Deborah Roberts

I'm Deborah Roberts.

And today we're going to talk about a story that I have to tell you I haven't been able to shake.

And I think it's going to be hanging around with you for a while, too, after you hear the details.

I'm going to take you inside my reporting of a story that just aired on Friday night for 2020 called The Secret in the Water.

I traveled to Willard, Ohio to learn more about this unbelievable story, one that took two agonizing decades for the family involved to finally see some sense of resolution.

In this piece, we told you about 25-year-old Regina Hicks, a young mom who was on her way to pick up her son from her estranged husband but was never heard from again.

Well, as you might imagine, her family was desperate to find her.

They were calling her

phone all that night and the next day and nothing.

Sadly, just four days later, Regina's body was found submerged at the bottom of a pond only a few miles from her home.

And of course, the big question was, what happened?

Did she lose control of her car?

There were a number of theories swirling in this small town, including one that maybe she had taken her own life or that maybe somebody deliberately and calculatedly murdered her.

Well, this case went unsolved for quite a while.

Police were investigating, but there were no arrests.

And the big question was how and why.

Well, we're going to take you through it all today.

You're also going to hear a lot more from the people that I interviewed who were in this episode.

We're going to bring you some new details and some new sound that you didn't hear on Friday night.

So joining me now to unspool it all is Court TV legal correspondent Julia Janae, who reported on this story with us.