The June 19, 2026, episode of Dateline followed the case of Regina Rowe-Hicks, whose murder remained unsolved for decades. Regina, a resident of Willard, Ohio, went missing on October 18, 2001, after she left her home in her white Chevrolet Camaro to pick up her son. Her son, Montana, was with her husband, Paul, and Paul’s best friend, Steve Gates, at Gates’ property.
Unfortunately, she never returned home. Regina went missing for four days, and her body was later discovered on October 22, 2001. She was found dead inside the car, which was found fully submerged in a local farm pond. Her case would then go unsolved for decades until 2025.
Dateline reveals how Steve Gates’ testimony finally solved Regina Hicks’ cold case.
As covered by Dateline, when Regina Hicks’ body was found, it wasn’t immediately known whether her death was an accident or a murder. Initially, the coroner had said that he couldn’t conclude her death to be a murder. That initially delayed investigations. Later, it was clear that Regina had suffered blunt force trauma. Her death was then considered a homicide and investigated as such.
The police looked into Paul Hicks as the prime suspect and even tried to administer a polygraph test, but he failed. Paul didn’t take the test, stating that he had taken three Xanax pills and two shots of Jim Beam, which made him unsuitable to take the test.
Regina Hicks and her husband, Paul Hicks, were estranged for quite some time before Regina went missing and was eventually found dead. Paul, thus, had a motive. However, the case went cold since the police did not have any confession or forensic evidence connecting Paul to the murder. Moreover, no witness was willing to give any concrete testimony that would help the prosecutors establish Paul as the killer.
In 2024, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation took up the case to review it. They re-interviewed key witnesses, during which Steve Gates changed his statement and agreed to cooperate. He received immunity in exchange for testimony about what happened the night Regina disappeared.
As Dateline revealed, the case went cold for so long because Steve Gates was scared of speaking up and feared what Paul might do to him. As PEOPLE reports, speaking to Dateline, Gates said,
“I was tired of the threats, I was tired of looking over my shoulder, waiting to see where [Paul Hicks] was gonna be,”
He also said that Paul,
“always had an angle,”
Gates continued,
“I didn’t do very well documenting the threats with law enforcement but there was threats.”
In 2025, Steve Gates revealed that after Regina arrived at his property, Paul and Regina had an argument. Steve had stepped away from the couple for a while, but when he returned, he found Regina unconscious in the backseat, and Paul told him that she was already dead.
Paul had then driven the Camaro into the pond, sunken it, and then escaped, leaving Regina trapped inside the submerged car. He had asked Gates to follow them in a car, which is why Gates witnessed the entire crime.
In April 2025, Paul was arrested and indicted on three counts of murder and one count of kidnapping. In December of the same year, after a two-week trial, Paul was found guilty on all counts. Paul Hicks was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Dateline airs on NBC every Friday at 10 pm ET. You can stream episodes of the show on Peacock.
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Edited by Riddhee