A mother’s relentless pursuit of justice led to the arrest of her son-in-law for the death of her daughter, after law enforcement had initially ruled the case a suicide.
Police rule daughter’s death a suicide
The heart-wrenching case of 29-year-old April Holt from Antioch, Tennessee, who was found almost lifeless in her apartment with a plastic bag duct-taped around her neck, has ended with homicide charges.
On July 31, 2023, officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department responded to a call at Holt’s residence.
Upon arriving at the scene, they found April in the bathroom, clinging to life with the plastic bag restricting her breathing.
Despite efforts to save her, she tragically died later that same day at Southern Hills Hospital.
Initially, law enforcement and medical examiners quickly closed the case, ruling April’s death a suicide following an autopsy.
However, April’s mother, Jamie Dickerson, could not accept the conclusion that her daughter, a mother of two young children, had taken her own life.
Dickerson, believing something far more sinister had taken place, began an investigation of her own without the help of law enforcement.
Mom suspects son-in-law behind the crime
Dickerson recalled the last conversation she had with her daughter, the night before her death. April had been unable to join her mother for a movie because her husband, 33-year-old Donovan Holt’s work schedule, but had promised to meet her the following day at their church.
The next day, her mother received a call that changed everything. “The phone rang, and it was Donovan. He was upset—kind of like a panic upset,” Dickerson recalled. “He was like, ‘We found April. She wasn’t breathing, and she’s in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.’”
Dickerson’s initial reaction was that something was off about the scenario. April had been in perfect health, she said, and they had exchanged text messages just hours before the incident.
“Like I thought maybe she had passed out. Maybe she hit her head because she passed out. I didn’t know. I mean, like, why would she just not be breathing? I didn’t know anything about it,” she told Fox News.
When she arrived at the hospital, her worst fears were realized, and her daughter was pronounced dead.
From the beginning, Dickerson suspected foul play, and her concerns grew stronger when she learned more about her daughter’s relationship with her son-in-law.
April had confided in her mother just two weeks before her death, saying, “I’m getting a divorce.”
Mom says son-in-law was obsessed with victim
According to Dickerson, Donovan had an unhealthy obsession with April, one that led him to extreme behaviors when he feared losing her. She explained that April had left him previously.
“He would sleep outside of her apartment. He would sleep in her car if it was unlocked,” Dickerson explained.
She felt Donovan’s attachment to April went beyond normal marital troubles. “He had an obsession with April,” Dickerson explained. “So the weird part is, is like you see these movies, and they love somebody so much that they’re willing to do literally anything.”
In the weeks following her daughter’s death, Dickerson’s suspicions only grew that her son-in-law was behind her daughter’s demise.
She learned from her grandson that he had witnessed his parents fighting on the day of April’s death.
It was also revealed that Donovan had pawned his wedding ring just a week before April died, raising even more red flags for the grieving mother.
Somehow, the police chose to ignore evidence of bruising on April’s neck, wrists, and ankles.
Despite these unsettling discoveries, the police maintained their conclusion that April had died by suicide.
But Dickerson refused to back down. She filed complaints with the authorities, pushing them to re-examine their initial ruling.
Her persistence paid off when the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department re-opened the case and discovered critical evidence that had been previously overlooked.
In a 47-page report, detectives found “two hits” of Donovan Holt’s fingerprints on the duct tape roll used to secure the plastic bag around April’s neck.
Despite their findings, authorities told Dickerson that the evidence was insufficient to make an arrest.
Mom gets son-in-law to confess
Refusing to let this be the end, Dickerson took matters into her own hands. She confronted Donovan on her own, telling him he had a choice: confess to what had happened, or she would escalate the case to the cold case department.
According to Dickerson, Donovan eventually confessed to strangling April, dragging her into the shower, and then taping the plastic bag over her head to stage her death as a suicide.
Unbeknownst to her son-in-law, Dickerson recorded the conversation and handed it over to the police, providing them with the evidence they needed to make an arrest.
Donovan Holt was eventually apprehended in San Antonio, Texas, after fleeing Tennessee.
In a press release, the Nashville Police confirmed that Donovan had admitted to investigators that he had murdered his wife.
On September 19, a grand jury indicted him for reckless homicide, tampering with evidence, and filing a false report.
Donovan has since been extradited back to Nashville, where he is being held in the Davidson County Jail on a $75,000 bond. He faces an arraignment on October 23.
If convicted, Dickerson’s son-in-law could spend years behind bars for the reckless homicide of his wife.
