Wife: Dying Suspect Wants Day In Court

INDIANAPOLIS -- A dying man who is a suspect in the disappearance of a Greenwood woman wants a trial so he can prove his innocence, according to his wife.

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Wife: Dying Suspect Wants Day In Court

Joseph Nowicki, 53, of Greenwood, has not been charged with the June disappearance of Brookley Louks and he denies involvement, but police named him a suspect in July.

Nowicki (pictured, left) is in federal custody on a charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. His trial on that charge was scheduled to begin earlier this week, but it was postponed because of what his lawyer says is terminal cancer.

Doctors have said Nowicki has about six months to live, according to the lawyer.

His wife, Janet Nowicki, said Thursday that he wants a trial in the Louks case.

"He has told me that if he could, he would still like to go to trial to prove his innocence. We'd like him acquitted," Janet Nowicki (pictured, right) told RTV6's Ben Morriston.

Louks, who sometimes did chores for Joseph Nowicki, was 19 when she was reported missing June 24. Police found her car in a restaurant parking lot in Waverly a few days afterward.

Police in September said drops of what they believed to be Louks' blood were found on Joseph Nowicki's property. The blood was found during a search July 17, police said.

But Janet Nowicki said accidents relating to her husband's boat upholstery repair shop, which is located on the property, could explain the blood.

"He cares about people, and tries to help people when he can. He was trying to help Brookley get her life straightened out by getting her some odd jobs and helping to repair her car," Janet Nowicki said.

Investigators have said they believe Joseph Nowicki was involved in drugs, and that Louks' disappearance may be connected. His wife dismisses that idea.

"Joe wasn't dealing drugs," she said.

But Louks' mother, Kim Louks (pictured, left), thinks differently.

"Joe had asked me to sell some things for him, and I was like, 'I'm not into pills,' " Kim Louks told Morriston on Thursday. "It was done in confidentiality because of Jan; he didn't want her to know."

Kim Louks said she, too, would like a trial for Joseph Nowicki.

"If he really didn't have anything to do with it, I'd like to know, because all the evidence ... does point to him," she said.

Janet Nowicki said she hopes the Louks family finds peace and closure.

"In a strange way, we're in the same boat. (Kim Louks) wants her daughter home, and I want my husband home," Janet Nowicki said.