolved
- 3:13Speaker 2: murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If
- 3:17Speaker 2: you have a case you'd like me and my team
- 3:19Speaker 2: to look into, you can reach out to us at
- 3:21Speaker 2: our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven
- 3:25Speaker 2: four four six one four five. That's six seven eight
- 3:28Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five, or you can
- 3:32Speaker 2: send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. This
- 3:37Speaker 2: is Helen Gone Murder Line. Before we get to the
- 4:25Speaker 2: night of Anna's death. We have to go way back
- 4:29Speaker 2: back to when Yvonne first met Bob and Anna in April.
- 4:33Speaker 2: Yvonne said she was not originally from Sabine County, but
- 4:36Speaker 2: when she lived there she got to know Bob, Anna
- 4:39Speaker 2: and April well. She said that Anna was around forty
- 4:43Speaker 2: when Yvonne first met her. We know that Bob was
- 4:46Speaker 2: much older than his wife, so by that time he
- 4:48Speaker 2: would have been in his mid sixties. Yvonne said that
- 4:51Speaker 2: to her, Anna seemed childlike with very little experience of
- 4:55Speaker 2: the world, and that her daughter April was the same way.
- 4:59Speaker 2: Yvonne said that Anna and April seemed very close.
- 5:03Speaker 3: You know that she definitely didn't get out much at all,
- 5:08Speaker 3: I mean her whole life. Okay, So that's just very naive, gullible. Okay,
- 5:14Speaker 3: that's the way. And I know for a fact that
- 5:18Speaker 3: because of how long ago that was, and that myself
- 5:22Speaker 3: I even felt like it was gullible and naive in
- 5:25Speaker 3: that part of the world, in that town, in that scenario,
- 5:31Speaker 3: like the things that happened there, I never would have
- 5:33Speaker 3: dreamt could have happened in America, And at that date,
- 5:38Speaker 3: I just it blows my mind still does. So I'm
- 5:44Speaker 3: just saying that she was just naive to the way
- 5:46Speaker 3: the world. I don't think she's ever had a job.
- 5:49Speaker 3: I don't think she had ever I don't know how
- 5:53Speaker 3: long I'm trying to remember how long they had been married.
- 5:55Speaker 3: But it was almost as if he was like her father.
- 5:59Speaker 3: That's the way it seemed to me, you know, the
- 6:03Speaker 3: way their relationship was.
- 6:05Speaker 2: Yvonne said that from the beginning she was uncomfortable with Bob.
- 6:09Speaker 2: Though he was friendly, she said he would make very
- 6:12Speaker 2: sexually explicit comments in front of her and her partner
- 6:15Speaker 2: at the time. She and her partner, Jay, agreed Bob
- 6:19Speaker 2: was creepy and they didn't want to make a habit
- 6:21Speaker 2: of socializing with him.
- 6:23Speaker 3: There was just some weird comments. My fiance and myself
- 6:27Speaker 3: we both agreed not to go back. That we didn't
- 6:29Speaker 3: really want to go back over there for dinner or anything,
- 6:32Speaker 3: and we were going to start trying to put distance,
- 6:36Speaker 3: you know, we didn't want to because of the weird conversations,
- 6:41Speaker 3: like there were sexual eu windows made about a lot
- 6:45Speaker 3: of different things that were unnecessary, and it made myself
- 6:49Speaker 3: and him feel very uncomfortable. Although Anna would start laughing
- 6:53Speaker 3: and he would start laughing, and they would also make
- 6:55Speaker 3: these comments in front of their daughter, who was twelve
- 6:58Speaker 3: at the time, which is April. Yeah, and so we're like,
- 7:03Speaker 3: oh my gosh, what are they did. It was just strange.
- 7:06Speaker 3: She's not your normal child. She just wasn't because I
- 7:13Speaker 3: felt like she was just saying she was twelve years old,
- 7:15Speaker 3: but she was so isolated, just like her mother, very
- 7:19Speaker 3: isolated there with just Bob. And that's how I felt.
- 7:22Speaker 3: And even though she went to school, they immediately started
- 7:26Speaker 3: telling us how the kids are mean to her.
- 7:30Speaker 2: Yvonne seemed to pick up on the same thing that
- 7:32Speaker 2: I did. Bob seemed to be playing the victim in
- 7:34Speaker 2: his book, blaming everything in his life on outsiders. But
- 7:39Speaker 2: Yvonne said that at the time, Bob and Anna seemed
- 7:41Speaker 2: to have a solid relationship, and so did April and
- 7:45Speaker 2: her mother.
- 7:46Speaker 3: They were together all the time. It was almost as if,
- 7:49Speaker 3: like I said, like they were friends because I feel
- 7:52Speaker 3: like they were both isolated, and so they played together.
- 7:57Speaker 3: They and Anna was so April was the only kid.
- 8:03Speaker 3: It's like she was out there, the old one armed
- 8:07Speaker 3: geezer for a husband. It's like I think Anna was
- 8:11Speaker 3: April was her only outlet, you know, of a fun
- 8:15Speaker 3: and smiling and laughing and having a good time. And
- 8:19Speaker 3: so I saw them do a lot of things together
- 8:22Speaker 3: like that, get along really well, giggling, laughing, very childlike
- 8:27Speaker 3: both of them.
- 8:28Speaker 2: But that closeness between Anna and April stopped when Doug
- 8:32Speaker 2: Janis came along. Remember that Doug was married at the
- 8:36Speaker 2: time to a woman named Terry, but Terry was living
- 8:39Speaker 2: in Silsby. We reached out to Terry after we were
- 8:42Speaker 2: talking to some people close to Doug Janie. They suggested
- 8:47Speaker 2: we give her a call. And even though this involves
- 8:50Speaker 2: painful memories for her, she clearly cares a lot about
- 8:53Speaker 2: Doug and wants to see justice done. This is Terry
- 8:57Speaker 2: telling me how she met Doug.
- 8:59Speaker 4: I met Doug somewhere in the late seventies or early
- 9:02Speaker 4: eighties in Silsby, Pardon County, which is about ninety miles
- 9:06Speaker 4: from Houston. I had gone into the local Farm Bureau
- 9:09Speaker 4: insurance office to get car insurance and he was the
- 9:13Speaker 4: person that I talked with first, and he became my
- 9:15Speaker 4: insurance agent. Back in those days, he was a very
- 9:19Speaker 4: popular insurance agent, had lots of customers all over Hardin County.
- 9:23Speaker 4: People liked him, they respected him, He was outgoing and friendly.
- 9:27Speaker 4: He just kind of always had a smile, was upbeat
- 9:30Speaker 4: and positive. He was my insurance agent actually for several years,
- 9:34Speaker 4: and the only time, but the only time I really
- 9:37Speaker 4: saw him was when I needed to paint something on
- 9:39Speaker 4: the policy or I had a claim to file, which
- 9:42Speaker 4: was not often, and when those occasions arose, if I
- 9:46Speaker 4: went to the local Farm Bureau office. He was always
- 9:48Speaker 4: polite and professional, very personable, well groomed. And I was
- 9:54Speaker 4: married to somebody and he was married to someone else,
- 9:57Speaker 4: So we were both married to other people at the time,
- 10:00Speaker 4: and we had no personal relationship, but that was initially
- 10:04Speaker 4: how I met him.
- 10:06Speaker 2: Terry said that she took a teaching job in Galveston,
- 10:09Speaker 2: so she moved away from the area. But a few
- 10:12Speaker 2: years later, in nineteen ninety three, after she moved back
- 10:15Speaker 2: to Sillsby to help take care of her grandmother, Terry
- 10:18Speaker 2: ran into Doug again by chance at the local post office.
- 10:22Speaker 2: By now they were both divorced, and that's when they
- 10:25Speaker 2: started a relationship.
- 10:27Speaker 4: He reached out to shake my hands, same as he
- 10:29Speaker 4: always did when he was my farm Bureau agent, but
- 10:32Speaker 4: this time he just kind of held my hand a
- 10:34Speaker 4: little bit longer, you know, and so within the next
- 10:38Speaker 4: few weeks he began to drop by my grandmother's house.
- 10:41Speaker 2: Terry said she noticed the same thing that everyone else
- 10:44Speaker 2: seemed to notice about Doug. He was kind and charming.
- 10:48Speaker 4: She said.
- 10:48Speaker 2: She and Doug fell in love and got married, and
- 10:51Speaker 2: for a long time things were good, but eventually Doug
- 10:55Speaker 2: and Terry grew apart. What happened is that Doug started
- 10:59Speaker 2: spending a lot more time in the Toledo Bend Lake area,
- 11:02Speaker 2: where he had bought his property in himple at the
- 11:05Speaker 2: end of a dirty cove. At the same time, Terry said,
- 11:08Speaker 2: their lives were taking them in different directions. Though they
- 11:11Speaker 2: were around the same age, both in their mid forties,
- 11:14Speaker 2: they had different life goals. Terry was an educator who
- 11:18Speaker 2: wanted to continue teaching at a higher level and progress
- 11:20Speaker 2: her career, while Doug was much more interested in heading
- 11:24Speaker 2: into retirement, slowing down and spending time on the lake
- 11:28Speaker 2: and on his houseboat, the same boat he later died on.
- 11:33Speaker 2: But there was another reason why Doug was spending more
- 11:35Speaker 2: and more time away from Terry April Janis, who he
- 11:39Speaker 2: met in two thousand and three. Looking back, Terry said
- 11:43Speaker 2: there were signs that her husband's relationship with April might
- 11:46Speaker 2: not have been appropriate, but she said that at the
- 11:49Speaker 2: time she could not believe that Doug would get involved
- 11:53Speaker 2: with a teenager.
- 11:55Speaker 4: Doug had begun to go to their house occasionally. They
- 11:57Speaker 4: were playing dominoes or playing cards, and on the weekend
- 12:01Speaker 4: said I was coming up. He wouldn't go over there,
- 12:03Speaker 4: since I was only their limited time. He was trying
- 12:06Speaker 4: to safeguard our privacy, so he wouldn't go. But I
- 12:10Speaker 4: did notice though, that the mobile home park that they
- 12:13Speaker 4: lived in weren't well kept up. At first, he would
- 12:17Speaker 4: honk at them as he drove by. He would wave,
- 12:21Speaker 4: you know, just honking away and keep going. Well, I
- 12:24Speaker 4: noticed that on the weekends that I was up there,
- 12:28Speaker 4: that all of a sudden he stopped doing that. And
- 12:30Speaker 4: one time I honked when I was driving, he says,
- 12:33Speaker 4: don't fool with those people. Leave those people alone.
- 12:36Speaker 1: So it's like he began to not want me to
- 12:39Speaker 1: have contact with them. It took a while for me
- 12:42Speaker 1: to catch on.
- 12:43Speaker 2: Terry wasn't the only one. Yvonne and others were noticing
- 12:48Speaker 2: that Doug appeared to be a little too interested in April.
- 12:52Speaker 2: Yvonne said that while she was uncomfortable with April's father,
- 12:55Speaker 2: Bob's comments and generally tried to steer clear of him,
- 12:59Speaker 2: she felt sorry for Anna. She felt like she was
- 13:02Speaker 2: Anna's only girlfriend. Yvonne remembers when Anna first told her
- 13:08Speaker 2: about her concerns about her daughter, April and Doug Janis.
- 13:12Speaker 3: So her and I we did talk. She did bring
- 13:15Speaker 3: it up and ask me. She said, do you think
- 13:18Speaker 3: Doug pays April too much attention when he's around? Because
- 13:22Speaker 3: there'd been a couple of times when we've been over
- 13:24Speaker 3: there and he would be there, or he'd pull up
- 13:26Speaker 3: and just join in. And I told her, yes, I do.
- 13:31Speaker 3: I said, but you're her mother. I said, you know
- 13:34Speaker 3: you need to be the one to watch and see.
- 13:36Speaker 3: I said that. Then she told me a couple of
- 13:38Speaker 3: things she had said to April, and she said, do
- 13:41Speaker 3: you think that that's normal for a man of his
- 13:43Speaker 3: age to say that to a twelve year old girl?
- 13:46Speaker 3: Because I'm telling you, Anna had no nothing to base
- 13:51Speaker 3: anything on. So she was asking me, because she was
- 13:55Speaker 3: so protected, does that make sense? Because she was ungworldly,
- 13:59Speaker 3: she didn't even know. I guess too, because in a
- 14:02Speaker 3: way I was trying to make her stand up for
- 14:04Speaker 3: herself a little bit, like to educate her, like, hey,
- 14:07Speaker 3: you don't have to put up with this, Like, hey,
- 14:09Speaker 3: can you have a voice? You know, not realizing though,
- 14:12Speaker 3: she didn't like, He's not at all that I just
- 14:15Speaker 3: because I didn't realize the severity of what was going on.
- 14:20Speaker 2: Yvonne said that her boyfriend Jay told her about something
- 14:24Speaker 2: that concerned him. He was down at the lake talking
- 14:27Speaker 2: with a friend of his when he saw April and
- 14:30Speaker 2: Doug and Bob.
- 14:31Speaker 3: He said, you know, today I'll walk down. He had
- 14:34Speaker 3: walked down to the lake and he was going to
- 14:37Speaker 3: talk to Jimmerson, but he said he saw Doug and
- 14:39Speaker 3: Bob pulling up in a boat and that April was
- 14:42Speaker 3: sitting in the back of the boat with Doug all
- 14:43Speaker 3: snuggled up and Bob at the front of the boat. So,
- 14:50Speaker 3: you know, he's like, you can't tell me this man.
- 14:53Speaker 3: You know, That's what Jay's tell me. He's like, you
- 14:54Speaker 3: can't tell me this man doesn't know that guy's doing
- 14:56Speaker 3: something with his daughter. He's like, what idiot would not know.
- 15:01Speaker 2: Yvonne said that she was growing increasingly concerned about April's
- 15:05Speaker 2: relateationship with Doug, but then something happened something that changed
- 15:09Speaker 2: everything they thought they knew about Doug Janis. In April,
- 15:13Speaker 2: one day, Yvonne and Jay were walking in the woods
- 15:17Speaker 2: and they saw a Doug in the woods. He was
- 15:19Speaker 2: with a woman, but not with April. Doug was with
- 15:23Speaker 2: her mother Anna. Yvonne said that she and her boyfriend
- 15:36Speaker 2: Jay were walking deep in the woods one day when
- 15:39Speaker 2: they saw Anna and Doug Janie and that they were together.
- 15:43Speaker 3: Who is that? And because this was pretty much like
- 15:46Speaker 3: part of our property, you know, so we're like, what's
- 15:49Speaker 3: going on? Because Anna did not live close enough to
- 15:53Speaker 3: walk there, like she would have had to have driven
- 15:56Speaker 3: or somebody brought her there or something. And so we're
- 16:00Speaker 3: just standing there listening and it's Doug and Anna. And
- 16:05Speaker 3: by the conversation that we heard, I mean, I can't
- 16:08Speaker 3: pay the details. At this point, Jay and myself both
- 16:11Speaker 3: knew that Doug was messing with Anna, that they were
- 16:14Speaker 3: having an affair. So we're both in shock. We both
- 16:18Speaker 3: just back out of there as quiet as we can
- 16:21Speaker 3: and get back to our house.
- 16:23Speaker 2: After that, Yvaughn said that she and Jay thought maybe
- 16:26Speaker 2: they had gotten it wrong, maybe Doug was being nice
- 16:30Speaker 2: to April because he was sexually involved with her mother.
- 16:33Speaker 3: Then like I said, you know, this is so foreign
- 16:36Speaker 3: to us. Okay, so we're talking. We're like, well, that
- 16:39Speaker 3: blows that theory. Apparently he's not messing with April, it's Anna.
- 16:43Speaker 3: So that's what we're thinking at this point. Never, never
- 16:47Speaker 3: in a million years, did it dawn on me. He's
- 16:49Speaker 3: messing with both of them.
- 16:51Speaker 2: So now this brings us to the night of September third,
- 16:54Speaker 2: two thousand and four, the night Anna was shot. Anna
- 16:59Speaker 2: and Bob had allowed April to go to the stock
- 17:02Speaker 2: car races with a family friend, a prominent man in
- 17:04Speaker 2: the community named Chester Cox. By the way, when Bob
- 17:07Speaker 2: Thompson talks about the Butts family in his book, he's
- 17:12Speaker 2: referring to the Cox family. These were the powerful friends
- 17:15Speaker 2: of Doug Janis's who he was concerned about.
- 17:18Speaker 3: So Anna called Von and I said, what's going on?
- 17:22Speaker 3: And she said, I found a letter between Doug and
- 17:25Speaker 3: April and he's messing with my daughter. And I was like,
- 17:30Speaker 3: are you serious And she said yes, and she said
- 17:34Speaker 3: and that is it. She said, I told him, don't
- 17:37Speaker 3: you ever come over here again. You will never And
- 17:39Speaker 3: this is exactly what she told me. Her words, she said,
- 17:42Speaker 3: I told him over my dead body, will you ever
- 17:45Speaker 3: see her again? She said, he will not be back
- 17:49Speaker 3: over here. And I said, Anna, are you talking? Have
- 17:52Speaker 3: you talked to Bob? She said, he pap won't even
- 17:54Speaker 3: listen to me. She said, I don't know what's wrong
- 17:56Speaker 3: with him. And I'm thinking, well, I do, because he
- 17:58Speaker 3: knows about it, you know. I mean said, I can't
- 18:00Speaker 3: really say that to her, you know, I'm just trying
- 18:03Speaker 3: to calm her down. And I'm just like, well, Anna,
- 18:07Speaker 3: you need to talk to Bob. Y'all need to be
- 18:08Speaker 3: on the same page. Y'all need to make sure she
- 18:10Speaker 3: stays away, and you need to talk to Bob. And see,
- 18:13Speaker 3: what are you gonna do. You're gonna call the police?
- 18:14Speaker 3: I mean, you've got to tell you you have to
- 18:16Speaker 3: report this. You can't just not say anything, you know.
- 18:21Speaker 3: And I said, I was trying to kind of educate her,
- 18:25Speaker 3: say come and tell her. You know, Anna, if you
- 18:27Speaker 3: don't say anything, I mean, if she goes and tells
- 18:29Speaker 3: somebody else about anything, you could be in trouble. Like
- 18:32Speaker 3: you need to say something, right, And she was like, okay,
- 18:36Speaker 3: I am, I am, I'm gonna talk to Bob whatever.
- 18:38Speaker 3: So we get off fun. That's the last conversation I
- 18:40Speaker 3: had with her.
- 18:42Speaker 2: On the night when Anna was fatally shot. She told
- 18:45Speaker 2: Yvonne that she was going to talk to her husband
- 18:48Speaker 2: about April's relationship with Doug. We know from Bob's description
- 18:53Speaker 2: of what happened that night that when April came home,
- 18:56Speaker 2: Anna started screaming at her and all hell broke loose.
- 18:59Speaker 2: Yvonne said that later, after three am, Bob called their
- 19:03Speaker 2: house and asked her and Jay to come over. She
- 19:07Speaker 2: will never forget what happened when she got to that
- 19:09Speaker 2: house and found Anna covered in blood on the couch.
- 19:14Speaker 2: In the book, Bob wrote that April had told him
- 19:17Speaker 2: there was an intruder at the house, but Yvonne insists
- 19:20Speaker 2: that's not what Bob told her that night. Yvonne said
- 19:23Speaker 2: that when she and her boyfriend got to the house,
- 19:26Speaker 2: Bob told her that Anna had accidentally shot herself while
- 19:30Speaker 2: trying to shoot a raccoon or maybe a possum that
- 19:32Speaker 2: had been coming up to the door.
- 19:34Speaker 3: He said that April told him it was an intruguer.
- 19:39Speaker 3: That's a lie. That's that is not what he told us.
- 19:42Speaker 3: He said she was trying to shoot a raccoing her possum,
- 19:45Speaker 3: that they had been they had been coming up to
- 19:47Speaker 3: that door for a while, and that she was probably
- 19:49Speaker 3: trying to shoot when she tripped over that cord, shot
- 19:52Speaker 3: herself and went got on the couch. Yeah, exactly what
- 19:55Speaker 3: he told me. I mean, I believe you that is
- 20:00Speaker 3: just not what he and you've read his book, so
- 20:03Speaker 3: you know, but yeah, that's a lie.
- 20:06Speaker 4: See.
- 20:06Speaker 3: Here's something that I've thought about is I don't think
- 20:10Speaker 3: he had time to think up a story. I think
- 20:12Speaker 3: he was sleeping when it happened. I don't think he
- 20:16Speaker 3: had time to think up a story, because that's not
- 20:20Speaker 3: a story Bob would have thought of. Both a smart
- 20:23Speaker 3: Bob was not stupid. He was sharp, and so I
- 20:27Speaker 3: think he would have thought up something better than what
- 20:29Speaker 3: he said. You see what, well, he obviously did. He
- 20:33Speaker 3: thought of a different one for the book, and he
- 20:35Speaker 3: thought of a different one apparently that he told other people,
- 20:37Speaker 3: because that's not the story he told me. And I
- 20:40Speaker 3: of course, I'm like freaking out, and I'm just like,
- 20:42Speaker 3: have you lost your mind? I mean, because I'm still
- 20:45Speaker 3: not registering that he did this to her, you know,
- 20:48Speaker 3: or that somebody in that house did. I'm like, are
- 20:51Speaker 3: you crazy. I said, she didn't go anywhere. I said,
- 20:54Speaker 3: you think she shot herself and walked back to that
- 20:57Speaker 3: couch if you lost your freaking mind. I'm just like,
- 21:00Speaker 3: there is no way. And at that point he said
- 21:05Speaker 3: me why, I don't know. I had to h and
- 21:08Speaker 3: he's Sam Will and I'm like, where is April? And
- 21:12Speaker 3: then April comes walking out of her bedroom and she's
- 21:14Speaker 3: just kind of walking around like a scared mouth and
- 21:17Speaker 3: a cold sweat.
- 21:18Speaker 2: Yvonne began to sense that something was not right at
- 21:21Speaker 2: that crime scent, that things were being staged, that she
- 21:24Speaker 2: may have been invited over as some kind of, in
- 21:26Speaker 2: her words, set up. She noticed something else that was
- 21:30Speaker 2: very odd, something about April that she said she will
- 21:33Speaker 2: never forget.
- 21:34Speaker 3: But the one thing I did notice is she was
- 21:37Speaker 3: fresh and clean from a shower. Her hair was wet.
- 21:40Speaker 3: She smelled like soap. And the reason why that sticks
- 21:44Speaker 3: out in my mind is because most of the time
- 21:46Speaker 3: April was dirty.
- 21:48Speaker 2: While April was being held in Lufkin and questioned in
- 21:51Speaker 2: connection with her mother's death, Bob said that he drove
- 21:55Speaker 2: down to Texas to find Doug's a strange wife Terry.
- 21:59Speaker 2: Terry confirmed part of this story She said she remembered
- 22:02Speaker 2: when Bob reached out to her that she'll never forget
- 22:06Speaker 2: Bob's trip to find her after April's arrest, because when
- 22:09Speaker 2: he visited her, he told Terry that Doug was involved
- 22:13Speaker 2: with his daughter.
- 22:14Speaker 4: What tipped it off, what absolutely tipped it off, was
- 22:17Speaker 4: that and I had even I had even visited the
- 22:23Speaker 4: houseboat and seen a child's drawings on the refrigerator door,
- 22:29Speaker 4: you know, like you put kids drawings up on your
- 22:30Speaker 4: refrigerator with a magnet. Well, there were all these kid
- 22:33Speaker 4: drawings up there. Most of them were horses, but there
- 22:36Speaker 4: were lots and lots of pictures all over the houseboat,
- 22:39Speaker 4: you know, like on the refrigerator, hanging on the walls.
- 22:41Speaker 4: And I said, I asked him, I said, where all
- 22:44Speaker 4: these pictures come from? And he said, oh, they're from
- 22:48Speaker 4: They're from the April had gave them to me when
- 22:52Speaker 4: I was over at their house. So I still didn't
- 22:55Speaker 4: put two and two together.
- 22:57Speaker 1: I didn't think that, Okay, there's something really creepy about this.
- 23:03Speaker 1: I just thought, Okay, it's a kid, the kid drawing
- 23:06Speaker 1: pictures and giving them to somebody. What's creepy about that?
- 23:10Speaker 2: Right? You know?
- 23:11Speaker 4: So and you know, I knew that he went down
- 23:15Speaker 4: there when her parents were there, and you know, Bob
- 23:19Speaker 4: and Anna they were they were.
- 23:21Speaker 1: Present, and so that didn't seem, you know, anything.
- 23:25Speaker 4: Out of the ordinary. But what did.
- 23:29Speaker 1: Happen was that, uh, And I wish I knew the
- 23:32Speaker 1: time that this had happened, of the timeline on it.
- 23:35Speaker 1: But Bob Thompson drove from him Hill to Silsby and
- 23:40Speaker 1: he went into the newspaper office where I used to work,
- 23:44Speaker 1: and he asked for me.
- 23:45Speaker 4: He remembered that I used to work for the newspaper there.
- 23:48Speaker 4: I had been a reporter. Nobody believed anything, he says. Initially,
- 23:53Speaker 4: like all women who are confronted with information like this, well,
- 23:58Speaker 4: I didn't want to believe it, and in fact I
- 24:00Speaker 4: didn't believe it. Initially I thought because it sounded plausible.
- 24:04Speaker 4: I've seen where these people live, I knew kind of
- 24:07Speaker 4: a little bit about him.
- 24:08Speaker 1: I thought, yeah, maybe that's that's plausible. But little by
- 24:12Speaker 1: little things kept surfacing to confirm that it was true.
- 24:17Speaker 1: Initially I just held on to the unbelief about it. No,
- 24:21Speaker 1: this is not really this is somebody's mixed up on
- 24:24Speaker 1: what they're thinking. Nobody would want a person that they
- 24:28Speaker 1: love and that they are have loved to be.
- 24:31Speaker 4: Capable of such things, you don't want them to be,
- 24:37Speaker 4: and you just you don't want to even admit that
- 24:39Speaker 4: it's a possibility, that it's true, and you're hoping to
- 24:42Speaker 4: God it's not.
- 24:44Speaker 2: Terry and Doug divorced in two thousand and six. About
- 24:47Speaker 2: a year later, she moved out of Texas to Colorado,
- 24:50Speaker 2: but Terry said even after that she and Doug were close.
- 24:54Speaker 2: The last time that Terry talked to Doug was a
- 24:56Speaker 2: few days before he married April.
- 24:59Speaker 1: I thought, okay, I'll use my I'll use my best
- 25:02Speaker 1: educator skills and talk to this little girl and you know,
- 25:07Speaker 1: help her to see some reality here. Well, he wouldn't
- 25:10Speaker 1: let me talk to her. He wouldn't allow me to
- 25:12Speaker 1: talk to her. He no, no, you don't talk to her.
- 25:15Speaker 1: So they hung up, that she calls right back again,
- 25:19Speaker 1: and so that's when I began to suspect there's something
- 25:24Speaker 1: really going on here. There's something really happening, and there's
- 25:27Speaker 1: something really going on. The realization really began to hit me.
- 25:31Speaker 4: But he would not. He always denied that there was
- 25:34Speaker 4: anything going on that shouldn't have been going on, you know,
- 25:39Speaker 4: and this was I'd say right up until December of
- 25:43Speaker 4: two thousand and.
- 25:44Speaker 1: Eight that you know, here.
- 25:49Speaker 4: They run off together to go get married after her birthday.
- 25:54Speaker 2: Doug in April married in December of two thousand and eight,
- 25:57Speaker 2: on or right after April's eighteenth birthday. Terry said that
- 26:01Speaker 2: this move blindsided her, that she was shocked.
- 26:04Speaker 4: I really couldn't believe that he married her. He and
- 26:07Speaker 4: I had been either talking by phone or emailing, and.
- 26:12Speaker 1: He gave no indication that he was about to get married.
- 26:15Speaker 4: I had to wonder if he did it on the
- 26:18Speaker 4: spur of the moment, if it was poor planning or
- 26:22Speaker 4: no planning, or if it was something that had been
- 26:25Speaker 4: in the works. I couldn't imagine why he would marry
- 26:30Speaker 4: a girl who was eighteen, because that's a lot of
- 26:34Speaker 4: responsibility for a man that's heading into retirement. I thought, Okay,
- 26:39Speaker 4: she's gonna end up wanting children, you know. And I
- 26:42Speaker 4: didn't think that that was something that he wanted. That
- 26:46Speaker 4: he wouldn't have wanted that responsibility. He wouldn't have wanted
- 26:49Speaker 4: to raise another family.
- 26:51Speaker 2: After Anna's death, Bob claimed that he reported April and
- 26:55Speaker 2: Doug's relationship to police, but he says that he was
- 26:59Speaker 2: shut down. This is a theme that comes up over
- 27:02Speaker 2: and over a lot of times we hear about conspiracy
- 27:05Speaker 2: theories and how scared people are to report things to
- 27:07Speaker 2: local law enforcement. And sometimes people do have overactive imaginations.
- 27:13Speaker 2: But on the other hand, paranoid people are not always wrong.
- 27:17Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong. I still think that, given everything
- 27:19Speaker 2: we know about Bob and about Doug Janie, that Bob,
- 27:23Speaker 2: in my opinion, did not do enough to protect his daughter.
- 27:27Speaker 2: But I also wonder if both things could have been true,
- 27:30Speaker 2: if Bob could have been willfully clueless, but also if
- 27:34Speaker 2: there were people in power, specifically men in power who
- 27:38Speaker 2: knew that April Janis was being abused and did nothing
- 27:41Speaker 2: about it. A lot of people were wondering the same
- 27:50Speaker 2: thing after Doug Janis was murdered. They wondered if men
- 27:54Speaker 2: in power in Sabine County knew April was being abused
- 27:58Speaker 2: and did nothing about it. April was arrested, charged, given
- 28:02Speaker 2: a ten million dollar bond, and then released. Why was
- 28:06Speaker 2: she released? Maybe it was because there wasn't enough evidence,
- 28:10Speaker 2: but a lot of people close to the case wonder
- 28:13Speaker 2: could it have been something else. We talked to someone
- 28:17Speaker 2: who grew up with April, someone who said that people
- 28:19Speaker 2: in power will never charge April with Doug's murder. This
- 28:23Speaker 2: person believes it's because April, in their words, knows too much,
- 28:27Speaker 2: and that the police department in Sabine County have a
- 28:29Speaker 2: law under themselves so much so they say that the
- 28:33Speaker 2: county is broke after dealing with sexual assault claims. We
- 28:37Speaker 2: took a look into court records and I want to
- 28:40Speaker 2: take a minute to talk about a case Tyson versus
- 28:43Speaker 2: Sabine County because it is shocking and it makes me
- 28:46Speaker 2: understand why people there, especially women, could be terrified to
- 28:50Speaker 2: report anything. It started back on September eighteenth, twenty eighteen,
- 28:55Speaker 2: when a man named Wade Tyson called the Sheriff's department
- 28:58Speaker 2: in Sabine County to request a welfare check on his wife, Melissa.
- 29:03Speaker 2: Wade said he was out of town, his wife was
- 29:05Speaker 2: home alone and distressed. Deputy David Boyd called Waite and
- 29:09Speaker 2: told him he would go over to their home and
- 29:11Speaker 2: do a welfare check. So Deputy Boyd went to their house.
- 29:15Speaker 2: Melissa was home alone. She answered the door and he
- 29:18Speaker 2: introduced himself as a sheriff and quote told her that
- 29:21Speaker 2: he handled welfare checks because he was a preacher.
- 29:24Speaker 4: End quote.
- 29:25Speaker 2: That day, Deputy Boyd told other officers not to respond
- 29:29Speaker 2: to Wade's request. He said that he would be handling
- 29:32Speaker 2: that call personally. Deputy Boyd left the house after the
- 29:35Speaker 2: welfare check, but the next morning he showed up again
- 29:38Speaker 2: alone at the Tyson home. Again, Melissa was home alone.
- 29:42Speaker 2: This time, Deputy Boyd wasn't in a police cruiser, just
- 29:45Speaker 2: a plain vehicle, but he was wearing a shirt identifying
- 29:49Speaker 2: himself as a sheriff. Melissa reached out to shake his hand,
- 29:53Speaker 2: but Deputy Boyd hugged her and asked if there was
- 29:55Speaker 2: a place where they could talk privately, so they went
- 29:58Speaker 2: out to a side porch. During this time, Deputy Boyd
- 30:01Speaker 2: asked if she had security cameras or neighbors. She said no,
- 30:05Speaker 2: no can and her neighbors were usually not home. Then
- 30:09Speaker 2: he made a comment about her being lonely because her
- 30:11Speaker 2: husband was gone and because she lived all the way
- 30:13Speaker 2: out there on that dead end road. Melissa said she
- 30:16Speaker 2: wasn't lonely, she was fine. She later testified she thought
- 30:20Speaker 2: that Deputy Boyd's behavior was strange, but she said she
- 30:23Speaker 2: gave him the benefit of the doubt because she believed
- 30:25Speaker 2: that he was there to help her. Deputy Boyd then
- 30:29Speaker 2: told Melissa he and some other officers had recently seen
- 30:32Speaker 2: her at a restaurant. He repeated sexual comments the officers
- 30:36Speaker 2: made about her body, saying they talked about quote what
- 30:39Speaker 2: they would like to do to her if they could.
- 30:42Speaker 2: He talked about her breasts and how they compared to
- 30:44Speaker 2: his wife's breast and asked her if her and her
- 30:47Speaker 2: husband would consider a threesome and whether her husband would
- 30:50Speaker 2: allow someone to watch them having sex end quote. Deputy
- 30:54Speaker 2: Boyd then allegedly sexually assaulted Melissa. He forced her to
- 30:59Speaker 2: masturbate in front of him. He then masturbated in front
- 31:02Speaker 2: of her and left. Melissa said she was horrified afterwards.
- 31:07Speaker 2: Then it got worse because Deputy Boyd started texting her.
- 31:11Speaker 2: She reached out to a friend, telling the friend she
- 31:14Speaker 2: was scared that he was going to hurt her. According
- 31:17Speaker 2: to court documents, quote, she began frequently seeing a psychotherapist
- 31:21Speaker 2: and a hypnotherapist. Her intimacy with her husband significantly decreased.
- 31:25Speaker 2: She gained thirty pounds, She started carrying a gun, She
- 31:28Speaker 2: put cameras up, and she generally stopped leaving her home.
- 31:32Speaker 2: In short, the incident changed her whole life and she
- 31:36Speaker 2: isn't who she used to be end quote. Melissa testified
- 31:40Speaker 2: she felt forced to submit to Deputy Boyd's assault because
- 31:44Speaker 2: she was isolated and alone, She was intimidated by his authority,
- 31:48Speaker 2: and she was frightened that the sexual harassment would escalate
- 31:51Speaker 2: if she did not comply. Basically, she was terrified, and
- 31:54Speaker 2: she was also terrified to report the sexual assault to
- 31:57Speaker 2: local law enforcement because, of course, she remembered the comments
- 32:00Speaker 2: Deputy Boyd had made about talking to the other officers
- 32:04Speaker 2: about what they all wanted to do her. This must
- 32:06Speaker 2: have been terrifying for Melissa, but she did something that,
- 32:10Speaker 2: in my opinion, is extremely brave. She called the Texas
- 32:13Speaker 2: Rangers and later she found out that this was not
- 32:17Speaker 2: the first complaint that had been made against Deputy Boyd.
- 32:20Speaker 2: There were other victims out there. At least three other
- 32:23Speaker 2: complaints had been made against him. In April twenty nineteen,
- 32:27Speaker 2: Deputy boy was indicted by the State of Texas. He
- 32:30Speaker 2: was charged with sexual assault in decent exposure and official oppression.
- 32:35Speaker 2: Melissa Tyson sued Sabine County, the sheriff and Deputy Boyd. Initially,
- 32:40Speaker 2: the district court ruled against her. It's a bit complicated,
- 32:43Speaker 2: but we talked before about how hard it is to
- 32:45Speaker 2: sue police officers because they have something called qualified immunity.
- 32:49Speaker 2: It's meant to be there, so people can't sue police
- 32:52Speaker 2: officers for things they do during the course of duty.
- 32:55Speaker 2: But Melissa Tyson won on appeal. The Court of Appeals
- 32:59Speaker 2: found even though Deputy boy did not use physical force,
- 33:03Speaker 2: he used mental coercion to sexually assag Melissa. They ruled
- 33:07Speaker 2: that it was psychological abuse and that he was not
- 33:11Speaker 2: entitled to any kind of qualified immunity after forcing her
- 33:14Speaker 2: to masturbate in front of him. This case shocked me.
- 33:17Speaker 2: Imagine a scenario where people are literally more afraid of
- 33:21Speaker 2: the police than the bad guys. That's what Melissa Tyson experienced,
- 33:25Speaker 2: and I am sure many other women in Sabine County
- 33:28Speaker 2: have experienced the same thing. April's records are sealed, so
- 33:34Speaker 2: we don't know exactly what happened during the jury trial
- 33:37Speaker 2: in order for them to find her not guilty of
- 33:39Speaker 2: her mother's murder. So I wonder what the judge or
- 33:42Speaker 2: jury knew. Did they ever know that Doug was having
- 33:45Speaker 2: an affair with April's mother, and that Anna had just
- 33:49Speaker 2: found out about Doug and April's relationship on the night
- 33:52Speaker 2: she was killed. After Anna's death, Yvonne said that Bob's
- 33:57Speaker 2: attitude toward his wife seemed to change. He went from
- 34:00Speaker 2: talking about her really lovingly to being kind of cold.
- 34:04Speaker 2: He didn't visit much at the hospital, and then after
- 34:07Speaker 2: she died, he would talk about her in kind of
- 34:09Speaker 2: a disparaging way, A complete one eighty from his attitude
- 34:13Speaker 2: toward his wife before. Yvonne wondered why. She wondered, did
- 34:18Speaker 2: Bob know about Anna's involvement with Doug or could there
- 34:22Speaker 2: be something else going on?
- 34:23Speaker 3: I feel bad rehashing this comes. I'm like, oh my gosh,
- 34:26Speaker 3: I can't believe I didn't just like call somebody, but
- 34:28Speaker 3: I said, who are you gonna call? I mean, anyway,
- 34:30Speaker 3: this town is so weird.
- 34:32Speaker 2: Yvonne said that April came over to her house and
- 34:35Speaker 2: that while she was there that April told Yvonn that
- 34:38Speaker 2: she had shot her mother, and Yvonne said April told
- 34:43Speaker 2: her why she did it. April said that she and
- 34:46Speaker 2: Doug were in love, that they were having sex, and
- 34:49Speaker 2: that her mother, Anna would not let them be together,
- 34:51Speaker 2: so Yvonn went to the police to tell them what
- 34:54Speaker 2: she knew. But she also explained that April told her
- 34:59Speaker 2: that her father had said April had to confess because
- 35:02Speaker 2: she was young and if he was involved, he would
- 35:04Speaker 2: go away for a long time, which led Evonne to
- 35:07Speaker 2: wonder was this true. Did April do this alone or
- 35:12Speaker 2: could Bob have been involved and pressured April into taking
- 35:16Speaker 2: the fall due to her age.
- 35:18Speaker 3: That night having sex. He has a place over in Manny,
- 35:23Speaker 3: which I didn't know he had another residence. Doug had
- 35:26Speaker 3: another residence on the other side of the bridge, because
- 35:28Speaker 3: it was right there at the cut off, you know,
- 35:30Speaker 3: at the Louisiana line, And that her mother would not
- 35:36Speaker 3: allow her to see him, and that, yeah, that her
- 35:39Speaker 3: mother was so mean and wouldn't let her be with Doug,
- 35:42Speaker 3: and that that's why she shot her. But she never
- 35:45Speaker 3: would say that Bob hadn't even know she did. That's
- 35:48Speaker 3: what she said, Bob. Well, she didn't say Bob did it.
- 35:51Speaker 3: She was just saying that Bob said she needed to
- 35:55Speaker 3: confess to it because he would go to because that
- 35:59Speaker 3: they would think he did it. Basically, you see what
- 36:02Speaker 3: I'm getting that like, you never said he did it,
- 36:05Speaker 3: but he did say that. He was telling her she
- 36:09Speaker 3: needs to say she did it because he'll never get
- 36:11Speaker 3: out of jail.
- 36:12Speaker 2: I Vonn said that she told the police about Doug
- 36:15Speaker 2: molesting Anna. That's when things took a turn for the bizarre.
- 36:20Speaker 2: Yvonne claims the police officer she talked to was not
- 36:24Speaker 2: surprised when she told them about Doug and aples relationship.
- 36:28Speaker 4: He said, is he from Philsey?
- 36:30Speaker 3: And I said yeah. He said, yep, yep, he sure is.
- 36:33Speaker 3: He said, you know why he's here on Filido Bend.
- 36:36Speaker 3: I said, no, I don't. He said, well, because he
- 36:38Speaker 3: got caught messing with some little girls and Philsney too.
- 36:44Speaker 3: He said yep, he said, and mommy and daddy you know,
- 36:49Speaker 3: paid them off or whatever he said. And of course
- 36:52Speaker 3: he ran down and got hisself married a little quick
- 36:55Speaker 3: to Terry. He said, they don't live together. I said, no,
- 36:59Speaker 3: they don't. So how does this guy know all this?
- 37:01Speaker 3: It's the sheriff. I never talked to him again, and
- 37:05Speaker 3: they wouldn't. I looked for him and couldn't even find it.
- 37:08Speaker 3: I'm telling you the truth.
- 37:10Speaker 2: Yvonne said that when she tried to follow up. The
- 37:12Speaker 2: officer she spoke to wasn't there anymore. Not only that,
- 37:17Speaker 2: she was told there was no record of him working there.
- 37:20Speaker 3: Like, I don't know where he went, how he went,
- 37:23Speaker 3: I don't know. It's so bizarre. I told him his
- 37:27Speaker 3: name and everything, and they were like, ma'am, he does.
- 37:29Speaker 3: We don't have anybody here it works by here but
- 37:31Speaker 3: a name, and I'm just like, oh my gosh, I mean,
- 37:34Speaker 3: I am the hell out of here. I am like,
- 37:36Speaker 3: let people at that. What I can't remember. I have
- 37:41Speaker 3: to realize I didn't write any of this down at
- 37:43Speaker 3: the time. It wasn't like I was planning on ever
- 37:46Speaker 3: talking about it again. Honestly, I don't remember his name.
- 37:50Speaker 3: I just know he was a white sheriff. I don't know,
- 37:53Speaker 3: but I felt like, y'all are lying. He probably said
- 37:56Speaker 3: stuff he wasn't supposed to say, and either y'all fired
- 38:00Speaker 3: him or I don't know what she did with him.
- 38:04Speaker 2: Yvonne said that I've or that weird incident with a
- 38:06Speaker 2: disappearing sheriff. She decided to get out of town. Right
- 38:11Speaker 2: before she left, she had another disturbing running with Bob,
- 38:16Speaker 2: and he said this to her.
- 38:18Speaker 3: Be a shame. You're after fishing in that fishing out
- 38:21Speaker 3: there in the boat and a bullet flies out of
- 38:22Speaker 3: the National Force and hits you in the head. You
- 38:25Speaker 3: know what happens around here quite a bit. Yeah, I
- 38:27Speaker 3: mean you know. And so Jason Jay just come on,
- 38:31Speaker 3: we're leaving, and I get about halfway into the truck
- 38:33Speaker 3: and I just just so pissed off. I just turned
- 38:36Speaker 3: around and I said, yeah, but there's one big difference
- 38:38Speaker 3: between me and Anna. You want to know if that
- 38:40Speaker 3: is Bob, I said, I got Stanley. That gives a shit,
- 38:43Speaker 3: I said, And they will be back up here so
- 38:45Speaker 3: fast they'll make your head spin, and they will turn
- 38:46Speaker 3: everything here upside down to find out exactly where I
- 38:50Speaker 3: am and exactly who did it to me.
- 38:53Speaker 2: Yvonne left the area but never forgot about what happened.
- 38:56Speaker 2: Her story has never been told publicly until.
- 38:59Speaker 3: Now because periodically I always think about it, you know,
- 39:03Speaker 3: And I thought, whatever happened to those people? And so
- 39:07Speaker 3: I google the name and it pops up, and I
- 39:13Speaker 3: about fell out when I saw that Doug died in
- 39:18Speaker 3: a fire on that houseboat, and that when they recovered
- 39:21Speaker 3: the body, there was two bullet holds in his head.
- 39:23Speaker 3: I'm like, well, there you go, there is your karma.
- 39:27Speaker 4: You taught her how.
- 39:27Speaker 3: To do it, she did it to you. That's really
- 39:30Speaker 3: what I think. So no, I don't feel good for
- 39:33Speaker 3: the man. Sorry, I don't. I feel like karma, perfect karma.
- 39:38Speaker 3: But I think it's just that small town in hell.
- 39:42Speaker 3: Yeah it is. Yeah, it's very weird. So I will
- 39:47Speaker 3: love her somehow Anna to have justice. I know that
- 39:50Speaker 3: no one's ever gonna everybody's dead now, So I'm gonna
- 39:54Speaker 3: tell you because I really feel like that the only
- 39:55Speaker 3: two victims out of all of it was April and
- 39:58Speaker 3: her mother. I think they both are victims. But yeah,
- 40:02Speaker 3: that's what I believe.
- 40:05Speaker 2: Even though Doug Janis may have been imperfect, it's important
- 40:09Speaker 2: to remember he's still left behind children and grandchildren, a
- 40:13Speaker 2: family who loved him, and he deserves justice just like
- 40:17Speaker 2: any other victim. Was April involved in Doug's murder and
- 40:22Speaker 2: if so, did she do it alone or was someone
- 40:25Speaker 2: else involved? Was there really ten thousand dollars on the
- 40:28Speaker 2: boat or could there have been a lot more money?
- 40:31Speaker 2: And what are the connections between Doug Janis and people
- 40:34Speaker 2: in positions of power in Sabine County? Are there still
- 40:38Speaker 2: people there getting away with murder. I'm Catherine Townsend. This
- 40:43Speaker 2: is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is
- 40:47Speaker 2: a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's
- 40:50Speaker 2: written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by
- 40:53Speaker 2: Gabby Watts and Miranda Hawkins. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs
- 40:57Speaker 2: for her research assistance. This episode was sound design and
- 41:00Speaker 2: mixed by Noah Cameron. Our theme song is by Ben Sale,
- 41:05Speaker 2: Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C. Crowley.
- 41:10Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
- 41:12Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
- 41:16Speaker 2: are interested in seeing documents and materials from this case,
- 41:19Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonepod.
- 41:24Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
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- 41:28Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
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