GA GA - Billy Hicks, 40, Shot in head, 100 Sixth St, Columbia, 3 May 1973

[dotr]

2017
https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/article176374936.html
By Tim Chitwood
"Returning to the scene of the crime is impossible, in some cases. The oldest cold case on the police department list is the murder of 40-year-old Billy Hicks, shot in head at 100 Sixth St. on May 3, 1973. Slouchick, who joined the department in 1976, said he was assigned the Hicks case once, and he believes he knows who did it. The prime suspect is dead, he said. Why 1973? He is unsure why the list starts in 1973, as surely earlier cases went unsolved. It could be no one bothered to keep a list before that, he said: “You know, the ’70s is when a lot of changes went on in law enforcement. In the early ’70s, we had a big push for education for law enforcement officers. The ’70s is when our profession really turned into a profession. ... Maybe that’s when they started doing a better job of record keeping.” It also was soon after the county and city governments consolidated, merging county and city police. Today professionalism in cold-case investigations includes keeping up with the latest technology, to know when an old piece of evidence from a long-gone crime scene may yet yield clues to a killer’s identity. ''
''COLUMBUS POLICE COLD CASE LIST Listed by the victim’s name, date and location of death, these are the unsolved homicides police still are investigating: • Billy Hicks: May 3, 1973; 100 Sixth St.

Read more at: https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/article176374936.html#storylink=cpy

 

[Bit of hope]

@jmyrick17!

I think this is Billie's (different spelling) grave. May he rest in peace. Billie P. Hicks (1934-1973) - Find A Grave...

FamilySearch.org

The Life Summary of Billie P.
When Billie P. Hicks was born on 31 January 1934, in Columbus, Muscogee, Georgia, United States, his father, Louie Preston Hicks, was 27 and his mother, Georgia Sanford, was 23. He died on 3 May 1973, in Muscogee, Georgia, United States, at the age of 39, and was buried in Parkhill Cemetery, Columbus, Muscogee, Georgia, United States.