A man was arrested on Tuesday, March 17 in Justin for his alleged role in the 2025 murder of a man who was found in a shallow grave in Denton County.
Chase Cook was taken into custody via a joint operation between the Justin Police Department and Fort Worth Police Department.
According to police, Cook was safely apprehended at a residence in Justin’s Reatta Ridge subdivision.
The 23-year-old suspect was one of two men allegedly involved in the murder of 24-year-old John Richardson, according to a report from CBS News.
Cook and the other man, 23-year-old Alexander James Nicholas, were suspected of the murder after FWPD received a missing persons report after Richardson couldn’t be found following a party.
According to the CBS report, Nicholas told police he left the Nov. 30 party late with Richardson, but dropped him off somewhere between Alliance Blvd. and the Buc-ee’s along I-35W.
However, witnesses said Nicholas was brandishing a gun during the party and said Richardson “wouldn’t be coming around anymore.”
According to a December 2025 report from WFAA, Nicholas was upset with Richardson, blaming him for a car accident that had occurred previously.
Officials said Cook was involved because he met up with Nicholas on the night of Richardson’s disappearance.
When police asked Cook about Richardson’s location, he “teared up and wouldn’t answer,” also declining a search of his cell phone.
Eventually, authorities seized the phones of Cook and Nicholas, which revealed the two were in the same place as Richardson when his phone was shut off, at the same time.
When officials searched the area a few weeks later, a wooded section of north Fort Worth in Denton County, Richardson’s body was found in a shallow grave.
Officials said Cook had drunkenly told his girlfriend sometime after the initial party he and Nicholas were planning to “dig a six-foot hole.”
According to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, Richardson had multiple stab wounds, defensive wounds and blunt force trauma to the head.
Nicholas was arrested for murder on Dec. 24.
The phone records revealed Richardson was likely alive when Cook was picked up by Nicholas and a statement from Cook to his girlfriend gave police enough evidence to believe he helped Nicholas the night Richardson was murdered.
Cook is currently being held at the Tarrant County Corrections Center on $250,000 bond.
To read more about the case, read the full article on the CBS News website.
