WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Doug Janis Part 3 0:00:08.285 --> 0:00:12.445 School of Humans. 0:00:13.925 --> 0:00:17.485 We're in Sabine County, Texas, walking around the area where 0:00:17.485 --> 0:00:21.045 Doug Janis was murdered. All I can think about is 0:00:21.085 --> 0:00:24.245 a passage from Bob Thompson's book, the part where he 0:00:24.325 --> 0:00:27.405 was talking about the wildlife that hide in these woods. 0:00:28.165 --> 0:00:31.125 Bob said that the Fish and Game Department released a 0:00:31.165 --> 0:00:35.045 couple thousand rattlesnakes back into the wild in Sabine County, 0:00:35.405 --> 0:00:39.765 apparently to control the rodent population. That was a while ago, 0:00:40.245 --> 0:00:44.805 but presumably they're still out there. One of Doug's neighbors 0:00:44.885 --> 0:00:47.605 lived in a house on a nearby property, but he 0:00:47.645 --> 0:00:51.285 has since passed away. The house is abandoned, and there's 0:00:51.325 --> 0:00:54.845 a porch with a really good view. The wood looks 0:00:54.845 --> 0:00:56.965 like it might be rotten, but I decide to give 0:00:57.005 --> 0:00:59.485 it a shot anyway. I climb up on a ladder 0:00:59.485 --> 0:01:02.245 and from here we have a clear view of Doug's houseboat, 0:01:02.805 --> 0:01:06.125 the one that burned to the ground. We've talked a 0:01:06.165 --> 0:01:09.365 lot about April and Doug's relationship, the one that went 0:01:09.405 --> 0:01:13.565 on for years and was very intense and complicated. But 0:01:13.685 --> 0:01:16.925 what I wonder is, if April did kill Doug, why 0:01:16.925 --> 0:01:21.805 did she choose that day? December thirteenth, twenty twenty. What 0:01:22.045 --> 0:01:25.645 was her motive? What happened? I think that solving Doug 0:01:25.725 --> 0:01:29.365 Janis's murder starts with figuring out what really happened to 0:01:29.405 --> 0:01:32.765 April's mother, Anna Thompson on the night she was fatally 0:01:32.805 --> 0:01:36.245 shot in the early morning hours of September fourth, two 0:01:36.245 --> 0:01:39.325 thousand and four, the night when April went to the races, 0:01:39.925 --> 0:01:42.805 and the night when Anna told her friend Yvonne that 0:01:42.845 --> 0:01:45.805 she had found out that April was being molested by 0:01:45.845 --> 0:01:49.805 Doug Janis. Last week we heard from April's father, Bob, 0:01:49.965 --> 0:01:52.325 who gave his version of what happened on the night 0:01:52.365 --> 0:01:56.165 his wife was fatally shot. Yvonne has a very different 0:01:56.245 --> 0:01:58.565 version of what she says went down that night. 0:01:59.165 --> 0:02:02.285 I have, you know, conversations I had with Anna. Let 0:02:02.325 --> 0:02:05.165 me write up to the day, you know, and she 0:02:05.285 --> 0:02:07.925 was that night than wee hours of the morning. He 0:02:09.165 --> 0:02:11.925 came over and begged us to take her and watch 0:02:11.925 --> 0:02:15.125 her because he was so tired and he needed sleep, 0:02:16.365 --> 0:02:18.325 and that he was afraid to go to sleep around her. 0:02:18.645 --> 0:02:21.565 Were called over there the night she was killed, and 0:02:21.605 --> 0:02:24.845 after like that was a setup itself. You know, maybe 0:02:24.845 --> 0:02:26.285 what I should do is just tell you in the 0:02:26.405 --> 0:02:31.205 very get go here that I believe that there were 0:02:31.605 --> 0:02:35.365 several people involved in all of this, and I believe 0:02:35.405 --> 0:02:37.525 that it all had to do with April. I believe 0:02:37.645 --> 0:02:42.085 she was being I know, to being molested, and I 0:02:42.125 --> 0:02:45.245 believe she might have been being trafficked by people with 0:02:45.325 --> 0:02:49.845 prominent positions in that town, and that Anna was pretty 0:02:49.885 --> 0:02:52.765 much taken out because she was probably gonna blow the 0:02:52.805 --> 0:02:56.365 lid off of it. And I think Bob knows. 0:02:56.845 --> 0:03:00.085 I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making 0:03:00.085 --> 0:03:03.285 my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I have learned that 0:03:03.325 --> 0:03:06.445 there is no such thing as a small where murder 0:03:06.525 --> 0:03:10.245 never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people 0:03:10.285 --> 0:03:13.205 all around the country asking for help with an unsolved 0:03:13.245 --> 0:03:17.725 murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If 0:03:17.765 --> 0:03:19.525 you have a case you'd like me and my team 0:03:19.525 --> 0:03:21.885 to look into, you can reach out to us at 0:03:21.885 --> 0:03:25.005 our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven 0:03:25.085 --> 0:03:28.525 four four six one four five. That's six seven eight 0:03:28.925 --> 0:03:32.685 seven four four six one four five, or you can 0:03:32.725 --> 0:03:37.565 send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. This 0:03:37.805 --> 0:04:25.845 is Helen Gone Murder Line. Before we get to the 0:04:25.925 --> 0:04:28.565 night of Anna's death. We have to go way back 0:04:29.245 --> 0:04:32.605 back to when Yvonne first met Bob and Anna in April. 0:04:33.445 --> 0:04:36.805 Yvonne said she was not originally from Sabine County, but 0:04:36.885 --> 0:04:39.485 when she lived there she got to know Bob, Anna 0:04:39.565 --> 0:04:43.245 and April well. She said that Anna was around forty 0:04:43.285 --> 0:04:46.045 when Yvonne first met her. We know that Bob was 0:04:46.125 --> 0:04:48.245 much older than his wife, so by that time he 0:04:48.285 --> 0:04:51.485 would have been in his mid sixties. Yvonne said that 0:04:51.565 --> 0:04:55.685 to her, Anna seemed childlike with very little experience of 0:04:55.725 --> 0:04:58.925 the world, and that her daughter April was the same way. 0:04:59.605 --> 0:05:03.325 Yvonne said that Anna and April seemed very close. 0:05:03.965 --> 0:05:07.085 You know that she definitely didn't get out much at all, 0:05:08.045 --> 0:05:13.765 I mean her whole life. Okay, So that's just very naive, gullible. Okay, 0:05:14.005 --> 0:05:17.925 that's the way. And I know for a fact that 0:05:18.205 --> 0:05:22.045 because of how long ago that was, and that myself 0:05:22.245 --> 0:05:25.685 I even felt like it was gullible and naive in 0:05:25.845 --> 0:05:30.605 that part of the world, in that town, in that scenario, 0:05:31.245 --> 0:05:33.525 like the things that happened there, I never would have 0:05:33.605 --> 0:05:37.565 dreamt could have happened in America, And at that date, 0:05:38.845 --> 0:05:44.165 I just it blows my mind still does. So I'm 0:05:44.205 --> 0:05:46.365 just saying that she was just naive to the way 0:05:46.485 --> 0:05:48.325 the world. I don't think she's ever had a job. 0:05:49.885 --> 0:05:53.605 I don't think she had ever I don't know how 0:05:53.645 --> 0:05:55.805 long I'm trying to remember how long they had been married. 0:05:55.885 --> 0:05:59.045 But it was almost as if he was like her father. 0:05:59.245 --> 0:06:03.045 That's the way it seemed to me, you know, the 0:06:03.045 --> 0:06:04.365 way their relationship was. 0:06:05.045 --> 0:06:08.765 Yvonne said that from the beginning she was uncomfortable with Bob. 0:06:09.245 --> 0:06:12.045 Though he was friendly, she said he would make very 0:06:12.085 --> 0:06:15.085 sexually explicit comments in front of her and her partner 0:06:15.085 --> 0:06:18.925 at the time. She and her partner, Jay, agreed Bob 0:06:19.005 --> 0:06:21.365 was creepy and they didn't want to make a habit 0:06:21.405 --> 0:06:22.485 of socializing with him. 0:06:23.045 --> 0:06:27.565 There was just some weird comments. My fiance and myself 0:06:27.645 --> 0:06:29.925 we both agreed not to go back. That we didn't 0:06:29.925 --> 0:06:32.565 really want to go back over there for dinner or anything, 0:06:32.565 --> 0:06:36.365 and we were going to start trying to put distance, 0:06:36.845 --> 0:06:41.285 you know, we didn't want to because of the weird conversations, 0:06:41.365 --> 0:06:45.245 like there were sexual eu windows made about a lot 0:06:45.285 --> 0:06:49.405 of different things that were unnecessary, and it made myself 0:06:49.445 --> 0:06:52.885 and him feel very uncomfortable. Although Anna would start laughing 0:06:53.005 --> 0:06:55.525 and he would start laughing, and they would also make 0:06:55.565 --> 0:06:57.805 these comments in front of their daughter, who was twelve 0:06:58.045 --> 0:07:02.925 at the time, which is April. Yeah, and so we're like, 0:07:03.205 --> 0:07:06.725 oh my gosh, what are they did. It was just strange. 0:07:06.845 --> 0:07:13.125 She's not your normal child. She just wasn't because I 0:07:13.165 --> 0:07:15.605 felt like she was just saying she was twelve years old, 0:07:15.645 --> 0:07:19.365 but she was so isolated, just like her mother, very 0:07:19.485 --> 0:07:22.605 isolated there with just Bob. And that's how I felt. 0:07:22.965 --> 0:07:26.245 And even though she went to school, they immediately started 0:07:26.285 --> 0:07:29.205 telling us how the kids are mean to her. 0:07:30.245 --> 0:07:32.045 Yvonne seemed to pick up on the same thing that 0:07:32.125 --> 0:07:34.845 I did. Bob seemed to be playing the victim in 0:07:34.885 --> 0:07:39.005 his book, blaming everything in his life on outsiders. But 0:07:39.125 --> 0:07:41.885 Yvonne said that at the time, Bob and Anna seemed 0:07:41.885 --> 0:07:45.645 to have a solid relationship, and so did April and 0:07:45.685 --> 0:07:46.085 her mother. 0:07:46.925 --> 0:07:49.685 They were together all the time. It was almost as if, 0:07:49.925 --> 0:07:52.445 like I said, like they were friends because I feel 0:07:52.485 --> 0:07:56.885 like they were both isolated, and so they played together. 0:07:57.405 --> 0:08:02.765 They and Anna was so April was the only kid. 0:08:03.845 --> 0:08:06.605 It's like she was out there, the old one armed 0:08:07.205 --> 0:08:11.565 geezer for a husband. It's like I think Anna was 0:08:11.645 --> 0:08:15.165 April was her only outlet, you know, of a fun 0:08:15.285 --> 0:08:18.965 and smiling and laughing and having a good time. And 0:08:19.805 --> 0:08:22.005 so I saw them do a lot of things together 0:08:22.085 --> 0:08:26.925 like that, get along really well, giggling, laughing, very childlike 0:08:27.125 --> 0:08:27.725 both of them. 0:08:28.645 --> 0:08:32.525 But that closeness between Anna and April stopped when Doug 0:08:32.605 --> 0:08:36.285 Janis came along. Remember that Doug was married at the 0:08:36.285 --> 0:08:39.525 time to a woman named Terry, but Terry was living 0:08:39.565 --> 0:08:42.925 in Silsby. We reached out to Terry after we were 0:08:42.965 --> 0:08:47.285 talking to some people close to Doug Janie. They suggested 0:08:47.365 --> 0:08:50.405 we give her a call. And even though this involves 0:08:50.405 --> 0:08:53.605 painful memories for her, she clearly cares a lot about 0:08:53.645 --> 0:08:56.805 Doug and wants to see justice done. This is Terry 0:08:57.205 --> 0:08:58.485 telling me how she met Doug. 0:08:59.165 --> 0:09:02.205 I met Doug somewhere in the late seventies or early 0:09:02.285 --> 0:09:06.285 eighties in Silsby, Pardon County, which is about ninety miles 0:09:06.285 --> 0:09:09.125 from Houston. I had gone into the local Farm Bureau 0:09:09.245 --> 0:09:13.565 insurance office to get car insurance and he was the 0:09:13.645 --> 0:09:15.885 person that I talked with first, and he became my 0:09:15.965 --> 0:09:19.045 insurance agent. Back in those days, he was a very 0:09:19.085 --> 0:09:22.885 popular insurance agent, had lots of customers all over Hardin County. 0:09:23.485 --> 0:09:27.165 People liked him, they respected him, He was outgoing and friendly. 0:09:27.845 --> 0:09:30.005 He just kind of always had a smile, was upbeat 0:09:30.045 --> 0:09:33.725 and positive. He was my insurance agent actually for several years, 0:09:34.565 --> 0:09:37.045 and the only time, but the only time I really 0:09:37.045 --> 0:09:39.325 saw him was when I needed to paint something on 0:09:39.365 --> 0:09:42.125 the policy or I had a claim to file, which 0:09:42.165 --> 0:09:46.605 was not often, and when those occasions arose, if I 0:09:46.645 --> 0:09:48.965 went to the local Farm Bureau office. He was always 0:09:48.965 --> 0:09:54.605 polite and professional, very personable, well groomed. And I was 0:09:54.685 --> 0:09:57.685 married to somebody and he was married to someone else, 0:09:57.725 --> 0:10:00.485 So we were both married to other people at the time, 0:10:00.605 --> 0:10:04.045 and we had no personal relationship, but that was initially 0:10:04.085 --> 0:10:06.005 how I met him. 0:10:06.285 --> 0:10:08.685 Terry said that she took a teaching job in Galveston, 0:10:09.245 --> 0:10:12.045 so she moved away from the area. But a few 0:10:12.125 --> 0:10:15.325 years later, in nineteen ninety three, after she moved back 0:10:15.365 --> 0:10:18.325 to Sillsby to help take care of her grandmother, Terry 0:10:18.405 --> 0:10:22.125 ran into Doug again by chance at the local post office. 0:10:22.325 --> 0:10:25.565 By now they were both divorced, and that's when they 0:10:25.565 --> 0:10:26.685 started a relationship. 0:10:27.205 --> 0:10:29.405 He reached out to shake my hands, same as he 0:10:29.445 --> 0:10:32.845 always did when he was my farm Bureau agent, but 0:10:32.925 --> 0:10:34.325 this time he just kind of held my hand a 0:10:34.325 --> 0:10:38.125 little bit longer, you know, and so within the next 0:10:38.165 --> 0:10:40.845 few weeks he began to drop by my grandmother's house. 0:10:41.485 --> 0:10:44.045 Terry said she noticed the same thing that everyone else 0:10:44.045 --> 0:10:47.245 seemed to notice about Doug. He was kind and charming. 0:10:48.205 --> 0:10:48.765 She said. 0:10:48.845 --> 0:10:51.485 She and Doug fell in love and got married, and 0:10:51.525 --> 0:10:55.565 for a long time things were good, but eventually Doug 0:10:55.645 --> 0:10:59.245 and Terry grew apart. What happened is that Doug started 0:10:59.245 --> 0:11:02.285 spending a lot more time in the Toledo Bend Lake area, 0:11:02.645 --> 0:11:04.885 where he had bought his property in himple at the 0:11:05.005 --> 0:11:08.725 end of a dirty cove. At the same time, Terry said, 0:11:08.765 --> 0:11:11.765 their lives were taking them in different directions. Though they 0:11:11.765 --> 0:11:14.205 were around the same age, both in their mid forties, 0:11:14.685 --> 0:11:18.085 they had different life goals. Terry was an educator who 0:11:18.125 --> 0:11:20.965 wanted to continue teaching at a higher level and progress 0:11:20.965 --> 0:11:24.165 her career, while Doug was much more interested in heading 0:11:24.165 --> 0:11:27.605 into retirement, slowing down and spending time on the lake 0:11:28.245 --> 0:11:32.365 and on his houseboat, the same boat he later died on. 0:11:33.485 --> 0:11:35.765 But there was another reason why Doug was spending more 0:11:35.805 --> 0:11:39.565 and more time away from Terry April Janis, who he 0:11:39.645 --> 0:11:43.565 met in two thousand and three. Looking back, Terry said 0:11:43.565 --> 0:11:46.685 there were signs that her husband's relationship with April might 0:11:46.765 --> 0:11:49.565 not have been appropriate, but she said that at the 0:11:49.645 --> 0:11:53.645 time she could not believe that Doug would get involved 0:11:53.685 --> 0:11:54.405 with a teenager. 0:11:55.045 --> 0:11:57.685 Doug had begun to go to their house occasionally. They 0:11:57.725 --> 0:12:01.405 were playing dominoes or playing cards, and on the weekend 0:12:01.445 --> 0:12:03.365 said I was coming up. He wouldn't go over there, 0:12:03.685 --> 0:12:06.245 since I was only their limited time. He was trying 0:12:06.245 --> 0:12:10.405 to safeguard our privacy, so he wouldn't go. But I 0:12:10.485 --> 0:12:13.565 did notice though, that the mobile home park that they 0:12:13.605 --> 0:12:17.285 lived in weren't well kept up. At first, he would 0:12:17.365 --> 0:12:20.205 honk at them as he drove by. He would wave, 0:12:21.205 --> 0:12:24.765 you know, just honking away and keep going. Well, I 0:12:24.925 --> 0:12:28.005 noticed that on the weekends that I was up there, 0:12:28.045 --> 0:12:30.605 that all of a sudden he stopped doing that. And 0:12:30.645 --> 0:12:33.525 one time I honked when I was driving, he says, 0:12:33.565 --> 0:12:36.445 don't fool with those people. Leave those people alone. 0:12:36.525 --> 0:12:39.405 So it's like he began to not want me to 0:12:39.445 --> 0:12:42.485 have contact with them. It took a while for me 0:12:42.565 --> 0:12:43.165 to catch on. 0:12:43.885 --> 0:12:48.005 Terry wasn't the only one. Yvonne and others were noticing 0:12:48.125 --> 0:12:51.645 that Doug appeared to be a little too interested in April. 0:12:52.845 --> 0:12:55.685 Yvonne said that while she was uncomfortable with April's father, 0:12:55.805 --> 0:12:59.405 Bob's comments and generally tried to steer clear of him, 0:12:59.845 --> 0:13:02.685 she felt sorry for Anna. She felt like she was 0:13:02.725 --> 0:13:07.845 Anna's only girlfriend. Yvonne remembers when Anna first told her 0:13:08.125 --> 0:13:12.285 about her concerns about her daughter, April and Doug Janis. 0:13:12.445 --> 0:13:15.325 So her and I we did talk. She did bring 0:13:15.365 --> 0:13:18.205 it up and ask me. She said, do you think 0:13:18.325 --> 0:13:22.765 Doug pays April too much attention when he's around? Because 0:13:22.805 --> 0:13:24.445 there'd been a couple of times when we've been over 0:13:24.445 --> 0:13:26.365 there and he would be there, or he'd pull up 0:13:26.365 --> 0:13:30.325 and just join in. And I told her, yes, I do. 0:13:31.565 --> 0:13:34.365 I said, but you're her mother. I said, you know 0:13:34.405 --> 0:13:36.285 you need to be the one to watch and see. 0:13:36.365 --> 0:13:38.565 I said that. Then she told me a couple of 0:13:38.605 --> 0:13:41.165 things she had said to April, and she said, do 0:13:41.205 --> 0:13:43.605 you think that that's normal for a man of his 0:13:43.685 --> 0:13:46.405 age to say that to a twelve year old girl? 0:13:46.765 --> 0:13:51.365 Because I'm telling you, Anna had no nothing to base 0:13:51.405 --> 0:13:55.165 anything on. So she was asking me, because she was 0:13:55.245 --> 0:13:59.605 so protected, does that make sense? Because she was ungworldly, 0:13:59.765 --> 0:14:02.485 she didn't even know. I guess too, because in a 0:14:02.525 --> 0:14:04.245 way I was trying to make her stand up for 0:14:04.285 --> 0:14:07.205 herself a little bit, like to educate her, like, hey, 0:14:07.245 --> 0:14:08.845 you don't have to put up with this, Like, hey, 0:14:09.645 --> 0:14:12.165 can you have a voice? You know, not realizing though, 0:14:12.205 --> 0:14:15.005 she didn't like, He's not at all that I just 0:14:15.005 --> 0:14:19.005 because I didn't realize the severity of what was going on. 0:14:20.245 --> 0:14:24.045 Yvonne said that her boyfriend Jay told her about something 0:14:24.125 --> 0:14:27.565 that concerned him. He was down at the lake talking 0:14:27.565 --> 0:14:30.165 with a friend of his when he saw April and 0:14:30.245 --> 0:14:31.125 Doug and Bob. 0:14:31.845 --> 0:14:34.325 He said, you know, today I'll walk down. He had 0:14:34.365 --> 0:14:37.085 walked down to the lake and he was going to 0:14:37.165 --> 0:14:39.485 talk to Jimmerson, but he said he saw Doug and 0:14:39.605 --> 0:14:42.045 Bob pulling up in a boat and that April was 0:14:42.045 --> 0:14:43.605 sitting in the back of the boat with Doug all 0:14:43.605 --> 0:14:48.125 snuggled up and Bob at the front of the boat. So, 0:14:50.045 --> 0:14:53.085 you know, he's like, you can't tell me this man. 0:14:53.245 --> 0:14:54.725 You know, That's what Jay's tell me. He's like, you 0:14:54.765 --> 0:14:56.605 can't tell me this man doesn't know that guy's doing 0:14:56.645 --> 0:15:00.125 something with his daughter. He's like, what idiot would not know. 0:15:01.525 --> 0:15:05.205 Yvonne said that she was growing increasingly concerned about April's 0:15:05.205 --> 0:15:09.805 relateationship with Doug, but then something happened something that changed 0:15:09.885 --> 0:15:13.285 everything they thought they knew about Doug Janis. In April, 0:15:13.605 --> 0:15:16.445 one day, Yvonne and Jay were walking in the woods 0:15:17.005 --> 0:15:19.845 and they saw a Doug in the woods. He was 0:15:19.885 --> 0:15:23.365 with a woman, but not with April. Doug was with 0:15:23.445 --> 0:15:36.125 her mother Anna. Yvonne said that she and her boyfriend 0:15:36.245 --> 0:15:39.165 Jay were walking deep in the woods one day when 0:15:39.205 --> 0:15:42.845 they saw Anna and Doug Janie and that they were together. 0:15:43.525 --> 0:15:46.325 Who is that? And because this was pretty much like 0:15:46.445 --> 0:15:49.485 part of our property, you know, so we're like, what's 0:15:49.605 --> 0:15:53.525 going on? Because Anna did not live close enough to 0:15:53.605 --> 0:15:56.165 walk there, like she would have had to have driven 0:15:56.445 --> 0:16:00.765 or somebody brought her there or something. And so we're 0:16:00.805 --> 0:16:05.325 just standing there listening and it's Doug and Anna. And 0:16:05.565 --> 0:16:08.205 by the conversation that we heard, I mean, I can't 0:16:08.325 --> 0:16:11.765 pay the details. At this point, Jay and myself both 0:16:11.805 --> 0:16:14.445 knew that Doug was messing with Anna, that they were 0:16:14.445 --> 0:16:18.085 having an affair. So we're both in shock. We both 0:16:18.205 --> 0:16:20.605 just back out of there as quiet as we can 0:16:21.285 --> 0:16:22.445 and get back to our house. 0:16:23.325 --> 0:16:26.885 After that, Yvaughn said that she and Jay thought maybe 0:16:26.885 --> 0:16:30.125 they had gotten it wrong, maybe Doug was being nice 0:16:30.165 --> 0:16:32.725 to April because he was sexually involved with her mother. 0:16:33.445 --> 0:16:36.845 Then like I said, you know, this is so foreign 0:16:36.925 --> 0:16:39.685 to us. Okay, so we're talking. We're like, well, that 0:16:39.725 --> 0:16:42.845 blows that theory. Apparently he's not messing with April, it's Anna. 0:16:43.405 --> 0:16:47.245 So that's what we're thinking at this point. Never, never 0:16:47.325 --> 0:16:49.405 in a million years, did it dawn on me. He's 0:16:49.445 --> 0:16:50.765 messing with both of them. 0:16:51.765 --> 0:16:54.725 So now this brings us to the night of September third, 0:16:54.885 --> 0:16:59.485 two thousand and four, the night Anna was shot. Anna 0:16:59.645 --> 0:17:01.965 and Bob had allowed April to go to the stock 0:17:02.005 --> 0:17:04.805 car races with a family friend, a prominent man in 0:17:04.845 --> 0:17:07.845 the community named Chester Cox. By the way, when Bob 0:17:07.965 --> 0:17:12.245 Thompson talks about the Butts family in his book, he's 0:17:12.285 --> 0:17:15.325 referring to the Cox family. These were the powerful friends 0:17:15.325 --> 0:17:18.085 of Doug Janis's who he was concerned about. 0:17:18.765 --> 0:17:21.845 So Anna called Von and I said, what's going on? 0:17:22.285 --> 0:17:25.525 And she said, I found a letter between Doug and 0:17:25.605 --> 0:17:30.165 April and he's messing with my daughter. And I was like, 0:17:30.285 --> 0:17:33.565 are you serious And she said yes, and she said 0:17:34.085 --> 0:17:37.045 and that is it. She said, I told him, don't 0:17:37.085 --> 0:17:39.245 you ever come over here again. You will never And 0:17:39.325 --> 0:17:42.285 this is exactly what she told me. Her words, she said, 0:17:42.325 --> 0:17:45.645 I told him over my dead body, will you ever 0:17:45.685 --> 0:17:49.325 see her again? She said, he will not be back 0:17:49.365 --> 0:17:52.285 over here. And I said, Anna, are you talking? Have 0:17:52.405 --> 0:17:54.205 you talked to Bob? She said, he pap won't even 0:17:54.245 --> 0:17:56.125 listen to me. She said, I don't know what's wrong 0:17:56.165 --> 0:17:57.925 with him. And I'm thinking, well, I do, because he 0:17:58.005 --> 0:18:00.765 knows about it, you know. I mean said, I can't 0:18:00.765 --> 0:18:03.365 really say that to her, you know, I'm just trying 0:18:03.405 --> 0:18:07.005 to calm her down. And I'm just like, well, Anna, 0:18:07.125 --> 0:18:08.805 you need to talk to Bob. Y'all need to be 0:18:08.885 --> 0:18:10.605 on the same page. Y'all need to make sure she 0:18:10.725 --> 0:18:13.405 stays away, and you need to talk to Bob. And see, 0:18:13.405 --> 0:18:14.925 what are you gonna do. You're gonna call the police? 0:18:14.925 --> 0:18:16.645 I mean, you've got to tell you you have to 0:18:16.685 --> 0:18:21.165 report this. You can't just not say anything, you know. 0:18:21.365 --> 0:18:25.165 And I said, I was trying to kind of educate her, 0:18:25.205 --> 0:18:27.245 say come and tell her. You know, Anna, if you 0:18:27.245 --> 0:18:29.405 don't say anything, I mean, if she goes and tells 0:18:29.405 --> 0:18:32.325 somebody else about anything, you could be in trouble. Like 0:18:32.445 --> 0:18:36.605 you need to say something, right, And she was like, okay, 0:18:36.645 --> 0:18:38.405 I am, I am, I'm gonna talk to Bob whatever. 0:18:38.485 --> 0:18:40.525 So we get off fun. That's the last conversation I 0:18:40.565 --> 0:18:41.045 had with her. 0:18:42.645 --> 0:18:45.885 On the night when Anna was fatally shot. She told 0:18:45.965 --> 0:18:48.165 Yvonne that she was going to talk to her husband 0:18:48.165 --> 0:18:53.045 about April's relationship with Doug. We know from Bob's description 0:18:53.125 --> 0:18:55.685 of what happened that night that when April came home, 0:18:56.325 --> 0:18:59.405 Anna started screaming at her and all hell broke loose. 0:18:59.925 --> 0:19:03.805 Yvonne said that later, after three am, Bob called their 0:19:03.845 --> 0:19:07.605 house and asked her and Jay to come over. She 0:19:07.765 --> 0:19:09.805 will never forget what happened when she got to that 0:19:09.885 --> 0:19:12.885 house and found Anna covered in blood on the couch. 0:19:14.045 --> 0:19:17.005 In the book, Bob wrote that April had told him 0:19:17.045 --> 0:19:20.085 there was an intruder at the house, but Yvonne insists 0:19:20.205 --> 0:19:23.525 that's not what Bob told her that night. Yvonne said 0:19:23.525 --> 0:19:25.405 that when she and her boyfriend got to the house, 0:19:26.005 --> 0:19:29.925 Bob told her that Anna had accidentally shot herself while 0:19:30.005 --> 0:19:32.685 trying to shoot a raccoon or maybe a possum that 0:19:32.765 --> 0:19:33.885 had been coming up to the door. 0:19:34.565 --> 0:19:37.605 He said that April told him it was an intruguer. 0:19:39.005 --> 0:19:42.085 That's a lie. That's that is not what he told us. 0:19:42.845 --> 0:19:45.445 He said she was trying to shoot a raccoing her possum, 0:19:45.525 --> 0:19:47.805 that they had been they had been coming up to 0:19:47.885 --> 0:19:49.885 that door for a while, and that she was probably 0:19:49.925 --> 0:19:52.245 trying to shoot when she tripped over that cord, shot 0:19:52.245 --> 0:19:55.325 herself and went got on the couch. Yeah, exactly what 0:19:55.405 --> 0:19:59.645 he told me. I mean, I believe you that is 0:20:00.165 --> 0:20:03.005 just not what he and you've read his book, so 0:20:03.165 --> 0:20:04.925 you know, but yeah, that's a lie. 0:20:06.125 --> 0:20:06.325 See. 0:20:06.365 --> 0:20:10.605 Here's something that I've thought about is I don't think 0:20:10.645 --> 0:20:12.885 he had time to think up a story. I think 0:20:12.925 --> 0:20:15.965 he was sleeping when it happened. I don't think he 0:20:16.085 --> 0:20:20.605 had time to think up a story, because that's not 0:20:20.685 --> 0:20:22.725 a story Bob would have thought of. Both a smart 0:20:23.125 --> 0:20:27.405 Bob was not stupid. He was sharp, and so I 0:20:27.445 --> 0:20:29.165 think he would have thought up something better than what 0:20:29.325 --> 0:20:33.005 he said. You see what, well, he obviously did. He 0:20:33.045 --> 0:20:35.125 thought of a different one for the book, and he 0:20:35.165 --> 0:20:37.525 thought of a different one apparently that he told other people, 0:20:37.565 --> 0:20:39.925 because that's not the story he told me. And I 0:20:40.245 --> 0:20:42.845 of course, I'm like freaking out, and I'm just like, 0:20:42.925 --> 0:20:45.765 have you lost your mind? I mean, because I'm still 0:20:45.805 --> 0:20:48.245 not registering that he did this to her, you know, 0:20:48.285 --> 0:20:51.525 or that somebody in that house did. I'm like, are 0:20:51.565 --> 0:20:55.365 you crazy. I said, she didn't go anywhere. I said, 0:20:54.725 --> 0:20:57.525 you think she shot herself and walked back to that 0:20:57.605 --> 0:21:00.725 couch if you lost your freaking mind. I'm just like, 0:21:00.805 --> 0:21:05.245 there is no way. And at that point he said 0:21:05.805 --> 0:21:08.085 me why, I don't know. I had to h and 0:21:08.165 --> 0:21:11.965 he's Sam Will and I'm like, where is April? And 0:21:12.005 --> 0:21:14.485 then April comes walking out of her bedroom and she's 0:21:14.565 --> 0:21:17.005 just kind of walking around like a scared mouth and 0:21:17.125 --> 0:21:18.285 a cold sweat. 0:21:18.565 --> 0:21:21.285 Yvonne began to sense that something was not right at 0:21:21.285 --> 0:21:24.325 that crime scent, that things were being staged, that she 0:21:24.445 --> 0:21:26.725 may have been invited over as some kind of, in 0:21:26.765 --> 0:21:30.125 her words, set up. She noticed something else that was 0:21:30.285 --> 0:21:33.405 very odd, something about April that she said she will 0:21:33.405 --> 0:21:34.525 never forget. 0:21:34.805 --> 0:21:37.325 But the one thing I did notice is she was 0:21:37.445 --> 0:21:40.525 fresh and clean from a shower. Her hair was wet. 0:21:40.685 --> 0:21:44.285 She smelled like soap. And the reason why that sticks 0:21:44.325 --> 0:21:46.125 out in my mind is because most of the time 0:21:46.165 --> 0:21:47.165 April was dirty. 0:21:48.165 --> 0:21:51.645 While April was being held in Lufkin and questioned in 0:21:51.685 --> 0:21:54.965 connection with her mother's death, Bob said that he drove 0:21:55.045 --> 0:21:58.045 down to Texas to find Doug's a strange wife Terry. 0:21:59.045 --> 0:22:02.685 Terry confirmed part of this story She said she remembered 0:22:02.685 --> 0:22:06.045 when Bob reached out to her that she'll never forget 0:22:06.085 --> 0:22:09.845 Bob's trip to find her after April's arrest, because when 0:22:09.845 --> 0:22:13.405 he visited her, he told Terry that Doug was involved 0:22:13.405 --> 0:22:14.005 with his daughter. 0:22:14.605 --> 0:22:17.685 What tipped it off, what absolutely tipped it off, was 0:22:17.725 --> 0:22:23.525 that and I had even I had even visited the 0:22:23.565 --> 0:22:28.085 houseboat and seen a child's drawings on the refrigerator door, 0:22:29.005 --> 0:22:30.805 you know, like you put kids drawings up on your 0:22:30.805 --> 0:22:33.645 refrigerator with a magnet. Well, there were all these kid 0:22:33.725 --> 0:22:36.485 drawings up there. Most of them were horses, but there 0:22:36.485 --> 0:22:39.085 were lots and lots of pictures all over the houseboat, 0:22:39.165 --> 0:22:41.805 you know, like on the refrigerator, hanging on the walls. 0:22:41.845 --> 0:22:44.485 And I said, I asked him, I said, where all 0:22:44.525 --> 0:22:48.445 these pictures come from? And he said, oh, they're from 0:22:48.725 --> 0:22:52.725