Her killer left several anonymous messages and notes in the Fort Wayne area between 1990 and 2004, openly boasting about April's murder and threatening to kill again.

Via forensic genealogy, the Fort Wayne Police Department (FWPD) identified April's murderer as John Miller in July 2018.

On December 21,[3] Miller pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eighty years in prison on the charges of child molestation (rape) and murder.

[5] April Tinsley was a member of the children's choir at the Faith United Methodist Church,[6] and a second-grader attending Fairfield Elementary School.

[14] In June 2009, Indiana authorities asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) task force Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) to help them solve the murder.

[15] Investigators initially believed it could be connected to the murder of 7-year-old Sarah Jean Bowker, whose body was found on June 14, 1990, in Fort Wayne.

[16] On August 7, 1991, the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit determined that, although Tinsley and Bowker's cases were similar, they were ultimately unrelated.

[15][22] On October 26, 2018, the Indiana State Police honored three Fort Wayne investigators for helping authorities identify John D. Miller as a suspect in the Tinsley case.

[19] On April 26, 1988, police sent DNA samples of Tinsley and five suspects to a private lab in Germantown, Maryland, for profiling, giving inconclusive results.

[14] The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit created a profile of the suspect in 2009, describing him as a "Preferential Child Sex Offender", meaning "he has a long-term and persistent sexual desire for children.

"[24] The profile described the murderer as a white male, then in his 40s through 50s, living or working in northeast Fort Wayne/Allen County with a low to medium income.

[28] On July 2, 2018, the genealogist CeCe Moore narrowed down the list of suspects to two brothers, including 59-year-old John D. Miller of Grabill, Indiana,[29][12] whose neighbors described him as secluded and often angry.

[39][40] The following day, at Fairfield Elementary School, a pink magnolia tree and a bench were formally dedicated to April's memory.

This award was in recognition of their tireless, collaborative efforts conducted over the span of 30 years to see April's murderer brought to justice.