Rest in Peace, Larry (Free)
Honoring the investigator who never let go
Hello, I’m back to share our latest bonus episode and pass along this heartfelt note from my co-host Carol Dawson:
When we began to research the first season of our podcast The Unforgotten, we knew that one of the most important people we needed to talk with was Larry Warrick, the former Chief Homicide Investigator for Henderson County. (Continued below)
We’ve released a short bonus episode in which Carol and I talk about Larry’s legacy. As always, find the episode wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
It was Larry, alongside Texas Ranger Ray Nutt, who pursued the murder case of Shelley Watkins--who focused on the clues, followed the circumstantial evidence, pieced it together into a picture, proved probable cause, and secured the search warrant when it grew clear that one suspect conspicuously stood out among all other possibilities. It was this duo team that dedicated themselves to seeking justice for the mother who had been savagely killed, wrapped up like a parcel of disposable waste, and thrown into the Trinity River. Larry Warrick’s and Ranger Ray Nutt’s determination and good police work then helped push the investigation forward before the Grand Jury, where Shelley’s husband, Jerry Mack Watkins, was found potentially culpable for his wife’s murder, indicted, and required to surrender himself for arrest in Athens, Texas, on a charge of first-degree murder.
The day Wes and I knocked on Larry’s door, we had no idea how we would be greeted. It was a leap into chance. The person who opened the door was a cheerful, kindly, open-hearted man who introduced us to his dog, listened as we introduced ourselves, explained to us that he had dementia, and then immediately began to recollect in surprising detail some of the facts and circumstances surrounding Shelley’s death. He phoned his wife Christie at her workplace, told her why we were there, and let us know how she was also an important link in the chain of process: Christie had been the dispatcher at the Henderson County Sheriff’s office who answered the 911 call reporting the discovery of Shelley’s body. It was Christie who rallied the necessary law enforcement entities to go retrieve the body and start the investigation.
It was Larry who picked up the next link—and never let it go.
“I was just thinking about her the other day,” Larry told us, speaking of Shelley Watkins. “That’s another one of my murders that…I’ve worked so many, so many, that I’ve led to a successful closure, and that’s one of them that just haunts me…Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.” Later in that first conversation he gave us his own conclusion about the case: “No, it’s Jerry Mack. There’s no doubt in my mind. It’s always been, in my opinion, it’s Jerry Mack.”
It was Christie, in a second interview, who revealed to us how just deeply Larry had been affected by Shelley’s murder case and its lack of resolution. “…this will never leave my mind either, or my heart,” she said. “But after everything that happened and, you know, with the case and everything, with E. Ray Andrews, Larry was devastated. Devastated. And I drove him to Corsicana one night, and he sat out at her grave. She has a bench there…And he sat at her grave for about an hour and a half. He cried, he explained, he apologized, you know, I mean that was his conversation with Shelley. But it was something that he needed to do because he felt like he had failed her.
“He didn’t fail her, the system failed her. But he felt just like he didn’t get justice for her. And again, it wasn’t anything at his hands, you know, he was doing his job, And I believe he would have gotten a conviction because he worked really hard. But he just, that was something he needed to do. Because he felt, you know, like a lot of us did. I mean, it was just horrible what had happened to her. And he just felt like he had let her down. And I think she knows he didn’t. It wasn’t him. But that was just something, like I said, he needed to do to help himself heal and to be able to put that away.”
We are grieved to learn that Larry Warrick passed away on Thursday, June 26th. It’s seldom that we encounter someone of Larry’s stature: a genuine public servant who took his job so seriously, applying tireless focus to right the wrongs done to victims of all kinds. The honor to have met and shared time with such a conscientious law officer and caring soul will be ours forever.
Our condolences go out to Larry’s colleagues and friends, who recognized who and what he was, and have expressed their own sadness: The Gun Barrel City Police Department would like to extend our deepest sympathies to Retired Assistant Chief Larry Warrick’s family, who passed away June 26, 2025. Retired Assistant Chief Larry Warrick served over 39 years as a Peace Officer for the State of Texas, and 14 of those years here at Gun Barrel City, until he retired in 2022 from the Gun Barrel City Police Department. Larry’s legacy and passion for not only the citizens of Gun Barrel City but also to the men and women of the Gun Barrel City Police Department was unwavering. His big heart and compassion for others was the foundation of who Larry was.
Our sympathies and heartfelt thoughts go out to Christie, Larry’s wife, whom Larry described as “a peach,” and with whom he partnered in love and devotion throughout the next thirty years beginning shortly after Shelley Watkins’s death. Our respect for them both exceeds any words we can express. His Gun Barrel City colleagues say it all in their final summary.
The Unforgotten is a Free Range Production. Season 1: The Labor Day Ghost was created and hosted by Carol Dawson and me, Wes Ferguson. I’m the executive producer at Free Range. The episode was edited by Aislyn Gaddis. Our theme song, “Ghost,” was written and recorded by Will “Mekatron” Jones. Thank you for listening. — Wes