I’ll never stop searching, says sister of schoolboy who vanished 30 years ago

The heartbroken sister of a schoolboy who vanished three decades ago says she will never give up searching for answers. Kevin Hicks is believed to have been groomed by a paedophile before being murdered.

A £20,000 reward has now being offered in a bid to finally solve the mystery of what happened to Kevin after he left his house in Addiscombe. His parents always held out hope that they would finally find their missing son. But they went to their graves in 1994 and 2004 without ever finding out what had happened to their boy. Now his sister Alex Hicks has taken on the search and says she will not give up fighting for answers.

She said: “My mum and dad died without knowing what happened, and that’s why I’m carrying on – to get that answer. And I won’t give up until I get answers.” The cold case was brought up for re-evaluation by the Met Police earlier this year, with officers saying they now believe he was the victim or a murder.

Vanished

Detective Inspector John McQuade appealed for anyone with information to come forward, saying that someone in Croydon, London, must know what happened to the boy, who was a pupil at John Ruskin School. He left home on March 2, 1986. While he was spotted by someone who knew him around 90 minutes later, he was never seen again.

At first, it was believed that Kevin had popped to the shop, less than two minutes from his house, to buy eggs for a school project. However, police officers believe he actually went out to meet someone. He had been trying to hide a pair of speakers from his family and detectives think they could have been given to him by someone grooming him.

Ms Hicks is now urging anyone who knows what really happened to come foward. She said it was time to let go of long held secrets.