It Was A ‘Perfect Life’ Online Until She Was Found Dead: The Twisted Case of April Holt | True Crime

How 48 Hours handles its detailed exploration of the case will be up to the perceptions of the viewing audience, but for those unfamiliar with the murder of Seiden, the basic facts are clear, as established by a 12-person jury in January, and a plea deal the previous year.

On April 23, 2018 at the Sportsman’s Lodge, Seiden, 31, was beaten to death by two people with whom she was staying, Christina Araujo, 44, of Palm Beach County, and Zachary Abell, 36, of North Miami Beach. The trio, who for a number of years had a close relationship, had traveled to Franklin County from Dallas, Texas, and were looking for a place to stay the night.

After the bludgeoning, Abell and Araujo dumped Seiden’s body in a cul-de-sac just off U.S. 98, and then headed to a friend’s house in Miami-Dade County. After hearing scattered details of what had happened, the friend notified Araujo’s father, the undersheriff in Palm Beach County, and within days, the two were arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and extradited to Franklin County, where they remained jailed over six years.

“It’s a fascinating tale, a strange look inside a psychology of three people that remains a mystery,” said Van Sant. “It’s a strong side of the human psyche that we witnessed and explored in this case, and it’s a mystery unsolved for us.”

In handling the story, Van Sant worked closely with Ronnie Jones, the retired detective from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office turned owner of the High Five Dive Bar, for whom this was his last case.

“Ronnie Jones was such an impressive investigator,” he said. “Ronnie could fit into the homicide unit of any big city. He is wise, he is perceptive and he’s clever in his analysis. As someone who owns a bar and socializes on a daily basis, Ronnie was a fantastic character.”

The CBS production crew also did interviews with Abell’s defense attorney Alex Morris; with Assistant State Attorney Jarred Patterson, who prosecuted the case; and with David Adlerstein, editor of the Apalachicola Times, which covered the case extensively.

Van Sant and his team interviewed Seiden’s sister, Franceasca, who lives in California; Michael Picavet, the friend to whose house the couple fled and who later testified at trial; and a close friend of Seiden’s who chose to remain unnamed on the air. He said they reviewed the statement made by Araujo’s father at his daughter’s sentencing, but did not do an interview with him.

While 48 Hours did ask for and receive the handful of autopsy photos that Circuit Judge Frank Allman allowed to be released at Abell’s trial, the show chose not to air them.

“I’ve never looked at autopsy photos in our career on the show,” Van Sant said. “We never put those on.”

In reviewing the case, what did strike the veteran Emmy Award winning journalist was just how savage the beating had been.

“This is just horrific,” he said. “This woman suffered unimaginably prior to her death. I’ve had only one other case where the violence reached this level. It’s shocking and it takes a lot to shock me.”

Aruajo, who had taken a plea deal in 2023 before Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom, testified for the prosecution at Abell’s trial and in her appearance on the witness stand, she said that what precipitated his first blow was when Seiden turned to Araujo and said “Guess what?”

“We don’t know what was going to be said,” Van Sant said, noting that in his statement before sentencing, Abell had told the judge he had proposed to Seiden during a stop on their way to Dallas.

“Was it going to be they were in love? She might have been about to say that that was the nature of their relationship,” Van Sant said. “These two had been in a romantic rivalry in this throuple.

“So much of what these three did to one another, from fistfighting to lovemaking, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “Their throuple was in trouble all the time. It was as bizarre and strange a relationship as I have ever covered on 48 Hours and it went on over and over and over again.”