Formal Charges Filed In 30-Year-Old Murder Case

Rebecca Green

Article origination WBOI-FM

April Tinsley, 8, was abducted on Good Friday 1988.
*FBIAllen County Sheriff's Department*

Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards filed formal charges Wednesday against a Grabill man accused in the 1988 killing of 8-year-old April Tinsley.

John D. Miller, 59, was arrested over the weekend on preliminary charges and has remained in the Allen County Jail. Late Wednesday he was formally charged with murder and child molesting.

Miller is accused of abducting Tinsley from a Fort Wayne street on Good Friday 1988, killing her and dumping her body in rural DeKalb County.

Detectives from the Fort Wayne Police and Indiana State Police tied Miller to the case via DNA left at the scene, other objects containing his DNA left for investigators over the decades since the killing, and familial DNA from a public database.

To confirm his identity, detectives obtained additional DNA from a search of Miller’s trash earlier this month, according to court documents.

For just over 30 years, the case tormented investigators in spite of many efforts to drum up new information to lead to its solution.

Miller is scheduled to appear in Allen Superior Court Thursday for an initial hearing.

Tags:Fort Wayne Allen County

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