It took 12 years, but authorities closed Shaquita Bell’s murder case this week, thanks in part to one anguished mother’s plea and another’s personal connections.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier reopened the case last summer after her own mother told her about a television news report describing the anniversary of Bell’s death. On TV, Bell’s mother pleaded for the then-newly appointed Lanier to reopen the case.
On Tuesday, Lanier announced that police have charged Bell’s former boyfriend, Michael Eric Dickerson, 38, with the 1996 murders of Bell and Sean Anthony Thomas. Police believe Dickerson fatally shot Bell because she told police Dickerson was responsible for Thomas’ slaying earlier in the year.
Detectives have long suspected Dickerson in Bell’s death, but until now police have said they haven’t had enough evidence to file charges. Dickerson is serving a 15-year sentence in a federal prison in North Carolina on gun charges and for brutally beating Bell, though she was not around to testify in that case.
Bell was 23 and a mother of three when she went missing.
“I really expected this to happen. It was just a matter of time,” said Jackie Winborne, Bell’s mother, who campaigned for years to get police to resume the probe. “I’ve cried a lot of tears, and I’ve prayed a lot of prayers.”
Lanier met with Winborne last summer and ordered investigators with cadaver dogs to excavate a wooded area near Fort Washington, where witnesses said Dickerson allegedly buried Bell. The dig did not unearth Bell’s remains, but new leads opened up. A second witness came forward in November, confirming a statement by Jonathan Shields, a friend of Dickerson’s, who told police in 1999 that he helped Dickerson bury Bell. Shields was killed one day before police had arranged to have him wear a wire to visit Dickerson in prison. Shields’ slaying remains unsolved, according to court documents.
On Monday, police executed search warrants on Dickerson’s prison cell in North Carolina and on his home on the 3200 block of G Street Southeast. The evidence found during the searches and the testimony of a cooperating witness were enough to charge Dickerson, police said.
Police would not reveal what new evidence or witnesses they have that allowed them to file charges.
