The murder of 14-year-old April Millsap in July 2014 sent the village of Armada into a frenzy. They hadn’t seen a murder in years let alone the murder of a child. The police enlisted the help of the Michigan State Police and the FBI to run down over 1000 tips. They followed every path of investigation. Most were dead ends but one led to James VanCallis.
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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Well, if you like murder, I don't know who likes murder, but you know what I mean.
If you like this sort of thing, the true crime thing, here we are. This is Sword and Scale, season 11, episode 278. The show that reveals the worst monsters are real.
To plan your next luxury escape.
Criminals are a subset of our society. We often like to think of them as different from ourselves. We classify them as criminals and separate them from the rest of us. It's those people over there, they're the ones that make the bad choices, not us. Sure, it takes a bad decision or a bad series of decisions to become a criminal. a lapse in judgment, a bad choice, drugs, things like that.
And the thing is, we're all still just human beings. Human beings make mistakes. And you and I are also human beings. But there is a bit of a distinction, even though I would argue it's a lot more fragile than most people want to portray. Especially those people that are teetering on the edge of morality. There are those criminals who just find it nearly impossible not to break the law.
It's kind of like who they are, you know, deep down. Psychologically, it stems from a lot of things, but often they have an utter lack of empathy. They put their desires above everyone else. They rationalize and minimize their actions to justify this behavior. In fact, they see themselves as so superior that they feel outside the societal norms and, above all, legal constraints.
Any challenge to this superiority is met with defensiveness and rage. These criminals relentlessly seek validation and control through the skewed lens of their irrational mind. In this pursuit, almost... always leads to destructive consequences for themselves, and more importantly, all of those around them.
About 45 minutes north of Detroit, Michigan, tucked into the north central part of Macomb County, is the village of Armada. Surrounded by farmlands and orchards, it's best known for the Armada Fair at the end of every summer. On July 24, 2014, it was a cloudy afternoon, but the temperature outside was only 72 degrees. On the west end of town, April Millsap woke up late.
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