The Dartmouth Murders
Caught
According to a Union Leader article by Michael Cousineau, Kathryn Marchocki, and Paula Tracy, Indiana Sheriff's Sergeant William Ward ended the chase through quick thinking.
Ward heard Hicks ask over CB radio if someone could take two teen boys he had picked up in New Jersey on to California. "I can," Ward instantly replied. Then he asked the trucker to leave the travelers at the fuel desk of the Flying J Truck Stop. Ward promised that someone would soon pick them up. Then he radioed deputies for backup and the officers drove to the Flying J.
Daley and Wiggs wrote that before pulling into the Flying J, Hicks gave the boys $10 to buy breakfast. Both thanked him.
At the Flying J, officers confronted Rob and Jim, who at first gave false names and information but soon admitted their true identities.
According to Daley and Wiggs, "after a bewildered Hicks realized he had helped two fugitives, he got mad" and asked a deputy to retrieve his $10 and it was returned to him. "There is free food in jail," Hicks noted. One of the boys looked at Hicks and said, "I'm sorry."
Hicks lost his job but told Daley and Wiggs, "I have no regrets. Everything seemed so set up for them to be captured here, maybe it's the way it was supposed to happen. I actually feel lucky."