SANTA ROSA, N.M.—State police said Monday they were treating the death of a Texas man whose body was found along an eastern New Mexico highway as a homicide.

The man has been identified as Thomas A. Hickman, 55, of Richland Hills, Texas. State police said Hickman, a regional manager of Red Lobster restaurants, has been described as a churchgoing family man who had been caring for his ill wife.

Hickman was last seen at a business meeting in Abilene, Texas, on March 13. He was supposed to have checked into a Lubbock hotel for a meeting in that city the following day but he never showed up.

State police said Hickman’s body was discovered Saturday by a passing motorist on U.S. 84 southeast of Santa Rosa. His vehicle was abandoned off the roadway nearby.

According to an autopsy, Hickman suffered a single gunshot wound.

Anyone who may have seen Hickman between Abilene and New Mexico is being asked to contact state police. Hickman was 6-feet, 6-inches tall and weighed 260 pounds. He had a receding hairline, salt-and-pepper hair and a mustache.