00:00:00
[THEME MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: April 4, 1988,
Spencerville, Indiana. The body of an 8-year-old
girl found by a jogger.
00:00:22
When the Tinsley
case happened, I think it caught
a lot of people off guard because
that's not something
00:00:27
that was seen in Fort Wayne. NANCY GRACE: The
8-year-old girl has been raped and strangled dead.
00:00:36
This was purely a
crime of opportunity. It was just an accumulation
of a tragic set of events,
00:00:41
and now you're hearing
it at firsthand. It was, it's really-- you
just can't imagine the evil
00:00:46
that are in some people. NANCY GRACE: Eventually,
the investigation goes cold but the killer leaves
behind a few clues.
00:00:57
On the side of the
barn, written, basically, I killed April Tinsley
and I will kill again.
00:01:03
NANCY GRACE: This is
the story of the murder of 8-year-old April Tinsley. It is solved because her
family and investigators never
00:01:12
give up. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC] April 1, 1988.
00:01:45
It's a Good Friday before
Easter in Fort Wayne, Indiana. April, a second grader going
to Fairfield Elementary,
00:01:53
is playing with her friends
close to their own homes and close to West
Sutton Field Street
00:01:59
on the south side of the city. BRIAN MARTIN: That
was Good Friday. So therefore, they got
what we call a half day.
00:02:05
They're out shortly
before lunchtime. It was kind of a
rainy, dreary day. And April came home and then
checked in with her mother
00:02:13
and then started playing with
friends in the neighborhood. April was playing
with those friends.
00:02:17
Everything was going well. She was told by her
mother to be home around 3:00 or shortly thereafter.
00:02:23
And ultimately,
never made it home. KAREN RICHARDS: It
was raining that day. She'd taken an umbrella.
00:02:29
She left about 11:30 in the
morning to walk over to her little friend's house,
and she was supposed
00:02:35
to be back by 3 and she wasn't. Her mother went over to
this little friend's house
00:02:40
looking for her and found that
her umbrella was still there. And at that point,
they realized that--
00:02:46
or started to realize
something was very wrong, something was possibly
had happened to April.
00:02:52
And they contacted
law enforcement shortly before 8 PM. NANCY GRACE: Once Fort
Wayne Police were contacted,
00:02:59
a full on search begins. Panic started coming in. Sitting there worrying
about where she's at.
00:03:07
And her dad come home
from work and I told him. BRIAN MARTIN: Her family was
very helpful looking for April.
00:03:13
They had actually organized
a search prior to law enforcement even being called.
00:03:19
And they were very concerned,
they were very worried. Originally, it came in as a
missing child in Fort Wayne PD.
00:03:27
There was a massive
search for her. Unusual to have maybe a
report of a missing child.
00:03:33
Usually they're
found within minutes. BRIAN MARTIN: So the
plan at that time was--
00:03:40
Fort Wayne still had a mounted
patrol, horseback patrol, K-9 units, uniform
officers, patrol officers
00:03:46
began scouring the area, doing
a canvas, looking for anybody who may have information.
00:03:52
But they contacted
local media outlets and they did a media
release, and April's picture
00:03:57
was shown on the television. JANET TINSLEY: Next day, we were
out scanning the neighborhood
00:04:04
again, asking anybody
if they had seen anything, went to
the gas stations, asked them if they
seen anything.
00:04:12
And they kept telling us about
a blue pickup truck that's been going around the neighborhood.
00:04:19
Then all of a sudden that night,
started panicking more knowing that I had a almost
2-years-old child [INAUDIBLE]
00:04:27
and think of him so I
couldn't go completely nuts. But for a couple of days, I
just sit in my one chair right
00:04:37
by the window, just
stare out the window. NANCY GRACE: Three days
later in Spencerville,
00:04:44
a small town just
northeast of Fort Wayne, a jogger makes a
horrific discovery. So April 4 was
that call-- that day
00:04:55
that no one wanted that call. KAREN RICHARDS: There
was somebody out jogging. And there was a
barbed wire fence.
00:05:03
So there's the road, then
there was like a little ditch, then there was a
barbed wire fence.
00:05:07
And then this jogger
saw something. And he believed it
was a body, so he immediately called police.
00:05:13
Police came and it was indeed
a body, and it was April's. BRIAN MARTIN: The
worst was discovered.
00:05:21
They discovered the
body of a young girl, believed to be April Tinsley
based on what was happening.
00:05:28
And ultimately,
April was identified. JANET TINSLEY: Had to go up to
the hospital and we walked in.
00:05:37
And it was like,
you can drop a pin and you would hear
that pin drop. It was so quiet.
00:05:45
I wanted my sister to go with
me when they-- to identify her. And when I turned this
way and walked like this
00:05:53
and went right in front of her,
I was sitting there thinking. Everybody, they kept
going, is that her.
00:06:02
And I was sitting
there, that's her. NANCY GRACE: Police launched
an intense search of the April
00:06:10
Tinsley crime scene. They collect whatever
evidence they can. BRIAN MARTIN: April was in
the ditch and she was clothed
00:06:20
but she was missing one shoe. That shoe was ultimately
found on the opposite side
00:06:25
of the roadway,
approximately 200 feet down. And from what it appears,
the body was not hidden.
00:06:33
It was not meant
to be concealed. It looked like somebody
just took April and laid her in that ditch.
00:06:41
I don't know that a
specific theory was being looked at at that point. April was taken to
the forensic center
00:06:47
where autopsy was conducted. And that's when we learned
the manner of death was suffocation by
strangulation and that there
00:06:55
were signs of sexual assault. KAREN RICHARDS: They tested
her clothing for DNA. So they did things like that.
00:07:03
There was not a whole lot
of evidence at the scene. One of the things
they did do, though,
00:07:08
is they interviewed
anybody that would have been there at the time. There are a few houses in that
general area and, I think,
00:07:16
a mobile home. And they interviewed
those folks as well. So there were a
lot of interviews
00:07:21
going on at the same time. Every tip that came in
was investigated thoroughly. The crime scene units in
1988 did a phenomenal job.
00:07:32
They collected the
evidence properly. MARK HEFFELFINGER: Well,
that's one of the things
00:07:36
is, obviously, who done this? And then is, why, why this was
done and where was it done?
00:07:42
Did the murder occur here? Did it occurr somewhere else? Was the body dropped or?
00:07:46
All those things are going to
be taken in consideration, which in turn is part of
the evidence gathering
00:07:52
part because if it didn't happen
here, where did it happen? Is there evidence
somewhere else that would
00:07:58
help us determine the killer? But at that point,
they had no idea. NANCY GRACE: Police
know they are looking
00:08:05
for a vicious child killer. As we see next on
"Bloodline Detectives," cops also believe
they've got to stop
00:08:14
this guy before he kills again. April 1988, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Police investigating
the sex assault
00:08:32
and brutal murder of an
8-year-old little girl, April Tinsley. Her little body
found in a ditch.
00:08:41
April, missing for three days. The day of April's
funeral, police are looking for
possible suspects.
00:08:51
We had over 300 people that
were out searching for her. They all wanted to come
to her funeral service.
00:09:01
They were limiting how
many people comes in. And they had undercover officers
acting like they work there,
00:09:12
because they-- like, they
told me, every now and then, the suspect will want to
come in and see their victims
00:09:22
and see how they're
laying, how they look. They had little kids coming in
and giving us stuffed animals.
00:09:32
One little girl that
went to school with her, was in her first grade class
came in and gave me a rabbit,
00:09:40
and told me she wanted
this to be in with April so she can have
something to play with.
00:09:48
NANCY GRACE: Police analyze
what evidence they have so far and interview eyewitnesses
to try to build a case.
00:09:55
CLINT HETRICK: There
were several calls that came in, giving
investigators different leads.
00:10:00
One of the things that was done
was, obviously, a neighborhood canvas, going to the
people that lived
00:10:05
on that street or
that county road and just interviewing them
to see if they saw anything.
00:10:10
And then people were calling
in, and one of the tips that came in said something
about a little girl
00:10:17
getting into a blue vehicle. BRIAN MARTIN: There
was information that a child matching
April's description
00:10:23
was seen getting into
a blue pickup truck. And they gave a rough sketch
of a scruffy, male, white.
00:10:30
And that tip was acted on and
checked out very thoroughly. We have Rubbermaid tubs
full of Bureau Motor
00:10:39
vehicle registrations
from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan for blue trucks. CLINT HETRICK: Several
people that called
00:10:48
in and gave descriptions. And from those
descriptions, they actually came up with a sketch of
what the person possibly
00:10:55
looked like. JANET TINSLEY: All of a sudden,
it popped up on the news that the suspect that
they're looking for
00:11:00
is a 6 foot, blonde hair, blond
mustache, muscle built dude. MARK HEFFELFINGER: A
sketch was put out.
00:11:08
When people look at sketches,
they sometimes look too deeply into, you know, it could
look like so and so,
00:11:13
it could look like this person. But this part of the sketch
doesn't look like him
00:11:15
so I won't say nothing. So you've got to be
careful with sketches because making a sketch
from someone's memory,
00:11:22
it's sometimes just not
always real accurate. But we're hoping that
police bring a lead.
00:11:27
We'd rather have
1,000 leads that went nowhere that no leads at all. CLINT HETRICK: I
think at one time,
00:11:34
we were up to almost 900
people on the suspect list. And we did use different ways
to eliminate people off of that.
00:11:43
Most of the time what
we did was if we thought we had a good
suspect or a good tip
00:11:48
and somebody matched the
profile of what we were looking for, we'd go out
and talk to them
00:11:52
and do an interview
with them and then ask them for a buccal
swab, or a DNA sample.
00:11:57
NANCY GRACE: The FBI and DeKalb
County Sheriff's Department joined Fort Wayne police
in their investigation.
00:12:03
Then, other law
enforcement join in as well, all committed to
finding April Tinsley's killer.
00:12:12
BRIAN MARTIN: So in 1988
and even moving forward into the '90s and 2000s, DeKalb
County Sheriff's Department,
00:12:18
Auburn Police Department,
Indiana State Police, the FBI, NCMEC, the US Marshals, and
Fort Wayne Police Department
00:12:26
work this investigation. This case, for
being a cold case, was actively being
worked for 30 years.
00:12:36
But April
Tinsley's murder case is getting cold until July
1990 when April's killer seems
00:12:44
to reveal himself
with a cryptic message written at an abandoned barn. So the barn is
located on Schwartz Road
00:12:55
in northern Allen County,
set in a pretty remote area, wasn't a lot of
houses around it.
00:13:01
On the side of
the barn, written, basically, I killed April
Tinsley and I will kill again.
00:13:07
BRIAN MARTIN: So the message
on the barn was discovered. And basically, the
message was bragging
00:13:13
about killing April Tinsley. It had the phrase, ha, ha. And what really stuck
out to investigators
00:13:20
and really set off
the alarm bells was the phrase about the shoe-- did you find the shoe?
00:13:28
Prior to the barn writing,
there was no mention by law enforcement to the
media or to the community
00:13:35
about the shoe being
discovered on the opposite side of the road, approximately
200 feet down.
00:13:41
That, in law enforcement,
was a piece of evidence that was being held
very close in so
00:13:46
that if a tip came in
talking about the shoe, it would show that this was
a very high priority tip
00:13:53
because only somebody who
was present at the scene or the perpetrator of this
would know that that shoe was
00:14:00
discovered or discarded on
the opposite side of the road, 200 feet down. KAREN RICHARDS: It was
scary, and there was still
00:14:07
a little bit of, is
this the person that killed April or is
this someone just playing a horrible, awful joke?
00:14:17
MARK HEFFELFINGER: It can
be scary to a lot of people, but as a police officer,
to us, that's good news
00:14:21
because now we have a lead. It may not go anywhere,
we have a lead. It may be the suspect,
it may not be.
00:14:27
What was scary
about it was the fact that it was attention-getting. That and what followed were
clearly attention-getting.
00:14:37
It was all about, I did it, and
if you don't call the police and if it doesn't
appear in the media,
00:14:44
I'm going to come back
and kill your family and you will be mine. CLINT HETRICK: The FBI
did a handwriting analysis
00:14:52
on the writing on the barn. There were some
questions about it whether it was written
that way purposely
00:14:58
to try to throw off
police or not being able to identify who wrote it. I guess I would
describe it as almost,
00:15:05
like, childlike language and
the misspellings that you would have of a child who was trying
to write bigger words than they
00:15:15
knew how to spell and so they
were kind of sounding them out. JANET TINSLEY: The way they
talked about it, first thing
00:15:21
came to my mind was a copycat. I said, there is
somebody out there that wanted a 15 minutes of fame.
00:15:30
BRIAN MARTIN: It'd be
devastating to be the parent of April Tinsley and find out
that this individual is still
00:15:36
in the community or at least
makes trips to the community and left a taunting
message on a barn,
00:15:41
bragging and laughing about
the death of their daughter. KAREN RICHARDS: The FBI
came and did a couple
00:15:49
of different things for us. They did some analysis of
what personality of the crime
00:15:55
would have been like. They compared April
Tinsley's death to the death of another
little girl in this community
00:16:03
that happened two years later. There were more differences
than there were similarities,
00:16:08
because, I believe, the
original concern was that we might have had a serial killer.
00:16:13
But the differences
in those two homicides meant to the FBI profilers
that they were probably
00:16:21
committed by different people. NANCY GRACE: The writings on
the barn are intriguing, true,
00:16:29
but they lead
investigators nowhere. And once again,
the case goes cold. Police wonder if April Tinsley's
killer may, in fact, be dead.
00:16:42
BRIAN MARTIN: I think that
there was time that we thought maybe-- well, maybe this
individual did the barn writing
00:16:47
because it was like a
deathbed confession, they didn't have the
nerve to come forward.
00:16:52
Or maybe that was
a last ditch thing and then they took
their own life. But in 2004, we realized
our suspect was alive, was
00:17:00
well, and was moving
through our community and had to be stopped. NANCY GRACE: 14 years
after the barn confession,
00:17:09
April Tinsley's killer
looks for attention again, but this time he leaves
DNA evidence that could
00:17:17
possibly help investigators. That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." 2004, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
00:17:33
16 long years have passed
since the horrific murder of an 8-year-old little
girl April Tinsley.
00:17:42
14 years have passed
since the killer left an anonymous confession
scrawled on a barn.
00:17:50
And now, the killer emerges
to taunt police yet again. So in 2004, the
answer to the question
00:17:59
of whether our suspect was
still alive or deceased, it became very clear to us. Over the span of approximately
3 and 1/2 months,
00:18:08
four letters were discovered. There was a letter
in all four occasion, there were used condoms left,
and there was a photograph
00:18:15
of a male, white laying on a
bedspread with his lower region exposed, his genitals exposed.
00:18:24
And these letters were taunting. They were bragging about
killing April Tinsley,
00:18:28
they were saying
that they were going to kill additional children. CLINT HETRICK: Obviously, the
children had been watched.
00:18:35
The person that left the
notes knew that young girls lived at these houses. And the notes were
very alarming.
00:18:42
The person that left the
notes identified themselves as the person that killed April
Tinsley, referred to the girls
00:18:48
as, "Hi, honey," and
said in the notes that he'd been watching them. KAREN RICHARDS: They're
scary because they threaten
00:18:56
specific action to a specific
person with an intent to harm children. MARK HEFFELFINGER: It
was scary to the police.
00:19:10
However, it's, like,
it's a possible-- we have something to go on now. Now, we have something to chase.
00:19:17
I thought he was reaching
out for publicity. And we really didn't
know whether it
00:19:21
was really the killer or not. We didn't know what
somebody's just trying to claim and get some
credit for doing something.
00:19:27
BRIAN MARTIN: They claim
that they would blow up homes of families with children.
00:19:32
MARK HEFFELFINGER: My
take on that was one, if you're going to do something
like that, you're not going
00:19:36
to broadcast it, you're not
going to give them notice that you're going to do that.
00:19:40
Two, somebody, as
a sexual predator and blowing something
up, in my opinion, that's two separate people.
00:19:49
BRIAN MARTIN: All
of these homes were highly traveled areas, they-- the bicycles were right between
the house and the street.
00:19:58
If you live in a city
street, from the street to your front door,
maybe 25, 30 feet.
00:20:04
This person was brazen. They were stalking
our neighborhoods. They were stalking the
Fort Wayne Community.
00:20:10
And it was a slap
in the face, and it let us know that we knew
this man was a monster
00:20:17
but we had no idea of
what a monster he was. CLINT HETRICK: Shock, I
guess, that somebody would
00:20:25
leave something like that
on a little girl's bike is disturbing. It sparked concern
in the community,
00:20:34
obviously, because this
person is still out there. He's obviously still
watching children.
00:20:40
He's threatening to kill again. The question is, is he
going to make good on it?
00:20:46
It was determined that the
semen left in the condoms with the notes on the bike
was the same as the DNA
00:20:54
collected off of April's body. BRIAN MARTIN: I think what
led me and got me through some
00:21:00
of those days of
like, oh my gosh, this is just overwhelming,
this is horrible, it's disgusting, bad days, was,
we're going to get this guy.
00:21:11
NANCY GRACE: Investigators
score a victory when DNA found at the
murder scene and the DNA
00:21:18
on the letter matched. Then, investigators
decide to approach Parabon Nanolabs for help.
00:21:30
CLINT HETRICK: 2014, when
Parabon came about, we-- it was a new company. We didn't know much about it.
00:21:35
And with a cold case like
this that's almost 30 years old at that time,
you figure, why not?
00:21:42
Prior to my joining Parabon
to create the genetic genealogy service for law enforcement,
they already had a relationship
00:21:49
with Fort Wayne Police
Department because they had already worked with them to
create a snapshot phenotype--
00:21:56
and that is where you use
the DNA from an unknown crime scene in order
to try to predict
00:22:02
what somebody looks like. BRIAN MARTIN: When we
had the phenotyping picture, the snapshot photo,
I thought it was huge.
00:22:11
And I didn't even care
what the photo looked like, what I was so keyed in
on was eye color and hair
00:22:17
color, because that allowed
me to work through my suspect list and kind of prioritize.
00:22:24
I could prioritize the
people who had the eye color and hair color of our suspect.
00:22:29
KAREN RICHARDS: It
really is a game changer. What had happened was it
had been used in California.
00:22:35
BRIAN MARTIN: In 2018, when the
Golden State Killer case broke, I started working with
a state trooper named
00:22:41
Clint Hetrick, who
was a detective for the Indiana State Police. On May 11 of 2018, I received
an email from Parabon Nanolabs.
00:22:52
And the email told me that
they had a new technique that was being put out
to law enforcement
00:22:58
and they believed
that the Tinsley case would be a good case
to use this technology.
00:23:04
And that technology
was described to me to be investigative
genetic genealogy. KAREN RICHARDS:
When he contacted
00:23:13
these folks at Parabon, it
was a total game changer. Because without that, we never
would have solved this crime.
00:23:19
This man had hidden in
plain sight ever since 1988. He'd never moved. NANCY GRACE: Parabon's
scientists start the tedious
00:23:33
work of cross-referencing
the known DNA sample with a DNA library. They are looking for a family
member related to the killer.
00:23:49
CECE MOORE: Really, I just
had the crime scene DNA. And I needed to identify the
people that were sharing DNA
00:23:55
with April's killer,
build their trees, and try to find
patterns, overlaps, consistencies in
those trees, and then
00:24:03
identify common ancestors. Then, build those common
ancestors' descendants toward the present and try
to find who in the world
00:24:14
would be related to all
of these top matches. So the people that were sharing
the most significant amounts
00:24:20
of DNA with April's killer. If I could figure out how all
those pieces fit together,
00:24:26
how all of those people
at the top of the list could fit into one
person's family tree,
00:24:32
then I would know
who the killer was. BRIAN MARTIN: CeCe
starts telling me that she's getting strong
triangulation on the case.
00:24:41
Triangulation ultimately
meant we were getting hits on the mother and the father's
side of our sample, which
00:24:48
is good because
then she can start building the family tree out. You know, we'd been on a
lot of roller coaster rides
00:24:54
with this case, so I felt
we were at a high point. And then I was, like,
trying to prepare myself
00:25:00
for the bottom to drop out. CeCe says one afternoon,
I need you to see if you can give me a call.
00:25:08
CLINT HETRICK: So
Detective Martin and I are sitting in an
office with our bosses
00:25:13
and CeCe sends us a presentation
that she had put together. CECE MOORE: In this
case, we didn't
00:25:20
have any really strong matches. Our top match looked like
it might be a third cousin,
00:25:24
but the good news is we had
a lot of supporting matches. So we had quite a
number of matches
00:25:31
that were around third cousins. BRIAN MARTIN: CeCe
said, you know, Brian, we've been talking a lot.
00:25:36
We had some strong
triangulation. We went from thinking
second cousin twice removed to [INAUDIBLE]
possibly a great grandparent.
00:25:44
She goes, but I have to tell
you we were not able to do that. And I think all of us just
kind of looked at each other
00:25:50
and just like,
there it is, there's the bottom dropping out again. You know, we were
climbing, climbing.
00:25:55
We felt so optimistic, and
then just have our legs kicked out from under us again.
00:26:02
CECE MOORE: And I
was able to build four different sets of
matches, or genetic networks
00:26:06
is what I call them. And then I knew that the suspect
had to descend from all four
00:26:12
of those sets of
common ancestors for each of the
genetic networks. When you have that
much data to work with,
00:26:19
it allows you to really narrow
down to very few people. And it allowed me to narrow
to just one immediate family
00:26:27
who had three sons. She paused for several
seconds and she goes, but I got it narrowed
down between two brothers.
00:26:35
And I think we all
had some choice words that we blurted out. I get goose bumps as
we're talking about it.
00:26:41
It's just-- I can't explain
the enormous feeling you have thinking, oh my gosh, we
may be, we may be having
00:26:48
something here, you know? CECE MOORE: At that point, my
genetic genealogy work stops.
00:26:54
I can't tell the difference
between two full brothers because they have the
exact family tree.
00:26:59
So through genetic
genealogy, once you get to that set of
siblings, my work is done,
00:27:04
and law enforcement
then has to determine which of those brothers
is the suspect.
00:27:09
BRIAN MARTIN: Our
very next question, I think we all said at the
same time, are they alive?
00:27:14
She said, yes,
they're both alive. She goes, I cannot tell
you which brother it is,
00:27:18
but it's narrowed down
between two brothers. She said there were actually
three brothers but one
00:27:23
was deceased and
is excluded because of the timing with
the letters and when that individual passed away.
00:27:30
Clint Hetrick and
I began digging into the computer database. We realized that one
brother, being John Miller,
00:27:39
had had some involvements in
2002, 2003 where he was making rude, inappropriate comments
to women and children
00:27:49
in the parking lots
of a grocery store. And we felt that this
was the kind of activity
00:27:54
that we thought
somebody like this would do-- taunting letters,
message on a barn, a predator.
00:28:01
CLINT HETRICK: One of the things
we actually did was pulled his driver's license signature.
00:28:06
And we noticed
that his signature was very similar to the
writing on the notes and to the writing on the barn.
00:28:13
KAREN RICHARDS: So we focused
our attention on John Miller and set up surveillance within
about an hour of the phone call
00:28:20
with CeCe Moore. And we had two other
detectives begin surveillance on the other
individual, his brother.
00:28:27
CECE MOORE: When you're
able to connect the family trees of the matches to a
person of interest, mother's
00:28:34
and father's side and
multiple grandparent lines, I feel very confident
at that point
00:28:40
because I know that there's
very unlikely to be anyone else in the whole world
that has that same set
00:28:48
of unique ancestors. NANCY GRACE: 30 long years after
8-year-old little April Tinsley
00:28:56
is viciously raped and murdered,
police finally have a suspect, his name, John Miller.
00:29:04
As we see next on
"Bloodline Detectives," investigators now need Miller's
DNA to close this case.
00:29:21
Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2018. Police now have a solid
suspect in the 1988 murder of an 8-year-old
little girl, April Tinsley.
00:29:31
But now, they must
obtain his DNA and try to match it to
DNA found on little April.
00:29:42
KAREN RICHARDS: They had a
plan and their plan worked. They wanted to surveil him,
figure out where he worked,
00:29:49
what he did every day. BRIAN MARTIN: John
Miller lived in a trailer home in Grabill, Indiana.
00:29:56
And he was working at
a Walmart supermarket in Kendallville, Indiana,
which was approximately
00:30:03
20 minutes from his home. We learned that
John lived alone. The first time we saw John,
we were kind of in disbelief
00:30:09
because he walked
out of the trailer and went to get in his
vehicle, and he was walking like a broken, old man.
00:30:15
What was very concerning to us,
from the front door of John's trailer to a public baseball
and softball diamond
00:30:24
and park where children
played was about 200 feet. KAREN RICHARDS: In
Indiana, once you
00:30:31
put your trash out
to be picked up, legally, it's
abandoned property. MARK HEFFELFINGER: The
detectives picked up the trash,
00:30:38
brought it to a location in
Fort Wayne where, at that time, I was a crime
scene investigator.
00:30:43
I went through his trash,
looking for anything that might have his DNA on it. Initially, I started going
through the first bag of trash
00:30:50
and I found a pop can. I was excited. Oh, we got a pop can. As I continue to dig through
this dirty bag of trash,
00:30:56
I found a used condom. I went-- I was elated. I was probably yelling
and carrying on
00:31:04
and people looked at
me funny because I was excited over
finding a used condom. But it was-- to me,
it was this is it.
00:31:13
CLINT HETRICK: I was surprised,
didn't expect to find that in there. And it was almost creepy
that the thing that he left
00:31:23
on a girl's bike with a note
was going to be the thing that we used to get his DNA.
00:31:30
BRIAN MARTIN: We found
out, three days later, that the DNA that we took from
the condoms that were in John
00:31:36
Miller's trash was
consistent and identified him and positively identified him
as the individual who left
00:31:43
the used condoms and
the letters in 2004, as well as left the DNA
evidence on April's body,
00:31:52
in April's clothing
back in 1988. And we knew we had our killer. NANCY GRACE: After 32
years, over three decades,
00:32:02
investigators finally
IDed the killer of 8-year-old April Tinsley. Now, police must arrest him
and bring him to justice.
00:32:12
That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2020. Police close in on the killer
of 8-year-old little April
00:32:30
Tinsley. This little girl murdered and
sex assaulted 32 years before. Her body, dumped in a ditch
off the side of the road.
00:32:44
Now, police are
ready to make a bust and arrest a man
named John Miller. CLINT HETRICK: It was decided
that Detective Martin and I
00:32:54
were going to approach John
Miller at his residence when he got home from
work from Walmart.
00:32:59
And I believe it was about
7 o'clock in the morning. He pulled up in front
of his trailer and Brian
00:33:04
and I were waiting
across the street, and we approached him as he
was getting out of his car.
00:33:08
BRIAN MARTIN: We
introduced ourselves, and we told John that
we needed his help and we would like
him to come with us
00:33:15
so that we could talk to him. John rode with us. John never once asked us
what we needed his help with.
00:33:21
Once we're at the
police station, we took John up to
an interview room. He was advised of his rights.
00:33:28
KAREN RICHARDS: I was there,
my chief deputy was, there the prosecutor
from DeKalb County,
00:33:32
and we all sat and
watched the interview. I could hardly breathe. BRIAN MARTIN: I asked John if
he had any idea what he thought
00:33:40
I wanted to talk to him about. And John looked at me
and he said, Tinsley. The hairs on my neck stood up.
00:33:48
I wanted to jump
out of my chair, but I knew that I had to remain
very emotionless and calm.
00:33:56
And I said, we really
need to talk about this. And I was able to
get John to tell me
00:34:02
the details of the
abduction of April Tinsley. MARK HEFFELFINGER: It really
wasn't an interrogation,
00:34:08
it was more of an interview. They ask him a
question and he would answer it without hesitation.
00:34:13
He was-- didn't seem to be
hiding anything at this point. BRIAN MARTIN: John
stated that he drove
00:34:20
the neighborhoods of
Fort Wayne all the time, looking for a child to take. And on this particular
day, he was down
00:34:26
around April's neighborhood and
he had made his mind up that he was going to take a child.
00:34:31
He didn't specifically
stalk April, she was a target of
opportunity for John. John stated that he
was in his blue Mercury
00:34:40
Lynx, not a pickup truck,
it's like a small Ford Escort. He said that he
saw April walking.
00:34:47
She was walking alone. He passed her. He pulled about a block to
two blocks up in front of her,
00:34:53
pulled his car to the curb,
got out of his vehicle, was standing next
to his vehicle.
00:34:57
He had a letter opener
that looked like a knife. He said he approached
April, said, get in my car.
00:35:03
And he got April into the car. And he said that he
would not hurt her if she did what he asked her to do.
00:35:11
John stated he then drove her to
his trailer in Grabill, Indiana where he assaulted her and
then ultimately killed her.
00:35:22
CLINT HETRICK: No
signs of remorse. His demeanor throughout
the interview was pretty well the same
throughout the whole thing.
00:35:29
Didn't know what to think. I think there was some relief--
the fact that we finally
00:35:33
knew what happened,
we had a confession, the case was going to be
closed, April's family
00:35:39
was going to know
what happened to her, and then the fact
that we're going to be able to put
this guy behind bars
00:35:46
for the rest of his life. JANET TINSLEY: And we
looked out the window, and I seen a white
SUV, then a black SUV,
00:35:57
and another black SUV,
there was four of them, come in and stand there
and they go, we got
00:36:02
a picture we want to show you. They go, have you ever seen him
around the neighborhood, talk
00:36:08
to anybody? And I'm sitting
there like, nope. And they go, well, we
got some more news,
00:36:14
we arrested him this morning. And it's like,
you're standing here and it's, like, it just
went over your head.
00:36:24
Your thinking, it's
never going to get solved because it's 32 years. It's like, never imagined
it's ever going to come.
00:36:35
It's just an accumulation
of a tragic set of events, and now you're
hearing it firsthand.
00:36:42
It was, it's really-- you just can't imagine the
evil that are in some people. CLINT HETRICK: He
said he would drive
00:36:50
around and just watch people. And he-- I don't
think he was ever had the opportunity,
unfortunately,
00:36:59
like with April to take
another little girl. I think, given the
opportunity, he would have,
00:37:05
but April,
unfortunately, was just in the wrong place at the wrong
time, and he saw an opportunity
00:37:12
and took it. BRIAN MARTIN: John had made
his mind up on that April 1st that he was going out
hunting and he was going
00:37:19
to take a child and
abduct him, he was going to sexually assault them. Whether he was going to
kill them or let them go,
00:37:28
I believe John knew
all along that he was going to kill them because
he didn't want to be found out.
00:37:37
KAREN RICHARDS: And what
I thought was particularly troubling in his
own bizarre mind
00:37:44
is that the note on the barn
and the four notes from 2004. He did that because
nobody was paying
00:37:55
attention to him anymore. I felt that John
was disgusting. To tell you what I wanted
to have happen to John,
00:38:04
I would never say publicly. But John's a monster. CLINT HETRICK: Detective Martin
and I were working on this case
00:38:10
still after the confession,
getting everything wrapped up that we needed to. And prosecutor's office,
wasn't too long afterwards,
00:38:17
told us that he
was going to plead guilty and accept a plea deal. JANET TINSLEY: When they
had him and then when
00:38:25
we had to go to court,
when I walked in there, I was in the front row. And when he came in, he
wouldn't look up at none of us,
00:38:37
he looked at the table. MARK HEFFELFINGER: I know what
I feel about the death penalty,
00:38:41
but to me it was entirely
in the family's hands what they felt should happen. BRIAN MARTIN: When they told
me that he was going to spend
00:38:48
the rest of his life in prison
without the possibility of parole, I was fine with that.
00:38:53
KAREN RICHARDS: I mean,
I-- this sounds horrible, but I've been doing this for
41 years, I'd pull the switch.
00:38:58
I'd pull a switch tomorrow and
I wouldn't have one bad thought about doing it, not one.
00:39:06
BRIAN MARTIN:
Using investigative genetic genealogy, we
are taking the monsters out of the darkness.
00:39:13
We're taking people who are
hiding in plain sight, who think they've gotten away
with horrendous crimes,
00:39:18
and we're making
them accountable and we're making them pay
for what they've done.
00:39:23
KAREN RICHARDS: When I tell you
he was hiding in plain sight, he really was. He worked, lived
in the same place.
00:39:29
Without the DNA connection,
we never would have found him. BRIAN MARTIN: I don't
know if there's justice.
00:39:40
There's not closure. I don't believe in
the word closure. I don't know, as
a parent, how you
00:39:47
can bury your child
after being taken in such a violent, senseless way. I don't know that we can
ever understand that.
00:39:58
CLINT HETRICK: Every
year, Detective Martin and I would
attend a memorial service at April's garden.
00:40:03
April's garden is located
here in Fort Wayne. It's just a nice
memorial to her. JANET TINSLEY: I'll sit
there and talk to her,
00:40:10
and tell her that mom is here. And then all of a sudden-- you'll be sitting there
and all of a sudden, here
00:40:17
comes a white butterfly,
and it'll fly around and it'll come out
right in front of me
00:40:25
and it'll sit there
and flap it's wings. And everybody keeps telling
me that that's April.
00:40:31
They named that butterfly April. There are scarcely words to
explain why this world could
00:40:40
lose such a beautiful,
innocent little girl to a monster like Miller. But when you listen
to Janet Tinsley,
00:40:49
you realize the
ultimate power of love. And you realize her daughter
April lives on through her.
00:41:01
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
at "Bloodline Detectives."