Murder In America
EP. 192: TENNESSEE - The Confession: A Massive Update In The April Holt Case
Fri, 07 Mar 2025
In today’s episode, we speak with Jamie and Jeremiah, victim April Holt’s parents, about some recent major developments in the case and what justice looks like to them. In addition, we reveal for the very first time the shocking confession that kickstarted this criminal case in the first place. - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5IY9nWD2MYDzlSYP48nRPl -Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/id1752719844 -Amazon/Audible - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/ab1ade99-740c-46ae-8028-b2cf41eabf58/the-conspiracy-files -Pandora - https://www.pandora.com/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/PC:1001089101 -iHeart - https://iheart.com/podcast/186907423/ -PocketCast - https://pca.st/dpdyrcca -CastBox - https://castbox.fm/channel/id6193084?country=us - Stay Connected: Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel - (c) BLOOD IN THE SINK PRODUCTIONS 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the recent update in the April Holt case?
Hello, everyone. Today's episode is an update episode. And sadly, it's not the kind of update we wanna give you. Now, if you haven't listened to our episodes about the murder of April Holt, which were episodes 177 through 179, You have to go back now and give those a listen or you will be very confused here.
But in them, we worked with April Holt's mother, Jamie Dickerson, to tell you the story about how a mother of two was strangled to death by her estranged husband, in 2023. The man in question is Donovan Holt, and he admitted to killing April that day. He also admitted to staging her death to make it look like a suicide.
In the last episode about this case, we left you with the news of Donovan's arrest. And for months, we have been patiently waiting for his sentencing, which just took place on February 18th, 2025. But unfortunately, his sentence was anything but justice. So in this episode, we are going to tell you about Donovan's slap on the wrist sentence.
We also sat down with Jamie and her husband Jeremiah to hear their thoughts on everything. And lastly, we are going to play for you the never before heard confession that Jamie herself got from her daughter's killer. So this is the update on the murder of April Holt. I'm Courtney Browen.
And I'm Colin Brown.
Thank you.
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Chapter 2: Who was April Holt and what led to her tragic death?
Before we get into this episode, I'm gonna give you an overview about this case. I know we already gave you a three part series on it, but it was many months ago. So just as a refresher, April Lynn Holt was a 29 year old living in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2023, she was building her career as a lash artist. She was a mother of two beautiful children named Serenity and Denzel.
And she was also married to a man named Donovan Holt, who was Denzel's father. Now at this point, everything in April's life was going well for her. Everything except her marriage. For years, April and Donovan had had one reoccurring problem. and it had to do with their finances. Now, Donovan was a cook, but he had a hard time holding down a job.
And in July of 2023, April Holt got a call from her apartment complex, letting her know that she was being evicted because their rent wasn't paid. In that moment, April found out that Donovan had lied to her. He had told her that he had covered his portion of the rent and that it was taken care of when... It wasn't. And it was at this very moment where April had had enough.
She told Donovan that she wanted a divorce. Now they were still living together at the time, but April was done with him. She told all of her friends and family that she was moving on for good. She had even reconnected with an old boyfriend of hers. But tragedy was right around the corner, in more ways than one.
Tragically, in the days before April's death, she had met up with this man in Tennessee for a work obligation. And while there, he sexually assaulted her. Following the assault, she wrote in her journal, quote, I feel so ashamed, dirty, hurt. I'm physically hurting." April was clearly in a tough spot in her life.
She was divorcing her husband and she had just been sexually assaulted, but the worst was yet to come. On July 28th, 2023, Donovan Holt told his seven-year-old son Denzel to go check on his mom, who was in the bathroom of their apartment. And when Denzel walked into the bathroom, he found his mother unconscious in the shower with a bag taped over her head.
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Chapter 3: How did the confession from Donovan Holt come to light?
From there, 911 was called and April was rushed to the hospital where she sadly succumbed to her injuries. And for the detectives in this case, their job was easy. After briefly speaking with Donovan, he told them about how April had just been sexually assaulted. He also lied and said that she had been drinking and doing a lot of drugs and that she killed herself that day.
And surprisingly, they took his word for it. Investigators didn't even step foot in April's apartment until hours after she was brought to the hospital. To them, this was an open and shut case. Without hardly investigating, the lead detective even went into the medical examiner and told her that this was a suicide. And without a proper investigation, That's exactly what they ruled April's death.
They said that she had died by suicide by taping that plastic bag around her head. But from the very beginning, April's mother, Jamie, knew that that wasn't the case. She knew that her daughter had been murdered. However, despite her efforts, no one believed her. For months and months, Jamie pleaded with investigators to take another look at the case.
And she was especially worried because April's son Denzel was still in the custody of his father, the very man that she knew murdered her daughter. But again, no one was listening. So finally, Jamie decided to take matters into her own hands. One day, she FaceTimed Donovan and she had a secret camera that was recording their entire conversation.
And surprisingly, it's on that FaceTime where Donovan admitted to strangling April. Finally, Jamie had the evidence she needed. And after handing that video over to the police, Donovan was finally arrested. a whole year after April's death. Now, Jamie was happy that he was finally behind bars and that Denzel was now in her custody, but it wasn't all good news.
You see, when Donovan sat down with investigators a year after April's death, he admitted that he had lied to them. April hadn't died by suicide, he said. He had strangled her, but he said that it was an accident. This time, Donovan claimed that they were having sex and getting a little rough. He said he started choking her and at some point he looked down and April was unconscious.
Donovan said that from there, he completely staged her suicide. He put her in the shower, grabbed a plastic bag and some tape, and then wrapped the bag around her head. From there, he went out into the kitchen and he made his seven-year-old son Denzel some lunch. After eating that lunch, he then told his son, hey, go check on your mom. And Denzel did what he was told.
Donovan Holt not only strangled April to death and staged her suicide, but he made his own son find her body. Now, once again, when he told the police this story about choking her during sex, they believed him. And that's when they charged him with reckless homicide. But if you listen to our coverage of the episode, you'd know that we don't believe this was an accident at all.
And neither does anyone who knew and loved April. According to all of April's friends, she was done with Donovan. They were estranged. She had moved on. Her loved ones all said that April wouldn't have been having sex with him that day. And to prove that even further, April had actually written in her journal that she and Donovan were not having sex anymore.
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Chapter 4: What were the legal outcomes for Donovan Holt?
It started in our, in our first year.
She had went back and messed around with Anthony and went back and messed around with Dion.
And if you looked at our messages, his name was either Ant or A.W.
And he was somebody that was introduced, put it like this, in our nine years of being together or whatever,
He had been messing around with him for seven.
He was introduced as a friend, as a homeboy, and that was kind of her go-to guy.
Where'd she meet him? I don't even know this guy.
Yeah.
There are certain things that she liked sexually that I was not willing to do or willing to participate in.
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Chapter 5: What are Jamie and Jeremiah's thoughts on the sentencing?
And like I said, that's all stuff I've kept.
Yeah, but, you know, she was then, you know, it's good. But when you're telling me, at least I can almost also then see, like, that's a lot on her head as well. Because when you walk around and you know you're doing something that everybody else is not going to be favorable for. And yet you're trying, because I know in her heart she wanted to walk this Christian path.
But then it's like having a good and a bad, you know, on your shoulders. And it's like a constant, like, wait, I want to do this, but this isn't my year over here. And that's really hard. And I know she loved you. I know she loved you. But she would say the same about you. She would literally say, Donovan is my best friend.
So even though I don't know that we should be married, she said, he's my best friend. And I said, I get that, but it's okay to co-parent like people co-parent. But at the same time, I know that your love for her, that level of love is hard to give up.
Yeah. And so it was a lot of times. She referred to me, and this was an in-the-house thing, she referred to me as her bottom B word, I'll say that, because I was the guy who was always at the house and, you know, took care of things or whatever, but when she wanted to go out and about, she felt like she should have the freedom to do so.
I mean, it was hard.
It wasn't easy.
I'm not going to sit there.
I'll never sit there and say it wasn't.
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Chapter 6: How did Jamie obtain Donovan Holt's confession?
Yeah. So, you know, we had went through all that.
And then it was a lot of lies as well, you know, just in the sense of it. So let me reference something that was brought up and the whole thing about the people that people didn't know. And I told April I would keep it with what she wanted to go with. I never cheated on April. April, of course, with all this going on, I entertained a conversation with somebody online.
Somebody I'd never met before, but it was just like daily check-ins. And I had sent them up to, I think it was over a course of a couple months, it was like $100 in the span of like $20 per lunch or gas or whatever. And, you know, to me, I was like, well, she's doing this, and she's having an issue with me talking to somebody else.
And for her, her thing was, well, if you're making money, that's my money. It should be going to our household.
Right.
So that happened to me.
i don't know if you're well i know you remember but when we lived in atlanta and we came back and look and we're living at nana's house yeah no i remember all that going down and here's and she told me that it was just an online thing with you some kind of phone relationship or whatever is she did tell me that she did tell me that it was a phone thing
because i had asked her i was like well were they ever physically you know sexual did they do and she said no she was honest about that she just said that she was so mad but she didn't you know i didn't know about her end of anything i just knew about your end you know so like and that was my thing i just i never wanted to make her look bad at all even when things going on to me it was like okay we can handle this in-house and it was hard to you know it's hard to
bring that even now it's hard to bring that kind of stuff you know to somebody's mom or somebody's family or people who see her a certain way i didn't want i didn't want to be the person that changed the way she looked because she because in the end of the day it's not putting on the front she is the great she was a great person like i know outside of those things that she needed but when i went to the boat
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Chapter 7: What is 'The Conspiracy Files' podcast about?
But when she had felt like she was going to lose her business, I know she kind of freaked out and she ran back to that because she knew, I guess with certain things she would get the money.
now she told me it was airbnb and that he was gonna let her be her assistant like 500 dollars a week and of course i'm like okay if that's what you're doing you need to do but i told her i had picked up another shift from my security job to cover what she was going to be making yeah and she but she was very i mean she was a And it was... It was a series. It was me versus we.
And how you have to be, you both have to be great we's in order to be a great we. And I knew I had financial stuff I needed to get together in order to be able to support her how she needed. She knew she had other stuff she needed to figure out if she was going to be with anybody at all.
Right.
And so, you know, it... That wasn't an issue between us at that point. The first time we talked about divorce, of course, I'm begging and pleading. This time, I understood it, and we knew we were going to do our thing together with Denzel. I do feel like maybe they had agreed to something, but I do feel like there was some type of... I don't know if you can call it rape.
I mean, that's what she came and told me, and I mean, Denzel was there when she came in like that, but... It was because the way she stood in front of the mirror and had, I mean, she had bruises all down her breasts. She had bruises on her thighs. She had bruises on her chest, on her neck. And I do think that at some point, something happened where she wasn't aware of what was going on.
Everything, you know, I told you, was straightforward as far as, like, you know, she shut down. She went to the doctor. She just wasn't herself. And when that day came, the...
like a weird perk up but it was it felt good because she was kind of back to herself from being because after it happened like all like i said all she wanted to do was go back to work that's all she could focus on i gotta go to work i gotta go to work like you need to go to the hospital no i gotta go to work i have to work yeah and um so i know she had talked to i know she had talked to zach i know she had talked to uh the ant the ant guy and
We were getting ready for... Jamie, do you promise you're just listening?
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