Michael Jerome James, 35, who was 14 at the time, has been indicted on two counts of murder in the 2006 deaths of Chynna and Blake Dickus. Prosecutors say he will be tried as an adult.
Two decades after a 10-year-old boy and his stepmother were found dead in their Franklin, Indiana, home, police have arrested a man who was only 14 when the killings took place.
Michael Jerome James, now 35, was taken into custody Friday at his home in Shelbyville by Franklin police, Shelby County officers and an FBI agent, a neighbor told Fox59. He has been indicted on two counts of murder.
Chynna Dickus, 26, and her stepson Blake Dickus were discovered in July 2006 by Blake’s father, Sean Dickus, when he came home from work. Chynna had been stabbed to death. Blake had been stabbed, beaten and suffocated.
Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner said James will be tried as an adult. He has not said what evidence ties James to the killings. “All I can say is that [police] brought us an investigation that we took to the grand jury,” Hamner said, adding that jurors heard evidence over three weeks before indicting.
Grew up a few miles away
A source close to the investigation told WTHR that James grew up only a few miles from the crime scene. Born in Texas, he and his sister were removed from their mother by Child Protective Services while she struggled with addiction. After her death he was adopted by an aunt and moved to Indiana. Neighbors said he had lived in the Shelbyville area for about two years.
No motive has been disclosed. Over the years, investigators explored whether burglaries in the area, including one on the day of the killings, were connected, and also looked into a possible domestic violence link.
Franklin Police Chief Kirby Cochran credited detectives for refusing to let the case go cold, saying they reviewed evidence, chased new leads and used advances in forensic science. “For 20 years, Blake and Chynna’s families have carried the weight of an unimaginable loss, waiting for this day,” he said.
Hamner said authorities are not looking for any other suspects. The arrest came days after the reward for information in the case was raised to $100,000, four times its previous amount.
Reporting in this story is based on statements from the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office and Franklin police and on coverage by the New York Post, Fox59 and WTHR. The photographs are stock file images.
