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Come October, when the first hints of frigid air begin to roll over Michigan, residents know they’re usually in for another six months of bone-chilling cold. So when warmer temperatures arrive with summer, locals emerge in droves from their hibernation indoors & take full advantage of the warmth in the air. Trails & parks tend to be busy with those who want to soak up as much of the nice weather as possible.
It was during the summer of 2014 when 14-year-old April Millsap headed out to walk her dog at a local trail when she was attacked & murdered. Her beloved dog, Penny, frantic & distressed by what she just witnessed, ended up leading passersby to April’s body.
April Millsap had just graduated from Armada Middle School in the tiny village of Armada, Michigan which spans just one square mile & houses about 1,700 residents. Armada is a farming community that sits 1 hour north of Detroit. It’s known to be a safe spot where everyone knows each other & the town employs only two full-time police officers.
April lived with her mom, Jennifer & her stepfather, David, who viewed April as his own child. David recalls the last day that he saw his stepdaughter. He was getting ready to leave for work & April was sitting at the table, eating a salad & they chatted before he headed out. Later that day, at about 9 or 9:30 pm, David got a phone call from Jennifer who was hysterical as she explained that April was missing. Jennifer was born with a neurological condition that affects her speech & balance, yet David was instantly able to understand just how serious the situation was as he quickly packed up his things & left work.
April had been enjoying her summer before she was set to start high school in the fall. On the warm evening of Thursday, July 24, 2014, she & Penny headed over to the Macomb Orchard Trail which spans over 23 miles in Macomb County in the southeastern portion of the state.
April often walked the paved rail-trail with her dog, but sadly, this time, only one would make it home alive. It was just after 7 pm when a couple was out walking the trail & came upon a highly distressed dog, pacing up & down the trail. Unable to ignore the concerned dog, they stopped to further investigate & were shocked & horrified to see the body of a young woman lying just off the trail in a drainage ditch. Based on the injuries seen to her head & neck, it was clear that this was not an accidental death.
The couple quickly contacted the Armada Police Department & as investigators responded to the scene, it was clear that the girl had been the victim of a violent attack before she succumbed to her injuries. Her shirt was torn & her shorts & underwear had been pulled down to her ankles. There was a print on the right side of her face that appeared to be from an athletic shoe & her cell phone was nowhere to be found.
As the area was being processed for evidence, a woman came upon investigators & identified herself as Jennifer Millsap. She told officers that she was out looking for her 14-year-old daughter April who hadn’t come home after taking the family dog for a routine walk. A teenage boy was with Jennifer & she introduced him as April’s boyfriend, Austin.
Jennifer told the officers what her daughter had been wearing when she set out for her walk that evening & sadly, these matched the clothing that the victim wore. Because the town was so small, the chief of police in Armada had watched April grow up. It was the first murder in Armada in 41 years.
When April hadn’t come home at the time her mom expected her back, Jennifer began to worry & started off by texting & calling her daughter, but the texts went unanswered & the calls went straight to voicemail. She then contacted Austin, hoping that maybe April was with him. Austin told Jennifer that he was hanging out with his friends & hadn’t seen April that day, but mentioned that he’d gotten a very strange text from her at 6:28 pm which read: I think I almost got kidnapped. Omfg. Austin didn’t actually see the text until an hour after April sent it. This was the last time anyone heard from April.
Macomb County Deputy Medical Examiner Mary Pietrangelo performed April MIllsap’s autopsy & found 48 injuries on the young girl, most focused to her face, upper neck & upper chest. Based on shoe prints found on these areas of her body, it was clear that her attacker had stomped & beat her as she walked her dog along the trail. There were bruises & scrapes around April’s eyes, jaw, neck, inside her head & injuries to her trachea. Her cause of death was blunt head trauma & asphyxia due to neck compression. Based on the shoe pattern to her body, it was clear that the person who attacked her, stood over her, pressing their foot to her neck.
There were obvious signs of an attempted sexual assault, but no semen was found on or around April’s body which led detectives to deduce that her attacker had been interrupted during the act, causing him to flee the scene.
Investigators decided to set up a tip line in hopes that a witness would come forward to help find April’s killer. Very quickly, the calls started pouring in with nearly 1,000 in total. One man called in & indicated that he & his two daughters had been out on the trail on the evening of April’s murder & they had actually seen her. He indicated that she had been talking to a man on a blue & white motorcycle. There was no question that it was April that they saw since she & his daughters went to school together. Nothing about what they saw appeared concerning, so they continued on their way & when they learned the horrible news of April’s murder, they realized that they may have seen her with her killer.
A mother & daughter had also been out on the trail that evening, riding their bikes & had witnessed a girl with a black & white dog who was talking to a man wearing a black helmet, sitting on an off-road bike. Just like the previous caller, what they witnessed was not concerning, so they continued on their way. When they biked back only a few minutes later, they saw the motorcycle was now parked on the side of the road, but there was no sign of the young girl, her dog or the man they’d seen.
The mother & daughter stopped for a moment & this was when one of them spotted a man, standing in the woods & made the assumption that he must have been the bike’s owner. Suddenly, their eyes locked & she noticed a very odd look on his face that caused the women to immediately pedal away, fearful for their own safety.
After hearing about April’s murder, they immediately thought of the strange man standing in the woods that evening. The man had curly hair that was kinda bushy, he had no facial hair & appeared to be in his mid- to late 20s. The women were brought in to work with a police sketch artist who drew a composite of the man’s face, an image that was soon broadcast on the local news & posted all around town.
In nothing short of luck, one day after the murder, an Armada police officer just happened to be on his way back to the station after his lunch break when he noticed a blue & white motorcycle parked in a driveway of a neighboring community, just off the main road.
The officer turned back, stepped out of his patrol car & snapped several pictures before heading back to the station. When he showed the photo of the bike to the women who had seen the man on the trail, they confirmed that it was the exact bike they’d seen on the Macomb Orchard Trail.
When the motorcycle’s plates were run through the system, authorities learned that the bike was registered to 32-year-old James VanCallis. When they saw an image of the man, he bore a striking resemblance to the composite sketch. With this information, police were able to secure a search warrant of VanCallis’ home which was located about fifteen miles outside of Armada in Wales Township, where he lived with his father, James VanCallis Sr. VanCallis Sr is a registered sex offender who was convicted of engaging in sex with a person under age 13 in 1995. VanCallis Jr also had a criminal record; in 2005 & 2006, he was charged with breaking & entering & failing to pay child support. As investigators searched their home & property, VanCallis was interviewed about his whereabouts on the evening of July 24.
VanCallis told investigators that he had left his house at about 5 pm to visit his brother. He said in order to get to his destination, he had driven through Armada, but claimed he never stopped. He got to his brother’s house a little after six & headed back home at about 7:30 pm.
As VanCallis recounted his activities from the evening in question, his girlfriend, Krystal Stadler sat next to him, listening. When he was asked what shoes he’d worn that night, he showed officers a pair of K-Swiss tennis shoes & their soles did not match the imprints found on April’s body.
The search of VanCallis’ home & property did not produce any damning evidence to prove his involvement in April’s murder, but they did find a number of marijuana plants that were being illegally grown. Because of this, he was arrested on drug charges.
Krystal kept quiet during the time that VanCallis recounted his evening, knowing that he was not being truthful with investigators, but fearful of what he would do if she spoke up. When she saw him leaving on the evening in question, he had not been wearing the K-Swiss shoes he claimed to be wearing & instead, had a pair of Nike Air Flight gym shoes on. Even more concerning, when he did come home that night, she noticed that he was scrubbing both the Nikes & his motorcycle helmet with soap & hand sanitizer, something she had never seen him do in the past. During the trial, she later testified that after VanCallis spoke with investigators, the Nike Air Flight shoes, which had previously been his favorite shoes, mysteriously disappeared. Authorities searched a landfill after 16 bags of garbage were taken from VanCallis’ home after the murder, but the shoes were never found.
When this information came to light, the shoes were long gone, so investigators turned to social media & on one of VanCallis’ accounts, they were able to see a photo of him proudly showing off the Nikes. They went on to purchase the same shoes which had a distinctive herringbone pattern on the sole & lo & behold, the patterns were a match to what was found on April’s body.
Not only did he have the same motorcycle that the witness had seen on the trail that evening & looked exceptionally similar to the composite sketch, but the shoes investigators knew he had owned were now a match. With evidence stacked against him, James VanCallis was arrested on October 8, 2014 & charged with the murder, kidnapping & attempted sexual assault of April Millsap. This came nearly three months after the 14-year-old had been brutally attacked & killed while she innocently walked her dog on a typical summer evening. VanCallis remained behind bars until his trial that was held more than a year later, on January 20, 2016.
During the trial, Krystal Stadler, VanCallis’ girlfriend at the time, felt safe enough to act as the prosecution’s star witness & spoke of his concerning behavior on the night of the murder. The two had dated on & off for nine years. She told the jury that as she washed his clothes a couple of days after April’s murder, she found hair & grass on them as she placed them in the sink to soak. When she later returned to the sink to tend to the clothing, the clothes were gone, never to be seen again. She indicated that he never told her what happened that evening, but did say that he messed up as he told her that she needed to stand by his side.
According to the state, surveillance videos from a home camera showed VanCallis’ motorcycle driving up & down a residential street in Armada shortly after the murder was believed to have taken place at about 6:30 or 6:40 pm. It just so happened that this was the very area that April’s cell phone was located in the days after her murder. Footage from a gas station in Armada showed VanCallis pulling in at the time he claimed to be at his brother’s house, miles away.
Spectators in the packed courtroom as well as jurors, saw the emotionless expression on the man’s face as the medical examiner detailed the injuries that April sustained before her death. VanCallis was holding firm on the claim that he had nothing to do with April Millsap’s death. Jurors were shown the photos which had been taken after her body was found. Her shirt & bra were pulled to her waist & her shorts & underwear to her ankles while her shoes were discovered nearby.
As the photos were shown, Jennifer Millsap, was visibly upset & jurors could be seen wiping tears from their eyes as VanCallis sat, expressionless.
Police indicate that as April walked the trail alone with her dog on the evening of Thursday, July 24, 2014, James VanCallis approached the 14-year-old girl & started a conversation. At some point, despite being more than twice her age, he made sexual advances which were declined. After ending their conversation & turning away, April then sent her boyfriend, Austin the text at 6:28 pm which read: I think I almost got kidnapped. Omfg.
Enraged at being turned down, VanCallis decided that he would have April whether she consented or not & attacked her from behind, striking her in the side of the head, knocking her to the ground with his motorcycle helmet. He then dragged her into the woods where she was stomped & beaten to death. He attempted to sexually assault April, but because of the activity on the trail that evening, he was interrupted & fled the scene on his motorcycle.
As her body was left in the woods, he took her backpack & cell phone, both which were later found. A K-9 officer with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office found the cell phone & cell phone case off Omo Road one day after the murder.
VanCallis’ attorney argued the lack of DNA, fingerprint evidence, hair, semen or anything that connected him to April’s murder.
Investigators examined data from a fitness app on April’s phone that her mom wasn’t even aware that she had. The app allowed investigators to recreate the route that April had taken that evening. It showed that during her walk, she suddenly changed direction & began walking at a much faster pace right after she sent the text to Austin. It’s likely that at this point, she was breathing a sigh of relief, assuming she was now safe from danger, unaware that her attacker had other plans. The tracker then showed signs of a scuffle that lasted fifteen minutes as the phone moved in an erratic way. The phone then left the crime scene at a speed of 13mph which proved it was on a motorized vehicle before it was eventually discarded.
On February 20, 2016, after six hours of deliberation, James VanCallis was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping & assault with intent to rape in the death of April Millsap. He was sentenced to life in prison. He went on to appeal his conviction on multiple grounds, including the lack of physical evidence that tied him to the case. The Michigan appeals court found no errors to warrant the reversal of his conviction which was upheld.
Jennifer Millsap was given the opportunity to address VanCallis during his sentencing hearing:
You, James, are a damn thief. You stole my beautiful daughter’s life & you stole the rest of mine. My life has totally changed since April was killed. My life will never be the same. I will always miss April & will continue to hold her in my heart. I never thought this could happen to my daughter or me. She went on to tell him that she hated him & she would never forgive him.
A memorial garden was planted in April’s honor & contains all the things that she loved. All Jennifer has of her daughter are her memories & her ashes which she keeps in a pink urn.
April’s case was featured in season 1, episode 5 of the Hulu docuseries, How I Caught My Killer; the episode is titled, You can see the panic.
April’s case, like so many others, reminds us of the ugly reality that predators could be lurking anywhere. A question to women has circulated through social media: Would you rather be alone in the forest with a bear or a man. Many women chose the bear. In 2022, according to the FBI’s crime database, 77% of violent crime offenders are men. Whether on the city streets or a natural trail, evil people may be lurking, looking to cause harm. In an ideal world, we would feel safe to roam freely & explore the world without the fear of being harmed by another human. Sadly, this isn’t the case & because evil does exist in this world, it’s important to protect ourselves when venturing out alone. Be aware of your surroundings, trust your instincts, consider carrying a self-defense weapon such as mace or a taser when out alone & learn self-defense.
April did everything right when she set out for her walk; she was close to home, on a populated trail with her dog, she carried a cell phone & still, she sadly never made it home.
References:
- WJR: New testimony in April Millsap murder trial connects the evidence to James VanCallis
- Detroit Free Press: Medical examiner: Slain Armada teen had 48 injuries
- Detroit Free Press: Graphic crime scene photos shown in Armada murder trial
- CBS News: Court: Conviction stands in April Millsap murder
- People: How a teen helped solve her own murder 10 years ago: Revisiting the April Millsap case
- The Piscataquis Observer: How to protect yourself from dangerous people while hiking
- YouTube: True Crime News: Michigan’s April Millsap case: Fitness app tracks killer
- Medium: A predator’s rage: The brutal murder of April Millsap
- IMDB: How I Caught My Killer: You can see the panic
