14-Year-Old Girl Found Beaten and Stomped to Death on Bike Trail in Michigan
In Armada, Michigan they went 41 years till 2014 since their last murder case. You wouldn't think that this area would have crime considering it is 35 miles away from the big city of Detroit and the crime that runs rampant there. That all changed when April Millsap’s body was discovered along a biking trail. April was only 14 years old at the time of her murder. She was an only child and lived with her mom Jennifer and her step-dad David. The Village of Armada, where this all took place, is a small town just one square mile with a little over 1,700 residents. The police department was just as small, so you can imagine the panic that set in when they received the 911 call about April.
The Tragedy
The day in question was July 24th, 2014, April was just doing her daily routine and took her beloved dog Penny out for a walk. April took her dog on a bike trail that was close to her home and left around 6 p.m. Sometime later, a husband and wife, who were also walking on the trail, found Penny walking around by herself. Penny was found near a ravine. The couple immediately called 911 and said that they found a dead body. The police were then called out and detective Rebecca MacArthur of the Michigan State Police was one of the first to arrive on the scene. Upon investigation of April's body, they found that her clothing had been ripped off of her. Her shorts and underwear were pulled down to her ankles and it would later be determined that she was not sexually assaulted but she had been stepped on and her autopsy would show her death to be caused by suffocation by the shoe being pressed on her throat.
Unfortunately, April's body was not identified right away and the police had to search the area for anything that was belonging to her. She was later identified after her mother arrived at the scene after telling the police that her daughter had been missing. Her mother described Penny and April and police determined that April was their victim. This then sparked the investigation of April Millsap.
The Hunt
In starting their investigation police asked April's mother if she had taken anything with her on this walk. Her mother said yes that she took her cell phone and her black backpack and left around 6 p.m. Once April didn't show back up at home her mother started contacting her friends and boyfriend within the hour. April's boyfriend told her mother that he had received a strange text from April around 6:30 p.m. The text said, “I almost got kidnapped omfg."
This sparked the police's interest in finding April's phone. They sent out officers Troopers and dogs to try and find her phone all while trying to obtain her phone records. The dogs were luckily able to track her cell phone and found it a mile away from where her body was found. While the police were searching her phone they found that April had a fitness app that tracked her movements and speed on the day she died.
The records show that at 6 p.m. she left her house and was walking at a speed of 4 miles per hour then by 6:20 p.m. her speed picked up for 15 minutes. This ended up showing that April had fought back but was overpowered. The app also showed that the killer had taken April's phone so the route of the killer was tracked through the app. Her backpack was also found through the app and it was found discarded in a field.
Finding The Killer
As police questioned witnesses and other individuals, witnesses said that they saw an angry-looking man on a blue and white motorcycle that day. This was very strange because motorized vehicles weren't allowed on the trail. Another witness also said that they saw April and a man fighting but didn't think April was in danger at the time. The police took this information and were able to obtain surveillance from a street nearby with the motorcyclist being caught on camera at 6:49 p.m. Unfortunately, they were not able to make out his facial features because he had a helmet on.
One day Trooper Raymond Pechman Driving home from work when he spotted a blue and white motorcycle. It matched the description that was given by several witnesses. He went to the house and took pictures of the motorcycle and took note of the address it was at. He later showed these pictures to his colleagues and was given the go-ahead to talk to the homeowner. The homeowner then told police that the motorcycle belongs to his friend James VanCallis who lived 40 miles away.
The police then went into question James who was very cooperative and answered all their questions. But even with cooperating with the police Trooper Pechman still had an eerie feeling about James. They later asked James to write a statement just so they weren't missing anything and this time James refused and said he had things to do. The police later looked into his Alibi and determined that his story wasn't matching with his alibi. Then after checking phone records, the police had enough evidence to obtain a warrant to search James's home. They didn't find anything linking James to the murder of April but they did find other illegal activity so he was able to get arrested and taken into custody on different charges.
After James was taken into custody, his girlfriend at the time came forward and helped police find the pair of sneakers that were a match to the ones that were on April's body. James was then arrested and charged with April's murder.
Aftermath
January 20th, 2016, James' trial started. The prosecution came in saying that James was a very violent predator and they also didn't have any DNA or fingerprints but they had plenty of evidence that showed James was the killer. This included all the witnesses, phone records, April's fitness app, and surveillance footage of James leaving the scene. The defense tried to say that there was no evidence to put him at the scene therefore he was innocent. After six hours of deliberation, the jury found James guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In July 2015, a community garden was created at the opening of the trail where April was murdered. There are pictures of April and a statue of her dog Penny. The statue of her dog is to honor the dog who was able to lead people to find April because without that the investigation would have never started.