Detectives say witness statements and phone data tied two 23-year-olds to John Richardson’s death after he vanished following a late November party.

FORT WORTH, Texas — A second man has been arrested in the killing of 24-year-old John Richardson, whose body was found Dec. 22 in a shallow grave in a wooded part of Fort Worth that lies in Denton County after he vanished following a party the night of Nov. 30.

Chase Cook, 23, joined Alexander James Nicholas, 23, in the Tarrant County jail on murder charges as investigators laid out a case built over nearly four months from witness interviews, search warrants and cellphone records. The case matters now because detectives say the later arrest strengthens their account of how a missing-person report quickly became a homicide investigation, and because court papers point to a broader timeline of statements, movements and possible planning that prosecutors may use as the case moves toward formal court proceedings.

According to investigators, Richardson was last seen leaving a party with Nicholas on Nov. 30 after Nicholas said he would take him to his girlfriend’s home in White Settlement. Richardson never arrived. Fort Worth police received a missing-person report on Dec. 2 and soon began to suspect foul play. Nicholas later told detectives that he and Richardson argued in the car and that he dropped him off on a road near Alliance Boulevard and the Buc-ee’s along Interstate 35W. Detectives said that account did not hold up. Within days of the party, one friend told police Nicholas said Richardson “wouldn’t be coming around anymore.” When the friend pressed him, the affidavit says Nicholas formed his fingers like a gun and made clear what he meant.

The investigation widened as detectives interviewed more people who had been at or around the party. A second friend told police Nicholas had been angry with Richardson over an earlier car crash that Nicholas blamed on him. That witness also recalled Nicholas asking whether Richardson “should get home safe,” a line that later took on new weight for investigators. Police said another witness had seen Nicholas showing off a silver-and-black handgun before he left with Richardson. Detectives have not publicly said that a gun was used in the killing, and the medical examiner later concluded Richardson died from multiple stab wounds and blunt-force trauma to the head. Authorities also have not publicly identified a murder weapon, and FOX 4 reported that court papers did not describe blood evidence inside the vehicle believed to have been used that night.

The case shifted sharply from suspicion to recovery between Dec. 18 and Dec. 22, when detectives reviewed phone records for Richardson and Nicholas. Police said Nicholas’s phone placed him first at Cook’s home and later near a vacant field behind houses in the same neighborhood where a mutual friend lived. Richardson’s phone, investigators said, went dark in that same wooded area. On Dec. 22, homicide detectives searched the area and found Richardson buried in a shallow grave. The body was in a wooded stretch of Fort Worth that falls inside Denton County, a detail that underscored how the city’s boundaries cross county lines. By Dec. 24, detectives had obtained an arrest warrant for Nicholas, and he was arrested around Christmas.

Cook entered the case differently. When officers interviewed him in December, they said he became emotional when asked about Richardson’s whereabouts and refused to consent to a search of his cellphone. Police later got a warrant. That review, investigators said, showed Cook in the same area as Nicholas and Richardson on the night Richardson disappeared. It also showed messages from Cook’s girlfriend while he was gone through the night. Detectives said the girlfriend told them Cook left after receiving a late-night message saying he needed to “go help Alex” and did not come back until the next day. Days later, after drinking, she said, Cook told her that he and Nicholas had been digging a six-foot hole in the woods. Investigators wrote that the statement stood out because it described a burial detail that had not been made public.

The legal picture remains incomplete, but the basic steps are now clear. Nicholas was jailed on a $300,000 bond, and Cook was later booked on a $250,000 bond. Both face murder charges. Police have said the investigation is continuing, and earlier coverage noted that more arrests were possible. No public court filing available in the reporting described any additional charges beyond murder, and the affidavits summarized by local outlets left several questions open, including exactly where Richardson was attacked, whether anyone else was present and what happened between the moment he left the party and the trip into the wooded area where his body was buried.

What stands out in the records is how ordinary pieces of a late-night disappearance became the backbone of a homicide case. A promised ride to a girlfriend’s house, a friend showing off a handgun at a party, an odd warning that someone would not be seen again, a refusal to hand over a phone and a drunk confession at home all became fragments detectives fit together over weeks. None of those details alone told the whole story. Together, investigators say, they traced Richardson’s final known movements, contradicted Nicholas’s version of events and gave police reason to say Cook did more than simply hear about the killing after the fact.

Richardson’s death also left the case with a grim, personal center. He was 24, last seen expecting a ride and then gone for weeks while people around him were questioned by homicide detectives. The affidavits described a chain of acquaintances and friends who became witnesses against people they knew. Their statements, along with location data from seized phones, turned what began as a missing-person inquiry into a murder prosecution with two defendants. The next public milestones are likely to come through first court settings, any grand jury action and additional filings that may clarify how prosecutors say the killing unfolded.

Both men remain charged with murder, and the case stands at the point where investigators say they have enough to hold two suspects while key details about the attack, the burial and any other involvement are still being sorted out in court.

Author note: Last updated April 9, 2026.