Commissioner of Police Robert Clark has reclassified the investigation into the disappearance of 27-year-old Teric Glenston Hickson as murder.
This marks the third homicide the Royal Anguilla Police Force has recorded so far this year, with no charges yet brought in any of the cases.
“He may be still alive, but I have now reclassified that as a murder inquiry,” the police chief said, adding the number of murders in less than seven weeks is “very worrying”.
In response to inquiries from Anguilla Focus, a police spokesperson said the decision to reclassify the case was made based on the absence of any “proof of life” since Hickson’s disappearance.
It was also influenced by new information gathered by the police during the investigation, the spokesperson said.
Last seen
Hickson was last seen by his cousin at his grandmother’s home in Tackling Estate at about 10pm on 4 January.
The unemployed mechanic had no known planned trip, nor appointment, and his only mode of transport was a bicycle which remained at his home.
His cross body bag and yellow crocs that he carried with him most of time were also at his home.
Family members have confirmed Hickson had substance abuse issues but no other known health concerns.
He is described as slim, about six feet tall, with dark skin, short black dreadlocks and a black beard (as pictured). He was wearing a black t-shirt with the number 23 on it when last seen.
Fatal shootings
“In the first six, seven weeks of this year that we’ve had three murders,” Clark said during an interview on Radio Anguilla on 19 February.
On the evening of Friday, 7 February, 69-year-old Carl Stephen Carter was found with a fatal gunshot wound to his head in his home in The Farrington.
Ten days later on Monday, 17 February, Omari Roberts, a 29-year-old visitor from the British Virgin Islands, was pronounced dead after a shooting in Hillside Bar and Grill in South Hill around midnight.
Police are also looking into the non-fatal shooting of a 29-year-old man from The Keys in Island Harbour on Saturday, 8 February.
The police chief reminded listeners that in 2024 there were six murders during the year and five throughout 2023.
“We cannot become like some other Caribbean islands and I will do everything while I’m here to make sure that Anguilla remains as unspoiled as it should be,” the police chief said.
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