April Parker, a 31-year-old African American woman and mother of four, was last seen on May 8, 2014, in Monticello, a village in Sullivan County, New York. April was remembered by those closest to her as a loving mother, a caring friend, and someone who brought warmth and kindness to the people around her. She enjoyed styling and braiding hair, and friends described her as funny, generous, and devoted to her children. Her disappearance was particularly troubling because those who knew her believed she would never willingly abandon her family. As the days passed without reliable contact, concern for her safety grew. On May 26, 2014, her close friend Brianna Bukovinsky reported her missing to the Monticello Police Department. What initially began as a search for a missing mother would eventually develop into a disturbing homicide investigation that would take more than a decade to bring to a conclusion.
The search for April took a devastating turn on June 10, 2014, when New York State Police discovered partial skeletal remains in a wooded area behind the Sleepy Hollow apartment complex in Monticello. The remains were located approximately 150 yards from the apartment where April had been living with her boyfriend, Keymarroo Guiden. Investigators immediately recognized suspicious circumstances surrounding the discovery. Her head, hands, and feet had been severed and removed, indicating that someone had deliberately dismembered her body. Because of the condition of the remains, authorities relied on forensic testing to establish their identity. Subsequent DNA analysis confirmed that they belonged to April Parker. The discovery ended the uncertainty surrounding whether she was alive, but it introduced painful new questions about what had happened to her, who was responsible, and why someone had gone to such extraordinary lengths to conceal the crime. Authorities converted the missing-person investigation into a homicide investigation, and the New York State Police assumed responsibility for pursuing those answers.
As investigators reconstructed the events surrounding April's disappearance, attention increasingly focused on Guiden, who was also the father of one of her children. Detectives discovered that his movements and activities immediately following April's last known contact were especially significant. According to evidence later presented by prosecutors, April had already been killed before Guiden left Monticello on May 9, 2014. On that date, he took two of her children from a different relationship to New York City, supposedly so they could visit their father. However, the children's father had not been informed that they were coming. Prosecutors determined that the trip provided Guiden with an explanation for his whereabouts and an opportunity to construct an alibi. During the journey, he contacted Verizon Wireless and arranged for April's telephone number to be transferred to a Motorola Droid Razr that he possessed. Investigators later established that this transfer was an important part of an elaborate effort to conceal her death.
After returning to Monticello, Guiden falsely claimed that April had disappeared. With control of her telephone number, he began impersonating her through electronic communications, creating the impression that she was still alive. Investigators also discovered that he had accessed her Facebook account, posted photographs of her, and communicated with her friends while pretending to be April. These actions misled people who were concerned about her whereabouts and made it more difficult to establish when she had actually disappeared. Prosecutors later explained that the deception created additional time between the killing and the discovery of her remains, allowing Guiden to distance himself from the crime. The digital evidence ultimately became a crucial part of the investigation because it helped establish that communications apparently originating from April after her disappearance were actually being controlled by someone else.
For April's family and friends, the years following the discovery of her remains were filled with grief, frustration, and a determination to keep her memory alive. Her brother, Nathan Walker, spoke publicly about the difficulty of losing his only sister. Her close friend Brianna Bukovinsky remembered April as a devoted mother who spent much of her time either working, braiding hair, or being at home with her children. Friends recalled her kindness, her sense of humor, and her willingness to be there when others needed her. In June 2015, loved ones gathered outside the Sullivan County Courthouse to honor her memory and call attention to the unresolved murder. Similar gatherings continued in subsequent years. Those closest to April feared that her case might eventually be forgotten, but they remained committed to demanding justice. The discovery of her remains had established what happened to her physically, yet the absence of an arrest left her family without accountability or a complete understanding of the circumstances surrounding her death.
Behind the scenes, New York State Police investigators continued pursuing the case. Over the course of the investigation, detectives interviewed more than 130 people and examined thousands of pages of records. Their work involved reviewing witness statements, reconstructing timelines, examining telephone activity, and evaluating evidence that might connect a suspect to the killing. Guiden remained a person of interest as investigators worked to eliminate other possible suspects. The investigation eventually produced sufficient evidence for prosecutors to present the case to a grand jury. On December 1, 2021, a Sullivan County grand jury issued an indictment charging Guiden with second-degree murder. He was subsequently taken into custody by Pennsylvania State Police in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and extradited to Sullivan County on December 14, 2021, to face prosecution. His arrest came more than seven years after April's disappearance and represented a major development in a case that had long haunted her family and the Monticello community.
The prosecution continued over the following years, with investigators and attorneys preparing evidence that connected Guiden to April's killing. During a 12-day jury trial in Sullivan County, prosecutors presented the findings of the lengthy investigation, including evidence of his movements on May 9, the unauthorized transfer of April's telephone number, and his use of her Facebook account to create the false impression that she remained alive. The prosecution maintained that Guiden had intentionally killed April, disposed of her remains in the wooded area behind the apartment complex, and constructed a deceptive account of her disappearance to avoid responsibility. On June 23, 2026, a Sullivan County jury found Keymarroo Guiden guilty of second-degree murder. The verdict brought a significant measure of accountability after twelve years of investigation, grief, and unanswered questions.
On October 30, 2026, Sullivan County Supreme Court Justice Stephan G. Schick sentenced Guiden to 25 years to life in New York State prison for the intentional murder of April Parker. Sullivan County District Attorney Brian P. Conaty described the crime as one of the most heinous murders committed in the county in decades and characterized Guiden's actions as an extreme example of domestic violence. The district attorney also acknowledged the years of investigative work required to obtain a conviction and the profound suffering experienced by April's loved ones. Members of her family addressed the court during sentencing, expressing the impact of losing a mother, sister, daughter, and valued member of their community. The conviction and sentence formally established criminal responsibility for April's murder, although publicly released accounts did not establish a precise cause of death or a definitive motive beyond the circumstances presented at trial.
Although the criminal proceedings have now resulted in a conviction and a substantial prison sentence, the consequences of April's death remain deeply personal for those who loved her. Only partial remains were recovered during the original investigation, leaving an additional painful aspect of the case unresolved. April's four children were deprived of their mother, her family lost someone they cherished, and her friends spent years advocating for answers while refusing to let her be forgotten. Her case demonstrates how a disappearance can be deliberately concealed through deception, manipulated communications, and a carefully constructed false narrative, even while critical evidence remains available for investigators to uncover. What began with April's last known contact in Monticello on May 8, 2014, developed into a homicide investigation following the discovery of her remains on June 10, 2014, and ultimately culminated in Guiden's conviction and sentencing in 2026. April Parker's story is one of a mother whose life was violently taken, a family that endured more than a decade of uncertainty, and a persistent investigation that eventually brought her killer to justice. While the legal case has reached a significant conclusion, her loss remains permanent, and her memory continues through the children, relatives, friends, and community members who spent years seeking the truth about what happened to her.Last Seen: May 8, 2014
