Carrie Hicks wrote in her journal about wanting to die.
The 25-year-old was in a”real bad depression” and had been struggling with her mental health. She had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manic depression, and in her entries, she fixated on a gun as a means of ending her pain.
Hicks was discovered dead at an Acworth house on February 24, 2007, with two gunshot wounds to the head. In the living room, she lay covered by a quilt on a bloody couch, with empty beer cans scattered around the area. Authorities discovered a second person, still breathing, on an opposite sofa with a single bullet wound in his head: 51-year-old Wayne Ring.
A Sig Sauer Mosquito .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol rested on the floor between the coffee table and the sofa where Ring was found.
Now, nearly two decades later, the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit has determined that Ring was Hicks’s killer.
“We deeply appreciate the State of New Hampshire reopening Carrie’s case and resolving it. Carrie is greatly missed,” her family shared in a statement on Thursday.
Ring, who died in 2012, would face prosecution for first-degree murder if he were still alive today.
“We hope that the conclusion of this investigation brings a measure of clarity and peace to the loved ones of Carrie Hicks,” said Attorney General John Formella in a statement on Thursday. “This resolution underscores the commitment of the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit. By thoroughly re-examining the forensic evidence, witness statements and autopsy records, our investigators have finally established the truth behind this tragic loss of life.”
A pact to die
Carrie Hicks acquired a .22 pistol from Alstead Gun Shop in November of 2006. She put the weapon on layaway until February 1 and wrote in her journal that she was “debating on getting it, because I’ve heard that a .22 won’t kill you.”
Three days after purchasing the gun at the end of January 2007, she wrote about having attempted to take her own life a few days prior: “I really felt like that was it. I felt so ready… Didn’t care if it was a .22 or not at that point. Just want[ed] [it] done.”
Her family described her as “kind,” “caring” and “wanting to help others,” according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Alexander Kellermann. These themes came up consistently throughout interviews with people who knew her, he said.
At the time, Hicks was living with her friend Brenda Lawrence but sometimes stayed with Ring at his Acworth home, located at 146 Beryl Mountain Road. Like Hicks, Ring experienced severe depression. He also struggled with alcoholism. A report issued by the Cold Case Unit states that “the relationship between Ms. Hicks and Mr. Ring was consistently described as a non-romantic, co-dependent one.”
“His life was also complicated,” Kellermann said. “He also had his own struggles, and she was someone that tried to help him and tried to help him work through some of those struggles, and that is part of the reason they were friends, part of the reason why she was in his home.”
She had told multiple friends, including Lawrence, about a plan she and Ring had devised: He would shoot and kill her, and then himself. Hicks told Ring to “make sure he shot her twice, not just once,” Lawrence told the authorities, “because Hicks didn’t want to be left alive and shot in the head.”
People close to Ring described him as suicidal. He had recently lost his job and was facing foreclosure on his house. Twice divorced, he had a history of violence against his first wife, who said she thought “ha[d] it in him to kill someone,” according to a police report.
The night Ring shot Hicks and then himself, he called a friend and asked him to come over the next morning. Investigators believe that he was preparing for their deaths to be discovered. Indeed, the next morning at 10:30 a.m., that same friend arrived at the house, discovered the bloody scene with two people lying prone in the living room, and called 911.
In the aftermath of the shooting, upon receiving medical treatment, Ring’s account of what happened continued to change. He said he and Hicks had talked about committing suicide the night prior. Later, he told his daughter that Hicks had shot herself. He also, at times, said he couldn’t recall the events at all.
Then, Hicks’s death was ruled a homicide.
Inside the investigation
Investigators looked at three theories: that Hicks had either taken her own life, a third-party intruder had shot both Hicks and Ring, or Ring had shot both Hicks and himself.
Evidence quickly ruled out the idea of an intruder, Kellermann said.
The chief medical examiner at the time, Dr. Thomas Andrew, stated in an autopsy report that Hicks died of “two gunshot wounds to the head with perforation of the skull and brain.”
Evidence collected at the scene included the Sig Sauer pistol, three spent cartridge casings, gunshot residue, bloodstains and more.
Crime scene reconstruction from 2010 determined the sequence of the shots: The first was a contact shot, with the gun pressed directly to her head, while the second was at an intermediate range, six to fifteen inches away.
Blood splatter patterns indicated she could not have fired the first shot to her head. But the source of the second shot remained undetermined until earlier this year, when Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jennie Duval revisited the original autopsy report.
She determined the first shot was “so neurologically devastating that no subsequent voluntary action could have occurred,” according to the Cold Case Unit’s report. Thus, someone else had fired the second shot.
All the evidence of her wounds and the weapon’s location, combined with witness testimony about the murder-suicide pact, pointed “conclusively” to Ring having shot and killed Hicks before attempting to do the same for himself, the report concluded.
Word of the law
Even though Hicks had sought to die, killing her was still a crime.
“Consent, as it was in 2007, as it is today, is not a defense to murder,” Kellermann said. “You cannot consent to having someone kill you, murder you, and cause that type of bodily injury.”
New Hampshire’s homicide laws also include causing or aiding suicide, although authorities determined this would not be the correct charge for Ring, given that he killed Hicks rather than assisting her in killing herself.
He cannot be posthumously prosecuted, but with these findings, Hicks’s case is officially closed.
Hicks is remembered as someone who was “full of life,” said Cold Case Unit Chief R. Christopher Knowles. “Carrie was someone that had her whole life ahead of her, and she was struggling at times. I think everyone struggles at times and goes through periods of struggle.”
If you need help:
- National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
- NH Rapid Response Access Point: If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health and/or substance use crisis, call/text 1-833-710-6477 to speak to trained clinical staff.
