What happened to Shane Donahue?
Fifteen years ago, at age 23, he went missing from his home in Nokesville, Virginia. To this day, he’s never been heard from and his body has never been found.
His friend Timothy Hickerson went on trial in the cold case this week for allegedly killing Donahue and concealing his body.
In court in Prince William County on Thursday, attorneys said there’s not a shred of forensic evidence to prove that Donahue is dead. Prosecutors are trying to convince a jury that Hickerson is to blame.
Attorneys said Donahue got addicted to opioid pills after a sports injury. They said he bought, sold and regularly took OxyContin and other pills, and that he had a group of friends who he regularly supplied and did drugs with.
Hickerson, then 28, was one of those friends, prosecutors say. He was arrested last year in Donahue’s murder. He was 43 and lived in Palm Coast, Florida, police said.
In opening statements, prosecutors said Hickerson admitted to burglarizing Donahue’s home on Aden Road days before his disappearance in March 2010. He allegedly stole his friend’s pill stash.
Prosecutors claim witnesses reported seeing Hickerson with Donahue the day Donahue went missing. They say cellphone data puts the two together on the day of the disappearance.
But the defense says the two lived less than a mile from each other, so their cellphones would ping the same cell tower anyway.
Hickerson told police back in 2010 that he doesn’t know what happened to Donahue. In court on Thursday, his attorneys said he still doesn’t.
The judge is hopeful that the case will be decided by Thanksgiving.
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