A heartbroken mother refused to accept the initial verdict that her daughter's death was a suicide. She believed it to be something far more sinister.
April Holt, a 29-year-old mother of two, was found nearly lifeless by police in her apartment in Antioch, Tennessee, on July 31, 2023. Officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department said they found Holt in the bathroom with a plastic object. The bag was secured around her neck with duct tape.
“And I was curled up on the bench next to him, crying hysterically, just screaming to God to save my child.” Even though I knew in my head that she was gone. ”
Holt leaves behind a 12-year-old daughter, an 8-year-old son, and her husband, 33-year-old Donovan Holt.
An autopsy later officially ruled Holt's death a suicide, and the case was closed.
But Holt's mother believed her daughter's death was not her own.
Holt's mother, Jamie Dickerson, said April exemplifies positivity, which is evident on her TikTok, which has 200,000 followers. April previously taught middle school students at Believers Faith Fellowship and recently opened her own eyelash studio in Nashville.
Dickerson recalled how he took his daughter to the movies just before he died.
“I was going to see a Barbie movie,” Dickerson said. WSMV-TV. “She said, 'Donovan has work so he can't go to the movies, but let's meet tomorrow at the blast class at church.'”
Dickerson did not have a chance to respond to her daughter.
The next day, she received a phone call that would destroy her world.
“The phone rang, and it was Donovan. He was upset, kind of panicking,” Dickerson explained. “He was like, 'I found April.' She's not breathing and they're taking her to the hospital in an ambulance.”
Dickerson said fox news“So I jumped in the car, and from the moment I got that first call, I was like, 'Something is wrong. April's health is perfectly fine.'” About an hour and a half ago. She sent me a message saying everything was fine with me, but I thought maybe she passed out. why isn't she breathing? I didn't know anything about it. ”
“From that moment on, when I walked into the hospital room, he was just shaking and pacing,” Dickerson continued. “And I was just curled up on the bench next to him, crying hysterically, screaming at God to save my child, even though in my head I knew she was gone.”
April Holt died the same day at Southern Hills Hospital.
After authorities ruled Holt's death a suicide, Dickerson began her own investigation.
“They closed the April case,” Dickerson said. “The DA's office and everyone agreed to shut down. I got up and walked out of the room and said, 'We're not done yet. We'll continue to investigate.' I said,” he said.
Dickerson spent hours each day trying to figure out who killed her daughter, but there was one suspect in her mind.
Dickerson recalled April saying she was getting a divorce two weeks before her death.
“He was obsessed with April,” the mother said of her son-in-law. “So the weird thing is, you know when you watch these movies, they love someone so much that they're willing to literally do anything. “I think.'' That's because she had broken up with him before, and he was sleeping outside her apartment and in her car if it was unlocked. ”
“And it's heartbreaking. It's really heartbreaking. So I'm just not shocked,” she said. “I think she was very serious when she said it this time.”
Weeks after her daughter's death, Dickerson's grandson reportedly told her that he witnessed his parents fighting on the same day April died. independent.
The newspaper also reported that Donovan pawned his wife's wedding ring a week before she died.
Dickerson said WZTV“There were bruises on her wrists, neck, ankles and thighs, but none were admitted into evidence.”
The mother filed a complaint and eventually convinced the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department to conduct its own investigation. In a 47-page report, detectives said Donovan Holt's fingerprints were “hit twice” on the roll of duct tape.
Despite the new evidence, Dickerson claimed that police told him they didn't have enough evidence yet to convict him.
Dickerson said when he saw the key evidence, he confronted Donovan Holt.
“I told him he had a choice,” she said. said. “He might tell me what happened, or I was going to the cold case department.”
Donovan admitted to strangling April, dragging her to the shower and taping her face to make it look like suicide, Dickerson said.
Dickerson reportedly recorded the conversation and then called police.
Donovan was arrested in San Antonio, Texas, last month.
Nashville Police Department announced. news release Donovan reportedly confessed to detectives with the MNPD Cold Case Unit in July that he strangled his wife.
On September 19, a grand jury indicted Donovan Holt on charges of reckless homicide, tampering with evidence, and false reporting.
Holt was extradited to Nashville and is being held on $75,000 bail in the Davidson County Jail awaiting arraignment on Oct. 23.
“You killed the person you were supposed to love, then put a garbage bag over her head and ate her lunch so she wasn't dead in the other room? And you killed your own son?” We sent them there and traumatized them.’ That’s just weird,” Dickerson said.
Despite her daughter's murder, Dickerson prays that Donovon Holt's “heart will be in the right place.”
“As a Christian woman, I pray that his heart is in the right place. That's what I want for him. I know that's what April wants. And after killing her daughter… But that's what I want for him,” Dickerson said. . “And I want everyone to have access to eternal life.”
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