The "Homecoming": After 40 Years, Mooney is Home

As one door closes, another one opens. The one that closed was the final step in the closure in the case of the 1984 murder case of Robert Mooney, which spurred interest in the county in June of 2024. It was then that Texas Rangers and Phillips County Sheriff's Department served a warrant on Gordon Parsons in Dodson in connection with the murder.

On Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Georgetown, TX., Texas Ranger Cody Lankford and Assistant District Attorney Tim Poynter arrived at the home of Mooney's mother, Helen Marshall, to close the chapter on the murder of her son.

Carefully and gently carrying a wrapped black and gold urn containing the remains of her son, Lankford with reverence and dignity, held out the urn to her.

"Miss Marshall, it has been way too long and we apologize. But, on behalf of the State of Texas....we brought your son home," said Lankford.

Through tears and choking up she quietly responded. "It's been so long." She then uttered and apologized for crying..."I am so sorry."

Poynter stood just beside him in support, with a look of respect and integrity. Both men appeared engaged in the deed; it had been a long time coming and was long overdue. They were completing a chapter with accountability and in good faith, perhaps in an attempt to somewhat justify the lack of action by those previously involved in the matter which let the case sit as a cold case for just short of 40 years.

It was a long time in coming. The chapter is written. With a world of tears and years of the unknown, the family, Marshall and Mooney's only daughter, closed the book. It wasn't for vengeance...merely accountability and justice that the family pursued getting an answer for forty years of no action. The family could have pushed for the death penalty to resolve the matter...they merely wanted due process and someone to be held accountable.

August 1984 to December 2024. The End.