Cold Case #1

June 10th of 1990, while fishermen were walking down a utility passageway underneath high tension wires off of Pierce Road in South Windsor, they came across a horrifying sight: a dead female who was stabbed and wrapped in a shower curtain. That female was 19 year old Diedra Dancy, and her case still has still not been solved; it is considered a cold case. 

Diedra Dancy (also known as “Dede”) from Hartford had been missing 48 hours before her body was found. She was not reported missing. Police determined that the crime scene in South Windsor was the secondary crime scene; they believe she was murdered somewhere else, and her body was dumped off of Pierce Road in South Windsor.

Dancy’s murder was suspected to be linked to other murders that were happening in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Around the same time as Dancy’s murder, there were a series of murders conducted in the same manner as Dancy’s. All of the victims of the previous homicides were women who were abducted, murdered, and then dumped in other various locations.  

A man named Alfred Swinton was convicted of one of the murders based on evidence of a bite mark analysis, but after 18 years of imprisonment, Swinton was exonerated by the Innocence Project in 2018. 

Since Swinton’s arrest, no other arrests have been made involving Dancy’s homicide, or any of the other victims’ homicide. 

Anyone with any information on the murder of Diedra Dancy is asked to please call the Connecticut Cold Case Hotline at (866)-623-8058. 

Cold Case #2

October 8th, 1988, 15-year-old from Hartford, Kevin Hicks, ran into some trouble on the streets. Police received reports that Hicks was being chased down Albany Ave by several males. No one ever saw Kevin Hicks alive after that day, and he was reported to police as a missing person.

Police began an intense investigation and search for Hicks. On October 23rd, 1988, 15 days after Hicks was reported missing, the South Windsor Police Department was called to a wooded area ¼ of a mile west of Main Street near the Connecticut River on the report of a body being found by hikers. 

SWPD responded and were led to the body by the hikers. The badly decomposed body was of a Black male. The body was then taken to the Medical Examiners Office and was identified as 15-year-old Kevin Hicks. 

Similar to the case of Dancy, police believed Hicks was murdered somewhere in between Hartford and South Windsor, and then his body was dumped in the wooded area it was found. The location of the “dump site” was a purposeful placement in a remote area to “hinder” police investigation if it was found. 

Hicks’s cause of death is said to be two bullet shots to his head. Police estimated that when Hicks was found, he had been dead for 12 days. Meaning, the estimated day of his death was October 11th 1988.

Anyone with any information on the case is asked to call South Windsor Police at (860)-644-2551. 

These are the only two cold cases in the town of South Windsor. Both cases still remained unsolved.