April Dawn Lacy

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0:44This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

1:07Today, I'm discussing the case of April Dawn Lacey. In the United States, there are thousands, tens of thousands of school-aged children living in motels. Entire families packed into a single room because that's all they can afford, or because they can't get approved for traditional housing. It's become such a common occurrence that they're often referred to as the invisible homeless. While it's certainly not an ideal situation, many of these parents are still incredibly loving caregivers who ensure that their children are fed, clothed, and keep going to school so they can have some type of normalcy until they can get back into traditional housing.

1:49Then, there are parents like April's mother who place the responsibility of making ends meet on their children, who don't make them go to school, who teach them to lie, cheat, steal, and really do anything to survive. This is the case of April Dawn Lacey. April's life was never easy. Kathy Marion, the mother of April's friend Ashley, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, quote, April was a throwaway kid. With her parents, she never had a chance. But if you knew her, you had to love her. End quote. Even Wise County Sheriff's Captain David Walker said, quote, this young girl had very grim chances of succeeding in life, end quote.

2:38April Dawn Lacey was born on July 2nd, 1982 in Oklahoma City to Dale Lacey and Jacqueline Lacey, who both suffered from substance use disorder. Specifically, her father often drank and used cocaine. He later introduced April's mother to the drug, who eventually began using crack cocaine. Her father did teach April how to play baseball, and for a very short moment in her life, she was truly happy playing t-ball for the city's Optimist League. But unfortunately, that was very short-lived. Ashley recounts that April spent much of her childhood struggling with poverty. April knew early in life which agencies handed out food and which handed out clothing.

3:21She also began collecting and cashing in cans to help her parents with bills and to pay for drugs. and she spent a good amount of time dumpster diving to feed her family, including her three brothers, two older and one younger. Her mother Jacqueline also taught April how to steal. She told April that if she were caught, she'd likely be let off with a warning because she was a juvenile. And while April often escaped unscathed while shoplifting, she was once caught stealing a chicken from her local Walmart store. When she was brought to her mother by the store employees, Jacqueline acted angry and slapped April across the face hard several times in an effort to hide her involvement and feign disappointment in her daughter.

4:06Ashley remembers April coming to her after, crying, saying that being slapped was never a part of the deal. But this was April's reality. Soon, shoplifting became basically transactional. In order to spend the night at her friend's house, she'd have to shoplift something for her mother, often nail polish, cigarettes, or anything else her mom requested. April often took refuge at her friend Ashley's house. They met when April was 12 and Ashley was about 16. In that same article for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Ashley said, quote, She didn't look like somebody I'd want to know. She was ragged and dirty.

4:45She was 12 and I was four years older than she was, but somehow we just hit it off. Pretty soon I was like her big sister and we just took her in. End quote. Ashley and her mom treated April like family and taught her fundamental life skills like how to bathe herself. She would stay at their home for as long as she could until her mom came knocking so April could help her collect cans or find food. Ashley admits that at the time when she would occasionally join April and her mom, she thought it was kind of exciting, especially because April almost never got caught. Quote, And she never worried about it.

5:23She was sort of innocent. April lived in the moment. I don't remember us ever talking about anything beyond what was right in front of us, not college or getting married and being a mom. She couldn't see that far into the future. But her life wasn't good. She wanted a family. And I wanted her to be a part of my world. So we put her there. End quote. By 1995, April had her own bed at Ashley's house and spent Christmas with them as well. Ashley told Dawn Chance with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, quote, She stayed with us most of the time. She was always with us. She was never with her mother. She was a good person.

6:04When she was with my mother and I, and she lived with us quite a bit, she didn't want to go back. She wanted her last name changed to my mother's, end quote. Kathy Marion has a master's degree in child studies, and she asked April to draw a family portrait to get a better idea of what she really wanted. She says April drew a crude sketch with crayons showing a large house with three stick figures who were frowning. On the back, April wrote, quote, This is my family. The reason I am not in this picture is because I'm never around, and they don't care whether I'm with them or at my best friend's house.

6:40End quote. After that, Kathy petitioned the court to become April's legal guardian. But unfortunately, that never happened. The petition failed. And that same day, Jacqueline Lucy came to her home with the police to remove April from Kathy's home. Kathy says that was the last time she ever saw April. In January 1996, Jacqueline moved them into room 102 at the Drovers Inn Motel off the I-35, where rent was$19 a week. By this time, it was just April and her mother. April's father was out of the house, and her younger brother had been taken from their parents' care after social workers found them in an unclean home with an empty refrigerator.

7:24April knew she was likely next, and stopped attending school after one of the counselors threatened to place her in a group home. It was just 13-year-old April and her mom, who was now engaging in sex work out of the motel room that they shared. A few months after April's 14th birthday, in September 1996, her mother reported her missing, stating she may have run away. There was no search for April. There were no news reports about a missing child from Drover's Inn off the I-35. But a few days later, April did return on her own. And just a few weeks later, Jacqueline would report her daughter missing again.

8:05According to Jacqueline, on October 2, 1996, she and April went to Walmart to get April some press-on nails, since she was known to chew hers down. She says that after that, they stayed up late watching TV on the bed that they shared. The next morning, on October 3, at about 10.45 a.m., April found her mother outside, leaning on the passenger side door of a stranger's car, while someone waited in the driver's seat. From the doorway of their room, April told her mom she needed to speak with her. Jacqueline told her they'd talk when she got back. But April insisted. She said, no, I need to talk to you now.

8:45Jacqueline refused and got into the car. Then, April said, quote, If you leave, you'll never see me again. She then flipped her mother off as the car drove away. And if Jacqueline is telling the truth about this exchange, April was right. Her mother, no one ever saw her again.

9:10Jacqueline Lacey said that she was only gone for 45 minutes before returning to their room at 11.30 a.m. to find that April was gone. She said April left behind her makeup, new purse, and a pack of Marlboro cigarettes that they'd shared. She reported her missing that same day, October 3rd. Now, I want you to keep in mind these times and dates as you learn more about April's story, because they will become critical in trying to piece together what happened to her. As far as I could find, like the first time April was reported missing, there were no news articles highlighting her disappearance, and none of the articles I sourced for this episode mention any type of search for her, not about the community coming together to look, search teams, dogs tracking her scent, or helicopters.

10:00Her father, Dale, didn't even know that she was missing until about a week later. He admits it was due to his drinking at the time, and once he realized, he called the police to report her missing himself. According to Dale, he and Jacqueline were considered suspects in April's case immediately, and investigators questioned them for 14 hours. However, the Oklahoma City Sheriff's Office has pushed back on this, saying it was just normal protocol for a missing child. They start with the inner circle and work their way out. But while all of this is happening, what they didn't know, what the sheriff's office didn't know, was that April had already been found deceased.

10:40She was found on October 8, 1996 by a rancher on his property near Slidell in an unincorporated community in Wise County, Texas. It's about an hour from the Oklahoma border, and about two and a half hours from April's home in Oklahoma City, just 15 minutes off the I-35. She was found face down, completely nude, in a pile of brush and scrap lumber with her right arm extended. Investigators theorize that she was dragged by her arm to her final location. Her face was purple and her eyes were tightly clenched. No wounds were found on her body. When Wise County Sheriff's Captain David Walker responded to the call, it was his first homicide case, but he immediately suspected that she'd been strangled.

11:37Near April's body, there were tire tracks and spent shotgun shells. It was a popular area for dove hunters at the time, so while it seemed unlikely that the shells were related in any way, he still bagged them for evidence just in case. He also created casts of the tire tracks. Now, this was a pretty congested crime scene. The rancher had actually leased this particular pasture to an oil company, who had cleared the elm trees and shoved them into the pile where April was found. Near this area were about a hundred pieces of cloth that the oilmen used to clean their hands. They also found an empty beer can under a rusted tractor that they later determined was just dropped by a hunter.

12:21April didn't have any tattoos and she wasn't found with any jewelry. Without any way to identify her, she was listed as Brush Girl as Walker wrote the report detailing his findings. From there, she was sent to the Tarrant County Morgue where they did an autopsy and perform dental x-rays. They estimated that she was anywhere from 20 to 40 years old and listed her cause of death as a homicide, possibly from strangulation, though it was hard to tell due to the state of April's remains. Walker told the Houston Chronicle, quote, the condition of the body indicates that she'd been on that pile a lot longer than five or even eight days, end quote.

13:05The shotgun shells were tested, the casts were examined, but nothing was found. Walker says he believes that the tracks were likely from dove hunters, but he wanted to be overly cautious in case something panned out. He continued checking disappearances of young women in the area, but none were a match to April. He ran down thousands of leads through the NCIC, but just nothing was panning out. According to reporting by Larry Bingham for The Columbian, when Walker put April's details into the database, there were about a thousand matches. So he opened a file for her in every single state in the country, trying to make a match.

13:48Now, he'd come across April's case before, but because they estimated that Brush Girl was closer to 20 years old and had likely been killed prior to April being reported missing, he didn't consider the case to be a match. He also went back to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office to try to narrow down April's age, using a variety of methods, including those dental x-rays, they were able to go back in and estimate that she was as young as 14 years old, right on the money. And this is what ultimately helped identify her, along with a forensic sketch created from April's remains. In April 1999, Lieutenant Tim Lumman with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office saw this new age estimate for brush girl in the database, and pretty quickly he connected it to April's disappearance.

14:38Investigators went to Dale and Jacqueline Lacey with the news. Jacqueline nearly collapsed, and Dale asked for a drink. They said they believe they found their daughter. She had blondish brown hair, was about 5 feet 4 inches tall, and weighed approximately 110 pounds. She chewed her fingernails and had an overbite. They showed them the picture of a forensic sketch created for April, and according to that same article from Larry Bingham, the conversation went like this. Did your daughter bite her nails? Yes. Did she have an overbite? Yes. Could this be her? No. They said the chin was too round, hair too long, and nose too big.

15:22It wasn't their daughter. At this point, investigators separated Jacqueline and Dale for questioning. They asked Jacqueline if she could have been wrong about the date April went missing, and they asked Dale if he thought Jacqueline could have used drugs and killed April, which he denied. They were sent home with a copy of the sketch. April's grandmother and aunt were also given copies. And eventually, one of them, unfortunately the reporting doesn't specify who, remembered something. April fell off her bike when she was 12 and had to have x-rays taken and eventually three stitches above her eye.

15:59So investigators requested the x-rays from April's doctor. It was a perfect match to April. Her overbite, most of her teeth, even her sinus cavities were a perfect match. When investigators went back to the Lacy's with the news, they still weren't convinced and asked for DNA testing to confirm. So they did the testing and they confirmed without a doubt that Brush Girl was April Dawn Lacy. But not long after, both Dale and Jacqueline were arrested on drug charges before they could claim April's remains. So April sat in the morgue for about another four years until her parents were released from prison in the spring of 2003.

16:45April was finally laid to rest on June 28, 2003 in what's been described as a simple graveside ceremony in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. There were about 20 people in attendance. While original reporting on this states that there was no gravestone for April, when you look up her grave now, it appears that someone has since placed a small marker for her. But after this, April's parents say that they created a path to recovery and attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings regularly after April's funeral. Dale Lacey blamed himself for April's murder. He told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, quote, I was not available then.

17:30I was not around. I didn't even know she was missing until most of the week had been lost. At that time, I was a severe alcoholic. There could have been a lot of things I could have done different. Not drink was one of them. Maybe she'd still be alive if I wasn't drinking, end quote. In August 2003, he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he was diagnosed with asbestos-induced mesothelioma after a lifetime of working on old houses. He passed away on November 15, 2004, at the age of 51, and was buried at the same cemetery as April. Jacqueline has taken less responsibility for what happened to her daughter.

18:15After April was identified, like the sheriff's office stated, they began speaking to those closest to April and work their way out, and what they found was extremely disturbing. Many people reported that not only had Jacqueline forced April to shoplift to help her family, she also trafficked her to her own clients. Now, just to be clear, Jacqueline admitted to police and the media that she was actively using drugs and engaging in sex work herself, but says April did not. She denies all claims that she allowed April to use drugs or that she trafficked her out of the motel. By March 2004, Jacqueline was back in prison, serving a five-year sentence for possession of forged identification documents.

19:02At that time, she told the Houston Chronicle, quote, I admit I did it, but I never had her there when I was doing it, and I never had her doing it. That's a lie. End quote. But there's also the matter of timing. Remember, I told you earlier in this episode to take note of all the dates in this case. April was reported missing on October 3rd, and found five days later on October 8th. But according to the medical examiner, April's body was decomposed far beyond that five-day time frame. Walker says even beyond eight days. His full statement to the Houston Chronicle reads, The time element in the mother's story doesn't match up.

19:47The condition of the body indicates that she'd been on that pile a lot longer than five or even eight days. We think the mother knows more than she told us. We also have good information that she was pimping the girl. End quote. It seemed clear to investigators that Jacqueline Lacey knew a lot more than she was sharing with police, and likely reported April missing days after she was already gone. That entire story of April telling her mom that she needed to speak with her right then, and flipping her off as she drove away, could have very possibly been fabricated. Now, just to be even more clear, it doesn't seem that investigators believe Jacqueline was the person who strangled April, but more likely that it was someone Jacqueline may have trafficked April to, possibly one of her own clients.

20:39And they really need Jacqueline to speak with them at this point, because they believe April may have just been the first of at least seven victims found murdered along the same highway corridor.

20:5547-year-old Margaret Holmes Gardner was last seen on July 9, 2003, at a truck stop in West Memphis, Arkansas. She was found on July 11, 2003, along the I-40 entrance ramp near West Memphis. Her cause of death was eight blows to the head and possible asphyxiation. 24-year-old Suzanne Hyman was last seen on August 11, 2003, at a truck stop on the I-35. She was found on August 20, 2003, along Highway 7 near Oxford, Mississippi. Her cause of death was strangulation. 43-year-old Sandra Janelle Beard was last seen on September 12, 2003, at a truck stop on the I-40 in Oklahoma City. Her body was found on September 18, 2003, along an I-40 entrance ramp near Chakota, Oklahoma.

21:53Her cause of death was asphyxiation and possible strangulation. A woman who was listed as unidentified in 2004 reporting by the Houston Chronicle was approximately 35 to 45 years old when she was found deceased on October 16, 2003, near an I-40 entrance ramp near McLean, Oklahoma. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. 39-year-old Sandra Leanna Richardson was last seen on November 16, 2003 in Oklahoma City, and was found deceased on November 22, 2003, near the intersection of Highway 62 and Highway 48, just north of the I-40. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and face, with two punctures to her throat.

22:46And 19-year-old Casey Jo Pipestem was last seen on January 28, 2004 at a truck stop near the I-35 in Oklahoma City. She was found deceased on January 31, 2004 at Big Bear Creek Bridge in Grapevine, Texas near the I-35 East. Her cause of death was strangulation. Lieutenant Bob Murphy of the Grapevine Police told the Houston Chronicle, quote, we don't know a whole lot. There's no positive proof these killings are related, but they all come from Oklahoma. They were all prostitutes who frequented truck stops. They've all been found completely nude. They're near interstates, and they've been thrown away like trash, just tossed along the road.

23:31End quote. As far as I could find, there is very little reporting on basically all of these women. The only case that's been solved thus far is Casey Jo Pipestems. In that same article, Casey's uncle said, quote, my niece, these other women, they weren't just drug addicts, just prostitutes. They were somebody's daughters and nieces. They were victims. And the person who did this to Casey is going to do it again to somebody else. End quote. Investigators quickly leaned towards the theory that a trucker was likely to blame for this string of murders. And Casey's story ran on America's Most Wanted that there was possibly some type of big rig killer on the loose.

24:16The story generated 84 tips, leading them to a truck driver named John Robert Williams. His relative actually called into the program saying they remembered Williams bragging about killing Casey. But by this time, Williams was already serving a life sentence plus 20 years in Mississippi for kidnapping and murdering 28-year-old Nikki Hill, who was later found near Highway 16 West in Philadelphia. He was arrested on August 17, 2004. His girlfriend slash accomplice, Rachel Cumberland, was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for her involvement. According to 2005 reporting by WLBT3 News, investigators believe they may be responsible for upwards of 40 murders along the highway systems of the Midwest up to Pennsylvania.

25:06And in 2009, Williams was indicted in Texas for the death of a woman named Vicki Helen Anderson, who was last seen at a truck stop in Oklahoma and found off the I-40 in Texas in 2003. So there was a long, all-too-familiar track record that investigators had to work with by the time they got this lead about Williams. When they went to visit him in 2012, he quickly identified Casey and told investigators details about her murder that had never been released to the public. According to that reporting, he was charged with her murder, but the article also reads, quote, an official with the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office says a trial for Williams in Texas will only take place if he is released from prison in Mississippi, end quote.

25:54And as far as I could find, that day never came. He was never tried for Casey's murder. And Cumberland was released after serving just eight years of her 20-year sentence. Casey's sister expressed her frustration in a 2013 interview with Nine News. The family of a teenager allegedly killed by a suspected serial killer wants justice. Their loved one was murdered nearly a decade ago, along with more than a dozen other victims at truck stops along I-40. But tonight, as News 9's Michael Konoposik reports, the suspect has yet to be put on trial. Well, Carl and Amanda police believe Casey Joe Pipestem was murdered nine years ago after being abducted in Oklahoma City.

26:35Tonight, family members say it's been long enough. They want a conviction, but most of all, they say they need closure. She was beaten, raped, and strangled and thrown off a 37-foot bridge naked. Daphne Harjo says no more than 24 hours after her sister was kidnapped from the Southwest Side Drug Stop, her body was found 200 miles south in Grapevine, Texas. This is something that, you know, happens on TV. This doesn't happen in real life, but it does. And it happened to us, not only to us, but to 13 other families. For years, police had been baffled by the big rig killer and his girlfriend accomplice, leaving a trail along the I-40 corridor as far east as Tennessee.

27:20It was shortly after a story aired on America's Most Wanted when police finally caught up to the suspect, John Robert Williams. Even though it was nine years ago, it's an everyday process that I have to fight every morning. so I can go on with my day. Authorities believe Williams could be responsible for as many as 14 murders in at least six different states, creating a prosecution nightmare. We can't go on another year, you know, waiting and hoping we want something done. Harjo says justice for Casey Jo Pipestem has been put off and delayed by Texas prosecutors time and again. Her case started getting pushed to the side.

28:03Harjo suspects large caseloads, but has never been given a sensible reason for the delay. She hopes speaking out now will remind people that this man is still waiting to be judged, and many families are still looking for closure. Like I said, as far as I could find, they never got that day in court. They were never able to look Williams in the face to give a victim impact statement. And while Williams has confessed to killing many women, investigators haven't been able to verify those confessions to bring any further charges. He's also never confessed to or officially been linked to the murder of April Dawn Lacey, or any of the other women investigators believe may be linked to her case.