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<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong><span class="powa-tease franklin-light">John D. Miller was </span>arrested for 1988 rape, murder of 8-year-old girl after years of taunting community and police </strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Janet and Michael Tinsley reported their 8-year-old daughter April M. Tinsley missing on April 1, 1988 in Fort Wayne, Indiana </strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Her body was found four days later, in a ditch in DeKalb County, Ind.</strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>She had been sexually assaulted, then strangled &#8211; DNA of an unidentified male was found</strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>In 1990, two years into the investigation of April&#8217;s murder,<span class="pb-caption"> police were called to a barn, where they discovered a chilling message on a barn door, apparently left by the child-killer </span></strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>As the man hunt stalled, the suspect had written “I kill 8 year old April M Tinsley,” the barn read, according to a recently filed police affidavit. “[D]id you find the other shoe haha I will kill again” </strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Later Cops were called to three addresses where they recovered three used condoms, which they were told had been discarded by April&#8217;s killer</strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>DNA from the condoms matched the profile of DNA left at the little girl&#8217;s death scene </strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Police used the genealogy tree from the suspect&#8217;s relatives to track him down</strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Miller, 59, July 15 was taken into custody in connection with the 1988 death of 8-year-old April Tinsley</strong></span></h6>
<h6 data-pb-field="custom.topperDisplayName"><span class="powa-tease franklin-light"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>He has been charged with three felony counts of murder, child molestation and criminal confinement</strong></span></span></h6>
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<h6><strong><span class="powa-tease franklin-light"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-296243" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/John-D-Miller-2-1.jpg" alt="John D Miller 2.jpg" width="1400" height="859" />Investigators in northern Indiana arrested John D. Miller, 59, July 15 in connection with the 1988 death of 8-year-old April Tinsley.</span> </strong></h6>
<p>The message was slashed onto the weather-beaten planks of a barn in the empty farmland not far from where the girl’s body had been found.</p>
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<p data-elm-loc="1">Police in northern Indiana stared at the jerky handwritten scrawl in May 1990, realizing this was the most significant clue to drop in the region’s most publicized unsolved crime. In 1988, 8-year-old April Tinsley had been found killed and sexually assaulted. Two years later, police were now studying the white building on a stretch of lonely rural road, fields running to the horizon on all sides. The message appeared to be a confession — as well as a taunt and a threat.<br />
“I kill 8 year old April M Tinsley,” the barn read, according to a recently filed <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://WPTA.images.worldnow.com/library/7581442b-5128-48ef-8eb0-d581e70fb146.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">police affidavit</a>. “[D]id you find the other shoe haha I will kill again.”<br />
Although the message initially failed to steer investigators to April’s killer, it was not the last word from the alleged murderer. As the case stalled and hundreds of suspects were targeted and cleared, the girl’s alleged assailant would continue to haunt the Fort Wayne area. Grotesque messages — left with used condoms and Polaroids — were sent to other little girls who the alleged child-killer claimed were next on his list.</p>
<h6 data-elm-loc="1"><span class="pb-caption"><strong><img class="alignnone wp-image-296233" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/April-M-Tinsley-1.jpg" alt="April M Tinsley 1.jpg" width="693" height="390" />Victim: Miller admitted to police he abducted and raped April Tinsley, 8, [photo], then decided to kill her to stop her from telling</strong></span></h6>
<p data-elm-loc="1">This reign of terror initially failed to direct police to a suspect. But the horrific messages did provide investigators with the DNA they would eventually use to zero in on a suspect, albeit once the right advanced science and technology came along.<br />
On Sunday, investigators from the Fort Wayne Police Department and the Indiana State Police arrested John D. Miller in connection with April’s death. The 59-year-old is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday morning. According to a probable-cause affidavit filed in Allen County Superior Court, Miller confessed when questioned about Tinsley’s death.<br />
After Police tracked John Miller to a trailer park in Grabill, Ind., outside Fort Wayne in May 2018, investigators pulled trash from the location, including three used condoms Miller had allegedly discarded.<br />
According to the probable-cause affidavit, the DNA from the recently obtained condoms matched the DNA from the 2004 condoms, which matched the genetic profile found on the April Tinsley in 1988.<br />
On Sunday, two detectives approached Miller outside his trailer and asked him to come to the police station to talk. There, after advising Miller of his rights, the detectives asked him whether he knew why they wanted to speak with him.<br />
“April Tinsley,” the suspect allegedly told police, according to the affidavit.<br />
According to the court document, Miller confessed after learning police had a DNA match linking him to the murder. He allegedly admitted to police he abducted Tinsley, took her back to his trailer and raped her. He allegedly strangled her to keep her from reporting the rape to police.<br />
Miller allegedly told police he dumped her body at night.<br />
The next day he allegedly found the young girl’s shoe in his car. Driving past the ditch where he laid the body, Miller tossed the shoe in, too, he allegedly told investigators.</p>
<h6 data-elm-loc="6"><span class="pb-caption"><strong><img class="alignnone wp-image-296235" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/John-D-Millers-mobile-home-in-Grabill-Ind-1.png" alt="John D Miller's mobile home in Grabill, Ind 1.png" width="690" height="519" />Investigators had to do some dumpster diving at Miller&#8217;s home in Grabill, Ind. [photo]. DNA in three condoms he had discarded matched DNA from the April Tinsley murder scene</strong></span></h6>
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<p data-elm-loc="8">Documents show the arrest was not the result of intense media attention over the years — the case was featured twice on “America’s Most Wanted” as well as a 2016 episode of <a href="https://crimewatchdaily.com/2016/05/02/young-girl-murdered-police-receive-series-of-disturbing-taunts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Crime Watch Daily”</a> — nor the repeated pleas for information that followed the 30th anniversary of April’s death last April. Once again, the new lead in the cold case is thanks to the dramatic scientific breakthrough pairing forensic DNA with genealogical research.<br />
The new break through in science has led has led to the breaks in several cold cases<br />
including the prosecution of alleged “Golden State Killer” Joseph James DeAngelo and an arrest in the 1992 murder of Pennsylvania schoolteacher Christy Mirack.<span class="powa-tease franklin-light"><br />
</span>On April 1, Good Friday, 1988, April Tinsley, a blond-haired, dark-eyed first-grader, left her home for a friend’s house two streets away. When April failed to walk through the door by dinnertime, her mother reported the little girl missing. “You’re sitting there looking out the window and trying to think, ‘Where is she? Who’s got her?’ ” Tinsley’s mother, Janet Tinsley, told Crime Watch Daily in 2016.<br />
Three days later, a jogger spotted the body of a child in a water-filled ditch twisting through the rural fields of nearby Amish country. One of Tinsley’s shoes was found 1,000 feet from where she was located, according to court documents. Police also recovered a sex toy in a shopping bag left near the site. An autopsy showed the victim had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.<br />
“You got an 8-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and strangled,” Fort Wayne Police Detective Cary Young told Crime Watch Daily. “She suffered, and we don’t know exactly how long she suffered. It could have been three days of horror.”</p>
<div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow wp-amp-block wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__autoplay wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__autoplay-playing" id="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__1"><div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_container swiper"><amp-carousel width="641" height="829" layout="responsive" type="slides" data-next-button-aria-label="Next Slide" data-prev-button-aria-label="Previous Slide" controls loop autoplay delay=3000 id="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__amp-carousel__1" on="slideChange:wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__amp-pagination__1.toggle(index=event.index, value=true)"><div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide"><figure><img width="641" height="829" src="https://i0.wp.com/konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/John-D.-Miller-police-affidavit-page-1.png?fit=641%2C829&;ssl=1" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image" alt="" object-fit="contain" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/John-D.-Miller-police-affidavit-page-1.png?w=641&;ssl=1 641w, https://i0.wp.com/konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/John-D.-Miller-police-affidavit-page-1.png?resize=232%2C300&;ssl=1 232w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">John D. Miller police affidavit page 1</figcaption></figure></div><div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide"><figure><img width="640" height="829" src="https://i0.wp.com/konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/John-D.-Miller-police-affidavit-Page-2.png?fit=640%2C829&;ssl=1" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image" alt="" object-fit="contain" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/John-D.-Miller-police-affidavit-Page-2.png?w=640&;ssl=1 640w, https://i0.wp.com/konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/John-D.-Miller-police-affidavit-Page-2.png?resize=232%2C300&;ssl=1 232w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">John D. Miller police affidavit Page 2</figcaption></figure></div></amp-carousel><a aria-label="Pause Slideshow" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause" role="button" on="tap:wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__amp-carousel__1.toggleAutoplay(toggleOn=false),wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__1.toggleClass(class=wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__autoplay-playing,force=false)"></a><a aria-label="Play Slideshow" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-play" role="button" on="tap:wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__amp-carousel__1.toggleAutoplay(toggleOn=true),wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__1.toggleClass(class=wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__autoplay-playing,force=true)"></a><amp-selector id="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__amp-pagination__1" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_pagination swiper-pagination swiper-pagination-custom amp-pagination" on="select:wp-block-jetpack-slideshow__amp-carousel__1.goToSlide(index=event.targetOption)" layout="container"><button option="0" class="swiper-pagination-bullet" tabindex="0" role="button" aria-label="Go to slide 1" selected></button><button option="1" class="swiper-pagination-bullet" tabindex="0" role="button" aria-label="Go to slide 2" ></button></amp-selector></div></div>
<h6 data-elm-loc="14"><strong>John D. Miller police affidavit</strong></h6>
<p data-elm-loc="14">Witnesses recounted seeing a girl matching April’s description being forced into a blue truck near her house. A description of the suspect was circulated, but investigators failed to track down any substantial leads.<br />
DNA evidence found in the girl’s underwear also did not initially point to a perpetrator. The barn message scrawled two years later in 1990 unnerved the community. But again, the taunting note produced nothing in terms of immediate concrete investigative evidence. <img class="unprocessed _3-to-2 placeholder " src="https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/TXJKur-cQ3m4AF9lqk_kkjfemkk=/3x2/www.washingtonpost.com/pb/resources/img/spacer.gif" data-hi-res-src="https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/xOqisR3xkl49eelvdJ8F3MGDeTU=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/H6PLBE4USA3EDLIY7PCGI7ONKI.png" data-low-res-src="https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/zqQjDcNksJ00mZJ2uiHVUdG7pE4=/480x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/H6PLBE4USA3EDLIY7PCGI7ONKI.png" data-raw-src="https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/H6PLBE4USA3EDLIY7PCGI7ONKI.png" data-threshold="480" /><br />
<span class="pb-caption">In 1990, police discovered a message on a barn door apparently left by April Tinsely’s killer.<br />
</span>But the alleged killer surfaced again 14 years later.<br />
In 2004, four notes were left at homes scattered across the Fort Wayne area. Three of the messages, written on lined yellow paper, were placed on young girls’s bicycles. An additional note was put in a mailbox. Three of the messages were inside plastic bags with used condoms and Polaroid pictures of the sender’s nude lower body. Several of the notes referred to April.<br />
“Hi honey,” one note read, according to a picture released by the FBI. “I been watching you I am the same person that kinapped an rape an kill Aproil Tinsely you are my next victim.” The same message demanded that the young girl report the note to the police; the writer said that if they didn’t see an article on the message in the newspaper or on the local TV station, they would blow up the child’s house.<br />
Again, the letter did not immediately point police toward a suspect. But the DNA material recovered from the condoms matched the evidence recovered from Tinsley’s underwear,— concretely linking the deranged 2004 notes with the 1988 killing.<br />
Years passed. The case flickered in and out of the national spotlight. Last April, to mark the 30th anniversary of April’s murder, Janet Tinsley decided to hold a balloon release in a small neighborhood park dedicated to April near her home. More than 70 people attended, sending balloons up into the gray April sky.<br />
“We thought ain’t nobody really going to show up,” Janet Tinsley told the Fort Wayne <a href="http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/police-fire/20180405/neighborhood-remembers-april" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Journal Gazette.</a><br />
“But then all the sudden we see a lot of people. It made me pretty happy. And hopefully they’ll continue supporting her, and thinking of her, and bringing up her name.”<br />
According to the recently filed court documents, by the next month, the case had taken a dramatic turn.<br />
In May, the Fort Wayne Police Department submitted the suspect’s DNA to Parabon NanoLabs. Using public genealogy databases, the firm’s researcher CeCe Moore was able to narrow the possible suspects down to two brothers in the Fort Wayne area.</p>
<h6 class="inline-content inline-photo inline-photo-center horizontal-photo" data-elm-loc="24"><strong><span class="pb-caption">I<img class="alignnone wp-image-296236" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/John-D-Millers-note-to-young-Indiana-girls-1.jpg" alt="John D Miller's note to young Indiana girls 1.jpg" width="761" height="1010" />Totally sick: In 2004, April Tinsley’s killer allegedly left notes for other young girls in his community, threatening that they would be next</span></strong></h6>
<div data-elm-loc="24"> Police tracked one John Miller,to a trailer park in Grabill, Ind., outside Fort Wayne. Investigators pulled trash from the location, including three used condoms Miller had allegedly discarded. According to the probable-cause affidavit, the DNA from the recently obtained condoms matched the DNA from the 2004 condoms, which matched the genetic profile found on the victim.<br />
Miller faces felony charges of murder, child molestation and criminal confinement. Authorities plan to offer additional information at a news conference Tuesday.</div>
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Cops nab Indiana man for 1988 rape, murder of 8-year-old girl – Ending John D. Miller’s 30 years of taunting community and police
