April 25

April 25 marks the discovery of Amber and Jolene Howard’s bodies and becomes a critical date in Holly Gibney’s reconstruction of the Howard murders. The girls’ deaths appear to connect two men in different places—Terry Maitland in Dayton and Heath Holmes, later accused of the murders—while Holly’s chronology suggests that an outsider used Holmes as a scapegoat and had Terry in mind as a future target.

The Howard Sisters Are Found

On April 25, a front-page report announced that Amber and Jolene Howard, two missing girls from Trotwood, had been found dead and mutilated in a ravine not far from their home. A police source described the violence as acts of unbelievable savagery; both girls had also been sexually assaulted. Their discovery turned the search for the missing sisters into a murder investigation and set in motion a sequence of events that would draw Heath Holmes into the case.

The location situates the crime within the Dayton-area geography Holly later pieces together: the bodies were found in Trotwood, between Dayton and Regis. The date is therefore more than a news headline in her investigation. It anchors the murders to a wider chain of movements and apparent overlaps that complicate the official account of who was responsible.

The Date in Holly’s Reconstruction

Holly searches local newspaper archives beginning with April 19, when Merlin Cassidy abandoned the van and it was almost certainly stolen again. She finds no report concerning the Heisman Memory Unit during the next several days. The April 25 headline breaks that silence: the missing Howard sisters have been found dead. The newspaper chronology then records no new development on April 26 or 27, before police announce on April 28 that they are questioning a person of interest.

Holly’s investigation places Terry Maitland in Dayton on April 25, with his family. She also notes that April 26 was the day Terry visited his father for the last time, and April 27 the day the Maitlands flew home to Flint City. These dates make the Howard murders part of the same chronology as Terry’s trip, though the evidence presented here does not establish that he committed the crime.

The Case Against Heath Holmes

Two days after the police announced they were questioning a person of interest, Heath Holmes was arrested. He was thirty-four, lived in Dayton, and worked as an orderly at the Heisman Memory Unit. In Holly’s reconstructed timeline, the day after the bodies were found, Holmes was in Regis helping his mother and running errands, while the outsider appeared at the Memory Unit.

Holly proposes that the outsider had Terry Maitland in his sights, perhaps because he knew the Maitlands were visiting from out of state. She cannot establish whether the outsider went to the Memory Unit looking specifically for Terry or whether Holmes was the intended target. Marcy Maitland explains that the facility tried to prepare residents for visits from relatives traveling from far away, sometimes arranging haircuts or perms and off-unit visits. Terry’s father, however, was too mentally ill for an off-unit visit. Marcy’s account clarifies how the outsider might have learned of the family’s visit, while leaving the precise means of that knowledge unresolved.

Holly’s reconstruction also links the outsider’s staging to Holmes. She says the panel truck used to abduct the girls was left near Holmes’s home, where it would be found and become evidence against the chosen scapegoat; the girls’ underwear was left in Holmes’s basement as another piece of incriminating evidence. In this account, the evidence against Holmes was not merely circumstantial coincidence but part of a deliberate frame-up.

Aftermath and Significance

Holly follows the case through the newspaper archives into May and June. Holmes survived his arraignment, unlike Terry Maitland, but, as with Terry, he would never stand trial for the Howard murders. Holmes died by suicide in Montgomery County Jail on June 7. The parallel between the two cases gives April 25 its broader significance: the date opens a second murder sequence in which a suspect is publicly identified, then dies before a trial can resolve the accusation.

For Holly, the calendar exposes a pattern obscured by the separate investigations: the Howard sisters’ deaths, Holmes’s arrest, Terry’s presence in Dayton, and the outsider’s appearance at the Memory Unit converge in a narrow run of dates. The chronology supports her theory of deliberate scapegoating, but it also preserves an unresolved question about how the outsider knew Terry’s father was due for a visit. April 25 thus functions both as the date the murders become public and as a hinge in Holly’s effort to understand the apparent connection between the Howard case and Terry Maitland.