The ongoing investigation into the 2005 murder of Bill Fickel is moving forward, there have been new leads, but the case is far from solved.
Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office is obviously reluctant to discuss details, but he said that recent leads "take us in a direction we want to go."
Lisa Fickel said she's heard news from the Sheriff's Office that indicate new progress is being made.
"It makes me hopeful," she said.
But both Brewster and Fickel said nobody should expect an arrest any time soon.
By now, most Genesee County residents know the story of Bill Fickel's murder.
At about 8:30 p.m., Nov. 10, 2005, Lisa saw a flatbed truck back into their driveway. She told Bill she thought somebody was there to look at the van they had for sale. Bill put on his shoes, grabbed a flashlight and headed outside with their dog. Lisa, who was in the kitchen of their Burns Road home, heard two shots. She ran outside just in time to see the truck driving away. She found her husband lying the the driveway. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Bill Fickel was 46 years old at the time of his death.
Lisa said the Sheriff's Office remains in constant contact with her as investigators continue to work the case. She put up billboards, especially in Orleans County, asking anybody with information to call the Sheriff's Office.
Brewster said even with new leads, it's a complicated investigation. He compared it the Scott Doll case, where investigators had a blood-covered suspect caught near the scene of the night of the murder, but getting a conviction was still no easy process.
"Here we have the complexity of gathering evidence five years later," Brewster said.
That evidence includes DNA evidence, he said. He said every two weeks the Sheriff's Office gets its turn to run DNA evidence from the Fickel case through the national DNA database. If a suspect were to be convicted of a crime in New York, the rest of the U.S. or Canada, his DNA would eventually wind up in the databank and perhaps a match would result.
"We are making progress," Brewster said. "We continue to work the case. We are hopeful, but we're not about to make an arrest."
Brewster asks that anyone with any information that might help in the case should call the Sheriff's Office at (585) 345-3000.
