Naman Shrestha
The harrowing murder of firefighter Jon Hickey in his home in 2017 sent shockwaves across the entire community, especially his family members and friends. The unexpectedness of it all caught everyone by surprise as the police took over the case and discovered something sinister upon scratching the surface. NBC’s ‘Dateline: The Killer on Camera 4’ covers the entire case in detail by exploring the evidence, investigation, legal proceedings, and the impact it had on the families involved. Throughout the episode, the viewers also get some intricate details about the case through the interviews with Jon’s loved ones and experts involved in the investigation.
Jon Hickey Was Found Dead on His Apartment Couch
The beloved son of Jon and Kimberly Hickey, Jon Michael Hickey’s infectious laughter echoed throughout the Hickey household for the very first time on May 24, 1986. He was raised amid the love and support of his parents and other family members, who instilled in him a sense of community, empathy, adaptability, patience, courage, and other such virtues. Having grown up in such an environment in Baltimore, Maryland, Jon eventually turned out to be a man of many good qualities and also enjoyed playing baseball and ice hockey in college. After high school, he developed an urge to embark on the path his grandfather walked on and decided to become a firefighter. To fulfill that, Jon enrolled at the University of Maryland in 2004 and graduated with a degree in Fire Protection Engineering and Architecture in 2007.
Jon got closer to realizing his dream of serving the community when he began working as a Volunteer Firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician at the Woodlawn Fire Department in 2005. Aside from that, he was quite passionate about photography and also completed a Fine Arts Photography course from the New York Institute of Photography in 2012. When he wasn’t combating fires and attending emergency calls, he took his camera and walked around the streets of Baltimore to capture the beauty of the city with his lens. He had set up a photography business in 2013 and wished to publish a book filled with pictures produced by his creative vision.
On the personal front, Jon was in a blissful relationship with Jennifer McKay, with whom he crossed paths in October 2017. After taking a strong liking to each other, the two reportedly began dating the subsequent month. He lived in Upper Fells Point in Southeast Baltimore with his dog. As per a person known to the family, Jon was accepted at the Baltimore City Fire Academy and was about to start service on December 27, 2017. However, his dream remained unfulfilled as the fire of his spirit was extinguished forever in the last week of November 2017.
Everything was great until Jon missed several calls from Jennifer. As time passed, she began to worry and reached his doorstep. When Jennifer saw Jon’s car, which was parked outside his residence, had not moved an inch over the two days she received no response from him, she grew increasingly worried and called 911. Responding to her request for a wellness check, the officers arrived at the 1800 block of East Pratt Street on November 30, 2017. They entered Jon’s ground-floor apartment only to be greeted with the unresponsive body of the 31-year-old firefighter on his couch. They discovered that he was shot in the head once. After further examination, his death was ruled a homicide. The Baltimore Police launched an investigation into Jon’s murder and began looking for evidence in and around the house.
Daniel Greene Targeted Jon Hickey Because of Jealousy
After the police were done collecting the evidence from the crime scene, they began the interrogation process, during which they interviewed Jon Hickey’s family, friends, and neighbors in order to get a full picture of his life. They soon learned that Jennifer McKay, Jon’s girlfriend at the time, had been an ex-mistress to a man named Daniel Greene, who was a former Prince George’s County firefighter. At the time of Jon’s murder, he was married with kids to Jennifer Greene, whose laptop he allegedly used to research Jon and McKay’s relationship. As per reports, he used to stalk the couple’s Facebook posts. When he couldn’t deal with the jealousy, he conducted a Google and Facebook search for Jon’s address and other personal details about him.
Over the next few weeks, the obsessive, jealous, and pathological liar Daniel, who used to lead a double life, as per his estranged wife, planned the killing of Jon and went to Jon’s residence to carry out the execution in the early hours of November 29, 2017. In order to execute the murder spotlessly, he had borrowed a black pickup truck, shut down his cell phone, and made the long drive to Hickey’s house, which was located at 1800 East Pratt Street. Upon reaching the area, he lurked around the apartment for an hour or so before breaking in through the back window of Jon’s place. He reportedly shot Jon in the head while he was sleeping on his couch. Seventeen minutes later, he was seen walking out the back door with a gun in his hand.
All of this was caught on the surveillance footage of the neighborhood, and McKay identified the individual captured breaking into Jon’s apartment and exiting it on the video to be Daniel. In light of all the evidence against him, the police arrested Daniel Greene in December 2017 for being involved in the murder of Jon Hickey. They even seized the laptop, where they found the searches for Jon’s address and personal information. Then, more than five years after the firefighter’s passing, Daniel Greene was ultimately convicted by the jury on first-degree murder, home invasion, and firearms charges.
During the trial, Jennifer Greene, Daniel’s estranged wife, also testified against him as she claimed that he did a good job hiding the affair with McKay behind business trips and a corporate credit card. In order to prove that he was single, he even forged divorce papers, developed a fake custody agreement, and had a staged bachelor’s pad. However, just before his sentencing, Daniel’s lawyer informed the judge about Daniel’s desire to seek new legal counsel and, hence, asked for a postponement. Moreover, he shared that some new evidence had surfaced that could change the entire course of the case.
When the judge granted the motions and postponed the hearing, Jon’s loved ones did not take it well. Jon’s mother, Kimberly Hickey, told WJZ, “I’d love to know what kind of evidence he thinks he’s coming up with because everything was shown in court. It’s a video showing him breaking into my son’s home.” After months of delay, in February 2024, Daniel Greene was finally sentenced to life in prison in addition to two decades for the murder of the volunteer firefighter John Hickey.
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