The suspect is finally in custody, but the pain for the families has lasted two decades. Michael Jerome James was arrested in Shelbyville on Friday, more than twenty years after the slayings.
He was just a teenager when he allegedly stabbed Chynna Dickus and her stepson, Blake Dickus, to death in their Franklin home. The boy was only ten. The stepmom was twenty-six. Their bodies were found by the boy’s father, Sean Dickus, in July 2006 after he came home from work.
It took twenty years to bring James to answer for these crimes. He was only fourteen at the time of the killings, yet prosecutors say he will stand trial as an adult. Lance Hamner, a prosecutor for Johnson County, explained the process to reporters. “All I can say is that [police] brought us an investigation that we took to the grand jury,” Hamner said. After three weeks of reviewing the evidence, the grand jury issued that indictment.
James grew up just a few miles from where the murders happened. WTHR was informed by a source close to the investigation that his aunt adopted him following his mother’s death. His family had moved to Indiana from Texas.
Child Protective Services took him and his sister from their Texas home as his mother fought drug addiction. The motive remains unclear. Given his young age, what was he thinking when he wanted to harm those people, particularly the little boy? asked Nancy Nigh, a neighbor of James.
Many cold cases stay cold because officers move on to new work. Not this one. Franklin Police Chief Kirby Cochran praised his team for refusing “to let the case grow cold.” Detectives kept working even when leads dried up. “Detectives reviewed evidence, pursued new leads, leveraged advances in forensic science, and remained committed to Blake, Chynna, and their families every step of the way,” the department stated.
Investigators looked at burglaries from that time. One break-in happened on the very day the murders took place. They also checked for any domestic violence links. The breakthrough came after years of persistent work. Per the New York Post, the arrest was made with help from the FBI and local police. James resided in the Shelbyville area for the past two years prior to his capture.
The families of the victims have carried a heavy burden for two decades. They waited for this moment while life went on around them. “For 20 years, Blake and Chynna’s families have carried the weight of an unimaginable loss, waiting for this day,” Chief Cochran said.
The indictment offers some relief, though it cannot bring the dead back to life. This case shows that time does not always erase the truth. Justice may be slow, but it can still arrive
