Secrets In The Sand

A Wife Is Murdered, Her Husband Shot Four Times. Who Pulled The Trigger?

(CBS) 
Within minutes paramedics arrived. Justin told them what happened to April and they rushed him to the emergency room.

Meanwhile, Det. Howard Cole and the entire St. John’s Sheriff’s Department immediately sprang into action.

"We had a gentleman up there who had been shot four times and initially we didn’t know where. We just knew that he had said that it was on the beach," Cole remembers.

When police reached the beach they instantly made a chilling discovery. "She was laying there, on her back, at the foot of the boardwalk, completely wet," Cole explains. "She was in fact deceased right there at the scene."

Police now had a homicide investigation on their hands and a killer on the loose. Cole rushed to the hospital to find out from Justin everything he knew.

After learning his wife was dead, Justin managed to compose himself, and tried to describe the gunman who killed April.

"He did not know what the guy looked like. He did not see his face. It was too dark. His description of a suspect at that time is that 'He was taller than me. He was stronger than me. And he had on a baggy tee shirt and a ball cap,'" Cole says.

Cole then photographed the wounds the gunman had inflicted on Justin: he had been shot in his left hand, his left shoulder, the base of his neck, and, most alarmingly, his chest.

Justin’s wounds turned out not to be life-threatening, and doctors released him the next day. A short time later, he flew back to Oklahoma to face the grim task of burying his wife.

April’s best friend Amber says the funeral made it clear just how many people loved April and felt close to her. "We did everything we could to make it a tribute of how wonderful she was," Amber remembers.

Justin, however, seemed distant, according to Amber. "Justin was almost mute. He was looking at the floor. He wouldn’t make eye contact with anybody," she remembers.

Justin’s brother Charlie wasn’t surprised. He says Justin was simply overcome with grief over losing April. "He was emotionally devastated. Physically wounded and emotionally devastated. I've never seen him like that. Even when our dad died."

Charlie was so worried about Justin, he wouldn’t leave his side. So they flew back to Florida together. Once there, Charlie says Justin was able to put his grief aside for one reason only.

"He wanted to get back as soon as possible. So he could help in any way he could with the investigation," Charlie says.

He even returned to the place where April died, and spent over 10 hours with police to help look for clues.

"Everything they asked for, I gave them. Every time they wanted me to come back to St. John's County and talk to them some more, I did. Whenever they wanted a statement, I gave it them," he says.