Donald Edward DJ Fickey was 27 and living in Chickamauga, Georgia, when he died on October 3, 2016. First responders were called that day after roommate Marshall Ralph Payne reported Fickey had shot himself; the scene was initially treated as a suicide because of a near-contact shotgun wound. Fickey’s family never accepted that finding and pushed for further review.

Family members and later investigators described a volatile household marked by drug use and repeated arguments between Fickey and Payne. Fickey’s wife, Brandy Heath, told investigators she had seen Payne shoot Fickey, and examiners noted bruising and bite marks on the victim. In 2020 the Georgia Bureau of Investigation changed the cause of death from suicide to undetermined, and the case reopened as a criminal investigation.

Does anyone have information about Fickey, the household at that address, or the events of October 3, 2016 that could help clarify what happened?