Mysterious New Mexico Death Solved By Viewing of Five Year-Old CSI Episode

By Aaron Poehler

Published on July 18, 2008

New Mexico State Police announced Wednesday they have closed their case on the death of a Texas man after determining he killed himself in a manner similar to that shown in an episode of CSI.

The March shooting death of 55-year old Thomas Hickman had been investigated as a homicide when Hickman was found dead near a remote New Mexico highway with his mouth covered with duct tape and a fatal gunshot wound to the back of his head.  However, when investigators discovered the weapon used in the shooting tied to a bundle of balloons tangled in a nearby cactus, they began looking into the possibility that Hickman had killed himself in such a way as to make his death appear to be a murder following a carjacking. 

After being alerted to a fourth-season episode of the CBS television series CSI titled "Homebodies," which depicts balloons being used to make a gun float away following a suicide, police rented the show and found significant similarities between the fictional scenario and the Hickman case.  An examination of Hickman's Dallas home turned up metal shavings matching the gun used in Hickman's death; police spokesmen said Hickman had shaved down the gun's trigger guard in an attempt to lighten the weight of the weapon.

Hickman had taken out an insurance policy on himself which paid his wife nearly $800,000 if his death was found to have been accidental.

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