When Nashville mother Jamie Dickerson was told her daughter had died by suicide, she did not buy it. Instead of backing down, she started pressing for answers, recording a confession, and pushing prosecutors to take another look. That determination helped drive a change in Tennessee law now known as April's Law of 2026.
How the case unfolded
On July 31, 2023, 29-year-old April Holt was found unresponsive in the bathroom of her Antioch home, a plastic bag taped around her neck. The county medical examiner ruled the death a suicide in November 2023, as reported by NewsChannel 5.
Confession, arrest and plea
Nearly a year later, in June 2024, Dickerson says her son-in-law, April’s husband, admitted during a FaceTime call that he had strangled April. She recorded the call and turned it over to investigators. Authorities arrested Donovan Holt in San Antonio on Sept. 19, 2024, and he later pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, tampering with evidence, and false reporting before receiving a roughly two-year sentence, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department.
April's Law of 2026
The General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1597/House Bill 1807, later amended and formally named "April's Law of 2026," to add a surviving parent to the statutory definition of "next of kin" and to clarify parents' ability to request reviews, access records, and seek reconsideration of a suicide ruling. The measure was enrolled, sent to the governor, and signed into law on April 7, 2026, according to LegiScan.
Dickerson described April as "the sunshine of the world" and said the law gives parents a clearer path to answers and a formal place at the table when a medical examiner's manner-of-death determination is questioned, as detailed by NewsChannel 5.
What families can now do
Under the statute, a surviving parent may request a meeting with the county medical examiner and, within 120 days, ask the Office of the State Chief Medical Examiner (OSCME) to convene a peer-review panel to reconsider a suicide determination. If the panel recommends a different manner of death, the OSCME must amend the death certificate, according to the bill summary and reporting from WSMV.
What comes next
Dickerson says the new law is only a first step. She is pushing for tougher standards for how suspicious deaths are investigated in domestic-violence cases and has started fundraising for a grief center in April’s memory. The case and the plea deal remain a live issue in Nashville, raising questions about how investigators, coroners, and prosecutors handle deaths that are initially ruled suicides, Law&Crime reports.
