The body of Tarra Pickett, of Cambridge City, was found in a wooded area late Monday night. She was a sophomore at Lincoln High School, where grief counselors have been on hand helping students and staff deal with her death.
The cause of Pickett’s death has not been released, but dispatch records from the sheriff’s department said she may have been strangled and bitten.
Records show Dickey was convicted of rape in 1982, but was released in 2005. He was arrested in January for child molestation, but he was out of jail on bond at the time of the murder.
Dickey was scheduled to appear in a Wayne County courtroom on Wednesday on an unrelated child molestation case. However, he answered to murder charges.
Dickey was out of jail on a $50,000 bond for the child molestation charge and for one count of being a repeat sex offender.
He was convicted of rape in Fayette County in Indiana in 1982 and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was released after serving 22 years.
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