One evening in July 2014, a young couple hiking along a popular trail in Michigan came across something strange: a frantic dog pacing back and forth along the path. Uneasy, they decided to investigate. Just off the trail, hidden from view, lay the lifeless body of a young woman. The nature of her injuries made it immediately clear that this was no accident.
What began as an ordinary walk had turned into the scene of a brutal crime, and the question of who could have done such a thing would soon grip a small town. The victim was April Dawn Milsap, born on January 2, 2000, in Wise County, Virginia. She was the only child of Jennifer and Bobby Milsap. After her parents separated, her mother remarried and the family moved to Armada, Michigan, where they lived with April’s stepfather, David Lisenfeld.
April attended Armada Middle School, where friends knew her as cheerful and friendly. She had received her first communion in 2010, completed eighth grade, and was about to begin high school in the fall. On the evening of July 24, 2014, fourteen-year-old April left home for a walk along the Macomb Orchard Trail with her dog, Penny, as she had done many times before. That evening, only one of them would make it back alive.
Shortly after 7:00 p. m. , the young couple hiking the same path spotted the nervous, agitated dog pacing ahead. When they went to check, they found April’s body just off the trail.
The condition of her remains made clear that her death was not accidental. Officers from the Armada Police Department arrived quickly. A preliminary examination revealed that April had been violently assaulted before being killed. Her shirt was torn, and her shorts and underwear had been pulled down to her ankles.
Imprints that appeared to be from track shoes were visible on the right side of her face and neck. Her cell phone, which she always carried, was missing, leading police to believe the killer had taken it. April had left home with her phone and a backpack. Police dogs were brought in to track her belongings while officers worked to obtain her phone records.
The dogs and officers found her items about a mile away near a house, and her phone was recovered the following day. Upon examining it, police discovered a fitness app that would later provide valuable data. While officers were still at the scene, a woman arrived identifying herself as Jennifer Milsap, searching for her daughter who had not returned home. She was accompanied by a teenage boy she introduced as Austin, April’s boyfriend.
Jennifer explained that she had contacted Austin when she realized something was wrong. To her shock, Austin told her that although they had not met that day, he had received a strange text from April at 6:28 p. m. The message read: “I think I almost got kidnapped oh my God.
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Data from the fitness app on April’s recovered phone suggested that her killer had taken the phone after the murder. The app showed that April had been walking at a steady pace of about four miles per hour, but around 6:20 p. m. her pace suddenly increased, indicating at least fifteen minutes of frantic movement.
At 6:28 p. m. , she sent the text to her boyfriend, possibly believing she had escaped her attacker. That was not the case.
She was soon ambushed and murdered. The app later showed her phone moving at high speed after her death before being discarded. The autopsy revealed that April had suffered forty-eight injuries during the attack, including multiple bruises on her face, neck, and upper body. Her killer had stomped on her with such force that her windpipe was crushed.
Her death was ruled a homicide caused by asphyxiation and blunt force trauma to the head. The coroner noted significant bleeding around her eyes, jaw, and neck, as well as internal hemorrhaging beneath her scalp and around her trachea. There were clear indications of an attempted sexual assault, though no male bodily fluid was found on or near her body. Investigators speculated that the attacker had likely been interrupted, causing him to flee abruptly.
Determined to catch the killer, police established a tip line, hoping others who had been on the trail that day might have noticed something unusual. Calls came in almost immediately. One man reported that he and his two daughters had seen April speaking with a man on a blue and white motorcycle. He recognized April because she was a classmate of his daughters.
At the time, they saw no reason for concern and continued on their way. It was not until after learning of her murder that they realized they might have seen the culprit. A mother and daughter cycling along the path that evening gave a similar account. They too had seen a girl with a black and white dog talking to a man wearing a black helmet while sitting on an off-road motorcycle.
Nothing seemed amiss as they passed. However, after circling back a few minutes later, they noticed the motorcycle parked at the side of the road, but the girl and the dog were nowhere in sight. One of them briefly spotted a man, likely the bike’s owner, standing in the woods. When their eyes met, the unsettling expression on his face made her pedal away quickly.
Though they had not suspected a crime at the time, the pair instinctively felt the man was trouble and hurried home. Witnesses were brought in to help a police sketch artist create a composite drawing of the suspect. The sketch was soon broadcast on local news and posted around town. In a fortunate turn of events, the day after the murder, an Armada police officer was driving back to the station after lunch in a nearby town when he spotted a blue and white motorcycle parked in a driveway just off the main road.
He turned around, got out of his cruiser, and took several photos of the bike before returning to town. When he showed the pictures to the witnesses, they confirmed it was the same Enduro they had seen on the orchard trail. Checking the motorcycle’s license plates in the system, officials discovered it was registered to thirty-two-year-old James VanCallis. The photo on file matched the police artist’s sketch remarkably well.
Armed with this evidence, detectives obtained a warrant to search the suspect’s home, located about fifteen miles from Armada. While investigators thoroughly examined the property, VanCallis was interrogated about his activities on the evening of July 24. He recalled leaving home around 5:00 p. m.
to visit his brother. Although he drove through Armada, he did not stop, and arrived at his brother’s place shortly after six, staying until 7:30. After saying goodbye, he went straight home. His girlfriend, Crystal Stadler, paid close attention as he explained his whereabouts on the night of the murder.
When detectives asked about his shoes from that evening, he promptly produced a pair of K-Swiss tennis shoes, but their soles did not match the imprints found on the victim’s face and upper body. Although the search did not yield any evidence linking VanCallis to April’s murder, it uncovered a significant number of marijuana plants being illegally grown on the property. VanCallis was arrested on drug charges. Crystal, who had remained silent out of fear of retribution, knew her boyfriend had not been honest with investigators.
She had seen him leave that night wearing a pair of Nike Air Flight gym shoes. When he returned home much later than expected, he made a point of cleaning them thoroughly with soap and hand sanitizer, something he had never done before. She later testified in court that the shoes, which had been his favorites, mysteriously disappeared shortly before the search warrant was executed. Detectives did not have the actual shoes, but they found a strong alternative.
After examining his social media accounts, they discovered he had posted photos of himself wearing the Nikes. Acting on a hunch, they bought an identical pair and compared the herringbone pattern on the soles with the imprints found on April’s body. The designs matched perfectly. With the evidence mounting against him, James VanCallis was charged on October 8, 2014, with the murder, kidnapping, and attempted sexual assault of April Milsap.
He remained in jail awaiting trial until January 20, 2016, when he finally appeared in court. Crystal Stadler emerged as the prosecution’s key witness. No longer fearful of revealing the truth, she recounted her ex-boyfriend’s troubling behavior on the night of the murder. Her honesty contrasted sharply with VanCallis, who insisted throughout the trial that he had not been near the trails and had never seen or spoken to the teenager.
The state contested his claims. Surveillance footage captured VanCallis riding his motorcycle up and down a residential street in Armada shortly after the murder was believed to have occurred, the same area where April’s cell phone had been found. Additional footage from a gas station in Armada captured him arriving at the same time he claimed to be miles away at his brother’s house. In the packed courtroom, the defendant remained stoic as the medical examiner described the horrific violence inflicted on the fourteen-year-old.
While many averted their eyes from the autopsy images, he stared at them without any visible sign of distress. Since the convicted killer refused to explain what happened that evening, detectives and prosecutors reconstructed the events based on witness testimony and evidence. It appeared that VanCallis encountered April while she was walking her dog along the main trail. He stopped to engage her in conversation.
At some point, he reportedly made an advance, which she declined. It is believed this was when she sent the alarming text to her boyfriend. Anger at her rejection led him to take her by force. Before the confused teenager could react, he removed his helmet and struck her on the side of the head, causing her to fall to the ground.
After dragging her far off the main trail, he attempted to assault her, but something went wrong. In a fit of rage, he repeatedly stomped on her face and torso, leaving clear shoe imprints. The violence was so extreme that he crushed her windpipe, leading to her suffocation. He then took her cell phone and fled, discarding the device several miles away in hopes of misleading authorities.
Why April’s killer left Penny behind remains unclear. If the dog had not anxiously paced near her owner’s injured body, it might have taken much longer for the body to be found. Instinctively sensing something was wrong, her loyal companion stayed nearby, alerting passersby to her presence. On February 20, 2016, after six hours of deliberation, the jury found the thirty-four-year-old VanCallis guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder, kidnapping, and intent to commit sexual assault.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is serving his time at the Chippewa Correctional Facility in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where he will spend the rest of his life. April Milsap would have returned home safely that day. The orchard trail was frequently used, and she had no reason to suspect she was in danger.
Her murder was a senseless act committed by someone who could not handle rejection, carried out against an innocent middle schooler who was simply walking her dog.