Vigil marks 30 years without Angie Hicks

AMHERST TWP. — Angela Marie "Angie" Hicks would have turned 44 last month. Had she not been murdered and her body dumped by the Midway Mall in Elyria in the summer of 1990, she could have attended family weddings and built a family of her own. Even three decades after her death, Angie hasn't been forgotten. Nikki Myers has been keeping her best friend's memory alive for 30 years, pushing her name to the forefront with the media, using every tool at her command to make sure no one forgets Angie and to ensure that her killer is brought to justice. Myers and the Hicks family spent the fading sunlight hours Tuesday evening at Angie's grave in Ridge Hill Memorial Park. Flowers and candles ringed the grave, and the more than a dozen family members and friends who gathered to honor the 30th year they have been without Angie released balloons skyward with messages tied to them. A brief candlelight vigil followed, with songs like "Angie" by The Rolling Stones, Elton John's "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and Angie's favorite song, Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U," playing across the cemetery. Standing near her best friend's grave marker in a white T-shirt reading "Angela Hicks: Not Forgotten" with angel wings and a halo design, Myers said Angie was "beautiful inside and out." A cheerleader at Westwood Middle School, she had a smile that was "big and bright." She was "loving, giving and very respectful." A gum-chewer, she constantly had Bubble Yum in her mouth and would usually burn through her entire allowance on penny candy. Angie's favorite movie was "Dirty Dancing." Her hair and makeup were "always right," and she'd redo them if they weren't before going out with friends. Angie's ears also had seven piercings — three on the one side and four on the other. "I know because I did them," Myers said with a laugh. Angie, she said, "is always and will always be my best friend, and I miss her every day." Age 14 in July 1990, Angie was living with her mother, Nancy, and stepfather Samuel Legg III in Lorain County when she disappeared. Her biological father, Paul Hicks, who had been divorced from Angie's mother since Angie was about 3, was stationed with the U.S. Army in Germany at the time. More than a month later, on Aug. 30, 1990, Angie's remains were found near Midway Mall. The mystery of her murder has been an open case ever since — even though Legg was a suspect at the time. Though he never has been charged with her murder, the suspicions of the family and Elyria police detectives remained on Legg for 30 years. Legg was 21 years old at the time of Angie's murder in 1990. He currently is in police custody after being charged last year with rape in a 1997 case in Medina County, and also is being held on charges he murdered Sharon Lynn Kedzierski in Austintown in Mahoning County in 1992. Following his arrest in the Medina and Mahoning county cases, a judge ordered Legg to undergo further psychological treatment in May 2019 after he was ruled incompetent to stand trial. Myers and the Hicks family said Tuesday they still think Legg is responsible for Angela's murder and are following his case closely. Paul Hicks didn't say Legg's name Tuesday, but he was clear on his feelings about the prime suspect in his daughter's murder. "Whether here or there," Paul Hicks said, "he's gonna face justice." Myers' Facebook group, "Angela Hicks 1990, unsolved murder, not forgotten," has nearly 300 people who have liked and followed it, and Myers said Tuesday she hopes to get even more media interest in Angie's story. She encouraged everyone present Tuesday to "bug" investigators, make phone calls and never stop pushing for justice for murder victims. "We will never stop until you get the justice you deserve," Myers told Angie as she stood over her best friend's grave. "We waited 30 years but we're gonna get there." Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.