Exclusive: Details released in cold-case Indiana murder
Solve This Crime 12/03/2015 11:50 am PST
July 23, 2018:
It's been 12 years since a 10-year-old boy and his stepmom were found murdered in a Franklin home and the case is still unsolved, WXIN reports.
December 3, 2015:
A father comes home to find his son and new wife brutally murdered. Police are now revealing exclusive details to Crime Watch Daily.
Blake Dickus, 10, and his stepmom, 26-year-old Chynna, were found by Sean Dickus.
It was a hot Monday, July 24, 2006. Blake Dickus had just finished spending the weekend with his dad Sean and stepmom Chynna, and was preparing to go back to his mom's.
The timeline of what happened next is now a part of official police record.
Inside Sean's house, detectives find Chynna Dickus dead of multiple stab wounds. Young Blake was found near Chynna; he had also been stabbed and beaten.
Cops wondered who could have perpetrated such a heinous and brutal attack. Suspicion immediately turned to the last person who saw Chynna and Blake alive, and the first person to find them dead: Sean Dickus.
But after extensive questioning and even a polygraph test, Sean is officially cleared as the possible killer.
Detectives are hopeful they'll solve the case quickly. At the house, they find a mountain of evidence, and when they begin casting their net for suspects, they turn up more than a few promising leads, including a burglary on the same street as the murders on the same day. Police keep the details of the burglaries secret while they search for suspects.
At the same time, detectives also pursue another solid theory: Could the murders of Chynna and Blake have been committed by one of the many construction workers in the area?
But neither lead immediately pans out.
Nine years after the horrible event, the case remains unsolved.
Now authorities are employing an elite group of crime-fighters to help hunt for the killer. Crime Watch Daily has new details about that series of home invasions.
Nine years and nearly 500 leads later, police still have no suspects, no motives, no closure.
But while the investigation has hit one dead end after another, thanks to a tip from Blake's mother Christina, investigators received a unique opportunity they hope will break this case wide open.
What they discovered was the Vidocq Society, an exclusive group of crime-fighters made up of forensic experts, former and current FBI profilers, detectives, scientists, psychologists and more.
The elite club, which only takes on 10 cases a year, was created for the sole purpose of solving difficult cold-case homicides.
Society members had questions for police about that series of home invasions that all happened within a half-mile radius of the murder scene. One occurred the same day as the murders and on the same street.
Now Franklin Police are releasing new details to Crime Watch Daily about that series of burglaries: five in total, all in the months of June and July between 2006 and 2007.
Police won't say whether the same conditions of the burglaries were found in the home of the murders, but they believe there's enough of a connection to release these details and hopefully jog the community's memory.