State police, who are members of a task force searching for the killer, said in a statement Tuesday that detectives have interviewed relatives and Millsap’s boyfriend, “but they are not considered suspects in her death.”
A couple walking along wooded Macomb Orchard Trail found the teen’s body under guard by the Millsap family collie, “Penny.” April set out for a walk with the dog hours earlier and never returned home.
An autopsy confirmed that April was killed, but Armada police Chief Howard Smith on Friday declined comment on how she died, other than that she was neither shot nor stabbed.
“Omg. … I think I’m being kidnapped,” said an ominous text message from April’s phone to her boyfriend on the night she died.
Investigators have consulted with FBI experts, who say potential suspects may show an excessive interest in the case or have unexplained absences from their regular activities, police said.
Two motor vehicles may have some connection to the disappearance, police said. They include a gray, painter’s-type van with many dents in it, with two while males inside, and a small-capacity blue and white motorcycle with a young male rider.
Authorities are asking anyone who was riding a motorcycle in the area last week, or who might have seen April on July 24, call the state police tip line, 877 616-4677.
April just graduated from Armada Middle School and was to start high school in the fall.
About 300 people attended a vigil for April on Saturday night outside St. Mary Mystical Rose Church in Armada.
“We’re at a loss,” her grandfather, Dennis Levans, told the Detroit Free Press by phone from Coconut Creek, Florida. “She was just a beautiful young lady.”
It is awful to think that there are people out there would want to harm a child. This is an important example to teach parents that outside your front door is too dangerous to send your child alone even with the family dog.