A mother's fight for answers about her daughter's death has paid off, leading to her daughter's husband confessing to the murder, which was initially ruled a suicide.
“There was something that made me believe… just knowing it wasn't suicide, she seemed to have a plan for the future. People don't usually say, 'See you at church.'” The next morning. 'I've been putting all these pieces together and I don't think it makes any sense,' Jamie Dickerson, mother of 29-year-old April Holt, told FOX News Digital.
April Holt was a young mother of two children and the wife of 33-year-old Donovan Holt. According to Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD), April was found nearly lifeless in her Antioch apartment in July 2023 with a plastic bag tightly taped around her neck.
Dickerson had planned to host a lockout for the children from his church on July 28, 2023, with his daughter helping chaperone, but he had to cancel and take his son to a football game. said.
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April Holt's death was ruled a suicide until her mother and police obtained a confession from her husband, Donovan Holt. (Jamie Dickerson Facebook)
“So I did the lockout and woke up. The next morning I cleaned up, took a shower, just laid down and I saw an email from her and I said, 'What about the lockout? “Donovan has work, so I can't go to the Barbie movie today.” So she said she'd meet me at church the next day, so I lay down and didn't answer her. did. Dickerson said. “That was the last email I received from her.”
Dickerson said she went back to sleep, but Donovan Holt called her an hour later and found April unresponsive in the shower and not breathing. Since he wasn't there, he was told that he was heading to the hospital with him.
“So I jumped in the car and from the moment I got that first phone call, I was like, 'Something is wrong. April's health is absolutely fine.'” About an hour and a half earlier, she told me, She sent me a message saying everything was fine, but I thought maybe she passed out. Why isn't she breathing? I didn’t know anything about it,” Dickerson said.
When she arrived at the hospital, Dickerson said she looked into her daughter's eyes and knew she was no longer there, gone.
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Jamie Dickerson said he made plans the night his daughter April Holt died and knew she didn't commit suicide because she received an email. (Jamie Dickerson)
Dickerson said she immediately noticed something was wrong with April's husband, Donovan Holt.
“From that moment on, when I walked into the hospital room, he was just like swaying and walking around, and I curled up on the bench next to him, just crying hysterically, just calling out to God. 'Even though I knew in my head that she had to leave to save the child,' Dickerson said.
“So he's sitting there holding his head and acting really weird and being like, 'Her throat hurt this morning. She wasn't acting like herself.'” He was weird. And I thought, “Why am I saying this now?” “He then handed me her cell phone and said, 'You may make all medical decisions on her behalf, and this is her cell phone,'” Dickerson continued.
Dickerson said he didn't realize until later that April had a bag over her head. She said Donovan claimed to have told his doctors, but they said they didn't know.
The Nashville Metro Police Department (MNPD) told FOX News Digital that the April incident was an unclassified fatal accident and had been under investigation for several months.
Police said an investigation at the time yielded no evidence to refute Donovan Holt's account, and they were consulting with the coroner's office and district attorney's office, and initially ruled Holt's death a suicide. .
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Jamie Dickerson said her daughter April Holt did not commit suicide, proving her mother's instincts were correct. (Jamie Dickerson Facebook)
Although her daughter's death was initially ruled a suicide, Dickerson discovered a 47-page cold case supplemental report containing evidence proving her daughter had not committed suicide, and convinced her son-in-law to confess. He said he had decided to try. he killed her
Dickerson said a key piece of evidence in the police report was that only Donovan Holt's fingerprints, not April's, were found on the bag and tape.
“That's when I confronted him (Donovan) and he confessed to me, so that's when I went to the police,” Dickerson said. “I wasn't shocked. I know it sounds so weird, especially when he confessed to me, because I've known for years. I didn't feel these feelings. I've been processing it. What's harder is that I haven't been able to forgive myself. I don't know if I'm going to really grieve or heal yet, so I'm just getting into that season,” Dickerson said. Ta.
Detectives reopened the case after Dickerson reported Donovan Holt's confession.
“New eyes were also placed on the investigation records. After the victim's mother reported her conversation with Mr. Holt, the death investigation was quickly reopened and MNPD detectives traveled to Texas for re-examination. During that time, Mr. Holt implicated himself in the death of April Holt,'' police told FOX News Digital in a statement.
Donovan Holt was arrested in San Antonio, Texas and returned to Nashville on Friday afternoon. After a grand jury indictment, he was charged with reckless homicide, false reporting and tampering with evidence.
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In a Nashville cold case, Jamie Dickerson's instincts led him to confess to a murder that Nashville police initially ruled a suicide. (Jamie Dickerson Facebook)
When asked if he ever thought his son-in-law could do this, Dickerson said he wasn't surprised at all.
“He was obsessed with April. So what's weird is when you watch these movies, they love someone so much that they're willing to do literally anything. I think it was him, because she Because I had broken up with him before. And he was sleeping outside her apartment and in her car if it wasn't locked,” Dickerson recalled.
“And it's heartbreaking. It's really heartbreaking. So I'm just, I'm not shocked. I think she was very serious when she said this time. She said I was getting a divorce. And two weeks later she was dead,” Dickerson continued.
Dickerson added that she is relieved to know that Donovan is in jail and that her grandson is safe after surviving the trauma of that day.
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“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.
Even though Mr. Dickerson is angry at Mr. Donovan for taking April away, he does not want Mr. Donovan to be harmed, and April does not want him to harbor any hatred, so he wishes him peace. He said he hopes to find it.
“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 too. And even after killing her daughter… But that's what I want for him. And I want everyone to be able to have eternal life,” Dickerson said.
