鈥淗e made me laugh,鈥� Sharkody said. 鈥淚 told him that I loved him, and I went to bed.鈥�
That was the last time Sharkody saw the man she loved. Thirty-four-year-old Nicholas Hokema, 鈥楴ick鈥� she called him, was off to work his 12-hour shift as a driver for Redi-Cab.
But overnight, his co-workers got worried when they couldn鈥檛 reach him. When she tried, neither could she.
鈥淚t went straight to voice mail, almost like he had sent me to voice mail,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut I knew he wouldn鈥檛 do that.鈥�
At noon, she went to the Tumwater police station to file a missing person鈥檚 report. Instead, a Tukwila police officer came into the room.
鈥淗e sat me down and said, 鈥榯here鈥檚 no easy way for me to say this, but Nick is deceased,鈥欌�� she recalled, her voice breaking. 鈥淎nd all sound went away.鈥�
Tukwila police say early Monday morning, someone found Hokema, unconscious, lying in the parking lot of the Southcenter Mall. He later died in SeaTac.
The King County Medical Examiner said he suffered 鈥渕ultiple sharp force injuries,鈥� and his death was ruled a homicide. His Redi-cab was nowhere to be found.
鈥淚 haven鈥檛 always had the best luck with relationships,鈥� said a tearful Sharkody. 鈥淚t took me years before I even thought about dating again.鈥�
鈥淏ut I am so glad that I met him,鈥� she continued.
He helped her to know, she said, that she could be loved.
鈥淵es,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd I hope I made him feel the same way.鈥�
Nicole Sharkody says she is speaking out in hopes that someone who knows something will come forward.
She says she needs to know what happened so she can go on without the man she loved so much.
