For 24 years, the person responsible for the death of 25-year-old Regina Rowe-Hicks managed to evade the reach of the law. Last year, the case saw a breakthrough when a key witness, Steve Gates, a former friend of the accused, decided to break his silence. Now, according to PEOPLE, he has given an interview with Dateline to explain why it took him so long to step forward.
Regina was last seen in October 2001, when she was expected to pick up her son, Montana, from the home of her estranged husband’s friend in Willard, Ohio. She never arrived. Four days later, investigators found her with blunt force trauma to the head and her white Camaro submerged in a nearby pond. The police tackled it as a homicide, but without concrete evidence, they couldn’t proceed, even with suspicions about her estranged husband, Paul Hicks.
