Bones are of man missing since ’10

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Human bones discovered by a hunter in remote Logan County have been identified as the remains of Marvin Ray Hixson, a local man who had been missing since May 2010.

The bones were foundNov. 1 0 o ff Short Mountain Road, northwest of Paris. The state medical examiner used dental records to identify Hixson, who was last seentrying to break into a house nearby, said Logan County Chief Deputy David Spicer. Hixson was 52 at the time he disappeared.

The medical examiner has not determined whether foul play was involved in Hixson’s death. The cause of death may never be known, Spicer added.

On the last day Hixson was seen alive, he was involved intwo incidents that resulted in calls to the police. First, he was videotaped at a convenience store in Subiaco commandeering a car that belonged to a clerk who was opening the store for business that day. The clerk left her keys in the ignition of her car, and Hixson got in and “drove it into the side of the building,” Spicer said.

“When [the clerk] said something to him, he took off” in his own car, the chief deputy said.

“From all indications, he might have been under the influence of something,” he said.

Later the same day, a resident off Short Mountain Road reported that Hixson was trying to break into his home. He left his car at the residence and fled on foot and was never seen or heard from again, Spicer said.

“We’ve always thought that the day he fled he possibly died out there. It was just a matter of time before we found him.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/20/2012