Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / True Crime Documentary - A Small Town Unravels After a Shocking Crime in the Woods

Transcript

True Crime Documentary - A Small Town Unravels After a Shocking Crime in the Woods · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Behind every investigation lies a story. Behind every trial lies truth.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: This is American Justice. I'm fairly certain we just found
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a body along the mountain bike trail.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Her clothes are all taken off.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Some violent, almost obsessed intruder came into my community and
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: hurt one of my kids.
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: The monoblade that was April.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: It was like the epitome of innocence that had been
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: preyed upon.
• 0:42
  Speaker 5: This is a case that has no evidence. We didn't
• 0:46
  Speaker 5: have DNA. We didn't have fingerprints.
• 0:49
  Speaker 6: I was asking myself over and over, is this the killer?
• 0:53
  Speaker 7: Her phone told us the tale of her murder.
• 0:56
  Speaker 8: We were living in a nightmare. I don't wish this
• 0:59
  Speaker 8: on anybody.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: It's the middle of the summer in the small village
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of Armada, Michigan. 14-year-old April Millsap heads out the door
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to walk the family dog, Penny.
• 1:18
  Speaker 8: April and Penny were like best friends. You can't separate
• 1:23
  Speaker 8: the two. April told me before I went to work
• 1:26
  Speaker 8: that she was going to walk Penny on the trail. Okay,
• 1:29
  Speaker 8: have a good time. I mean, that's the only thing
• 1:31
  Speaker 8: that goes through my mind.
• 1:33
  Speaker 9: I didn't think anything different.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Bad anything good it was just a typical day.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: April usually walks penny along the macomb orchard trail a
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: popular bike path that runs through armada several hours of
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: daylight are left on this summer day.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: She headed out around five o'clock 5 30.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Nearly two hours later april hasn't returned home.
• 2:01
  Speaker 9: I started calling and there was No answer.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Jennifer's texts are also not returned.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: That's when I started thinking something was.
• 2:19
  Speaker 7: Wrong.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: 911?
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we just, I'm fairly certain we just found a
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: body along the mountain bike trail.
• 2:26
  Speaker 10: Is it a male or a female?
• 2:28
  Speaker 11: Female.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: She's off of the trail, touched back into the woods.
• 2:30
  Speaker 8: Okay, and you don't believe she's breathing?
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I don't believe so, no.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: A young couple were on the trail, and they came
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: across a dog that was very upset. And it was
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: moving back and forth, trying to investigate what's wrong with
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: the dog. The gentleman looks into the woods, and he
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: observes a lifeless body.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Within minutes, police arrive on the scene.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: I arrived at the crime scene and in the bushes,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: there was a ditch. On one side of the ditch
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: was a small white tennis shoe. On the other side
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: of the ditch was a second tennis shoe. The young
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: lady didn't appear to be a full teenager. The top
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: of her clothing was ripped off of her. Her Shorts
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: and her underwear were ripped to her ankles. There was
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: a vicious stamp mark with herringbone imprint of the bottom
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: of a shoe across her lower face and neck.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: It was a pitiful scene.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: It's been 41 years since our maid had recorded a homicide.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Now this small village of 1,700 has been struck by
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: a horrific murder.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: As the police chief, I'm looking at it as some violent,
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: almost obsessed intruder came into my community and hurt one
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: of my kids. It was now my job to find
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: that person and convict that person.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: The young victim has no form of identification on her
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and no cell phone. While police comb the scene, the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: dog is taken to the local animal shelter to be
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: examined for DNA evidence.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: As we are reaching out to get assistance from different departments,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: a mother shows up at the perimeter of the crime
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: scene with a young man.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: She tells us that her daughter was missing.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: The woman is Jennifer Millsap. She tells police that she
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and her daughter's boyfriend are looking for April.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Her daughter was walking the family dog, Penny. She gave
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: us a description of the dog, gave us a description
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: of her young daughter and what she was wearing. It
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: became apparent that the dog we had was Penny and
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: that the body was April Millsap, 14 years of age.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: As is normal procedure, investigators don't provide any details about
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the crime scene or the victim.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: We were not comfortable with giving out any information until
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: we had an opportunity to.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Interview these people.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: We had the mother and the boyfriend go back to
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: the station and started to put together the investigation.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: All we know is that the police found something out there.
• 6:01
  Speaker 8: I'm working and Jennifer calls and she is hysterical. She's
• 6:07
  Speaker 8: not making much sense. All I'm hearing is April missing
• 6:11
  Speaker 8: and police station. I go to the police station and
• 6:17
  Speaker 8: they told me that I needed to wait outside because
• 6:21
  Speaker 8: they're trying to keep everybody separated at that moment.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: At the station, Jennifer files a missing persons report. She
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: tells police that when April didn't come home, she called
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: April's boyfriend, Austin. Austin told her that he hadn't seen
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: April at all that day, but he did get an
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: unusual text from her at 6.28 p.m. The text read,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I think I almost got kidnapped.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: They were kind of quarreling, so he thought nothing of
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: it until I mentioned that April wasn't home yet.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Separately, police begin to question 15-year-old Austin. He tells investigators
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: a similar story. According to the.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Boyfriend, he and April were in some sort of a
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: little bit of a young puppy-love tiff, and he was
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: ignoring her.
• 7:19
  Speaker 12: I remember pulling my phone out, unlocked it, and said,
• 7:24
  Speaker 12: I think I almost got kidnapped at OFG. And at first,
• 7:29
  Speaker 12: you know, I'm thinking, This is like creepy old guys
• 7:32
  Speaker 12: in the stores checking her out.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: No big deal.
• 7:34
  Speaker 12: She just over-exaggerated.
• 7:35
  Speaker 6: And what time was that on there at?
• 7:38
  Speaker 13: 6.28.
• 7:39
  Speaker 12: I responded at 7.44.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: That took you a while to respond.
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: Though, huh?
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: It was very curious to us as to why would
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: the boyfriend have received this text and not tried to
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: figure out where she was or what was going on.
• 7:58
  Speaker 12: We're at the cemetery and it's in the middle of
• 7:59
  Speaker 12: the woods, you know.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: I'm not gonna have any signal.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: He said that he and his buddy were in the cemetery,
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: which was corroborated by his friend. They also said that
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: they went to a fast food restaurant in Richmond, Michigan.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Austin's account of the evening will need to be verified.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: He's a person of interest, but is allowed to go home.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: During the interviews, April's stepdad remains outside.
• 8:29
  Speaker 8: So as I'm sitting outside, I'm listening to the radio.
• 8:33
  Speaker 8: And the news is talking all about a young lady
• 8:37
  Speaker 8: being found on the trail. But I'm not putting it
• 8:40
  Speaker 8: together at the moment until about 45 minutes later. I'm
• 8:43
  Speaker 8: realizing the news is talking about April. But they're not
• 8:47
  Speaker 8: using her name. Young lady, young woman. I was a little.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to say it. Dazed?
• 8:57
  Speaker 8: It's just a bad place to be. I met April
• 9:04
  Speaker 8: when she was six years old, and she was.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: A great kid.
• 9:09
  Speaker 8: We used to fly kites together, play in the yard,
• 9:11
  Speaker 8: play with the dogs, love riding on a mini bike
• 9:14
  Speaker 8: around the yard. She loved animals, and she was the
• 9:18
  Speaker 8: only girl I ever knew that liked playing with bugs
• 9:22
  Speaker 8: or spiders or snakes. If I said, hey, look at
• 9:25
  Speaker 8: the frog, she'd go catch it. She meant the world
• 9:28
  Speaker 8: to me. And the waiting, trying to find out what happened,
• 9:33
  Speaker 8: was killing me.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Investigators question April's stepdad to find out where he was
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: earlier that day. David tells them, and police verify that
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: he was at work. When he's finally reunited with Jennifer,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: he keeps what he heard on the news to himself.
• 9:58
  Speaker 8: I was told by the police not to say anything
• 10:00
  Speaker 8: to Jennifer about it until they had a chance to
• 10:03
  Speaker 8: tell her. I couldn't even comprehend it myself. I mean,
• 10:08
  Speaker 8: how could this be?
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Even though that we were comfortable in our minds that
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: it was April that was out on the Macomb Orchard Trail,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: we still needed to investigate farther.
• 10:19
  Speaker 9: We were there pretty much the whole night.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: We knew something was going on.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: By 8 the next morning, April's parents are allowed to leave.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: They soon get a visit from the FBI.
• 10:39
  Speaker 8: When she showed us the picture, it was definitely a
• 10:41
  Speaker 8: total loss of control of my emotions at the moment.
• 10:44
  Speaker 8: It was a very emotional point of my life.
• 10:49
  Speaker 13: It's like a nightmare that I still haven't woken up from,
• 10:54
  Speaker 13: knowing that she's never coming back.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: As news of a body found on the trail continues
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: to spread, additional officers arrive in Armada. Overnight, the town
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: has transformed from a safe, quiet village to a community
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: on edge.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: The people within the village felt violated. There had been
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: a murder committed in our town and they were outraged.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: The townspeople were worried that their children were not safe
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: and so there was a panic. Not knowing who would
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: have done this and are they going to do it again,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: we had to find this killer and we had to find.
• 11:41
  Speaker 6: Him right away.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Hours after the body of 14-year-old April Millsap is found
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: on a popular hiking trail, resources continue to pour into
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the small village of Armada.
• 12:01
  Speaker 14: When I arrived, I started getting more information on what
• 12:04
  Speaker 14: had occurred. And I actually have a daughter who was
• 12:09
  Speaker 14: 14 years old at the time. And it was that
• 12:14
  Speaker 14: much more heartbreaking.
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: It's really hard.
• 12:19
  Speaker 14: To not keep putting myself in that position that, what
• 12:23
  Speaker 14: would I think, what would I do, how would I
• 12:25
  Speaker 14: feel if this had been my daughter?
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Looking at her, she just looked like the epitome of
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: innocence that had been preyed upon like some sort of
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: a animal. And it was just a horrible, horrible scene.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: And it was hard to believe how a predator could
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: have done this in this area. especially with the amount
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: of people that used that path.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: The conclusion of the medical examiner was it was death
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: by asphyxiation and blunt force trauma.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: The stomping of.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Her windpipe of her neck to the point that it collapsed,
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: it was just a brutal way to attack somebody.
• 13:16
  Speaker 14: It was strong enough that it left shoe prints on
• 13:19
  Speaker 14: her neck and her face area with the pattern of
• 13:23
  Speaker 14: the bottom of the shoe.
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: It kind of led.
• 13:26
  Speaker 14: Me to believe that we were just looking for some
• 13:31
  Speaker 14: form of a monster out there.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: The shoe imprint was so clear that it was something
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: that we could match against if we found the killer's shoes.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: With her shirt and bra being pulled down and her
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: pants being pulled down, obviously we thought, that she had
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: been raped.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: So a rape kit was done.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: The results are not immediate.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Police released photos of April Millsap to the media, confirming
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: she is the girl who had been found dead on
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the trail. The tiny village of Armada reels from the news.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: Such a horrible thing.
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: April was such a sweet girl.
• 14:18
  Speaker 11: I was a counselor in Armada Middle School, and so
• 14:21
  Speaker 11: I knew her very well.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: She was warm.
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: She was friendly.
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: She liked school. She liked her friends.
• 14:30
  Speaker 11: We had a room set up at the middle school,
• 14:32
  Speaker 11: a place where kids could come and express themselves.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: It was a very powerful time, very emotional. It was
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: a sense of pain, but it was also a sense
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: of fear.
• 14:46
  Speaker 8: People started locking their doors for the first time. Kids
• 14:49
  Speaker 8: were walking in pairs rather than by themselves. And you
• 14:53
  Speaker 8: did not hear kids playing out in the street. I mean,
• 14:57
  Speaker 8: it doesn't happen in a small town. And now it's
• 15:00
  Speaker 8: your town. Now what do you do?
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Police set up a tip line, hoping someone will come
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: forward with information that will lead to the killer. They
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: continue to search the trail for April's phone and backpack.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Those items... held valuable information. Possible DNA, possible fingerprints. So
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: that was important to us.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Later that day, April's dog Penny is returned home from
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: animal control.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: And she was just running around and just, I guess,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: happened to be home.
• 15:39
  Speaker 9: I don't know if it had her.
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: Yet that April wasn't there.
• 15:44
  Speaker 9: If Penny could actually talk.
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: We could know exactly what happened.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Detectives work off the theory that April was killed shortly
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: after she texted her boyfriend, Austin, at 6.28 p.m. They
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: need to verify Austin's whereabouts around that time.
• 16:05
  Speaker 7: Got McDonald's, drive-thru, and came back.
• 16:09
  Speaker 12: But I don't know what the text message I got
• 16:10
  Speaker 12: from April. I know it was at 6.28. With how
• 16:13
  Speaker 12: everything winds up, I'm not sure where I was. but
• 16:17
  Speaker 12: I think it was at the cemetery.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: We were able to get the videotape from the fast
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: food restaurant. We see Austin going through the drive-through at
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: approximately 6.30 in the evening, and there's no way Austin
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: could have been in the fast food restaurant at 6.30
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: in Richmond and murdering April at 6.30 in Armada.
• 16:42
  Speaker 9: So we knew that Austin couldn't have committed the.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Murder Detectives hope that the people of Armada can help
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: crack the case. Already, calls are pouring into the tip line.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: We received a tip from a young girl who said
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: that she was out in front of her house when
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: a white van drove by very slowly. And it appeared
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: the two passengers in the van, one of them pointed
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: at her.
• 17:15
  Speaker 14: It really gave her an eerie enough feeling that she
• 17:18
  Speaker 14: took a video of this and reported that white van
• 17:21
  Speaker 14: to us. We definitely want to locate that white van,
• 17:26
  Speaker 14: find out why it was in that neighborhood and who
• 17:28
  Speaker 14: was driving it.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: Certainly everybody in Armada was concerned. Where do we find
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: that van?
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Less than 24 hours after April Millsap's murder, investigators may
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: have a big break in the case, a suspicious white
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: van that seems to be following young girls.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: It was definitely something we had to track down. We
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: didn't have a license plate, though, and so tracking down
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: this white van became quite difficult to do.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Police turned to the local community for help and released
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the grainy image of the van.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: A builder called in and said that the van that
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: we had released to the media was his van, and
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: it was in fact him that was in that subdivision.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: And he wasn't pointing at the young lady, he was
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: pointing at houses in the subdivision that he had built.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: The man brings his van to the Armada police station
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to be examined, which turns up no evidence.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: We were able to definitively clear that van, that builder,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: from the suspect list.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: While the white van is a dead end, police sort
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: through hundreds of tips from the public.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: We got a huge tip from a father and two
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: of his daughters who had seen April on the path
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: that evening.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: The two daughters went to school with April. They know
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: who she is.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: And April is talking to an older man on a
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: blue and white motorcycle, and he's wearing a black helmet.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: The father described the motorcycle as an off-road enduro, blue
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: and white motorbike. With this tip, we actually have an
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: interaction between April and another person.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: On the heels of that promising tip comes another lead.
• 19:34
  Speaker 14: It was a mother-daughter combination that was riding a bike
• 19:37
  Speaker 14: on the path on the day the murder occurred and
• 19:40
  Speaker 14: called in to tell.
• 19:41
  Speaker 6: Us they, too, saw a male with a.
• 19:43
  Speaker 14: Motorcycle, moped-style bike talking to a young female who was
• 19:48
  Speaker 14: walking her dog.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: They went and did their loop and turned back around.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: By the time they came back, the young girl and
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: the dog were no longer there, and all they saw
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: was the motorcycle parked on the path. And one of
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: the witnesses said, looked to the side in the woods
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: and saw the man was standing there, looking at her,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: shocked as if he had been caught doing something wrong.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: It actually scared the two women. They continued on.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: It wasn't until the next day, until after the media reports,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: that they called in and they gave us this information.
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: The question I asked myself.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: is did they actually pass them as the murder was
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: being committed?
• 20:37
  Speaker 14: It was very important to locate him and identify this
• 20:41
  Speaker 14: guy because it was starting to look a little bit
• 20:44
  Speaker 14: like this could be the killer.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Police bring in a sketch artist to work with a
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: young woman who got a good look at the man's eyes.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: When I saw this sketch, I thought, this is our guy.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Who is he and can he be matched to somebody
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: that's out there.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Investigators continue to search for April's missing cell phone, which
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: is still sending out pings to a cell tower in Armada.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: With the help of some of the federal agencies, we
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: ended up with a tracking truck out there that could
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: track cellular signals.
• 21:25
  Speaker 10: I received an indication that her phone was in very
• 21:29
  Speaker 10: close proximity to where I was driving. I notified Michigan
• 21:33
  Speaker 10: State Police to target our search in that immediate vicinity.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: The search indicates April's cell phone is in an overgrown
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: thicket by the side of the road. A tracking dog
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: helps them locate the phone.
• 21:47
  Speaker 10: I was over the moon when we found that phone.
• 21:50
  Speaker 10: I knew that that would be our gateway to finding
• 21:53
  Speaker 10: out who did this.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: The cell phone is sent to the lab, where it
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: will be dusted for evidence and its digital contents analyzed.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: while the search intensifies for the man on the blue
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and white motorcycle.
• 22:06
  Speaker 14: At one point later in the day, I grabbed some
• 22:09
  Speaker 14: lunch with my mom, who lives right outside of the
• 22:12
  Speaker 14: town of Armada, and on my way back to the
• 22:15
  Speaker 14: command center, I spotted a motorcycle down in.
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: A driveway parked next to a garage.
• 22:21
  Speaker 14: I thought to myself, what if that could honestly belong
• 22:26
  Speaker 14: to the killer, and I don't turn around to go
• 22:28
  Speaker 14: take a look at it? So I turned around, pulled
• 22:34
  Speaker 14: in the driveway, took a few photos.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: Of it.
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: And took that back to the command center.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I looked at it and I said, absolutely go out
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: there and find out who rides this motorcycle.
• 22:51
  Speaker 14: With the information we had from the bike and the
• 22:53
  Speaker 14: license plate, we'd found the owner of that bike to
• 22:56
  Speaker 14: be James Van Calis.
• 22:59
  Speaker 9: We pulled up.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: His driver's license photo and compared.
• 23:03
  Speaker 9: It to the sketch we had. And it was uncanny.
• 23:09
  Speaker 9: It looked just like the sketch.
• 23:13
  Speaker 14: I immediately looked at it and thought, oh my God,
• 23:16
  Speaker 14: I think this is the same guy. We need to
• 23:20
  Speaker 14: find this person as soon as possible.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: One day into the search for April Millsap's killer, investigators
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: tracked down the owner of a motorcycle who witnesses believe
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: they saw with April before she disappeared, James Van Callis.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: His driver's license picture, the composite rendering are so similar
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: that we needed to get out there that night and
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: talk to Van Callis.
• 23:56
  Speaker 14: That evening at approximately 11 p.m., I went with another
• 24:00
  Speaker 14: detective and one of our uniform officers out to make
• 24:03
  Speaker 14: contact with James Van Callis.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: 32-year-old James Van Callis lives 15 miles outside of Armada
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: in Goodells, Michigan.
• 24:12
  Speaker 14: James answered the questions I asked. He told me that
• 24:15
  Speaker 14: he was in Armada the night before on his motorcycle,
• 24:20
  Speaker 14: that he had stopped at a gas station for a minute,
• 24:23
  Speaker 14: but that he was on his way through Armada to
• 24:25
  Speaker 14: go visit his brother at his brother's house.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Van Callis claims he left home around 5.30 p.m. and
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: arrived at his brother's by 6 and stayed there until 7.30.
• 24:37
  Speaker 14: Did admit that he owns a black helmet. He told
• 24:41
  Speaker 14: me he was wearing a pair of K-Swiss and went
• 24:43
  Speaker 14: in the house.
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: Willingly to retrieve them.
• 24:46
  Speaker 14: Eventually, a female came out as well, later identified as
• 24:50
  Speaker 14: James' girlfriend.
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: She was reinforcing his.
• 24:55
  Speaker 14: what James was telling me that he was wearing, including
• 24:58
  Speaker 14: these shoes at that time. And the entire time I
• 25:01
  Speaker 14: was questioning him, I was asking myself over and over,
• 25:06
  Speaker 14: is this the killer? I had a really weird feeling
• 25:09
  Speaker 14: about him and something just wasn't right.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: It quickly becomes clear that the K-Swiss shoe treads are
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: not a match.
• 25:22
  Speaker 14: I immediately noted The tread pattern in the case Swiss
• 25:25
  Speaker 14: was extremely different than the tread pattern we were looking for.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: At the station, police run a criminal background check on
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: James Van Callis.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: Van Callis' criminal history, even though he had one, appeared
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: to be nothing on his criminal record that would show
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: that he had any propensity for violence.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: They also check his alibi.
• 25:52
  Speaker 9: Van Callis had told Peckman.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: that he just went through Armada to go to his
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: brother's house and arrived at his brother's house.
• 26:00
  Speaker 9: Around 6 p.m.
• 26:04
  Speaker 14: In light of the information that James had provided, we
• 26:07
  Speaker 14: went to the gas station in Armada and asked about
• 26:11
  Speaker 14: video footage. And we did have an individual on a
• 26:15
  Speaker 14: motorcycle driving on that video at 6.17 p.m.
• 26:22
  Speaker 6: The night of the murder.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Investigators also obtained surveillance video from a home security system
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: belonging to an Armada firefighter. The firefighter lives two blocks
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: north of the crime scene. The blue and white motorcycle
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: passes the home at 6.51 p.m.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: We now have digital documentation that, in fact, he was
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: in Armada at the time of the murder. It certainly
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: appears that Van Callis is hiding something from us.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Two days after April's murder, the community holds a candlelight vigil.
• 27:09
  Speaker 11: It was a good thing to bring everybody together, to
• 27:13
  Speaker 11: grieve together, pray together, get that feeling of love going
• 27:19
  Speaker 11: back through us, because that was something that was lost.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: There were pink ribbons around town, and there were signs
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: that said, Justice for April.
• 27:34
  Speaker 11: There was a bike-a-thon on the trail. So people could
• 27:38
  Speaker 11: come up and reclaim the trail as.
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: This is our trail.
• 27:42
  Speaker 11: How dare you do something like this to a beloved
• 27:45
  Speaker 11: member of our community.
• 27:49
  Speaker 8: It was a good feeling to have all these people
• 27:51
  Speaker 8: there in support of April.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: The turnout was just amazing.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: April touched more people than she probably knew. As the
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: citizens of Armada rally for April, Sergeant Peckman returns to
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Van Callis' home to test his alibi.
• 28:16
  Speaker 14: I wanted to narrow down his timeline and really lock
• 28:21
  Speaker 14: him into a story now based off the information he
• 28:25
  Speaker 14: had given me the night before. James told me that
• 28:29
  Speaker 14: he was a little busy and he had some errands
• 28:32
  Speaker 14: to run and he He could reach out to me
• 28:36
  Speaker 14: later in the afternoon when he was done. Became the afternoon,
• 28:43
  Speaker 14: and I had not heard from James Van Callis yet.
• 28:47
  Speaker 14: I called Van Callis on the phone, and he was
• 28:50
  Speaker 14: in a completely different mood than he was when I
• 28:53
  Speaker 14: contacted him that day. He was very angry. He was
• 28:56
  Speaker 14: screaming that we were on a witch hunt, and he
• 28:59
  Speaker 14: wasn't going to do anything for us.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: It looked like James had some sort of switch. Van
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: Calis looked like the sketch. He had a motorcycle that
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: looked like the one seen with April. And then he
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: lied about when he arrived at his brother's. Those key
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: factors led to a search warrant of Van Calis' home.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Four days later, police raid the Van Calis home.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Once we got into the home, we realized that he
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: had a marijuana grow operation in the backyard.
• 29:35
  Speaker 9: So we arrested him.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: It was enough to hold him until we sorted out
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: what other items we found in that home.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: As James Van Callis sits in jail, an unexpected witness
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: steps forward with a bombshell for investigators.
• 29:53
  Speaker 13: As soon as James was arrested, I was relieved. because
• 29:58
  Speaker 13: now I could finally talk to the police and tell
• 30:01
  Speaker 13: them my secret.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Two weeks after police raided the home of James Van Callis,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: a suspect in the murder of April Millsap, his girlfriend
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Crystal Stadler steps forward.
• 30:20
  Speaker 13: I met James right out of high school, so I
• 30:23
  Speaker 13: was about 18, 19 maybe. He was nice at the time.
• 30:28
  Speaker 13: But over the years, James changed, and he was abusive.
• 30:33
  Speaker 13: He would push me down, and he smacked me across
• 30:37
  Speaker 13: the face. If I wanted to leave him, he would
• 30:40
  Speaker 13: always threaten me that he was going to kill my family.
• 30:44
  Speaker 13: So I could really never leave.
• 30:47
  Speaker 7: It was bad.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Crystal shares with the police new information about the night
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: of April Milsap's murder.
• 30:55
  Speaker 13: I specifically remember James tell the police that he was
• 31:00
  Speaker 13: wearing K-Swiss shoes that night. James was not wearing K-Swisses
• 31:08
  Speaker 13: at the time. He had on his Air Nikes. I
• 31:14
  Speaker 13: knew James was lying to the police, but I could
• 31:17
  Speaker 13: not say anything because something probably would have happened to me.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Crystal recalls even more from the night of the murders.
• 31:28
  Speaker 13: I woke up in the middle of the night, and
• 31:31
  Speaker 13: James was cleaning his shoes with a sock. He had
• 31:35
  Speaker 13: hand sanitizer sitting next to him, and he told me
• 31:39
  Speaker 13: he was cleaning oil off his shoes.
• 31:41
  Speaker 6: The next morning, I noticed the shoes were gone.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: It was an absolute changing point during the whole investigation.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Detectives combed through Van Callis' social media accounts.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: We found a picture of James wearing the specific black
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: tennis shoes. And we ended up buying an identical pair
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: to compare with the tread marks we had on April's face.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: It was that same herringbone pattern.
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: It was one of those aha moments. This was one
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: of those solid pieces of evidence that I could turn
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: to a jury and say, we've got the right guy.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: The tread match is important evidence for investigators, but since
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: the original shoes have never been found, it's impossible to
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: claim a 100% match.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: We had a good circumstantial case. However, we didn't have
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: the DNA evidence.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: DNA samples from the rape kit, April's clothes, and Van
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Callis' motorcycle helmet have yet to return. It could take
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: months for the results to be processed.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: We were at a standstill as far as getting enough
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: proof to charge Van Calis.
• 32:59
  Speaker 7: A unique discovery was made.
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: April had an exercise app that she was using on
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: her phone that day.
• 33:10
  Speaker 7: And her phone told us the tale of her murder.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Right during the text that she sent, she was almost kidnapped.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: The path on this app showed that she started walking faster.
• 33:26
  Speaker 9: And shortly after that, the path.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: Went into the woods in a zigzag pattern. It went
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: on for 10 minutes.
• 33:36
  Speaker 14: That line was just scribbling back and forth, and you
• 33:39
  Speaker 14: couldn't help but think about what April was going through
• 33:44
  Speaker 14: and what she was thinking.
• 33:46
  Speaker 6: Was she thinking at that moment, I'm about to die?
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: The moment that phone gets back on the trail, we
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: know that the murderer has the phone and the phone
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: is being transported. And probably the single most important piece
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: of evidence in this whole case was the fact that
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: that phone went past the security system of that fireman.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: The firefighter's video catches the Enduro motorcycle passing his house
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: at the same exact time that April's phone is passing
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: that house.
• 34:32
  Speaker 7: Now we have it.
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: April's phone talked to us. I might not have DNA,
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: I might not have blood, but I've got that phone
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: in his possession from April from the spot where she
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: was murdered going past the surveillance camera. We now have
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: a strong enough case to bring murder charges against James
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: Van Callis for the brutal slaying of April Millsap.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: The question remains, why?
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: So James Van Callis was going to his brother's house.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: He's traveling through Armida, and he sees April go towards
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: the McCollum Orchard Trail.
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: He follows her down. He stalks her right onto the trail.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: The theory would be that she refused his advances, and
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: it made him very angry. enough for him to try
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: and take her and rape her, and that he killed
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: her in the process.
• 35:28
  Speaker 14: When he wasn't able to control April, I think that
• 35:31
  Speaker 14: ultimately did enrage him, and that rage poured out.
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: At that moment.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Ten weeks after April Millsap was found dead on the
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Orchard Trail, James Van Calis is charged with her murder.
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: We charged him with the first-degree murder of April Millsap,
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: felony murder, kidnapping of April Millsap, and the attempted rape
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: of April Millsap.
• 36:02
  Speaker 8: That was a big sigh of relief, knowing that he's
• 36:04
  Speaker 8: locked up now.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: I was glad that James was arrested, but it's not
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: bringing her back.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: A year and a half after April Millsap's murder, the
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: trial of James Van Callis begins. The defense argues the
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: lack of any physical evidence connecting Van Callis to the
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: murder leaves plenty of room for reasonable doubt.
• 36:33
  Speaker 7: Before any analysis.
• 36:34
  Speaker 12: Is done on the helmet, before any results are back, Mr.
• 36:38
  Speaker 9: Van Callis is charged.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: There are about 20 lab tests that are done. Each
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: and every one of them comes back absolutely zero.
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: It's nothing.
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: Defense did a very nice job on the lack of
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: physical evidence, and that was the biggest elephant in the
• 36:56
  Speaker 5: room that I had to get around.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: As the prosecution calls its witnesses, much of their case
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: rides on the testimony of one person, James Van Callis'
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: former girlfriend, Crystal Stadler.
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: My most important witness in this case is Crystal Stadler.
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: This is a person who has been intimate with him,
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: who lives with him, who has known him for seven
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: plus years.
• 37:22
  Speaker 14: She had to look out in that room 10 feet
• 37:24
  Speaker 14: away and see him, the person who has terrified her,
• 37:29
  Speaker 14: and tell the truth.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: If James Van Callis was acquitted, she was in terrible danger.
• 37:45
  Speaker 7: Do you recognize what it is I have handed you?
• 37:48
  Speaker 13: Yes, sir.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: On the stand, Crystal Stadler fills in crucial details about
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: the actions of her former boyfriend, James Svenkalis, on the
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: day of April Millsap's murder.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: When Crystal Stadler took the stand, she was nervous, she
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: was afraid, because the controlling individual that had been controlling
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: of her so much was sitting at the defendant's table.
• 38:15
  Speaker 13: At first, I was afraid to testify against James, but
• 38:19
  Speaker 13: since I was on the right side, I felt it
• 38:21
  Speaker 13: was right to do the right thing.
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: Had you ever seen him clean his shoes before?
• 38:26
  Speaker 13: No.
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: She ties together the shoes, the bike, all of the
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: characterizations that we use, all of the circumstantial evidence that
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: we use comes directly from her. Does he say anything
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: to you when he comes back to bed?
• 38:41
  Speaker 13: Yeah, that he messed up and he needed me to
• 38:44
  Speaker 13: stand by his side.
• 38:46
  Speaker 14: I believe Crystal taking that stand and being able to
• 38:49
  Speaker 14: testify against James was the beginning of her freeing herself
• 38:56
  Speaker 14: from the shackles that James had her in for a
• 39:00
  Speaker 14: very long time.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: When the defense presents its case, James Van Callis opts
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: not to take the stand.
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: The defendant did not present any witnesses. Defense did not
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: present any physical evidence on Mr.
• 39:16
  Speaker 7: Van Callis' behalf.
• 39:23
  Speaker 8: You get those butterflies in your stomach, like, oh boy,
• 39:25
  Speaker 8: what's gonna happen? It's just a sick feeling of anticipation.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: My big fear was that it was enough to find
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: him guilty and he'd be out. Everything was at stake
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: because I could not imagine if he.
• 39:43
  Speaker 9: Would have walked free.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: After deliberating for six hours, The jury returns with a verdict.
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: Count one, first degree premeditated murder. We find the defendant guilty.
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: Count two, first degree felony murder, guilty.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Each time they said guilty, it was like a nail
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: driven into his coffin.
• 40:12
  Speaker 7: Count three, kidnapping.
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: We find the defendant guilty.
• 40:22
  Speaker 14: I know I was extremely excited. There was cheering in
• 40:28
  Speaker 14: the courtroom. I just felt that, you know, we did
• 40:32
  Speaker 14: what we needed to do for April.
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: First degree murder and felony murder in Michigan. That means
• 40:42
  Speaker 5: life in prison without parole.
• 40:46
  Speaker 13: I felt great that he was going away for the
• 40:49
  Speaker 13: rest of his life. I'm glad that Jennifer could get
• 40:54
  Speaker 13: the relief knowing that he did it.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: Granted, it's not going to bring me back, but justice
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: was served.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: The defense files two appeals to reverse the conviction, but
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: the Michigan Supreme Court of Appeals denies them. James Van
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: Callis will never again be a free man.
• 41:19
  Speaker 8: I don't know what real justice is. I'm hoping that
• 41:26
  Speaker 8: everybody's kids are safer now than with him out on
• 41:28
  Speaker 8: the street.
• 41:30
  Speaker 11: I felt the community let out a breath.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: Now we can move on. And that's what our community did.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: While time carries on in Armada, for Jennifer and David,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: life without April will never be the same.
• 41:48
  Speaker 8: Yes, there's an empty spot in our lives, but there's
• 41:51
  Speaker 8: also a spot in our lives that we have her memory.
• 41:56
  Speaker 8: Just remembering April's smile or her laugh will get me
• 42:00
  Speaker 8: through a bad day.
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: Every July 24th and every one of April's birthdays, I
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: still reach out to Jennifer to let her know that
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: I'm thinking of her. Nothing I can ever do is enough.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: to let them know how bad I feel about what
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: happened to April.
• 42:24
  Speaker 11: There's a park in Armada right now, April Millsap Park.
• 42:29
  Speaker 11: And there's a silhouette of Penny with April by the
• 42:34
  Speaker 11: side of the trail.
• 42:37
  Speaker 8: They cared a lot about each other when she was around.
• 42:39
  Speaker 8: I'm sure Penny never forgot about April.
• 42:42
  Speaker 9: I miss April every moment of her day.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: Not a day that goes by she doesn't cross my mind.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: I remember April as the kind, loving, caring, sunshine person
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: that she was.