On April 22, 1991, the body of 20-year-old Tia Marie Hicks, an African American female, was discovered in the cabin of a boat parked in a commercial lot in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. A painter working on the boat made the grim discovery, finding her remains wrapped in a blue tarp. For months, Tia’s family had been searching for her. Her father had reported her missing on December 13, 1990, after weeks of no contact.
It wasn’t entirely unusual for the young mother of two to disappear for periods, as she struggled with drug addiction and was involved in prostitution, often frequenting Seattle's Rainier Valley and Aurora Avenue North.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner could not determine a definitive cause of death, ruling it as "undetermined". While there were no obvious signs of a violent struggle or trauma on her body, toxicology reports revealed cocaine in her system. Investigators believe she did not die in the boat but was placed there afterward, estimating her death occurred weeks before her body was found, likely in mid-to-late March 1991. The suspicious circumstances led the Mountlake Terrace Police to treat the case as a homicide, the only cold-case homicide on their books.
Over the years, the investigation explored several leads but resulted in no arrests. An early suspect was Scott William Cox, a long-haul truck driver convicted of murdering two women in Portland and suspected in other cases. His trucking routes frequently took him through the area where Tia’s body was found around the time she vanished. However, his method of killing, which typically involved stabbing or strangulation, did not match the condition of Tia's body, and there was not enough evidence to charge him.
The case was reopened in 2013 by Mountlake Terrace Police Detective Sgt. Mike Haynes, who sought to piece together the last months of Tia's life. The renewed investigation traced Tia to the Travelers Lodge on Highway 99 in Edmonds, just a short distance from where she was found. The motel manager recalled her associating with a man and a woman. This couple later moved into a shed behind a rental house nearby and were considered persons of interest, though a lack of evidence prevented any charges. Advances in technology allowed for retesting of evidence, which yielded a male DNA profile in 2014. Despite these efforts and new leads, Tia Hicks's death remains unsolved, and her family continues to await answers.
