Winter birdwatching is super sized D6
11.30.2014
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Everett, Wash.
Baby formula on black market Local arrests made in illegal trade that has seen a surge nationally and internationally. By Eric Stevick Herald Writer
MILL CREEK — She was cautious and always paid in cash, the informant told detectives. She knew where he lived, but he had no idea where she made her home. He didn’t even know her name. He’d simply call her the “The Formula Lady.” In the beginning, they would meet in parking lots at night. Money for powder. That was the deal. The product wasn’t drugs, but it was plenty lucrative on the black market. Police allege the man was hawking stolen baby formula and she was his fence. By the informant’s calculation, he sold her between $35,000 and $40,000 worth in less than 18 months. Other suppliers, detectives believe, also were dealing to the 46-year-old Mill Creek woman who, according to police and assessor’s office records, drives a black Lexus SUV and lives in a four-bedroom house in an upscale suburban neighborhood. “It appears that she is the well-to-do neighbor next door,” Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office
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$1.50 (higher in outlying areas)
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A cold case heats up Tia Hicks’ family hopes a new investigation by a Mountlake Terrace police detective will provide answers in her 1991 death
FEDERAL WAY — “Loved and unforgotten.” The message is inscribed on a stone next to the urn in Deborah McDaniel’s home. Her daughter’s body was found April 22, 1991, in Mountlake Terrace. Tia Marie Hicks was 20 and a mother of two. Police investigated her death as a homicide, but the case went cold. By Rikki King Mountlake TerHerald Writer race police detective Sgt. Mike Haynes heard talk about the death during the 14 years he’s been on the force. In fall 2013, he started poring through the file. New interviews, along with advancements in forensic science, have sparked a renewed investigation. Haynes is making progress. He has new theories. He’s promised McDaniel she’ll be his first call if he gets answers. McDaniel, and others in Hicks’ family, still hope for answers, and for peace. On a rainy day in late July, McDaniel
Tia Hicks
FAMILY PHOTO
flipped through family scrapbooks at her apartment in Federal Way. She’d wanted a unique name for her only child, the baby girl born Oct. 2, 1970.
They called her “Baby Hicks” for weeks, until the right name came along. As a child, Tia was competitive and outgoing. She loved animals. One photo in the scrapbook shows her as a toddler in a pajama dress, hugging tight to a fluffy cat almost her size. She was a tomboy and she liked climbing trees. She was fast at Double Dutch, and she could be a little feisty at times. She loved water and swimming, music and dancing. Pictures show young Tia holding out her pigtails with her hands, posing as Pippi Longstocking, and as a teen, with feathers woven into her braids. A mother from age 16, Tia graduated from an alternative high school. She gave up her life as a teenager to be with her boys. Her second son was born before her 19th birthday. She pasted funny scrapbooking stickers in the family’s albums, adding thought bubbles and captions about her young love and her pregnant belly. “She had a good sense of humor, my See COLD CASE, Page A11
See FORMULA, Page A11
Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . .E2 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .D4 Dear Abby. . . . . . . . . . . . . .D5 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .D4 Lottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A2 Moneywise. . . . . . . . . . . . .E1
KEVIN CLARK / THE HERALD
Tia Hicks’ mother, Debbie McDaniel, at her home in Federal Way, hopes for answers in Hicks’ suspicious 1991 death.
Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D5 Obituaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . .B5 Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . .B7
CHRISTMAS HOUSE
MANY HAPPY RETURNS
STELLAR ON THE PITCH
Bringing holiday magic to children for more than 30 years. Muhlstein, B1
Tips (save those receipts) for how to take gifts back. Moneywise, E1
Girls soccer player of the year: E-W’s Madison Schultz. Sports, C1
Winterized 35/23, C10
SUNDAY
VOL. 114, NO.293 © 2014 THE DAILY HERALD CO.
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