WILLARD, OH — Paul Hicks was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for murdering his estranged wife Regina Rowe-Hicks, whose body was found in a submerged car in 2001 after a case that remained unsolved for more than two decades.
The conviction of the 47-year-old Hicks in December 2025 closed one of Ohio’s longest-running cold cases, stemming from the October 2001 disappearance of 25-year-old Regina. Her body was discovered four days after she went missing, seated in the passenger side of her white Chevrolet Camaro at the bottom of a pond near Townline Road 12 and Section Line Road 30 in Huron County. Regina had suffered blunt force trauma to her head, leading investigators to treat her death as a homicide from the start.
Regina disappeared on the evening of October 18, 2001, after leaving her boyfriend’s home around 8 p.m. to pick up her 4-year-old son Montana from the home of Paul’s friend Steve Gates. She never arrived. The day after Regina was reported missing, Paul filed for divorce and sought full custody of their son. “Before Paul, she was loud, happy, and more vocal,” Regina’s cousin Lisa Hersha told ABC’s 20/20. “Paul made her more silent, more small.” Family members described their relationship as violent and turbulent, with loved ones worried about Regina’s safety during their separation.
The breakthrough in the case came in 2024 when local podcaster Ashli Ford dedicated several episodes of her podcast “Allegedly” to investigating Regina’s death, drawing attention from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Cold case investigators re-interviewed key witnesses, including Gates, who had remained silent for over 20 years. In exchange for immunity, Gates testified that Paul and Regina argued when she came to pick up Montana on the night of her disappearance. Gates claimed he later found Regina unconscious and that Paul told him “She’s already dead” before driving Regina’s car toward the pond while Gates followed. “I wanted to see if we could get some attention to a cold case that definitely deserves justice,” Ford told News 5 Cleveland.
During the two-week trial in December 2025, prosecutors argued that Paul knocked Regina unconscious, placed her in the passenger seat of her car, drove the vehicle to the pond, and sent it into the water, causing her to drown. Huron County Prosecutor James Sitterly presented the motive as financial, telling the court, “The defendant is looking at a situation he could be paying child support while being laid off and he had to limit his financial exposure as well as get full custody.” Additional testimony came from Paul’s sister Crystal Hicks, who said she saw muddy clothes in her bathtub after Regina’s disappearance. Gates also testified that Paul cleaned up after the incident and left boots on the back porch that later disappeared.
The defense challenged the prosecution’s reliance on Gates’ testimony, arguing he was an unreliable witness who had kept silent for decades before receiving immunity. Defense attorney J. Anthony Rich emphasized the lack of physical evidence, stating “Their whole case is based upon speculation and conjecture” and noting there was “zero forensic evidence to corroborate” the allegations. A DNA expert testified that five items from Regina’s car, including the headrest, keys, phone, jeans, and sweatshirt, did not produce enough DNA for comparison. The defense also highlighted that Paul had failed to complete a polygraph test in 2001 due to his admitted drug and alcohol use before the exam, taking three Xanax pills and two shots of Jim Beam.
Years before his arrest for Regina’s murder, Paul had been involved in another elaborate criminal scheme. Authorities alleged he set his own house on fire in a staged break-in, intending to blame his ex-girlfriend to win custody of their child and collect insurance money. The incident was recorded on a home surveillance system that Paul had placed in a fire-protected safe. In 2019, Paul was indicted on charges including aggravated arson, insurance fraud and perjury, later pleading guilty to insurance fraud and receiving probation in 2022. Regina’s family had suspected Paul’s involvement from the beginning, with her cousin Angela Rowe telling News 5 Cleveland, “We knew it all along, we couldn’t prove it, but we knew he did it.”
On December 19, 2025, the jury found Paul Hicks guilty on three counts of murder and one count of kidnapping after deliberating the evidence. He was sentenced on January 9, 2026, to serve the murder and kidnapping sentences consecutively. “Today a killer is held accountable, although 24 years after the crime, it’s a stark reminder that truth has no expiration date,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced. “Prison bars will now restrain the evil that stole Regina from her loved ones.” At sentencing, the couple’s son Montana, now 28, released an impact statement expressing mixed feelings about the conviction due to what he called a “lack of evidence,” writing, “I lost my mom, and now I’m losing my dad.”
Regina’s mother Lacella Holbrook had spent 10 years after her daughter’s death advocating for justice, placing billboards and newspaper ads offering rewards up to $20,000 for information leading to the killer’s arrest. The emotional and physical toll of the long fight eventually contributed to Holbrook’s death from cancer before seeing the case resolved. “She went to thousands of cases at the courthouse and got to know a lot of different people,” Regina’s brother Chad Rowe told News 5 Cleveland. “She lost a lot of sleep and lot of energy from it. Eventually, it emotionally and physically killed her.” The case was featured in the ABC 20/20 episode “The Secret in the Water,” which aired on May 1.
Paul Hicks is currently serving his sentence at an Ohio county prison while appealing his conviction. Regina’s family expressed relief after waiting 24 years for closure, with cousin Angela Rowe saying they felt they could “finally breathe again” and were “overwhelmed and feeling so much joy” after the long wait for justice.
