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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Doug Janis Part 4 · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of Humans.
0:14
Speaker 2: After Doug Janis was murdered in twenty twenty, police were
0:18
Speaker 2: focused on one suspect, his wife, April May Janis. Was
0:23
Speaker 2: April a loving wife who adored Doug or was she
0:26
Speaker 2: a master manipulator who had orchestrated his murder in Himple, Texas.
0:31
Speaker 2: That depends on who you ask, because the town is divided.
0:36
Speaker 2: We talked to several people who were close to April.
0:39
Speaker 2: They said they felt sorry for April, but at the
0:42
Speaker 2: same time, some of them seemed to be afraid of her.
0:45
Speaker 2: Ever since her mother, Anna Thompson, was killed in two
0:47
Speaker 2: thousand and four in what was either a freak accident
0:51
Speaker 2: or a murder. April was charged with her mother's murder,
0:55
Speaker 2: but she was found not guilty after a two day trial.
0:58
Speaker 2: And after that, some people felt sorry for April because
1:01
Speaker 2: she was preyed on by older men, including Doug. Janiss
1:05
Speaker 2: were afraid of April. They believe she had something to
1:08
Speaker 2: do with her mother's death and that she had gotten
1:11
Speaker 2: away clean with murder. This week, we finally got in
1:15
Speaker 2: touch with April Janis and we learned about an alternative suspect,
1:20
Speaker 2: someone who the police have apparently never considered I'm Catherine Townsend.
1:26
Speaker 2: Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast,
1:29
Speaker 2: Helen Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing as
1:32
Speaker 2: a small town where murder never happens. I have received
1:35
Speaker 2: hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking
1:39
Speaker 2: for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
1:42
Speaker 2: and their communities. If you have a case you'd like
1:45
Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach
1:47
Speaker 2: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at
1:50
Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six one four five
1:53
Speaker 2: that's six seven eight seven four four six one four
1:57
Speaker 2: or five, Or you can send us a message on
1:59
Speaker 2: Instagram at Helen Gone pod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
2:53
Speaker 2: If you ask people in Doug Janis's neighborhood, the only
2:57
Speaker 2: suspect the police ever considered was April, but there were
3:00
Speaker 2: other people around near the time when Doug Janis was murdered.
3:04
Speaker 2: It turns out that there was someone else living on
3:07
Speaker 2: Doug's property. Remember we said that April had moved out
3:10
Speaker 2: of the mobile home there and was living in Louisiana.
3:13
Speaker 2: But after April moved out, someone else moved in, a
3:16
Speaker 2: man named Ken, and because of the fact that Doug
3:19
Speaker 2: Janis was murdered just a couple of months after Ken
3:22
Speaker 2: was moving in, A lot of people were questioning Ken.
3:26
Speaker 2: They wondered if it was a coincidence that someone showed up,
3:29
Speaker 2: moved in, and then shortly after that that Doug was dead,
3:32
Speaker 2: which would be a natural question.
3:34
Speaker 1: But we got in.
3:34
Speaker 2: Touch with Ken and he admits that he believes he
3:38
Speaker 2: was considered a suspect. We asked him about the day
3:42
Speaker 2: when the police showed up at his house. Ken opened
3:45
Speaker 2: up about his relationship with Doug Janis, someone he said
3:48
Speaker 2: he considered a close.
3:50
Speaker 3: Friend, and that was about around twenty ten. I'm an
3:55
Speaker 3: avid hunter and I've been hunting up here since about then,
4:00
Speaker 3: and I've known Doug good by acquaintance, and I met
4:04
Speaker 3: him on feveral occasions. My house got torn up by
4:08
Speaker 3: Hurricane Harvey, and Doug heard about it.
4:12
Speaker 2: Ken knew Doug casually for several years, and Ken said
4:15
Speaker 2: that after his house was wrecked by the hurricane, he
4:18
Speaker 2: was looking for a place to live, so he reconnected
4:21
Speaker 2: with Doug and found out that April had recently moved
4:24
Speaker 2: out of the mobile home on Doug's property, leaving a vacancy.
4:28
Speaker 3: I knew April and that he had moved out. I'd
4:31
Speaker 3: only met her on a couple occasions prior to me
4:35
Speaker 3: moving here. But I got to know April very well
4:40
Speaker 3: and Doug even better. And he offered me this place
4:44
Speaker 3: to rent until my house got fixed or until you know,
4:47
Speaker 3: I found another place to live. But it was in
4:50
Speaker 3: pretty bad shape. Anyway, I got to pick up, and
4:54
Speaker 3: Doug offered me to haul captis to market, and I
4:58
Speaker 3: told him, you know, I've got a commercial driver's line
5:02
Speaker 3: of CLD, and he he would want me to haul
5:06
Speaker 3: fish for him, and I live here in the trailer,
5:10
Speaker 3: and anyway, I've got to pick up and we got
5:14
Speaker 3: it able to be live livapool.
5:17
Speaker 1: Ken remembers the last time that he talked to doub.
5:21
Speaker 3: If it was in December of the year he passed
5:25
Speaker 3: and twenty twenty, I believe it was. And I leader
5:32
Speaker 3: the review hault unload everything that was in my house
5:35
Speaker 3: and bring it up here, and he said that he'd
5:37
Speaker 3: help me. And I got here Saturday night about midnight,
5:42
Speaker 3: and there was a sheriff department and a fire department
5:48
Speaker 3: employee at the front entrance of how you get down
5:51
Speaker 3: here where you know the trailer is and I'm in
5:54
Speaker 3: my U haul and it's muddy, wet, nasty, and I
6:00
Speaker 3: pull up and they got it, who are you a jo? Well,
6:03
Speaker 3: you know, he all. I got my information on my
6:07
Speaker 3: driver's life, ale everything. Then after if I knew Doug,
6:10
Speaker 3: I said, yeah, my landlord, he's my neighbor, he's my
6:14
Speaker 3: my friend, my future employer. And they said, well he's
6:18
Speaker 3: but you didn't know about the have fire. You know,
6:20
Speaker 3: I don't know want half fire And they said that
6:23
Speaker 3: he'd passed in a fire. I was unimpressionated with an accident,
6:27
Speaker 3: that he had died from a gas leak or something
6:32
Speaker 3: that you know that it was the further thing from
6:35
Speaker 3: my mind that he was preyed upon by somebody. But
6:42
Speaker 3: the that week, whether it was a week later, they
6:47
Speaker 3: showed up here. They wanted a search warrant here. And
6:52
Speaker 3: I mean I walked out of home Front from pot
6:54
Speaker 3: Port and there like seven different police cars lined up
6:57
Speaker 3: with a sheriff car and uh this investigator shroud and uh.
7:04
Speaker 3: They started asking by questions about what's comings goings.
7:09
Speaker 2: Ken said that from what he observed, Doug in April
7:12
Speaker 2: seemed to have a great relationship. Ken said the police
7:15
Speaker 2: ruled him out after they realized that he wasn't in
7:18
Speaker 2: the area when Doug was shot, and that he had
7:21
Speaker 2: no issues with Doug. Ken said that Doug was charming.
7:26
Speaker 3: I'm still stunned. I still can't believe it. The man
7:29
Speaker 3: was a very generous man. He was the kind of
7:34
Speaker 3: guy that would give him a shirt off his back,
7:36
Speaker 3: and he pretty much did. He allowed me to live
7:38
Speaker 3: here pre of charge up until January was going to
7:42
Speaker 3: be my first rent payment. Yeah, and that year. And
7:48
Speaker 3: that was a decent man, like a lot.
7:50
Speaker 1: Of people did. He said. Most people love Doug.
7:53
Speaker 2: But Ken said that Doug had employed people in the
7:57
Speaker 2: past who Doug did have issues with.
8:00
Speaker 3: He's never from the time that I knew him, I
8:03
Speaker 3: never knew of him, you know, having affiliation with anyone
8:12
Speaker 3: of although his employees there, he didn't employ, he did
8:17
Speaker 3: employee some characters.
8:19
Speaker 2: Ken talked about Doug's employees, and he mentioned one person
8:23
Speaker 2: in particular who Doug had recent dealings with, someone who
8:27
Speaker 2: allegedly used Doug's credit card without Doug's permission.
8:30
Speaker 3: I happen to meet a couple of them men they've
8:32
Speaker 3: actually been here, but there are old guys. They were
8:35
Speaker 3: I mean, this guy was already too old to climb
8:38
Speaker 3: up to hill from the boat dog down there. Anyway,
8:41
Speaker 3: I met a couple of employees are people that helped
8:44
Speaker 3: him haul fish the market. But uh, I never knew
8:50
Speaker 3: of this one person of interest that we think of.
8:55
Speaker 3: His nickname is Heckory Nuts. I never met the man,
9:00
Speaker 3: but it was a parent that Doug had problems with
9:04
Speaker 3: him and got some kind of altercation in the day
9:07
Speaker 3: before that Saturday before he was brutally executed. But anyway,
9:16
Speaker 3: that's pretty much all I know. Doug allowed me to
9:18
Speaker 3: unhear and picked up the trailer, and you know, he's
9:24
Speaker 3: a good guy man. I mean, I had nothing from
9:30
Speaker 3: the time I met him time he passed. I've never
9:32
Speaker 3: had ever seen a bad side of Doug. I mean,
9:36
Speaker 3: you know, some people have an attitude anger problem, but
9:39
Speaker 3: he wasn't that kind of a guy as far as
9:41
Speaker 3: I knew. And April was just a sweetheart.
9:44
Speaker 2: Ken's impression of April is the opposite of other people
9:47
Speaker 2: we've talked to, people who described April as manipulative. Ken
9:52
Speaker 2: describes her as a kind, fun loving person and a
9:55
Speaker 2: complete sweetheart. He said that even though Doug had recently
9:59
Speaker 2: had a hernia operation. Doug was very fit for his age.
10:04
Speaker 2: He talked about how Doug had no fear of the
10:06
Speaker 2: wilderness around him. Doug even had an alligator out there
10:10
Speaker 2: who he fed marshmallows to. We already knew about Ken,
10:15
Speaker 2: because again, even though we had no access to the
10:17
Speaker 2: police case file. One of the first things that got
10:21
Speaker 2: me interested in Doug's death after a listener called to
10:24
Speaker 2: tell us about it, was when I started looking into
10:27
Speaker 2: land transfers that took place after Doug's death. I find
10:31
Speaker 2: that when you're trying to follow the money, the devil
10:33
Speaker 2: is always in the very boring details. April had actually
10:37
Speaker 2: sold the land to Ken, the guy who was staying
10:40
Speaker 2: on the property after April left. Since police had mentioned
10:44
Speaker 2: a potential life insurance policy and the probab will cause affidavit,
10:48
Speaker 2: that would mean money was potentially a motive. So I
10:51
Speaker 2: was trying to figure out if there was a life
10:53
Speaker 2: insurance policy and also what April's financial situation was around
10:58
Speaker 2: the time when Doug was murdered. We've got conflicting information
11:02
Speaker 2: on this because in the police report, after the police
11:04
Speaker 2: interviewed April Well, they said Doug kept around ten thousand
11:08
Speaker 2: dollars on the boat and that there was a life
11:10
Speaker 2: insurance policy for one hundred thousand dollars. So we reached
11:15
Speaker 2: out to April. Honestly, I didn't expect a response from April,
11:23
Speaker 2: because remember, she had the charges against her dropped, and
11:28
Speaker 2: from everything that we're hearing, police are not pursuing April,
11:32
Speaker 2: nor are they pursuing any alternative suspects. We didn't expect
11:35
Speaker 2: a response, but we wanted to hear her side of
11:38
Speaker 2: the story. I was a little shocked when she got
11:41
Speaker 2: back to us A couple of days later. She sent
11:43
Speaker 2: us a series of text messages. April said that her
11:47
Speaker 2: attorney had advised her not to talk to us, but
11:50
Speaker 2: she did say she wants to help get justice for Doug.
11:54
Speaker 2: She provided us with a list of phone numbers of
11:56
Speaker 2: Doug's close friends, people she believed could give us more
12:00
Speaker 2: information about the case, and we are reaching out to
12:03
Speaker 2: every single one of them.
12:05
Speaker 1: In one of her texts.
12:06
Speaker 2: April had said that it was ridiculous for police to
12:09
Speaker 2: be focused on her and that basically the Sheriff's department
12:12
Speaker 2: had lied in the arrest Affidavid. April said there was
12:16
Speaker 2: no million dollar life insurance policy when we asked her
12:19
Speaker 2: if there was a policy at all. She said yes,
12:22
Speaker 2: but she said that she was unaware of it until
12:24
Speaker 2: her aunt told her that the policy existed. From the
12:28
Speaker 2: land records that we found, it does seem like April
12:31
Speaker 2: had a lot of cash after Doug's death. We found
12:34
Speaker 2: that shortly after Doug passed away, April purchased a house
12:38
Speaker 2: for ninety five thousand dollars in cash. So we wondered,
12:42
Speaker 2: could there have been even more money on that boat
12:45
Speaker 2: and if so, what happened? Did it burn up in
12:48
Speaker 2: the fire or was it already gone. Here's Sarah April's friend.
12:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, I didn't believe in banks today.
12:56
Speaker 5: He was just repair annoid by that right for money
12:59
Speaker 5: he had accumulated in his lifetime or whatever was on
13:05
Speaker 5: that boat.
13:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would imagine too, and a fisherman probably trying
13:12
Speaker 4: to hide income from the irs.
13:14
Speaker 6: Also, if you read.
13:16
Speaker 2: The affidavit of probable cause, it seems like police focused
13:20
Speaker 2: on April's suspect for three reasons. One the fact that
13:24
Speaker 2: she allegedly had a boyfriend at the time when Doug
13:26
Speaker 2: was murdered. Two, Doug's money and potential life insurance policy.
13:31
Speaker 2: And there was also a third big reason the witness. Remember,
13:35
Speaker 2: police interviewed a neighbor, someone who said that they saw
13:38
Speaker 2: April driving away from the scene of the crime just
13:41
Speaker 2: a few minutes before the fire truck showed up. We
13:44
Speaker 2: also looked more into the witness who saw April on
13:47
Speaker 2: the day the boat blew up. We went to where
13:50
Speaker 2: this witness lives, a short distance from Doug's boat. Now,
13:53
Speaker 2: there are only two ways to get to where Doug lives.
13:56
Speaker 2: There's one long dirt road that passes right by the
13:58
Speaker 2: witness's house. There's also a second backway, though going that
14:03
Speaker 2: way would be longer and a lot more complicated. But
14:06
Speaker 2: we did have to consider every possibility. Maybe the killer
14:09
Speaker 2: drove out the other way. Maybe that's why the witness
14:13
Speaker 2: only saw April. Maybe the witness didn't see that person.
14:16
Speaker 2: We quickly found out that this would have been impossible
14:19
Speaker 2: because on the day that Doug Janis was murdered, there
14:22
Speaker 2: was a trail ride happening, one that was organized by
14:25
Speaker 2: some of the neighbors living that subdivision. There were a
14:28
Speaker 2: ton of horses out there and a lot of people.
14:31
Speaker 2: They had the road blocked off that day, and it
14:34
Speaker 2: was the road that could have been the killer's other
14:37
Speaker 2: escape route. In other words, there was only one way
14:40
Speaker 2: in and one way out to Doug Janis's boat on
14:43
Speaker 2: that day. If the killer drove to Doug's houseboat, they
14:48
Speaker 2: would have had to pass by the trail ride area
14:50
Speaker 2: on their way out, And to our knowledge, the only
14:53
Speaker 2: person that the witness mentioned seeing in.
14:55
Speaker 1: That area was April.
14:58
Speaker 2: We talked to one of the people on April's lists,
15:01
Speaker 2: a guy named now has another theory about what happened
15:05
Speaker 2: on the day died. This is something I considered as well,
15:08
Speaker 2: and I was surprised the police never seemed to bring
15:10
Speaker 2: up He wondered, could the killer have come to Doug's
15:14
Speaker 2: property by boat.
15:16
Speaker 6: I'm all for looking into this case because it was
15:21
Speaker 6: a travesty. Yeah, how it was handled Stroud, All of this,
15:28
Speaker 6: every bit of it, the mess that it is comes
15:32
Speaker 6: from Stroud. And the original case against April where they
15:41
Speaker 6: tried to convict her of her mother's murder, that was Stroud.
15:48
Speaker 2: Oh so it was the same investigator, same investigator.
15:52
Speaker 1: Wow, I didn't know that.
15:54
Speaker 6: And they basically I think April was like thirteen, and
16:03
Speaker 6: April believes her father killed her.
16:05
Speaker 2: Mother, and it's talking about an investigator Stroud, who investigated
16:10
Speaker 2: the murder of April's mother Anna Thompson in two thousand
16:13
Speaker 2: and four, said that an April's version of the story,
16:17
Speaker 2: she has been persecuted by this same investigator, and that
16:21
Speaker 2: when Doug died, the investigator seemed like he was basically
16:24
Speaker 2: out to get her. What if April has been an
16:27
Speaker 2: innocent victim this whole time.
16:29
Speaker 6: A drugger and questioner. Her father was questioning in her
16:35
Speaker 6: in front with the sheriffs. One of her neighbors, a
16:39
Speaker 6: woman was in on the question and they over on
16:47
Speaker 6: eight ten hours beat her down, say yeah.
16:50
Speaker 4: I did it.
16:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I can't believe she was allowed to be
16:54
Speaker 2: questioned at that young age with no Well.
16:58
Speaker 6: Her father allowed it because he was trying to put
17:01
Speaker 6: it on her.
17:03
Speaker 3: Right And and.
17:08
Speaker 6: April grew up her her father was a drug dealer, right.
17:14
Speaker 6: And I've known April since she was a teenager. My
17:19
Speaker 6: mother known her since before she was born. My mother
17:23
Speaker 6: made her first baby blanket for her. And I know
17:31
Speaker 6: that April has done nothing to nobody. She is. I
17:38
Speaker 6: trusted her with the care of my mother. My mother
17:41
Speaker 6: passed away about a year ago, and she was old
17:45
Speaker 6: in her nineties and April came and helped to take
17:49
Speaker 6: care of her and stuff like that, and I would
17:52
Speaker 6: not allow her to come in where it's near my
17:55
Speaker 6: mother if I thought she had anything to do with that.
18:00
Speaker 6: Doug was a good friend of mine. He was a
18:02
Speaker 6: friend of mine before he married April.
18:06
Speaker 2: So believes that Bob, not April, killed Anna, and that
18:10
Speaker 2: April has been wrongly accused, not once, but twice mentioned
18:15
Speaker 2: the same guy that Ken talked about. The man they
18:18
Speaker 2: knew is Hickory Nut And.
18:20
Speaker 6: I think I know who killed him, and I don't
18:24
Speaker 6: have proof. I just have suspicion, but they're well founded suspicious.
18:31
Speaker 2: I want to back up a minute, because we talked
18:33
Speaker 2: a lot about April's childhood. We devoted almost an entire
18:37
Speaker 2: episode to April's childhood through the perspective of her father,
18:41
Speaker 2: Bob Thompson, and I've talked a lot about how I
18:43
Speaker 2: believe April was a victim and Bob was blaming everything
18:47
Speaker 2: that happened on other people rather than taking responsibility for
18:50
Speaker 2: protecting his daughter. After April moved out of the house
18:54
Speaker 2: and Mary Doug. Even though Doug and April continued to
18:57
Speaker 2: live in the same neighborhood as her father, Bob. April
19:00
Speaker 2: rarely saw her father after that. We passed by the
19:04
Speaker 2: house where April grew up. You can still see a
19:07
Speaker 2: lot of Bob's workshop stuff back there. Bob Thompson wrote
19:10
Speaker 2: in his book that he started to distance himself from
19:13
Speaker 2: the hemp Hill area after his wife died and April
19:15
Speaker 2: moved out of the house. Eventually, he moved to Gatesville, Texas,
19:19
Speaker 2: where he lived alone. On September tenth, twenty seventeen, just
19:23
Speaker 2: after noon, Bob called one of his neighbors, a woman
19:26
Speaker 2: named Ruth, and asked her to pick him up from
19:28
Speaker 2: Hillside Nursing Home, where he had been going back and
19:31
Speaker 2: forth to have rehabilitation for his right shoulder.
19:34
Speaker 1: Ruth picked Bob up and.
19:36
Speaker 2: Drove him home. On the way home, Bob was complaining
19:39
Speaker 2: about the doctors. He said he just didn't feel like
19:42
Speaker 2: he was getting the help he needed. Ruth dropped him
19:45
Speaker 2: off at his place at twelve thirty. She lived across
19:47
Speaker 2: the street. The plan was for her to pick him
19:49
Speaker 2: up again at three thirty and take him back to rehab.
19:53
Speaker 2: She came back over a little before that. She yelled
19:56
Speaker 2: at Bob through the screen door, but he didn't respond.
19:58
Speaker 2: So Ruth went inside and that's when she saw Bob
20:02
Speaker 2: lying on the bed. There was a pool of blood
20:04
Speaker 2: beside his head. Ruth called nine one one, and when
20:08
Speaker 2: police got there, they saw Bob lying there. His feet
20:11
Speaker 2: were hanging off the bed and there was black residue
20:14
Speaker 2: on his index finger that seemed to the police to
20:16
Speaker 2: be gunpowder residue.
20:18
Speaker 1: They saw the.
20:19
Speaker 2: Small Darringer pistol on the floor by his feet. It
20:23
Speaker 2: was a twenty two caliber revolver, the same caliber that
20:26
Speaker 2: killed Anna, his wife, and Doug Janis. Police found that
20:32
Speaker 2: only one round had been discharged from the weapon. The
20:35
Speaker 2: gun had fallen to a spot directly below Bob's right hand.
20:39
Speaker 2: So they took a look at the blood spatter patterns
20:41
Speaker 2: and everything in the room, and investigators.
20:43
Speaker 1: Believed that it was a suicide.
20:45
Speaker 2: They believe Bob sat down on the left side of
20:47
Speaker 2: the bed, put the gun to his right temple, fired
20:50
Speaker 2: the fatal shot, and then the gun slipped out of
20:52
Speaker 2: his hand and he fell back on the bed. Investigators
20:57
Speaker 2: concluded that Bob died by suicide, though some of his
21:01
Speaker 2: neighbors didn't seem to believe that he would have taken
21:03
Speaker 2: his own life.
21:04
Speaker 1: The truth was.
21:05
Speaker 2: Bob was depressed. He had clogged arteries and pneumonia and
21:09
Speaker 2: some other physical problems. He thought physical therapy wasn't helping,
21:13
Speaker 2: and he was very worried that he would lose the
21:16
Speaker 2: use of his one remaining arm. This scared him. His
21:20
Speaker 2: nurse said he had been showing signs of depression. He
21:23
Speaker 2: was put on prozac. There was something else, one tiny
21:27
Speaker 2: little detail that really stuck with me. Apparently Bob had
21:30
Speaker 2: a big bag of bird seed, and on that same day,
21:33
Speaker 2: shortly before he took his own life, he went to
21:36
Speaker 2: a neighbor's house, told her he didn't feel good and
21:38
Speaker 2: gave her the bird seed. He said for her to
21:41
Speaker 2: share it with other neighbors, saying it would just get
21:43
Speaker 2: moldy in his place, and he wanted to feed the birds.
21:46
Speaker 2: It reminded me of the story about his late wife
21:48
Speaker 2: Anna feeding hummingbirds. I wonder if he was thinking about
21:52
Speaker 2: her and about those birds. One other strange thing about
21:57
Speaker 2: Bob's suicide was that neighbors mentioned that Bob had a
22:01
Speaker 2: daughter who lived in Pennsylvania. No one who knew him
22:04
Speaker 2: at this apartment, Compla knew anything about April. April sent
22:10
Speaker 2: us a handwritten note that she said was written by
22:13
Speaker 2: her father, Bob. There are several questions written on the
22:16
Speaker 2: paper about why there were no fingerprints or residue test
22:20
Speaker 2: done after Anna was murdered, and other unanswered questions that
22:24
Speaker 2: the letter writer had about.
22:25
Speaker 1: The crime scene.
22:27
Speaker 2: From those notes, it seems like Bob went to his
22:30
Speaker 2: grave thinking that April and possibly Doug Janis killed Anna,
22:35
Speaker 2: and that he died with these questions still haunting him.
22:47
Speaker 2: When we talked to April over text, she completely denied
22:50
Speaker 2: having anything to do with Doug's murder. We told her
22:53
Speaker 2: we considered her a victim and that what happened to
22:56
Speaker 2: her at such a young age should never have happened.
22:59
Speaker 2: She said she appreciated that we saw it that way.
23:02
Speaker 2: April said she does want justice for Doug. She gave
23:05
Speaker 2: give us some phone numbers of people who knew Doug
23:07
Speaker 2: well who she believed may be able to help. Another man,
23:11
Speaker 2: Nathan said something similar to what Ken said. He said
23:15
Speaker 2: that a guy named John, who went by the nickname
23:18
Speaker 2: Hickory Nut, had recently gotten into an altercation with Doug.
23:22
Speaker 1: I asked about Hickory Nut. Here's what he said.
23:25
Speaker 6: I was doing some construction out here at my place,
23:30
Speaker 6: and I hired Hickory Nutt to do some digging and
23:33
Speaker 6: stuff for me, and I didn't know him from pat Oh.
23:39
Speaker 6: I asked Doug if he knew anybody that needed some more.
23:43
Speaker 6: He said, well, yeah, this guy. And so he came
23:46
Speaker 6: out and he worked pretty good. But I had known
23:51
Speaker 6: him for ten minutes. And he's bragging about how he
23:55
Speaker 6: was in prison for stabbing somebody in the bar. And
24:01
Speaker 6: you know, he talked like he was John Wayne looked
24:04
Speaker 6: more like he's Party five. Yeah, it's not a very
24:07
Speaker 6: big guy. And so somebody bragging about that kind of
24:12
Speaker 6: stuff to somebody they don't know that kind of lets
24:15
Speaker 6: you know what kind of person they are. So they're
24:18
Speaker 6: proud of that kind of shit. And so Hickory nut
24:22
Speaker 6: was a violent felon out on pro. Doug hired him
24:27
Speaker 6: to haul fish for him to market. They would have
24:32
Speaker 6: to use Dug's truck to haul the fish. He give
24:37
Speaker 6: them a credit card to fill up the truck with gas.
24:41
Speaker 6: One of Doug's customers, a fish market, called Doug. They said,
24:48
Speaker 6: don't send this guy anymore because they caught him snooping
24:51
Speaker 6: behind the counter like he's looking for something to steal.
24:55
Speaker 6: So Doug fired him. This was a few weeks before
25:01
Speaker 6: Doug got killed, and.
25:03
Speaker 2: We found out something else when we looked into Hickory
25:06
Speaker 2: Nut's criminal history. Hickory Nut had pleaded guilty in the
25:10
Speaker 2: past to arson and serve prison time. Considering the fact
25:16
Speaker 2: that Doug's boat was burned down, I would have thought
25:19
Speaker 2: this would have been of interest to investigators. So we
25:23
Speaker 2: have found people who were telling us that there was
25:26
Speaker 2: someone who got into a recent altercation with Doug over money,
25:29
Speaker 2: someone who was out on parole and who could have
25:32
Speaker 2: potentially gone back to prison if Doug turned him into police.
25:36
Speaker 2: In my opinion, these leads should absolutely have been investigated.
25:41
Speaker 2: So if April was involved with Doug's murder, did she
25:45
Speaker 2: act alone or could someone have been helping her. She
25:49
Speaker 2: told the police she had a boyfriend in Louisiana who
25:52
Speaker 2: she was in love with, but according to Sarah, April
25:55
Speaker 2: was seeing someone else like Doug.
25:59
Speaker 1: This man was much older than April.
26:01
Speaker 2: He's now apparently in his late seventies, and this man
26:05
Speaker 2: was all so married. Several people have told us the
26:08
Speaker 2: older married man showed up with cash to pay April's
26:11
Speaker 2: bills and that they were hanging out in the days
26:14
Speaker 2: after Doug's murder. Now specifically said that this man was
26:20
Speaker 2: actually April's boss, that he got kind of creepy with her,
26:23
Speaker 2: and that there was no sexual relationship between them, But
26:26
Speaker 2: Sarah said that they absolutely were involved in a sexual relationship.
26:30
Speaker 2: But she said April's relationship with the married man was
26:33
Speaker 2: on the rocks after Doug's death. Sarah said April had
26:37
Speaker 2: discussed her frustrations with her relationship, and when she did,
26:41
Speaker 2: Sarah said she saw a different side to her friend.
26:43
Speaker 4: And I know text messages are just hearsay, but in
26:47
Speaker 4: one of them, at the very end of their relationship
26:50
Speaker 4: or our relationship, she said she was so angry with
26:55
Speaker 4: She said, I would slip something in his drink to
26:59
Speaker 4: off him if I knew I wouldn't get caught. Yeah,
27:05
Speaker 4: And so.
27:06
Speaker 5: I don't know, and I don't know that you know,
27:09
Speaker 5: like details.
27:11
Speaker 4: Because I mean they were tight.
27:15
Speaker 2: Sarah knew about Anna's death. She talked to us about
27:18
Speaker 2: the moment when she found out that April had been
27:20
Speaker 2: arrested in connection with Doug's murder. All these years later,
27:24
Speaker 2: another death potentially connected to April. Another person with two
27:28
Speaker 2: bullets in the back of their head.
27:30
Speaker 4: Oh I know. I went into the daily News and
27:33
Speaker 4: more posts, and then I went into who I mean
27:36
Speaker 4: That post has been shared one hundred and sixty something times,
27:41
Speaker 4: So I looked into who all had shared the posts,
27:44
Speaker 4: and there were many, many comments among some of the
27:48
Speaker 4: people that shared it. Most of all, most comments that
27:52
Speaker 4: you hear from people who went to school with her,
27:55
Speaker 4: you know, grade school. Are you know that they always
27:59
Speaker 4: knew that she had something to do with the mom
28:02
Speaker 4: And then a lot of the comments were snarky, like
28:06
Speaker 4: how many does this make because she's gotten away with
28:09
Speaker 4: you know, yeah? And then another one said, as she
28:14
Speaker 4: keeps changing her name.
28:17
Speaker 2: April was isolated after her mother's death, and she has
28:20
Speaker 2: written poetry over the years to help deal with her emotions.
28:24
Speaker 2: She sent us some of it, written in cursive on
28:26
Speaker 2: notebook paper. One reads quote, I don't pay attention to
28:30
Speaker 2: the world ending. It's ended for me several times already
28:34
Speaker 2: and began again the next morning. Chances are if they accuse,
28:38
Speaker 2: then they are the ones doing it. If they talk
28:40
Speaker 2: about them, they'll talk about you. Means well means nothing
28:45
Speaker 2: until well is done. You are guilty until proven innocent
28:49
Speaker 2: end quote. And then further down she writes, lies travel
28:55
Speaker 2: at the speed of sound, truth the speed of smell.
28:59
Speaker 1: This line, to me.
29:00
Speaker 2: Is descriptive and kind of cryptic because smell is a
29:03
Speaker 2: powerful memory trigger and one that's often tied to emotions.
29:08
Speaker 2: I can't help wondering what does April mean by this line?
29:16
Speaker 2: So is April just an innocent victim of police persecution
29:21
Speaker 2: or is she a cold blooded killer? Like I said
29:24
Speaker 2: at the beginning, this case has been challenging for me because,
29:27
Speaker 2: as you all know, this podcast is focused on victims
29:30
Speaker 2: of crime. But what about in cases like Doug Janis's
29:34
Speaker 2: when the victims may also be the perpetrators. People have
29:38
Speaker 2: described Doug as a loving, kind, church going man who
29:42
Speaker 2: was shot twice in the back of the head and
29:44
Speaker 2: his houseboat was torched.
29:46
Speaker 1: But he's also.
29:47
Speaker 2: Someone who groomed a twelve or thirteen year old girl
29:50
Speaker 2: into a relationship with him. Maybe April is equally complicated.
29:54
Speaker 2: Could she be a perpetrator who is also a victim?
29:59
Speaker 2: If April didn't do it, then who killed Doug Janie.
30:03
Speaker 2: We will be continuing our investigation because it seems as
30:06
Speaker 2: though police and prosecutors were focused on one suspect, April.
30:10
Speaker 2: After the charges against her were dropped. They don't seem
30:13
Speaker 2: to be looking for any alternative suspect. So if April
30:17
Speaker 2: killed her husband, they need to gather more evidence. They
30:20
Speaker 2: need to build a case, and if it wasn't her,
30:22
Speaker 2: they need to find out who it was. Either way,
30:25
Speaker 2: this is not an acceptable stopping point. Some people believe
30:29
Speaker 2: that people in power are afraid to pursue April because
30:32
Speaker 2: men in power in Sabine County were either sexually involved
30:36
Speaker 2: with her or new men who were when she was
30:38
Speaker 2: under age. They may have dark secrets that they want
30:41
Speaker 2: to see stay buried. But for Doug Jansi's family and
30:45
Speaker 2: for the people in Sabine County, it's time to dig
30:49
Speaker 2: them up. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
30:59
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of
31:01
Speaker 2: Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me
31:04
Speaker 2: Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts and Miranda Hawkins.
31:08
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance. This
31:11
Speaker 2: episode was sound designed and mixed by Noah Kamer. Our
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Speaker 2: theme song is by Ben Salid. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott,
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Speaker 2: Brandon Barr, and Else Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad
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