Nearly 20 years after 10-year-old Blake Dickus and his 26-year-old stepmother Chynna Dickus were found stabbed to death in their Franklin, Indiana home, a grand jury has indicted 35-year-old Michael Jerome James in connection with the killings. The two were discovered on July 24, 2006, and the case sat unsolved for almost two decades despite billboards, a $25,000 reward, and tens of thousands of man-hours from Franklin Police.
Newly unsealed indictments suggest the killings may have occurred during an attempted burglary. What makes this case especially unusual is the age factor: James would have been about 14 years old at the time of the crime. That detail is likely to fuel debate over how juvenile suspects should be handled in decades-old murder cases, and how a teenager could remain unidentified for so long.
James is scheduled for his first court appearance Thursday morning in Johnson County. For a family that has waited since 2006 for answers, the indictment is the first significant development in a very long time. We want to hear from you: do you think cold cases like this one can still be solved with enough persistence?
