The Secret in the Water

Picture yourself alone in the middle of nowhere, and somebody's following you.

“On Deadly Nightmares, a podcast from ID, you can hear real stories from ordinary people”

who were stalked by predators. On each episode, survivors describe the moment they sent something was wrong and how they managed to escape. Then investigators and family members speak to the details of each case sharing exactly what happened. These terrifying stories are the stuff of nightmares.

And they're all completely real. Listen to Deadly Nightmares wherever you get your podcasts. It was after one in the morning. We heard this popping sound.

We didn't know what was going on at first.

I looked out the back door and we could see the flames coming out of the house over here. And so I called 911 just to think that it could go up that fast. It's horrifying.

“I just figured the whole house was going to go.”

We had a call roughly 135, give or take a few minutes for a possible structure fire. Reck your fire. When we hear a structure fire, four call. It's kind of just dangerous for everybody. It kind of clicks you over into like, it's game time.

Everybody just kind of jumps out of bed. It's just putting their gear on and we jump on the truck to take off.

They respond urgent because you just never know if there's people inside the home

or if there's anybody trapped, how rapidly fires them spread. Of course, you're glued to the window because you want to see what you're pulling up till. Coming down the street, you can see it because there's fire out of every door and window. It was coming out of the garage. The picture window in the front door kind of looked like a movie because inside it is.

You can see everything in real life. It's never like that. And something else could be going on. It might not be just a typical accident of fire. Kind of made you think, okay, there could be something more to this.

It's definitely how to jump on us.

This fire is really just the beginning.

It's going to connect back eventually to another case, a murder case that happened about a hundred miles away. A mystery that had gone unsolved for many years. A man accused in multiple crimes decades apart. It's one of the region's oldest lingering questions. Who killed Regina Roe Hicks?

Her mother was found in a hero and county pod. He didn't just take her life. He must with everybody's life. Calculated, deviant, evil. They were behind with a monster. We got a call in at 135 AM.

We were there within 10 minutes, rolled up. We had fire coming out of almost pretty much every window. We deployed our hand lines and started knocking the fire down from there. I don't know if someone's inside the house is on fire.

“If you put it simply, how long could you hold your breath?”

Not very long. They don't necessarily know that the homeowner is not there that night. It's in the middle of the night. There could be people sleeping in here. Two different crews, one went up and then we went downstairs. We didn't find anybody.

No victims in the house. No one is there. We crossed through the living room. And we crawled over. I believe it was a five gallon gas can. And during the search, I crawled over another gas can. I believe it was in a bedroom.

Something's not right. He went and told the fire chief and he had the arson team dispatched to investigate the fire. And they requested the Claremont County Sheriff's Office to come up and to handle the investigation and conjunction with some of the fire investigators because they believed it to be an arson. The owner of the home was a gentleman named Paul Hicks.

He had purchased the house about six to seven months earlier. We learned that it was an investment type of home. He didn't specifically live there, but he would stay random nights. Gosha, Ohio, just a suburb of Cincinnati, but you are just on the edge of getting to farmland.

Mr. Hicks was a railroad, former, and he would specifically work around parts of Ohio. Fixing crossings or intersections of the railway.

Fire investigators were trying to reach out to the homeowner.

“Once contact is made, he identifies that he's in a hotel up in Bluffton, Ohio,”

where he's been staying throughout the week for his job. And very quickly, he identified that he had a surveillance system within his home. And also on the exterior of the home, pointing towards the residents. This surveillance had survived the fire, and we were told that it survived, because it happened to be in two fireproof gun safes.

So eventually, Mr. Hicks shows up at the fire scene. He helps us retrieve that DVR system. The camera system had four cameras. One outside in the back, one outside in the front, two inside. The DVR that a footage was on was extremely well preserved for having been in a fire.

Investigators, they have all of this surveillance video, which is a little bit uncommon.

The two people approached and they first come into the view of the camera.

It appears that it's about one-fourteenish in the morning, one-fifteen in the morning, when they initially show up.

“It's an infrared camera, so it's kind of black and white.”

But it appears that they're wearing some sort of like tie-vex suit. The male are sentenced as a couple of gas cans with them. And they walk up to the house, and they come right to the front door. They go into the house, it doesn't appear anybody kicks the door. Work does anything like that.

They kind of walk me in or through the house. But one of the subjects in the house, who we believe is a male, carries out a TV, they carry it out the back door. So they've got this tie-vex suit to cover themselves up with the hair, and the face are exposed.

Right on camera, a camera angle that she walks under. She has all of this long, curly blonde hair that's hanging out. The male does the majority of the pouring of the gas. It could be seen on surveillance.

“And all to leave night at the house on the backside.”

Or you can see how quickly it goes up to essentially had kind of like an explosion in the middle of the fire, which pushed out the front of the building. It is an absolutely massive fire. Paul Hicks is very stern in his beliefs right away as we're reviewing the surveillance. He has his theory, and he identifies the female arsonist.

That's definitively her, and he's identifying her based upon her size, her facial features, her hair, what her nose looks like. That person stopped, looked at the surveillance camera, and almost looked at the camera in the sense of, "Here I am, this is who I am."

After immediately pointing the finger, he's also saying that she's done this before.

He's basically saying that she is violent out-to-get-em,

and she would do this type of thing. That was kind of our first level of what's going on here. It kind of made us think twice. There are some odd things that are immediately apparent to the investigators, as they're looking through all of the surveillance video that they have.

Didn't pass the smell test, if you will? They take precautions to cover themselves up, but the hair and the face are exposed and the hairs, almost laying on the shoulders and display. If your hair was that unique,

why would you not take the time to conceal it? You would typically think that if someone's committing an arson, and there's neighboring properties and potential witnesses, that they are going to be in and out, do it quickly, get out, and that's not what you see on the video for this fire.

They definitely seemed very calculated and very smooth in their moves. The owner of this house, Paul Hicks, he immediately tells them that he believes that the woman in this video is his ex-girlfriend Kelly. He says they've been having problems,

especially child custody issues, and he immediately points police in her direction. Okay, June 18th, 2015, approximately 1010, I met a reference, a house fire, determined to be in Santa Fe,

and with the homeowner Paul Hicks. Mr. Hicks had told us that he had had a bad relationship with the mother of a child. His ex-girlfriend Kelly has been blowing him up, blowing him up for multiple calls,

continued to call night.

and she called, I think, 95 times in a row. Okay, this was last night. Yes. When we got the phone records back,

“it appeared that Kelly's phone had called his phone”

in excess of a hundred times. See, you've had some problems with her in the past. Oh, yeah, she has been threatening to you in the past. Oh, God, yes. Paul had said that this isn't the first time

that Kelly has been out to damage my house. And he's saying, I also have this on surveillance that she came out to my property. She actually came out twice in one day. He was, you got the video over,

Chopra Patta, two months ago, so much he did that. You referenced a prior criminal damage that had happened at that same residence earlier in the year. That kind of supported his reason why he said he needed the surveillance system.

And with that hot tub incident, it was very similar. The hair was on display. The body type was the same, because the prior hot tub incident,

Goshen Township Police Department had put a worn out on the X. So at this point, investigators want to confront Kelly, and they set things up with Paul Hicks to have her meet him for a child custody

exchange of their son. We did that out of Crogers once she went there to meet him.

“We arrested her on an outstanding warrant.”

So I did do anything for all my fans. We did, it took like a criminal. I had no record at all. What you have is a criminal damage in the war. I don't think so.

It's not, you know. If you haven't found out clearly, anybody or anything is just a criminal damage warrant. Okay. We'll be the host.

Now I have to leave the cops out of court showing. But I do nothing. From that day forward, she remains anonymous.

Never publicly revealing herself.

Until now. I'm right here, too. I said down with Kelly, to talk about all of this. Her first time on national television,

and she remembers this day very clearly. Before I know it, both my doors were open, and there was Tazardon's point at me and my mom said. And what did they say?

They didn't tell me anything until I got after they arrested me. What are you thinking is happening? What did Paul do? Yes, it's been recorded as that cold. Oh, yeah.

Good. Authorities obscured Kelly's space in this video. Now, do you have your records from the June 17th that night? Yeah. Because the record I find is that you made a lot of phone calls

to him. You guys have been texting back and forth on the 17th. This was before the fire. The whole text message conversation. Okay.

I know he's talking about Hayes. Going to go for full custody and all that stuff. And then after that, after between about eight o'clock and 10 o'clock that night, there was a numerous numerous phone calls from your phone to his phone.

Oh, no.

“That's what I was just showing you right here.”

Okay.

I never called him at all after the last time that I was.

I spoke with him as it's 625. Okay. And after that is numbers nowhere. I never called him. So there was no phone calls.

I never called him at all. They tell you about a woman who was caught on tape who looked like you. What are you thinking? There's no way that's me.

I was at my mom's house sleeping and she lives 30, 35 minutes away. Did it resemble you? From what you can see? From a distance? If you didn't know me, you're like, oh, that might, you know.

Like, yeah. So was your head spinning? Like, who could this be? Yes. It was a wild.

She was surprised. And she was very stern and adamant that she had no involvement in the arson. And that hot tub incident. She said, just I was in bed. I wasn't, you know, out in the country in Goshen committing this arson.

This is the girl that is right. There's trying to say it's me, but it's not me. And here's the out. Because you guys do resemble each other. Just like the eyes, the cheeks and the eyebrows.

Other than that, I don't have that distinctive chin. So after the Kelly interview, we start trying to just do our background on both of them. We learned that neither one of them were really in the area of the residence.

She told us she was over in the Norwood area, which was consistent with the records we got. And Paul Hicks told us he was up in the Bluffton location. And we were able to verify that too. If it's not Paul, who's there?

And it's not Kelly, who's there? Who is this woman? Investigators are about to uncover something that is pretty stony. Could tell people before the final straw

I'll tell you. He's going to do something's going to happen. Results come back.

It's, to this day, is the most incredible response I've ever got.

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Hello darlings, it's Lisa Vanderpump. My Hulu original reality series Vanderpump Villa is back in England, where the standards are high and the chaos unavoidable. And if you think my staff is all drama, wait until you meet the guests. Love Island, Bachelor Nation.

The challenge is a white lotus of reality star. Witness the reality star crossover event you won't want to miss. New season of Vanderpump Villa is now straight away. On Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. For bundle subscribers, I'm supply.

I'm Zach Rimecune. I'm a partner with Ralthus Henry, which is a law firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. A significant portion of my practice relates to fires and explosions and representing insurance companies

and relation to those. Zach Rimecune is not someone who's got the same powers as a police officer. But he emerges as the super sleuth of this case. You'll be very small universe of people who could have been involved in this.

It's either him or it's her. Kelly was extremely cooperative. She came out and gave a voluntary sworn statement. Kelly tells me that when she first met Paul, she thought he was the kind of guy she'd been looking for.

He was tall, he was handsome, and he just, he was funny. Thanks, dude. Did you feel like you kind of had met a Prince Charming or a guy who was could possibly do?

I never met anyone who had like seemed like they had their life together.

I ended up pregnant within three or four months. That had to be a surprise. Yeah, so. But he wanted you to move in with him. Yes.

“And did you know right away that you wanted to stay with him?”

Yeah. Yeah. We were excited for you know, because I thought, oh, you know, the beginning, all that everything's perfect. You know, until things start to show.

Kelly says she and Paul would be on and off again for the next seven years, connected by their son Daniel, even as she says, the relationship grew more volatile. She told us about prior domestic violence scenarios. There was an incident where he from her perspective grew a gas canatter

instead of what she would burn. There was an incident where she said he left the bar, came home, took her clothes out in the front yard, and let them on fire.

Paul denies those domestic violence allegations and was never charged in connection with them.

He would break stuff or he would say something to get custody and things like that. And I just Elvis has done and he knew it, so it was an ugly breakup. Yeah. This fire comes at a really pivotal time in the relationship between Paul and Kelly. They've broken up, they share a child and they are at a flash point in their child custody,

battle where it's about to be time for child support payments to becoming from Paul Hicks. And then another concern was there were these really odd cell phone communications the night of the fire, his iPhones incoming call logs, he showed that she had called him 90 some odd times, but then her cell phone records came back and it showed that she only had five cell phone communications with him that night.

They pulled the record and they figured out it wasn't me. So that's really where the ball got rolling, like what's going on here. At first glance, it appears somebody is going to great lengths to harass Paul Hicks,

When we realized that the hard records didn't match, somewhere along the line in a conversation with Kelly,

“there was mention of spoofing spoof corn.”

What spoof cartas? It's a company that would allow you to change the number that shows up on their caller ID. How did you know that he was using that? I've seen him do it. He told me. So spoof cartas legal compliance were actually great in responding.

All that information comes back at this program was used. This is the real number that made all those calls. They faked Kelly's number that was not Kelly. Once investigators have this piece of the spoofing of a phone number, they're able to trace it to an IP address,

and that IP address belongs to a woman who they don't know much about how she's connected to this case. It takes the number of subpoenas to figure out who this woman is. She comes in and he says, "Yes, I do know Paul Hicks.

“We were in a relationship, but I don't have a cell phone.”

I don't have any cell phone communications. I had this relationship. We go our separate ways. I don't know why people are asking me about the fire, and I just want to be done with this kind of a thing." We believe the phone was originally purchased by the female, but it was in the hands of Paul Hicks.

Paul admits to using apps like Spoof Card in the past, but denies having anything to do with those calls. Investigators begin digging into the background of the woman who says she dated Paul. They start pulling her records,

and they discover some unusual purchases made under her name. In her financial records, there was a purchase for a wig at a store of cold case wigs, a wig, almost identical to Kelly's hair. And they find something that's even more stunning of a purchase than the wig. This $368 purchase from a company called That's My Face.

This is a website where someone can give a photograph of any individual, and that company will print out a mask of that person's face. And we were able to send a subpoena to that's my face.

And the results came back to this day as the most incredible response I've ever gotten from a subpoena.

It showed that a mask was purchased under this woman's name, and it had all of these photographs of Kelly's face. A number of these pictures we had seen either on Paul Hicks' physical cell phone, or in his social media accounts. They find a custom-made mask that is made to look like you...

What the heck did you think was going on? I was a shop who even does that. This is not the movies. For his part, Paul Hicks has denied any connection to the purchases of that wig and the custom mask. You have this surveillance video,

and you have a woman who's looking at the camera with curly hair out and face bare. It makes you put pieces together. That could be the reason that she was fine with showing her face and camera. The insurance company, they decide that there's no coverage for the claim for this fired. Paul Hicks sues them for breach of contract and bad faith,

and then all-state counter sues him for a long other things fraud.

The civil lawsuit ultimately ends in favor of the insurance company.

Paul Hicks, he agreed that there would be a judgment against him. An in favor of all state for $400,000. So the civil case is wrapped up, but investigators are still considering criminal charges in that fire. And across the state,

another set of investigators are also looking into Paul Hicks. A decade or so earlier, he was connected to something much darker that was still unsolved.

“Did you start to think that he could be capable of murder?”

They would be all in the monster. After Kelly's arrest, Paul Hicks her ex files for temporary custody of their son. Kelly says even as investigators began to doubt her role in the fire, the allegations still followed her for years in family court. He tried to destroy my whole world,

and he got away with it for a long time taking my son for me. He essentially had your son, Daniel. Yes, it was horrible. It was a nightmare. He's everything to be.

It took two years to be able to see him without supervision. You want to tell me that I need supervision for my own child?

we never ended up charging her.

We never got to a point where we believed she was the person held responsible. The hot tub incident. She wasn't the person involved in that. And those charges were ultimately dismissed on her behalf as well. After the civil case is over,

the criminal investigators are able to charge Paul Hicks with aggravated arson, perjury and insurance fraud. Paul Hicks pleaded not guilty to that.

“Are you thinking now that he's going to be held accountable?”

Maybe he's going to go to jail.

I'll say it hopefully, finally.

You know, just as it's finally happening. 43-year-old Paul Hicks accused of organizing the elaborate scheme to have his house set on fire. Deputy say Hicks told them his ex girlfriend was one of the two people, but detective say she is innocent and they do believe that Hicks is behind this plot. Paul Hicks was making a lot of headlines in Ohio for the arson case.

What was actually happening now too far from there is another type of investigation that involves something that happened back in 2001. Mr. Hicks was originally from Will or Ohio or here on County. I ended up speaking to the elected sheriff. They told me that from 2001 they had a victim by the name of Regina Hicks,

who was Paul Hicks's first wife, and she was a victim of a homicide. Will it is rural? It's a railroad town? It's a hard-working town? Not too far from Cedar Point, everybody knows where that's at. Everybody knows everybody.

“If you want to know something about somebody just ask somebody, they'll tell you.”

Regina was a tomboy, so she was used to working on like four wheelers and dirt bikes and things like that. And she enjoyed it. Her parents bought her a grandium. We would drive from the back roads and listen to country music, Hake Williams Jr. Regina loved that with her favorite.

He would feel protected around Regina.

She would always make you feel safe, wanted, loved.

Regina met Paul Hicks and school, and I started dating each other. I think she was like 16. They went on after high school to get married. They had a sign together. Regina was a great mom. She would take Montana everywhere she would. Once she met Paul Hicks, Regina couldn't hang out as much.

And when we did hang out together, Paul would always have to be there. She had a snake and see us. Before Paul, she was loud, happy, and more vocal. Paul made her more silent, more small. Then at some point, there's a fire that happens at their home.

There's a fire at their house in the summer of 2001. The fire happened around 11 o'clock at night. Paul Hicks aside to undergo fishing. Regina goes with him. When they come back, the house is on fire.

It was determined that it wasn't electrical fire that started in the bathroom. Shortly after they left. Regina was really upset about that fire.

“Her dad's things that she was given to remember him by was in that house.”

After they split the insurance proceeds of $60,000, they start to live separate lives and she starts to do her own thing. That money really changed Regina's life. She was able to break away from Paul and get some independence. She finally started acting like herself again.

One stuff and buy and stuff and go in places with the money she went and she bought a white Camaro. She wanted a fast car and everybody knew that that was hers. There wasn't any other white Camaro's in town. She was ready to turn the page on the chapter of Paul Hicks and just live in it up. She finally met somebody.

She'd filed for divorce and she was smiling like herself again. It's a clear, crisp October evening in 2001. Regina Hicks has got her car. She's got her freedom and she's got plans for the evening ahead. She is expecting to pick her son up from Paul Hicks.

And then end the night with a guy that she is dating with a night on the town.

“She has to pick Montana up at 8 o'clock.”

Our mutual friend called me and asked me if I had heard from Regina or if I had seen Regina. She was supposed to go pick up her son and Montana was four years old. She did not pick up her son.

She would have never left Montana.

There's no way she was going to leave her little boy and not pick him up when she was supposed to. No one believed that Regina would just disappear on her own. And everyone was on the lookout for her signature white Camaro. Where was it? Where was she? Almost instantly you knew something was really bad.

Regina Hicks, you have 10 unheard voice messages. Do you think Regina is being naughty?

“I think they are all being put in their paws.”

Are you getting me in charge?

I think it's nested around with other swimming people who are looking for her.

We're doing that. I don't know where you're at. I don't know where you're at. Four days have now gone by since Regina Hicks has gone missing. And understandably, her relatives are frantic with worry. This is my son's field right here. He had a four wheeler.

He rode around to the end of the property. And when he came up on top of the pond here, he seemed something out in the center of the pond. Something that was unusual. Yep, he just didn't know whether it was a classic bag or what, but something that shouldn't have been there.

“And come up the farm and told me, Monday morning we came down here.”

He reached his down in the water up to here.

And we were thinking maybe it was a jet ski, but here and now we didn't know. And he said, Dad, it's not a jet ski. And so I run up the farm and got a chain real quick. And we hooked onto it and he drove the truck. When he started to pull, I was standing on the bike and I holler that day.

Oh, it's a car. I drove to the farm and called the sheriff. All of the different agencies descend on the sea. You had to hear on County Sheriff's Office a crime sitting in unit from BCI, the Willard Fire Department and the Divers.

The Died team go into the pond to determine if there was a body in the pond. They tried to search the driver's side compartment. And they initially thought they may have felt something, but they realized it wasn't anything. And then they went to the passenger side of the vehicle and reached in and felt the shoulder of a person. I said, do we have a body like, oh yeah, we have a body in there.

So when they pulled this car out, it's a white Camaro. Regina drove a white Camaro. Correct. It's pretty clear they found Regina's body. Absolutely.

My mom called me late. And she says, Lisa, I need you to promise that you're going to stay home. But they think they found Regina's car. And just, your heart just drops. People are showing up standing out.

The yellow tape line with the street. They said they found a car in a pond. And then when we all got out there, it was Virginia's. But she was on the passenger side. It didn't cover her up until everybody saw.

Because of the people there, we left her in the car. And we just tow the car to the local police station. When you find out that she was left in that car. And I know they had to put a car to follow. But it's just, it's a significant feeling.

A garage bay removed her from the car there and sent her to autopsy.

“The next thing that is really critical to the case is the positioning of her body inside of that car.”

Perfect. We're clearly underneath the passenger side council. For her to start the driver seat and float over and end up in that position. Probably next to impossible odds. Someone else was driving when it went in.

The driver's side, the seat appeared to be pushed all the way back. She was a smaller person. So obviously somebody bigger had driven the car. She was covered in mud. To the point of being caked inside of the back of her folded jeans.

Mud inside the back of her boots. There were no gunshot wounds, stab wounds, anything like that. There was some minor bruising. But nothing that really stuck out. Deputy start to trace these steps of Regina.

The day that she disappeared. One of the pieces of evidence from the vehicle included some receipts. One where she went shopping at JC Penny. She went shopping to Mansfield, Ohio with her boyfriend, Mikey Perkins. And then went back to town to drop Mikey off.

She was supposed to pick up Montana at eight o'clock at the Steve Gates property where Paul was located. Steve Gates would be Paul Hicks's best friend. They did everything together.

“Steve Gates tells police that Paul Hicks was at his house with their son Montana.”

And they were all waiting for Regina to come pick up her son.

But he said that never happened.

Obviously that was completely out of the norm. Paul Hicks was a person of interest. And Mikey Perkins, her new boyfriend, was also a person of interest. Paul is someone that the investigators want to talk to. And they tell him to come down to the sheriff's office.

Regina was supposed to come pick up Montana at the Steve's house. Yeah. And she never saw ever saw that. Would you do it Montana then? I'll take it back in the sisters.

I'll take it in the shoes and I'll show it to you. So I'll pay yourself the next morning. Paul had an owl diving. Indicated that he tried to get a hold of Regina when she didn't show up on time. He said he wanted to tell me if she didn't show up on time.

He said he wanted to tell me if she didn't show up on time. He said he wanted to tell me if she didn't show up on time. He said he wanted to tell me if she didn't show up on time.

He said he wanted to tell me if she didn't show up on time.

He said he wanted to tell me if she didn't show up on time.

“He said he wanted to tell me if she didn't show up on time.”

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[ Music ] We're on the property of the here on County Sheriff's Office. And so here today what we have is we have the Camaro that Mr. Gina Hicks was driving back on October 18, 2001. This is the car that was pulled from the lake.

20 plus years ago. Yes.

“It's still covered in mud inside and out.”

Pretty much preserved it looks like. What did you notice right away? When I started looking at the vehicle, obviously I realized that the passenger side seat was laid back.

And the vehicle was actually stuck in second gear.

And the driver's side window was down. And Regina's positioning in the passenger side of the car convinces investigators that she was placed there by someone. Then driven into the pond. Whoever drove the car was pretty big, wheels tilted up.

So they needed space knowing that they had to get out of the car. The door was closed so they crawled out the window once it was in the water. This is the actual shoe. Regina was wearing.

You saw a shoe print somewhere. Yeah. And it was a swipe. Okay. So you've got a swipe.

So what the anticipation was is that her upper torso would have been placed inside the vehicle here. If she had been driving this car, there's no way her foot would be swiping this side of the door getting into the car on that side.

Correct. This essentially was your smoking gun to prove that this was a homicide.

“This was a very, very key piece of evidence to show”

and prove that Regina was not driving this vehicle and that she was put in the passenger seat. And the autopsy results also support the theory that Regina didn't end up in that pond by accident. There were three strikes on the top of her scalp.

Those strikes were not hard enough strikes to wear. It would physically kill somebody.

But they were strikes that could ultimately

incapacitate somebody. We also knew that when she went into that pond, she was unconscious, but she was alive. Because of the fluid that was inside her nose cavity, she was breathing in the water from the pond.

The taxicology report was negative. She had no drugs in her system. While investigators were looking into Regina's boyfriend at the time Mikey, turns out he had an alibi and was clear of any involvement in Regina's murder.

Paul Hicks is at the top of the list for officials who are digging into this. They're hearing from family members of Regina who say that there were troubles in their relationship. There are also red flags that investigators are seeing

when it comes to that custody battle. Paul Hicks did not want to have to pay child support for Montana once the divorce went through.

Here's what the past year was.

Yep. Can't say if you can be joined by Steve, and you can do everything you want. The furniture, everything. She said, "Okay, I'll do it."

She said, "I can't be joined because of you." Somebody told her she's not going to be a child support. If I can do it 'cause it's just going to bring that to you fair enough. Yep. Two days after Sheriff's deputies set Paul down for an interview,

they asked him to come back in. This time, for Polygraph. The first law, I guess I'm going to ask, very willing, to take the families. Yeah, I'm going to ask you something.

Sure, absolutely. There's a management in your interview. I'm going to make an error here. Now we have bills for the budget. What type of pill do you take?

3, number 10. Zandex distance. The Polygraph examiner immediately determines that he's not going to be able to actually do the polygraph test because the inevariation would invalidate the results.

And as the investigation move forward, everything continued to lead to Paul Hicks. But there was nothing to definitively link him to the crime. No admissions, no DNA, so it's a hard case. And then, as time passed, we would start getting information.

“That's why Lasela kind of started doing more of the investigation herself.”

Regina's mother, Lasela, is desperate to find answers. Lasela put up all kinds of billboards and talked to new stations. We just want justice. Somewhere, somebody knows something. It's just a matter.

Is the people afraid to speak up? She's full-heartedly believed that Paul murdered Regina. Paul's mother also spoke to the media. I know Paul didn't do this. I praise Paul.

I know what kind of child Paul is. Lasela was also trying to get custody of Montana. Montana legally went to live with Paul. But he was actually living with Paul's mother. Paul's mom raised Montana.

Lasela would buy birthday presents and Christmas presents for Montana every year. Hoping she would be able to get to see him and give them to him herself.

Tell me about your mom. Is she buying me toys or yeah? You miss her, huh? Lasela was strong. She wasn't going to give up.

Until she got justice for her daughter.

“She just ended up getting cancery for that happened.”

I mean, she was pretty sick. She only weighed about 87 pounds.

Lasela told me to never give up.

I'm finding who did it to Regina, who killed her. I mean, even until she died, she kept fighting. She never got the answers that she was so desperately thinking for. And this case goes cold. There's not any development in it for over a decade.

That was a sign to the Special Investigation Genome. The here on County Sheriff of that time asked us to take over the Regina Hicks cold case homicide. So BCI, we accepted that request and then started the investigation. The Sheriff provided us with all the investigative material. We had boxes and boxes of investigative files that were all transported back to our office here at BCI.

In this world of investigations, we tend to look at patterns.

With Paul's relationships after Regina's passing, there's that consistent pattern there of mental and physical abuse.

He finds women, he pays them attention, maybe buys them things. And then when he's done, he was on to the next adventure. Instead was to control their lives as he lived with Regina. When you heard about those details, broken relationship, you know, domestic violence, a custody battle.

“Did you start to think that this is a real pattern with this man?”

Oh yeah, there's all control. In the seven years that passed between Regina's death and Paul meeting Kelly, she says rumors were all around him. Did people talk to people say anything to you about... Oh, here's the leader of the room, and people will come up behind me like, "You know, he killed his wife."

Like, what?

People would say to you, "Yes, he killed his wife."

And what did you think? I'm like, "What the hell?" And then, you know, you're like, "Oh, people deserve his jealous of me." That's all that is. That was Paul's story, but BCI was actually looking into him for Regina's murder.

And then, he's indicted on arson charges for that clear-mont county fire back in 2015. I actually thought, "Well, if he doesn't go to prison for killing Regina, at least he'll go to prison for arson."

“Paul Hicks eventually pleads to an insurance fraud and he sentenced probation.”

It's a break for Paul. The perjury and arson charges are dropped. We just have to pay back. The insurance company that he defrauded. And it was a huge let down.

How'd you feel? I just shot down, broken. Again, waited for so long and nothing. Paul wasn't being held accountable for everything that Paul was doing. And people were getting tired of it.

But things are about to change. Someone new steps into the picture who's going to shine a light on Regina's cold case. Regina deserves some need of fight for her. I mean, Regina's cousin. We grew up together.

We'd have, you know, summer parties get together. And we would just have so much fun laughing and talking. When Regina would laugh, it would just slide up a room. And miss that sound. Knowing the person that you love that is murdered.

And that everything seems to be pointing to her husband, but there's no evidence. It's frustrating and it's hard. Good evening. Welcome to allegedly with Ashley Ford. Ashley Ford is a podcaster.

And for some reason, you either really love her or you just don't like her. My podcast is called Allegedly with Ashley Ford. I have no criminal justice background. I have no law enforcement background. I don't like when things are unfair.

If I see something that's solvable, I can't leave it alone.

She's someone who looks closely at unsolved cases. Ashley Ford calls herself a trouble maker. And she's someone who is controversial, especially to law enforcement. She goes further than just talking about it on her podcast. She calls out people.

One of my friends was like, wow, Ashley is really rallying people up. But I'm like, Ashley, who? And she's like, Ashley Ford. So she's like, you got to check it out. People started asking me to look at Regina Rowick's case.

Going to Ashley Ford, we had nothing really to lose. Because nothing was happening.

“What would it hurt getting somebody talking about Regina?”

Regina deserves somebody to fight for her. Regina's mom, Lacella Holbrook, had a massive file of everything that she could get her hands on for 15 years. I looked at the files and I agreed with them. It was enough. It's been 24 years since Chad Row got to call his sister Regina.

Was found dead in a pond. And now local podcasts are Ashley Ford wanted to help find out. I wanted to see if we could get some attention to a cold case that definitely deserves justice.

I think most of the family felt like finally somebody's listening and open then doors.

I'm investigating a case that is 23 years cold. And it makes it a little bit difficult. Specifically for the main reason, I wasn't there. In the beginning, Ashley was pretty much recapping everything we had already known. This is one of the more intricate and information-lating cases that I've ever done.

It didn't start getting more interesting until later on when she was doing more digging. Everything kept coming back to Stephen Gates. He was Paul's good buddy during the time. BFF back in the day. They were as tight as you could get. Regina was supposed to pick up her son from her strange husband at Stephen Gates home.

“She was supposed to pick my son up. She called me in 750-3 and that's what my cell phone said.”

I don't know what exactly what she's exactly said but she was not probably there.

It was Stephen Gates and Paul Hicks testimony in 2001. She never showed up.

I pulled every report I could find that mentioned Paul Hicks and Stephen Gates. And she finds something pretty interesting. A share of support from just weeks before Regina went missing. We have to consider this tip that was called in like 30 days before Regina actually was found dead. In September of 2001 Regina Hicks is pulled over by Willard Police.

They search a car and they find marijuana and pills. She says she believes that they were planted by her estranged husband to try to set her up. Regina is never charged. I realized that Stephen Gates called in a tip that Regina was coming back with a load of drugs. Told them exactly where she was.

It looked to me like they were trying to hear arrest.

And remember Paul had mentioned this to investigators when he first talked to them.

She had marijuana and she was going to get stuck here. She got busted though. She got busted and her mother. Stephen Gates is the property owner of property that Regina was headed to when she went missing. If it were my daughter, I would want to expose whoever had to be exposed to get to justice. And she doesn't back off of sharing his name publicly in a way that hadn't been shared before.

I found that releasing the information about Stephen Gates brought more information for him. Behind the scenes, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation there in Ohio, they are also simultaneously working on their own criminal investigation. We had a very long list of individuals that we wanted to interview or re-interview to include Steve Gates. We needed to ask the tough questions.

“Did you see her there? Can you tell us if she was there?”

But he hasn't said anything all these years. Why is he suddenly going to talk to me? Well, we felt that he would. We had a try. I called Burnard Davis his lawyer. Talked him on the phone to set up a meeting. Steve had been holding this in for 24 years. He said, I'm ready and I need to tell you everything that happened.

Sunday nights on ABC, what happens when the person you love the most?

“Turns out, not to be who you think they are.”

Everything he told me was alive. I was betrayed from the number one true crime podcast, The Trail. He's been living a secret double life. My marriage ended with a 911 file. The tape is blood curdling.

The trail secrets and lies. So many people are living with their own betrayal. Sunday nights at 10 o'clock on ABC and stream on dizzy-plus in Nulu. It was Wednesday morning.

About 10 a.m. when Leslie Jenning Priors colleagues became concerned.

She hadn't come to work. In 2001, Leslie Prior was living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

“When on a spring morning, the unthinkable happened.”

There were signs of a struggle, but no forest entering. This woman was strangled and she was beaten. She was found in the shower with the water running. For the next two decades, Leslie Prior's case remained unsolved, and the shocking truth about the real killer stayed hidden until very recently

when new technology allowed investigators to do would had once been impossible. I'm Stephanie Ramos, and this is Blood and Water. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Any almost got away with it. She almost got away with it.

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. There was a date and time that was set up for special prosecution,

“our investigative team to meet with Steve Gates in Mansfield, Ohio.”

When we arrived there, there was somewhat of a hesitation of how the meeting would go. What is he going to say? I'm one of the first things he said is, I'm ready, and I need to tell you everything that happened. He wanted to give us information and what actually happened, then I had the incident.

Which was we've been waiting for and praying for, I guess, the whole time, for it actually to come, was pretty exciting. This lawyer told us, "Look, my guy is going to give you politics. But he wants immunity."

After 24 years earlier, he told them her Camero never arrived on his property.

Steve Gates wants to make sure that he has immunity so that he doesn't get charged in any way for lying to police in the initial investigation. What does he tell you? So they made an arrangement where Regina's going to pick Montana up. He had just turned four. So Regina drives to that Steve Gates's property, parks her car,

and immediately gets into an argument with politics. The two were yelling at each other. He tells us that. He had seen and heard so many arguments between the two of them. He didn't want to get involved in it. So he walked in, it was garage.

He turned on W-I-O-T. And was turned on his tractor and was working on his tractor. Eventually he came out of the barn, and he noticed Regina picks his white Camero was now parked in a different area of the driveway closer to the road. According to Steve Gates, he said he's seen the dome light on.

He's seen the passenger side door, but he's seen Paul Hick standing next to the passenger side door. He noticed that the driver's side window was down. He looked in, he's seen Regina. Questioned, what was wrong with her? And according to him at that time, he was told that she was dead.

What's that? When he gets to that point in his interview, the emotions really hit Steve. And he becomes very emotional. Steve Gates, he immediately says, "You got to call 911. We got to get her help." Paul Hick says, "No, they get into a little argument."

Paul told Steve, "You're now involved." And we need to get rid of this. Paul Hick gets in Regina's car. Steve Gates gets in Paul Hick's car with Montana in the back seat sleeping. According to Steve Gates, he eventually followed Paul Hick's to the pond location.

So he drove her into that pond, jumped out of the car, escaped the car himself. Left her there to die. Correct. And then got back in the car with Steve Gates. On the way back to Steve Gates's house, Paul Hick calls Regina.

That's me, Paul. It's one hour. He'll be back in 30 seconds. Steve Gates said, "I couldn't understand why he took his phone out and called Regina Hick's a cell phone." Well, that would make sense why her phone records indicate a call after the time she was pick her son up. What was Steve like revealing all of this? Very remorseful, emotional, remorseful.

And then he said, "Well, who else have you told?" He said, "Well, other than my lawyer, I haven't told anyone."

He lived with this information all these years and never shared it.

Correct. I said, "Did you tell your wife?" He said, "No." I said, "You're going to tell her tonight." So he had been carrying the information that he knew within himself for decades. Out of concern for his own safety and well-being, out of fear for his family, for his children.

“And then I come around the corner and that's what I was like.”

As a condition of this immunity deal, Steve Gates has to provide investigators with a tour of his property. Where Regina Hick's would have been hurt. They were like standing in maybe here somewhere. I remember this little play earlier in this little, and they were like, they were like, "You're on any chat."

And you were over there.

So when you came out of the garage, where were they at?

They were like, "Where were they at?" It's down there, it's down by the fence. We're behind the dumps trailer. I just remember being like amped up, I'm just not thinking clear at that point. Because I'm like, "Right.

You're involved in everything else. You know what I'm just?" How long do you think you were standing by the car with Hicks? Minnets? And then you get in his car and fall in.

He was very specific, and we were able to corroborate that. The Attorney General Dave Yosen prosecutor certainly got together, had a discussion, the agreement was made, that we would give him immunity. Nothing he could say to us could be used against him unless he lies to it. I'm glad Steve Gates came forward, and I think it did take some courage to say,

"Yeah, I sat on this, and here's the truth." And he gets points for that. But it wasn't courageous to ask for an immunity deal. It wasn't courageous to say, "Talk to my lawyer." He was a witness.

“Steve Gates was the key to solving this case all these years.”

Correct. And once he gave you his story, everything changed. Everything changed. Hi, we're like them up. And now, after two decades, went to four years.

Everything is about to change for Paul Hicks. Good. Good fun. So why did you get me in the rest of the world? Here we go. He's been walking the streets.

We're going to go over here with the cruiser. Yeah, he's been vacationing in Hawaii with a girlfriend. Vacationing in Florida with a girlfriend. He's been living his life for 24 years. While Regina's been encased in a coffin outside of World of Ohio.

People 22nd, 2025, he's indicted. Paul, I don't know if he told you that we don't work here in the rest of the world.

So Paul Hicks is finally arrested.

What did you think? I had a panic attack because I was excited and terrified at the same time. Charged with the murder of his wife. You filed for a emergency custody, by the way. Oh, the very next day.

I went straight up there and got Daniel.

“Oh, I don't think he saw it coming. And I think it was a surreal moment for us at that point.”

Paul was ultimately transported back to the here on County Sheriff's office and myself and Chris attempted to interview Paul. This is not something that this respectful can be cut.

Do you want to know what the United States is?

No, I want to make my phone call.

“Okay, so we would like to talk to you about what that is.”

I don't care. I don't care. So this is an interview. So you're not running the show here. Well, I'm going to make sure.

Well, then that's hard. You don't go to see you when they get time to get to you. Oh, I know. I said it on Mars. Why?

We don't get a fucking idea. Well, the whole way you fall. Yeah.

We then had first hand knowledge on how he treated people because he didn't want to hear

what we had to say either. It was all about the control. Yeah, for him, which was what I expected. They're all in there. Paul Hicks is accused of killing his ex-wife and the mother of his child, Regina Roe Hicks.

The day after his arrest, Paul Hicks pleads not guilty to the murder and kidnapping charges.

“24 years later, what was that moment like were you to come in and now make this kind of a leap in a long cold cave?”

I made arrangements for two Regina's family members to meet with them. They were emotional and that something's finally been done. At least now, we're in the system. At least now, he's been charged. Now, a jury is finally hearing a case over what happened to Regina Hicks.

24 years is a long time to wait for a case and a trial to get started. There's a big question that hangs over it of what's different now. This was a case that was made without any forensic evidence. No DNA, no fingerprint, no hairs, straight witness testimony, and some circumventural evidence. What was your biggest worry going to trial?

Quarberating what Steve Gates told us. The jury almost had to believe Steve Gates. All right, please. Right out the gate during the opening statements. The prosecution lets the jury know that their star witness is a known liar.

Steve Gates discussed what happened on October 8th by July. And he's going to find what to stand, and he's going to make you the Levi. He arrived in the sheriff's apartment. He arrived in 24 years. The prosecution laid out for this jury the potential motive for Paul Hicks to kill Regina. He had lost his job, had blown through a lot of that insurance settlement money that they got from the fire at their home.

And he was getting closer to having to pay some steep child support payments to Regina. The defense doesn't make an opening argument. Correct. That was the first time in 37 years. I've experienced that.

All right, the jury's first witness. There was a lot of information that came to light in regards to Regina Hicks and Paul Hicks's relationship.

“What's the control way as far as the relationship went?”

Like, she would only talk to her mom, and he was at home, and she was kind of on anything, but she would even get to keep pretty much sort of that nobody wondered if he could have it or not. A lot of witnesses, a lot of family and friends that had first had knowledge and had seen. Not only these domestic altercations, but the emotional abuse that they say were to Hicks endured throughout this relationship.

He was always yelling there fighting with him.

Did you witness an incident like four or five months before that turned 50? Yeah, he called their parents a smatter at their house. Prosecutors have got a witness contradicting Paul Hicks claim that Regina never arrived at Gates' place. Jimmy Patrick, Regina Zonkel, he had a Saul, Regina's car as Steve Gates's house around 8 o'clock on that Thursday evening, October 18th of 2001. I was driving by Gates's house.

I just glanced over and I said, "That looks like Perth car." When you'd seen that car, you said it was getting dark. It'd best be dark. At the time, Jimmy Patrick's statement couldn't be corroborated by investigators. So Crystal Hicks, that is Paul Hicks' sister.

So she was very reluctant to speak with investigators. Getting off of work the night of the 18th of October 2001. She actually got home earlier than what she'd anticipated. Paul was living at her house at the time. I came home so that's in my house and I was headed to the bathroom and we tried to cut me off.

We used to flee from sea. When I proceeded to go to the bathroom, I had many clothes. We were floating in the bathroom. How much mud was in the bathroom? A lot.

And you were seeing that much mud. Who was scared of your house when you came home? Steve Gates and my brother.

Steve was sitting on the couch and like I said, I think it's a part of some mud because I got off to a living normal.

“Do you know anything about the defense station here?”

He had scratches on his underwear that his neck worked far in the space somewhere in this area. He's at a tree at Baldwin's. Strash him. At the time Regina disappeared, Paul Hicks had moved on. He had a new girlfriend.

And she's about to tell the jury something unusual. She remembers him telling her. He told me that. That there were ways to beat a light detector test. We are following a once cold case out of Ohio.

The occurrence can be really intense places. You had a packed gallery of people who were supporting Paul Hicks and Regina's loved ones.

They were all there in the same space.

Waiting to see if there was going to be justice one way or another. It's day three of testimony. And the jury is hearing from Jansen Fibs.

“Paul's girlfriend at the time of Regina's disappearance.”

And she remembers some strange things from that night. What happened after you went to bed? I went to sleep. I woke up. And Paul was gone. But I didn't think anything of it.

I went back to sleep. What did you tell him about the 25? That he had a pair of money boots.

From the day that Regina went missing.

Because they were digging the pond. And he put him on his sister's back porch. And somebody stole him. He gets up in the middle of the night. He does something with the boots.

She also testified the way he did that weekend. They went to a dance. They were together Friday night, Saturday. Even though his estranged wife is missing. Correct.

Jansen Fibs on the stand told this jury that she remembers conversation from Paul Hicks. Or he said that he could beat a polygraph examination. So he talked to you about things like breathing techniques, things like that. Yeah, he had a book. I feel in my memory like it had a yellow covering.

It was a soft back, wasn't a hard back book. But yeah, it was how to beat a light detector. Tell me he was just trying to protect himself. Did you also watch ranches? We watched a lot of forensic files.

And just shows about how people would get rid of evidence and things like that. During cross examination, the defense was able to highlight the things that the prosecutors lacked.

“There's nothing that you found when you reviewed the DNA to implicate Paul Hicks, isn't it true?”

There's nothing at all that I can compare to anybody. It's just simply not sufficient for a comparison purposes. You didn't find any DNA of Paul in the car. I didn't find any DNA of anybody. Nothing to implicate Paul in regards to the testing of the soils.

That's correct. Okay. There was no DNA linking Paul to this case. Yes, sir. You would agree with me that there were no hair samples that linked Paul to this case.

That's correct, sir. During the cross examination of the sheriff, the defense asked a lot of questions about why they're all of these other potential suspects who were not investigated further. You testified you're trying to rule people out. You got her best friend telling you she's having sex relations with four guys and you don't send anything to BCI in regards to those four men. We did not send any of her regards to those four men.

So then as you sit here today, you didn't rule out those four potential men and suspects in this case. Nothing allowed us to put you those four people or suspects. The defense was really suggesting that these investigators had tunnel vision when they looked in on Paul Hicks. A lot of it told you we got it. We got it.

We got it. We got it. The state conceited that Steve Gates has lied for 24 years. Is that your position? That's what I've been told you.

And you can't rule out as you sit there that he is going to lie tomorrow. I can't. No, sir, I can't. Stay in that little. Steve Gates.

Who does not want to be recorded in any way?

And the state of Ohio, they do allow cameras inside of the courtroom.

But if a witness wants to opt out of being shown, the court will grant that. So this guy comes to court and he's lied to law officers before. And now you are asking a jury to believe him.

“You have to have credibility with the jury.”

You can't pull punches or try to pull a wall over anyone's eyes. And that's what we said about Steve Gates, look, he's a liar. He lied in 2001, he lied in 2002. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, but he's not lying now. Sitting in the courtroom, I was, that was the one testimony I wanted to hear.

I wanted to hear from Steve's mouth what happened. And we would get answers, we would know. Gates tells jurors exactly what he told investigators. That Regina did, in fact, come to his home to pick up her son, and that she and Paul got into an argument.

He said he saw Regina's body crumpled on the floorboard of her Camaro. Steven Gates had Paul Hicks told him that she is dead. Gates doesn't mention that he in any way was involved in Regina's death. But he does say that he followed the instructions of his friend, and that he did keep his mouth shut.

He gave the bare minimum information, but it was more of what he left out. It's like, you know, where was Montana at during this time that they were fighting? I mean, it's you're not going to ask what happened, what did you do? He could have gotten help, somebody could have called 911. The defense highlighted that he had multiple opportunities over the years

to tell the truth to police, and that he continued to say that Regina was never there.

Their whole case is based upon speculation and congestion. The defense spoke to the jury for the first time during their closing arguments. These are the prosecution's case, is full of holes, and did not have any substance.

“Remember, I'm back with the 70th raise, with a where's that beef commercial?”

Where's that beef? Where's that beef? Let's get to the beef in the case. Zero forensic evidence, linking Paul to the alleged crime scenes. More importantly, far more importantly, zero forensic evidence to corroborate the scientifically unverified decision of Charlotte and Gates.

If Lyme was not willing to go then, that guy wins the goal, the silver and the brides. Thank you. Thank you. Take a break here with us. Yes, sure.

The state and their closing argument wanted to make sure that the jury understands that everything in this case points to Paul Hicks and no one else. If not, Paul Hicks, then who? Both. That's what's about you.

“Virginia's independence, Virginia wanted child support, Virginia wanted custody.”

Virginia fought back. You don't fight back, but it's politics. If this time, then we will take a time for the jury to begin the deliberation.

When everything is in the hands of the jury, it's one of those anxious moments because you never know.

All right, please. All right, folks, we have breaking news out of Ohio. The jury has reached a verdict in the murder trial of Paul Hicks. There are some cases where jury deliberations can take days, weeks. But in this case, this jury came back within three hours.

All right, please. The emotions that you have as an investigator when you're sitting there waiting for the verdict, I truly can't explain. And the state of Ohio versus Paul Hicks, jury buys an defendant guilty. That was a great moment. When they said guilty, it was a huge weight lifted.

A big sigh of relief. Finally, we got justice. And Paul's reaction was priceless. He did his head back, like he couldn't believe it. The role family have suffered immensely.

They've gone so many years without answers. To be able to watch them get that verdict, it seemed like justice.

My sister, Lysola, and Regina love Christmas.

And after Regina got killed, Lysola never celebrated Christmas.

So for them to do it, and they were playing Christmas music outside. It was kind of like perfect. What was that moment like for you? Winning. Finally, my baby's home on were safe. He's where he belongs. He's going to be where he belongs.

“For Kelly, life is finally moving forward.”

Though amazingly to this day, investigators haven't definitively determined who the two people were that set that fire.

After the verdict comes down, then is the matter of sentencing. This is the opportunity for the victims loved ones, Regina's family, to be able to address the court and share some things that they haven't been heard publicly on for over two decades. I made sure I made eye contact with him. I would lean in, so he would know I was talking to him.

Regina was intelligent, far more intelligent than you.

She had a rare kindness and a heart that would have only grown stronger with time.

“I wanted Paul to know how angry and horrible all this was.”

She would have made a real impact on this world. During sentencing, Paul and Regina's son, Montana, is offered an opportunity to speak. He doesn't come in person. He gives a letter to a victim's advocate to read. When he gives his victim impact statement, he reminds the court that he is the victim who lost the most here. I can't escape this. To me, there is no justice as to lack of evidence.

Nothing has been solved and nothing will be until the truth comes out about who really did this to my mother. He also says that now I have to hear what has to be decided for my dad. Do I feel like he should be punished? No, but anyone who committed a crime should pay. I lost my mom and now I'm losing my dad. I'm glad that it was solved.

I'm glad that people are talking about Regina again. I just hate that her son is learning all the things that he's learning and so much pain. You know, I think we need to realize what Montana has been through throughout this entire, not only this entire process, but the last 24 years and what he's going to have to live with for the rest of his life. There is no reason for any leniency in this case of the defendant had the benefit of roaming free for the last quarter of the century before facing justice here today.

Politics sentenced to life in prison with a possibly parole after 25 years, 15 years for the murder and 10 years for the kidnapping. I want her to be remembered as Montana's mom. She loved him. She would have loved him deeply. She would do anything for anybody. She was a scaring and she loved her family.

“I want people to remember that she was a human, not just a victim.”

And there's so much that she could have accomplished and been had Paul Notten taking that from her. So many lives all to David by the acts of one man Regina Hicks would have celebrated her 50th birthday this year. For her loved one, she's been gone 25 years now and we should note tonight that since his conviction Paul Hicks has filed a notice of appeal with the court. That's our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm David New York. And I'm Deborah Roberts from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News. Good night.

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