33 years on, man charged in girlfriend's death

By ERIN ALBERTY and NATE CARLISLE
Salt Lake Tribune
Friday, November 09, 2007

For more than three decades, investigators have suspected one man in the murder of Barbara Rocky.

Since the 21-year-old Brigham Young University student's naked body was found riddled with bullets in 1974, detectives and prosecutors have agonized over whether their case against Gerald Hicker was strong enough to win a conviction.

"We believed there was enough evidence," said former Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom, "just not enough for beyond a reasonable doubt."

The case sat filed away until last year, when the sheriff's cold case investigator began re-interviewing witnesses and this year submitted the evidence for prosecutors to review, Yocom said. Last month, the detective ordered a lab analysis of a soil sample that was taken from the crime scene in 1974.

A tissue sample in the soil matched the DNA of Hicker, Rocky's former boyfriend and college classmate.

Hicker, 56, was arrested Wednesday in Tacoma, Wash., where he lives. He is charged with first-degree felony murder in Utah and with being a fugitive from justice in Washington. He is being held without bail in a Washington jail.

Hicker was 23 and majoring in chemistry when he first told police Rocky had disappeared. Hicker and Rocky were involved in a relationship, Sgt. Kris Ownby said.

Just hours after Rocky had pawned jewelry March 11, 1974, at a Salt Lake City business, Hicker showed police a goodbye letter he said Rocky had left for him in her car, according to a police affidavit.

Investigators said Rocky, a junior social work major at BYU, wrote that she had "found her people and was going with them," Tribune archives indicate.

The next day, a utility worker found Rocky's body above the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Rocky had been shot several times in the back and arm, Tribune archives show. Her clothes were found untorn, folded and neatly piled near her head.

The evidence implicated Hicker, Yocom said. Authorities learned he had helped Rocky buy an Astra .357-caliber revolver -- the type of gun that fired the five slugs found at the scene, an FBI lab analysis showed. Police also learned Hicker had taught Rocky to shoot, instructing her to load only five bullets into the weapon, the affidavit filed Wednesday indicates.

Rocky's Astra pistol never was found.

Reach Erin Alberty at ealberty(at)sltrib.com. Reach Nate Carlisle at ncarlisle(at)slbrib.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com