EP. 177 : TENNESSEE - The MURDER Of APRIL HOLT: Our Most IMPORTANT Episode To DATE (PT. 1)
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There are places where the world's most gruesome crimes have led to years, decades, and sometimes even centuries of supernatural activity. The victims seemingly reaching out from beyond the grave for justice. Those locations are in Creepy Places, a true crime podcast. And I am your host, John Grylls.

Join me in these creepy places, if you dare, as we dive deep into the epicenter of true terror. Hey everyone, I'm Joe. And I'm Jen. We're co-hosts of Murder Made Fiction, a podcast that looks at fictionalized adaptations of true crime. That's Murder Made Fiction wherever you get your podcasts. And until then, let's leave the murder on the screen.

Warning. The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.

Back in October of 2023, I was scrolling on TikTok and I came across a video that I could not get out of my mind.

It was a mother named Jamie Dickerson, and she was pleading with the public to help bring attention to her daughter's case. Jamie's daughter, 29-year-old mother of two, April Holt, passed away in July of 2023. The authorities in Nashville, Tennessee ruled April's death a suicide, but Jamie knew without a shadow of doubt that that was not the case, and that her daughter had been murdered.

But sadly, no one was listening. So with nowhere else to turn, Jamie took to social media to ask for help. When I came across Jamie's TikTok, I immediately reached out to her and asked if she would want to share April's story with you, our amazing listeners. And she agreed. But just as we were about to interview her, Jamie was hit with a gag order, meaning she was no longer allowed to talk about the case. For about a year, I kept in contact with Jamie.

thought about April and her story constantly.

wondering if there was ever going to be justice. And then just recently, a year later, we learned that there was finally an arrest in April's case. Now there is still a long journey ahead and we need your help spreading the word here, but this story has it all. It's about a young mom taken from this world far too soon. It's about mistakes and the justice system. And it's also about a mother's quest for justice.

and the strenuous journey she had to go through to get here. But for the past year, she served as an investigator, doing everything in her power to prove that April Holt was murdered. And in the end, she was the one who got a confession from her daughter's killer. Now this story is incredibly special to us because for the first time in our careers, we got to play the part of investigative journalists.

When I first started writing this story, I truly had no idea what was ahead. But over the past couple weeks, we have been interviewing April's friends and family. We got to go inside the killer's apartment, looking through all of his stuff. Stuff that the police never even bothered to search themselves. And during the search, we found some pretty incriminating things.

We are also releasing part two because this case needs all of the attention it can get. So once you're done with this episode, go listen to that episode and follow along with us as we tell you the unfolding story of the murder of April Lynn Holt. Trigger warning, this episode involves talks of suicide. So listener discretion is advised. And all parties discussed are innocent until proven guilty. But

But with that, I'm Courtney Browen. And I'm Colin Browen. I'm Jamie Dickerson. I'm April Holt's mom. And you're listening to Murder in America. Our story starts in Chicago, Illinois in 1993 when a young Jamie Dickerson got pregnant with her first child. I was 14 when I got pregnant. I had her at 15. I lived on the south side of Chicago, kind of just a teen that just did her own thing and

I'll be honest, I was brought away. I had ran away for just a very short, like just a few days. And I had jumped in the car with somebody. And that was, that's actually how I ended up meeting her dad at that moment. And you would never think that that's how she would been brought into this world. But with all the trouble I had went through, then I moved to Florida.

And I found out I was two months pregnant. - So there Jamie was at 14 years old. She had just moved from Chicago to Florida. She was in a new place, a new school, and now she's finding out she's two months pregnant. For a lot of people, this would be a little scary

venturing into a world of motherhood at a young age. But Jamie embraced her new role. It also couldn't have been easy starting high school while pregnant. But luckily for Jamie, that very first week of freshman year, she would meet a boy named Jeremiah Dickerson. And not only did he love and accept her, but he also would go on to love and accept her baby as well. Jamie would end up marrying Jeremiah, and today they are still happily married.

But back in 1994, the two teens were navigating this role of soon-to-be parents, which was exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time. And then on July 6th, 1994, Jamie went into labor and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named April Lynn Dickerson. I always say her birth

changed my life. I saw the purpose of being a mom. And from that moment on, I had nothing else in my vision. Nothing else was in line other than this is my baby. Like this is who I have to do everything in my life for. And from that moment on, I just, that's my whole focus. I even remember just going to Lamaze class with my mom and just, I was so young. And yet it was like, I was so prepared and I don't know how you can be prepared at that age, but I was like, oh, this is my baby.

But in the beginning, it wasn't always easy. Jamie said that the high school she had been going to was very cruel to her. They even suggested that she was going to influence other girls to get pregnant. So Jamie ended up enrolling into a nearby community college, and she actually graduated high school a year early, which was perfect because that meant she could dedicate more time to her daughter.

So April Holt grew up in a very loving home. She had her mom who loved her more than anything and her stepdad who treated her like his own. Now, about 13 months after April's birth in 1995, Jamie and Jeremiah would have a son together named Dominic. And then a few years after that in 1998, they would have another boy named Jared. And with that, their family was complete. Jamie said that April loved her little brothers and that they did everything together.

you know, they were all raised in the same house, played everything, vacation. Everything we did was together. I homeschooled all three of them kindergarten through 12th grade. So I spent as much time as possible with my babies. And I was only 20 years old when I started homeschooling April. And that was just something after going to some rough schools in Chicago, I was like, when we moved to Florida, I was like, if they want to be home, I always gave them the option. I was like, if you want to be home, I would love to spend that time with you. I didn't want to give up any part of their childhood if I didn't have to. And so that's

They were just, they're my wife. My kids are my life. I asked Jamie about a memory that stuck out from April's childhood. And she mentioned this story. So when she was a little girl, my husband would every single year give her one of these little dolls. And so there was these all the way up until she was 16 years old. And so what happened is,

these little dolls because they, they look biracial. He could only get them at Hallmark. And cause back then it was hard to find, um,

a tan looking doll. And so he, when he found them, he went to the store and he bought all, all of them because he was afraid that one day they would discontinue them. And so he went and bought all 16 and he hid them in his closet. And every single year he would take one out and wrap it and give it to her. And so if you look at several of them, here are all of them. We found them in her stuff as we were going through it.

She cherished them as much as we cherish those memories. But if you take a really close look, they have glue around most of their little necks. And the reason why is because at nighttime she would beg to sleep with them. You know, most little girls want a doll. Ours wanted to sleep with porcelain little girls that her daddy gave her. And so she would want to sleep with two of them.

And so like, look at this one's, this one's really got broke. So this one, so she would sleep with two of them and they would clink together. And in the morning she would say, daddy, my, my dolls are broken. And he would have to glue their heads back on. If you are going through a time like this, cherish things like this. We actually put these in our bedroom. And every morning when we get up, this is what we get to see. And it's just a quick reminder of our daughter, our beautiful daughter that we miss.

Now, Jamie said that growing up, April was a shy little girl. She had a big personality around her family, but around others, she was introverted. Well, what's strange is she's...

She was so shy. So she was just, if we would go to a homeschool event, I'd have to bring her by her hand up to people and be like, this is April. Would you like to be her friend? Because she just didn't want to. She couldn't talk to people. She was just like this little introverted child. She loved her family and that's like her safety zone and her church. Her church was everything.

Jamie and her husband raised their children up in the church, and still to this day, it's a huge part of their life. Growing up, April loved being a part of her church and serving her community. It was something she looked forward to every week. And over the years, Jamie watched her daughter go from this shy little girl to one who was finding her voice in the world. Around 12, she started to come out of that shell. It was like, okay, here she comes. She's coming. You know, when you get those preteen ages, which her daughter is in them right now, she's 12.

And so she started to come out of that and she was a little bit more social. And then as she got a little bit older, she's still kind of an introvert, but also like a magnet to the world. I don't know how to explain that in a certain way, but anybody that would meet her, they were drawn to her. It was like she had this ability of just drawing them in and just loving on anybody. It doesn't matter your age, your race, your belief system, nothing.

Now in 2007, Jamie and her family started thinking about leaving Florida. They wanted to live somewhere with seasons. And they also wanted to be closer to Jamie's family in Chicago. So they ended up deciding on Tennessee, which was right in the middle of Chicago and Florida, where both of their families lived. So that year, when April was around 13 years old, they all packed up their lives and moved out to Tennessee.

Life was going well for the Dickerson family. By that time, April had come out of her shell more, and she was really growing into a beautiful, kind, and compassionate young woman. Over the next couple years, the Dickerson family continued to plant their roots in Tennessee. They made friends in the area, and they even found a new church that they called home. By 2012, April was 16 years old, the same year she found out she was pregnant with

with a little girl. By that summer, she gave birth to her daughter, named Serenity. But her birth was far from easy. Serenity was only born at three pounds. Serenity was an itty-bitty baby. She spent two weeks, no, she spent two months in the NICU. April spent two and a half weeks in the hospital. She had a very, very hard delivery with her, and she was actually, her organs were shutting down. So I had Serenity on one floor of the hospital and my daughter on the other one, and I was

I was literally pumping the breast milk so I could bring it up to the baby because they called it liquid gold so that she could grow. And so I was literally just running between the two. Jamie said that this was one of the hardest experiences of her life at the time. Her daughter almost died giving birth, and then her granddaughter was in the NICU for months. Jamie said that she prayed to God every day to give her strength. At the time, it was the worst thing she had ever gone through.

Now, eventually, Serenity would get released from the hospital, but navigating life as a young mother wasn't easy for April. Not only did she have a traumatic birth, but she also experienced postpartum depression. So April then hit postpartum depression from being in the hospital so long and her baby being there for two months. We tried medications, we tried all the things, but April just ultimately said, Mom, I'm just not ready for this full-time commitment. And I said, I understand. I

I will legally adopt her. And so I've actually had Serenity since she was born. After the birth of Serenity, April truly wanted to give her daughter the best life she could have. April was young. Like many of us at 17, she didn't have the money and resources to give her the life she deserved.

Giving Jamie custody of her daughter was an incredibly difficult decision, but she knew it was the right one. Now, April still had a great relationship with her daughter, and she saw her nearly every week for her entire life. In fact, April would later post this video about Serenity, and I think it really goes to show just how much she loved her. "You are beautiful and brilliant. You are feisty and fierce. You are kind and caring. You are smart and strong."

As the years went on, April grew up. She gained more independence, more experience, and different people would come into her life, including a man named Donovan Holt.

Donovan and April met in 2013 when April was 19 years old. Now upon meeting, Donovan was quickly interested in April, but she didn't feel the same way. In fact, when he asked her out, she turned him down. But they did quickly become good friends, and they would stay that way for a few years. Then in 2015, Donovan decided to ask her out again, and this time, April said yes.

Once she finally opened herself up to their relationship, things progressed pretty quickly. In fact, later that year, on October 18th, 2015, she and Donovan would have a son together, named Denzel. From the outside looking in, they seemed to be a happy family. But according to Jamie, she said that almost immediately there were red flags with Donovan Holt. He was manipulative.

He didn't like the fact that April was so close with her family and over time he tried to pull her away from them, which is never a good sign. Now there isn't much out there about Donovan other than the fact that he was born in Tennessee, he worked as a chef, and he was a musician. But according to him, he manifested his relationship with April. Here he is explaining that process.

I did. Look, man, I manifested... It was honestly...

Donovan Holt got exactly what he wanted, and on January 24th, 2020, April and Donovan would get married. But as we can all remember, 2020 was not an easy year. As the entire world shut down for COVID-19, many couples were put to the test, as they were now cooped up together in quarantine.

And pretty quickly, things seemed to have gone south for April and Donovan, something that friends and family members took note of. "Early on, he would stand over her and yell at her, and he's a lot bigger of a man, and so he would stand over her and yell at her, and I went to him and I was like, 'Don't yell at my daughter. Like, you will not speak to her in this way.' I addressed everything that I could." But April likely wanted her parents to think highly of Donovan. At the end of the day, she loved him. She had a kid with him.

so she didn't talk to her mom about a lot of the bad parts of their relationship. However, every once in a while, she would make little comments, giving a small window into their relationship. April would mention that Donovan never helped pay the bills, he was always losing jobs, and he had even totaled several of April's cars over the years. April felt like she was carrying a lot of the responsibilities.

Now, Jamie said that April had broken up with Donovan multiple times over the course of their relationship, but he would always find a way to come back.

She kind of didn't share. I don't know what else was going on, but she had left him several times. But he would sleep outside the apartment. He would sleep in her car if it was unlocked. He wouldn't just go away. And so she would eventually feel bad, her big, huge heart, and she would take him back in. And then when she would take him back in, he would start all over with not paying the bills and losing his job. And April was like, I am doing everything I can to keep this roof over her head. April and Donovan went through this cycle for years.

According to April's friends and family, he actually cheated on her for the first seven months of their marriage, something that clearly caused a lot of problems in their relationship. And then in 2021, April posted to her social media that she and Donovan were getting divorced. However, in the video, it seemed like it was a mutual decision. Story time, but I couldn't do it without him because I feel like it's wrong to only put out one side.

It's like, here we go. - Okay, so the story is that we are getting divorced because of our decision. She's my best friend, I still love her to death. Like we still got a child together, we still gonna be hanging out. - All the time. - Most days of the week, but at the end of the day, we got shit to do, that's it. You feel me? She has a path to go, I got a path to go, but I pass parallel. We always gonna be next to each other. And who's to say what's gonna happen in the future? All that we know is right now,

Right now, it's the best decision for both of us. For her to do what she needs to do, for me to do what I need to do. So we can grow and heal and elevate. No hard feelings. This is not a messy divorce or anything like that. We don't do that. This is like I said. Like he said, this is my best friend at the end of the day. He has been before the relationship, before the marriage, before the kid. So nothing's going to change that. Look at her, bro. I would never lose this forever.

Now as you'll hear throughout this episode, we have added a lot of April's TikToks because she was very active on there and it really gives you an idea of who she was. April was very open about her life and she shared everything, the good, the bad, and

and the ugly. You know, these days, social media can be a highlight reel where people only show the best parts of their lives. But not April. While most of her content was incredibly inspiring, she was also very vulnerable with her audience. And because of that, over the years, she had gained around 200,000 followers on TikTok. In the video we just played, she opened up about her divorce. But as you heard,

it seemed to be a pretty healthy breakup. April would go on to use their separation as a time to really focus on herself. At the time, she was finding her purpose by inspiring others through social media. April posted videos about body positivity, living with anxiety, and manifesting the life you want.

She even posted videos with her children that were beautiful. Here is one with her son Denzel doing their daily affirmations. Affirmations to let your child know that they are heard. Let's grow. Let's grow. Your words are powerful. My words are powerful.

I speak with intention.

People want to hear what you say. People want to hear what I say. Your voice is powerful and heard. My voice is powerful and heard. Okay, try these affirmations with your kids at home today to let them know that they're actually being heard. Have a great day on purpose and keep growing, y'all. Let's grow. Let's grow.

Interestingly, throughout the time that she and Donovan were separated, April even continued posting videos of him, showing everyone that although they were no longer together, they were still friends who were focused on co-parenting. But she also made light of the toxic relationship they had.

In one video, she posted, quote, "Reminding my ex-husband why we got a divorce," with a sound that said, "I don't remember your trauma? Well, maybe because for me it was super traumatic, and for you it was a fucking Wednesday."

Now, despite this, she and Donovan seem to have gotten past their differences. And it's around this time when April's life seemed to be going really well for her. She even started a lash extension business in Nashville called Literally Lashes. And over the years, she perfected her craft, built up her clientele, and really made a name for herself in the industry.

She would later post on social media, quote, "When God unexpectedly blesses you with your dream lash studio, always trust God's plan. So much has been happening lately, but finding out I got my lash studio has always been 100% worth it. Today was a day I will always remember." End quote. Jamie told us that April wanted her lash studio to feel like a day spa, a place where her clients could come, relax, and feel beautiful,

But that's not all she would offer them. April's client said that she had this way about her where when you were in her presence, you could talk to her about anything. If you had been having problems lately, she would just sit and let you get it off your chest. She always knew when to give advice or when to just sit and listen.

She just truly would love and inspire anybody. So then she opened her lash studio. She owned a lash studio called Literally Lashes and it was here in Nashville. Her clients would email me and they would say, you have no idea that your daughter was more of a therapy session and she was getting my lashes done. They said she would just talk and listen and she'd play calming music and it was just who she was.

2021 was full of trials and tribulations for April. She separated from her husband, but she also got her dream apartment. She was growing her career and inspiring so many people, both online and in person. On Christmas of that year, she talked about how she was a newly single parent who was able to buy all of her kids' presents, while also paying the bills. You can tell by her social media that she was really proud of herself for making it. Here's one video she posted that December.

If nobody else has told you, I'm here to tell you, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you for overcoming everything you've had to overcome in 2021. 2021 was a crazy year and you got through it. So keep going boo and let's grow in 2022.

As the new year rolled around, April stayed focused on her career and her children. She also continued building her social media, even making extra income by creating meditation guides so people could create the lives they wanted. April's accounts were inspiring. She even talked about how important it is to leave toxic relationships.

In one video, she wrote, "If you asked God to show you if he is good for you, and he says no, y'all are toxic, it's best for you to leave them alone. Why are you still entertaining that man?" In another, she writes, "Toxic relationship advice. Don't waste your time. I promise there is better." Then in another, she writes, "I can't afford to lose me to make someone else happy ever again."

It's clear that April was healing from the trauma she faced in her marriage, although she never really gave specifics on what that trauma was. As I was going through her videos, I came across so many that brought a smile to my face. It was very clear that she loved her children more than anything in this world.

In one video, she posted her children Serenity and Denzel in what she called a yes day, which is basically where your kids get to have a full day of whatever they want to do. That day, Serenity and Denzel decided to play video games, eat ice cream, swim in the pool, and have a pillow fight.

Now it's around this time when April made a journal entry that is so beautiful. Her mother Jamie would later read it on social media. So here is that video. And it says, "I know I need this moment. I am calm. I am present. I take this time to focus on myself in this moment. I've been working a lot." "What is your biggest priority?" And she writes, "My kids, Serenity and Denzel."

So in reality, they should have a majority of your time or your presence. Every moment we make a decision, a series of decisions, some we make consciously and others are automatic. So how much control do we have over our life? There's a better way. Start your courses. Use your time intentionally. Read Force of Habit. Recreate. Be everything you aspire to be. Do everything you are pulled to do.

You are a helper and a healer. You are a light. She liked to talk to herself and encourage herself. She was such a smart and beautiful. She was such a smart and beautiful mind. Just a person in general. She said, you are growing and as you grow, others grow. Your family grows. If you're present all the time, then you will create the absolute best life. Be close to serenity. Grow and tend that relationship. Focus and be present.

Denzel is so smart. Teach him everything possible. Connect with him. He's a mama's boy. This weekend, go make a memory with them. Do something fun and be present. God has so much in store for you. Start a social media for your kids and let them try to do you too. Let them try what they want and express themselves. They're each unique and their bond is so genuine.

We always said we wanted for our family to be known enough to be protected through life. Be a momager. I guess that's a mom and a manager. Kids will love them. They will be given amazing opportunities through life. And down here at the bottom, she just said, be present, enjoy life and grow into the best version of yourself. You are absolutely amazing. The world needs you now.

As you can see, April loved her children more than anything. In some videos on TikTok, she's learning TikTok dances with her daughter and others talking to her son about his school day. And April even posted about how important it was that she keep a healthy relationship with Donovan, Denzel's father.

In one video, Donovan is over at her apartment and she captions it: "When you're divorced, but always been a ride or die female and still want to see him happy. Nothing but love." In another video, she even talked about how life after divorce doesn't have to be miserable, saying: "I'm happy AF, way less stressed, and I can finally focus on myself and my kids. Life is beautiful." But at the start of 2023, it seems as if Donovan was working his way back into April's life.

On what would have been their third anniversary, on January 24th, 2023, Donovan sent April a dozen red roses. April posted a video of her cutting off the thorns and placing them into a vase, with a caption that read: "Cutting the flowers my ex-husband sent me for what would have been our three-year wedding anniversary. But we are divorced and this day makes me emotional. I still love him and I appreciate him for making today special. He's still my best friend."

Now, something important to note is that April and Donovan never officially divorced.

For the past three years, they were separated and they were in the process of finalizing their divorce. So she always referred to him as her ex-husband. But at this point, in the eyes of the law, they were still married. And then in February of 2023, April had a change of heart. She and Donovan decided to give their marriage another chance. Here is the video she posted about it.

If you thought you knew me last week, you don't know me this week because so many decisions have been made and my life has completely transformed. And yes, you can transform your whole fucking life in one day. In one day. I'm going to work on cussing. I'm not going to cuss. But I'm also like so excited because so me and my husband, we've been separated for three years.

We've been doing our own things, you know, living our lives. We have completely separate lives. We don't live together. He lives his life. I live my life. This past year, I was trying to reconnect spiritually with God and just align my life more. And in that, God was like, you're going to go back to your husband. And I was like,

Fuck now, I'ma stop cussing tomorrow. I was really like, I don't want this man no more. Like we were supposed to already be divorced. We only had to pull our divorce papers because some situations came up and those were supposed to be put right back into place and the divorce is supposed to be going. I was dating somebody, you know? I'm being so transparent right now. Honestly, one day my story is going to help

Who knows how many other women because this is real life. This is real life. Nobody's fucking perfect. We're gonna stop cussing tomorrow. I work on saying not saying fuck. That's my favorite word. I feel like if I eliminate that I would cuss so much less.

Anyways, so I continued to ask God. I was like, look, I need you to give me time. So I was doing my daily Bible studies and I got real deep into it. And God was like, I got you. You've been asking, you've been coming to me. I'm gonna give you the answer.

over and over and over and over and over and over again. Anything I did, anywhere I went, it was like screaming in my head, go back to your husband. God got to me because the closer you get with God, the harder it is to say no when you know he's speaking to you. So I decided I'm taking another step. I took it back. And when I tell you my life has been, I'm going to say it once, fucking blessed.

Honestly, like completely like mind blowing, like spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, not what I ever, ever expected, but probably the best thing in my entire life. Like I'm so happy that I made this decision that I did not want to make, but y'all are about to be here for the journey. We're actually going to come on and talk about it together. So if you guys have any questions, comment, and we're going to get through those this weekend, but God's working his love.

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Hi. Sorry, did I startle you? When you're used to hearing a certain type of commercial, something like this can, well, take you by surprise. That's kind of how it is with the Lexus RX, a vehicle that has continued to defy expectations for over 25 years. From the first luxury vehicle of its kind, to the first hybrid luxury vehicle, to the only plug-in hybrid worthy of the RX name, we understand you want more than the everyday SUV. And isn't being understood an amazing feeling?

- For the next couple of months, everything seemed to be going well for April and Donovan. In April of that year, she even posted this video about the secret to their relationship. - What do you think the secret to our relationship has been? - Okay. - Oh no, that's the question. It's rolling. - Oh, I'm supposed to answer right now. - Yeah. - Being best friends. That came first. If we weren't friends... - You're so out of breath. - I am out of breath.

But honestly, if we weren't friends first, it wasn't the last. That's been the base of the whole relationship foundation, was that we were friends. And so even through the bullshit, we can joke around and maintain that friendship. I mean, it's what kept us through our separation, honestly. So being friends is important. He really is like my bestest friend ever. The bestest. The best friend I could ever ask for. And I married him.

Later that month, April opened up to her followers about how she had been feeling depressed lately. So lately, I have been going through just a lot and I can definitely say that I'm in like a depressed state.

like I'm just overwhelmed and I know that like I'm manifesting more negative experiences on myself with how I've been so I have to get out of this funk so I'm going to literally fake it till I make it and I've done this before. This isn't the first time. I'm not saying like ignore your problems. I definitely like sat in my depression for some days before deciding that like bitch you gotta get out of this like something happened

something's gonna happen, something's gotta shake. So I know that one of my issues is that I just have not been taking care of myself lately. My habits and my routines just have not been for me so I'm going to start doing all of them and I say faking it but it's just really starting it until it becomes a habit again because

Something's gotta happen. So some of the things that I do to fake it till I make it is I will say positive affirmations. I love positive affirmations. I feel like they definitely help. So I just be like, today is going to be a great day. I'm so positive. I'm so thankful. And it's not that I'm not thankful. I am, but you know.

Now April never specified why she was feeling depressed.

But as you can see, she had a really good head on her shoulders. Even in hard times, she had the tools and knowledge to help bring herself out of it, while also inspiring others.

In June of 2023, April posted another video with Donovan and their son Denzel. God, I ask that you will cover my family, protect and provide for my family, bless my family, show favor towards my family, heal my family, be with us, fill us with your spirit and energy so that we may live our lives for you.

We love and thank you for everything you do and continue to do. Amen. Another incredibly inspiring thing I saw on April's TikToks was her having a very honest conversation with her daughter Serenity. In July of 2023, Serenity was supposed to meet her biological dad for the first time. She was excited about it.

That day, April and Serenity went to this diner to meet up with him, but they waited for hours and hours, and he never showed up. Here is the video she posted about this experience. I feel sad, but yeah, I'm also kind of mad at the same time. Like, I'm super mad at him. Like, not looking at him in my face, but like, I'm mad. I'm super mad. Like, don't I look mad at you? You've always been. You've always been.

I'm super duper mad. Why are you mad? Tell them why you're mad. Okay, first of all, he ghosted me for like the fifth time. I tried meeting up with him like 59, like billion times. Rejected me. Not rejected, ghosted. Doesn't want to see the beautiful thing, dar that he created. He left me

When I was born, he didn't even get to meet me when I was born. I was on a Zoom call with him one day and then I'm over here like trying not to cry. I'm like, he has another daughter and he's not trying to spend time with me. I'm just like, dang. And then after that day, I ran upstairs to my mom. I'm like, I can't do this no more. I want to meet him really bad. And then we tried meeting him today. Nothing. He hasn't responded to any texts, any calls.

Like, what's wrong with you? Don't mess with people's feelings. Or else you could seriously hurt them. Never, ever do it. I think we should end the video. That's how you feel? Mm-hmm. You good? You got it out? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You got it out. Do you need to scream? You want me to? You can. From there, April lets her daughter scream, getting all of her frustrations out, and then she just holds her.

And I think it really shows just how great of a mom April is. She's talking her daughter through this horrible experience, making her feel seen and validating her emotions. Now, July 6th, 2023 was April Holt's 29th birthday. And here's what she posted online. "Happy 29th birthday to me. I am blessed to experience another year of life. I have lived through 10,585 days.

I've created a beautiful life and family for myself. And I finally feel like I'm falling into alignment with my purpose and have a clear vision of who God created me to be. God knew I had to live a life most people wouldn't understand because he has taken me places most people will never see. I embrace and enjoy the journey day by day, year to year. And this year I am becoming everything God intended for me.

A powerful, purposeful woman who helps, heals, and brings hope to the next generation. A founding mother to a new generation of influence and power. Some people won't get it, and that's okay. God gave me this assignment and vision, but feel free to watch me grow.

However, no one realized that this would be April's very last birthday. You see, July was not a good month for April. She and Donovan had been having problems again. According to her mom, Jamie, about a week after April's 29th birthday, she decided she was going to file for divorce. And she was serious this time. She even had the divorce paper sitting out on a table at their apartment.

Now, Jamie said that Donovan was well aware that April was leaving him for good this time. In fact, before her death, he even pawned her wedding ring and her camera. Now, in the past, it seemed like their breakups ended amicably, but not this time. And little did everyone know, tragedy was right around the corner.

on saturday july 27 2023 april and jamie's church was having this middle school lock-in where all the kids come together and stay up all night long having fun jamie and april were both supposed to chaperone but april ended up texting her mom saying she couldn't make it because of denzel's football game that day but she said she would see her mom that next day as

at church. - Which brings us to July 29th, 2023. That morning, April Holt got out of bed, made herself some coffee and pulled out her journal. Every single morning, April wrote in her journal about her goals, her struggles and her dreams for herself and her children. And this morning was just like any other. Eventually her son Denzel woke up. She gave him a kiss and then got him ready for the day.

and then she sent a text to her mom. April asked Jamie how the lock-in went, and then she told her she would see her at church later that morning. According to Jamie, that year, April had really been getting into ministry, and the kids at their church absolutely loved her. Jamie fully expected to see her daughter later that day, but sadly,

That's not what would happen. Instead, about two hours later, Jamie got a phone call from Donovan, April's husband. Now Jamie actually wrote a book detailing her journals throughout this experience and it's just so raw and vulnerable and I want to share some of what she wrote. Starting with this phone call she received from her daughter's husband.

Jamie writes: "At 4:13 p.m. on July 29, 2023, I received a call that would change my life forever. As I answered the phone, all I heard was my son-in-law on the other end of the phone, hysterically telling me that he had found my daughter April in the shower. She was not breathing and is being taken to the nearest hospital by ambulance.

That phone call completely turned Jamie's life upside down. There were millions of thoughts running through her head at the time, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something about this situation felt off.

something about donovan's phone call just didn't sit right with her i instantly felt like something was wrong he sounded frantic but like a nervous frantic and then while i was driving my car a guy that she had talked to at church called me and he said so are you okay and i said what are you talking about and he said

I'm on my way to the hospital. Donovan called me and told me that April is on the way to the hospital. Well, Donovan hated this guy because he liked April, hated him. And he called him after calling the mom. And I was like, this is not adding up.

When Jamie finally got to the hospital, what she saw was heartbreaking. Her 29-year-old daughter April was lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to all these tubes. Jamie would later write in her book, It felt like an eternity for the doctor to come in that room. I was curled up into a ball on the bench, feeling as though I was going to vomit. My cries were loud enough to be heard in the rooms adjacent.

Unfortunately, when the doctors did finally come in, they gave Jamie the horrible news: that April's prognosis wasn't good. The doctors had come in and told me that she had no oxygen for at least 30 minutes and no blood flow to her brain and that she was on life support, but even if she came back, it was very unlikely that she would have any brain function. Jamie said that she couldn't help but roll up in a ball and cry.

In that hospital room next to her daughter, she prayed over and over again. But in the midst of her grief, Jamie also noticed Donovan's response. Donovan's like holding his head and he's just rocking and rocking and I'm watching all his body language while laying in a ball on this little couch in this little room called C5. I just laid there praying and just bawling, but I was watching him and I'm like,

I just, I just knew. I just knew." And she was right. As Jamie sat by her daughter's hospital bed, she suddenly got a call from her mother who was watching Serenity and Denzel. And what she said on that phone call changed everything. According to Jamie's mother, Donovan had told her that when April was found unresponsive in the bathroom, there was a plastic bag taped over her head.

Now immediately, Jamie was confused. Why hadn't Donovan told her this information? So after hanging up the phone, Jamie turns to her husband Jeremiah and says April was found with a bag over her head.

Both of them were stunned. Jeremiah then runs out of the hospital room and over to Donovan, where he asks if it's true. Did April have a bag over her head? Donovan says yes. So Jeremiah asks, well, did you tell the doctors that? To which Donovan says, yes, he did. So from there, Jeremiah and Jamie go to the doctors to talk to them about this plastic bag.

But they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Donovan never told any doctors about that bag found on April's head. So why did he lie? So nobody knew this. And this is now almost two hours after she's arrived there.

So he didn't alert anybody. So then as I alerted then police, I did that. I alerted the security at the hospital. The police were now called in. It was almost six hours later that they went to April's apartment. No police were called in when 911 was called. Even when they got there and they saw it was a spouse and she was not breathing, there was no police called in. So now six hours later and Donovan had already returned to that apartment three times.

Now just imagine that for a second. A girl is found unconscious in her apartment's bathroom with a bag taped over her head while her spouse is home and the police do zero investigating at the scene for six whole hours. And then within those six hours,

Donovan left the hospital three different times to go back home. Now, according to Jamie, their apartment was only like five minutes away from the hospital. And I get if you need to run home really quick to grab something. But three times in six hours while your wife is brain dead in the hospital? What was so important that he needed to leave that many times? For everyone else, they wouldn't dare leave April's side.

but not Donovan. So it makes you wonder, what was he doing when he was going back home? I have no idea what he was doing there. He kept leaving the hospital. It was only like five minutes up the road to their apartment. He just kept randomly leaving the hospital.

He could have tampered with anything. One of the neighbors said they saw him messing with the ring camera. Now, at this point, Jamie didn't think she needed to act as a detective in her daughter's case. She had just found out that her firstborn child is brain dead.

So all of her energy went towards grieving. Of course, she had a ton of questions surrounding her daughter's death, but surely the police were investigating everything and could give her more answers on exactly what happened.

But for now, she stuck by her daughter's side in the hospital. In her journal, Jamie writes, quote, "'For the next three days, I sat by her side in the CCU. I held her hand. I shouted to her. I played music for her. I prayed over her body. I rubbed her forehead and kissed her. With each touch and each kiss, I knew in my heart her soul was no longer there. The body lying there was the flesh of my baby girl.'"

The flesh that I held, I rocked, I raised, and that God allowed me to be the mother of,

With each test the doctor took, nothing was good news, other than her organs staying alive. I would grab her hand and her body was cold as ice. They would then pack her body with more ice on her inner thighs and under her arms due to her internal temperature being high. I thought to myself, of all those years I would take her to the grocery store as a little girl and she would freeze. She would always tell me, "'Mommy, I'm so cold.'"

Even as an adult, when she would come over to visit, she would wear one of my sweaters or use a blanket because she was always so cold. I wanted so badly to wrap her body up in a blanket and warm her up. I remember vividly how I would peel back her eyelids and look into my baby's beautiful brown eyes and knew that her soul was not there. There was nobody looking back at me. I've never imagined such a thing in my life.

I have never looked into the eyes of someone that I love so much and them not being in their fleshly body. Her dad would sit by her side and wipe the drainage coming from her tubes down her neck. I remember him placing a towel under her cheek and standing over her, talking to her with all the love in the world for his baby girl. We prayed for her, we called out to her, we wept over her body. As his little girl laid there,

He had so much hope in his heart. He had hope that I did not feel."

On July 31st, Jamie made the difficult decision to take her daughter off life support. She also decided to donate April's organs. But as the doctors prepared her body, Jamie couldn't help but think that these would be the very last moments she would have with her daughter. She would later write, "That moment was the most insufficient and hopeless moment that I have ever felt in my entire life. I couldn't make my baby better. Everything was out of my hands."

End quote.

From there, April was taken off life support, her organs were donated, and she was officially declared dead at 29 years old. Her mother Jamie was devastated and confused. What happened here? After her death, an autopsy was scheduled to give her family some answers. But for now, Jamie's new focus was planning her daughter's funeral. Now, Jamie actually paid for April's entire funeral, and she was happy to. I mean, this is her baby and she wanted to make sure the funeral was beautiful.

But interestingly, after everything was already paid for, Jamie found out that Donovan had been collecting funeral expenses from people around their community. He made GoFundMe pages. He collected from Denzel's football teams. I reached out to everybody. I was like, he's just taking your guys' money. I paid for the whole thing. He even told me, you didn't need such a fancy casket. You paid for that. Jamie had a growing suspicion of her son-in-law, Donovan Holt.

but she would have to deal with that once she buried her daughter. And planning the funeral was far from easy. Jamie would later write, "The thought that she would need clothes to be buried in never crossed my mind, and so when they called to have us bring clothes to the funeral home, I couldn't even go into my garage to find clothes. Her dad did it for me, praise God. He chose her a comfortable outfit that she wore often. He even got her underwear and bra.

You never know when a breakdown moment will appear. And so when we drove the clothes up to the funeral home, we noticed we forgot socks. There it was, another breakdown moment for me. I hysterically cried and took off my socks. And unbeknownst to me, I had mismatched socks on that day, which made me cry even more. My husband offered to drive me to the store to buy new socks, but I wailed, quote, no.

No, I want her to wear my mismatched socks, the ones that were on her mommy's feet. So my husband brought them inside, and yes, my baby was buried in her mommy's mismatched socks." In the days after April's funeral, Jamie could now focus on getting the details on what happened. Over the past few days, millions of questions ran through her head. Like, why did she have that bag over her head? Why was Donovan acting so strangely?

Surely, April's autopsy could give her more answers. But when those results finally came in, Jamie couldn't believe what she was reading. April's cause of death was suffocation, and the manner of death was suicide. Now, as soon as Jamie saw this, she was shocked.

She, along with everyone else who knew April, knew that she did not kill herself. And what she would hear next confirmed this even further. Now, Jamie said that after April's funeral, she decided to take Serenity and Denzel to Disney World. They both had just lost their mother, and she wanted to do everything she could to bring some happiness into their lives. So they went to the happiest place on Earth, and they had a beautiful day together.

But that night, as they were lying down in bed, Jamie said that she told Denzel she was going to go take a shower, but he quickly grabbed her arm and told her not to go. Heartbreakingly, seven-year-old Denzel said, quote,

My mommy didn't come back from the shower. So, of course, Jamie just laid there with him. And it's here where he started opening up about what he experienced the day that he found his mom in the bathroom. But just to be safe...

Jamie pressed record on her phone so she could re-listen to Denzel's story, and what she captured in that moment would change everything. To Jamie's surprise, Denzel said that he actually heard his mom and dad arguing in their bedroom that day. He said that upon hearing this, he actually ran over to their bedroom and put his ear up to the door. He couldn't hear exactly what they were arguing about, but he decided to look underneath the door.

Under the little crack, Denzel saw his mom and his dad's feet.

He stood there for a little while longer as his parents continued arguing, and then he decided to look under the door again. But this time, he saw that his mom was lying down on the floor. As Denzel is recounting this story, he tells his grandma that he ran "lightning fast" over to his room. Denzel didn't know exactly what was going on, but he didn't have a good feeling about what he saw.

But soon after, his dad came into his room and told him it was time for lunch. From there, they went into the kitchen and Donovan cooked up some steak and broccoli. Then, about 30 minutes later, after they ate, Donovan told his 7-year-old son, quote, "Go check on your mom." Denzel did as he was told.

He walked over to his mom and dad's bedroom, but April wasn't in there. So next, he walked over to the bathroom. When he first tried to get inside, he noticed the door was locked. But apparently, Denzel knew how to unlock the door. And when he finally made his way inside, he saw an image that will stick with him forever.

His mother, April Holt, was lying in the shower with a bag taped over her head. Frantic, Denzel ran over to his father, told him what he saw, and from there an ambulance was called to the apartment complex. Now, as Jamie is listening to Denzel's story, she is shocked.

Yes, she knew that April was found with a bag over her head, but she never knew that Donovan and April had been fighting or that Donovan was in the room with April when Denzel saw her lying on the ground. Now, as Denzel is telling her all of this, Jamie has to remain calm, but inside, she just got the confirmation that she had been right all along. Her daughter didn't kill herself.

she had been murdered. After this trip, she would obviously go to the police with this information. But another horrific thing Jamie had to face was that after this Disney trip, back with his father, knowing that he is a murderer. Now, Jamie still got to see Denzel every week.

and she would eventually fight for custody of him. But without any charges against Donovan, there wasn't much Jamie could do. Every week I'd get Denzel, and every week I'd have to meet his dad in a parking lot, and every week I'd have to see him, and just hold an emotion, and just get Denzel, put him in my car, and just...

After Denzel told Jamie the truth about what happened that day, she made it her mission to reveal the truth in her daughter's case. Call it a mother's intuition, but from the very beginning, Jamie knew that her daughter did not kill herself, and from here she would dedicate her life to proving that.

However, she could never have known just how difficult that journey would be. I had spent three hours a day, two to three hours a day researching how to find out what to do. I've contacted forensic specialists. I contacted attorneys. I contacted, I even wrote letters to the White House. Like I wrote letters to every single person and I would send them out every single month explaining my daughter's case, sending her picture, begging for help. Everybody shut me down.

Even after telling law enforcement about what Denzel saw that day, they didn't listen. In their minds, April Holt died by suicide, and it soon became clear to Jamie that she was fighting this war all by herself. Jamie even spoke with the medical examiner and sent in what is called a, quote, reconsideration of suicide as

as cause of death. But believe it or not, the medical examiner said that Jamie wasn't allowed to file this because she wasn't next of kin. She was actually told that if she wanted to submit this reconsideration, April's husband would have to do it. Jamie tried explaining to them that her husband was the one who murdered her. So clearly he wasn't going to do that, but they quickly shut her down.

No one was listening. No one seemed to care. However, one thing to know about Jamie is that she is not one to give up.

In the months after her daughter's death, she found herself looking through April's TikTok videos. Watching them brought her a lot of comfort. And then one day, as she was scrolling through, she got an idea. If April used this platform to gain all of these followers, then what better platform to spread the word about her murder?

So with that, Jamie started posting about April's case. In her videos, she would put pictures of Donovan with captions that read, this

In another video, Jamie posted a picture of Donovan sitting by April's side in the hospital, and under the picture was the caption, Donovan, you took our daughter, and we will take your

- Now, as you can imagine, Donovan was not happy about this. Jamie said that he even started getting upset with Denzel, telling him, "Your mom killed herself, and you're causing trouble in the family by talking to your grandma." Imagine how confusing that is for a seven-year-old boy. So from this point forward, Jamie worked hard to try and get custody of Denzel while also trying to advocate for her daughter.

She took to TikTok to organize peaceful protests. She urged her followers to make signs that read, quote, justice for April Holt and safety for Denzel. So I just dropped off my grandson. So I have come up with another crazy mom idea of doing an online across the world protest that would be everybody to make

Hashtag justice for April Holt signs and either post them on your window in front of your house, on your front door, in your car window. Hold them outside on a busy street. Make sure there's a sidewalk. Please don't get injured. Post them online. And if you post one, if you put it on your door or your window or in your car or anything, please take a picture of it.

Put it online, tag me in it so I can see, so we can get this around, share it. Again, please make sure that it says hashtag justice for April Holt. We can do this protest in our own unique way and get this. This could be the biggest one that's ever been without anything being violent, nothing being dangerous. And we are just getting our word out, which is the whole entire purpose is so we can get justice for my daughter and

uh in safety for my grandson then in october of 2023 i came across this video of jamie's i want to introduce you guys to my daughter her name is april lynn holt an amazing mom of a child 7 and 11. here she is when i come to visit her this is where she is i no longer get to go to her house this is the closest i get holding her hand

She was found dead on July 28th and her life was taken from her. I need justice for my baby. I miss her so much. The justice system has an open homicide case but tells me I'm not their only case and therefore I'm turning to social media which I don't know much about but I need your help to get her story heard. Please help me get justice for my child. No mom.

should ever have to visit their child like this. I miss her every second. Our mama's gonna get justice.

As soon as I saw that video, I started looking into April's story, and immediately I sent Jamie a message. It was clear that her main goal was to get as many eyes on this story as possible. So I asked Jamie if she wanted to do an interview with us. I told her all about you, our amazing listeners, and Jamie was more than willing to come on and share April's story with you all.

But just as we were about to meet, Jamie was hit with a huge legal bump in the road. She informed me that she would not be able to do an interview with us because she had just been issued a gag order, which essentially means she's not allowed to talk about the case. Here is a video Jamie posted shortly after it was issued.

It's been 11 weeks and of my daughter being gone, 11 weeks and still no justice. I think all that's come from it so far is the gag order. So not even allowed to talk about her. I miss her so much. Some days are really hard to get out of the bed. Today's one of them. I just lay here just thinking about her and

Missing her, knowing that I have to get up and still do my day with a huge hole in my heart. You lose somebody, it doesn't just... At first I feel like you're so busy, you're running around and doing all the things to prepare for a funeral and everything like that. And then weeks go by and everybody else's lives go on and yours doesn't. My life doesn't go on.

It just hurts every day when I feel like I've been silenced and I have her kids to take care of and so in a minute I'm going to get up and I'm going to do my day. Today hits really hard because Denzel turns eight. It's the first birthday that she's not at. It's really hard, but I'll celebrate him and I'll love him and I'll do everything I have to, but

It's just really, really hard. Please help me by just keep supporting and sharing her story. I just need answers and justice. I'll say a special prayer for Denzel today as he goes throughout this day with his mom. I thank you all for your support and your compassion during this time. I'm going to keep fighting for her. She was my baby. Just have a good day, everybody. Please just keep supporting her.

for her kids sake and for my sake. Thank you. And I think something I've learned from following this case is that the journey to justice is not at all smooth. You know, we usually sum these cases up within a few short hours. We share the victim's life, their death, the investigation,

and how the story ends, all wrapped up in a nice little bow. But we tend to forget about the agonizing weight the victims' families have to go through, all of the sleepless nights without answers, how the entire world goes on with life

while theirs is crashing down all around them. The endless calls to the police departments, asking every day if there is any progress, only to be shut down time and time again. Jamie Dickerson and her family were living in this torturous reality, but she refused to give up. Even with the gag order, she started posting videos of herself with tape over her mouth.

and captions that read, Justice for April Holt. Sure, she wasn't allowed to talk about April's case anymore, but she was not going to be silenced. For months, I watched Jamie post these powerful videos, and I prayed that justice would eventually be served. But in the background, Jamie was still hard at work,

Law enforcement in Nashville knew her well, and every time they saw her coming, I'm sure they braced themselves because Jamie was going to get justice for her daughter if it was the last thing she did. Several months into the investigation, she went to Nashville's committee review board so that they could do an investigation on the investigation. The board is basically a check and balance to make sure these cases are being properly handled.

And luckily, they decided to take on April's case. This was huge. Up until this point, everyone believed that Jamie was just a mother who refused to accept her daughter's suicide. But now, they were finally looking into things.

However, it would take months for the committee to finish their investigation. And during that time, Donovan actually decided to leave Tennessee with his son Denzel and move to San Antonio, Texas. Jamie was horrified at the thought of him leaving the state with her grandson, but there was nothing she could do. I...

I begged him not to. I begged him. I was like, I will do anything. I said, I mean, like I literally said, I will stop researching. I will do anything. If you leave Denzel here with me, you can go, but leave Denzel with me. I will stop all things. If you just give me Denzel. So I know he's safe, but he, he was like, no, we're going. And he,

It just rips my heart out to think that now he's 14 hours from me. I can't even get to him. If his dad has something happen, I can't even get to Denzel and there's nobody there to help. But since Donovan didn't have any charges against him, he was free to pack up their things and move to San Antonio, Texas. And it was even more heartbreaking that seven-year-old Denzel was devastated about leaving his family. My worry and concern for Denzel was so great. He'd call me and he would be like,

when they moved to Texas, he would call me and he'd say, I'm just sitting under a table at the sitters. I don't, I just, I'm so scared. I don't want to be here. I just want to be with you. And he,

And to know there was nothing I could do was almost fuel. It was like, "I'm gonna get you, baby. I'm gonna make sure that you're safe." - After moving to San Antonio, I'm sure Donovan felt a little more secure. Perhaps he assumed that putting some distance between himself and Jamie Dickerson would help simmer things down a bit.

but he couldn't have been more wrong. Jamie wasn't letting up in her quest for justice. And to his dismay, while he was settling down into his new little life in Texas, Jamie was scheduled to meet with the Nashville Committee Review Board.

After four months, they had finally completed their investigation into the case. And on that day, Jamie anxiously made her way over to see their findings. Upon entering the building, they brought Jamie into this big room where several officials were sitting around this long rectangular table.

In front of them was the 47-page report. So from there, Jamie took a seat and they started going through it with her. But what she discovered during this meeting would change everything. She quickly learned that one of the reasons they believed April killed herself was because of her search history on her computer.

In it, they said that April had visited a website called "Recovery" and that it was a suicide and drug and alcohol recovery website. And they actually listed the website in the report. So like any mother would, Jamie decided to go to this website that was listed. The cops themselves wrote underneath the description of whatever that site would be. They said she was on her laptop looking at a site called "Recovery."

Underneath it, they typed on there that it was a suicide and drug and alcohol recovery site. And the Holy Spirit's like, Jamie, look that up. And I was like, all right. So I just put it in my phone. It was a car recovery for, it was a car repossession site.

had nothing to do with suicide. They were planting seeds anywhere they could in her report so that it would still be a suicide. Literally, I sat with the cop that wrote that on the paper and I said, "Why did you put this on my daughter's paper?" And he says, "Oh, that must have been from a previous search on my computer."

I said, you have no right to put that on my daughter's paper when we're already saying it's a suicide. It's what you guys are claiming it to be. And then you're planting seeds saying that that's what it is to make anybody that reads this report believe that.

And he's like, well, I'm really sorry about that. Well, sorry is not good enough. So apparently for the Nashville Police Department, a car repossession website is evidence of someone being suicidal. Clearly, they just weren't investigating here at all. If the detective would have just clicked the website he listed, he would have seen his error, but he didn't.

Jamie also found that Donovan told the police that April had been using a lot of drugs before her death. So the police put that in the report that she had a history of drug use. Something they also told the medical examiner. But they tested April for 100 different substances and they all came back negative except for marijuana. So Donovan's story that she had been using a lot of drugs before her death

just simply wasn't true. Now when Jamie confronted them about this, they just kept saying, "We don't know how that got into the report." And these weren't the only mistakes that were made during the investigation. As we already know, the police didn't treat the apartment as a crime scene until six hours after April had been taken to the hospital.

And by then, Donovan had already gone back there several times to do who knows what. Jamie also learned that the divorce papers April had in her apartment were never taken in as evidence. They also never tested the DNA from under April's fingernails. But the one thing that Jamie read in the report that stuck out the most was that they did test the plastic bag found around April's head.

And there were two sets of fingerprints, one on the bag itself and one on the piece of tape that was used to secure the bag around her neck. But they weren't April's fingerprints. They were Donovan's. Now, why would April's fingerprints not be on that bag if she was the one who put it there? To Jamie, this was everything she needed to know. It confirmed that her daughter was murdered by Donovan Holt.

that he was the one that put that bag around her head.

But sadly, at the end of the report, the Nashville Committee Review Board noted that there was still not enough evidence to place Donovan under arrest. They stated that Nashville PD did a good job investigating the case and they doubled down on their stance that April's death was indeed a suicide. And from there, they closed the case. This was pretty much the last chance Jamie had to change

to change the ruling in her daughter's death. An entire committee took on the case and they still stood by their ruling. In the eyes of the law, April Holt died by suicide, case closed.

So I was like, how am I, what am I going to do with this? So I told the cops, nobody wanted to believe me. I talked to the cold case team. They said they would meet with me the next week, but you know, the case was closed, but they would still listen to me, which they never listened to me. They just kept debating with me. Every time I went and I met with the DA, the cops, everybody, they'd bring in this counselor that would be for suicide awareness. And they'd be like, we're giving you support so that you can accept what has happened with your daughter. Every time she's just sitting at the end of the table. And I'm like,

Many people in this situation would have given up, but not Jamie. So she decides to use this 47-page report to her advantage. The fact that Donovan's fingerprints were found on the plastic bag was something that they had not revealed up until this point.

So Jamie decides to send Donovan that information to see how he would react. At this point, I screenshot, like I took on my phone, I just took that little sentence of two hits of Donovan Holt's fingerprints.

And I sent it to Donovan and I said, now I have enough evidence and I'm going to meet with the cold case department. I was meeting with them. It was only for questioning. He said, I want the rest of the report. I said, I'm not giving it to you. I just worked for that for four months. I waited for four months and you're not getting it. But I'm telling you, I have this right here. I said, you can tell me the truth or I'm meeting with the cold case department. So he was hoping I wouldn't still meet with the cold case department. So he said, well, I'm going to call you.

However, days would pass with no call from Donovan, and I can assume that he was panicking. Now keep in mind, Donovan had no idea what else the report said. He didn't know that the committee basically found that he was innocent. But I'm sure that text from Jamie, that his fingerprints were found on the plastic bag, kept him up at night.

I'm sure he thought to himself, "Do they know that it's me? Is it only a matter of time until they come and arrest me?" He also knew that Jamie was not going to give up. She even told him, "If you just tell me the truth, I won't meet with the cold case team. I'll drop it." I'm sure Donovan felt a bit conflicted. Maybe Jamie will leave all of this alone if I just come clean. So soon enough, he sends Jamie a text telling her that he will call her later.

That day, Jamie sat by her phone for hours waiting for that call. And just in case he said anything incriminating, Jamie wanted to record it. So she asked to borrow Serenity's phone. Hours and hours would pass. And finally, at 3:30, she got the call from Donovan.

But it wasn't just a call, it was a FaceTime. Before answering, Jamie pressed record on Serenity's phone and then she answered it. Soon enough, Donovan's face pops up on the screen. The face of a man who she knows murdered her daughter. Now for the first few minutes of the call, Donovan goes on and on about frivolous things like Denzel's football and asthma.

He's clearly nervous and rambling. For Jamie, it's incredibly difficult to act civil with him, but she does. After all, she has to play nice so she can get what she wants, a confession. So she puts on a smile and she waits. Then after a while, the two go quiet and Donovan finally says, so let's talk about what happened that day. But first, he wanted to see if anyone was in the room with Jamie.

And he first said, is anybody around you? And I was like, no, nobody's around me. And I started recording. So he called me on FaceTime so he could see. And I had the phone behind my phone.

So I recorded everything. It was over 40 minutes of me sitting there looking at, you know, my daughter's murderer telling me how he killed her. On that FaceTime call, Donovan told Jamie that on the morning of July 29th, 2023, he and April had gone into the bedroom to have sex. He said that during it, he started consensually choking April. And at some point, he looked down and she wasn't breathing.

Donovan said that in a panic, he carried April over to the bathroom. He then grabbed a plastic bag, some tape, and he taped the bag around her head so that it would look like a suicide.

Now, as a true crime consumer, how many times have we heard this excuse? There are so many people out there that have used this defense when they strangle their significant other, and I don't believe it for a second. But after killing April and making it look like a suicide, Donovan went into his seven-year-old son's room, got him dressed, and then made him lunch.

Then, about 30 minutes later, after he and Denzel finished their food, he told his son to go check on his mom. Donovan didn't want to be the one who found April's body, so he got Denzel to do it, an image that will forever be ingrained in that little boy's mind.

What kind of father would ever do that? Now, as Donovan is telling this story, Jamie doesn't believe one word coming out of his mouth. To her, this was no accident. For one, right before April was murdered, Denzel heard them arguing in the bedroom. And we know that April wanted a divorce. Jamie even has the receipts where Donovan pawned her wedding ring and her camera. So to her, this was no accident at all.

Now, for the remainder of that FaceTime, Jamie remained as calm as she could. But she knew at that moment she had got enough evidence to put Donovan in prison. I had to sit there calmly, though, and I was just like, well, I'm going to pray for you because you need mental help. And I kind of just wrapped up the call. But Denzel was with him at that time, so I had to keep things very calm because I didn't want anything to happen to Denzel.

When the phone call ends, Jamie is elated. She now has confirmation that Donovan murdered her daughter. But I find myself wondering what Donovan is feeling at that moment. Sure, Jamie promised that if he just told her the truth, she would let it go. And it's clear that part of him believed her since he ultimately confessed. But I'm sure after that call, Donovan was anxious. His secret was now out. And all he could do now was wait to see if Jamie was telling the truth.

Would she go to the police with this information? Or would she keep her promise and stay quiet? If he believed the latter, then he clearly didn't know Jamie Dickerson very well.

So the next morning I had to go down to, I took the recording down to Metro Police Department, me and my husband, and I was like, get me your big guys. I'm tired of talking to all the little guys. They're like, well, you already have a meeting with the cold case department. My face there and my name is like, oh my gosh, Jamie Dickerson. They're like, oh gosh, another phone call, another. And this time I'm like in their face. And I said, and do not give me Detective Timothy Skopek because he did not do his job.

do not send him down here. So they sent all these guys down. They're like, yes, Jamie, like, what do you need today? Pretty much. And I'm like, here, here's your evidence that you have been saying all along. I'm a liar. Here it is. And they were like,

You gotta be kidding me. So they call all these teams down and they get them to take my phone up. They get all the information off and they're like, well, you know, we can't just take this as evidence that you could have used AI or you could have done anything. So here Jamie is with a video of her daughter's killer confessing to killing her. It's still not enough to make an arrest. So once again, Jamie leaves the police department feeling unsettled.

And to add insult to injury, weeks would pass with no movement in the case. Donovan was still in Texas, a free man. Jamie was extremely worried because they weren't far away from the Mexican border. What if Donovan tried to flee to Mexico with Denzel? So in mid-July 2024, Jamie plans a trip to Texas.

She tells Donovan that she wants to take Denzel to the Grand Canyon, and that's exactly what she would do. On July 13th, Jamie drove to Texas. She packed a small bag for Denzel, and from there they left for their trip. But unbeknownst to Donovan, investigators in Tennessee were also on their way to Texas. On July 14th, as Donovan was sitting in his apartment,

he heard a knock on his front door. And I can only imagine the terror he was filled with when he saw the detectives. As it turns out,

Moving to Texas would not protect Donovan. He also knew this time around that he couldn't lie to the police anymore. Jamie had given them a video of him confessing. So when he sat down with investigators that day, he relayed the same story he told Jamie, that he and April were having sex and that he accidentally killed her while he was choking her.

Now, one would think that they would immediately place him under arrest right then and there, but no. In fact, two whole months would pass along with nothing. After getting Donovan's confession, the investigators flew back to Nashville, wrote up a 120-page report, sent that report to a second DA, and finally the case was brought to a grand jury.

Now, a very unfortunate part of this case is that the investigators must have believed Donovan's story about choking April during sex. Because when they brought the case before a grand jury, the charges they came up with were reckless homicide, evidence tampering, and false reporting. Reckless homicide is essentially where a person knows what they are doing is dangerous, which in this case would be choking during sex, but despite knowing that it's dangerous, they continue doing it, and it results in death.

In Tennessee, it's a Class D felony and is punishable by 2 to 12 years in prison. Now, Jamie believes that Donovan had been planning April's murder. Two weeks prior to her death, she had started the process of divorcing him and he wasn't happy about it.

Then, after he killed her, went and got a plastic bag and taped it around her head to make it look like a suicide. Now, first-degree murder where premeditation is involved is definitely a lot harder to prove. But to Jamie, reckless homicide is a slap in the face.

people get longer sentences for drug charges or for crashing a car and accidentally killing someone. And keep in mind, this is the same guy who forced his seven-year-old son to find his mom's body. So Jamie believes that at the very least, child endangerment should be added to his charges. But that's not the case here.

With the charges at hand, investigators traveled from Nashville to San Antonio, where they placed Donovan Holt under arrest. He was then extradited back to Tennessee to await trial. His arraignment is scheduled for the end of October, around the time when we're releasing this episode.

but Jamie is currently in contact with a third DA to see if they can increase his charges. But at the end of the day, Jamie Dickerson was forced into an earth-shattering group that no one wants to be a part of.

Parents whose children have been murdered. As civilians, we always hope that when these things happen, law enforcement will take the reins and that they will do their jobs. But sadly, the police in Nashville didn't do that. It's been over a year since her daughter was murdered. And instead of taking that time to grieve, Jamie's had to play detectives.

She was the one who questioned the autopsy results. She was the one who gathered evidence. And at the end of the day, she was the one who got a confession from her daughter's killer. As amazing as that is, that is not Jamie's job. And now that there is finally an arrest, she wants to make changes so that no other family has to go through what she and her family went through.

Oh, okay. I've got him in jail, but this isn't okay. Now I'm onto my next fight of trying to get these charges increased. That's my thing is I said, there should be some kind of, first of all, there needs to be some law changes where if you call 911 and there's a spouse in the house and someone is caught is found not breathing. Why are the cops not immediately called out?

Secondly, why is the detective allowed when he knows nothing about the victim? Why is he allowed to go to the autopsy and give statements that aren't true that he knows nothing about? Those are things that I need changed. I think it should automatically be looked into as the homicide from the get-go.

And then these charges are just insane. And so that's why I want all the national attention that I can get. Like, put a spotlight on Metro and they're going to feel some pressure because you make the wrong call. Now you have the whole I want the whole nation looking at them and saying, you better make the right call this time. You've already screwed it up for the past year.

They've made me as a mom who's grieving, be an investigator and set my grief aside while trying to make sure that a child who I feel they put in danger for the past year, I had to fight for him. Then they give me a gag order. I was like, look, there are way too many pieces here that they've already screwed up on. And now you want to slap it with reckless homicide. I said they're doing the bare minimum of everything.

We truly believe that if Jamie didn't fight as hard as she did, Donovan would have gotten away with this. Not only did she have law enforcement shutting her down, but also an entire committee whose job it is to make sure these cases are being properly investigated. Time and time again, people slammed the door in Jamie's face. They told her that she was just a mother in denial, whose judgment was clouded by grief. What if she would have accepted that? Where would we be today?

He would walk free. He would have walked free for literally the rest of his life with Denzel in his care. And April's kids would have thought mommy took her life because this is what Donovan said. They would have always thought mommy took her life and left us. And I was like, I refuse to let these babies think that their mom left them. I was like, she was taken from you. Now, if I thought my daughter committed suicide, I would have felt that. But when I knew something different, I'm like, I

Now, the episode you just heard was one that I wrote a few weeks back after interviewing Jamie on a Zoom call.

And by the time I finished, I thought I knew this case pretty well. But boy, was I wrong. After our call, I sat down with Colin and we decided that we are going to do a full documentary on this story. As you may know, Colin makes documentaries for a living and we need as many eyes on this case as possible. So after my Zoom call with Jamie, I reached out to her and we made arrangements to do an in-person interview in Tennessee.

So we bought our plane tickets and started planning the trip.

But we had no idea what was ahead. You see, Donovan Holt had just recently been arrested in Texas, meaning the apartment he was living in in San Antonio was still sitting there with all of he and Denzel's stuff still inside. Now, after getting arrested, he obviously wasn't gonna pay rent, so he had an eviction notice, which meant everything inside of that apartment was about to be thrown away.

Jamie told me that she and Denzel were so upset about this because a lot of the stuff that was left behind were things that can't be replaced. Trophies of Denzel's, stuffed animals that his mom gave him, all of which were about to be tossed out. So I asked Jamie if there was anything we could do. For those of you who don't know, me and Colin live in Houston, Texas.

which is about three hours away from San Antonio. And surprisingly, we were able to work something out. In early October, me and Colin went into Donovan's untouched apartment. Surprisingly, after his arrest, the police never even searched it. And luckily, we went through it because we found some pretty important evidence that was left behind. Evidence that we will all talk about in part two.

But after going to Donovan's apartment, me and Colin made the trip to Nashville, where we got footage from inside the apartment where April was attacked. We visited her grave, we interviewed Jamie, April's friends, and we even interviewed April's children, Serenity and Denzel. Now, while we were in Nashville, Jamie gave us this huge binder full of documents from this case. And after going through that,

We are more sure than ever that April Holt's death was not an accident. And when you hear the details, I think you'll be just as outraged as we are. Part two of this episode is right now on Patreon and it's ad free. And part two is incredibly important. This is going to be some real earth shattering stuff. And we need your help in this case. When you listen to part two, you'll see why.

Hey everybody, it's Colin here. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. Courtney and I are so blessed to have everybody out there listening. This case has really taken over both of our minds since we started working with Jamie. I know Courtney's been working with her for a very long time now and I've kind of come in at the end. But the revelations in part two are absolutely insane.

Courtney and I have been actually, I've been directing a documentary about this case, filming every step of this as we've gone along. It's going to be absolutely wild when it gets released. I'm working with my people behind the scenes to see how we want to put this out because it's very, very important and justice is really on the line here.

So if you want to listen to part two now, it's going to be on our Patreon. If you sign up to become a patron, you can get access to early and ad free episodes. So if you don't like the ads, just head to Patreon. We also have bonus episodes on there. So if you love the show and you want to hear more, go sign up for Patreon. And there's like over 100 episodes that you can access immediately with new episodes being added all the time. And yeah, please show up for part two.

This is an incredibly twisted story, one that's heartbreaking and in equal parts extremely infuriating. So thank you all for listening. Make sure to tune in next week. And yeah, as always, I'll catch y'all on the next one. It was late in the afternoon when the professor and I took our way towards the east. Once I knew Jonathan was coming.

Jonathan Harker has asked me to note this, as he says he is hardly equal to the task, and he wants an exact record kept. Dear Madame Mina, I have read your husband's so wonderful diary. Strange and terrible as it is, it is true. I will pledge my life on it. God preserve my sanity, for to this I am reduced. Safety and the assurance of safety are things of the past.

I am in hopes that I shall see more of you at Castle Dracula. Listen to Regarding Dracula wherever you listen to podcasts, or find us online at bloody.fm.