Introducing: Hell and Gone Murder Line from iHeart Podcasts | Doug Janis Part 1
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Uncover from CBC Podcasts is your source for exceptional storytelling and groundbreaking journalism. Hear how lives were altered forever by results from one DNA lab. I'm like, what? What do you mean he's not my son? And unravel the clues that a gravel pit may hold about one woman's disappearance. It's just, it's odd because there was no trace of a scuffle. There was no, nothing. Hear the very best in award-winning true crime. Listen to Uncover wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. hell and gone is a true crime podcast from iheart podcasts and school of humans that follows journalist and private investigator catherine townsend as she investigates unsolved deaths over the past five years of making hell and gone host catherine has received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them their families
and their communities. In past seasons, she's only been able to focus on one case, but now she's hosting a new weekly podcast called Hell and Gone Murder Line. Every Thursday, Catherine features a new case, adds updates to old ones, and helps as much as she can to get the word out about unsolved murders. Now, here's an episode of Hell and Gone Murder Line.
So he was murdered on this side. Yes, he was killed in Texas. And she lived on the other side. She lived in Louisiana.
We're driving across the Pendleton Bridge, the one that runs over the Sabine River and separates Texas and Louisiana. We're headed to a remote spot on Toledo Bend Lake, right across the Texas border in Hempel. It's the spot where, on December 13th, 2020, at 528 p.m., right before the sun disappeared behind the horizon, police in Sabine County got a call about a houseboat on fire. The houseboat was docked behind 322 Echo Ridge off of Cedar Grove Road on Highway 21 in the Pendleton area of Toledo Bend. And that scene very quickly descended into total chaos. The firefighters had trouble getting out to the remote location, so it took a while. And by the time they did get there, the boat was completely engulfed in flames.
One person who commented on Facebook and claimed to have been one of the first responders on the scene wrote, quote, Once fire was knocked down, I had members sweep and notice the remains, end quote. Firefighters and paramedics rushed to the scene, but it was too late. By the time they got there, the walls had caved in, and the boat had very quickly been completely eviscerated by the flames. And then, when they did dig through the remains, they found the body of 64-year-old Doug Janis. His charred remains were found in the bedroom of the boat. At first, they thought the house fire had been some kind of accident, that Doug had died as a result of a propane leak. But then they took Doug's body in for an autopsy. At the forensic exam, they saw the two bullets in his head.
Doug Janis had been murdered, and his much younger estranged wife, April Mae Janis, was nowhere to be found. But Doug's death was just the beginning of a story that goes back 20 years and involves sex, allegations of corruption, and multiple murders. I'm Katherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I have learned that there is no such thing as a small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities.
Thank you.
Hello? Hey, this is Amy from Heligon. Oh, hi. How are you? Doing good. Can you talk?
Yes, yes. I am fixing to get into a place away from my grandbaby. We currently have no power because of the hurricane, the weather comes through. And so if I lose you, that's probably, that's what's going to happen is our service is just, I mean, we live out in the country. Okay.
Okay.
I heard about this case when a podcast listener reached out. She was a friend of Doug's who said that Doug's death was all over the news in that rural region of East Texas. But then all of a sudden, it wasn't. No one ever heard any more about the death investigation. Her name is April, not to be confused with Doug's wife, April. Doug's friend, April, said that she knew Doug through church.
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