In late-May of 2018 a 46 year old Pennsylvanian man named Kevin Thompson suddenly dropped out of contact with his friends and family.
He was last seen at work on the 26th of May but neglected to show up the next day or call to announce that he wouldn’t be attending. This behavior was very out of character for Kevin, who his employers describe as a “model employee”. Thompson worked at Myers Well Service in Pittsburg and according to his Facebook profile had been driving trucks for most of his working life. His mother waited five days before officially reporting him missing to the authorities. She told them that she hadn’t had contact with her son in over two weeks and would let them into his house to investigate as she had the keys.
Investigators stopped by at his home in Carrick to look for clues that could indicate what happened to Thompson. The first thing they noticed was that his white Cadillac was missing from the driveway. When they entered the residence they were met with a chilling sight- blood, everywhere. Blood was smeared across the walls and frozen in static puddles around the kitchen. Police followed the trail up to the missing man’s bedroom but he was no longer there. A strong stench of decay hung in the air and unable to ignore it any longer they followed their noses to a small shed in the back yard. A swarm of flies buzzing in a frenzied cloud around a sack of dog food served as a neon sign that pointed in the direction of Thompson’s remains. They opened up the food bag to discover another white plastic bag within that contained what looked to be a medley of human parts and blood. They received a search warrant and found several other plastic bags inside the cluttered shed which contained various other body parts including the severed head of Kevin Thompson.
Police would later stumble upon his dismembered torso in the basement and it was clear just by looking that the victim had been stabbed multiple times in the chest with a sharp instrument, likely a knife.
The autopsy revealed that Thompson had indeed been stabbed repeatedly in the chest and had also suffered blunt force trauma. It was estimated that he was brutally murdered sometime around May 27th – May 29th.
The only remaining question was who murdered the man and why?
The first suspect in the case was Thompson’s roommate, a 42 year old man named John Dickinson who, according to his Facebook profile, worked at J.B.K. contracting in Pittsburgh. Dickinson was no longer at the house he shared with Thompson on 1700 Parkfield Street in Carrick and after asking around, police discovered through friends of the suspect that he was living in a tent . He had set up camp at a small local park called Beechview seldom seen greenway, which is bookended by route 51 and the foot of Mount Washington. According to this article he was staying with some friends who were pitched up there.
Police got their hands on CCTV footage from an Exxon gas station on 2873 West Liberty Avenue that showed Dickinson driving Kevin’s white Cadillac around town on the 30th of May, accompanied by another male and a female. Purchases had been made on the victim’s credit cards, indicating that Dickinson and his friends had gone on a shopping trip only a day or so after he killed his roommate.
The same acquaintance that gave up the suspect’s location to police also informed them that Dickinson had left a notebook at their residence, which contained a written confession found scrawled on one of the pages.
“This is John Dickinson. I am responsible for the death of Kevin Thompson. I had no help whatsoever. I told no one what I did.” It read.
John Dickinson was promptly dropped off at the park where friends of his were staying and was quickly reported to a nearby police station. The witness told police that they knew Dickinson had been struggling to adapt to living outside of prison walls, but had no idea that he was capable of doing something as cruel as murdering and dismembering his ex-boyfriend, who had done everything in his power to help the suspect smoothly transition back into society.
Two other witnesses claimed the suspect verbally confessed to them about the killing while they were gathered around the TV set watching a news report about the murder to which Dickinson admitted “I did that”.
The suspect even went as far as recounting the night in detail, “He said: ‘you killed me, you killed me” Dickinson told them.
Kevin Thompson is described by everyone who knew him as a generous, kind and loving individual. They theorize that he took in Dickinson as a favor following the man’s recent release from prison and was most likely trying to help an old friend get back on his feet. He even helped Dickinson get a job at the contracting company he worked for at the time of the murder. It is possible that Kevin may have also thought that the two were going to reignite the old romance they once shared.
It was revealed in an interview with an anonymous friend of Thompson that both the suspect and victim had been a couple at some point in the nineties. Apparently Dickinson had also stabbed the man in the leg in the past for simply rejecting an offer to hang out.
This report states the suspected murderer has a lengthy criminal history including counts of robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and more.
Several of the victims work mates claimed that they met Dickinson on one occasion and that he had “rubbed them the wrong way”.
On the day of his capture, Dickinson told police during an interview that Kevin had made a move on him and that he reacted violently in retaliation. A struggle ensued from the bedroom, through the kitchen and eventually into the basement.
John Dickinson has been charged with the murder of Kevin R Thompson and the abuse of a corpse.
