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• Drug trade, crime hot spots major issues

HUNTINGTON -- The Leah Hickman investigation. The city's quadruple homicide on May 22, 2005. Huntington's battle against drug trafficking.

Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook fielded questions on those topics and more when he sat down Nov. 25 for an extended question-and-answer session with The Herald-Dispatch.

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This is the first of three reports on his interview, and this installment focuses on the unsolved Hickman and quadruple homicide cases and other issues related to violent crimes and crime statistics.

Holbrook requested the question-and-answer session in an attempt to better inform the public. He said no question was off limits. Excerpts from the conversation are below.

QUESTION: At last check detectives were waiting for mitochondrial DNA results from Phoenix in the investigation of the death of Leah Hickman, a Marshall student whose body was found 11 months ago. They had a working theory about who may have killed Hickman, but lacked evidence needed to prosecute. They believed her death was a targeted incident -- not a random attack. Where does the case stand?

ANSWER: I'm not going to say what we are specifically testing, but we have finalized some trace evidence testing. It did not yield a positive match to any one person we were looking at. There is additional testing that is still going on with additional pieces of trace evidence that has not been finalized.

It would be after the first of the year (before additional testing results are finalized).

The bottom line of where we're at is there are some pretty specific facts that only we know right now. That's the way we're going to keep it.

Q: Are there any new developments in the May 22, 2005, quadruple homicide that killed four area teenagers in the 1400 block of Charleston Avenue?

A: We had a meeting with the families last month. We briefed them on a few ongoing things. The main part was to convey to them and assure them that it is still an ongoing investigation. There is not a drug arrest that occurs that subject is not broached with the offender. We've conducted numerous interviews here of late concerning the quad. We have to evaluate each piece of information that we obtain through that. What ends up now, especially with our increased drug efforts, you get a lot of people in jail that are wanting to help themselves. A lot of second- and third-hand information that they want to deliver as first-hand information. We've traveled to a lot of different correctional facilities and interviewed people.

Q: Many people in the community simply do not understand what is keeping your department from solving these two high-profile homicides. They hear you say the investigations are ongoing, but can you explain the difficulties these cases present?

A: Look at the number of homicides we've had since I've been here. Look at how many we've cleared (nine out of 11 homicides solved). Go to another city and pull theirs, and see if it's anything close to that. I think you'll find that it is not.

I think some of the problem is there was maybe over the years some public confidence was eroded. We have to gain that public confidence back to where they know when we say, "We're doing everything we can," that they're confident we are.

Cases are difficult. We have a more educated criminal element now than probably in the history of law enforcement and crime. Through television shows and reality shows, even "C.O.P.S." and "48 Hours," not only are they seeing how other people have done it, we are actually telling them our tricks of the trade. We're providing them sometimes blueprints for how to get away with things.

You have that on top of the citizens seeing "C.S.I. Miami" and everything gets wrapped up in a 60-minute episode. You've got a more educated criminal, and then you've got an unrealistic expectation from the community. I mean it's a recipe for people being very critical of our efforts.

Q: Have you ever second-guessed anything in the manner those investigations have been handled?

A: Not as an excuse, but the quad homicide happened before I got here. I'll tell you my philosophy on major case investigations: My strategy is we will flood an investigation with as many assets as we can on the front end, and that increases our affectability to quickly solve crimes. With any major case, you've got to get on it quick. The longer a case stretches out, the more difficult it becomes.

I don't know that was the approach that was taken with before or not. There were a lot of factors. It may have been overtime, but I know we throw every asset we can into major cases now. I think that is why with all of those homicides we had this past year -- that is why we had the clearance rate that we did.

I don't (second-guess anything with the Hickman investigation). It's been a methodical approach from the very beginning.

Q: FBI crime statistics show increasing trends in Huntington's violent crime rate and its property crime rate. What is your response?

A: I don't think we are any different, when comparing apples to apples, than any other town that has similar demographics and geographics.

Our property crime rates clearly are directly connected to the rate of (drug) addiction we have in this area. People that are drug addicts, they resort to property crimes to fuel that habit.

We had an unusual year for homicides. The majority of them were domestic related, which are unpredictable in nature.

The drug-related homicides, I guess my response to that would be it's directly related to our drug trade, but the upside to that is we have an extraordinary clearance rate when it comes to investigating those crimes.

You can't look at Huntington, W.Va. -- a town of 50,000 people -- and go find a town in the middle of Kansas with 50,000 people and compare those two cities. We are much bigger than a 50,000-person population represents.

We're much more than a sleepy little town. We are a true metropolitan area, and we have crime statistics that reflect that.

Q: Is Huntington a safe place to live?

A: Absolutely. I think so. Times have changed everywhere. There is no question Huntington is different than when I grew up here. When you hear people say they'd never lock their doors, that is true. I don't think the lock on my mom and dad's front door ever worked until just a few years ago. There was never a need to worry about that stuff, but times have changed.

Some things are reflected nationally through looking at crime statistics. Violent crime increased dramatically with the introduction of crack cocaine.

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Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook speaks Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008, during an interview with The Herald-Dispatch.

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