CONOVER, N.C. — Donald Hodges has been on the run after allegedly killing his wife in Conover, but new video obtained by Channel 9 shows that police officers in Charlotte encountered him and let him go hours before investigators learned of the murder.
It’s been three years, and Channel 9′s Dave Faherty has closely followed every development in the investigation. On Friday, Channel 9 got body camera video showing Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers responding to a motel for a disturbance call on the morning of May 5, 2022.
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The body camera video shows officers arrive, and workers told them Hodges broke through two doors into an office area, claiming someone was trying to rob and kill him. The workers fled to a bathroom to call 911.
Police believe Hodges was possibly high on Flakka and was hallucinating because of the powerful narcotic.
“Listen, nobody is going to hurt you, why are you sweating so bad?” one officer tells Hodges in the video.
(VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED - Body Camera Video: Police encounter Donald Hodges before learning he was wanted for murder)
Faherty showed the video to Diane Bender. She’s the one who found her daughter, Tinikia, murdered inside her Conover home on the same day that the video was recorded.
Police said Tinikia Hodges had been killed the night before. bender checked on her when she didn’t show up for work.
“I believe he was sweating because of what he had done,” Bender told Faherty.
CMPD took Hodges to a hospital but didn’t charge him with breaking and entering for the incident at the hotel.
Bender believes if they had arrested him, Conover police would have been able to arrest him for murder later that day.
“They should have kept him, but they let him go,” Bender said. “That’s what we’re dealing with now.”
Most wanted
Hodges hasn’t been seen since.
U.S. Marshals say they continue to get leads in the case. They say Hodges may be using dating apps to meet both men and women to elude authorities. The Marshals Office also confirmed to Channel 9 that the case will be featured on America’s Most Wanted in the near future.
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Bender still hopes for a break in the case.
“I pray for this every day, for him to be caught, because I don’t want him to go out there and hurt nobody else,” Bender said.
She says her family is also offering a reward for information that leads to Hodges’ arrest.
(VIDEO: Man with knife shot by Conover police during domestic disturbance)
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