In the autumn of 2023, the life of 31-year-old Michael Lee Blankenship Jr., a white male from Evansville, Indiana, was tragically cut short. On the evening of October 22, he and another man, 37-year-old Mitchell Greathouse, were found deceased inside a residence on Mount Vernon Avenue, victims of a double homicide. The discovery launched an intense investigation by the Evansville Police Department that would slowly unravel the events of that fatal night.
The investigation soon led to a
number of arrests as the story behind the killings came into focus. One of the first to be taken into custody was 30-year-old Richard Dee Garrett. He admitted to his role as the getaway driver, telling authorities that he believed the plan was a robbery, not a murder. Garrett was subsequently charged with obstruction of justice, robbery, and assisting a criminal for his involvement. Another individual, 27-year-old Melecia Williams, was also arrested in connection with the case. She faced charges of burglary, theft, failure to report a dead body, and obstruction of justice after she was seen taking items from the crime scene without alerting the authorities.
As the investigation progressed, the central figures in the murders were identified. John Cameron Parker was accused of being the one who fired the shots that killed both Blankenship and Greathouse. Surveillance footage from a camera in an alley behind the residence captured Parker entering the home at approximately 7:50 p.m. and leaving just a minute later. The footage also showed a vehicle with three occupants: a driver, a lookout, and Parker. Investigators later found human blood on the vehicle's handles. Parker's accomplice and lookout, Caden Harms, confessed his involvement to detectives shortly after the shootings. He admitted that after the murders, he and Parker burned their clothes in a grill.
The legal process for those involved moved forward, bringing some measure of justice for the families of Michael Blankenship Jr. and Mitchell Greathouse. Caden Harms reached a plea agreement, pleading guilty to aiding in a murder. In July 2024, a Vanderburgh County jury found John Cameron Parker guilty of the murders of both men. Richard Garrett also had a change of plea and sentencing hearing scheduled. The swift detective work and the subsequent legal proceedings brought to light the details of a plan that began as a robbery but ended in the senseless deaths of two men.
