Fort Worth teen shot during robbery lived a difficult life

By Deanna Boyd and Domingo Ramirez Jr.

Star-Telegram Staff Writers

FORT WORTH -- The two girls, covered in bruises, cowered in the back of a locked Fort Worth police car, begging to be taken from their parents' home.

Claudia Hidic, 15, and her 12-year-old sister told authorities that their father had beaten them with a belt and a vacuum cleaner cord and tied them to the dinner table.

Their mother, angry that police had been called, told her daughters that "she would have a knife ready for them after all this," they said.

They were afraid of their parents, they told investigators. They didn't want to return to their southwest Fort Worth home, where they said they were treated like slaves, were not allowed to bathe and were called "bitches" by their mother.

The allegations, which came two weeks before Christmas 2009, are detailed in Child Protective Services documents obtained by the Star-Telegram. The state removed the injured girls from their home and placed them in foster care.

Two and-a-half years later, at age 17, Claudia Hidic was dead, found shot in the head near Tanglewood Elementary School. Fort Worth police say she orchestrated an armed robbery at an acquaintance's home, then died when gunfire began and she was caught in the crossfire.

Her death last month garnered worldwide attention and raised questions about what would cause a young woman to mastermind such a crime.

Answers have been hard to come by. Although it's not exactly clear when Hidic's life veered off the rails, police and CPS documents paint a grim picture of a difficult and dangerous upbringing.

Hidic's father and mother, Behara and Salih Hidic, would not speak to reporters about their daughter's life, according to one of Hidic's 15 siblings.

They told CPS investigators that they did not abuse their children.

The one relative who agreed to speak, an older sister who lives in Fort Worth, denied that her parents were abusive.

"If I thought they were getting abused, if I thought they were being mistreated, I would have done whatever I could within my power to take care of the girls," said the sister, who asked not to be identified because she fears for her family's safety. "I thought they were fine, clearly. I thought they would be going home, but no, they never did go home."

The younger sister remains in foster care, CPS officials said.

The older sister doesn't believe police investigators' assertions that Claudia Hidic recruited two men, former high school football stars Terrance Crumley and Curtis Fortenberry, to help her rob the home in the 3000 block of West Overton Park Drive. Witnesses told police that she posed as their hostage.

Fortenberry told police that he accidentally shot Hidic while exchanging gunfire with a man at the house. That man, who said he was protecting the people inside, has not been charged.

Fortenberry and Crumley, both 21-year-olds who attended North Crowley High School, have been charged with murder. They remain in the Tarrant County Jail.

"The story doesn't make sense. If you knew Claudia, you would know she would never steal, or rob, or do anything like that to anybody," her older sister said. "She had a clean criminal background.

"It's weird to me; they say she was able to talk two older guys into doing a robbery and holding her hostage. ... It's something like you'd read in a fiction novel."

"She was so strong"

Hidic attended school in the Fort Worth district for about 10 years, ending up at Southwest High School. In January 2010, after moving in with a foster family, she enrolled at Euless Trinity.

Efforts to track down her friends were unsuccessful. But sisters and friends described her on Facebook as a "doll" and an "angel." She enjoyed playing soccer, was a big fan of the state powerhouse Trojans football team, and loved playing McDonald's Monopoly.

Her older sister said Hidic loved music, especially country, and had a beautiful voice to match her great looks. Hidic dreamed of becoming an actress but also wanted to attend the University of Texas at Austin, become a lawyer and work in international corporate law, her sister said.

"She would have done just that. She was so strong," her sister said.

But in February 2012, about halfway through her junior year, Hidic dropped out of Trinity. Her sister said she did so after leaving her last foster family to move in with another sister. Hidic planned to attend summer school, her sister said.

"She was still going to graduate on time," the sister said. "She was just going through a transition in her life."

Police documents indicate that, by this time, Claudia Hidic was running with a bad crowd and had become desperate for money.

On June 24, a few days before the robbery on Overton Park Drive, Hidic sold the home's 43-year-old resident a .40-caliber pistol for $100 and gave him two laptops as collateral for a $100 loan, police affidavits say.

She needed the money, she told him, to get her boyfriend out of jail.

"It doesn't make sense," her older sister said. "She could reach out to any of us. Her needs were met. They weren't just met, they were met well. I would have done anything for her."

The man at the house on Overton Park Drive recently told the Star-Telegram that he met Hidic about two months before her death but was better acquainted with another of her older sisters, this one 31.

"We had frequently discussed that Claudia needed some direction and counseling," said the man, who is not being identified because he has not been charged.

When Hidic returned a few days later asking for $600 more, the man refused to give it to her, the affidavits say. So, police allege, Hidic devised a plan to rob him, recruiting Crumley and Fortenberry to help.

On the afternoon of June 28, as the man drove home from work in Dallas, he received a phone call from Hidic, who said she was with a blond Italian girl who wanted to meet him. He became suspicious and declined the meeting.

"I didn't know she had accomplices or [that] she was going to my home with them," the man told the Star-Telegram.

Police said six people including a 10-year-old girl were in the man's house when the three arrived around 6 p.m. The witnesses described a scene of terror as Fortenberry flashed a gun, took drugs and an iPhone, and became angrier and more threatening, the affidavits say. Then the shooting began.

Everyone fled after Hidic was shot. When the man arrived home, he found her body at his back door. He called 911 and left, later returning with his father, the affidavits say.

He said he didn't initially realize that the dead woman was Hidic.

"She was facedown and you could not see her face, so I did not know who it was," he told the Star-Telegram.

"They just treat them like slaves"

The Hidic children range in age from 8 to 36. The older sister declined to say what her parents do for a living, but records say that one son might own an auto shop.

CPS documents say the parents treated the boys with respect but verbally and physically abused the girls. Five of the seven sisters ran away from home before age 17 because of abuse, documents say.

Neighbors in Fort Worth say the daughters were often seen doing hard labor around the house while the sons came and went as they pleased.

"The boys can do no wrong," said one neighbor, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. "The girls, they just treat them like slaves."

The sister said her German father and Croatian mother moved the family from Berlin, where most of the children were born, to Fort Worth more than a decade ago.

Her sisters, she said, didn't run away but simply left home when they were ready to live on their own.

"It's a normal thing. We grew up overseas. It's not normal in America because people live with their parents forever and their parents support them forever," she said.

Although her parents are very strict, which she said is common among parents in Germany, they were not abusive and treated their daughters and sons the same, she said.

The CPS documents paint a different picture.

Allegations of abuse and neglect began surfacing in 2003, when Claudia Hidic was 8. From June 2003 through January 2009, the state agency vetted four reports alleging abuse and/or neglect, two involving Hidic.

The cases were closed because the children had no injuries and made no outcries. The reports do not say who contacted the state.

After the fifth report, in December 2009, officials ruled that there was reason to believe the allegations, stating that Hidic and her younger sister appeared dirty and not well-cared-for and that both had marks and bruises.

"A huge misunderstanding"

A Fort Worth police report describes a menacing scene inside the Hidic home on Dec. 17, 2009.

The parents became angry with Hidic and her 12-year-old sister after a woman accused the younger girl of stealing an iPod.

As the younger sister, tied to the dining room table, was being beaten by her father, Hidic texted a sibling and asked that police be called, the report says.

The younger sister escaped and Behara Hidic gave chase. Claudia Hidic was hit across the back, leg and head with a belt, the report says.

Behara Hidic tied his 15-year-old daughter to the dining room table, but before he could hit her again, her mother entered and said police were on the way, the report says. She turned out the lights and told everyone to be quiet, and police left because no one answered the door.

Police and CPS investigators returned the following day to check on the children.

Claudia Hidic had bruises on her legs where her mother had stepped on her and red marks on her neck and back from being hit by her father, the police report states. Her sister had purple-red bruising from her neck to her left shoulder.

Salih Hidic told investigators that she had spanked her younger daughter with a switch from a bush and that the other injuries came from a fall off a trampoline.

The injuries, however, were not consistent with that explanation, the documents state.

The older sister, then a college student, took the two girls in until their placement in foster care two weeks later.

She said "family politics" led to the girls' removal from their home.

"There was a huge misunderstanding," the sister said. "My older two sisters are upset at my mom and dad for some odd reason. I don't know why they're upset with them.

"They stirred this all up, and that's why those two girls got taken away. Those two girls were living a way better life [at home]. I had a damn good life."

"I am not a drug dealer"

Inside the home on Overton Park Drive last month, police found drug paraphernalia, including a digital scale, syringes and small baggies, and an off-white crystal-like substance.

"I am not a drug dealer, and none of those items belong to me," the resident told the Star-Telegram. "They could have been brought there by one of the people there that day."

A 27-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter had been staying at his house, and others, including a male friend, had joined them, he said, explaining why so many people were there the day of the robbery.

"It's a good thing he came over because he is the one that protected the girls."

The resident said that because of the tragedy he is moving out, he said.

"I keep seeing the images of that night when I came in the back gate," he said.

Fort Worth homicide Sgt. Cheryl Johnson said that any further charges in connection with the case will be determined by the Tarrant County district attorney's office.

Forensics testing has been requested to confirm which gun fired the bullet that struck Hidic, she said.

The older sister said she has tried to convince an investigator that Hidic could not have been part of such a scheme.

"He told me personally, 'You just don't know your sister that way -- your sister is somebody else,'" the woman said. "We're talking about a girl that called me every single day. I talked to her that same morning. We were supposed to hang out.

"It doesn't make sense."

Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655

Domingo Ramirez, 817-390-7763

Twitter: @deannaboyd Twitter: @mingoramirezjr

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