A Tribune investigation later found that while he was on the lam, Hicks repeatedly conducted financial transactions in Chicago to enrich himself and the people closest to him. Two years after Hicks vanished, his signature appeared on land records giving his son — also a Chicago police officer — the South Side property Hicks had used to secure his $150,000 bond. In addition, by the time of the Tribune investigation in 2011, monthly police pension checks totaling more than $300,000 had been paid to Hicks' bank account or cashed by his wife.