ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702240072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: IRONTO
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
A Montgomery County man, wanted in connection with a Roanoke woman's disappearance Thursday, apparently continued to elude police Saturday by hiding in the mountains he has lived in all his life.
Montgomery County Sheriff's deputies searched for Robert "Butch" Hickson, 31, for more than 14 hours after a call to police led them to the Bradshaw Road area where Hickson occasionally lives with his mother. Twelve hours into the search - about 3:30 p.m. - Montgomery County called for assistance from Virginia Tech and Virginia State Police tactical teams.
More than 25 officers, most heavily armed and dressed in camouflage, hiked up a mountainside to a cabin in which Hickson was thought to be hiding, possibly holding his former girlfriend hostage.
By 5:30 p.m., officers had searched the cabin and surrounding area without finding Hickson or the missing woman, 30-year-old Rebecca Hicks. With the sun setting, police called off the search.
Montgomery County Sheriff Doug Marrs said Saturday evening he planned to have his deputies patrol roads in the area all night and resume the search at daylight today.
Betty Hickson, the suspect's mother, said the show of force by police was unnecessary and "out of control."
"Why are there so many police officers when he hasn't done anything?" she said.
Hickson's mother said she does not believe her son abducted Hicks, because the woman had repeatedly tried to contact her son and resume a relationship.
Betty Hickson was at her friend Steve Dooley's house while police searched more than 100 acres of Dooley's property for her son.
She said her son is on probation and she believes that is why he fled from police. Betty Hickson would only say he has been convicted of drunken driving.
"When it all calms down in a day or two, he'll probably turn himself in," she said. "He's turned himself in before."
Dooley said the large law enforcement presence, which included three tracking dogs and a helicopter in addition to the many officers, was unnecessary. He speculated that Hickson's history with police and his size - 6 feet 2 inches tall and 230 pounds - probably led to the display of force.
"He's been known to fight off five or six officers at a time," Dooley said. "When he's straight, he's as good a guy as you can meet; and when he's drinking and pushed into a corner, he's Rambo."
Dooley said despite Hickson's violent tendencies when he's intoxicated, he does not consider the man "radical" or "dangerous at this time."
Roanoke police put out a statewide bulletin Friday asking officers to be on the lookout for Hickson. Witnesses told police Hickson dragged Hicks from a friend's apartment by her hair Thursday night in Roanoke. Before that, he displayed a shotgun and hit another woman, Roanoke police said.
A woman who identified herself as Hicks called police and said she was not being held against her will, but police have not been able to contact the woman. Roanoke police said the last time witnesses reported seeing Hicks was when she was being forced into a minivan by Hickson.
Police believe Hickson is armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, Marrs said. Roanoke has issued warrants for Hickson's arrest on charges of abduction, assault and battery, and brandishing a firearm.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY STAFF. Law-enforcement vehicles line up alongby CNBBradshaw Road in Montgomery County during the search on Saturday.
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