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Willie Hicks, of DeLand, a 32-year-old convicted drug felon, is jailed on a first-degree murder charge in the throat-slashing death of Danielle Santangelo, 34, of Port Orange, whose body was found late Wednesday in her car in a wooded area near DeLand.
DELAND -- Danielle Santangelo, the murdered Port Orange woman whose body was found Wednesday in a wooded area near DeLand with her throat slashed had gone to see her killer after he apparently answered her personals ad in the Pennysaver, A Volusia County Sheriff's official said tonight.
The accused killer, 32-year-old Willie Hicks of DeLand, a convicted drug felon who has been in and out of prison, is charged with first-degree murder in the 34-year-old woman's slaying.
The investigation so far has revealed that Santangelo had placed an ad in the Pennysaver newspaper advertising herself as a 'girlfriend next door,'" Sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said. "Hicks responded to the ad a day or two before she was reported missing; however, it's not known exactly what day they first talked on the phone. It's believed they met in person for the first time on Monday."
After an autopsy performed Thursday morning, the Volusia County Medical Examiner has determined that the cause of death for Danielle Santangelo was "bleeding due to a laceration across her neck," the Sheriff's spokesman added.
Santangelo was reported missing to the Port Orange Police Department on Monday. Through their investigation, Port Orange investigators discovered the car Santangelo was last seen with -- a red 2007 Chrysler Sebring -- in a wooded area off of Darchelle Court and Cherry Street just south of DeLand at about 3:50 p.m. Wednesday.
A body of a woman was found inside and was later identified as Santangelo by means of a tattoo and her driver license photo.
Following up on phone record leads provided by the Port Orange Police Department, Sheriff's investigators talked to Hicks' mother, Rose Hicks. She said that she had seen her son in the red Chrysler Sebring on Monday, but never saw Santangelo, Haught said.
Willie Hicks is allowed to stay at an apartment room next door to her home at 546 West Euclid Ave. Rose Hicks said she had heard what sounded like the "moans of a woman in pain coming from the apartment that he kept locked," the Sheriff's spokesman said.
Rose Hicks told Sheriff's investigators she saw Willie Hicks late Monday night in a backyard shared by her house and the apartment. He was carrying bloody clothes in his hands and burned them in a "burn barrel" in the backyard. She said that Willie Hicks told her he had put a woman in the red car and didn't want anyone looking inside, Haught said.