Mary Helen Dickson-Hines was 90 years old when she was attacked in her home in the 4500 block of Garden Drive in Northwest Baltimore on Wednesday, May 4, 2016. She died of her injuries three weeks later, on Wednesday, May 25, and police added her to the city's list of homicides after an autopsy. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists her death, under the date of Tuesday, August 16, 2016, as a homicide caused by blunt force injuries.
Neighbors noticed that her door was open and called police around 12:30 p.m. on May 4. Officers found her inside, barely conscious and suffering from multiple injuries, unable to move or call for help. "Ms. Mary Dickson-Hines was brutally assaulted, tied, and left for dead in her home," police spokesman Lt. Jarron Jackson told WMAR. Police said someone had entered the house, assaulted her and left. It was not known whether anything was taken.
Police said they believed the attacker knew the area. "We believe this person was close to the community, we believe he frequented the community and now has gone missing," Jackson said. "Maybe it was someone who ran errands or cut the grass and now all of a sudden they're gone, that's the kind of information we need." Her niece, Margie Jackson, visited her in the hospital and told WMAR, "She knew who did that to her, she just couldn't get the name out and she was trying to tell me."
The Afro reported that Dickson-Hines came to Baltimore from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in the 1970s and worked as a nurse at Rosewood Hospital. Neighbors said she had lived in the same house for decades. "She was a good person," neighbor Lavonne Speaks told The Baltimore Sun. "She had a heart of gold." Speaks remembered her as an avid gardener: "She was proud of that little rose bush right there." Another neighbor, Hugh Brice, said, "She would give you the shirt off her back."
Garden Drive is in Central Park Heights, near Reisterstown Road. The Sun described it as a quiet street lined with red-brick rowhouses on one side and a small park on the other, where neighbors keep tidy lawns. "Everybody looks out for everybody," one neighbor said.
After the unrest of 2015, Baltimore recorded more than 300 homicides a year for eight straight years, and the share of killings that ended in an arrest fell sharply.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Mary Helen Dickson-Hines could be found in news archives or public records. More than ten years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived near Garden Drive in May 2016, and especially anyone who remembers a man who did odd jobs on the block and then stopped coming around, may hold the detail that solves this case. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
