Randy Hicks

Randy Hicks disappeared after reportedly running into the woods during the early morning hours of his birthday. Twenty days later, his brother found his remains near the same property. Local officials reportedly treated the death as an accidental fall, but the forensic examination listed both the cause and manner of death as undetermined.

On July 23, 2016, relatives and friends gathered in eastern Walker County to search for Randy Hicks.

Randy had not been seen for approximately 20 days. The story circulating among those who knew him was that he had run into the woods near a house in the Coon Creek area during the early morning hours of July 4.

Others who reportedly entered the woods that night eventually came out.

Randy did not.

The search party was directed toward a wooded area near the property. According to interviews later conducted by Secrets True Crime, Randy’s brother found him in less than half an hour.

His body was badly decomposed. He was reportedly positioned near a tree at the bottom of a wooded slope or hollow.

The Walker County Sheriff’s Office investigated the scene, and Randy’s remains were sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.

A local explanation eventually emerged: Randy may have fallen while running from law enforcement.

But according to the forensic report later obtained and examined by Secrets True Crime, Randy had no identified skeletal injuries demonstrating a serious fall. His internal organs and most soft tissue were gone, toxicology testing could not be performed, and the medical examiner could not determine how he died.

The forensic conclusion was not accidental death.

It was undetermined. (Secrets True Crime)

A Death With Almost No Public Record

Randy’s case differs from most of the cases covered by Alabama Unsolved.

There appears to be no widely accessible contemporary news coverage of his disappearance, the search or the discovery of his remains. His name does not appear on the Walker County Sheriff’s Office’s current public missing-person page because he was found in 2016.

Most of what is publicly known comes from a 2020 investigation by Secrets True Crime, which included interviews with members of the search party, a first responder, people familiar with Randy’s final night and then-Sheriff Nick Smith.

The podcast also reported obtaining a copy of Randy’s forensic examination.

That makes Secrets an important original source for this story, but it also creates limitations. Many witness accounts have not been corroborated through publicly released police reports, dispatch records, photographs or sworn testimony.

What follows is therefore a reconstruction of the available public reporting, not a declaration that any particular theory has been proven.

The Rumors Around Randy

Randy lived in the Empire area of Walker County and struggled with addiction.

People interviewed by Secrets described him as fun, loyal and devoted to the people he cared about. They also said his behavior changed after the March 2015 deaths of Eric Cates and Eric’s dog, Gypsy. (Secrets True Crime)

Eric and Gypsy were found dead inside Eric’s burned truck behind the old Empire School.

In the months that followed, Randy’s name circulated through the community as someone who might have known what happened. Some rumors went further and accused him of participating in the events surrounding the deaths.

Those claims were not established publicly by law enforcement.

Secrets True Crime eventually concluded from its own interviews that Randy had been present when Eric and Gypsy were killed. That was the podcast’s investigative conclusion, not a finding made in court or an allegation contained in any publicly released indictment. (Secrets True Crime)

Years after Randy died, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced murder indictments against Joshua Franklin Hill and Cyrena Cheyenne Styles in October 2023. Hill and Luke Williams Jr. were subsequently indicted for capital murder in May 2024. Randy was not named in either announcement, and all defendants remain presumed innocent unless convicted. (alabamaag.gov)

Randy’s possible knowledge of the Eric Cates investigation remains relevant to his story, but it cannot be treated as a proven motive for his death.

The Request to Speak With Investigators

Shortly before his disappearance, Randy was being held in the Walker County Jail on what Secrets described as a failure-to-appear matter.

The podcast interviewed people who claimed Randy repeatedly asked to speak with the lead investigator in Eric Cates’ case or with the sheriff. One former inmate reportedly said Randy wanted to provide information and feared he would be killed if he talked.

Eric’s mother, Tobbie Stover, said she received a similar account after Randy’s death.

No publicly released jail request, recorded interview, incident report or law-enforcement statement confirms that Randy attempted to provide evidence.

The claim is nevertheless important because it forms the basis of the theory that Randy was silenced.

According to the podcast’s timeline, Randy was released from jail around July 1, 2016, without having the requested conversation. Within days, he disappeared. (Secrets True Crime)

That sequence may be meaningful.

It may also be coincidental.

Without the jail records or testimony from an identified employee who received Randy’s request, the public cannot determine whether he possessed real information, repeated a rumor or ever made the request at all.

July 3, 2016

On July 3, Randy contacted a woman and arranged to meet her at a house in the Coon Creek area near Empire.

Secrets True Crime withheld the property owner’s real name and referred to him as “Julian.” That same approach will be followed here because he has not been publicly charged with causing Randy’s death.

According to the podcast’s reconstruction, Randy did not have a vehicle and obtained a ride to the property.

Several people were reportedly spending time there. Randy and a woman entered a hot tub, and Randy borrowed shorts because he had not brought swimwear.

Witnesses told the podcast that Randy left his ordinary clothing, shoes, keys, telephone and other belongings inside the house while he was in the hot tub. The group remained together through much of the night, reportedly discussing Randy’s birthday, which began at midnight on July 4. (Secrets True Crime)

The public record does not establish everyone who was present or whether drugs were being used.

Secrets reported receiving more than a dozen names connected to the gathering, but it did not identify most of them publicly.

Police Arrive

Sometime during the early morning hours, law-enforcement officers reportedly pulled into the property’s driveway.

The most commonly repeated explanation was that officers were looking for a stolen vehicle. Secrets did not locate or publish a corresponding police report confirming the reason for the visit.

The hot tub was behind the house and apparently out of the officers’ sight.

According to witness accounts collected by the podcast, Randy, the woman and two other men fled into the woods to avoid contact with the officers.

One man reportedly entered at a different location. Randy and the woman ran together down a wooded slope before becoming separated in the darkness.

The others eventually emerged after they believed the officers had left.

Randy was not with them. (Secrets True Crime)

No publicly released evidence confirms whether Randy actually entered the woods.

The account depends on the statements of people who were at the property. Some people interviewed by Secrets believed Randy ran away as described. Others suspected he died at or near the house and was later carried into the woods.

Neither version has been proven.

The Morning After

By daylight, Randy had not returned.

Someone reportedly asked the property owner where Randy was and was told that he had not come out of the woods.

What happened next is unclear.

There was apparently no immediate organized search. Secrets reported that, to its knowledge, no missing-person report was filed with the Walker County Sheriff’s Office during the following 20 days. The podcast also said a relative of the property owner did not realize Randy was considered missing until his family arrived to search. (Secrets True Crime)

It is possible that Randy’s lifestyle affected how urgently his absence was treated.

Adults who move between homes, experience addiction or periodically lose contact with relatives can disappear without immediately triggering a police response. Those same circumstances can also make them especially vulnerable when something genuinely goes wrong.

During those weeks, relatives reportedly called Randy’s telephone.

Secrets interviewed people who claimed a woman answered the phone on at least one occasion. The podcast did not publish telephone records establishing when the call occurred, where the device was located or who possessed it. Randy’s phone was not listed among the personal effects recovered with his body. (Secrets True Crime)

That raises a legitimate question.

It does not prove murder.

Someone at the property may simply have retained the phone after Randy ran away without it.

The Search on July 23

On July 23, Randy’s relatives and friends went to the property where he had last been seen.

Accounts differ over how precisely they were directed.

Several people told Secrets that the property owner gave the family specific instructions about where to enter the woods and how far to travel. The property owner denied knowing Randy’s location and said he merely showed the family a less overgrown access route.

He also said he had not been home when Randy disappeared and did not know Randy was missing until the searchers arrived. (Secrets True Crime)

Randy’s brother entered the woods.

Within approximately 30 minutes, and possibly much sooner, he found the remains.

According to witnesses interviewed by the podcast, Randy appeared to be in a seated or reclined position near a tree. His body was dark from decomposition, causing some relatives initially to wonder whether he had been burned.

First responders and Walker County investigators were called to the area. (Secrets True Crime)

The Scene in the Hollow

A first responder who spoke with Secrets described being dispatched to assist with the recovery of a person who was clearly deceased.

The responder said emergency personnel were initially concerned that the scene looked unusual and attempted to avoid disturbing potential evidence.

According to that account, Randy’s legs remained bent and his body appeared positioned as though he had sat down and leaned backward. He was still partially clothed, and decomposition was extensive. (Secrets True Crime)

The responder also recalled hearing the location described as the bottom of a 40- or 50-foot cliff.

When Secrets later visited the area, the host and a private investigator reported finding a wooded slope leading into a hollow rather than the kind of abrupt cliff they had expected.

They found a large rock that created a much shorter drop, but they did not believe the terrain matched the story of a man running over a 50-foot bluff. (Secrets True Crime)

That observation should be treated cautiously.

The podcast’s visit occurred years later. It was not an official survey, and the precise location where every bone was recovered may not have been marked. Vegetation, memory and informal directions could all affect what the investigators believed they were seeing.

Even so, the discrepancy became more significant after the forensic report revealed no identified fractures.

The Accidental-Fall Explanation

Randy’s remains were transported to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.

Secrets reported that the Walker County investigation was eventually closed as an accidental death. The explanation passed through local officials was that Randy had been running from law enforcement, fallen from a bluff and died.

When Secrets asked Sheriff Nick Smith about the case years later, Smith said he had not personally reviewed the reports and had not been sheriff when Randy died.

Smith said his understanding from the investigator’s account was that Randy had run over a bluff while fleeing and was found below it sometime later. He did not present that account as a conclusion he had independently verified. (Secrets True Crime)

That distinction is important.

The podcast’s interview established that an accidental-fall theory existed within the sheriff’s office.

It did not establish what evidence originally supported it.

The Forensic Examination

Randy’s family tried to obtain his autopsy report.

According to Secrets, a relative was initially given several personal-effects and body-receipt forms by the Walker County coroner’s office. Two of the forms reportedly carried a different case number and belonged to a woman who had died in a Cullman County fire.

Nothing in the available reporting indicates that the error was intentional. It may have been a records mix-up involving consecutive or similar case numbers.

The mistake nevertheless deepened the family’s concern about whether officials had accurately reviewed Randy’s case. (Secrets True Crime)

Secrets and its investigator later requested the forensic report directly from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.

The report, as reproduced by the podcast, did not identify a cause of death.

Randy’s remains were almost entirely skeletal. There were no remaining internal organs, little or no soft tissue and insufficient material for toxicology testing.

The examiner found no identifiable injuries that occurred before death. The report cautioned, however, that injuries involving missing soft tissue or internal organs could no longer be detected.

Several bones were absent, apparently because of animal scavenging and natural disarticulation. The lower jaw and hyoid bone were among the parts not recovered.

The medical examiner listed both the cause and manner of death as undetermined. (Secrets True Crime)

What the Bones Did Not Show

The forensic examination reportedly found no skull fracture, broken ribs or fractures among the bones available for examination.

That finding does not completely eliminate an accidental fall.

A person can die after a fall without suffering obvious skeletal injuries. A fatal head injury may involve soft tissue or the brain without fracturing the skull. Heat exposure, dehydration, intoxication or a medical crisis could also occur after someone becomes lost or injured.

But the report did not provide affirmative forensic support for the idea that Randy died from falling off a substantial cliff.

There was no toxicology result showing an overdose.

There was no recoverable organ evidence showing poisoning, heart failure or another medical event.

There was no identified skeletal trauma showing a fatal impact.

The examiner could not determine what killed him. (Secrets True Crime)

The “Hot Shot” Theory

Some people interviewed by Secrets believed Randy was deliberately given a lethal or contaminated dose of drugs, a practice sometimes called a “hot shot.”

According to that theory, Randy was targeted because he knew something about Eric Cates’ death and had attempted to speak with investigators.

The theory proposes that Randy died near the house and was later positioned in the woods.

There is no toxicology evidence supporting that claim because decomposition left no suitable specimens for testing.

There is also no publicly released witness statement from anyone who said they saw another person inject, poison or force drugs on Randy.

The theory therefore cannot be proven from the available evidence.

It also cannot be completely excluded by the forensic report.

An intentional overdose, accidental overdose, medical event and environmental death could all leave little or no skeletal evidence after weeks of decomposition.

His Clothing and Belongings

The forensic inventory reportedly described Randy as wearing shorts, underwear, one white sock and one black-and-white high-top shoe.

A wallet zipped inside the shorts contained cash, identification cards, benefit cards, prepaid cards and personal papers. Keys were also reportedly recovered.

His phone was not listed. (Secrets True Crime)

Those details created additional questions about the account of Randy fleeing suddenly from the hot tub.

Witnesses said his clothing, shoes, keys, wallet and phone had been left inside the house while he was swimming.

If he ran the moment officers arrived, how did he have time to retrieve some belongings but not others?

Were the shorts found on him the borrowed swim trunks?

Did he return inside, dress partially and then flee?

Were the witness accounts about where he left his possessions incorrect?

Or were some belongings placed with him later?

No publicly available photograph or detailed evidence report answers those questions.

The Connection to Eric Cates

Randy’s death became publicly known because Secrets True Crime was investigating the murders of Eric Cates and Gypsy.

The podcast believed the cases might be connected and presented statements from people who claimed Randy wanted to tell law enforcement what he knew.

However, later developments in Eric’s case require that theory to be presented with restraint.

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office obtained indictments against three other people. Its public announcements did not identify Randy as a participant or witness, nor did they say his death was connected to Eric’s murder. (alabamaag.gov)

The absence of Randy’s name from those announcements does not prove he knew nothing.

Prosecutors often withhold details while charges are pending. Randy could have possessed information without participating in the crime.

But the official case developments also mean Alabama Unsolved should not repeat the old community rumors as established history.

Randy was never charged in Eric’s death.

He never had an opportunity to answer the allegations.

What Is Known

The public record supports a limited set of facts:

• Randy disappeared in early July 2016 after visiting a house in the Coon Creek area.
• Witnesses reportedly said he entered the woods while avoiding law enforcement.
• Other people who allegedly entered the woods returned; Randy did not.
• Approximately 20 days passed before his family conducted a search.
• His brother found Randy’s decomposed remains in woods near the property.
• Randy’s remains were examined by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.
• No toxicology testing could be completed.
• No definitive antemortem skeletal trauma was identified.
• The reported forensic conclusion listed the cause and manner of death as undetermined.
• Walker County officials reportedly operated from a theory that Randy accidentally fell while running.
• No person has been publicly charged with causing Randy’s death. (Secrets True Crime)

What Is Not Known

The available evidence does not establish:

• Whether Randy actually ran into the woods.
• Who last saw him alive.
• Whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
• Whether he suffered a medical emergency.
• Whether he fell or became injured.
• Whether he died on July 4 or sometime later.
• Whether his body remained in that location for the full 20 days.
• Who possessed his telephone after he disappeared.
• Why some of his belongings were reportedly found on him while the phone was absent.
• Whether anyone searched for him before July 23.
• Whether he genuinely attempted to speak with investigators about Eric Cates.
• Whether his death had any connection to that homicide.
• Whether the original death investigation remains eligible for cold-case review.

The Questions That Remain

Why did no immediate search begin when Randy failed to come out of the woods?

Was a formal missing-person report ever filed?

Who provided the last reliable account of seeing him alive?

Why did witnesses believe he left his shoes, clothing and belongings inside the house if some of those items were later found with him?

Who answered Randy’s phone while he was missing?

Where was the device ultimately taken?

What evidence led investigators toward an accidental-fall theory?

Was the precise recovery site documented and photographed?

Was it truly below a cliff, or was it at the bottom of a walkable wooded slope?

Why were no fractures associated with a substantial fall identified?

Could Randy have died from exposure after becoming disoriented?

Could he have suffered an accidental or intentional overdose that decomposition made impossible to detect?

And did Randy truly possess information about a murder that he was trying to reveal?

How Alabama Unsolved Classifies Randy’s Case

Randy’s death should not be labeled an officially recognized homicide.

There is no publicly identified homicide ruling, suspect or criminal charge.

It should also not be described simply as an accidental death. The forensic report, as publicly reproduced, did not determine that Randy died from a fall, or from any other specific cause.

The most accurate classification is:

Unexplained death, forensic cause and manner undetermined; local investigators reportedly considered an accidental fall, while family members and independent researchers question that explanation.

That language reflects the available evidence without converting suspicion into fact.

A Man Left Without an Answer

Randy Hicks was surrounded by rumors before his body was found.

Some people accused him of being involved in a killing.

Others believed he was preparing to reveal who was responsible.

Still others may have seen him primarily as a man struggling with addiction who ran into the woods and never came back.

None of those descriptions explains how he died.

The forensic examination could not identify a cause.

The toxicology evidence no longer existed.

The bones did not reveal a fatal fall.

And the people who were present during Randy’s final known night have never provided a single, publicly documented account that resolves what occurred.

Randy may have died accidentally.

He may have suffered an overdose or medical emergency.

He may have become lost or incapacitated.

Or someone may have caused his death and used the wooded hollow to conceal it.

The public evidence does not permit a responsible writer to choose among those possibilities.

It permits only one conclusion:

Randy Hicks entered the summer of 2016 alive, disappeared for 20 days and was found dead under circumstances the medical examiner could not explain.

Anyone with firsthand information about Randy’s final night or the discovery of his remains can contact the Walker County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division at 205-302-6464. The sheriff’s office says its investigators handle death investigations and currently assigns investigators specifically to cold cases. (walkercountysheriff.com)