April Marie Tinsley March 18, [2] — April 1, was an eight year old girl from Fort Wayne, Indiana , who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in Her murderer left several anonymous messages and notes in the Fort Wayne area between and , openly boasting about April's murder and threatening to kill again. On December 21, [3] Miller pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 80 years in prison on the charges of child molestation rape and murder.
Tinsley was a member of the children's choir at the Faith United Methodist Church , [6] and a second-grader attending Fairfield Elementary School. John Miller, who later pleaded guilty to murdering Tinsley, said he had planned to kidnap a child, but he had not seen April before abducting her.
He said that he asked her to get into his car and he took her to his trailer where he raped and killed her. At night, he took her body to a ditch. Tinsley's mother reported her daughter missing to the police when she did not arrive home for dinner that night. A jogger found Tinsley's body on April 4, , in a ditch just west of Spencerville, Indiana.
Two local radio stations established a reward fund on April 5, Additional funds were established for Tinsley's burial and her family. The early police investigation led authorities to a year-old suspect, who was charged with child molestation in a separate case, but was acquitted of those charges the next month. On June 24, , the Tinsley family held a press conference at the Allen County Courthouse asking for leads in the case.
On May 21, , [12] police found a message on a St. Joseph Township [14] barn reading "I kill 8 year old April M Tinsley," and "did you find the other shoe haha I will kill again. During the Memorial Day weekend in , four notes were found in the Fort Wayne area that are believed to have been written by Tinsley's murderer. I been watching you I am the same person that kidnapped an rape an kill april tinsley, You are my next victim I will blow up your house. In April , the television program America's Most Wanted ran a segment on Tinsley's case and asked for tips.
