Mom vows to find justice in daughter's murder

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV/Gray News) – When 29-year-old April Holt’s death was ruled a suicide, her mother knew something was wrong.

April embodied positivity, which she shared in the videos she created and posted on TikTok and viewed by 200,000 followers.

“I still look at them all the time, almost daily, because I feel like I can actually smell her,” said Holt’s mother, Jamie Dickerson.

Dickerson spoke with WSMV Monday in a classroom at Believers Faith Fellowship in Christiana. It was full of decorations and objects that April had placed there throughout the years she taught middle school students.

It’s also where Dickerson was supposed to meet her daughter more than a year ago.

Police said April Holt was found with a plastic bag tied tightly around her neck and died at... — Police said April Holt was found with a plastic bag tied tightly around her neck and died at the hospital. His death was initially ruled a suicide.(WSMV)

“We were going to see the movie Barbie,” she explained. “She said ‘Donovan has to work, I can’t go to the movies, but I’ll meet you at church in Blast class tomorrow.'”

Dickerson never got a chance to respond to April. She and her husband, Donovan Holt, had a rocky relationship and were on the verge of divorce. Dickerson received a call the next day.

“The phone rang, and it was Donovan, and he was upset — kind of like panic,” she said, remembering what happened in 2023. “He said, ‘We We discovered that April was not breathing and was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Metro Nashville police said April was found with a plastic bag tied tightly around her neck. She died in hospital. She left behind a 12-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old son in 2023.

His death was ruled a suicide, but Dickerson knew that was far from the truth.

“They closed April’s case,” she said. “DA and everyone agreed to shut it down. I got up and walked out of that room and said, “I’m not done, I’m going to continue investigating.” »

Dickerson spent hours every day trying to find out who killed April. She filed complaints and eventually asked the Metro Nashville Police Department to review the case. The ministry produced a 47-page report.

According to the report, detectives said there were “two hits” of Donovan Holt’s fingerprints on the roll of duct tape.

Dickerson showed Donovan this information.

“I said, ‘You can tell me the truth or I’m going to meet with the cold case team next Thursday and get this case reopened,'” she told him.

Metro Nashville police said a few weeks ago that Donovan confessed to strangling April, something Dickerson suspected all along.

“I’m not shocked,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for a year knowing what happened; I already knew that.

April is now buried just minutes from her church. Although Dickerson never got the chance to respond to her daughter more than a year ago, she said her TikTok videos were words from the grave.

“I always watch his videos and think, ‘Oh, I needed that one day,’” Dickerson said.

Last year, Dickerson wrote a book about grief and plans to open a community grief center that serves Rutherford and Bedford counties.

Donovan was charged with reckless homicide, tampering with evidence and making false reports. Dickerson says she wants to see those charges upgraded to first-degree murder and add child endangerment.