Brush Girl: The Murder of April Dawn Lacy

In October 1996, a rancher in rural Wise County, Texas, stumbled on a body hidden in a brush pile. For over two years she was known only as “Brush Girl,” a Jane Doe with no name, no identity, and no justice. Eventually, persistence and forensic artistry revealed her true identity: 14-year-old April Dawn Lacy from Oklahoma City.

April’s story is one of poverty, addiction, instability, and systemic failure — a child caught between parents lost to alcohol and drugs, shuffled between motels and friends’ homes, desperate for stability. Five days after storming out of a seedy motel room following a fight with her mother, she was dead. Strangled. Dumped. Forgotten by many, but not by all.

This episode follows April’s life, disappearance, discovery, and identification, and examines how her murder fits into a chilling pattern of killings along interstates in Texas and Oklahoma — crimes later tied to long-haul truckers like John Robert Williams, the so-called “Big Rig Killer.”

Nearly three decades later, April’s grave still bears no headstone. Her case remains unsolved. But her story is more than a case number — it is a call for justice, and a reminder of the children who slip through the cracks.

If you have any information regarding the 1996 murder of April Dawn Lacy, please contact the Wise County Sheriff’s Office at (940) 627-5971.

Sources: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Houston Chronicle, The Daily Oklahoman, The Bryan-College Station Eagle, The Tyler Morning Telegraph

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