BALLOON GUNMAN IN CSI SUICIDE; He tried to make pistol float away in TV plot copycat bid.Byline: By Chris Murphy A BUSINESSMAN killed himself with a gun tied to helium-filled balloons in a bizarre suicide that mimicked an episode of US TV drama CSI CSI Crime Scene Investigator CSI CompuServe, Inc. CSI Commodity Systems, Inc. CSI Commodity Systems Inc. (Boca Raton, FL) CSI Crime Scene Investigation (CBS TV show) CSI Christian Schools International . Cops believe Thomas Hickman wanted to make it look like he had been murdered. The 55-year-old walked into a field, tied the balloons to a gun, covered his mouth with tape and shot himself in the back of the head. When his body was found on March 15 near Santa Rosa, New Mexico Santa Rosa is a town, and the county seat of Guadalupe County, New Mexico. The population was 2,744 at the 2000 census. It is a small town between Albuquerque and Tucumcari, situated on the Pecos River at the intersection of I-40, Route 84 and Route 54. , police initially thought Hickman, an executive for the Red Lobster restaurant chain, had been kidnapped and murdered. But a bundle of white helium balloons, with the gun still attached, was found snagged on bushes near the body. Lieutenant Rick Anglada, of the New Mexico New Mexico, state in the SW United States. At its northwestern corner are the so-called Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet at right angles; New Mexico is also bordered by Oklahoma (NE), Texas (E, S), and Mexico (S). state police, said the grip had been removed and the trigger guard A trigger guard is a loop surrounding the trigger of a firearm and protecting it from accidental discharge. In some cases, an ammunition cartridge is integrated with the trigger guard. ground down. He added: "He took as much weight off as he could to make it as light as possible." One of the officers then remembered a strikingly similar case in a 2003 episode of CSI, which follows the fictional activities of Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. crime scene investigators. Police would not speculate about the motive for the suicide but it emerged dad-of-one Hickman's wife of 29 years Lisa was ill. He had been caring for her for some time. He had also lost money on shares. Lisa refused to comment yesterday. In March, she said her husband was a generous Christian man who "did not preach the word of God but he walked the walk. He lived it." The couple moved to North Richland Hills North Richland Hills, town (1990 pop. 45,895), Tarrant co., N Tex., a residential suburb of Fort Worth; inc. 1953. Corrugated boxes, food products, and textiles are manufactured. The town grew markedly in the late 20th cent. in Texas from Florida in 2003. Hickman had worked for Red Lobster for 32 years and was their west Texas director of operations. CAPTION(S): TRAGIC: Hickman |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion