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from that follows and School

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of Humans that follows

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journalist and private investigator

0:52

Katherine Townsend she she investigates

0:54

unsolved deaths. deaths. Over the

0:56

past five years of making Hell and

0:58

Gone, host Catherine has received hundreds of

1:00

messages from people all around

1:02

the country, the asking for help

1:04

with an unsolved murder that's affected

1:06

them, their families, and their

1:09

communities. and In past seasons, past only

1:11

been able to focus on

1:13

one case, to but now one hosting

1:15

a now weekly podcast called Hell

1:17

and Gone called Hell and Every Thursday,

1:19

Catherine features a new case, new adds updates

1:22

to old ones, and as much as

1:24

she can to get the word out. to

1:26

get the murders. Now,

1:28

here's an episode

1:30

of an episode of Helen Gaughan murder

1:32

line. So he was murdered on

1:34

this side. Yes, he was killed

1:37

in Texas. And she lived on

1:39

the other side. She lived in Louisiana.

1:41

We're driving across the Pendleton Bridge. The

1:43

the that runs over the one

1:45

that runs over the

1:47

Sabine River and separates

1:49

Texas and Louisiana. We're

1:51

We're headed to a

1:53

remote spot on Bend right right

1:56

across the Texas border, in

1:58

Hemple. It's It's the spot on

2:00

on Hempel. At 5.28 p.m. right before

2:02

the sun p .m. Right before

2:04

the sun disappeared behind

2:06

the horizon, County got a call about a

2:08

a call about a The

2:10

on fire. was docked behind was docked

2:12

behind off Cedar Echo Ridge on

2:15

Highway 21, Grove Road on

2:17

Highway 21 of the Pendleton

2:19

area of Toledo that scene, And

2:21

that scene very quickly

2:23

descended into total chaos. firefighters had

2:26

The firefighters had trouble getting out to

2:28

the remote location, so it took

2:30

a while. And by the by the time

2:32

they did get there, was the boat

2:34

was completely engulfed in flames. who commented on

2:36

person who commented on Facebook and

2:38

claimed to have been one of the

2:41

first responders on the scene quote, when we

2:43

arrived we arrived, we noticed a pickup

2:45

truck and a four are on site. So we

2:47

So we had a feeling may may

2:49

have been in there. Houseboat was was

2:51

fully engulfed along with other multiple

2:53

boats and docks. docks, heavy fire fuel oil oil

2:56

burning of water. water. Once fire

2:58

was knocked down, down, I had members

3:00

sweep sweep notice the remains. the

3:02

remains." Firefighters and firefighters

3:04

and paramedics rushed to the scene, but

3:06

it was too late. too By the

3:08

time they got there, the walls

3:10

had caved in, and the boat had

3:13

very quickly been completely eviscerated by

3:15

the flames. by the And

3:17

then, when they did dig through

3:19

the remains, through they found the

3:21

body of the -old Doug 64-year-old Doug

3:23

Janus. His charred remains were

3:25

found in the bedroom of the

3:27

boat. At first, they thought they thought

3:29

the house fire had been some kind

3:32

of accident of Doug had died as

3:34

a result of a propane leak, of

3:36

a but then they took Doug's body

3:38

in for an autopsy. for an At

3:40

the forensic exam, they saw the two

3:42

bullets in his head. in his head. Doug

3:44

Janice had been murdered, and

3:46

his much younger estranged wife,

3:48

April May Janice, was nowhere to

3:50

be found. found. But Doug's death

3:52

was just the beginning of a story

3:54

that goes back 20 years and

3:56

involves sex, allegations of

3:59

corruption, corruption. and multiple

4:01

murders. I'm Catherine Townsend. Townsend. five

4:03

Over the past five years of making

4:05

my true crime podcast, Gone, I have learned I

4:07

have learned that there is no such

4:09

thing as a small town where murder

4:11

never happens. I have received hundreds

4:13

of messages from people all around

4:15

the country, asking for help with an

4:18

unsolved murder that's affected them, their

4:20

families, and their communities. their If

4:22

you have a case you'd

4:24

like me and my team

4:26

to look into, you can

4:28

reach out to us at

4:30

our Helengone murder line murder line

4:32

at 678. 744-6-1-4-5. That's 678-744-6145. Or you can send

4:34

us a you can send

4:36

us a message on

4:38

Instagram at at Hell and Gone

4:41

pod. This is Hell

4:43

This is Helen Murder Line.

5:31

Hello? Hey, this

5:33

is Amy from Helengine. Oh, hi!

5:35

How are you? Doing good. Can

5:37

you talk? Yes, I am I

5:40

am fixing to get into a

5:42

place away from my my grandbaby.

5:44

have no power have no power because hurricane,

5:46

the weather weather comes through and so if I lose

5:48

I lose you, that's probably, that's

5:50

what's going to happen is gonna happen is

5:53

our I mean, we live out

5:55

in the country, so. we live out in

5:57

the country, so. Okay. heard about this

5:59

case when. a podcast listener reached out. out.

6:01

She She was a friend of Doug's who

6:03

said that Doug's death was all over

6:05

the news in that rural region of East

6:07

Texas. region of East then, all of a

6:09

sudden, all it wasn't. it wasn't. No

6:11

one ever heard any more about the

6:13

death investigation. Her name is

6:15

April, not to be not to

6:17

be confused with Doug's wife, April. Doug's

6:20

friend, April, said that she knew Doug

6:22

through church. he She said that he was

6:24

always friendly and kind and that she believed

6:26

he was a religious man. man. She

6:28

said that in in the final years

6:31

of his life, Doug became very

6:33

involved with a local with a local That's

6:35

where she knew him from. where she

6:37

knew him a whole lot, just meant whole

6:39

lot to our family to our we

6:41

went to church together. There wasn't There

6:43

wasn't much information out there about

6:46

Doug Janis' murder. Local Local news stations

6:48

quoted an in affidavit, but it was brief

6:50

and just said the cause of death

6:52

was due to Doug due to Doug shot in

6:54

the head. the head. The

6:56

houseboat, as we as we said before, had

6:58

gone up in flames. At first, At first,

7:00

the police and paramedics thought it was

7:02

some kind of a propane leak or

7:04

freak accident. or freak Doug was a very

7:06

well -known commercial cat fisherman in the

7:08

area. He had not only built a

7:10

houseboat over the years, he had also

7:12

acquired several smaller houseboats. acquired kept them

7:15

all together. houseboats. He kept had a

7:17

lot of property down there.

7:19

property He also had a fireplace

7:21

on that houseboat on that propane

7:23

tanks. tanks. But But once they took

7:25

Doug's body to Beaumont, Texas and

7:27

did the autopsy, the they saw the

7:29

cause of death had been the fatal

7:31

shots to his head, to not the

7:33

house fire. fire. And And right away,

7:35

people were asking questions about his wife,

7:37

April Janice, and where she was at

7:39

the time of the murder. murder. Because

7:41

to to Doug's friend, April, Doug Doug and

7:43

his wife, April, were estranged at

7:45

the time of his death. They were They

7:47

were not living together they they hadn't

7:49

been living together for a long

7:51

time. time. April moved into into a mobile

7:53

home just up the hill from from Doug's

7:56

he stayed on the water, the but later

7:58

she moved moved into her own place. in many

8:00

Louisiana right across the bridge. Exactly

8:02

when April relocated and what the

8:04

story was there is something we're

8:06

going to be diving into in

8:08

future episodes. At the same time

8:10

there were rumors that witnesses had

8:13

seen a vehicle rapidly speeding away

8:15

from the houseboat, basically right before

8:17

it blew up. We talked to

8:19

Doug's friend April about some of

8:21

the irregularities at the crime scene.

8:23

He lived on the boat and...

8:25

She lived in a mobile home

8:27

up the hill from him. She

8:29

did not even, at that point,

8:31

she was not even living in

8:33

the same place with him. And

8:36

he had, he didn't even sleep

8:38

in his own bed ever. He

8:40

slept in a recliner because he

8:42

had a bad hernia. I guess

8:44

from, since he was a commercial

8:46

fisherman, you know, he had to

8:48

bend over the boat and lift

8:50

heavy fish, you know, out of

8:52

the water and stuff. And when

8:54

they, when they... put the fire

8:56

out and they found his body

8:59

it was in the bed with

9:01

and he had two bullet holes

9:03

in the back of the head.

9:05

This has been a difficult case.

9:07

We have done multiple FOIA requests

9:09

but the case file is not

9:11

public information since this is still

9:13

an active investigation. But that answered

9:15

one important question for me. I

9:17

knew Doug was shot in the

9:19

head. Now we found out he

9:21

was shot in the back of

9:24

the head. This was definitely a

9:26

murder case. Doug had been shot

9:28

execution style. But who would have

9:30

wanted to kill Doug Janice? A

9:32

man who everyone seemed to love

9:34

in that neighborhood. We need to

9:36

find more information about what Doug

9:38

was doing on that houseboat, and

9:40

also about his wife, about his

9:42

relationship with his wife April. We

9:44

also need to find these witnesses

9:47

who said they saw a car

9:49

speeding away from the blazing houseboat.

9:51

But even without the case file,

9:53

we did get a few facts.

9:55

The pathologist found two bullets lodged

9:57

in Doug's brain and ruled the

9:59

manner of death homicide. So as

10:01

we wait for more official police

10:03

and forensic information to come. We

10:05

need to ask, who was Doug

10:07

Janice? Everyone has secret parts of

10:10

themselves they don't want others to

10:12

see. And in a murder case,

10:14

often those hidden dark sides become

10:16

public. When it comes to Doug

10:18

Janice's murder, I can't remember a

10:20

case I've ever investigated where it

10:22

seems like the victim is so

10:24

loved and so hated at the

10:26

same time. Most of

10:28

the news articles about Doug are

10:30

really positive, but at the same

10:32

time I noticed they're pretty vague.

10:35

For example, the local news station

10:37

kjas.com had an article that read

10:39

quote, Doug Janice was living the

10:41

dream and doing what he loved

10:43

along the banks of Toledo Bend

10:45

Lake, fishing. He was known by

10:47

the fishing community as the catfish

10:49

man and well loved by all

10:51

who met him, end quote. So,

10:53

they painted a picture of Doug

10:56

Janus as being this nice guy

10:58

who was living out his golden

11:00

years on a houseboat that he

11:02

built himself. In all of the

11:04

photos I can find of Doug,

11:06

he has a huge smile on

11:08

his face. Doug was fit. He

11:10

spent a lot of time fishing.

11:12

He also got a scuba diving

11:14

certification and was a pretty avid

11:17

diver for years in the Texas

11:19

Gulf Coast area. Doug was always

11:21

on the water. He was obsessed

11:23

with the houseboat that he had

11:25

designed and built himself. He loved

11:27

showing his boat off to friends

11:29

and family. I'm going to take

11:31

a step back for a minute

11:33

because you can't unravel what happened

11:35

to Doug Janice without talking about

11:38

the area where it happened. This

11:40

infamous houseboat that sat on the

11:42

Toledo Bend Reservoir. This reservoir is

11:44

on the Sabine River. It sits

11:46

on the border between Texas and

11:48

Louisiana. It is a super rural

11:50

area and the people who live

11:52

there are kind of an eclectic

11:54

combination. You've got families who've lived

11:56

there for generations, also a lot

11:59

of retired people, and people who

12:01

come there to fish on weekends.

12:03

This area, the Toledo Bend Reservoir,

12:05

by the way, is huge. It

12:07

has an air... of 185,000 acres.

12:09

It's about 80 miles long. It's

12:11

the largest man-made body of water

12:13

in the South and the fifth

12:15

largest in the entire United States.

12:17

The lake is well known as

12:20

being amazing for fishing, especially for

12:22

catfish, Doug's favorite. But the water

12:24

is murky. Some people claim that

12:26

although there is swimming there, it's

12:28

not necessarily recommended in some areas

12:30

due to alligators. When I see

12:32

the trees that are sticking out

12:34

of the water, It does look

12:36

like a beautiful nature spot. I

12:38

also can't help thinking about what

12:40

could be floating in that lake,

12:43

like alligators or dead bodies. And

12:45

according to some Facebook postings by

12:47

residents, the area is very remote.

12:49

The nearest hospital is 15 miles

12:51

away and takes 25 minutes to

12:53

drive to. Even the fire department

12:55

is several miles away across the

12:57

bridge. The area looks a lot

12:59

like the Ozarks, especially on the

13:01

Texas side. The road is getting

13:04

skinnier. According to the obituary for

13:06

Douglas Michael Janus, he was born

13:08

August 8th, 1956 in Lake Jackson.

13:10

He grew up with his mother

13:12

Wanda and his stepfather Bill, who

13:14

adopted him. Doug was the oldest

13:16

of four siblings. His obituary read,

13:18

quote, Doug will be remembered as

13:20

one who never minded a hard

13:22

day's work. and never shot away

13:25

from a challenge. There was not

13:27

a lazy bone in his body,

13:29

and he was not afraid of

13:31

hard work. He was energetic, always

13:33

hustling, and never looked for a

13:35

handout. Those who knew him best

13:37

and loved him most never knew

13:39

him not to be working." Doug

13:41

lived most of his life in

13:43

Silesby. He worked as an insurance

13:46

sales representative for Farm Bureau. He

13:48

had apparently won awards for his

13:50

work. Doug was busy. He did

13:52

a lot of different jobs during

13:54

his lifetime. most involving manual labor,

13:56

including offshore drilling rigs in the

13:58

Gulf of Mexico. At one point,

14:00

he instants installed satellite dishes in

14:02

Austin, Texas. Doug was an entrepreneur.

14:04

He ran several small businesses himself,

14:07

including a fish market. As we

14:09

said, he always had a fascination

14:11

with the Toledo Bend Lake area.

14:13

Because of the lake, he was

14:15

obsessed with fishing, and eventually he

14:17

moved there and worked as a

14:19

commercial fisherman supplying local restaurants. Doug

14:21

apparently made a lot of money

14:23

at his craft. He was super

14:25

industrious. And even though he lived

14:28

on the Texas side of the

14:30

border, There was a 75 fish

14:32

limit per day there. So Doug

14:34

liked to fish on the Louisiana

14:36

side, where he could catch an

14:38

unlimited amount of fish. Doug apparently

14:40

made a lot of money and

14:42

kept a lot of money on

14:44

his boat. We'll get back to

14:46

that later. Back to the obituary.

14:49

The obituary continued, quote, his friends

14:51

and acquaintances knew him to be

14:53

a man's man, who was creative,

14:55

independent, and could do anything he

14:57

said his mind to do. He's

14:59

never met a stranger and was

15:01

known for his gregarious, outgoing personality."

15:03

Because Doug was obsessed with fishing,

15:05

especially cat fishing, he loved cooking

15:07

for friends, hanging out, and throwing

15:09

barbecues for friends and family. And

15:12

according to his obituary, he became

15:14

kind of a local celebrity because

15:16

of this self-made houseboat. The obituary

15:18

closes with, quote, in his final

15:20

moments, he was at home in

15:22

the place he loved and enjoyed

15:24

most. I think it's important to

15:26

quote these things exactly because this

15:28

was crafted by Doug's family, the

15:30

people closest to him. They obviously

15:33

loved him a lot and this

15:35

was the side of him that

15:37

they saw. But, like everyone, Doug

15:39

Janice had another side to him.

15:41

After Doug was cremated, his remains

15:43

were given back to his family.

15:45

The obituary states, Doug's ashes were

15:47

scattered in the same water where

15:49

he used to feed alligators marshmallows.

15:51

Meanwhile... Police were trying to piece

15:54

together Doug's personal life. And we

15:56

tried to do the same because

15:58

it turned out it was... complicated.

16:00

Doug Janice's obituary leaves

16:02

out a few pretty crucial things. things,

16:05

were also things about the crime scene

16:07

that the on first impression, on first not

16:09

seem to make sense. seem to make

16:11

sense. of all. of all, Doug had recently

16:13

had a hernia operation. Because of that,

16:16

he would normally sleep in his recliner

16:18

in the living room. recliner yet,

16:20

he was found with two he was in the head

16:22

on his bed. in the head the his

16:25

came at the fire p .m. at

16:27

5.28 p. So... Why was he in the bedroom

16:29

in the middle of the afternoon, of especially since

16:31

he wasn't sleeping there, apparently, in general? there

16:33

We also need to find out the layout

16:35

of that boat. need to find out else

16:37

of that I'm always looking I

16:39

just for the information obituaries

16:41

provide not for the information they

16:43

leave obituaries provide, but for the

16:46

information they has their own version

16:48

of the their own version of the

16:50

victim. The obituary mentions who Doug

16:52

has survived by. by. It mentions his

16:54

daughter who we have spoken to, to. but

16:56

she's a private person and obviously this has

16:59

been traumatic for her, this so I'm not

17:01

mentioning her name here, for her, as well

17:03

as his son -in -law and grandchildren, name here, as

17:05

his brother and sister and other family members.

17:08

The obituary even mentions

17:10

the sister fish family et

17:12

cetera. obituary the obituary does

17:15

not mention grateful wife, April. his

17:17

In fact, etc. But the doesn't

17:19

mention any of Doug's former wives.

17:22

Doug's former wives. For

17:24

me, the omission of the wife in

17:27

the obituary was a potential clue. clue. I I

17:29

wanted to understand their romantic history

17:31

and how April and Doug got together.

17:33

Doug got a little bit of a

17:35

mystery. little bit It was not solved not

17:37

as we said, by by reading Doug's or

17:40

by the the YouTube memorial video that was

17:42

made by the funeral home. made

17:44

by the funeral that video

17:46

several times. times. We learned from

17:48

Doug's daughter that he was married a total

17:51

of total of five twice to the same

17:53

woman. So he had had four

17:55

wives in total. noticed there were there

17:57

were several shots the the memorial

17:59

video of former wives wives him

18:01

with his children when they were young.

18:03

children there was only one quick flash

18:05

near the end, one single shot

18:08

of April. shot of in that photo, that photo,

18:10

is wearing a Hawaiian shirt. He's

18:12

very He's He's got silver hair. silver

18:14

He's older, but still a very

18:16

fit man with a huge smile

18:18

on his face. on his April is

18:20

standing next to him to him I

18:22

can best describe a completely blank

18:24

expression. expression. I looked

18:26

at April, I I couldn't get any sense

18:28

of her and Doug's relationship. Doug's I

18:30

wanted to know more. to know more.

18:33

Since April was nowhere to be seen in

18:35

the obituary. in the It seemed that Doug's

18:37

family was suspicious of April, but

18:39

they were not the only ones.

18:41

only Police were suspicious of

18:44

April 2, and on January

18:46

14, on 2021, 2021, April Janice

18:48

was arrested. and charged with

18:50

Doug's murder. murder. On

19:00

January 14th, 2021.

19:02

exactly a exactly a month

19:04

after Doug Janis was fatally shot

19:06

houseboat, his His estranged wife,

19:08

April was charged with with his

19:10

murder. We learned from We learned from friends of

19:12

at the the time of his death, April

19:14

and Doug were not living together. Doug

19:17

was living on his on his houseboat, April

19:19

had been staying on a mobile

19:21

trailer elsewhere on the property. elsewhere This

19:23

is a big property big spans quite

19:25

a few acres. few acres. Doug owned

19:28

more than one piece of property. He

19:30

also owned a second residence in Louisiana on

19:32

the other side of the border. on

19:35

learned that April had been living

19:37

there. learned relocated to that property.

19:39

a while back. relocated to

19:41

assistant Amy and I talked about this

19:43

case a lot. assistant Amy and

19:45

I talked about this case

19:48

a lot. This is the

19:50

bridge that divides Texas and

19:52

Louisiana across the water. Divides

19:54

the lake. that April committed

19:56

this crime. She would she

19:59

would have had to cross this bridge and the

20:01

fire department would have had to

20:03

cross this bridge as well. And

20:05

it's a long bridge. Yeah. We

20:07

were trying to figure out what

20:09

exactly went down. Since this murder

20:11

happened right on the Texas Louisiana

20:14

border, we knew that this case

20:16

might have involved multiple counties. So

20:18

according to the affidavit, police became

20:20

suspicious of April for several reasons.

20:22

First of all, when they interviewed

20:24

her, they did not believe she

20:26

appeared to be grieving at all.

20:28

They believed she was showing signs

20:30

of deception during that interview. And

20:33

when they asked her if she

20:35

killed her husband, she would quote,

20:37

not yes, but say no, end

20:39

quote. Police also noted that April

20:41

did not show any shock or

20:43

grief when she was told that

20:45

the boat burning down was to

20:47

cover up a homicide, not an

20:50

accident. The officer who scored the

20:52

affidavit wrote, he discovered that April

20:54

had a boyfriend in Louisiana, who

20:56

she was in love with and

20:58

intimate with. Police also discovered a

21:00

potential motive. Doug kept a lot

21:02

of cash on his houseboat. Police

21:04

also found out that there was

21:06

apparently an insurance policy on Doug.

21:09

In the affidavit, they said that

21:11

there was a $100,000 policy that

21:13

paid out in the event of

21:15

Doug's death. And April was the

21:17

sole beneficiary. Police talked to witnesses

21:19

and found one who told authorities

21:21

that on Sunday, December 13th, 2020,

21:23

the night of the murder. They

21:25

saw April leaving Doug's boat, sometime

21:28

between 430 to 5. They said

21:30

that it was dusk, but that

21:32

they could still clearly see that

21:34

it was April. They said that

21:36

April left home and passed by

21:38

the witness's house 15 to 20

21:40

minutes before the first fire truck

21:42

arrived on scene. The witness said

21:45

they were sure it was April.

21:47

They had known April for a

21:49

long time since she was a

21:51

little girl. They definitely recognized her.

21:53

They saw her driving her blue-dodged

21:55

truck. The affidavit read quote, The

21:57

information collected in the eyewitness statement

21:59

places the defendant at the crime

22:01

scene while the houseboat was on

22:04

fire and just before the fire

22:06

truck arrived." Which would have been

22:08

in the minutes leading up to

22:10

when the fire was called in

22:12

at 5.28 p.m. After April Janice

22:14

was arrested and charged with murder

22:16

on January 14th, things seemed to

22:18

be moving toward trial. Prosecutors seemed

22:21

confident in their case. A $10

22:23

million bond was set on April.

22:25

But then, all of a sudden,

22:27

everything changed. First,

22:29

quietly, the judge lowered the bail amount

22:32

in April's case from $10 million to

22:34

$200,000, which meant that she would only

22:36

need to come up with about $20,000

22:38

to bond out. And that's what happened.

22:41

April was released on bail. And then,

22:43

there was nothing. No more news stories

22:45

about the case, no updates. We were

22:48

able to get a list of April's

22:50

bond conditions, and we learned that pretty

22:52

much all of the restrictions were removed.

22:55

All she had to do was surrender

22:57

her passport and basically agreed to not

22:59

leave the country. She didn't have to

23:02

report to anyone. She was free. The

23:04

prosecutors apparently thought they just didn't have

23:06

enough evidence to pursue the case. That's

23:08

the official story and we know that

23:11

sometimes this happens in these cases. The

23:13

bar to take someone to trial and

23:15

to convict someone of murder is very

23:18

high and that's a good thing. But

23:20

I couldn't figure this case out. I

23:22

know it's circumstantial. But there appear to

23:25

be a lot of facts that could

23:27

have led toward April being taken to

23:29

trial. You have a witness who apparently

23:32

saw her at the crime scene around

23:34

the time of the murder. You have

23:36

the fact that there's a life insurance

23:38

policy, of which, according to police, she's

23:41

the sole beneficiary, $100,000. There was marital

23:43

infidelity. She had a boyfriend in Louisiana.

23:45

And according to the source we talked

23:48

to, April and Doug were not living

23:50

in the home together. She was living

23:52

somewhere else. So you have a separation

23:55

separation. And then we

23:57

found out something else. It turned out... that

23:59

Doug was not the first

24:01

person close to April

24:04

to died violently under

24:06

mysterious circumstances. Years

24:08

earlier, April's

24:10

mother, April's mother Anna

24:13

Thompson was also fatally

24:15

shot. We're going to get a

24:18

lot more into We're gonna get

24:20

a lot more into April Janice's family

24:22

history next week. week. But But for now, say

24:24

we can say grew grew up in

24:26

the Hemphill, Texas area with her with her mom

24:28

and her father, Bob Bob who,

24:30

by the way, was a character in his own his own

24:32

right. Bob was was an Army who

24:34

later ran a trucking company. Bob

24:36

was was known around town as the

24:38

one -armed biker. This was said with

24:41

affection because he had had an arm

24:43

amputated after an injury. injury. But he but

24:45

he to to constantly ride his motorcycle

24:47

around. around. Like Doug, Bob Bob was

24:49

into hunting and fishing and going out on

24:51

the lake. the lake. So we're going go

24:53

down to the area where Doug Doug was murdered

24:55

and see what we can find out. can find

24:57

out. We've been warned this could be

24:59

dangerous. be dangerous. is a part of

25:01

the world the things burn to the

25:03

ground, suspicious fires, flying bullets, violent

25:06

weather, and alligators are not

25:08

rare occurrences. But we found out

25:10

we found out several things my in

25:12

my opinion, are completely groundbreaking and

25:14

could change everything in this case. case.

25:16

Several things that make me

25:18

question how and why this case is

25:21

apparently going cold. cold, rather than

25:23

being actively investigated. investigated. One was

25:25

that April Janice was not just much

25:27

younger than her husband. We've

25:29

We've heard April was a teenager when she

25:32

started dating Doug. Doug. Doug's

25:34

friend, April, actually addressed this. She

25:36

said she noticed how young young looked next

25:38

to Doug when she first met them. she first

25:40

met them. is hilarious because

25:42

I got they start calling me big me

25:44

her little April her keep the

25:46

two of us keep the two of us I

25:48

thought that she was his his daughter

25:50

or granddaughter by chance or something the first

25:52

the first time he came to

25:55

church with her she was she was

25:57

a kid was a child and I

25:59

I went I felt Some of see you, Doug.

26:01

said, good to see was like, And so We

26:03

get this all the time. And I'm

26:05

like, get this all the time. And I'm he I'm like,

26:07

okay. But he was a good man. man. Some

26:09

of his friends Some of his friends of

26:11

to kind of gloss over the fact that April

26:13

was so young. But they may they may

26:16

be unaware of just how young

26:18

April was. when she started

26:20

becoming involved with Doug. Doug. According to

26:22

people who knew April and Doug well,

26:24

April and Doug started dating when

26:26

she was very young. young. She was

26:28

was just 13 years old. time, Doug

26:30

would At that time, Doug would have been in

26:32

his we're not here to blame victims, we're

26:35

not here to blame victims. to But

26:37

I do think it's important to develop

26:39

a complete picture of Doug Janis in order

26:41

to understand why someone would have wanted

26:43

to murder him execution style. style. And a big and

26:45

a big piece of that puzzle is

26:47

understanding what his exact relationship was with

26:49

April. April. Bob

26:52

Thompson, April's father, wrote

26:54

an entire book about April's life,

26:56

and the night her mother Anna was

26:58

killed. passed Bob passed away. We're

27:00

gonna be reading excerpts from his book.

27:03

to try to we're gonna try to piece

27:05

this story together. going to We're gonna talk

27:07

to someone very close to April we're

27:09

we're gonna track down the witness who

27:11

saw who boat burn to the ground. to the

27:13

We're gonna try to find the person

27:15

who allegedly saw April leaving the scene

27:18

leaving the we're going to try to figure

27:20

out what happened in that remote in

27:22

area, way back in the woods. way back in

27:24

We will also get into into Anna death

27:26

a lot more next week. But

27:28

a lot of the records in this case

27:31

are sealed. in what we've been able to

27:33

figure out. we've It turns out that

27:35

21 years ago out that 21 years ago,

27:37

was shot in the back

27:39

of the head, the back just

27:41

like Doug like Doug I'm Katherine Townsend This

27:44

is is Helen Gone murder line.

27:47

Helen Gawn Murder is a production of

27:49

School of School of Humans and I-Hart It's

27:51

written and narrated by me, narrated

27:54

me, Catherine by and produced by

27:56

Gabby Watts. thanks to Amy Tubbs for

27:58

her research her research assistants. This episode

28:00

was and mixed by Mixed by

28:02

Noah Our theme song is

28:04

by Ben Salie. Executive producers

28:07

of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, Crowley.

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