29 December,2009 08:20 AM IST | | Agencies
Father arrested after killing girlfriend and newborn daughter
US police have arrested a father who shot dead his 13-week-old baby daughter because she had not been born a boy.
Daniel Hicks (29) also gunned down the mother of his newborn daughter before going on the run.
He was nabbed last night, after police traced a call he had made to a relative. Hicks had been on the run since Tuesday.
Relatives told police in Seattle, Washington, that Hicks was disappointed his first-born child was not a boy.
They said he was unhappy that his girlfriend Jennifer Morgan became pregnant and had failed to bond with his daughter Emma.
Jennifer's mother said he had expressed regret that his newborn daughter was not a boy. Family members said Jennifer (28) had also asked her boyfriend of nine years to leave after a series of rows.
The bodies of Emma and Jennifer were found in the basement of her grandmother's home where they lived. Jennifer had been shot 12 times and the newborn seven times.
Detectives learned Hicks had been depressed and suicidal for some time and his condition worsened when he learned his girlfriend of nine years was pregnant, the charging papers say.
He wanted abortion
He wanted her to have an abortion, claiming Jennifer "was just trying to trap him with the pregnancy... Jennifer confided in her mother that Hicks was upset the baby was a girl and not a boy," court documents say.
"Most recently he became very jealous and suspicious of Jennifer and expressed reservations about being Emma's biological father."
Hicks fled the home after the shooting, but left a note for his brother, a soldier serving in Iraq.
In the note Hicks wrote: 'I'm sorry... I hope your stuff is not stolen by the police. I am sick, like Grandpa. Sorry cannot fix life. Please live for yourself and not others.
Grandpa a killer
Police said the reference to 'Grandpa' was a 1983 killing. Hicks' grandfather, Dean Hicks killed his wife, Lona, and then himself.
Hicks has been charged with two counts of first degree murder. He faces the death penalty or life imprisonment if found guilty.
