GRANVILLE COUNTY: Denise Hicks woke up at midnight on June 17, 2000. She had spoken to her husband, Pete, an hour earlier and he said he was on his way home. She decided to go on to bed. It wasn’t like him to be late, especially given they were celebrating Pete’s 40th birthday the next day. Something was wrong.
A strange voice answered when Denise called her husband’s cell phone. Pete had been in a serious motorcycle accident. An ambulance was taking him to Durham Regional.
As soon as Denise got to the hospital, she knew it wasn’t good. The doctors wanted to talk to her before she went back to see him – Pete had serious brain damage and probably wouldn’t make it.
About six or seven hours later, Denise was in the waiting room watching the morning news with her family. It was there she learned why Pete crashed; someone had cut down a 60-foot pine tree so it fell across Munn Road, less than two miles from home. Two other trees were cut that night, apparently by a prankster looking for some cheap laughs. Pete died that afternoon.
“It’s very clear. I can remember it just like it was last night. It’s just parts of it that’s so vivid to me. That’s something you’ll never forget,” Denise said. “And I think the fact too that uh, it is unsolved. It’s nowhere near over with. So it does stay very fresh in my mind.”
The motorcycling community was horrified, and meanwhile Denise struggled to explain to the couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Lindsay, that her father died as the result of a stupid stunt.
Pete got off work that Friday evening, went for a ride and stopped by a friend’s house for a while. Normally, he rode up Interstate 85 to his home but that night he took Highway 50 and Munn Road. The skid marks suggest he didn’t see the tree until it was mere feet away.
A car had hit the tree moments before Pete did, and the driver had gotten out of the car and tried to flag Pete down. After the crash, the motorist eventually told Denise, he got Pete’s cell phone in the hopes of calling for help.
Police estimate that the tree was cut not more than 30 minutes before Pete slammed into it – same for the other two trees that were cut that night. The perpetrator was no expert with a chainsaw. Several cuts were attempted, and the tree ultimately was pushed over into the road, leaving police sure that more than one person was involved.
The Granville County Sheriff’s Office, Highway Patrol and State Bureau of Investigation started a joint investigation, and with the help of heavy media coverage, leads started coming in. Eventually, a composite sketch of a man seen in the area of Munn Road the night of the crash was released.
“There were no answers. You know, right from the get-go, there were no answers,” she said. “You know, the state patrol involved, the sheriff’s office. The SBI got involved yet nobody could give me answers.”
More than seven years later, investigators continue to plead with the public for information. So does Denise.
She realizes the tree cuttings, for the people responsible, probably were a moment of drunken stupidity. She realizes they probably feel bad about what happened. At one point in time, she speculates, she would have been able to forgive them.
“I know they did not do it to Pete. They just happened to be somebody stupid out doing something stupid,” she said. “But still, the fact that the next day when they knew what had happened they could have come forward at that time and say hey I didn’t mean to do this. And I probably would have said OK, well let’s work with them a little. But at this point in time right now I don’t care what they do with them, because they’ve made me suffer for seven years.”
Police have had a suspect since shortly after the incident, says Granville County Sheriff David Smith. It’s a local man, and investigators feel confident that one day, someone will slip up and they will get what they need to file charges.
Until then, Denise waits.
“You know, it’s been seven years now. And um, obviously I haven’t let it go,” she said. “And I’m not going to let it go. It might take me seven more. But this person needs to be brought to justice, and I want it done the right way.”
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