News
May 30, 2023 | 20:46
The beloved Florida high school teacher whose body was found next to her screaming baby was stabbed to death by her fiance, police confirmed Tuesday.
The unidentified man killed Amanda Hicks, 26, inside her Port St. Lucie apartment early Saturday morning before using a weapon to kill himself, investigators told WPTV.
The fiancé had reportedly tried to call a family member around midnight, an hour before neighbors heard “a very loud, screeching scream” and the sound of a single gunshot was caught on surveillance video. close surveillance.
The family member attempted to return the call in the morning before asking police to conduct a welfare check.
That’s when cops heard Hicks’ 10-month-old baby crying inside the locked apartment, just yards from the two bodies.
The baby, Alani, was found unharmed in her crib 11 hours after the murder and is with a relative.
The couple had only been living at the Peacock Run Apartments on Northwest East Torino Parkway for three weeks when the fiancé committed the murder-suicide.
Although neither Hicks nor her partner have been formally named by police, staff at Dr. David Anderson High School, where Hicks served as a reading teacher, confirmed that she was a “victim of a homicide.”
Hicks was remembered by her friends as a “bubbly, positive” person who was passionate about her job as a teacher (she was also pursuing a career as a swimsuit model), but became distant in her final months.
Friend Raquel Magallón told The Post on Tuesday that Hicks never mentioned getting pregnant, having a baby or being in a relationship and had abruptly deleted her social media accounts.
“I was surprised to hear that she had a baby,” Magallón said. “I have a baby clothing side business, so I would have thought she would have brought it up. But she never did.
“None of it makes sense,” he added. “It’s really sad.”
Other neighbors of Hicks and her mystery boyfriend said they had limited interactions with the couple, but described the couple as pleasant and seemingly upbeat.
