South Windsor Student Writes About Town's Only Two Cold Case Homicides

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — The South Windsor High School student newspaper, the Bobcat Prowl, has been filled with remarkable stories in recent weeks, including this one by editor Ava Nicole Shasha. It deals with the only two unsolved cold case homicides on the books of the South Windsor Police Department.

Cold Case 1

On June 10, 1990, while fishermen were walking down a utility passageway underneath high tension wires off Pierce Road in South Windsor, they came across a horrifying sight: a dead female who was stabbed and wrapped in a shower curtain. That female was 19-year-old Diedra Dancy, and her case still has not been solved.

Also known as "Dede," Dancy was from Hartford and had been missing 48 hours before her body was found, though she had not been reported missing. Police determined the crime scene in South Windsor was the secondary crime scene; they believe she was murdered somewhere else, and her body was left off of Pierce Road.

Dancy's death was suspected to be linked to other homicides that were happening in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Previous to her case, there were a series of murders conducted in the same manner. All of the victims were women who were abducted, murdered and then dumped in other various locations.

A man named Alfred Swinton was convicted of one of the murders based on evidence of a bite mark analysis, but after 18 years of imprisonment, Swinton was exonerated into the Innocence Project in 2018.

Since Swinton’s arrest, no other arrests have been made in connection with Dancy’s death, or any of the other homicides.

Anyone with any information on the death of Diedra Dancy is asked to call the Connecticut Cold Case Hotline at 866-623-8058.

Cold Case 2

On Oct. 8, 1988, 15-year-old Kevin Hicks of Hartford ran into some trouble on the streets. Police received reports he was being chased down Albany Avenue by several males. No one ever saw Hicks alive after that day, and he was reported to police as a missing person.

Police began an intense investigation and search for Hicks, and on Oct. 23, 15 days after he was reported missing, the South Windsor Police Department was called to a wooded area a quarter-mile west of Main Street near the Connecticut River on the report of a body being found by hikers.

SWPD responded and were led to the body by the hikers. The badly decomposed body was of a black male, and was identified as Hicks by the Medical Examiner's Office.

Similar to the case of Dancy, police believed Hicks was murdered somewhere between Hartford and South Windsor, and his body then dumped in the wooded area. The location of the dump site was a purposeful placement in a remote area to hinder police investigation if it was found.

Hicks' cause of death is said to be two bullet shots to his head. Police estimated when his body was found, he had been dead for 12 days, making Oct. 11, 1988 the estimated day of his death.

Anyone with any information on the Hicks case is asked to call South Windsor Police at 860-644-2551.