Fort Worth police have arrested a second suspect in the 2025 stabbing death of a 24-year-old man whose body was later found buried in a shallow grave in Denton County.
Chase Cook, 23, faces a murder charge in the slaying of John Richardson, according to court and jail records. Alexander James Nicholas, 23, also known as James, was arrested in late December on the same charge.
Police opened a missing person case on December 2 after Richardson disappeared following a party. Homicide detectives interviewed people who had been there and zeroed in on Nicholas.
Nicholas told officers he left the party late on November 30 with Richardson and dropped him off along a road between Alliance Boulevard and Buc-ee’s. Witnesses said Nicholas had shown a handgun at the gathering and later told one of them that “John (Richardson) wouldn’t be coming around anymore.”
Nicholas claimed he and Richardson had talked about stopping at Cook’s house, but Richardson had declined. He said he went to Cook’s place afterward and denied any role in the disappearance. Detectives obtained search warrants for Nicholas’ phone, vehicle, and handgun.
Investigators then questioned Cook and his girlfriend. Cook told them he had met Nicholas the night Richardson vanished, argued with him, and left for another friend’s house. When asked about Richardson, Cook “began to tear up and wouldn’t answer” and refused to let officers search his cellphone, which they later seized.
Cook’s girlfriend said he left their home in the middle of the night to “go help Alex” and came back the next day. Days later, after drinking, she said Cook told her he and Nicholas had dug a 6-foot hole that night.
Phone records from December 18 to 21 showed Nicholas at Cook’s home and then at a vacant field behind houses in a neighborhood where a mutual friend lived. Richardson’s cellphone went dark in the same wooded spot where Nicholas’ device stopped pinging, police said.
On December 22, detectives searched the area and found Richardson’s body in a shallow grave. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office determined he died from multiple stab wounds, defensive wounds, and blunt force trauma to the head.
Nicholas was arrested on December 24 after a warrant was issued. A warrant for Cook was issued on March 16 after his phone data placed him at the scene with Nicholas and Richardson, who was believed to be still alive when Cook arrived. Combined with the girlfriend’s account, detectives determined Cook helped Nicholas the night of the killing.