Episode 296: James Rodney Hicks Part 1 | Morbid

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Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid!

🎵 Ooh, she's feeling it this morning. I'm feeling spicy this morning.

Feeling spicy, feeling alive. I'm feeling alive I'm feeling the love feeling I know for real like feeling a lot of the love we are which is wild but we are number one on the charts right now he was number Which is just really crazy, really mind-blowing.

It's completely thanks to you guys. 150,000%.

We just wanted to remind you how much we love you and how appreciative we are to you and how we... can't wait to just keep giving you more shit.

All the shit. Like we said, I think in the last episode, we have some extra content planned for later in this year.

Yes. You're going to be getting more content than you know what to do with and we're very excited about it because you deserve it.

Yeah, like, I just, I'm like... What's the term when you don't have words?

Speechless. No, like I literally couldn't even think of that.

I'm just like... I'm just so, holy cow.

Holy shite. And we're still number one today.

Like I checked and I was like, wait, what?

Like you guys. You guys are doing the damn thing.

This is you. It is. We're doing the best we can for you, but it's you guys really.

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So we appreciate it. And we just wanted to tell you that because we really love you.

We love you so much. We really do. And we just appreciate you.

Know that you are very appreciated. Always.

Always and forever. A and F. But today we are going to be talking about some craziness.

It's going to be part one of a part two series because...

I just can't help myself. I cannot help myself.

I love a deep dive. Just love it. So this one is really gnarly, but before we get into it, I just wanted to quickly talk about because ash and i have been like constantly talking about this the last two days And I know it's really high on everybody's mind right now is this case out of Hampton, Virginia.

It's the case where four-year-old Cody Bigsby It has been missing.

The story is a little strange. Yeah. Everything's kind of up in the air right now.

They have right now named the parents as persons of interest.

Mm-hmm. They were saying the stories aren't really adding up.

The last thing we heard was that the father said he had seen Cody in his bed at 2am wearing flip flops.

I know that was confusing. It confused me.

There is the whole thing and a lot of people mentioned it like, well, if you have a toddler, you know that sometimes they want go to bed with like weird shit.

That is true. And sometimes maybe there were new flip flops and he was excited and like That's happened before.

Like my kids have wanted to go to bed with things.

Normally we say no when it's something like that, you know, could potentially hurt them.

Yeah. But it happens. So that was like, OK.

But it was still a little strange. And it looks like law enforcement. said that that wasn't the only strange thing, so the timelines weren't adding up. nothing was adding up and they came out and said they don't believe that cody walked away or it's you know is missing by his own volition and they don't believe he was abducted right which doesn't leave a whole lot of good options here.

It looks like they did start searching at the Hampton NASA steam plant.

Which is very unnerving, and they've made it, quote, an element of the comprehensive search as of Tuesday afternoon.

It's just like the fact that they're looking for a four year old at a steam plant.

And he is just a beautiful little babe. I was just saying, I feel like... so often lately we're talking about these cases like summer wells and then now cody and harmony And you just look into like these little baby's eyes that I said to Elena before we started recording, like just looking through pictures of him.

You can feel your heart breaking. Oh, it's horrific to look because it's just like this beautiful little babe with this whole life in front of them.

And what's even more unnerving about this is that steam plant is where they found two-year-old Noah Tomlin. who they found in July 2019, that story will rip you right apart.

Um, It's a horrific one when you find out what happened to that poor little baby.

And his quote-unquote mother, Julia Tomlin, 37 years old, she pleaded guilty to murdering him.

Ruthlessly. A two-year-old. Like, I have a two-year-old.

I cannot fathom. no laying a finger on her no like and that poor baby was like beaten to death a two-year-old We get upset when we're like, no, you can't do that.

When she cries, it breaks my heart. Even when she cries just because she's pissed that she didn't get to have, like, a snack or something.

Like, something very innocuous. But a two-year-old crying... will destroy your heart because they cry with everything they got and they do that they do that oh that face and it just it'll break your heart that's how they that's how they wrap you around their fingers because they're so damn cute that they're able to get you to just go you know what it's okay Yeah, if you're a good human being.

Yeah, if you love your child. But, yeah, so this is really horrific.

Let's all – I mean, it looks like the Harmony Montgomery case, too, is really –

We're waiting to see what's going to happen with that.

Right. In Cody's case, I guess the police are asking specifically for help from the public. they said that anybody near the 100 block of ranelit drive or if they've been in that area if they can look at surveillance videos or photos that they might have during that particular time.

They're really interested on noon Sunday until Monday morning at 9 a.m.

So definitely if you happen to know somebody in that area or you are in that area and have a camera.

There you go. Definitely check it out because we need to at least find out what happened to this baby.

Exactly. I'm worried about the outcome, but there needs to be an outcome here.

But yeah, so that's a really sad case and we're going to go into another really sad case.

I had a feeling. Yeah. So we actually noticed that we were, we got new microphones.

I think we mentioned it a couple episodes back.

And we were sitting in where we regularly sit.

And I was like, wait, do we sound kind of funky?

Alina was like, I think we might be looking a little funky here.

Yeah, we sounded a little cavernous. There was some echoes that we were hearing that I just could not let go of.

Now we're sitting in a closet and we tested it and I was like...

That sounds like a late night show, like on the radio.

Yeah, it's like butter. It is. I think we might need to sit in the closet from now on.

I mean, coming from the laundry room, we move into the closet.

I'm back in the closet. You're back in the closet.

LOL. But no, it sounds much better in here.

Hopefully you notice it. Let's get into this case because it is a long one.

There's a lot going on. It's a crazy one.

Okay, I'm ready. So this, I don't know if you've heard of a man named James Hicks.

So I think I have, but I don't know if I know the story.

I think maybe I've just heard you say James Hicks before.

And I feel like that's also just a name that when you say it, you're like, yeah, that's probably part of a true crime case.

Like it just has that vibe about it. Yeah, it does.

So he's a really bad guy, just to preface this.

I'm going to start it. I'm going to start this from like a weird place, but we'll get there.

That's like our new thing and it's been fun.

So the first victim, we're just going to get right to it, of serial killer James Hicks. because now you know right up front what's going to happen here, was 23-year-old wife, mother, and nursing home worker Jenny Hicks.

Yes, she was James's first wife. Okay. She was born Jenny Sear on February 6th, 1954 in Danbury, Connecticut.

She was one of four kids to her parents, Myra and Adrian Sear.

She had two brothers, Bruce and Roger, and a sister, Denise.

She was born in Connecticut but moved to Aetna, Maine with her family when she was very young.

She went to Herman High School, and it was actually there during her freshman year that she met James Hicks.

James was also known as Jimmy to most people.

You know, good old Jimmy. Jim Bob. Hicks was older, he was a senior, and they immediately fell for each other, according to everybody.

They began dating right away. The same year she became pregnant with their first child, a daughter who I am going to call Holly.

Not sure how associated her children, who are now adults, want to be with this whole debacle, so I'm not going to say their real names.

Holly. Yeah. Now, anyways, Jenny was now 16 and pregnant, and it's in 1971—

And James is like, you know what? I'm going to do what he thinks is the right thing here.

He asks her to marry him. OK. You know, things are going OK.

We're having a baby. Let's get married. Yeah.

She agreed. And obviously her family was not psyched at the whole thing. way this went down, and wanted her to finish high school, but she ended up dropping out.

Now, James Rodney Hicks, the father of said child, was born in Aetna, Maine, where Jenny's family had moved.

He was born on April 17, 1951. His father left the family when he was very young and his mother raised him alone.

They struggled a lot as a family, financially and otherwise.

He had six siblings. So you can imagine how hard that was for her.

Yeah. Imagine what a piece of shit you have to be to abandon six kids.

No. Like... What? How do you abandon six kids?

How do you abandon- One kid. But then six children to leave somebody like that?

Six. Children you just up and leave? That's insane.

And to leave with, like, to leave his mother with... all of these kids.

He just didn't care. That's wild to me. But...

Despite all of this, James slash Jimmy, he was well-liked in high school.

He was very athletic. He was a good looking guy in high school.

Like he came off very, you know, like all American boy.

He was on the cross country team and he was like particularly known as like a star in that sport.

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Rules and restrictions apply. While in high school, his brother Sheldon was actually killed in the Vietnam War.

Oh. This seemed to be something that was obviously very significant to him.

That was a big deal. But he was known to be very cold and withholding when it came to emotions.

So people said... Like it seemed like it bothered him, but it seemed like it affected him in a different way than it would normally affect someone.

He became colder. He became more distant.

He kind of didn't show emotions about it and I think that's what people remembered most like that it was Like a weird way to react to a family member dying in such a horrific way.

Yeah. But when you think of it in that sense, you're like, well, everyone reacts differently.

Like I don't burst into tears and scream and cry like I probably would.

Shut down too Like Yeah Everyone reacts a different way It's like compartmentalizing Like some people That's how they deal with it Exactly.

But I think it was like he was known as being that way.

So I think when that happened, people were like, oh, that doesn't even rile you up.

And I'm sure looking back now, they kind of look at that differently too.

Exactly. And they're like, oh, we missed a red flag.

Exactly. That may have been a red flag. It's like hindsight is 20-20.

He was also, though, despite being a little cold, a little withdrawn, he was a...

He was such a charmer. And he remained a charmer through his whole life, as we'll see.

He could very easily manipulate people. Mm-hmm.

He was, like I said, a decent-looking dude.

He was quiet, so he didn't come off as super aggressive in high school.

But he was definitely hiding a scary personality under there.

Which I feel like sometimes the quieter that it comes off, there's like something bubbling under there.

It's lurking. Now, Jenny Sears' parents could see this probably better than anyone.

They recognized this about him. They were like, something's off here.

Yeah, because that's their daughter, and she's about to have a baby with him.

I'm sure they were studying him with a fine-tooth comb.

Of course, because this is going to be their first grandchild.

They're like, we need to know what's going on here and they can see things that She's probably blinded by a little bit right now.

I mean, and they're getting married. Exactly.

He's going to be part of the family. Right.

Now, James finished high school and together they moved in with Jenny's parents because Jenny's parents were like, we want to be here to help do this.

In 1973, Holly, their first daughter, was born.

And it was then that things got really tough in their marriage.

Because as you can imagine, it's going to make or break you.

Of course. Especially at that age. Right.

If you are meant to be together and it's going to make you, it's going to turn you into what you're supposed to be.

If you just weren't meant to do this together, it's going to completely shatter your relationship.

This shows you where my brain is at. I'm just thinking of Caitlin and Tyler from Teen Mom, how it made them.

Thick. There you go. It did not break them, I guess.

Yeah, it didn't. And that's for all ages.

I feel like. I think people don't realize that enough that it's – kids really will – they're going to show you what you are and what you're made of as a team and whether or not you are a team.

So I think it's like I always say it's so important before you have kids with someone to like just discuss. what you want that to look like if you are able to and especially like down the road like your views might change and you want to make sure that they align with each other in the first place yeah communication is key everybody yeah this is dr elena telling you no But I felt like Dr. Drew in, like, Loveline for a second.

Dr. Drew, Teen Mom, Look Around. Oh, I didn't even realize that connection.

Look at that. We're right on it. So things were getting tough.

It was strained. They were young. James was also like a cheating bastard as well.

Ugh. That's tough. That'll do it. He did however get a job at a construction company.

So everything was just kind of going downhill.

It's just – it's very clear to both of them that this is not – happening so in 1974 the following year they filed for divorce they were like whatever like call it a loss But the reason that they had actually called off the marriage... was not just the culmination of all these things, like the financial struggles, raising a baby together, you know.

All of him cheating. Cheating, yeah. It was he actually hit on her sister Denise.

Oh. And that was on top of like a ton of actual affairs.

Like he tried to... start something with her sister Denise and Denise was like what the actual fuck Yeah, like not only am I like the sister of the woman that you're dating, but I'm your child's aunt. there's so much wrong with this and Denise was like no no no get the fuck away from me when Jenny found that out she had enough of the bullshit But once they were in the motion of filing, Jenny discovered that they were actually pregnant with their second child.

Oh. Which happens a lot. It's like, I feel like this happens a lot where people think that it's like... you know let's make up right everything we'll feel we'll feel bonded together for a moment like intimately And then that happens.

And then you're like, OK, maybe this is meant to be.

Maybe this is like meant to keep us together.

Or even sometimes it's just like closure, like one last time for closure.

Yeah, it happens all the time. all the time.

So it's not shocking that this happened, especially at their age.

Oh, I can't imagine too, just like the overwhelming feeling in general of finding out that you're pregnant.

But then on top of all of it, it's like, this is not great.

Right. Now, this time it was a boy who we are going to call Rob.

And they decided to stay together as a result of this.

They're going to try to make it work now.

So they moved from her parents' home to the T&N trailer park in Carmel.

So James... This is in Maine still. James got a job at Paul Lawrence Construction Company in Woodland, which was about... two and a half hours away and then two and a half hours back.

Oh, wow. Yeah. And he was commuting instead of staying there during the week, which a lot of people who work that job stayed there for the week and then would come home to their families. on the weekends okay which that happens at a lot of jobs like that yeah definitely He actually, he wanted to commute because he said he wanted to see his kids.

Okay. So. He's not a good guy, though, so don't worry.

But Jenny also wanted to contribute to the Bills and she wanted to, you know, start her own career.

So she got a job at a nursing home in Brewer, Maine.

And she worked in the kitchen and was starting school to become a CNA so she could start moving up the ladder.

Okay. So they were like making moves. Yeah, definitely.

And especially at a young age. Yeah. They looked, they said, we have two kids.

We got to work. We got to do the dancing.

We got to try to make this work. Now, on top of this, on her off hours, she was baking cakes for like a side hustle.

She would decorate. Great and baked cakes.

I love that. So she's just like on it. Definitely.

She did not let anything hold her back. And raising two children on top of all of that.

And as we're going to see over and over and over again, every single person who knew her. says she was a phenomenal mom.

Oh, I bet. That number, like the one thing nobody could ever say about her was that she didn't absolutely like fall at her kids' feet.

Because to transform like that at such a young age, I mean, she found out she was pregnant at 16 and then to... get married and like try to make the right choice for you and then get a job and then have a side hustle and raising two kids like wow.

And to be on your own, too, for a lot of the time out of the week.

Exactly. And this was for her kids. Everything they were doing, by all appearances on his part, but they were doing it for the kids to try to give them a good life.

Now, with James and herself working full time, they obviously needed a babysitter.

So one of the next-door neighbors offered to help out.

Her name was Linda, and she became very close with Jenny.

This family was like a really sweet family.

She and her husband Wayne said of Jenny, quote, And then Linda said she was an awesome woman, a mother to die for.

Now, they both said that her marriage with Jimmy was not a good one.

And it was clear she was trying to hide it from the outside world and just kind of keep it together for the sake of her kids.

I'll refer to him as Jimmy now. I feel like it's easier.

Now, Linda and her husband Wayne also had children.

So they were not going to be a permanent solution for the babysitting problem, but they just wanted to help out until they found one.

Now, luckily... A 15-year-old girl named Susan Matley actually came to live in one of the nearby trailers with her boyfriend Dwight.

Dwight actually knew Jimmy in high school so and it's like I feel like these like New England towns like Maine and stuff it's like everybody's He's going to know everybody.

Everybody went to the same high school. So Susan, this 15-year-old, actually offered, you know, I'll be your babysitter.

And she ended up moving into Jenny and Jimmy's trailer to be the live-in babysitter because they went to work so early and she was like, I'll just... live here okay and they were like cool like if you're down for that being your payment that we give you like a roof and food and all that then she was like cool Now, she was good with the kids.

The kids loved her. But Jimmy is a fucking pig and started to sexually harass her immediately.

Now, she's 15 years old. One incident is truly horrifying. he attacked her while Jenny and the kids were not in the trailer thankfully but he tried to rape her oh my god Now, he ended up burning the side of her neck with a cigar during the attack.

What? and she was able to escape and told everyone what happened good now this was a huge deal obviously So after a lot of arguments about this, on Sunday, July 17th, 1977, one day after this happened...

Jenny and James decided James was going to move out of the trailer and he was going to do it within two weeks.

They were going to get everything under control.

But she was like, I stay with the kids. You get the fuck out.

Good. And they had decided it. They made the decision.

Plans were being made. It seemed like everything was kind of moving in the direction that it was supposed to move in, which like get the hell out.

Yeah. So the next day, Monday, July 18th, Jenny took the kids to visit her sister Denise out of town.

They hung out. They did the sister thing, just like chatted.

She told her about the whole Jimmy incident, which I'm sure Denise wanted to fucking kill him for.

I would. And so Jenny's daughter, Holly, asked if she could actually stay with Denise for the night and they agreed, which is adorable.

I love that she was like, can I stay at Auntie Denise's?

Yeah, it's cute. And Denise was like, sure.

And it's really for the best, too, with everything. going on the tension I'm sure that Denise was like absolutely like just we'll have like a cute little night yeah Now, Jenny promised to take Denise to a dentist appointment the next day, like they had made plans that she was going to drive her.

And she would just pick up Holly then. So she was like, cool.

So Jenny took little Rob, who I think was two years old or three years old at this time.

She took him with her. So she stopped with Rob at the store.

They grabbed some stuff to make a cake. because she was going to be making one for actually Linda, the neighbor at the trailer, her nephew's birthday.

She had asked her to make him a cake. So when she got home, she actually talked to Linda on the phone about it, and they made plans for the following day to, you know, rendezvous to switch the cake, like give the cake to her.

Sure. Apparently, Jenny called Linda again a little later in the afternoon and asked her, like, was like, do you want to come over and just like hang while I do this?

And like. You know, the kids can play because Linda had kids, too.

But Linda didn't have a babysitter for her other kids.

And I think there was some reason she just couldn't.

So she was like, oh, I can't. But like, I totally would.

So July 18th. So Jimmy gets home from work.

Jimmy gets home from work. He says that Susan was out on a date.

And now this is the same day that, like, she dropped, you know, Holly at Denise's house, blah, blah, blah.

Now, this is the night. Jimmy gets home.

Susan's out on a date, the babysitter. He says she got home at 11.

Yeah. And he and Jenny had just sat and watched television all night.

Okay. Normal. Normal. Right. Like when he got home, they just sat and watched television.

He said that Susan came in, went straight into her room and they didn't speak.

And he said this was because he was really angry at her because she had lied about him attacking her.

Of course. Of course. So he ignored her.

But he said her and Jenny did speak very briefly before she went.

He didn't say a word to her. Mm-hmm. He then said they stayed up, watched some more TV, then they went to sleep.

I think little Rob came into bed with them like Jenny brought little Rob into bed with them.

He said he woke up for the next day, Rob and Jenny were still asleep in bed, and he went to work.

Okay. Sounds like a normal night. Yeah, I feel like it wasn't.

That was July 18th. So July 19th is when he got up and went to bed.

Or went to work, excuse me. So that morning when everyone woke up, Susan Matley wakes up and she's like, what's going on?

She sees Jenny's glasses on like a counter and she sees her purse in the trailer, but no sign of Jenny.

Oh. Now, James got home from—so Jenny's just like, that's weird.

But she didn't really know what to do. She was just taking care of Rob during the day.

Yeah, she's— She's got to focus on that.

And again, she's 15. She doesn't know what the hell is going on.

Yeah. So James gets home or excuse me, Jimmy gets home from work and she told him and she's like, hey, like, have you seen have you heard from Jenny?

Like, where is she? She didn't say anything all day.

And he was like, I haven't heard from Jenny.

And he's like, what do you mean? So he goes to look for her because he's like, that's weird.

So he went... Exactly. So he went to Linda's home looking.

She hadn't seen her. Went to Denise's home, her sister.

Denise was like no she was supposed to bring me to a dentist appointment Yeah And I've been trying to get in contact with her And little Holly is still there Exactly And then he went to her parents' home looking for her.

And they were both like, nope. What a piece of shit.

Yeah. Susan said he came back to the trailer and told her that she and Rob were going to be going to his mother's home.

He was like, I'm going to bring you guys there so that I can go look for Jenny some more.

And so he drove them there. And when he dropped them off, he and his brother George left together for a couple of hours.

And then they came back and said when they stopped by the trailer again, the lights were on and her purse and glasses were now gone.

Doubt it. So she must have stopped there in the interim, right?

Yeah, totally. For sure. Not at all. He then went to Denise's home and told her this as well, and it was, of course...

Yeah, and I'm sure Denise felt as though it was bullshit.

Of course. Now, remember, she was supposed to bring Denise to that dentist appointment.

Like, and was supposed to bring... That cake to Linda for her nephew.

None of those things happened. Right. So where the fuck is she?

Like she didn't just leave for the day and do her things.

Right. Where is she? She wouldn't just abandon all of her responsibilities.

No. So her family and Linda and her husband Wayne, it's Linda Elston and Wayne Elston are the neighbors.

And also Jimmy all reported Jenny missing.

Okay. Everybody did. Side note about Wayne Elston, Linda's husband.

He has a race car shop in Carmel. And he made an entire wall covered with news clippings of Jenny's case so people would constantly see it. and keep talking about it.

He also brought huge exhibits with the details and timelines and clippings every single thing about this case to every event that he brought his business to.

So that he was always keeping the case in the forefront of everybody's, like, new people's minds.

What an amazing human. What a fucking friend.

That's a friend you want. Like, that's a real dude.

Like, that is a good dude. You got a friend in Wayne.

You do have a friend in Wayne. I was like, wow.

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Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.

I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.

As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties I would like to address you all Legal proceedings have been initiated Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, and magic.

Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mayor exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery+. start your free trial in apple podcasts spotify or the wondery app So when James or when Jimmy spoke to the Penobscot County Sheriff's deputy named Tim Richardson, he'll come back.

He immediately said he believed that Jenny had run away from her family with a truck driver.

That's what Jimmy told the sheriff. He was like, you know what?

I know where she went. She ran away with a truck driver.

Yeah, because she had so much time on her hands to just link up with one.

Absolutely. This made zero sense, and her family jumped on it.

They said she would... Never leave her children.

Never. That is just not a possibility. That's not even a remote possibility.

And everyone who knew her as a mother maintains this.

And I 100% agree after reading about her, there's no way she would have left those children.

Now, four days after she went missing, according to court documents...

Jenny's father saw James Hicks furiously like scratching and itching his arms and saw like rash on his arm.

Oh, you get poison ivy from being in the woods burying your wife's body?

Wow. When he was asked, he said it was poison ivy and he got it on a job site.

Yeah. When police spoke to his supervisors, they said, there's literally no way he got poison IV on this job site.

He was definitely lying. They were like it didn't happen here You were in the woods but not at work Yeah Now, one week later, Jimmy said he saw Jenny in a car.

Sure. So all of a sudden, I saw her. And he said, I saw her in a car with a man outside the Gateway Bar, which is in Newport.

He said he was with his brother George and he said he saw Jenny.

He ran up to her. And she told him, I'm moving to Florida with my new man.

Totally. And here he is. And he was like, he was a trucker.

And he said she asked if the kids were doing well but made no mention that she wanted to take them with her or anything. bullshit after this he also said she called a few times but none of these happened none of them of course not this didn't happen none of it did no which also i'm like brother george what's going on with you well i was gonna say that exactly when it's i mean it seemingly like George was with him when he disposed of the body, if you're putting two and two together, question mark.

It's a strange thing. Now, things are starting to now feel strange to everybody after this.

People are starting to question Jimmy's far-fetched tales about Jenny, and people started really thinking about, wait a second, this was a really bad marriage.

Yeah. And like, wait a minute. Like maybe we should have thought about that in the beginning.

He was literally about to move out. Yeah.

That's when things get the most dangerous.

Exactly. When you finally are trying to escape.

Right. And. People started saying, no, like he's actually just like a really cruel motherfucker.

And like, I don't, people were like, I don't think people are talking about this enough.

And Jimmy is just making things worse and worse.

He actually can't. So Jenny never picked up her final paycheck.

That should tell you everything you need to know.

Yeah, because if she was in Florida, she's taking that money with her.

Of course. Now, he contacted her job at the nursing home and demanded they release her last paycheck to him.

No. They said they couldn't do that because she was a missing fucking person.

Right. And they were like, you saw her. You're telling us she's still alive.

You can't just have her paycheck. So of course we're going to hold it.

So he showed up there and threw a fit in a nursing home for this paycheck.

Good. And they still didn't release it to him, luckily.

Now, her parents... Myra and Adrian accused him outright one day.

Wow. They asked him, they said, where is our daughter?

Like, you know where she is. And he said, she's living in Florida.

With another man. And they were like, bullshit.

And he was like, you know what? You're right.

She's living in New Hampshire. And they were like, bullshit.

And so they were like, you're fucking lying.

And they said to her, I think you killed her and hit her body.

And they literally said that to him. His response, verbatim, what they both said, you'll never prove that.

Dude. Imagine somebody saying that to you as a parent about your child.

I just... the the wave that just washed over my body of just like pure shock not i would never That's horrible to say.

You'll never prove it. You'll never prove that.

And in his mind, they wouldn't. That's admitting it.

Oh, yeah. and they knew it they knew it from the start her family knew it was him from the start of course because who else would it be Now, Jimmy moved in with several different women in the weeks and months after Jenny's.

Does he have the children? He does. Okay.

And he started keeping the children away from Jenny's family.

Now, this was devastating to them. And they kept searching for their daughter while also trying to prove that he had something to do with it. but no one was listening to them of course not they took out a missing person add in the paper describing Jenny asking for any information for themselves.

They hired a private detective to look for her, and they did not have the money to hire a private detective, but they scrimped and scrounged to do it.

In February of 1978, Myra, Jenny's mother, actually wrote to the Maine Secretary of State for help.

Wow. They were not able to question her husband for fear of him claiming harassment. because he was threatening that he was like I'll just get you arrested for harassing me She explained the details of the case and asked if he could just...

She was like, all I want from your office, the Secretary of State, can you just tell me if my daughter renewed her license?

Oh. That's literally what they were asking and they were like, because if she renewed her license, she would have to have her new address on it and I just want to know if she's alive.

Yeah. Can you please help me? Yeah. Now, nothing ever came of that.

Of course. So. Well, let's talk about Jimmy for a second because suddenly people started coming out and being like, wait a fucking second.

Yeah, they're saying he's like super cruel.

So what's that all about? Exactly. Exactly.

So friends said that Jenny, he was very controlling, very possessive.

He had a nasty temper. And all of this doesn't make his story very airtight.

No. Because he's sitting there being, I'm just this loving husband.

I don't know what. It's like she left me and he's trying to now play the victim.

She just left me and her children like an asshole.

For some other guy. Right. It's exactly what he would do.

Exactly. And friends actually said that Jenny couldn't even just sit and talk when Jimmy was around with them like she was very like nervous and very like quiet around them if he was there like she would hold back and linda the neighbor actually said that one time He had offered to drive her home after like he was kind of like she said he was sitting in the room while her and Jenny were talking.

And at one point he just got up and was like, all right, Linda, time to go home.

And she's like, fuck off. Yeah, like, I'm a grown woman.

I'll decide when I fucking go home. And she was like, what?

And she was like, Jenny can tell me when to go home.

Exactly. So she didn't have a car with her.

And Jenny was like, I'll drive you home.

And he was like, no, I'll drive you home.

And I guess Jenny grabbed her and was like, don't get in the car with him.

What? And so she called Wayne, her husband, and was like, can you come pick me up?

And he had to pick her up. So she was like, I don't know what that was about.

But you just have to wonder, like, those are just very small instances that people are like. thinking back on and kind of putting the pieces together, what was Jenny going through inside that trailer?

What was she going through? And what were her kids witnessing?

Yeah, that's the thing. It's like, what were those kids seeing?

And for months, nothing happened in this case.

While her family fought and fought to have it investigated, the cops... just believed Jimmy's story that she ran off with a truck driver.

Like, What evidence did they have to support that?

Literally none. But they just went with it.

You're just going to take him for face value?

Yep. No evidence. Just take his word. And also he was a charming motherfucker and he buddied up to them and they were like, well, he's a good guy.

Yeah, it's just like in the Lauren Smith Fields case.

Exactly. He's a good guy. He's a nice guy.

Why not? Oh, yeah, for sure. So her poor family is stuck trying to pull any string they could pull. which we know is not easy for victims' families to begin with.

And especially when law enforcement is not aiding them even in the least.

At all. Is aiding the man that they believe did this.

Now, five years went by and nothing happened.

Wow. No help for this family, no answers as to where Jenny had really gone and what happened to her.

Meanwhile, James continues working. moved into his parents' property in Etna, and started dating, cohabitating, and even marrying multiple women.

In the meantime. Normal. Yeah. Then in 1982 another woman went missing from that same bar. that Jimmy claimed to have seen Jenny at with her new trucker bow.

Wow. This would finally bring some good cops into the fold who did what they should have done for Jenny in 1977.

So was this a different district or just new cops?

New cops. Gotcha. Yeah. Now, this missing person is Gerilyn Lee Towers.

She was born December 2nd, 1947. She was raised in Maine as one of six kids.

She had two brothers and three sisters. She was a single mother of three children and they lived in a duplex that she shared with her mother, June Tibbetts, and her stepfather, Millard Tibbetts, in Newport.

Now, she struggled a little bit as a mother.

She was having a little trouble getting her own life together, but she was working hard. very hard on it at this point and had all of her children with her at this point.

But there were times when like she was struggling.

Now, and this is just to say why some of these are getting brushed under the rug a little bit.

Because... Law enforcement is looking at it like, oh, just like that's what they do.

And it's like, no, that's not what she was doing.

Right. Now, according to Tragedy in the North Woods by Irene Trudy, which is a great book and I'll link it.

Gerilyn liked to bowl and she liked to take her kids bowling.

That was like the thing they did together.

She loved to play like card games and she loved the outdoors and she was very superstitious and she always kept a penny in her shoe for luck.

I love that. It was just like little quirks about her.

Now, October 16th, 1982. That night, she had gone to the Gateway Bar in Newport.

Her stepfather had actually dropped her off at 6.30 p.m. and he was planning to pick her up when she called later.

He waited up and she was not calling. And he said at 1 a.m. he heard a car loudly pull into the driveway. like loudly as in the exhaust was really loud okay and then back out so he was like oh she must have got a ride from someone That must have been her.

Right. So he just went to bed. He was like, cool.

She's coming in. Yeah. In the morning, Gerilyn's oldest son woke them up and said, Mom's not home.

And I think he was 13 at the time, I believe.

They were immediately panicked. She had also been on medication for liver problems and they were like, she didn't have it with her.

And we were like, if she's not home right now, that's weird.

Now, June, her mother, called police to report her missing on October 18th.

And also, they ran an ad in the paper asking for information.

They got a response from that ad from a psychic. who told them their daughter was in a river in Bingham.

Just based on the look of your face, I had a feeling that it was not going to be one of the good times.

No, not a good time, psychic. When the police asked around, they couldn't find any witnesses who saw Gerilyn at the bar that night after her stepfather had dropped her off.

Within two days of her case becoming an official missing persons case, that same psychic, Nathan Small, who had called and said, You know, she's a river.

He actually called detectives this time.

And he talked to Officer James Ricker and Corporal Eugene Robinson, who were the leads on the case.

He told the detectives that seeing dead bodies without physically seeing them was like kind of his thing.

Mm-hmm. And he was sure that what he had told the family was true.

Okay. So he said, Gerilyn is dead and she's in that river.

So then I'm sure they spent a lot of time and resources looking in rivers and then she probably wasn't there.

Yeah, they did end up following up on this.

They checked the location. They felt compelled to.

You have to check up on anything. They had nothing else.

So they were like, why not? Might as well.

Gerilyn was not in that river. I fucking hate that shit.

It's irritating. Whenever a psychic shows up, I'm like, stop.

Just stop. Like in this case, in the very beginning, precious time lost.

Oh, so much time lost and resources allocated.

It's just like stop. Just stop. Right. Now, soon police were getting a couple of actual tips from people who were at the bar that night.

Someone anonymous called and said a guy named Gary Hicks was someone that was with her that night.

So, yeah. So they went into the bar, the officers, and they started talking to people.

No one knew a Gary Hicks. No, I don't know a Gary Hicks in this case.

Exactly. Now, when the officers started asking around...

They spoke to a man sitting at the bar and he said, hi, I'm Jimmy Hicks.

And they were like, oh, did somebody just get it wrong, Gary Jimmy? like did somebody get it wrong and he said so they were like oh like were you at the bar that night and he said No, I don't.

He said he didn't know Gerilyn. He wasn't at the bar that night of her disappearance.

You know Jimmy. He's always got an excuse and always has a distance from these missing women somehow.

Yes. They're around him, but not totally around him.

Right. So after they talked to him at the bar and he told them, you know, I wasn't there.

Don't know her. Whatever. He left that night from the bar and the detectives were convinced that he was no one worth chasing.

He was still convincing cops with his just like, I'm a bro demeanor.

Do better, cops. Right. Like, they were completely convinced.

They weren't even going to look at him. are good at lying and usually bad people are good at lying. lying so it's like uh maybe that's like part of your training man right But luckily, they finally had some good guys on this force who were like, I think he's lying.

Exactly. So unfortunately for Jimmy's dumb ass, the bartender that evening was like, um...

Actually, no, I saw and served Jimmy Hicks that night that Gerilyn went missing.

I know it. and she said he arrived at 10 p.m. that night and spent the night talking to Gerilyn They also got word that he had recently had his car fixed.

In particular, he had gotten a busted exhaust fixed.

Oh, interesting. Remember at 1 a.m. that night that Gerilyn went missing?

Her stepfather and mother heard a car. with a loud exhaust, pull into the driveway.

I'm very confused about why he pulled into their driveway, but I'm sure you'll tell me.

I'm sure we will find out. They also heard from witnesses that they saw his car on the road leading to Gerilyn's home that night.

So now officers are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's talk to Jemmy Hicks again.

So they got his address and they got his address from which is this seems like so old timey police work here.

They got his address from the postmaster.

Oh. Who just also was like, by the way, like...

That Jimmy Hicks is real fucking strange.

I just want to put it out there. I love that there We're like, can we have his address?

And they were like, he was like, let me.

FYI. Let me let you in on a little bit of insight here.

You can picture it in like a movie. Right.

Picture the scene of. Small town. He's leaning on his elbow.

He's got a hat. He's got a big bag on his shoulder full of mail.

Oh, yeah. Full of news just in his pocket there.

And then he said, literally everyone... around town he said everyone in this area he goes you know like he probably killed his wife right And they were like, I'm sorry, what?

Because these are new detectives. And they were like, what now?

And he's like, oh, yeah, everyone in this area knows he did it.

But nobody can prove it. So like he's like kind of a pariah, but people are scared of him.

What? So off the detectives include... So it's Ricker and Eugene.

They go out... To his house. And they're like, we got to question you.

And it was a trip. Okay. Yeah. So first they said they tried to question him in the police car and he was so panicky.

That they were like, do you want to go in your house?

Like, do we want, should we just like sit down at a table?

Like, you can't even function. What? They said he was sweating and shaking a lot.

Ricker immediately was like oh this is our guy like literally he was like he almost fainted He was like... He literally was hyperventilating.

Now, they went in the house... And actually, they got a glass of water and he ended up spilling a whole glass of water all over himself.

He was so stressed out. Wow. Way to... I mean, I'm happy that he was... acting that way but like wow dude exactly and after almost losing his damn mind during the interview he finally admitted that Maybe he had been at the bar that night, but Gerilyn went missing.

Maybe. And maybe... He had talked to Gerilyn.

But he said they definitely didn't leave together.

So detectives were like... Okay, well, people saw you leave together and he was like, okay.

But maybe I left at the same time as her.

Yeah. And maybe I also drove my car down her street just for shits and giggles.

Yeah, maybe. Then he just broke down and was like, you know, my wife. is Jenny Sear.

And she's still alive. I saw her at that bar after she went missing.

And she also sends Christmas kids to the Christmas gifts to the kids every year and her parents have talked to her Yeah.

Like, just so you know. And they were like, we didn't even ask you about that.

Like, thank you so much for volunteering all that shit to us.

Cool, cool, cool. So they're like, okay, so her parents still talk to her?

And like, you have these gifts and everything?

And he's like, yeah, yeah, totally. Absolutely.

He then repeated that maybe he was at the bar that night with Gerilyn, but he said, I definitely left at closing time alone.

So when they dropped the bombs on him that they knew about the exhaust getting fixed—

And the fact that he was seen in the area of Jerry Lynn's home that night, he was just shocked.

Like, just couldn't. So he looked as if he was about to break down and just go...

Okay. Like, what happened? They said his face was literally like, fuck.

Like, I can't get out of this. Then his girlfriend at the time, Linda Marquis, comes home. flips out interrupts the interview and tells the police to get the fuck out of her house okay linda Now, James Ricker, one of the lead detectives on the case, he said...

To this day, he said, I fully believe Jimmy Hicks was about to confess everything in that moment.

Ugh. He said he was such a mess and it was Linda who interrupted them and stopped it from happening.

Wow, Linda. Yeah. It's so infuriating. And Officer Ricker also said...

It was that interaction with Jimmy that convinced him from the outset that he was 100% guilty.

Wow. He said, no one acts like that unless they are damn guilty.

Right, of course not. There's no reason for him to... And he was like, this wasn't even like... a little nervous.

He poured a glass of water on himself. He was like, I thought he was gonna puke all over himself.

Like he was literally, he said there was sweat beads dripping down his face.

He was bright red. He was visibly trembling.

What a tough guy. What a tough guy. What a big man.

Yeah, tough guy who kills women and shits his pants when police talk to him.

Now, now that they had the direction to start going in because they were like, wow.

This is a lot of information. I'd be like, can we call this probable cause?

Right? So then they started to go through the other things they knew about Jimmy Hicks.

So they knew he had a first wife named Jenny Sear who went missing.

Because he literally told them. They're like, let's start here.

So they decide to talk to Jenny's family and get some information to help move things forward.

Now, Jenny's family were so happy to see Detective Ricker.

I'm sure. They said they'd been nonstop trying to find Jenny or information about where she could be since she went missing.

And he said when he got there, when he, so he called and said, I'm going to like come to talk to you.

He said at least 10 members of her family were there when he arrived, crying and just desperate for help.

Like they were literally like sobbing like I can't believe you're going to talk to us.

Oh my god. Now they were just so happy someone was paying attention to them.

Right. Now Myra, Jenny's mom, told Ricker, quote, no one has ever believed me.

Like literally said that to him. That's so fucked.

And he was like, it killed me. Like hearing her say no one has ever believed me and I know he did it.

Right. And she explained that she just knew that he had killed her daughter and had to live with that.

And she said, and he's also taking our grandchildren away and telling people that Jenny left her family for a trucker.

Like just a random reputation. Like we don't even have this trucker's name.

We don't even know it. And it's like, why'd you pick a trucker?

What does that even have to do with anything?

It's so weird. And they kept saying she never would leave her kids.

She would leave him. but she would never leave her kids.

Now, Ricker told them how James had claimed to see Jenny outside of that bar after her disappearance. and also claimed that they had spoken to Jenny since she was gone.

They were astounded by that and said, absolutely not.

Of course we haven't. They had not seen or heard from her since the day she went missing.

A friend, Susan Hart, told police that Jenny had told her...

That even if her marriage was the absolute worst and even if something really bad happened in it, she would still never leave her children.

She told her that. They also said about the fact that he had tried to assault the babysitter and her mother told them that... he had responded with you'll never prove that that's so fucked when she accused him of killing jenny she was like all of this stuff is pretty fucking fishy yep This is when the real deal came out about his abusive ways.

Like this is when the police are now like, wait a second.

What? Like, tell me more about that babysitter thing.

He was a fucking, he was an animal and he was an animal abuser too.

And they didn't even know that, which that's a telltale sign.

He's a piece of shit in every way you can imagine.

Now, I'm going to quickly mention something about animals.

If you don't want to hear it, just skip forward like 15 seconds.

I don't have the button. I'm sorry. I won't go into detail or anything.

Because I hated to. Yeah. He had been given a dog once or he had given a dog once to someone.

And he was giving it to them. He got in his car and then intentionally rode over the dog as he drove away.

What the fuck? And then he bragged about this to members of Jenny's family who were absolutely horrified. bragged about murdering a dog he had bragged about killing a cat as well by like dragging it on the back of a truck nope He had talked about killing and hurting other animals.

Nope, nope, nope, nope. Of course, this leads to escalation of cruelty, and he inflicted this upon his wife.

Of course. Yes. He had actually harmed Jenny to the point of her needing hospitalization before.

And that wasn't out until now. When? I'm not sure when it was, but it had happened.

And people around them described him as a bully and extremely controlling of her.

I wonder like what happened that led her to be in the hospital.

And like neighbors had seen bruises and such.

And you don't realize that until years and years after she went missing.

Nobody bothered to say like, hey, was she ever in the hospital? yeah like no one asked because of him and this family is trying to tell them this and no one's listening to them that's so fucked So Ricker was like, wow, what?

Like was literally like, are you kidding me?

He's like, how did this happen five years ago?

This all happened five years ago. What happened in this investigation?

Because he wasn't there while it happened.

Right. And the family was like, oh, yeah, nothing.

Right. Nothing happened in that investigation.

Absolutely nothing. They wouldn't even listen to us.

The records of them reporting Jenny missing... were gone at the Penobscot County Sheriff's Department.

Wow. Gone. Do you think they even filed them in the first place?

I don't even think they really filed them.

Yeah, I don't think so. And Ricker himself, the lead detective, kept asking for the reports from the Penobscot Sheriff's Department.

And they kept being like, sure, sure, sure.

And then he found out they were gone and just bullshitting him.

Wow. Isn't it sad? I feel like more and more you're hearing about things like that, I think, just in the cases that we cover.

Yeah. And it's like, how do you just like put a missing person's report to the side and you're like, oh, fuck it.

Yeah. And that's not human. And this is like complete, like they saw these people.

It's just not important to them. It's just.

How do you place such a small value on a human life?

And put one person's case over another. It doesn't make any sense.

No. They never filed that missing person's report.

I guarantee it. Literally one of the police deputies, when the call came in in 1977 about Jenny missing, He went out.

He talked to James Hicks. We're talking about Tim Richardson.

I'm also like, I wonder how James Hicks was then when he got talked to about that.

Well, I guess he was fine because he charmed the hell out of him.

Yeah. But I think that's the thing. This guy came out in 1977 and was like, hey, Jimmy.

What's up? What's going on? And Jimmy was like, oh, you know what? i know exactly what happened she left with a trucker she abandoned our family what a bitch moving on and then Tim Richardson was like yeah yeah bro and then they left and he felt great about it but this time He knew he was caught.

And they had, like, a couple other things that they even did before going there.

And they're like, oh, how about that new exhaust you got?

So he's... Shitting himself. Because at the time, he looked at it like, I covered my tracks.

I'm fine. She's gone. No one's ever going to question it again.

No one gives a shit about her family asking questions.

I got everything I want. But then five years down the road when a cop shows up, two detectives show up at your door and they go, hey, Jimmy.

You want to sit down and talk to us after the night before.

They talk to you at a bar about another missing woman.

Like they're closing now. he knew his shit was on fire like he was literally like oh what do they have So the thing for me, though, is this is two parts, and I feel like we're nearing the end here.

We are not. We are not. Okay. We are not.

Okay. So like I said, Tim Richardson in 1977

Talk to Jimmy. Jimmy charmed him, told him what he wanted to do.

He wrote down that Jimmy left with a truck driver, and that was that.

They never investigated this case. at all.

Yeah, that Jenny left. That Jenny left. All of this new information and the knowledge now that the original investigation was completely botched and ignored allowed Detective Ricker to really tick the investigation up now.

And now he was like, well, now I'm going to focus on Jenny's disappearance first.

So that we can hopefully be led to what happened to Gerilyn.

Because he's like, these are clearly connected.

Of course. Jimmy's involved in both of these things.

Now, Detective Ricker went looking for neighbors at the trailer park where Jenny and Jimmy lived, the TNN trailer park. and he spoke to one of the neighbors, Trudy Levenseller.

She was super nervous and she said she was scared to involve herself because she said Jimmy was scary.

And she was like, I didn't want to involve myself.

By all accounts so far, she is more than correct.

Yes, she is. But she said she wanted to help Jenny's family because she said they're good people.

And I want to help, but I was just really scared.

And she said I was scared when he was living here still. to say anything because he was like, he's right next to me.

Yeah. But she was like, now that he's not living here, I'll tell you.

Like he's going to see cops going over there and talking to her.

She was like, that wasn't my bag. So. She told Ricker that, yes, Jimmy was abusive and cruel and scary.

And she said she saw Jenny with black eyes and bruises.

And she said she would never say where they came from.

Then she said that the night of July 18th she had heard them fighting. heard banging in the trailer, and then heard Jenny yell, stop, please stop, you're gonna kill me.

Oh my god. And later she heard that night she heard what she thought was wood being chopped.

What? In the direction of their trailer.

Okay. This was in the middle of the night, mind you.

So she was like, why is someone chopping wood?

Mm-hmm. Now, upon further speaking with more neighbors, some of the neighbor's kids said they had actually heard screams in the middle of the night that night as well.

Like, why didn't nobody call the police?

But they didn't know what to do and they didn't know if it was, like, just you're hearing things.

Mm-hmm. Uh, Trudy reminded detective Ricker about the babysitter, Susan Matley.

Yup. And was like, have you talked to her?

I was wondering if she was going to come back in a place.

Yeah, and finally they got Susan Matley, the babysitter, and they interviewed her.

She had been living in Massachusetts since the whole thing.

Yeah. She told the police that Jimmy and Jenny fought a lot. and that Jimmy was very aggressive with her.

She also made it clear that Jenny was...

Basically like her own mother. She was like, Jenny was my mother.

She said she was a very kind, very loving person. who took care of Susan whenever she needed her.

She said she was a wonderful mother to her own children as well, and her entire life was about those Right, just like everybody else had said.

Confirming again that she never would have left those kids especially with this fucking monster of a father.

No way. So she said the evening of July 19th when Jenny went missing She said she had come home from a date at around 4 a.m.

Now, remember, Jimmy said 11 PM because he claimed. initially that her curfew at their house was 11 p.m.

He later testified to this time too, and she maintained I came home at 4 a.m.

Right. None of this really makes sense, so I'm confused by a lot of it, but these are in court documents.

She said that she saw Jenny on the couch in a blue bathrobe and she was in a strange position.

She didn't say anything to Susan, which was strange to Susan.

And Jimmy said she was just sleeping. Okay.

She said she was very weirded out by it and...

Now, this is what she told the detectives, and I found court documents of exactly what she said.

She said as she entered the living room, she found the defendant, Jimmy.

Mm-hmm. Sitting in a chair watching television and Jenny lying on a love seat with her head down on its wooden arm.

Jenny's hair covered her face, and Susan noted that her body was in an awkward position for sleeping.

The defendant told Susan that Jenny was asleep.

Remember, Jimmy claimed before that he didn't speak a word to Susan because he was mad at her.

Right. Once again, we're getting conflicting shit.

She said that Jenny was asleep, but Susan feared that Jenny was not well.

Susan remembered seeing Jenny wearing a fuzzy blue bathrobe at that time.

After Susan went to her room and got into bed, she heard slippers scuffing across the floor. like someone was being dragged and heard the trailer door open.

Susan was afraid to investigate what she heard.

She hid her head under the covers and eventually fell asleep.

I mean, imagine what she had already gone through by that point.

And again, she's 15. Yeah, she's terrified.

Imagine what she saw, too. Exactly. And she also later said more about that morning.

She said she woke up that morning with Rob. little boy um she said rob was just crying at his parents doorway because no one was home right And she thought that was strange because she said Jenny wouldn't leave without waking her because two-year-old Rob was in the house.

Susan looked around. She found both of Jenny's glasses at the home because later...

Jimmy would claim, well, Jenny has two pairs of glasses.

So maybe that was just the one she left.

No. Susan said, I looked in a drawer. I found that second pair of glasses.

What? And one was on the counter, one in the drawer.

Her eyesight was very bad. And everyone said she would not be driving without those.

Uh-huh. She also said later and testified that no clothing was missing except for that blue fuzzy robe that she had seen her. in the night before she had not taken any of her other clothes with her So now, there's a woman called Fern Godsoe, and that's the former girlfriend of... uh of uh what's his name jimmy i was like what's what's that ass what's his of jimmy And former girlfriend, as in right after Jenny disappeared, he immediately started dating this girl.

Shocking. She said, yeah. Shit was weird.

And she said I was concerned. I'm still concerned.

And she said basically he got rid of the trailer. that Jenny and him had.

He immediately wanted out of there. And she said while they were taking things out of that trailer, she had seen their mattress.

And she said their mattress had a giant blood stain in the middle of it.

Uh huh. Like huge. And she asked him about it and he had like some stupid like answer for it.

Sure. And she said he was also a very aggressive person to her as well.

Very rough sexually in particular, even while she was pregnant.

Oh, God. And she said even when I was like very pregnant.

Oh, my God. Now, Office of Attorney General and the Maine State Police looked into the original handling of Jenny Sears' case.

And determined it was a fucked up investigation from the start.

They were like, how did this happen? Me too.

How did this slip through the cracks? Yeah.

They determined that they had just decided that Jenny had left and they weren't looking into anything else.

And so now they have to like actually start the investigation again.

And it's like, what do you do? Like, where's the trailer even?

And it's like, we have this other missing persons case.

We have Geraldine Towers. And it's like, now we have to do these side by side trying to figure out what the fuck happened here from scratch, essentially.

So Officer Ricker, Detective Ricker, was now leading up the investigation completely.

And he said he told the Sear family that He was reopening this case and he was going to make sure he found who it was.

And he said they basically exploded for joy.

He was like, they had been ignored for years.

Just to have closure. Just finally. Just please tell me what happened to my child.

And they knew. That was the thing. They knew what happened.

You just want it confirmed. And you want to see him behind bars.

Yeah, they wanted to see him pay for it.

And the problem was there was still no evidence they could hang on to and no body for either case.

And unfortunately, they don't have a body.

They don't have bodies for any of this. So this is all just They got to figure out how to start.

Right, right. Unfortunately, the evidence for James having something to do with Gerilyn's disappearance... was compelling in like a micro scale, but not enough.

Like when we look at it, we're like, hell yeah.

Because we know everything and we're putting many, many pieces together, but... When they're trying to bring this to a judge... In a court of law.

And trying to get warrants and... All the kinds of things they don't have quite enough yet.

No. But you know, we had the sighting at the bar at the same time.

We have the sightings of him speaking and leaving with her.

We have his actions and the fact that his exhaust was loud as fuck and Gerilyn's parents heard that loud exhaust. but they just don't have that smoking gun yet.

And I'm still so confused, and I know that we're going to find out, but I'm just like, why was he driving down her street?

Yeah. Well, you're like, I know, but we're not there yet.

There was, however, significant evidence in the state's mind to suggest that he had something to do with Jenny's disappearance.

Definitely. So this was their end. So they'd figured...

They should start there, see what unfolded.

So they decided to bring it to trial. Okay.

It was going to come to trial finally. They had enough.

So Ferdinand R. La Rochelle was the chief of the criminal division of the attorney general's office, and he was the lead prosecutor.

On October 4th, 1983, it was presented to a grand jury.

And they agreed that James Hicks likely caused the death of Jenny Hicks in July of 1977.

He was immediately arrested and his trial began in 1984.

This was the first time in Maine state history that a trial actually happened when there was no body.

Wow. For murder. Wow. Now, the neighbors were all witnesses and some described like they all came on the stand and testified.

Some described hearing a lot of physical fights between Jenny and Jimmy, while others said they never heard anything above an average fight for a married couple.

But also what is your definition of an average fight for a married couple?

Thank you. You're welcome. Because my next thing I was going to say was, I kind of always wonder what this kind of testimony, it's tough because-

Some people truly don't consider gnarly fights real fights.

Right. That's just their marriage. And it's like...

Some people don't even raise their voice with their spouse.

So it's like I would say even my definition and your definition of like a gnarly fight is different.

Completely different. Yeah. Because it's like if somebody's yelling to me, that's a terrifying fight.

Right. Like that's scary. And like me and Drew have definitely yelled at each other before because I have a temper.

But it's not a bad thing. And it really is.

It's very subjective to who... What your relationship is or what you have seen as a model of a relationship in your own life.

Absolutely. Like, you know, my parents didn't yell or get mad at each other.

Mine literally yelled all the time. And yours yelled all the time.

So it's like. You're that's like a very like, oh, people fight like that.

It's environmental. But to me, it's like, whoa.

People don't fight like that. I would be terrified to hear somebody screaming at each other outside.

So just to be clear, me and Drew, like, don't scream at each other.

Oh, my God. But but it's like it's just a different kind of relationship.

Of course. And everybody has one. Yeah.

And that's why these kind of testimonies are hard.

Yeah. Because I literally like I'm thinking of like me and you on a stand.

We would say totally different things. Differing things.

We would probably have a different opinion of what was actually happening.

Yeah. So... They brought Susan Matley on the stand.

Very crucial. Very disturbing. She said Jenny and Jimmy were arguing even before she had left that night for her date.

So she was like, I left, and they were already mad at each other.

Oh, no. And when she arrived home, she saw Jenny and Jimmy in the living room and he was watching TV.

She said this on the stand. Yeah, same thing.

She said, on the stand, she said, quote, And Jenny was laying down in the love seat.

And I asked him, I said, is Jenny asleep?

And he said, yes. How was your night? And I said, fine.

And I walked into the bathroom and then I climbed up on the top bunk, the bed, and I was scared, nervous.

I was listening. So when pressed further, she said she was nervous because they were like, why were you nervous?

That seems like a very normal interaction.

Mm-hmm. And she said, I was nervous because she looked very weird.

She was like, she did not look like she was sleeping on the couch.

It didn't make a lot of sense to me. She was in a weird position.

And she said, you know, Jenny would talk to me when I came home and she didn't look asleep.

It was just weird. It was silent and I didn't like any of it.

I just got a bad feeling. I was going to say walking into like a scene like that, you can just feel the tension.

Exactly. And sometimes you can't necessarily describe like why you felt that way, but the body knows.

Exactly. And when you've lived in this house with these people, it's like you're going to get vibes.

Absolutely. And it sounds to me, to be honest.

Like, she probably expected Jimmy to be a dick to her.

He wasn't. She had brought up what had happened and Jenny and him had fought about it.

And for him to be like, how was your date?

You're like, she was probably like, whoa, what is what's going on here?

To me, that's a pretty big red flag that he was being normal to her.

But then his testimony is that, no, I didn't speak to her because I was pissed.

And it's like, no, no, I think you did speak to her.

You know you – And it threw her off. You showed your entire hand to her by sitting there and being like, hi.

What's going on? What's going on, girlfriend?

Because that raised alarm bells. And she was like, something's off here.

Yep. So she then went on to say, quote, her feet were scrunched up and her head was like. one eye and half of her nose and her hair was more or less covering her face.

I'm still dead, dying to know where her eyes open or closed.

Well, she said one eye like it seemed like one eye was half open.

That's why she was a little nervous and confused.

She also said her arms were in strange positions.

And she said then she heard that dragging noise, specifically like someone in slippers being dragged across the floor.

And she said the next morning, Jenny was gone.

Blue Bathrobe was gone. She was gone. Everything was gone.

My question, like, I feel like the first thing I think when she's describing the position that Jenny was in was like she was drugged.

But then I'm trying to think of like, well, that like big blood stain on the mattress, like maybe she wasn't, but it's just.

Why would she be sitting there on the couch if he had already like stabbed her or done whatever to her?

Exactly. But I'm sure I'll find out. Don't worry.

Just had to point out what I'm thinking.

No, I'm sure it's what everybody's thinking because it's what I was thinking when I was first reading this.

She was drunk. What the hell happened? Because let me just tell you right now, it takes a long time to figure out what happened here.

Which sucks because right now we're on a trial.

That family waited a long time. Now, Jimmy Hicks testified and said that Susan had come home from her date at 11pm.

He went back to that 11 p.m. He's not changing his story.

And he said he was angry at her for telling Jenny about what had happened.

And he said, I did not speak a word to her.

He said that on the stand. And then he and Jenny, he said Jenny and Susan had spoken to each other for a bit and then she had went to sleep.

So now he's totally conflicting. And do you know how his demeanor was on stand?

They said that he was just very cold and unfeeling.

Like, he shut it right off. It's so interesting that he, like, shit himself with that one... but then somehow got himself together for the trial.

To me, that one interview was unexpected.

I'm getting arrested. He was caught off guard.

Mm-hmm. He had been caught off guard the night before talking to the police officer in the bar.

Mm hmm. I'm sure Detective Ricker looked him right in the eye and was like, I fucking got you.

Like, I'm sure he was like, you did it and I know you did it.

Right. There's no way to me that Jimmy Hicks did not look at James Rurker and think...

That no, like I got him. Right. Jimmy Hicks sat there and said, shit, this guy's not going to stop.

Like he's going to figure out. Right. This.

So that's why it's so funny to me that he can just chill out at this trial.

Here... It's controlled. He has had time.

He's had time to get it together. He's had time to make that story what he wants to make it.

When those detectives showed up at his door and said, you want to come in the car and sit down and answer some questions?

He was not prepared. Right. Now he has his story.

He's sticking to his story. This is what happened.

That babysitter's crazy. What are you talking about?

Where's my wife? It's just so funny to think of him literally pouring a glass of water on himself in one scenario and then just being cool, calm, collected.

It's the types of scenario and the amount of time he has to prepare for them.

That's what it is. So March 22nd, 1984, after nine hours of deliberation, the jury found Jimmy Hicks.

Guilty of fourth-degree murder. which is current day manslaughter.

I was like, what is fourth degree murder?

And he was sentenced on April 20th, 1984 to 10 years of prison why manslaughter because one they didn't have a body okay so this was all inference this was them basically saying we believe he caused the death of this woman, but we do not have a body to prove it.

And was it one of those things where they thought like maybe he...

They believed it was a crime of passion.

And they believed that And it's that lack of body that they have, lack of murder weapon, lack of any kind of thing there.

Yeah. Every bit of it, like all the testimony, all the evidence they did have point to him causing her death.

Mm-hmm. Or disappearance, but they just don't have exactly what they need for that murder charge.

And I might be getting this wrong, but manslaughter means like there wasn't any intent, right?

Usually? It's basically like there was no planning.

There was no malice aforethought. And that just means planning.

That, yeah, like there was no like coming up with this, like I'm going to walk into this trailer and I'm going to kill her.

Like we're going to argue and then I'm going to murder her okay so it was basically just like crime of passion right like essentially okay and so he was given 10 years in prison But that is only the end of part one.

That's the end right there. Because, yeah, he's in prison for 10 years.

What else could there be? Well, I don't know.

There's a part two, ma'am. There's two other murders. and a possible confession coming.

And there's going to be, yeah, this whole thing seems like it's wrapped up.

It is not wrapped up. We are going to have... decades of finding out what this fucker did.

And part two is going to be bringing you two more murders.

What? Because we are finally going to get a little closure on Gerilyn.

Okay. And we're going to have one more. Okay.

And we're going to learn exactly what a piece of shit Jimmy Hicks really is.

I am confusion. I don't know if you've ever seen it. seen that like video.

I think it was fine. I am confusion. Yeah, this is an insane case because it does not end with him being put in prison for 10 years.

But it does. It does not. What? It does not.

That is only the beginning. That is the end of part one, the beginning of part two.

Shit. Okay. Let me tell you, there's a lot more.

A whole part two. A lot more. Damn. Yeah.

I need to know right now, though. It's a crazy one.

Oh, I hate that. She does this thing where she doesn't even tell me.

She doesn't even tell me. She does this thing.

She doesn't even tell me. Guys. We're in this together and I'm going to go batshit crazy.

We're all in this together. Look at you bursting into High School Musical.

Remember when you took me to High School Musical on ice?

I took you to it on ice. What a weird... place we ended up in that's right we hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it But that's weird that you do any, I'm like so, I'm so shook right now that I can't even tell you how not weird to keep it.

Not so weird that you like almost piss yourself and murder people that you supposedly love.

Don't be Jimmy Hicks. I was speechless in the beginning and I forgot even what the word was, but I know what it is now and I'm still speechless still living in that land I'm in the land of speechless bye Thank you.

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[The Dark Path of James Hicks: A True Crime Case Study]-[Episode 296: James Rodney Hicks Part 1]

📋 Summary

The Twisted Tale of Serial Killer James Hicks: Part One

The Disappearance of Jenny Hicks

A Pattern of Escalating Cruelty

The Breakthrough and Trial

Conclusion: A Lingering Darkness

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript