NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Lebanon firefighter's claim that his wife killed herself could be bolstered by an earlier police report.
NewsChannel 5 has proof that 38-year-old Carla Forbes Hicks whose body was found dumped in the woods last week attempted suicide just this year.
The Wilson County Sheriff, Terry Ashe, said Carla Hicks had plastic around her head, face and hands. There was also rope on or near her body.
Ashe said the items found were signs of how she was transported to the area and not how she died.
"It's pretty despicable - the way he did this, and the environment, in which he left his wife in," said Ashe.
The sheriff cannot separate the woman's death and where her body wound-up. He's skeptical that Mike Hicks, a trained emergency responder, did nothing to help. He's charged with, not killing his wife, Carla Hicks, but hiding her body in the woods.
"Did you have anything to do with your wife's death?" asked reporter Brent Frazier.
"No," said Hicks.
"What do you think of the charges of abuse of a corpse?" asked Frazier.
"Excuse me," said Hicks.
Hicks asked a buddy to help him change all four tires on his Jeep Wrangler last week. The tire tracks could place Hicks at the scene.
"She had been there at least two days. I'm not trying to play medical examiner, but uh she was decomposing very rapidly. I would think that would have to do with the heat," said Ashe.
Ashe is skeptical of Hicks's claim his wife died at her own hands. NewsChannel 5 has obtained a Murfreesboro police report, originating at the couple's home on Betsy Ann Avenue.
A complaint from this spring stated that Carla Hicks had swallowed 30-xanex and half a bottle of aspirin. Mrs. Hicks, according to the report, was trying to harm herself.
Hicks's employer is playing damage control during the investigation.
"Right now, he's suspended with pay," said Lebanon Fire Chief Chris Dowell. "We can go down the road, and there's nothing changed with the Lebanon Fire Department. I mean, you got to separate the two somehow."
Dowell called Mike Hicks a typically exemplary firefighter, but one who's been written-up lately for missing work, running late and even falling asleep on the job.
The 43-year-old was also arraigned Monday on the charge of abuse of a corpse, which is a class D felony. The firefighter did not enter a plea.
Hicks slept in jail Sunday night, and then the Lebanon City firefighter was released at 10:30 a.m. Monday on $10,000 bond.
Investigators said the autopsy on Carla's body was inconclusive, so a cause of death is unknown so far.
1 comment:
I wonder how many suicide victims are actually DV victims. The depression one has because of feeling trapped in a hopeless, abusive situation has to be a factor. Of course, the partner of a suicide victim is not likely to admit they abused the person who died, so we'll never know.
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