IN - James Chadwell II, 42, arrested after girl 9, found in his home, Lafayette, 19 Apr 2021 #3

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Inthedetails said:
Whoa. Hold the horses. The mom's obituary says they married in 1979 but the actual marriage certifiate on ancestry.com shows 1978. Maybe the obit is a typo?

Looks like they married when she was pregnant, not after baby was born. Bride was 16, groom 17. I had been assuming the obit was correct but it doesn't match the certificate, fwiw. Sorry I can't link as it's a paid site but perhaps it's available elsewhere online.

jmo
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This is what I see on Ancestry. Do you have a subscription to Newspapers.com, I do not. But I am confused at the one line showing the gender as FEMALE. I do believe that line refers to the child and not the mother....

Can you read the actual newspaper clipping????

Name: Laura Mae Vandergriff
Gender: Female
Residence Date: Abt 1978
Residence Place: Kokomo
School: Ha Worth High School
Marriage Date: 21 Oct 1978
Parents: Lester Vandergriff
Spouse:
James Brian Chadwell
 
RaspberryMama said:
This was my thought too. So sad. Jmo of course. I do wonder at giving him the exact same name as his step father, especially if he was born prior to the wedding. I just can't imagine doing that, while knowing he was not the bio child of that man.
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Totally, totally agree here. Taking on the last name is one thing, but giving him Junior status remains very strange to me.
 
nhmemorymaker said:
Totally, totally agree here. Taking on the last name is one thing, but giving him Junior status remains very strange to me.
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I'm assuming it was intended as a loving gesture to his wife and the new baby. The parents were essentially kids themselves at ages 16 and 17. It made sense to them.

jmo
 
So then either the Daily Mail got it wrong or the step-brother has rewritten the family history.

Possible Delphi murders suspect had a history of violence and drinking, brother reveals | Daily Mail Online
“Chadwell, 42, was born in Kokomo, Indiana, to a mother who was only 15 at the time.

The following year she married James Chadwell, and they went on to have two more boys and a girl.

But when Brian was 12 or 13, he flat out asked his mom, Laura, why he had dark hair and dark eyes while the other three children were blue-eyed blonds.

'My mother told him the truth,' said Ashley. 'And from that day he started rebelling and acting out and running around with the wrong crowd, stealing stuff, fighting. But when he fought it was always to hurt the other person not just to win the fight.'...”
 
Deerrun said:
There is a marriage license out there I have seen. I do not have a source to link here it is not approved. All my opinion,
Mom was 16 and 4 months pregnant by another man when she married the 17 yr old stepdad in Oct 1978. JCB was born March 1979. I do not know if JCB was adopted or who is listed on his birth certificate but it is not uncommon specially back then to give the baby the married name and to take the child on as ones own. Hence JBCll jmo
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If they were married in 1978, JBCII would not need to be adopted. In most states, the legal husband is the legal father of the baby, even if all parties know he’s not the biological father. You must actually go to court to change legal paternity if mom is married to another man. This is all MOO, based on NICU experience with families in my state. So, I think the stepdad is distancing himself because JBCII turned out to be such a monster. IMO he was probably just “Dad” until JBCII found out why he didn’t look like his siblings in his preteens.
 
Tower said:
If they were married in 1978, JBCII would not need to be adopted. In most states, the legal husband is the legal father of the baby, even if all parties know he’s not the biological father. You must actually go to court to change legal paternity if mom is married to another man. This is all MOO, based on NICU experience with families in my state. So, I think the stepdad is distancing himself because JBCII turned out to be such a monster. IMO he was probably just “Dad” until JBCII found out why he didn’t look like his siblings in his preteens.
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He also may have signed the birth certificate, which would have made him the legal father. Imo
 
MistyWaters said:
Okay I see what you mean, the 15 year old mother might’ve already been dating JBC Sr after she was sexually involved with somebody else, before the child was born. I guess he has own reasons to disassociate himself from being a father if blood ties are what’s most significant to him. I wonder, did the stepfather never legally adopt JBC, not that it matters. Just noticing him seemingly distancing himself in the way one would do if they married and entered a child’s life long after he or she was born.

There was no such thing as parental DNA testing back then but blood typing was common to rule out impossibilities.
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I don't know if we'll learn, but I wonder whether JBC II had any established connection with the biological father, either as a child or as an adult. Some adopted children seek out their biological parents and establish relationships - with that parent as well as with other children of that parent. (I don't know if JBC II was adopted; he may have simply been stepson to JBC Sr.). Sometimes that can be a good thing and sometimes it can introduce someone else's chaos into the other family's home.
 
'Pedophile' linked to unsolved Delphi Bridge murders is beaten up in jail while being held 'for abducting and molesting girl, 9, in his basement'
  • James Chadwell II reportedly suffered from minor injuries in a fight in prison, where he is being held on charges of abducting and molesting a nine-year-old
  • It is unclear what started the fight, but it occurred just about an hour after his attacker Quentin Jackson Jr., was booked in jail
  • The brawl is currently under review, as Chadwell faces several years in prison following his April 19 kidnapping arrest
  • He is also being 'looked at' in the 2017 murders of two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana who were going for a hike along a trail when they disappeared
  • Their bodies were found the next day, but their case has never been solved
'Pedophile' linked to unsolved Delphi Bridge murders is beaten up in jail after molestation arrest | Daily Mail Online
 
There was also this article from back on May 7th (sounds pretty minor... treated by jail medical staff) (imo):

Accused child abductor needs medical treatment after jailhouse fight

James Brian Chadwell II — the man accused of abducting and assaulting a 9-year-old girl — lost a fight Wednesday evening inside his jail cell, according to Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Office.
...
Chadwell received minor injuries to his face and was treated by the jail medical staff, according to the sheriff's office.
...
Chadwell had been in jail since April 19,...
...
Prosecutors also filed a sentence-enhancing charge of being an habitual offender, which, if guilty, could add between six and 20 years to Chadwell's sentence.
....
Carroll County sheriff's detectives continue to investigate whether Chadwell is a person of interest in the 2017 abduction and killing of 14-year-old Libby German and 13-year-old Abby Williams.
....
On Thursday, Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby declined to comment on the investigation into Chadwell as a possible suspect.

Lafayette accused child abductor needs medical treatment after fight
 
Tower said:
If they were married in 1978, JBCII would not need to be adopted. In most states, the legal husband is the legal father of the baby, even if all parties know he’s not the biological father. You must actually go to court to change legal paternity if mom is married to another man. This is all MOO, based on NICU experience with families in my state. So, I think the stepdad is distancing himself because JBCII turned out to be such a monster. IMO he was probably just “Dad” until JBCII found out why he didn’t look like his siblings in his preteens.
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Yes, I agree with all you say. Imo
 
I’m just not understanding the going off the mental deep end “event” from finding out JBC2 was not his “dad’s” bio son. Many people are adopted… Some were told early in life, others later, some found out after death of a parent. I just think it has to be way more than “his mom answered the question”. Like how it was answered or how everyone treated him after. Or maybe the whole thing’s dramatized & he’s a predator, pedophile, rapist, & maybe murderer just because… he is. Or maybe family claims this for distance… we’re-not-like-him. Either way, the adoption-ish psycho-break angle just doesn’t ring true. Imo, moo, jmo, etc.
 
JudgeJoe said:
I’m just not understanding the going off the mental deep end “event” from finding out JBC2 was not his “dad’s” bio son. Many people are adopted… Some were told early in life, others later, some found out after death of a parent. I just think it has to be way more than “his mom answered the question”. Like how it was answered or how everyone treated him after. Or maybe the whole thing’s dramatized & he’s a predator, pedophile, rapist, & maybe murderer just because… he is. Or maybe family claims this for distance… we’re-not-like-him. Either way, the adoption-ish psycho-break angle just doesn’t ring true. Imo, moo, jmo, etc.
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Quite possibly he was a royal pain in the arse and this may have been sprung on him when acting out. It was fuel to the fire he already was.
 
Diddian said:
I don't know if we'll learn, but I wonder whether JBC II had any established connection with the biological father, either as a child or as an adult. Some adopted children seek out their biological parents and establish relationships - with that parent as well as with other children of that parent. (I don't know if JBC II was adopted; he may have simply been stepson to JBC Sr.). Sometimes that can be a good thing and sometimes it can introduce someone else's chaos into the other family's home.
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Back in the 70s prior to the advent of DNA testing or even now, I think it would be highly unusual for a man and a woman to marry 5 months prior to the birth of a child, name the child #2 after the groom and then announce to the child later, well “who you think is your father isn’t your biological father”. I think most of us can recall a family with children who aren’t all look-a-likes and nobody questions it. Nobody questions a couple “having to” get married either, as it was referred to in the 70s. All quite common back then.

Who raises a child is more important than biological paternity and by the “step-father” referring to himself as that, it gives the impression he walked in JCs life much later than immediately at his birth. By that example, the step-father might be the sort of person who’s inclined to say what he thinks people want to hear while distancing himself at the same time. Maybe he is the biological father but doesn’t want to admit it? Maybe the marriage was falling apart and his intent was to hurt his wife by making those allegations - “he’s not mine, look at him, he’s got brown hair and brown eyes!”? We don’t really know and probably never will.

I don’t know what this might connect to the JC of today other than a dysfunctional childhood may’ve influenced him to become the evil character he’s allegedly become, not an excuse but sadly common. Just my opinion.
 
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stattlich1 said:
Someone close, or someone knowledgeable about blackout drinking, a wife, mother, bartender, or friend, could know after the fact by mentioning things the blacked out person said or did, and recognizing the person totally doesn't recall any of it.

This situation puts the alcoholic in an indefensible position, for he/she doesn't recall, yet is presented with the truth of what was said or done. It is a part of the cycle, blackout, act stupid or worse, get accused, can't recall/defend, feel guilt, shame, then drink more.
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This guy though (at a minimum) had an outside lock on his basement door. There was no evidence released so far that he was intoxicated early in the afternoon/early night hours. The arresting officers would have noted any evidence of intoxication. This would be really important as to when law enforcement interviewed him if he was in a blackout situation. JMO.
 
Tnsmith0712 said:
This guy though (at a minimum) had an outside lock on his basement door. There was no evidence released so far that he was intoxicated early in the afternoon/early night hours. The arresting officers would have noted any evidence of intoxication. This would be really important as to when law enforcement interviewed him if he was in a blackout situation. JMO.
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AFAIK black outs are memory loss after a drinking bout, in other words the loss of memory is a separate issue.
 
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