In late 2001, Timothy Wicks, a 48-year-old house painter and aspiring musician living in

Hales Corners, a quiet little suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was leaving town for what he

told friends was the opportunity of a lifetime.

He said that he was heading north to Canada for what sounded like a dream job, a music

gig that paid $800 per week.

His friends described Tim, a gifted drummer who studied music at Berkeley College in Boston,

as laid back and friendly.

Though Tim had never hit the big time with his music, he still harbored dreams of playing

in front of a crowd.

This would be, he told people, the most money that he had ever made playing professionally.

So on December 26, he packed up his drums and headed north.

But a few weeks later, when none of his friends had heard from him, they started to worry.

Tim didn't have a steady girlfriend and was unmarried with no children.

So he didn't seem to have immediate family who were checking up on him on a daily basis,

but he did have a social circle of people who he spoke to regularly.

So they called the Hales Corners Police Department.

The case landed on the desk of Hales Corners Detective Kent Schoonover, who headed up the

investigation into Tim's disappearance.

He told Dateline, quote,

My first impression is that we don't have a case.

An adult citizen, at least here in Wisconsin, has a right to disappear if they want, end quote.

Detective Schoonover had no way of knowing at that point that the investigation into what

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