After 30 years, justice is finally flowing her way.
The family of young April Tinsley, who was brutally raped and murdered in 1988 when she was just eight years old, finally saw some closure this week, when the little girl’s suspected attacker, a man named John Miller, was finally captured.
April was raped and strangled to death after being kidnapped in 1988. Her small body was discovered in DeKalb County, Indiana, three days after she went missing, according to The Daily Mail. Miller was first arrested Sunday, July 15, and faced court for the second time last Thursday.
Too emotionally distraught to attend the first hearing, April’s mother, Janet Tinsley, sat in the front row during Miller’s second court appearance, when he was assigned a public defender.
In a brief statement to reporters Wednesday, Janet said she had only one question for Miller: “Why?”
“I just wanna know why,” she said. “Let’s see if he can come up with a good answer.”
She told WPTA-TV that when she received a call informing her Miller had been arrested, she felt “a chill from the top of my head to the tip of my toes.” Janet went on to say she’s not concerned about his sentence because she is “sure he’ll get what he deserves.”
Another nearby resident whose daughter frequently walked home from school with April and was with her the day she went missing, expressed relief after learning Miller was in custody.
“Praise the Lord,” Tina Zimmerman said, noting it “really helped” to see the suspected killer finally arrested.
As for April’s mother, she said when this case finally comes to a close, she hopes her community will rally around others trapped in similarly tragic circumstances the way they have for her.