Regina Hicks: The 24-Year Cold Case Murder Hidden Beneath a Ohio Pond
In 2001, Regina Hicks disappeared after leaving to pick up her son. Three days later, her Camaro was pulled from a Willard, Ohio pond with her body inside. For 24 years, her estranged husband's secret was protected by silence—until a friend's testimony finally brought a killer to justice.
The 24-Year Silence: How Regina Hicks's Murder Was Finally Solved
A Mother Vanishes
On an autumn evening in 2001, Regina Hicks said goodbye to her boyfriend and climbed into her white Chevrolet Camaro. She was headed to collect her young son from the home of a friend belonging to her estranged husband, Paul Hicks. She never arrived.
Three days later, on October 22, 2001, a grim discovery shattered what little hope remained. Regina's Camaro was found at the bottom of a pond in Willard, Ohio, her lifeless body still inside. What initially appeared to be a tragic accident soon revealed itself as something far more sinister—yet the truth would remain buried for nearly a quarter century, locked behind a wall of silence and deception.
A Marriage Marked by Shadows
Regina and Paul Hicks had been high school sweethearts, their romance beginning with the innocence of youth. But the passage of years had transformed their relationship into something dark and volatile. Those who knew them best described the marriage as violent and turbulent, a storm that Regina seemed unable to escape.
Family members watched with growing alarm as Regina's vibrant spirit dimmed. The woman who had once been loud, happy, and unafraid to speak her mind gradually became withdrawn, her presence shrinking under the weight of her husband's influence. Paul Hicks cast a long shadow, and Regina moved within it.
When she disappeared, suspicion fell naturally upon him. He had filed for divorce just one day before she went missing—a timing that investigators found impossible to ignore. During questioning, Paul admitted to drug and alcohol use, which rendered a polygraph examination inconclusive. Yet without sufficient evidence to build a case, authorities could only watch as the investigation stalled and the years began to slip away.
The Arson Scheme
While Regina's case gathered dust in cold case files, Paul Hicks was constructing an elaborate web of criminal deception. In a scheme that revealed both his cunning and his desperation, he orchestrated the arson of his own home.
The plan was calculated: stage a break-in, have two masked accomplices douse the house in gasoline, and ignite the flames. The objective was twofold—frame his ex-girlfriend to gain leverage in a custody battle, and collect a substantial insurance payout. In a telling detail that spoke to his foresight, Paul had placed his home surveillance system inside a fire-protected safe, ensuring the "evidence" of the staged invasion would survive.
The scheme eventually unraveled. In 2019, a grand jury indicted him on charges including aggravated arson, insurance fraud, and perjury. Though he initially maintained his innocence, Paul eventually entered a guilty plea and received probation in 2022. It was a conviction that demonstrated his capacity for manipulation and destruction, but it offered no closure for Regina's family.
The Cold Case Thaws
The breakthrough that Regina's loved ones had spent two decades praying for finally arrived when the Ohio Bureau of Investigation took possession of the case. Investigators began the painstaking work of re-examining evidence and re-interviewing witnesses—among them, Paul Hicks's closest friend, Steve Gates.
What Gates revealed under questioning, with the protection of immunity, shattered the silence that had protected Paul for so long. Gates testified that on the night Regina disappeared, he had witnessed a violent argument between the estranged couple. Later, he found Regina unconscious. When he confronted Paul, his friend delivered the devastating confirmation: she was dead.
Together, they drove Regina's Camaro to the pond in Willard. Paul steered the vehicle into the water, leaving his wife's body inside to be consumed by the murky depths. For twenty-four years, Gates had carried this secret. For twenty-four years, Regina's family had lived without answers.
Justice Delayed, Not Denied
In April 2025, authorities arrested Paul Hicks and charged him with murder and kidnapping. He entered a plea of not guilty, but the weight of evidence and testimony proved insurmountable. By December 2025, a jury had convicted him of his wife's murder. The sentence: twenty-five years to life in prison.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost captured the bittersweet nature of the resolution in a statement that acknowledged both the triumph of justice and the cruelty of its delay. "Today a killer is held accountable," he said. "Although 24 years after the crime, it's a stark reminder that truth has no expiration date. Prison bars will now restrain the evil that stole Regina from her loved ones."
The Weight of a Quarter Century
The case of Regina Hicks stands as a haunting reminder of how long the shadows of domestic violence can stretch, and how silence—whether born of fear, loyalty, or complicity—can become its own kind of accomplice. For nearly twenty-four years, a mother lay at the bottom of a pond while her killer walked free, built new schemes, and constructed new lies.
The resolution offers no restoration of what was lost. The son who waited for a mother who never came cannot reclaim those years. The family who watched Regina's light dim under the weight of an abusive marriage cannot undo their helplessness. But in the conviction of Paul Hicks, there is at least the cold comfort of acknowledgment: that Regina Hicks mattered, that her death was a crime and not a mystery, and that some truths, however long buried, refuse to stay submerged forever.