Documents violence · sexual violence · crimes against children — written to inform, not to shock.
Illustrative
April Marie Tinsley was an eight-year-old second-grader at Fairfield Elementary School and a member of the children's choir at Faith United Methodist Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. On April 1, 1988 — Good Friday — she was playing outside with two friends when she went back to retrieve her umbrella and disappeared around 3:00 p.m. The man later identified as her killer had planned to abduct a child that day without targeting her specifically; he asked her into his car, drove her to his trailer, raped and killed her, and took her body to a ditch that night.
Tinsley's mother reported her missing after she failed to come home for dinner, and the initial search included 250 Fort Wayne police officers and 50 volunteers. A witness later described seeing a white man in his 30s forcing a girl believed to be Tinsley into a blue pickup truck. A jogger found her body on April 4, 1988, in a ditch west of Spencerville, Indiana; a shoe and a sex toy in a shopping bag were recovered near the site, and a motorist reported seeing a blue pickup truck nearby. An autopsy found she had been raped and strangled and had been dead one to two days before she was found. Her memorial service was held on April 8, 1988, and she was buried at Greenlawn Memorial Park. Ninety Fort Wayne community members later formed the volunteer group APRIL to help with missing-children cases.
On May 21, 1990, a note found on a St. Joseph Township barn boasted of Tinsley's killing and threatened to kill again; investigators initially examined it for a possible link to a separate 1990 child-homicide case, which the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit determined in August 1991 was unrelated. During Memorial Day weekend in 2004, four more notes referencing the killing, along with used condoms and photographs, were left on girls' bicycles and in a mailbox around Fort Wayne; DNA recovered from the condoms matched the existing profile of the suspect, confirming the notes were connected to the 1988 crime. In 2009, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit profiled the suspect as a 'Preferential Child Sex Offender' likely living or working in northeast Fort Wayne or Allen County, and a private lab later released and updated a DNA-based composite sketch of him.
In May 2018, a Fort Wayne Police Department detective submitted the suspect's DNA profile to the forensics company Parabon NanoLabs, which used the genealogy website GEDmatch to trace his relatives; the analysis narrowed the suspect pool to two brothers by July 2, 2018, including 59-year-old John D. Miller of Grabill, Indiana. After police recovered discarded condoms from Miller's trash that matched the profile, detectives interviewed him on July 15, 2018, and he confessed to abducting, raping, and choking Tinsley to death in his trailer. Miller was charged with murder, child molestation, and confinement and pleaded not guilty on July 19, 2018. He changed his plea to guilty on December 7, 2018, and on December 21, 2018, was sentenced to 80 years in prison — 50 years for murder and 30 years for child molestation. He died of natural causes in custody on September 4, 2025.
Fort Wayne later dedicated April's Garden, a memorial in the city's Hoagland–Masterson neighborhood, along with a tree and bench at Fairfield Elementary School. In May 2019, nine investigators from the Indiana State Police, the FBI, the Allen County Sheriff's Department, and the Fort Wayne Police Department received the National Association of Police Organizations' national policing award for their roles across three decades of investigation that led to Miller's identification and conviction.
April Tinsley, 8, disappeared while playing outside with friends in Fort Wayne, Indiana; she was abducted, raped, and killed the same day.
1988-04-04
A jogger found Tinsley's body in a ditch west of Spencerville, Indiana; a shoe and a sex toy in a shopping bag were recovered near the site.
1988-04-08
Tinsley's memorial service was held at Faith United Methodist Church, and she was buried at Greenlawn Memorial Park.
1988-04-20
Ninety Fort Wayne community members formed the volunteer group APRIL to assist with missing-children cases.
1988-04-26
Police sent DNA samples from Tinsley and five suspects to a private lab in Germantown, Maryland, for profiling; the results were inconclusive.
1990-05-21
A note found on a St. Joseph Township barn boasted of Tinsley's killing and threatened to kill again.
1991-08-07
The FBI's Behavioral Science Unit determined the 1990 barn note was not connected to a separate child-homicide case investigators had also been examining.
2004-05
Four notes referencing Tinsley's killing, along with used condoms and photographs, were left on girls' bicycles and in a mailbox around Fort Wayne; DNA on the condoms matched the suspect's existing profile.
2005-06-24
The Tinsley family held a press conference at the Allen County Courthouse asking for new leads.
2009
The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit profiled the suspect as a 'Preferential Child Sex Offender' likely living or working in northeast Fort Wayne or Allen County.
2009-04
America's Most Wanted aired a segment on the case seeking tips.
2009-06
Indiana authorities asked the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment task force to help solve the case.
2015-04
Construction began on April's Garden, a memorial to Tinsley in Fort Wayne's Hoagland–Masterson neighborhood.
2015-06
Parabon released a DNA-based composite sketch of the suspect.
2016-05
Police released an updated version of the composite sketch.
2018-05
A Fort Wayne detective submitted the suspect's DNA to Parabon NanoLabs, which used the genealogy site GEDmatch to trace his relatives.
2018-07-02
Genealogical analysis narrowed the suspect pool to two brothers, including 59-year-old John D. Miller of Grabill, Indiana.
2018-07-15
Detectives interviewed Miller, who confessed to abducting, raping, and killing Tinsley.
2018-07-19
Miller was charged with murder, child molestation, and confinement and pleaded not guilty.
2018-12-07
Miller changed his plea to guilty, admitting he raped and strangled Tinsley.
2018-12-21
Miller was sentenced to 80 years in prison: 50 years for murder and 30 years for child molestation.
2019-05
Nine investigators from the Indiana State Police, FBI, Allen County Sheriff's Department, and Fort Wayne Police Department received a national policing award for their work on the case.
2025-09-04
Miller died of natural causes at St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital.
Best coverage
VIDEO
Kendall Rae / 22 min
SOLVED 30 Years Later: April Tinsley Case
People
April Tinsley
VICTIM
Eight-year-old girl abducted and killed in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on April 1, 1988; her body was found near Spencerville, Indiana, three days later.
citation on file
John D. Miller
CONVICTED
Identified as Tinsley's killer through forensic genealogy in July 2018; confessed to detectives, pleaded guilty in December 2018 to murder and child molestation, and was sentenced to 80 years in prison. Died in custody in September 2025.
April Tinsley, an eight-year-old girl from Fort Wayne, Indiana, was kidnapped, raped, and strangled to death on April 1, 1988. The killing went unsolved for more than three decades, marked by taunting notes from her killer, until forensic genealogy identified John D. Miller as the perpetrator in 2018; Miller pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Where did the murder happen?
Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Who was convicted?
John D. Miller (Identified as Tinsley's killer through forensic genealogy in July 2018; confessed to detectives, pleaded guilty in December 2018 to murder and child molestation, and was sentenced to 80 years in prison. Died in custody in September 2025.).
