NORWALK, Ohio — More than two decades after the disappearance and death of a young Huron County mother, a jury has found her ex-husband guilty of her murder.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Huron County Prosecutor James Sitterly announced that Paul Hicks was convicted following a two-week trial in Huron County Common Pleas Court. Hicks was found guilty of three counts of murder and one count of kidnapping in connection with the 2001 death of his ex-wife, Regina Rowe Hicks.
“You cannot outrun your past – eventually, as this defendant has learned, your evil catches up to you,” Yost said in a statement. He credited investigators with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and prosecutors for unraveling the long-unsolved case and presenting compelling evidence to the jury. “I’m grateful for the jury’s discernment to finally right this wrong,” Yost said.
Hicks was indicted in April 2025 after renewed investigative efforts led to new developments in the case.
According to testimony, Regina Rowe Hicks, 25, was last seen on the evening of Oct. 18, 2001. She left her boyfriend’s home around 8 p.m. in her white Chevrolet Camaro, telling him she was going to pick up her young son. She never arrived.
Four days later, on Oct. 22, 2001, her vehicle was discovered submerged in a pond along Section Line Road 30 in Willard. Her body was found inside the car.
The case was investigated by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation at the request of, and in coordination with, the Huron County Sheriff’s Office. Prosecution was handled by the Ohio Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Section alongside the Huron County Prosecutor’s Office.
Sentencing information has not yet been released.
