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OPINIONS
Editorial: Difficult Hickman case frustrating for community, police
A small teddy bear with a photo of Leah Hickman resting in its lap sits on a table with other photos of the late 21-year-old Marshall University student on Dec. 29, 2007, during a public memorial service at the West Virginia National Guard Armory in Point Pleasant. Evidence from the Hickman case is currently being tested at the mitochondrial DNA laboratory in Phoenix, Ariz.
Purchase this photoIt's been almost nine months since 21-year-old Leah Hickman went missing for a week. Her body was found hidden in a crawl space in her apartment building on Huntington's South Side.
Her disappearance made national cable TV news. She was the perfect fit for what cable TV fixes on: young, white, attractive, a college student. When her body was found, the national television audience forgot her, but the Huntington community has not. Among many in Huntington, there has been a mounting frustration that the Huntington Police Department has not named a suspect, let alone made an arrest, in her death.
Detectives have a working theory about who may have killed Hickman, but they lack evidence needed to press criminal charges. They believe it was an acquaintance with knowledge of the layout of her apartment.
Analysts at the mitochondrial DNA laboratory in Phoenix, Ariz., are examining what little evidence was left behind in the Hickam case. FBI Special Agent Joseph Ciccarelli said analysts could finish the mitochondrial DNA testing in a month.
Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook told The Herald-Dispatch reporter Curtis Johnson that his department received few tips in the case, and the killer left behind little DNA or trace evidence. The small amount of DNA and trace evidence left behind in Hickman's case surprised Holbrook and others in the department, but he said evidence can be sparse when the victim's body is moved from its point of death.
Ciccarelli said investigators are getting used to finding less and less evidence at homicide scenes.
"I think people watch 'CSI' and think, 'Well geez, there's always this huge amount (of evidence) and blood everywhere,'" he said. "That's not always the case."
Holbrook said local police cannot speed up the scientific process, and he believes patience is critically important.
Speaking to the Huntington Young Professionals Committee last week, Holbrook said police do have a suspect.
"It's not a case of who done it, but how do we prove it," he said.
It doesn't help that the Hickman case is one of two high-profile unsolved homicide cases in Huntington in recent years. The other was the predawn killings of four young people, including two teenagers who had just left the Huntington High School prom, on May 22, 2005.
This unsolved case of Leah Hickman is a frustration for everyone. Residents question the police department's investigative techniques and abilities. But it is also frustrating for the police, who want to solve the case as well.
Adding to the problem is that it seems easier to solve this kind of case on television than in real life. National statistics show that 39 percent of homicide cases go unsolved. In the past four years, the Huntington Police Department has a better record than that.
Huntington police have investigated 24 homicides since Jan. 1, 2005. Of those, 16 have been solved and eight have not. The eight include Hickman and each of the four teens killed on May 22, 2005. That means a third, or 33 percent, of cases are unsolved.
Holbrook told the Young Professionals Committee that his department has cleared 90 percent of the 11 homicide cases it has worked since he became chief last year.
It's good that the community cares about these cases and is watching what's going on. But the difficulties of the case should be kept in perspective.
Now, we have to hope the police get some breaks and are able to arrest the people who committed these crimes.
