Police Release Sketch of Person of Interest in Armada Teen's Murder

Police on Sunday released a sketch of a person of interest in the slaying of 14-year-old April Millsap, whose body was discovered Thursday by two joggers in a drainage ditch near the Macomb Orchard trail where she had been walking her dog.

April’s dog, Penny, led the joggers to her body after her mother reported her missing Thursday when she failed to come home from walking her dog, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Two joggers were going around the trail and a dog actually alerted that there was something amiss in the wood line,” Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw said, according to a WWJ-TV report. “When they went to investigate what it was, that’s when they found the body.”

April’s death, believed to have occurred between 6:20 and 8:20 p.m. Thursday, has been ruled a homicide, though authorities aren’t saying how she was killed. They said she was not shot or stabbed.

Shaw said the sketch is of a person who was seen on the trail the night April was killed. The Michigan State Police, Macomb County Sheriff’s Office and FBI are assisting in the investigation.

Experts with the FBI in Quantico, VA, have been consulted, The Detroit News reports.

Suspects may include people who have shown an excessive interest in the case or may have unexplained absences from their normal daily activities.

Police did not say if the man they’re looking for is a witness or a suspect. He is white and has sandy brown or reddish hair. “If it looks like anyone you might know or see, please call us,” Armada Police Chief Howard Smith said, adding the man may have changed his appearance.

Police are also looking for information about a gray box van occupied by two men, and also a small blue and white motorcycle, operated by a younger man, in connection with the investigation.

Police confirmed that April sent a text message to her boyfriend the night she was killed that she thought she was being abducted, The Detroit News said, citing the Associated Press.

“Omg,” she reportedly texted, “I think I’m being kidnapped.”

Her phone was found, but not at the crime scene, according to reports.

No one has been ruled out as a suspect, but Smith said investigators don’t think she was killed by a family member.

“I think with the characteristics of this person in this particular crime there was very different that other crimes – was the fact that she was walking her dog Penny out there on the trail, the dog was there, the dog stayed there during in the commission of the crime. This person that may match this profile may familiar with the dog or may be very familiar with dogs in general,” Smith said.

A GoFundMe site has been created to help the family with funeral and burial expenses. As of Sunday evening, about $8,000 had been raised.

Anyone with information is asked to call the police tip line at (877) 616-4677. Tips may also be submitted online.