Daughter of Murdered Man Provides Update

Kristy Mooney, the only child and daughter of Robert Mooney, contacted the PCN this week and provided an undate on his death in a 1984 cold case.

In June, a man was arrested in Dodson by local law enforcement officers and Texas Rangers who had flown up with the paperwork indicting him in the murder.

As a result of re-opening the cold case, which will be 40 years old on August 3rd, Gordon Parsons, who has been residing in Dodson for approximately six years, was taken into custody without incident.

On Monday morning, July 22, Mooney said the case will finally be going to trial on November 18.

Parsons and an accomplice, Arnold Huskey, were arrested in Florida in February of 1985, after a tangled chain of events. The two men had escaped from a prison in Wyoming and made their way to Texas. Due to the nature and current status of the case, not all details will be released until the Court system in Rufugio, Texas, gives the approval.

What is known and available to share, is that the two men befriended Mooney and agreed to drive him, in his own car, to Corpus Christi on August 3 as Mooney had a suspended drivers license and needed to pick up his disability check. They dropped Kristy off at her grandmother's that morning, and that is the last time anyone saw him alive.

Forty years ago.

Parsons and Huskey, at the time of their arrest in Florida, were arrested for a different murder in Oregon. They were not extradited to Texas to face the murder charge, due to the cost involved. Officials involved did not take the time, or initative, to bring justice and closure to the endless, senseless heinous crime; or perhaps didn't feel taking someone to court on capital murder charges merited their time. One can always ask, what if it were their family member that was slain?

Instead, they were taken to Oregon to face charges on the murder in that state. Both Parsons and Huskey were convicted of that murder charge; Parsons received a life sentence with the possibility of parole; Huskey received a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Parsons was paroled out in 2016 and since about six years ago has been trucking and living in Dodson, Montana. He was reporting to a Parole Officer; though sometimes by phone contact vs in person.

Huskey remains in prison in Oregon.

"Texas, literally did nothing. They failed my family; because of what they did and let the case go cold," stated Mooney. "The family has been victimized twice."

The PCN is only the second media source that Mooney has shared the fact that her dad's remains have been sitting in an evidence room for almost 40 years in Refugio, Texas.

The system will not release the remains to the family. They have failed the family by their lack of action. Robert Mooney's mother, now a month from being 89 years old has waited and aged over the four decades, as well.

"It hurts. It is frustrating. It is hard," said Mooney.

It was a hateful crime with no apparent motive, as the three had only met the day before.

The current District Attorney that is working the case is working diligently to bring justice and eventually closure to the case and for the family. Forty years in the dark, in limbo, not knowing and not having anyone care, has added stress to the family. A mother lost a son, a two-year-old lost her father, and grandkids will never know their grandpa...all because of a totally reprehensible act of violence.

Mooney is hopeful the nightmares will lessen, or cease, when the verdict is handed to the judge. Regardless, time hasn't healed broken hearts, a guilty verdict might not, either.

Forty years have passed in Parsons life; he was 18 when the first murder was committed and he has been in jail since, or on parole.