One of the important aspects of writing about true crime for me personally is the fact that not only do people tell me that they have learned about a case through my blog (or learned more about a case they thought they knew a lot about, through my work) but the fact that my writing (along with others in the true crime community) can put a case under the spotlight, especially what is classed as a 'historical case'. I've always said that it doesn't matter if someone has been missing for 10 days or 10 years or 20 years, it is still important and the relatives deserve to know what happened to their loved ones as well as the possibility (because miracles can happen) that the missing person can be found alive and well. Unfortunately we do have occasions where a long lost individual is eventually found but not alive and in a lot of cases, only partial remains are left. Sometimes there's no answers, sometimes we do get answers, nobody can ever predict the outcome of these heartbreaking situations.
Recently I have been looking into some missing persons cases and one that has remained a mystery up to this very day is the sudden disappearance of 16 year old Kevin Hicks. Kevin, who is (I am going to say 'is' because out of respect for Kevin and his family I will not refer to him in the past tense until it is official that, that is the case) from a close family and lived with his mother Terry, father Derek and sister Alexandra, vanished without a trace on the evening of the 2nd of March 1986.
Kevin, who at 16 reminded me of a young Stuart Adamson from the Scottish rock band 'Big Country' (I wonder if anyone ever told him that) was living in an area south of London known as Addiscombe in Croydon at the time of his disappearance. He had a great relationship with his sister Alexandra although they did have the normal squabbles that siblings often have, they got on most of the time and were quite close in age, people would often mistake them for being twins. Kevin took his studies seriously and Alexandra would later joke that she was the rebellious one out of the pair of them, preferring to go out with her friends whereas Kevin would always respect his parent's wishes and complete his homework as soon as he got home from school. He was quite the amateur chef and would often be playing around in the kitchen trying out different dishes and baking cakes.
His parents would help support his love of cooking by helping him out with the ingredients and letting him have the kitchen to himself whenever the mood took him to make something. The night of 2nd of March 1986, which was a Sunday evening, the Hicks children were doing their usual Sunday night routine, organising their stuff for school in the morning. At some point Kevin remembered he needed some eggs for a class and and exam the next day. It was around 8:30 pm and although it was a bit of an annoyance he took just £1 and decided he was going to just nip to the local grocery store which would've taken about 5 minutes.
When he walked out of the door, his family could not have foreseen what was to happen next. Five minutes soon passed...then 10 minutes.....then 30 minutes....then 2 hours, where was Kevin? Thinking there was a logical explanation, Kevin's concerned parents tried to convince themselves that Kevin must've bumped into a friend on the walk to the grocery store and decided to go to their house. This was the days before mobile phones (which we often knock but to be honest, mobile phones have been a real asset in certain true crime cases, sometimes being the key piece of evidence that has solved a particular crime) so there was no way of knowing, all you could do is sit and hope and when time had gotten on then it was time for phone calls to police, friends and neighbours. Kevin and Alexandra's parents always told them that if they didn't have any money for a public call box to always use reverse charge call.
Derek and Terry were growing more and more concerned so Derek headed out in search of his son and found nothing, when the police were informed they're initial response infuriated the Hicks family and quite rightly so. The police claimed that Kevin had not been gone long enough for an alarm to be raised, they also mentioned that he was 16 years old as if that made any difference, 16 years old is still a child. Terry and Derek were ate their wits end making phone calls to other members of their family as well as Kevin's friends in the hope that someone would have information. They also made the daunting task of calling the local hospitals hoping to find an answer but at the same time praying that Kevin hadn't been involved in a terrible accident.
Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and Terry would constantly look out the window towards the route that Kevin took that evening, obsessed with the thought that at any minute Kevin could just appear and walk through the door.
With no leads and nothing to go on, the police were finding themselves hitting a brick wall and it wasn't long before the desperation to get some sort of conclusion to the case drove them to start intimidating Kevin's sister Alexandra. The poor girl was trying to get through the constant worry about where her brother was and she was being quizzed constantly by adults who believed she knew more information than she was letting on. Alex was in the same boat as everyone else, she hadn't a clue where Kevin was and spent many a night lying in bed awake worried sick. Terry and Derek were getting more and more desperate that they (obviously not thinking clearly at the time due to all the stress and worry) began hounding Alexandra for some answers.
Kevin's disappearance didn't only shock the Hicks family, it shocked the neighbourhood as well as his school as he was thought of quite highly by his teachers and those who knew him. Kevin wasn't a troubled boy and there were no red flags, signs of anything unusual going on or secret friends to anyone's knowledge. He was just a normal kid and nothing was out of the ordinary before he left that spring night. Searches took place and Alexandra later spoke of how she was upset that she wasn't allowed to take part but being young at the time, I can understand her parents wanting to protect her. I imagine taking part in a search for a missing child to be one of the most difficult and brave things to do, not only is it emotionally and physically exhausting but you don't know what the outcome is going to be. It would have been utterly devastating if Alexandra had stumbled across something she shouldn't have, it could have traumatized her for life.
During the search, Kevin's grandfather found what looked like a pile of black trash bags and everyone was terrified as you can imagine. On further inspection the bags just turned out to be trash and for a brief moment in a never ending cycle of panic and worry, there was a huge sigh of relief. The police had contacted the owners of the grocery store and requested to view the CCTV tapes. The grocery store owners told the police that the cameras were not in operation and merely just for display. They also said that they had seen Kevin come into the store, buy some eggs and then leave without incident. Everything appeared to be normal and nobody was with him.
Soon months turned into years and the police began to get more and more distant and their focus on the case was starting to lack. The Hicks family and their friends never gave up hope and continued to do what they could to keep awareness of Kevin's disappearance in the public eye. Terry and Derek appeared on TV and interviews as well as Crimewatch (a popular TV show which focused on true crime, missing people and unsolved cases).
Then the unbelievable happened....the years turned into decades with still nothing to go on. It' is Kevin's 55th birthday this year and it's been nearly 40 years since he went missing. Terry, sadly never having the answers of what happened to Kevin or where he was, passed away. In an interview Alexandra claimed that she and her father had been counting bouquets of flowers that had been left in tribute to Terry at her funeral. When they returned the next day, they noticed that there was a bouquet of flowers that were not there before. Alexandra believes that they could have possibly been left by Kevin.
Alexandra hangs on to the hope that he is still alive and thinks that he may have ended up in the Navy as a chef as it wasn't as difficult to get into the forces back then as it is now. But would that make sense? to leave your family all of these years with heartbreaking unanswered questions and never-ending worry? Some investigators believe that Kevin was sadly abducted and murdered, there are so many theories out there about what happened to him but it all remains a very sad mystery. Derek sadly passed away leaving Alexandra to take on the heavy task of trying to keep the flame alive for her brother. She refused to declare him deceased after the 10 year mark and has continued to have hope ever since that she will have answers.
With the latest technology, Alexandra has worked hard to take her search for her brother to online apps and forums hoping that someone somewhere will remember something or quite possibly recognise the photograph of Kevin and might know someone at work who looks like him, just anything, any piece of information, no matter how small could do so much.
I have included a list of links below as well as other details if there is anyone out there who has any piece of information, no matter how small. You may have heard someone talk about Kevin who thinks that they might have seen him that night or heard about his whereabouts since. If you feel scared to contact authorities for whatever reason, feel free to message me anonymously and I will pass the information on. Let's hope and pray that Alexandra can get the answers she so desperately needs and we do hope by some miracle that this has a positive ending but being nearly 40 years and the circumstances in which Kevin vanished, in my opinion, it looks like an abduction. I just can't imagine that he would put his family through all of this intentionally and for both of his parents to pass away and there to be no word or contact from him. What are your thoughts? Please leave them below in the comment section or email me in confidence at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com
Further Reading & Sources:
- Kevin Hicks | Missing People
- Kevin Hicks | Informing Britain
- Kevin Hicks: Article | The Sun
- Kevin Hicks: Article | BBC News
- Alexandra Hicks | Bournemouth Echo
Kevin Hicks was last seen on the night of the 2nd of March 1986 in Croydon, London. He was wearing a white, black and red Lacoste bomber jacket, jeans and white Hi-Tec trainers.
If you have any information please contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 (you can choose to be anonymous on this call).
You can also phone or text Missing People on 116 000 or email them in confidence (quoting ref: 92-000027) or email 116@missingpeople.org.uk
Let's hope we have some news either from Kevin himself or about Kevin soon. Thank you for taking the time to read my latest post, I really appreciate it. Until next time, please stay safe and I hope to see you on my socials x
No comments:
Post a Comment