Tia Marie Hicks, 20, was found dead on April 22, 1991, wrapped in a blue tarp inside the cabin of a boat parked in a commercial lot in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. Her father had reported her missing on December 13, 1990, after weeks without contact. Family and investigators noted she struggled with drug addiction and engaged in prostitution, frequenting Seattle’s Rainier Valley and Aurora Avenue North.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner ruled the manner undetermined and could not establish a definitive cause of death. Toxicology detected cocaine; there were no obvious signs of trauma. Investigators believe she was killed weeks before discovery and placed in the boat later, and Mountlake Terrace Police treat the case as a homicide. Early leads included long-haul truck driver Scott William Cox, but his known methods did not match this case and there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

The case was reopened in 2013; detectives traced Hicks to the Travelers Lodge on Highway 99 in Edmonds, where a motel manager recalled her with a man and a woman who later moved into a nearby shed and were named persons of interest. Retesting in 2014 produced a male DNA profile, but no arrest has been made. Does anyone who knew Tia or frequented the Travelers Lodge in early 1991 have information that could help?