The killing shocked and frightened Belanger's neighbors and the surrounding community, as it correlated to a series of violent crimes that had recently taken place in Pensacola.

[5] Ten days later, Cincinnati Police Department announced that they were searching for an unidentified person of interest in the case who was last seen shopping at the Glenway Pony Keg, but this did not lead to an arrest.

[8] In the meantime, investigators who were assigned to Pensacola's cold case unit took notice of a photograph found at the Belanger homicide, identifying the individual in it as Vonkish Golden, Hodges' cousin, who was currently imprisoned.

Through an interview with him, they learned that Hodges had stayed with his family at the time of the murder and that he had helped a relative - a next-door neighbor of Belanger - to fix his truck.

[11] However, it was decided that Hodges should first be tried in Florida, where prosecutors would seek the death penalty and had managed to convince the judge that despite his low IQ, the defendant knew right from wrong and was thus sane to stand trial.

[16] The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, with Hodges remaining incarcerated at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Lake City until his death on March 21, 2024.