EP. 178 : TENNESSEE - (Pt. 2) The MURDER Of APRIL HOLT: Our Most IMPORTANT Episode To DATE
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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. There are places where the world's most gruesome crimes have led to years, decades, and sometimes even centuries of supernatural activity.

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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.

In early October 2024, I got the incredible privilege to interview my now friend, Jamie Dickerson, who is the mother of April Holt. If you missed last week's episode, go back now and give it a listen, or you might be a little confused in this episode.

But in July of 2023, 29-year-old mother of two, April Holt, was killed by her husband. However, for about a year, that's not what the Nashville police were saying. After speaking with April's husband, they came to the conclusion that April had died by suicide. However, just recently, her husband Donovan Holt was arrested on charges of reckless homicide.

after he confessed to the police that he accidentally killed April while choking her during sex. And that's where the story stands as of now, when we recorded this. However, after interviewing Jamie, me and Colin flew to Tennessee, and we learned so much more about this case. And the stuff we uncovered will make you question if Donovan Holt is telling the truth about April's death.

So follow along as we tell you the story of April Holt. And make sure you stick around to the end because we really need your help here. Trigger warning for this episode as there is talk of suicide and sexual assault. And all parties discussed are innocent until proven guilty. But with that, I'm Courtney Browen. And I'm Colin Browen. And you're listening to Murder in America. ♪♪

Just as a little recap, in the summer of 2024, Donovan Holt fled to San Antonio, Texas with he and April's eight-year-old son, Denzel. Well, maybe fled isn't the right word. Since Donovan didn't have any charges against him, he was technically free to go wherever he wanted. But it's clear he wanted to get as far away from Tennessee as possible, where he was being investigated in his wife's mysterious death.

But months after the move to Texas, investigators made their way to San Antonio to place Donovan Holt under arrest for the reckless homicide of his wife, April. They ended up finding him at a Walmart.

And from there, he was extradited back to Tennessee to await trial. From the outside looking in, it seemed like there was finally justice in April Holt's case. But this story is far from over. Two weeks after Donovan's arrest, April's mom, Jamie Dickerson, did a Zoom call with us. And it was during that interview when Jamie told us about a huge problem she was dealing with.

You see, after Donovan's arrest, his apartment in San Antonio sat untouched, with all of he and Denzel's stuff still inside. Eventually, rent was due, but since Donovan's in jail, he obviously wasn't paying rent anymore, so he got an eviction notice. And this was horrible news for Jamie, because all of Denzel's stuff was still in there. There were blankets, stuffed animals that his mom had given him,

There were pictures, trophies, things that couldn't be replaced. Now, Jamie reached out to the apartment to see if she could come get Denzel's stuff, but since her name wasn't on the lease, they told her they couldn't let her into the unit. And because there was an eviction notice, all of Denzel's stuff was just days away from being thrown in the trash. Here is Jamie describing the situation.

So the apartments that Donovan was living at have evidence from the case from that morning, from the crime scene. They have Denzel's legal information. They have gifts or anything that his mom gave to them. And they are refusing to let me or anybody else into that apartment. The police in San Antonio will not help me.

So the police were telling Jamie that in order to get inside of the apartment, she would have to file a civil suit.

But Donovan's apartment was going to be completely cleared out by the time that could even happen. So during our interview with her, I asked Jamie if there was anything we could do. For those of you who don't know, Colin and I live in Houston, Texas, which is about three hours away from San Antonio. And we had already planned on flying out to Tennessee that week.

to do an in-person interview with Jamie, so I told her we could get Denzel's stuff for her and bring it with us when we see her that week. And surprisingly, we were able to work something out, because even though the apartment complex couldn't let us inside the unit, Jamie told us that Donovan actually had an ex-girlfriend in San Antonio who had a key to his apartment.

Now this was huge news to us. We had no idea that Donovan even had another girlfriend after April. Or that she kind of looks like April. Now we aren't going to say her name, but for storytelling purposes, we are going to call her Michelle. But from here, Jamie put us in contact with Michelle, and she agreed to let us into Donovan's apartment so we could grab Denzel's stuff.

Which brings us to October 4th, 2024. That afternoon, me and Colin made the drive over to San Antonio. Once there, we met up with Michelle at the Hill at Woodway apartment complex, and she unlocked Donovan's apartment for us. Apartment number 903. And I gotta say, it was incredibly eerie.

When we walked inside, it looked like someone was just there. There were pots and pans out on the counter, Denzel's inhaler was on the couch, and there were shoes by the front door. Now from here, we immediately went to Denzel's room and started packing up all of his things. As we loaded his stuff into boxes, Michelle was in there with us, and it was kind of awkward at first. For the first few minutes, we didn't mention anything about the case, but we wanted to.

After all, she dated a man soon after he murdered his wife. But luckily, after a few minutes, she started talking. And because we were filming a documentary about this entire thing, Courtney and I had our cameras and audio recorders rolling the entire time. This was both for our safety and in case we uncovered something inside of the apartment. By the way, Texas is a one-party state, so what we've done here is completely legal.

Now, the first few seconds of the recording are kind of hard to hear. There's a lot of rustling sounds that distort the audio. However, she starts by telling us, quote, this is a scary situation. I was thrown off because I have known them for four or five years now. I met them through social media. Me and Donovan fell off. We weren't talking for a while. And then we kind of all reconnected.

But he told me that April had died by suicide." Then he moved here because he said that he wanted to be around like, you know, family and

Yes. Oh, does he have family here? No. Okay. He considers my family like family. I see. Interesting. Him and Denzel moved down here and he was around us. Right. And so he told my family that she had committed suicide. And then out of nowhere, he just came out and was just like, yeah, like, um,

- It wasn't suicide, it was, you know, she was into some dark stuff, some sexual stuff. - That's crazy. - That I guess like, she wanted him to like strangle her, but he did it, I guess too hard to where she passed out or whatever. - And when you told you that, were you like,

Yeah, I cut him off. I'm like, for one, I don't know if I can believe you because you told me that she killed herself. Right. Yeah, right? That's so bizarre. And then you go and you tell me that it's in a sexual act, regardless of how it happened. When did you find out he got arrested? I was actually in California when it happened. I was shocked, but I was like freaked out. It's like now it's going from like suicide.

suicide to an accidental death to like murder. It's one thing if it happens by accident but then to put the bag over her head and all the after part that he did is like the really creepy part. Yeah, see I didn't know about all of that until Jamie told me. That's crazy. It's so wild. You would think that that would be something important to mention. I know. Yeah, especially if you talk about how you can trust me and all of this stuff like if you

feel like that you should be able to trust me that you know yeah to tell me that and then i wonder like what

Now, the main reason we were at this apartment was to get Denzel's stuff. But Jamie told us that she thought some of April's journals were still there and to keep an eye out for them.

So, as we were gathering Denzel's stuff, we mentioned the journals to Michelle. If only, though, you could find those journals. I looked. That closet, I looked in that closet. There's, like, some books and stuff in there. I looked in his closet. There's some binders in there.

So, as you just heard, Michelle said she looked top to bottom for April's journals, but she wasn't able to find them. So I decided to look for myself.

The very first place I looked was the living room closet. And what do you know, after about 30 seconds of searching, I found them. There were three journals of April's with hundreds of different entries. Now we will discuss what we found in them later on, but Michelle seemed pretty surprised that they were there.

Now, we do want to point out that Michelle didn't have anything to do with this case. It's clear that she was extremely shocked to find out that her ex-boyfriend killed his wife. But during our conversations with her, it seemed like she still cared about Donovan. Later on, we actually asked her to do an interview with us and that we could keep her anonymous. And she responded...

I don't want him to know what was me. I feel like info I give you, depending on what you're asking, it would be a dead giveaway. But as Courtney was putting April's journals into our car, I stepped inside Donovan's bedroom. Upon

Upon entering, it was dark. The electricity to the apartment had been shut off, so I turned my phone's flashlight on and started looking through Donovan's stuff. It was honestly pretty eerie, digging through the apartment of an accused murderer, looking at all the possessions that were left behind in a hurry. It almost seemed as if Donovan had just stepped outside, and he was going to be back any second. At this point, I was in Donovan's room.

In his closet, I noticed that his clothes were still neatly hung, pants folded and stacked on the shelves.

get all of his hats pinned onto a wall. But when I was looking around the room, I noticed that there was a cloth-like barrier surrounding his bed, obscuring any view that you could have of what was underneath it. So, thinking quick, I leaned down and removed the little barrier, and what I found was shocking. There were two guns underneath his bed, a large knife, and a spent shell casing. And I should mention,

One of the guns was directly underneath the bed laying on the floor, but there was another pistol tucked behind the bed frame, sticking out from behind the bed just a little bit. I didn't know what to make of all that.

Back out in the living room, I continued to look through the living room closet and what I found in there was the most shocking of all. You know how everyone has a designated place where they keep all of their important documents? Well, I had just found Donovan's. In fact, it was a binder labeled Very Important Information Binder. In it, I found a Ziploc bag of hair, a

attached to a paternity test. I would later find out that when Jamie and Donovan were going through their custody battle for Denzel, he had to get a paternity test to prove he was indeed Denzel's father. So that wasn't out of the ordinary. Behind that, I found some letters from friends and family congratulating Donovan and April's marriage. One letter read, quote, "'We are so happy for you both.'"

Another letter read, quote, End quote.

It was unsettling to read those knowing how their marriage ended. But what I found behind that was the most unsettling thing of all. It was Donovan's journal. In the first few pages, he writes about innocent things like meal prep ideas and goals he had for that year. But then I flipped to a page titled Texas 2024.

Under it, Donovan wrote out his goals for once he moved to San Antonio, like jobs he wanted to apply for, apartments he was looking into. Nothing nefarious, but it is interesting to see his plans on paper, his plans to flee Tennessee. But then, towards the middle of the journal, I read this entry.

At this point I understand that in order to grow this divorce is inevitable. I know April is my person. It is hard to willingly go into a divorce under false understanding. I want to go and build myself to come back stronger. I know I have work to do. I am also very aware of who God put in my life. Seems April is not as confident in the idea of us. I know that if we separate, she will go other ways. This day started off about how this fall would be different. Did not know it would be losing my wife.

The universe knows my true intentions making the moves I have and how everything was family first. I pray the truth is made clear to April. I understand us needing a new beginning, which I agree with. I just don't want to, one, go our separate ways, and two, be a bill payer slash money man. I am more than that. I love my family. I am a family man. I am a husband full time.

This journal entry stood out because it proved that Donovan did not want to get divorced. As you just heard, he was worried about being a money man to April rather than a husband. And as you will learn throughout this episode, Donovan and April argued a lot about finances. He wasn't great with money.

And from that journal entry, it's clear that he thought divorcing April would put him even deeper into a financial bind. Now there is so much more to uncover about April and Donovan's relationship that we will get into a little later. But on the following page, Donovan wrote this. - My ideal situation, divorce, start dating, raise kids, be a family, work to build a solid foundation behind our new relationship.

Another really interesting thing I found in Donovan's important information binder was a letter that was addressed to April. Now, I originally thought it was strange that April's mail would be in Donovan's stuff, but then again, they were married. However, the letter was addressed to April and it was from an inmate at the Tennessee Department of Corrections. So I opened up the envelope

And inside, there was a visitation application and a note that read the following.

I wish I could see you every day. I don't really like being around unfamiliar faces. I'm not going to lie. I think I'm losing myself. I looked in the mirror the other day and really didn't recognize me. I'm changing every day. I don't know for the better or worse. Last time we talked, you said I'm different with you than I am with others. Why do you think that is? I once told you how I felt about you, to be honest. I still feel that way.

Well, here are the visitation forms. I hope you come through and visit. But I also wouldn't be surprised if you don't. I've been giving broken promises and been forgotten this long. I'm kind of used to it. I love you, shorty. I say that because I mean it. I also say it because it's possible I won't make it. Not being negative, just the reality of the cards I've been dealt. If you can send me a couple pictures of you, hell anything, really. I love you. See you when I see you.

When I read that letter, I didn't know what to think. It's clearly a man confessing his love for April. But then I noticed the date on the letter. It was sent out on July 6th, 2023, just weeks before April was murdered, which is around the same time that April was making plans to divorce her husband, which had me thinking, could this be a motive?

If Donovan found out April was leaving him and getting letters like this from other men, he definitely wouldn't have been happy about it.

especially since he didn't want to get a divorce. And then I started thinking about how strange it was that this letter was found inside of Donovan's important information binder. He had to have placed it there, meaning it was clearly important to him. And then I thought about how he took this letter from Tennessee and brought it with him all the way down to Texas. Now, Jamie Dickerson, April's mom, has been saying all along

that she doesn't think Donovan accidentally killed April during sex. She thinks he fully intended to kill her that day. And I think this letter could be really valuable evidence to consider. But of course, the police never even looked through this apartment. In fact, there was a letter on the apartment's front door that in just a couple of days, the apartment complex was going to throw everything out. So if we had not gone through it,

This evidence would be in a landfill somewhere. As you'll learn throughout this story, investigators in this case dropped the ball on so many levels. But we will get into that later on. At this point in the night, it was getting pretty late. And we didn't have time to go through everything right then, so we quickly packed up our car.

Donovan's ex-girlfriend locked up the apartment and we got ready to leave. But just as we were doing so, Donovan's neighbors in the apartment next door came outside. So, thinking quick, I jumped out and asked them a few questions with my hidden camera recording. As

As it turned out, they had no idea that they had been living next to a killer. But they did tell us that they noticed some strange happenings in the past few weeks or so. They said that someone had been coming to the apartment, and this is a quote, suspiciously late at night, and they were carrying boxes of stuff out of the apartment. Now, they did tell us that they didn't know who this person was, and it was dark, so they wouldn't be able to identify them, but we felt like this was important information to add.

What was being taken out of the apartment? What was so important in there that it had been marked for no one's eyes to see?

But from there, me and Cullen started the drive back to Houston. And as soon as we got home, we started going through everything we found. And what stuck out to me the most was another entry in Donovan's journal that quite literally made our jaws drop. In it, he's talking about a nonprofit he wants to open for people struggling with suicidal ideations. The top of the paper read the name of the nonprofit.

What? A nonprofit committed to uplifting individuals and finding support for those struggling with depression, addiction, and suicide. Why?

Why? My wife could have avoided suicide by simply having a professional show support, care and concern toward what she was dealing with mentally. I want to create what it was she needed in those days before her passing. Most do not jump straight to suicide if there is a way to intervene when depression leads to building an addiction that can ultimately end in suicide. I want a personal refuge in love to be that resource.

Now, we already know that April Holt did not kill herself. Donovan admitted that he lied and that he actually killed her. So clearly, this journal entry was his way of trying to plant a seed so that if the police did go through his things, they would read that and think he was truly a grieving husband. But sadly, the police didn't even bother to go through his apartment.

So it wouldn't have mattered either way. But I think it just goes to show that Donovan was really trying to cover his tracks after killing his wife. Not only did he stage her suicide, but he's writing messages like this in his journal.

But with every discovery, it seemed as if we had more questions than answers. We didn't know what to think, but we knew that there was more to this story, and we couldn't wait to fly out to Tennessee to dig even deeper. So a couple of days later, on October 6th, 2024, we packed up our things, along with April's journals and a big suitcase of Denzel's stuff, and we boarded the flight to Nashville.

As soon as our plane took off, I decided to pull out April's journals we found at Donovan's apartment. The date at the top of the page read January 30th, 2020, the very week that April and Donovan got married. The entry read, quote, "'New beginnings. "'I am anxious and excited to see what all comes next. "'Within one week, I have got married, moved.'"

overcame huge challenges, and literally became the person I have aspired to be, April Lynn Holt. I am blessed. It's crazy, but almost all of my 2019 manifestations all came to life the minute I said I do. Thank you, God, for responding to my request. Things are not as I imagined.

But I know the outcome of things going this way will be so much better. I am so thankful God has my best interest at heart.

life is good and only getting better. I have the power to make a beautiful life for me and my family, end quote. As I continued going through April's journals, a lot of her entries were about manifestations, declaring on paper what she wanted for her life. In another entry, she writes, quote, I am loving, sexy, respectable, fun, and an understanding wife. I

"I know my husband better than anyone else. I am so in love with my husband and we have an amazing marriage. I love and appreciate my husband. He is my everything. I am so blessed and honored to be married to such an amazing man.

Thank you, God." In another entry written on February 6th, 2020, April continues her manifestations saying, "I have a strong, happy marriage. I love, respect and motivate Donovan. I provide for my family. I am an inspiration. I make great connections. I touch lives just by being me. I love my life and the life I am creating."

In other entries, April writes about the struggles she's dealing with, most of which revolve around financial difficulties. One entry reads, "God, I need you to interfere in my life now. I am asking you for a financial blessing that will get me out of this situation and into a better life. I need you to hear me and respond."

If everything I hear and believe is true, then I need you to change the directory in my life.

I claim the best for me and my little family." On April 24th, 2020, April writes: "Today is a great day. I woke up with my handsome husband, got real sleep, and the kids woke up and just played nice. Not to mention we woke up with $2,800 in our accounts. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love waking up feeling abundant and blessed.

"I manifest more mornings like this." In another entry, April writes, "I love my family so much. Thank you for each one of them, Donovan, Denzel and Serenity. They are the best part of my life." A few days later, she wrote, "I love my husband. Thank you God for giving me the best husband. He is perfect for me. I am so in love with Donovan.

I am always satisfied with him in all areas." On May 13th, 2020, she wrote, "I woke up next to my amazing husband in this cute hotel. He is still asleep and it's so peaceful. Last night did not go as planned, but it turned out to be great. I am so thankful for this experience with Donovan. I love being with him, exploring new places and experiencing life together

End quote.

On that plane ride, I read through hundreds of entries, all of which sounded a lot like the ones I just read. April seemed happy and content. Now these journals are from 2020. Like I mentioned in the last episode, April and Donovan had a separation at the end of 2021 that lasted about a year. So these entries were before they started having major problems.

But as I read them, I couldn't help but think about where it all went wrong. April and Donovan seemed to have a great relationship, minus a few financial problems here and there. But with all of the journals I found in Donovan's apartment, they seemed to have all painted him in a positive light, which made me wonder, where were the journals April wrote in when their relationship wasn't doing as well? As you'll later find out,

The police gave Donovan all of April's journals after they took them into evidence. So where were those? Did Donovan get rid of them? These were questions I would discuss with April's mom, Jamie Dickerson, over the next few days.

After our plane landed, we drove to a Buffalo Wild Wings outside of Nashville to meet up with Jamie, her husband Jeremiah, and April Holt's two children, Serenity and Denzel. And over lunch, we really got to know each other. We discussed a number of topics, including April's case, which her whole family was very open to talking about. We learned that after Donovan's arrest, Jamie and Jeremiah officially had custody of Denzel, and that he was slowly adjusting to his new life in Tennessee.

By that point, he had been living with them for about two and a half months, and it wasn't an easy transition. Denzel had not only lost his mom, but he also lost his dad, who he loved very much. After his arrest, Donovan actually called Denzel himself and told him that he had accidentally killed his mom during sex, which, as you can imagine, is incredibly hard for an eight-year-old to understand.

But upon moving in with Jamie, she immediately started Denzel on therapy to try and heal all the trauma he had faced over the past year. You see, Jamie tried to put him in therapy immediately after April's murder, but Donovan didn't allow it, likely because he didn't want his son telling a therapist what happened that day. But now that he's living with Jamie, Denzel can finally start his healing process. But Jamie told us that at the end of the day, he loves his dad, and Donovan loves his son.

Donovan truly loves Denzel and Denzel actually loves his dad even though his dad has since called him and told him before he was arrested he called and told him he killed his mom and I think Denzel's emotions are like I love my dad but he knows that he needed to go to jail and so this is difficult it's hard because I and that's why I protect the kids from anything that is

a negative thought process when it comes to it. I am a realist. And when Denzel says, well, I just want my dad. And I'm like, well, you know, when you commit a crime and he took your mom from us, that he has to go to jail. Like, I'm very blunt with that because there is no beating around that. Like, this is what it is. But I do tell him, like, if you want to write your dad a letter, write it down. I'll send it to the jail. You know, he's in grief therapy and he loves this therapist. Praise God.

Jamie told us that Denzel has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Not only did he find his mom that day, but for a whole year afterwards, his father manipulated him. Donovan would outwardly blame Denzel for the situation they were in, saying that he shouldn't be talking to people about what happened. And now his dad is going away, hopefully for a long time. That's a lot for a little boy to handle. It's over a year and we're just now tapping the surface of what Denzel has been exposed to.

It is a lifetime trauma and I am just at the surface of trying to help him cope. He has Tourette's. He has oppositional defiant disorder. He has ADHD. He has severe asthma. He has a lot of medical things. That's why I chose. I'm going to homeschool him this year. I'm just going to really make sure that they're okay.

After we had lunch with their family, Jamie gave us a list of locations where we could film, including the apartment complex where Donovan hurt April, the hospital where she died, and her gravesite. Jamie also gave us a huge binder with all of the information she had gathered from the past year of her investigative work.

including the 47-page report from the Nashville Committee Review Board. We will be getting into that a little later because we have a lot to say about it. But this binder that Jamie gave us would change everything. Like I mentioned earlier, we thought we knew this case before, but we hadn't even scratched the surface. Now on that first day,

"We started the trip by driving around to all the locations Jamie gave us. We really wanted to get a feel of April's life. So we started with the apartment where everything went wrong.

About 30 minutes outside of Nashville is the town of Antioch, Tennessee, where April and Donovan lived with their son, Denzel. Their apartment, located at 4065 Canridge Parkway, is right next to a nice mall with tons of restaurants and clothing stores. It's a nice area with a lot to do.

According to Jamie, you could actually see the Nashville skyline from April's apartment. Antioch was the perfect place for April because it was close to everything. She was about 30 minutes away from her parents, 30 minutes away from her grandparents. And if she ever wanted to take a trip into the city, it was just a short car ride away. Plus, April had really established herself here. She had friends, family, and a ton of clients for her lash business. And

In fact, her last studio was actually located on the first floor of her apartment complex, which was perfect for her. But as Courtney and I pulled up to the apartment that day, I got out of the car and started filming some B-roll for the documentary. Side note, I'll definitely let you all know when we release that, but for now, we were just getting all the footage. Getting shots of the outside of the apartment complex just wasn't enough for me. I wanted to see April's apartment for myself, and I wanted to document it to show it to the world.

And luckily for us, someone let us inside. From there, we made our way to the third floor and walked over to apartment 326.

The very apartment where everything went down. Now, in doing this investigative journalism on this journey that I've been on recently, I like to push the limits a little bit. So I decided to knock on the door to see if anyone was living there. But no one was there. Later that day, we continued to walk around the apartment complex, seeking out any possible way to get into contact with the person living in that unit, but we couldn't find anything.

and so I tried the directory outside of the apartment. After calling the number associated with the apartment and texting them, we finally got an answer, and the very next day, we returned to the apartment to see the inside. When we got there the next day, a man, probably in his 30s, showed up in the hallway to let us in. The man who lived there was absolutely shocked when we told him that a murder had taken place in his apartment a little over a year ago.

We talked with the resident about April's case, and as you can imagine, like I said, he was shocked. He told us he had no idea that that had happened, but in a weird twist, he had gotten some mail addressed to April Holt in the past. He figured that she was the last resident there and she had simply moved out, but he had no idea that she was dead.

He then asked us which bathroom the attack took place in, and we told him it was the primary bathroom, which shocked him even more because that was his bathroom. For the past 10 months, he had been showering in the very shower that April's body was found in, which is an eerie and unsettling thought. But at this point in our conversation, I decided to ask the guy if we could film in there, and to our surprise, he agreed. So from here, we walked inside of apartment 326.

In the weeks before flying out to Tennessee, I had spent hours going through April's TikToks, watching videos from inside this very apartment. Now there were two men living in it, so it looked a bit different,

but also familiar. But from there, we made our way to the primary bedroom and into the bathroom where April was found unconscious. Seeing the shower where Denzel found her body was hard to look at. And I couldn't help but think about what April endured inside these walls. I thought about what she was thinking in those final moments, knowing that her son was just outside the door. I thought about what she saw before everything went dark.

Was it Donovan's rage-filled face, determined to take her life? Or was it truly just an accident, like he had claimed? While in the bathroom, I also thought about Donovan's steps after April went unconscious. How he threw April into the shower, grabbed a plastic bag and some tape,

and wrapped it around her head, all of which he admitted to doing. After getting our shots of the bathroom, we went back out in the common area to leave.

As we did, I thought about how after Donovan staged April's suicide, he went into the kitchen and cooked up a meal. I stared at the stove he stood at that day to make steak and broccoli, and how after eating his meal, he sent his seven-year-old child into the bathroom to find his mother, knowing exactly what Denzel was about to find."

Now after thanking the current resident for his time, me and Colin walked out of apartment 326 back to our car. And along that drive back to our Airbnb, I thought back to Donovan's letter that I read a few days earlier about how his wife's suicide could have been prevented if she had just gotten help.

replaying the events of what happened that day, and then thinking about Donovan sitting down to write that letter full of lies left me feeling so unsettled. And more than anything, I wanted to get back to our Airbnb as soon as possible so we could start going through that binder that was waiting for us.

That evening, Courtney and I opened up the binder and we started reading all of the information Jamie Dickerson had gathered over the past year. And it was eye-opening to say the least. Based on what we found, we are going to paint a picture of what their relationship was like in the month before April's death.

As a little recap, April and Donovan separated in 2022, but by the start of 2023, she decided to give her marriage another chance. However, it wouldn't take long for her to realize that this marriage just wasn't right for her. Shortly after they got back together, they started having problems again. The same problems they had their entire relationship, mostly involving their finances. I'm

And by the summer of 2023, April was questioning whether or not she made the right decision, getting back together with him. And we know this because of a letter that April wrote Donovan. This letter was in the binder that Jamie had given us, and it read the following...

Donovan, I don't remember what I said last night. I just remember being woken up by you and you pushing me off of you. Then I woke up a few hours ago and you weren't here. So obviously I said something hurtful or fucked up.

and I'm sorry. I'm not too sure where we stand right now. I just know we don't see eye to eye and can't seem to come to an understanding. Every real conversation about this issue has ended in anger with no solution. I don't know what to do. I love you so much,

but I just feel like I'm hurting you. And I know you love me, but you've made me feel so insecure with you and you still haven't embodied being a good husband to me for more than two to three days at a time.

I'm not sure what you've been shown lately, so I can't and won't speak on that. But as for myself, some things have definitely come to light. I've become aware of my ways, my voids, and my vices. I'm selfish and feel entitled to live a life as a free spirit, so I hate feeling limited. Egotistically, I know it's wrong, but spiritually, I know I should be fulfilled and without lack."

So I'm at war with myself because you made it clear that you won't accept me how I am. So what do we do? I don't think I'm supposed to be married ever. I got married because I truly love you and I couldn't bear the thought of losing you. I like living life with you and I thought this is what you wanted. But then you told me the other day that you wanted to wait.

and only got married because of something I said. So then it's like, if neither of us wanted to get married, why did we do it? Or should I say, why did we rush it? Why are we rushing it?

If anyone knows me, you know me, and you know that I don't believe in living the traditional cookie cutter way. So with that being said, I think we need to do what is best for us. I still don't want to lose you, and I don't want to rush straight to a divorce, but I can't live like this. I can't keep waiting any longer."

We need to have a real conversation and come up with a solution and a plan. I need you to not just put our marriage in my hands if you want this. I can't deal with this pressure alone and this energy needs to subside. It's literally making me sick.

This environment is unhealthy for both of us. Love, April." - In April's journals that we found in Donovan's apartment, we also read this entry. - "Things I wish I knew before getting married. There is no set timeline to get married. Don't rush it because of imaginary pressure.

Because no one is in that relationship besides you and your man. One of you will most likely be ready for marriage first. It's okay to not be on the same page. Be open to having real vulnerable conversations. Marriage is a day-to-day commitment. It's more than just a pretty ring and a wedding. Forever is a long time. Marriage will not fix your relationship.

Now, as you can tell by what we just read, it's clear that at this point in their relationship, things were still civil, but they were definitely coming to a head. April was at a crossroads. She was still trying to figure out the next best step for her life, but it's around this time when she and Donovan's relationship started going downhill pretty quickly.

About two weeks before her passing, April started texting her friend Stephen about the problems in her relationship. The conversation went like this, quote, Stephen, I can't do this anymore. I'm so over being disappointed and let down by men. I'm getting the divorce and staying single. What happened? I'm here to listen. Are you okay?

He couldn't cover his half of the bills because he hasn't been working literally since we got together. So he told me he got rental assistance and my apartment called me yesterday asking about the status on my eviction. They told me they didn't accept the assistance and that I have until the 15th to make a payment of $4,800 or be put out of my apartment.

I literally found out yesterday and I'm supposed to figure it out on my own once again. I've covered everything for months and he told me he had covered that so now I'm fucked again and about to lose my house. I keep crying. I'm pissed and I'm hurt and I'm disgusted that he would put me in this type of situation again and I don't know what to do. I was doing really well for myself.

And the second I got back together with him, my life went to shit again. So at this point, I know that it's him. And I know we don't need to be together. He really just expected me to take care of him. And I'm not his mom. I shouldn't have to raise him.

Now, this was extremely shocking to read. We had no idea that April and Donovan were about to be evicted from their apartment, all because of Donovan's inability to do his part in their relationship. And as you can tell by those messages, April was done with him. According to her loved ones, it's around the same time when April even met up with someone to get the divorce rolling. It's also around the same time that April received the love letter from that inmate, and when Donovan pawned her wedding ring.

things were really moving in a direction that donovan wasn't happy with and i want to take a second to revisit the journal entry we found in donovan's apartment because it's around this time when he wrote it but he wrote at this point i understand that in order to grow this divorce is inevitable i know april is my person it is hard to willingly go into a divorce under false understanding i want to go and build myself and come back stronger i know i have work to do i also am very aware of who god put in my life

Seems April is not as confident in the idea of us. I know that if we separate, she will go other ways. This day started off about how this fall would be different. Did not know it would be losing my wife.

The universe knows my true intentions making the moves I have and how everything was family first. I pray the truth is made clear to April. I understand us needing a new beginning, which I agree with. I just don't want to, one, go our separate ways, and two, just be a bill payer slash money man. I am more than that. I love my family. I am a family man. I am a husband full time.

Now that summer, Donovan had worked as a chef on a boat. So in the letter we are about to read, that is what he's referring to. But he writes to April making it very clear that he is not happy about their situation. It reads the following.

Dear April, I am sorry that me coming home from the boat hasn't been all it was thought to be. I have struggled financially and I know that it has put us in a bind. I truly have tried and I apologize that it just wasn't enough. You are my best friend and I am sorry to have let you down. Although I love being your husband, it seems I have failed in my duties of being a provider and for that I give my deepest sorrow. You know all I wanted was to be able to be there for you and the kids no matter what. Denzel is my guy.

and Serenity is my baby girl, and you all deserve better for me. Sometimes it just seems so much easier to just take myself out and let you move on without me, as I have seen you do before. Although I would be gone, I know you would figure your way out. If you know nothing else, know I will always love you, Donovan.

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Donovan was so upset about their impending divorce that he said, quote, "'Sometimes it just seems easier to take myself out, which seems like suicidal ideation.'" And according to April's loved ones, she confided in them that Donovan would mention suicide pretty frequently, but as of now, it's a little over a week before April's death.

As we can tell from the letter she's writing and the text to her friends, she's completely done with her marriage. So much so, about eight days before her death, she even started talking to an old love interest of hers named Zach Matthews. Zach agreed to do an interview with me and he said that he and April dated in 2022 when she and Donovan were separated. And

And they actually met while serving in church together. There's a lot of ways I could describe her, but at the core, she was my best friend. At the core. We dated for some time, but that was after the friendship had truly developed. And we got to know each other through the kids' ministry, and then it just kind of extended on out, just seeing how she was with her.

and her kids and just kind of seeing how she was, you know, as far as like really trying to rekindle her relationship with God. Like those were just a lot of the things that we kind of initially talked about. - So April and Zach dated for a while in 2022, but then in 2023, April decided to cut things off with Zach so she could give her marriage with Donovan another chance.

When we cut things off, we cut things off because she felt like she had gotten a lot deeper in church and she was very intent on doing everything the right way. She said that she felt that God was calling her to try to reconcile that the right way. So that was why she left. I told her then, you know, I understand your position and if that's what God's calling you to do, then I have to respect it.

So with that, April and Zach cut ties. But then fast forward to July of 2023, just a week before her passing, April reached back out to Zach, telling him that she and Donovan were getting a divorce and that she was done with him for good.

She reached out to me literally maybe eight, nine days right before she passed away. She essentially told me that it lasted, you know, maybe three, four months. And she quickly realized that the things that I was saying were true and that, you know, it wasn't going to work out the way she expected it to.

So knowing that her relationship with Donovan was over, April reached back out to Zach, someone she really cared about. After that first initial conversation, the two continued to chat over the next few days. They even talked on the phone, opening up about their lives, the things they were going through, and their goals for the future. Surprisingly, they even had a deep conversation about the topic of suicide.

There was frustration between her and Donovan specifically because it was something that he mentioned a lot, like dealing with his depression and things of that nature, wanting to just kind of be done. She said that he mentioned suicide a lot and

We talked on the phone, on FaceTime about it. And we were just, you know, kind of talking about how we don't understand that mentality, especially when you have kids in the mix and things of that nature. And it transcended from a FaceTime to a text because we had things going on.

April had a lot going on in her life at the time, more than just her impending divorce, which we will get into more later. But despite everything, she was determined to fight through the struggle. After these conversations with April, Zach was happy that they rekindled things. April had always been such a bright and beautiful soul, and he liked having her in his life. But Zach could have never imagined what would happen next.

On July 29th, 2023, just one week after he and April started talking again, he saw an incoming phone call from April Holt. But when he answered it, it was not April on the phone, it was Donovan. From there, Donovan told Zach that April was just found unconscious in their apartment, and he asked if he could come to the hospital.

Which is a question that I have as well. In fact, directly after calling Jamie, April's mom, Donovan's next call was to Zach.

April's ex-boyfriend who she had just reconnected with. Now, Jamie said that Donovan hated Zach. So why would he be calling him to come up to the hospital? Both Jamie and Zach believe that Donovan did this as kind of a screw you to him. Like, you started talking to my wife and look what I did to her. Part of me thinks that he wanted me to suffer. There's nothing else that makes sense to me

So that day, both Zach and Jamie Dickerson arrived at the hospital around the same time. And soon after that, they were told the horrific news that April was not going to make it.

Now, according to April's hospital notes, quote, Now, surprisingly, Donovan's 911 call that day didn't get reported. According to the report, it was technology-related.

The department, as it turns out, was in the process of switching phone systems. No calls were recorded from July 29th, 2023 through July 31st, 2023. But once Donovan called it in, EMS arrived on scene and they gave April oxygen and Narcan as they took her to the hospital.

And keep in mind, Donovan never even told the doctors that April was found with a bag over her head. He said he told them, but he never actually did. Jamie and her husband were the ones that told the doctors. And like Jamie mentioned in the previous episode, she sat by her daughter's side all day that day.

Heartbroken. But something she couldn't help but notice was that Donovan kept leaving the hospital to go back to his apartment. Luckily for him, the police didn't go to the apartment to start gathering evidence until six hours after April was taken to the hospital. So he was free to go in and out doing God knows what. Now, in the committee's report,

When asked why they didn't send the police right away, the emergency response department said, quote, "A person in cardiac arrest would automatically denote the police to respond. This call came in as an unconscious person. The system did not recommend the police be sent." End quote. So from the get-go, this investigation was not handled properly at all. Their crime scene was immediately contaminated.

Now at some point, investigators would interview Donovan and he told them some pretty shocking information. As it turns out, a couple of days before April's death,

she had actually been assaulted by someone. Now we will get into the details of that a little later, but he said that this assault had been really hard on April. He also said that she had a history of drug and alcohol abuse and that with everything going on in her life, April must have tried to kill herself by putting that plastic bag over her head. Investigators also asked Donovan why he didn't tell the doctors about the plastic bag

And he simply said he forgot. And for some reason, they believed him.

Now, in the binder that Jamie gave us, we got to look at the 47-page report that documented the investigation. And it is shocking. Six hours after April arrived at the hospital, investigators finally arrived at their apartment and started gathering evidence. According to the committee report, they gathered three journals, a pair of scissors that Donovan used to cut the bag from around April's head, a roll of duct tape, a box of black trash bags,

and the trash bag and duct tape that was wrapped around April's head in the shower.

Interestingly, they also found that the trash bag wrapped around April's head hadn't been opened like it would be if you were going to put it in a trash can. Instead, the bag was still sealed together and wrapped around her head, which is interesting because if someone was really trying to kill themselves this way, the best way to do it would be to open the trash bag up and then put your head inside of it and then tape it around your neck so

so that no air would come in. But next, the lead detective, Timothy Skopek, got a search warrant for April's iPhone, iPad, and laptop computer. However, according to the report, her iPhone was the only thing they downloaded into evidence. The report says, quote, it appears the iPad and laptop may not have been. All the items have subsequently been released to the victim's husband, end quote.

So without even looking through it, they gave Donovan April's iPad and computer. The next piece of evidence gathered from the crime scene was April's journal that was found lying on the couch. Now, they don't go into a ton of detail, but the report says that April appeared to be writing a song. The lyrics were, quote, "'Like what the fuck? I see it now. You was never here for this vow.'"

So now it's ciao. Fuck you. Like, what the fuck? I'm paying all the bills, sending you money, and you have the audacity to pay for another bitch lunch? With my money? Man, fuck you. I've settled enough. I need a man, not a fan. We aren't your admin. We don't work for you. Shit, I should sue you for my wasted time. I know I'm in my prime, and you fucked up.

"was never fully mine." Now we know there was a lot of infidelity in their relationship, which is clearly what April is writing about. But according to the report, "The book continues with single points "that may or may not be words to a song. "It speaks of the need for rest and to be alone, "but also talks about being a mom "and having a lot of responsibility." April then writes,

"Life doesn't stop because this experience happened. I have to be strong. I have to be here for everyone else." And that last line stuck out to me. I have to be here for everyone else. To me, that means that April was not wanting to take her own life, but apparently investigators didn't see it that way.

Another thing investigators found was a website that April had visited called atrrecovery.com and in the report it says that this website is a suicide and crisis lifeline for emotional and substance use support. But this was a huge mistake on the investigators part because that's not at all what this website is.

In reality, if they were to have just typed the website in on their computer, done the minimal amount of research, or put the minimal amount of effort in here, they would have seen that that's a car repossession website. To me, it seems as if the investigators were just already convinced that April had killed herself, so they were just confirming their biases. Jamie Dickerson would later confront them about this, and they simply told her, "Oh, that must have been from a previous search on my computer."

Now, another huge part of this story is the testimony of Denzel, April and Donovan's son, who at the time was seven years old. Like we mentioned in the last episode, after April's death, Denzel told Jamie on a secretly recorded video

that on the day in question, he had heard his mom and dad arguing in their bedroom. So Denzel went and looked under the crack of the door and he saw his mom lying down on the ground.

From there, his dad came out of the bedroom and started making them lunch. And then about 30 minutes later, after they ate, Donovan sent Denzel in the bathroom to find his mom. So obviously investigators had to speak to Denzel about what he saw that day. Now he ended up having two separate interviews with a woman named Katrina Bruzes.

And according to the report, during the first one, Denzel told Katrina that he had, quote, practiced with Donovan before their interview. The report goes on to say that, quote, in the second interview, his dad told him what to say, end quote. Now, this next part is pretty shocking, but the reports say that they have a policy that perpetrators cannot be on the property when these interviews are being conducted.

But quote, "Since dad was not identified as a perp, he brought Denzel to the interview." End quote. So not only did Donovan practice with Denzel before the interview, but he was also in the building when Denzel's interview was being conducted. It's also clear that Donovan Holt was very nervous around this time. In fact, the day after April was brought to the hospital,

he actually totaled April's car with Denzel in the back seat. And then from there, he's practicing with Denzel for this interview. Now, we don't have a ton of information on exactly what Denzel said, but the reports claim that, quote, there were discrepancies in the two interviews and gave an example of Denzel saying what he ate in the first interview was different as to the second interview, end quote.

The report also says: "Razesis noted that Denzel had Tourette's syndrome, and you can see that in the first interview with the noises that he makes, but in the second interview, you don't see that at all. Razesis stated this indicated to her that Denzel was less stressed for the second interview, having less of a trauma response."

I asked Brazis which interview I should believe or if she could tell if Denzel was coached in either interview. She advised that based on Denzel's behavior and having some time since the incident, the second interview may give a more accurate picture of what occurred. Brazis advised that she still feels there is a difference in practicing for an interview or being coached.

She cannot say whether Denzel was coached or not. Raziz is advised that although she does have a basis of facts, it is best to not know all about the situation and for her to learn about it directly from the child. She advises that she does not make the determination as to whether the child is lying or not. Her job is to believe the child. To clarify this, her job is to make the child feel comfortable and that she believes them. She does not make the determination if the child is telling the truth or not.

During Denzel's first interview, April was still in the hospital, but during it, she was taken off life support. But the report goes on to say that the interviewer, quote, iterated the fact that Denzel did show signs of his Tourette's in the first interview, but the fact that he did not show it in the second interview makes her feel that he was not as stressed, more relaxed, and

and able to talk freely. I asked her if she felt that his feelings of trauma during that first interview was a direct result of being coached or could it have been the situation he witnessed with his mother. She advised that it could have been either or both. Neither Bruzzies nor Denzel were aware at the time of the first interview that the victim had passed. Bruzzies found out during the break.

She thinks the fact made for a better interview since he did not know of the death. Denzel only knew his mother was in the hospital and was being kept alive on a machine. Now again, the details of these interviews are unclear, but regardless of what came out of them, Donovan practiced with his son beforehand, so that definitely has to be considered.

On July 31st, 2023, April Holt was taken off life support. Her organs were donated and her autopsy was scheduled. The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy was Dr. Emily Dennison, and in her report, she wrote that April had minor blunt force trauma of the body.

It later reads that she had "multiple, small, faint purple contusions on the bilateral lower extremities." But Jamie Dickerson, April's mom, would later tell us that April had bruises on her neck, wrists, thighs, and ankles. However, they would later tell her that these injuries could have been caused by EMTs and/or hospital personnel.

Now, something concerning about this autopsy was that, according to Jamie, the lead detective in April's case, Timothy Skopek, actually went to April's autopsy and told them that, one, April had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, and two, that he didn't suspect foul play, and that he believed April died by suicide, and they seemed to have just agreed with him.

The committee report would later say, "I concur with Sgt. Skopek that there is no obvious evidence of foul play, and the evidence strongly suggests the victim placed the bag and tape on her head. However, we know that's not what happened."

Another mistake investigators made was that they didn't test for DNA under April's fingernails. In the report, they wrote, quote, "The victim had very long manicured acrylic fingernails that were documented with photographs. This evidence does not suggest the victim was involved in a struggle. Donovan Holt did not have any noticeable injuries that you would expect to see in a struggle. The victim and Holt are husband and wife.

"There is a strong probability Donovan Holt's DNA would be under the victim's fingernails. The scrapings were collected early in the investigation as routine and an abundance of caution."

Although this evidence is still available, the investigation does not support a need to conduct a test. And I thought this detail was shocking. In it, they said that April's fingernails were still intact, so they didn't think there was a struggle. But in that same breath, they said that because April and Donovan were husband and wife, his DNA might possibly be under her fingernails. I also thought this was strange because after April's death,

Jamie Dickerson, April's mom, was adamant that her daughter had been murdered. But even with that, they still refused to test the fingernail scrapings. Why wouldn't they? But with that, April's manner of death was ruled a suicide, and her cause of death was complications of suffocation, which was devastating news to her loved ones. They all knew that April did not kill herself.

Jamie filed a reconsideration so that her autopsy could be given a second opinion, but Dr. Emily Dennison told her that she wasn't allowed to file that because she wasn't next of kin. The only person who could submit that request was Donovan, the very person

who killed her. Now, Zach Matthews, April's ex-boyfriend said that when he heard about this suicide ruling, he knew that it wasn't true. Like we mentioned, they had discussed suicide earlier that week and April was adamant that that is not something she would ever consider. So Zach sent those text messages over to the police, but they still wouldn't change their ruling. Their job was done here. They had found April's manner of death and they weren't going back.

However, April's friends and family refused to give up. Many of them even emailed the police department begging them to take another look at the case.

Here are what some of her friends and clients told detectives after her passing. In one email, a person wrote, quote,

She told me he had asked her family for money to be able to get her something for her birthday. She mentioned that he had battled with mental health issues in the past. April was an amazing person. She was more than my last tech.

End quote.

In another email, her friend wrote, quote, "'In the middle of 2022, I started to notice a change in my friend. I mean, she was still doing her affirmations every morning, but her conversations changed. April made me aware in the summertime that she and Donovan were going through a rough patch. April was even considering moving back home with her parents at the time. April never would really go into deep detail, but stated that things had become a bit toxic between her and Donovan.'

I shared my domestic violence experience with April and I told her to make the decision that she felt was best for her but know that she always had someone there in her corner. April, having the biggest heart of all hearts, wanted to fight for her family. April thought things would change. You could tell from the conversations to the TikTok videos. April was a light.

a strong force to be reckoned with. My girl would give a homeless person her last. April tried her hardest to never let what she was going through temporarily get to her. April was a God-fearing woman. She prayed daily, multiple times a day. She always felt that if no one else heard, God did. And that's who she turned to for everything.

April lived for Serenity and Denzel.

And when I say that, it's far from an exaggeration. How is it that two to three weeks after April makes it known that she wants a divorce, she ends up deceased? And the last person to physically see her alive is her abuser. April deserves justice to the highest extent. I promise you, as a 31-year-old woman and a friend of April's for 16 years, April did not do this to herself. I'm willing to bet my life on it.

Please do the right thing and get my friend the justice she deserves. Please. Her children and family deserve to have closure to this.

Another friend wrote,

She was in the process of getting a divorce from him the first time because he was barely at home. He would be quiet around me even when I would say hello to him. There were times that he would buy or do something and he would put the billing to her which was another part of the reason to leave him because she felt he wasn't stable and the problems kept continuing on and she was ready to leave him.

I was always scared for her and opened my home to her and Denzel when he would get upset. It was to a point where I would ask her what was wrong, but she was so afraid, she wasn't able to tell anyone about it for fear of what he would do or say.

Another thing Jamie Dickerson continued to bring up to detectives was the fact that April was in the process of divorcing Donovan, which can be a very dangerous time for women. Jamie even said that they found divorce papers in April's apartment after she died. But in the committee's report, they state, quote, Dickerson stated her daughter asked for a divorce two weeks prior to her death and that the divorce papers were in the apartment.

End quote.

But Jamie Dickerson told us that when she and her family walked in, the papers were sitting right there on the counter. So investigators were basically saying, well, we didn't find any divorce papers and there's no evidence that April even asked for a divorce.

But throughout this episode, we have given you a ton of evidence that Donovan definitely knew she wanted a divorce. If the police would have looked through his San Antonio apartment, they would have found Donovan's journal that we located, where he says, quote,

it's hard to willingly go into a divorce under false understanding. Investigators also went through April's phone where she was texting people saying "I'm divorcing him." And then lastly, there are letters between April and Donovan where they are writing to each other about ending their marriage. So the fact that investigators said there's no evidence that April even asked for a divorce is false.

As you can see, the police department completely mishandled this investigation. But as you heard in the last episode, April's mother, Jamie, was not going to give up on her daughter. After this ruling, she went to TikTok to spread the word about her daughter's case, only to be hit with a gag order forcing her into silence.

Months and months would pass, and there was no movement in the case. Then in 2024, Jamie got word that the committee review board agreed to look into the investigation to see if there had been any mistakes made along the way. This board essentially investigates the investigation. When Jamie found out that they were finally looking into things, she was excited.

Best case scenario, they would find out that April's case had not been investigated properly and they could start finding the truth about what really happened that day. Now it would take the committee four long months to finish their report.

But once Jamie got word that they were finished, she scheduled a meeting with the board to go over their findings. On the day in question, they brought Jamie into this big room, and page by page, they went over everything. And it was in this meeting where Jamie learned that Donovan Holt's fingerprints had been found on both the trash bag that was wrapped around April's head and the tape.

Not April's prints, Donovan's. But the report went on to say, quote, in some situations, a fingerprint could indicate guilt and assist in proving beyond a reasonable doubt that a person is guilty. I do not believe the comparable impressions lifted from this scene definitively prove guilt, end quote.

Now, when Jamie heard this, she couldn't believe it. To her, this proved that Donovan killed April, but the investigators didn't agree.

At the end of the report, they wrote,

Unfortunately, this is a fact in most any investigation. However, I believe that the evidence currently available strongly suggests the victim committed this act of suicide. Then they list reasons as to why they support this ruling, with the last one stating Donovan Holt was cooperative with the police investigation from the beginning and gave calm and consistent statements each time he was questioned.

At the end of this meeting with the committee review board, they gave Jamie flyers on how to grieve a loved one's suicide. They were fully convinced that she was just a grieving mother who couldn't accept the fact that her daughter took her own life. And from this point forward,

April Holt's case was officially closed, but soon enough, they would have to eat their words. Because after this meeting, Jamie sent Donovan a picture. It was a portion of the report that indicated his fingerprints were found on the plastic bag and tape that was on April's head.

And after getting this text, Donovan Holt was nervous. Jamie even told him, "If you just tell me what happened, I'll let it go. I'll stop investigating and we can move on." Of course she wasn't telling the truth, but Donovan took the bait. In a FaceTime call with Jamie, nearly a year after April's death, Donovan admitted that April did not kill herself.

and that he accidentally killed her by choking her during sex. Jamie actually recorded this entire FaceTime call, so she had his confession on video. From there, she immediately brought it to the police, but again, months and months would pass with nothing.

Eventually, investigators from Tennessee flew down to San Antonio, where Donovan had fled, and in the end, he told them that same story, that he had lied in the beginning, and that he was the one who accidentally killed his wife during sex.

He also admitted that he subsequently staged it as a suicide. Weeks after this confession, investigators flew back to Texas to place him under arrest for the reckless homicide of his wife.

In addition to the reckless homicide charge, Donovan was also charged with evidence tampering and false reporting. So it seems as if police believe his story about how he killed his wife. Reckless homicide is essentially where a person knows that 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 it's only punishable by 2 to 12 years in prison.

And if this story was true, about choking April during sex, then reckless homicide would be the appropriate charge. But the evidence we are about to present to you will have you questioning everything. You see, as me and Colin were going through the binder of evidence that Jamie gave us, we came across evidence of that assault we mentioned earlier, that April had experienced just days before her death.

Now, from what we could tell, April only told two people about this assault, Donovan and Zach Matthews. Luckily, Zach was able to tell me a little bit more about what happened.

During our call, he said that just a couple of days after they rekindled their relationship, Zach and April were texting, and she told him that she was leaving Denzel's football practice and heading into Nashville for a work obligation, but she told Zach that she would talk to him the following morning. However, when that morning came around, April was clearly going through something.

The next day I checked on her, I asked her, you know, hey, how are you doing? And she said, I'm not doing good. She said that a lot happened last night. She's not in a good headspace.

And I asked if she would like to talk about it. She said later in the day when she gets free that we'll talk. So this is where a man named Floyd Thomas Jr. comes into the story. Now, this guy is bad news. In 2022, he was charged with child abuse after severely beating his 15-year-old daughter. Apparently, his daughter went on a walk and was gone too long for his liking. So when she got home, he chased her around the house, beating her over and over with a belt.

Luckily, she was able to escape the home and from there, the police were called. But according to the police, she had large welts all over her body, quote, from her neck to her ankles, end quote. But on top of being a child abuser, he's also a businessman in Nashville who owns a few restaurants and he's in real estate. Now, somehow he and April got in contact with one another and he asked if she could do some work for him, helping him do designs for one of his rentals. And April agreed. Like

Like we mentioned earlier, she was about to get evicted from her apartment because Donovan didn't pay his portion of the rent, so she was doing what she could to make some extra money. So that evening, she drove out to Nashville. According to Zach, April said that they were supposed to be meeting at one of Floyd's buildings, but at the last minute, he asked to meet her at a restaurant. And from there, the night took a dark turn. Here's what she would later tell Zach. So they ate, had a few drinks, and then she said she woke up naked at...

one of those buildings, not the building she was supposed to be going to with no memory. And she said, she asked him what happened and he essentially told her that they had a good time. And she put her clothes on, got home around like four or five in the morning, I believe.

And that really pushed her back. After getting sexually assaulted, April was in a dark place, as anyone would be in that situation. She even went home and wrote in her journal this heartbreaking thought. Quote, I'm embarrassed. I feel ashamed. I don't want people to know or asking or judging or getting involved.

Now Jamie would later tell us that April actually did go to a doctor after the assault.

But they referred her to another doctor and by that point she just decided to go home. Which makes me so sad for her. So many women out there have been in April's exact same position. I can't imagine how it would feel to have to take time out of your day to go sit in a doctor's office and recount the horrible experience you just went through, only to be told that you need to go somewhere else and repeat the entire process.

It had to have been traumatic for April. So instead, she went back to the apartment she shared with Donovan and she wrote about it in her journal. She writes, "I feel so ashamed, dirty, hurt, hurting physically. I know it's not my fault." Later that night, she and Zach talked on the phone and she opened up about her experience. And Zach said it was clear she was not in a good headspace.

She was like, "Honestly, I just want to be in a different space. I just want to be in a different space." And I asked her what that meant, because I wanted to make sure. I wanted to clarify, you know, what she was talking about. And I was like, "You don't mean, like, you know, checking yourself out of here or nothing like that." She was like, "Oh, no." She was like, "I got to take care of Denzel. I got to take care of Serenity.

That conversation kind of propelled into how suicide's not a thing in her mind. It was not a thought in her mind at all. Zach and April had a good talk about how suicide was not the answer. April told him that she would never leave her children behind and that she's worked too hard on herself to give up now.

After their phone call, they even had the following text conversation where April says, "Thank you for the advice and talking to me about everything." "Of course. I just hope you can heal from it and can overcome this." "I will. Today has just been hard but I'm determined to not let this ruin my progress. I just have to process this and then I can start healing."

In April's journals, she also wrote, "Life doesn't stop because this experience happened. I have to be strong. I have to be here for everybody else."

And the reason this is so important to talk about is because getting sexually assaulted is one of the worst things that can happen to someone. Like April said in her journals, she felt embarrassed, ashamed, dirty, her body physically hurt from the assault. But according to Donovan's story, just days after she was raped, he and April were not just having sex,

but violent sex, where she's asking him to choke her out. And during that process, he accidentally choked her so hard, he killed her. In what world is that believable? I know every woman's experience is different, but many claim that after being sexually assaulted, they don't even want to be touched by a man.

let alone have sex with them. And if you still aren't convinced, the next entry in April's journal, after she talks about being sexually assaulted, she writes, quote, we're not making love no more, but I still love you. I still pray for you. You made me a mom, end quote.

So here she is saying that she and Donovan weren't even having sex at the time, which is something all of her friends confirmed. They said that April was the kind of person where once she made up her mind, that was it for her. And based on what she was telling everyone about Donovan, she wouldn't have been having sex with him, especially after she was just sexually assaulted. She was completely done. She's not going to do that. That girl's very strong-minded.

She's very content in her decision. If she makes a decision, she's going to do something. She's not going to be flipping flopping, going back and forth. She's not going to do that. And keep in mind, Zach and April dated for a while. So when I interviewed him, I asked from his experience if he knew April to be into that kind of sexual stuff. And he said this. She doesn't do that. That is not her thing.

Now, I'm not saying we have all the answers, but I looked at the committee review board's report and that 47-page report was all the evidence they had in the case. And to me, it wasn't convincing. Now, a grand jury apparently looked at all the evidence in the case as well, and they were the ones who came down with this reckless homicide charge. So clearly they and investigators believe Donovan's story, but we don't.

And I think if more people heard these details, they wouldn't either. Now at the time of this recording, Donovan Holt is just days away from being arraigned on these reckless homicide charges. And if he pleads guilty, I can guarantee that his sentence will not be justice. Jamie Dickerson believes that her daughter's death was no accident, and the weeks before April's death,

April started texting all of her friends and family that she wanted a divorce. Donovan wrote in his journal that he didn't want a divorce because he knew that would just make him the bill payer. And this is coming from someone who is already in a very serious financial bind. In fact,

he and April were about to be evicted because of him. April's friends and family told us that even though April was done with Donovan, she had let him live with her at that apartment because he didn't have the means to leave. So being the person April was, she let him stay there. Then they were told they were gonna get evicted. Not only that, but in the weeks before her death, Donovan saw April moving on. She got that love letter from the inmate.

the letter that we found in his apartment.

Then, April rekindled her relationship with Zach Matthews, her ex-boyfriend, the guy that everyone said Donovan hated. And then lastly, just days before her death, April left the house to go to the Nashville work obligation. She didn't end up coming back home until around 6:00 AM that following morning. From what we could tell, April told Donovan about the assault.

And I wonder if that was the last straw for him. Jamie Dickerson believes that Donovan was losing all control. He was losing his financial support, his home, and lastly, his wife, who was clearly moving on. So on July 29th, 2023, after their son Denzel heard Donovan and April arguing in their bedroom, Donovan snapped,

and he murdered April. And to me, with all of the information we have, this is not a case of reckless homicide. At the very least, I think second-degree murder is a more appropriate charge. So we are going to link a petition with the goal that Donovan Holt's charges can be increased. We, along with so many others, also think that he should have child endangerment added to his charges for sending his son into the bathroom that day.

Now you have a right to your own opinion, but if you feel as strongly as we do about this, please consider signing the petition to have his charges increased and make sure you share it on your social media. And there might be some people out there who say, well, it's in the hands of the law now, stay out of it. But that's exactly what we're worried about.

This is the same police department who looked into all the evidence we just presented to you and still came to the conclusion that April Holt killed herself. They knew all about her sexual assault. They read the text messages, her journals. They saw the emails from all her friends and family, and they doubled down on their findings, refusing to admit that they had gotten something wrong. This is the same police department who didn't search the Holt's apartment for six hours after April was brought to the hospital.

the same department who never even searched Donovan's San Antonio apartment. Interestingly, the lead detective in April Holt's case, Timothy Skopek, was also recently promoted to the position of sergeant.

And keep in mind, if Jamie Dickerson hadn't fought the way she did, if she herself wouldn't have gotten a confession from Donovan, he would still be a free man. It was never supposed to be Jamie's responsibility to serve as a detective in her daughter's case. But in the end, she did more for April than the people in charge. That's a scary thought. It's an even scarier thought to think about how many other April Holtz are there?

women who have been murdered, but due to lousy police work, their killers are walking around free. - That's why we have to hold these departments accountable.

so that this kind of mistake doesn't happen again. If there's one thing that I hate in this world, and I absolutely detest it, it's government corruption and lazy police work. Now, after everything went down, Jamie Dickerson filed a complaint against their department for deficient or ineffective performance of duties. And just recently, they sent her a letter that read, quote,

It was determined that the allegation of deficient or ineffective performance of duties appears to be exonerated.

an incident did occur but the action was consistent with established policy rules or procedure end quote so essentially they admitted they were wrong but they excused themselves from any responsibility and that's gotta really make you guys at home think who polices

The police. Right now, it's just themselves. But based on what we're about to tell you, it doesn't seem like they're making up for their mistakes. Because once we got home from our Tennessee trip, we called Nashville PD to tell them about the stuff we found in Donovan's apartment. The journals where he's talking about their divorce, where he's writing lies about his wife's suicide, and to give them that love letter from the inmate. Stuff that we believe should definitely be considered in the case. Here's the recording of us calling them.

Hello, you have reached the South Precinct Investigations Unit. To speak to a detective about a report you have already made, please leave the detective's name or the case complaint number along with your contact information. This office is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. except on holidays and return calls will be made during those hours.

Thank you. Record your message at the tone. When you are finished, hang up or press pound for more options.

Hi, my name is Courtney Brown and I need to get in contact with Mike Rogers regarding the April Holt case. I went through Donovan Holt, the suspect in her murder. We went through his apartment and I found a lot of concerning things I believe is evidence in the case.

And I just wanted to call you guys to report it. We found his journals. We found letters that were addressed to April from men, love letters essentially. And just Donovan's journals where he's talking about April wanting a divorce and...

After several days, we still hadn't heard back from them. But then, just two days before Donovan's arraignment, I finally got the call.

So, I understand you have things that were taken from the apartment? Yeah. My husband and I live in Houston, Texas. So, we're just a couple hours away from San Antonio. And Jamie just asked if we could go to get Denzel's stuff, their son. So, while we were in there, we just... We started looking through some things. And we found some stuff...

of Donovan's. We found a journal of his. We also found, um, just some interesting letters that I think that y'all should know about. Um, but the main thing that I saw in his journals that were super concerning was, um, in this one journal, he just writes about like

At this point, I know divorce is inevitable. I know April's my person. It's hard to willingly go into a divorce under false understanding. And he's basically talking about how he wants to kind of work on himself and everything. And like this one part, he goes, the universe knows my true intentions, making the moves I have and how family has always come first for me. I pray the truth is made clear to April and

I understand us needing a new beginning, which I agree with. I just don't, one, want to go our separate ways, and two, just be a bill payer, money maker. So I just thought that that, he said, I love my family, I'm a family man, I am a husband full time. So that journal was just a little concerning to me just because he made it very clear that he does not want to get a divorce.

And then he also talks about how if he was to get a divorce, April would pretty much just be taking money from him. And I'm very familiar with this case. I know that they've had, like, a lot of financial problems over the years. Yeah.

And we have, we actually took pictures of everything that we found in his apartment. I know in the voicemail I said something about, yeah, I said something about he, we found two guns of his, a knife, and then there was also a spent shell casing in his room. And the reason that we took, like we got videos of everything and we took pictures of everything because he,

As you know, he was evicted from that apartment. So when we went to go look through it, it was like days away from being completely everything in that apartment was about to be tossed out. So, you know, that's why we just kind of documented everything. How did you get into the apartment? His girlfriend, Jamie, actually got us in contact with his girlfriend that he had.

In San Antonio. And because because Jamie had been trying to get in, but they wouldn't the apartment wouldn't let her. But like after that journal entry, he's talking about how he doesn't want to divorce April. It's all a false understanding. April just doesn't understand. He doesn't want to be a moneymaker.

Then the page after that, it says, my ideal situation, divorce, start dating, raise kids, be a family, work to build a solid foundation behind our new relationship. So that was interesting, but I think the thing that's extremely concerning that I found in his journals was this one, it's this one thing, and it reads like,

A Personal Refuge in Love, which if you spell that out, that spells out April. And it says, what? A nonprofit committing to uplifting individuals and finding support for those struggling with depression, addiction, and suicide. And then it says, why? My wife could have avoided suicide by simply having a professional show support, care, and concern towards what she was dealing with mentally.

I want to create what she needed in the days before her passing. Most do not jump straight to suicide. If there was a way to intervene when depression leads to building an addiction that can ultimately end in suicide, that's what I want a personal refuge and love to be." So he's writing in his journal about this non-profit he wants to make for people dealing with suicide.

And that was just concerning to me because, like, we know he ended up confessing to killing her. So in this journal, he's, like, planting a seed so that if you guys ever go look through his stuff, it's like his wife really did kill herself when we know she didn't. So I just, I thought that was just concerning because it's like, he clearly wanted y'all to read that. Or maybe he was...

actually wanting to try and create this foundation so that his story would be believable. But so I thought those two entries were interesting. And then something else that I found that was that was really interesting to me. It was so in Donovan's closet, there was a binder called Very Important Information Binder. And in it, there was this letter addressed to April from an inmate at the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

And the letter is essentially, it was in Donovan's important information binder. And it has a visitation application and then essentially a love letter from this inmate. And it says, the letter reads, I wish I could see you every day. I don't really like being around unfamiliar faces. I think I'm losing myself.

Um, it says the last time we talked, you said, I sound, I'm different with you than I am with others. Why do you think that is? I once told you how I felt about you. To be honest, I still feel that way. Um, it says like, here's the visitation forms. I hope you come through and visit. I understand if you don't, I've been giving you empty promises. Um, it says, I love you shorty. I say that cause I mean it. Um,

It's essentially a love letter that was addressed to April and it's in Donovan's stuff from this. It's from this inmate. And the letter was sent on July 6th, 2023. So like a couple of weeks before she was killed. And so that was also just kind of alarming to me because this is right before she died. She's getting love letters from inmates, um,

And it's in Donovan's stuff, so I think it's safe to say that he read this. And he took, yeah, and it was in his stuff in Texas, which means that, like, he took it from Tennessee to Texas. I know that he, like, admitted to accidentally killing her during sex and...

I just want to make sure you all have all of this information because, I mean, as you probably know, her family doesn't believe that story at all. And, I mean, just the fact that there's a love letter in his stuff weeks before, like, she was murdered and he's writing about how he doesn't want to get divorced. I just thought that that was something that y'all should know just since his San Antonio apartment wasn't searched.

What was the date that you searched the apartment? Okay, I searched it on October 4th at around like 6 p.m. If I'm correct, there was an eviction notice on his door that I believe said they were going to throw everything in the apartment out on October 6th.

So it was literally like days away from all of that getting tossed here in front of me. So let me go back and make sure. So you were there on October 4th, and who let you in the apartment? It's Donovan's, it's the girlfriend he had in San Antonio. Okay, and so Jamie hooked y'all up, you called her, and she met you at the apartment? Yes. To search it? Yes. Do you know if she's on the lease? No.

No, she is not on the lease. She just had a key because Donovan was her boyfriend. Okay, but she gave you permission and you went inside? Yes. So you took photographs, videos, and evidence? We went in there because the police hadn't searched it and it was about to be thrown away. Right, and I mean, I don't think there's a legal, there was a legal ground for the police to search it.

Okay. Just because he was arrested for a homicide in Nashville. Right. It's not something, I don't know that they could have even gotten a search warrant to do it because I don't know what they could say they were looking for. But anyway, all that's neither here nor there. I just want to make sure. Right. So how much stuff have you got? I mean, how many books or, you have Donovan's journals? Yeah, I have one of Donovan's journals. Yeah.

Um, and then I took three of April's journals. I already gave them to Jamie. Um, so yeah, we grabbed his journals. We grabbed the letter that was sent to April. Um, and then we, we were really there just to get Denzel stuff, their kid. Cause that's really why Jamie wanted us to go was because he had a bunch of stuff that his mom had given him. And, um,

Like all of that stuff. So we took, we got, we packed up all of Denzel's stuff. We took the journal. We'd have the letter from the inmate. My husband also grabbed the spent shell casing just in case. Cause again, it was all about to be thrown away, which I mean, obviously April wasn't like shot. So, but it is interesting that that was in his room.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Really?

Yes, yes, ma'am. There's a lot of legalities and things that we can and can't do. And even though I may feel like something is extremely important needs to be done, I have to follow the law and how do I do it? And if I can even do it, my good instincts are just not enough to do things without following the law, if you understand what I'm saying. Yeah, I get it. It's just frustrating because I think, I mean, some of the stuff we found, I think it shows that

I just don't think it was an accident. And, and, and I'm, I can't argue. I mean, I really can't discuss a lot of the case. I really can't discuss it with you because it is, it's still an ongoing case. Right. Uh, but, uh, I mean, there's, there's things that, that, uh, you have to prove and, and, and how you have to prove them, uh,

what you think may be good proof could possibly be something that may or may not be circumstantial. It surely doesn't prove, but it could be circumstantial. Yeah. So, like I said, let me get with the district attorney that has the case before, because if we're going to...

Okay. Yeah, I could do that. Right.

Right. So if you wouldn't mind, I'm going to give you my email address. Okay. I mean, you said, well, I mean, you have anything that you recorded where you were talking to somebody. I can surely, surely take that kind of stuff. It would probably be a benefit to me to make it easier for me, honestly, if you, uh, uh,

So as you just heard, Mike Rowland told us that they didn't think they would have enough grounds to search his San Antonio apartment.

which is such bullshit. This guy took someone's life and her entire family is saying she was murdered and you don't have grounds to search his home? I feel like that's code that they didn't even try. And because they never searched his apartment, Mike told us that they likely can't even use the evidence we found

because it wasn't gathered with a search warrant, which is incredibly disappointing. This police force did the bare minimum throughout this entire investigation. And for a year, they sided with April Holt's killer. Then when the victim's mother finally found out the truth, you would think that they would finally make things right. After a whole year of mistakes, at the very least, you would think that they would search Donovan's apartment, but they don't.

And to add insult to injury, they take Donovan's new confession as fact that he accidentally killed April during sex, even though she had just been sexually assaulted a few days earlier. And the fact that they would believe Donovan's new story is crazy. This is the same man that staged April's entire suicide by taping a plastic bag over her head and

and leaving her unconscious in the bathroom for 30 minutes. The same man who looked police in the eye time and time again and told them a completely fabricated story. The same man who left them clues in his journal that his wife died by suicide. Donovan Holt did everything in his power to get the police to believe him. And in the end, they did.

Now, as you heard in the call with Mike, he told us that he was going to send the evidence we gathered over to the DA to see if there was anything they could do. But considering he is just about to be arraigned in a couple of days,

I doubt that they're going to do anything. I've lost a lot of faith in this police department. So the thought that they're going to take the evidence and change the charges is wishful thinking. But with that, we are going to be doing a part three of this story where we show you the interviews we conducted while in Tennessee. We actually sat down with April's children, Serenity and Denzel. We spoke with her friends. We got to know each other.

We got footage from the apartment where she lived, and we even visited her grave. In part three, we will also be giving you an update on Donovan Holt's arraignment. So make sure you listen to that episode because that's kind of where our story will officially end. But in part three, we are also going to talk about Jamie Dickerson's plans to honor her daughter's legacy. So we will see you next week with that episode. But for now...

"Please consider signing the petition to increase Donovan Holt's charges. We, along with everyone who knew April, knows that she was not having consensual sex with Donovan that day. She was over him. She was moving on.

and she had just gone through such a traumatic situation. Her family knows that there is no way Donovan's story is true. So please consider signing the petition to increase Donovan's charges. But more than anything, please share this story on your social media. We need as many eyes on this case as possible.

and we really need the Nashville Police Department to feel the pressure. As true crime enthusiasts, this is a way to not just consume this kind of content, but to make a difference. We will be linking everything in the description below.

Hey, everybody. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. What a crazy case and what a crazy experience Courtney and I had digging into this whole thing. There's still so much more in the documentary that we are going to be obviously revealing and talking about and showing so much footage that we got, so many things we still have to do.

still, you know, don't know if we can really talk about yet stuff that we know, but we're going to be following this thing through and documenting every part of the process. It is going to be crazy. We are going to be sure to let you guys know when I'm able to finish that movie and what we're going to do with it, where we're going to release it. But

But please do take action. Please check out the links. And yeah, the story just still gets crazier. If you want to listen to the podcast early and ad-free, consider joining us on Patreon. Also, on Patreon, you can get access to bonus content, bonus episodes of the show. If you love what we're doing here and you want to listen to bonus stuff, please consider signing up.

Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Murder in America. And as always, guys, thank you for listening. We will be back next week with part three of the story. It's Colin Brown here, and I'll catch y'all on the next one.