The Jamison Fisher Interview: Man accused in killing of Trudy Appleby claims innocence in jailhouse interview

HENRY CO., Ill. (KWQC) - The man charged with killing 11-year-old Trudy Appleby nearly 30 years ago says he is innocent and claims police are framing him.

“I don’t even know how I am involved with this,” 50-year-old Jamison Fisher said in an exclusive interview with TV6 Investigates. “I wasn’t there.”

However, prosecutors allege in newly filed court documents that Fisher confessed to several witnesses that he killed her and concealed her body.

Key witness statements in those documents establish his presence at the location where Appleby was last seen alive and shed light on the details of her death.

He was indicted in August on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in Henry County, Illinois.

In the interview with KWQC’s Jenna Jackson, Fisher first denied any knowledge of Appleby or her father, Dennis, only to later admit to a past visit to Dennis Appleby’s home with a drug associate. He said he learned of Appleby’s disappearance through media and identified a police sketch as initially resembling a friend.

While prosecutors link Appleby’s death to a drug debt, Fisher, a self-admitted drug dealer with a criminal record, refutes this motive, claiming his drug sales weren’t substantial enough.

The disappearance

Aug. 21, 1996, started as a normal summer day in the Quad Cities.

Her father, Dennis Appleby, told police she had asked to go swimming with a friend in the days before her disappearance. He said he told her no, but police said it appeared she made plans to go anyway.

Dennis Appleby said in a 2021 interview with KWQC that he went to work early in the morning and saw her sleeping before he left. When he came home for lunch, he said Appleby wasn’t there.

Dennis Appleby said he first thought his daughter was with her mother, camping, but by evening, he became concerned.

“It was about 7 that night that I called the Moline Police and said, ‘We got a problem,’” he said.

Police said Appleby was seen getting into an older model gray vehicle with a man near her Moline home. She was last seen alive on Campbell’s Island.

The search for Appleby, presumed dead, took multiple turns over two decades before police named three persons of interest in the case.

Persons of interest emerge

The first named person of interest was William “Ed” Smith in 2017. Police said he had access to a similar vehicle Appleby was last seen in. He died in 2014.

Smith was never charged in connection with her disappearance or death.

In 2020, police identified two more persons of interest: David Whipple and Fisher. Whipple died in 2022.

He was also never charged in the case.

Fisher was indicted Aug. 14, 2025, exactly one week before the 29th anniversary of Appleby’s disappearance. Her body has never been found.

Fisher’s connections

Fisher said in a Nov. 7 interview with Jackson that he didn’t know Appleby or her father. Later, he backtracked.

“I did have an occasion to go to his house one time with the guy I used to deal with and he was doing a deal with Dennis,” he said. “I went in the house, and we left.”

Fisher said he first learned of Appleby’s disappearance through the newspaper. Police also released a sketch of a suspect.

Fisher said he and another person thought the sketch looked like a friend of theirs. He later said the sketch looked like Whipple.

Fisher said his parents were friends with the Smiths, and he hung out with Smith’s son. He said Smith “hated my guts.”

“I didn’t like the man, neither, and when it happened, I told the cops that I believed those are the two that did it.”

In court documents filed Wednesday, prosecutors wrote that Appleby’s disappearance and death resulted from a drug debt. Fisher, who has a lengthy criminal background and admits to being a drug dealer, claimed he wasn’t selling enough drugs to warrant killing someone.

“It was a couple ounces here and there,” Fisher said. “Most of us are just trying to keep our habits going.”

Witness testimony

Court documents show multiple witnesses claimed Fisher confessed to killing Appleby.

According to the documents, witnesses tied him to the last place Appleby was seen alive and where and how she was killed.

According to an online records search, Fisher lived at an address that was in the mobile home park in August 1996.

Court documents say the witnesses testified under oath that they are and have been afraid of Fisher.

Fisher claims the witnesses made deals with law enforcement to avoid jail time.

“Plain and simple, they did it for a deal. They got caught with something and they needed to make a deal, to get out of jail,” Fisher said.

According to the court documents, “not one witness in this case has been offered or accepted consideration of any kind in exchange for their testimony.”

Polygraph test claims

Fisher said in court documents in an unrelated case that he later took a polygraph test in connection with the case.

He wrote in the documents that police told his family he failed it.

Fisher later said investigators asked if he disposed of the girl’s body, but never asked if he killed her.

“I looked at it and it looked like I passed it to me. The only thing that changed through the whole thing was I sweated more when he asked me a question about Trudy.”

Fisher denied kidnapping or killing Appleby.

“I’ve never talked to Trudy,” he said. “I don’t know Trudy. I’ve never been around Trudy. Literally, I’ve never met her.”

Fisher also claimed the Moline Police Department is framing him because he sells drugs and “causes trouble.”

When asked to respond to Fisher’s claims of being framed, Moline Police Chief said it would be inappropriate to respond to “such a silly statement.”

Fisher said he is the victim.

“Who is going to cry for me? I’m just some drug dealer.”

KWQC Sidebar: The Jamison Fisher Interview

Let’s take a sidebar, KWQC’s Marcia Lense and Sharon DeRycke talk with Jenna Jackson about her jailhouse interview with Jamison Fisher, the man accused of killing Trudy Appleby.