Agustin Chacon (King of Clubs, Texas) & Marshall McCarthy (5 of Hearts, Texas)

Summary

The Deck Podcast Episode Summary: "Agustin Chacon (King of Clubs, Texas) & Marshall McCarthy (5 of Hearts, Texas)"

Introduction

In this gripping episode of The Deck, host Ashley Flowers delves into the intertwined murders of Agustin Chacon and Marshall McCarthy in Odessa, Texas, in March 1982. These unresolved cases, separated by background and circumstances yet linked by proximity and time, have lingered for over four decades without justice for the victims. Flowers presents an in-depth exploration of the events surrounding the killings, the subsequent flawed investigations, and the ongoing efforts by Detective Lauren Gonzalez to bring closure to these cold cases.

Overview of the Cases

Agustin Chacon (King of Clubs, Texas)

Agustin Chacon was a 25-year-old man found murdered in his Odessa home on the night of March 3, 1982. Living in a cramped one-bedroom house shared with a dozen other men, Agustin was described as a hard-working family man with no criminal history. On the evening of his murder, Agustin was in the kitchen preparing dinner with his roommate Pedro when an intruder armed with a gun entered the house, leading to a chaotic shooting that left Agustin dead within two hours.

Marshall McCarthy (5 of Hearts, Texas)

Just 20 minutes after Agustin's death, Marshall McCarthy, a 37-year-old man living half a mile away in Odessa, was shot dead in his apartment. Unlike Agustin, Marshall had a known history of drug use and was implicated as a local drug dealer involved in cocaine distribution. His lifestyle put him at higher risk for violence, and his murder remains unsolved amidst numerous leads that never culminated in an arrest.

The Initial Investigation

Flawed Procedures and Missed Opportunities

The initial investigations into both murders were marred by significant procedural errors and oversights. Detective Lauren Gonzalez highlights several critical mistakes:

• Lack of Proper Translation: All residents of Agustin's shared house spoke only Spanish, but the investigating officers did not speak the language. Instead of hiring a professional translator, they relied on a bilingual neighbor who discouraged potential witnesses from speaking with the police, resulting in the loss of vital eyewitness accounts. As Gonzalez notes, “[00:00] ...the neighbor told people only to stay if they knew something about the shooting,” causing up to seven witnesses to withhold information ([09:23]).

• Insufficient Crime Scene Documentation: Detective Gonzalez points out the inadequate documentation of Agustin's crime scene. Only a couple of photographs existed, none of the interior rooms, which severely limited the investigators' ability to reconstruct the events accurately ([08:46]).

• Resource Limitations: Odessa in the early 1980s was experiencing a surge in violent crime, leading to overworked and inexperienced officers handling complex cases like these with inadequate resources ([31:01]).

Differences Between the Cases

While both men were murdered on the same night and in close proximity, their cases presented stark differences:

• Victimology: Agustin had no criminal background and was perceived as a family man, whereas Marshall was entangled in the drug scene, making his murder appear more as a targeted attack related to his illegal activities ([14:15]).

• Investigative Focus: Due to Marshall's involvement in the drug trade, investigators quickly identified multiple suspects and leads in his case, thus allocating more resources towards it. In contrast, Agustin's case suffered from a lack of leads and insufficient victimology, leading to a sparse investigation file ([29:51]).

Detective Lauren Gonzalez's Work

Reviving Cold Cases

Detective Lauren Gonzalez took over the cold case unit in August 2021, inheriting minimal information on Agustin's case compared to Marshall's extensive file. She has been diligently working to piece together overlooked evidence and seek new leads:

• Forensic Re-examination: Gonzalez sent out bullets and fingernail scrapings from Agustin’s autopsy for advanced laboratory testing and re-photographed all evidence to create a comprehensive record ([24:50]).

• New Leads and Connections: She uncovered additional information, such as a handwritten receipt indicating Agustin was making payments on a 1973 Mustang, and attempted to follow up on potential suspects like Javier and Carlos in Florida. However, many connections remain unverified due to the passage of time and lack of cooperation from witnesses ([35:17]).

• Community Outreach: Gonzalez emphasizes the importance of community assistance in solving these cases. She is actively seeking information from individuals who were present in Odessa during that time and urges anyone with knowledge to come forward ([37:03]).

Notable Quotes

• Detective Lauren Gonzalez on investigation flaws:

  “Most of the time people are murdered by someone they know. I think it's possible that this was a random crime of violence, but I can't say for sure because I don't have enough information about the victim.” ([22:08])

• Detective Gonzalez on Odessa’s crime environment in the 80s:

  “Odessa was murder capital of the world. That's how they would describe it. ... Violent crime had skyrocketed here in Odessa and there was not enough police officers.” ([31:20])

• Carl McCarthy, Marshall’s cousin, on the impact of the murder:

  “Even if whoever did it, if they're gone now, just to know this is who it was... This is who it was. And hopefully my Aunt Wilma, heaven will know, because I know that bugged her the day she died.” ([38:29])

Appeals to the Public

Detective Gonzalez and the families of both victims are reaching out to the community for any additional information that could shed light on these longstanding mysteries. They encourage individuals connected to Odessa in 1982 or those who knew Agustin and Marshall to come forward, either directly to the detective or anonymously through Odessa Crime Stoppers.

Conclusion

The murders of Agustin Chacon and Marshall McCarthy remain haunting unresolved cases in Odessa, Texas. The Deck podcast sheds light on the systemic issues that hindered the initial investigations and highlights the ongoing efforts by Detective Lauren Gonzalez to finally bring justice to these victims. As the community holds onto hope, the call for new information continues, underscoring the enduring quest for truth and closure in the face of decades-old mysteries.

Call to Action

If you have any information related to the murders of Agustin Chacon or Marshall McCarthy, please contact Detective Lauren Gonzalez at 432-335-4926 or remain anonymous by reaching out to Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-8477.

This summary is based on the transcript provided and aims to encapsulate the key discussions and insights from the episode while adhering to the specified guidelines.

Transcript

[Ashley Flowers]

Hi everyone, it's Ashley Flowers here and I want to tell you about a wild case that I can't stop thinking about. In 2002, Nathaniel Jones was found murdered outside his home in Winston Salem, North Carolina. In this newest season of Counterclock, investigative journalist Delia D'Ambra digs deep into the details of this case and the stories of the five teenagers who were quickly arrested. At the time, they had all confessed. But 22 years later, the men convicted say that they're innocent and so does the star witness whose story secured their convictions. This story is still unfolding today and you will not believe the places that Delia's investigation into this case goes. So make sure you listen to Counterclock now, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Delia D'Ambra]

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[Ashley Flowers]

State Farm helps you win by helping you create an affordable price just for you. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts, and savings and eligibility vary by state. Our cards this week are Augustine Chacon, the King of Clubs from Texas, and Marshall McCarthy, the five of hearts from Texas. On the same evening in March 1982, in the same Odessa, Texas neighborhood, two men living very different lives were shot dead inside their homes just a half mile apart. Though their paths may have never crossed in life, their deaths have been forever linked by proximity and the nearly 43 year pursuit of justice for them both. But as the Odessa detective on the case told us, Augustine's case grew cold because there were so few suspects, while Marshall's has never been solved because there are just too many and that's where you can come in. I'm Ashley Flowers and this is the deck. At around 9:30pm on March 3, a man named Pedro was cooking in the kitchen of the cramped one bedroom house in West Texas that he shared with a dozen other men who all seemed to be in town for work in the Odessa oil fields. The crowded quarters meant that the men had to take turns cooking. And as Pedro prepared his own dinner, one of his many roommates, 25 year old Augustin Chacon, joined him and began chopping potatoes. But the quiet of their ordinary night was shattered out of nowhere when the front door to the little one story house swung open and a short man with a slight build appeared in the doorway. His face was covered with some kind of orange fabric as he raised the gun he held in his right hand. Pedro thought that he saw another man standing behind him, but he couldn't be sure. And Pedro heard the gunman shout don't move in Spanish. And he watched as Augustin, still holding the kitchen knife, turned around. And then gunshots rang out. Everything suddenly went dark and someone had cut the lights. Pedro ran as a couple more gunshots were fired. He made it to the living room where some of the men slept and dove behind a bed for cover. He saw Augustine stagger from the kitch into the bedroom and collapse on the floor. In the chaotic aftermath of the shooting, one of the roommates turned the lights back on and someone managed to call police to report a person shot at 1319 E. 4th St. That call came into the Odessa Police Department at 9:37pm when first responders arrived at the house just minutes later, they found Augustine lying face up, bleeding from his chest and his right leg, and fading in and out of consciousness. As medics got to work trying to save him, the responding officers assessed the scene. Such crowded housing setups were known as man camps. They were a common arrangement for Odessa oil field workers who often came into town for only a few months and without their families. The lead investigator on this case, Detective Lauren Gonzalez, says that seems like what this house was. And most of the men living there had moved to town for work from Mexico or somewhere else in West Texas. So many people in one house meant that there were a lot of potential witnesses. Records show at least 10 other men were there. And this could have been a gold mine for investigators in terms of collecting eyewitness testimony. But there was one small problem. All of the men in the house spoke only Spanish, and the officers apparently didn't speak any. The officers needed a translator, but Instead of calling in a professional, investigators turned to a bilingual neighbor to assist them. Detective Gonzalez found a record of this investigative mistake in the case file. Apparently, the neighbor told these guys that if they weren't in the house or near the house when Augustin was shot, they should just leave. The neighbor told people only to stay if they knew something about the shooting. It wasn't even clear how many people there were. At first, the file says between 10 and 15. But after the neighbor delivered that message, only eight people hung around. This means that between two and maybe even seven witnesses who were at the scene of this shooting just left without talking to police. And that was just the first of multiple problems that would stymie the investigation. Other mistakes happened as officers began collecting physical evidence from inside and outside the home and analyzing the crime scene. After Augustine rushed off to the hospital, officers searched the house for shell casings or possible bullet holes. And they found a dent and a scrape on the refrigerator door that appeared to have been caused by a small object, like maybe a bullet. They also looked closely at two windows above the kitchen sink and found two bullet holes in one of the window screens with powder burns and residue around them. Now, they tried to measure out the trajectory of those bullets, and it seemed like maybe one hit the fridge after being fired from outside through the window. Detective Lauren Gonzalez, who leads this case today, said that officers checked the house for shell casings, but they didn't find a single one, meaning someone either picked them up before police arrived. Or Augustine was shot with a revolver. That doesn't expel casings, though. One officer did find a bullet fragment on the floor near the door between the bedroom and the living room. The evidence of bullets coming through the window screen and striking the refrigerator suggested that in addition to the shots fired inside the kitchen, someone had fired at least two bullets from outside. Since no one reported hearing a gunshot before the gunman came in, those shots were most likely fired after he or they left the house. The original case file shows that investigators made notes of how they tried to track the trajectory of these bullets, and they also made a sketch of the crime scene. But other than that, it seems like the responding officers didn't do much to actually document the scene. Here's Detective Gonzalez.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

I think there's maybe two photographs of the crime scene. There are no photographs of the inside of the house, just one of the outside, and then I think, another of a shoe impression they saw in the dirt outside the house. It makes it hard to get a clearer picture of the crime scene. Thankfully, they at least did the sketch. But in my experience, looking at cases from this time frame, that was not typical. I would never expect there to be as many photos as we have today. They were still using film, but in other cases that happened at the same time, there are a lot more photographs.

[Ashley Flowers]

That means they didn't take a single photo of the room where Augustine was shot or of where they found him laying injured. Detective Gonzalez says Odessa was short on seasoned detectives in the 1980s, and she believes that it's possible that some of the officers who responded to the shooting were rookies who may not have known how best to process the scene, which would have included taking pictures of what had just become a murder scene. So at 11:10pm Less than two hours after he'd been shot, Augustine was pronounced dead at the hospital. This was now a homicide and an investigation that was off to a bad start. And things were about to get worse as investigators, already scarce on resources, were stretched even thinner. And that's because only 20 minutes after Augustine died, another call came into dispatch from a man named Carl who lived in the same neighborhood where Augustine had been shot. He called to report that his roommate, a 37 year old man named Marshall, had been shot inside their home as well.

[Scott McCarthy]

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[Ashley Flowers]

When police cars pulled up to 1513 East 5th street around 11:30pm they were met by two men who frantically flagged them down and led them to apartment four, just inside. Marshall McCarthy was lying on the floor just like Augustine had been. But Marshall wasn't drifting in and out of consciousness like Augustine was. He was already gone.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

He appeared to have been shot with a small caliber bullet in the middle of the back is what they could immediately tell. It seems to be pretty close range because there are some powder burns on the wounds.

[Ashley Flowers]

Marshall was found wearing jeans and boots, but no shirt. And he had a blue towel draped around his neck and an orange, white and yellow towel in his hand, almost like he'd been interrupted while getting ready. On the floor next to his body was a silky textured jacket. He was wearing expensive jewelry, and his wallet with cash inside was still on him. So robbery didn't seem like a motive at first glance. Odessa police now had two men shot to death inside their homes on the same night, half a mile apart. But while the two crimes had certain obvious similarities, the differences in the victimology quickly emerged. For starters, the little information officers had learned about Augustin from his roommate suggested that he was a hard working family man who didn't use drugs and had no criminal history. An autopsy performed on him the day after his death found no drugs or alcohol in his cell system. Marshall, on the other hand, had quite a different lifestyle. And his autopsy confirmed that he had cocaine in his system when he died. According to a toxicology report, Marshall's cousin Scott told our reporters that his cousin lived a life that involved a lot of partying.

[Carl McCarthy]

He was kind of a wild child. He ran his own path, I guess is the best way to put it. He was really a nice person. He was caring, especially, you know, caring towards his family. He wasn't loud, he wasn't boisterous. You know, he didn't rant and rave about this, that and the other. He was just pretty chill guy, really.

[Ashley Flowers]

And truly, they didn't see each other much because until Recently, Marshall lived 500 miles away in Houston. He'd gotten into some trouble there, so his family thought it would be a good idea for him to go live with his aunt and uncle Scott's parents in Odessa. And he'd made the move only a year or two before the shooting. Scott had seen him only a bit more often after that. And apparently, Marshall had fallen in with a bad crowd in Odessa, too. Based on what detectives found in his.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

Apartment, they did collect some drugs from the house. The way everything's described as being packaged, I would say seems to be consistent with what we call today as the manufacture and delivery of illegal substances. So drug dealing, marijuana and Cocaine.

[Ashley Flowers]

Carl and his other associates all spoke English, so language wasn't a barrier in this case. And maybe that's why detectives at the time were seemingly able to learn a lot more about him. And they confirmed pretty quickly that Marshall was likely a drug dealer. In fact, they found out that it was basically common knowledge around Odessa that Marshall almost always had cocaine on him and was usually selling it. As the parallel investigations into Augustine and Marshall's murders unfolded, the similarities and differences continued to appear. At Augustine's autopsy, they were able to recover an intact bullet from his chest, but for some reason, they didn't establish what caliber the bullet was, only that it was small. In addition to gunshot wounds to his chest and leg, the autopsy also revealed that Augustin had an injury and powder burns on his hand, as though he, like, probably attempted to grab the gun as it was fired. An autopsy performed on Marshall found that he had multiple gunshot wounds, though Detective Gonzalez wants to keep the specifics of where on his body he was shot close to the vest. So all they knew was that both men had been shot multiple times with small caliber bullets at close range. And one significant difference is that while there were no casings collected from Augustin's home, there were three at Marshall's. They found two under his body and one on the coffee table. Detective Gonzalez says that there's nothing in the case file to show any indication that the bullets that hit these two men came from the same weapon. In fact, she doesn't believe that the murders were actually related at all, meaning there were two shooters in the same neighborhood that night. But trying to find out who those shooters were went very different in these two investigations due to another big difference in the cases, the number of possible suspects. Augustine's roommates had told police that they didn't know anyone who might have wanted to hurt him. In Marshall's case, officers quickly had a list of people that they wanted to know more about. There was Marshall's roommate, Carl, who had found him and called the police. Except officers learned that he hadn't called the police right away.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

They kept questioning him, and I guess they had found out that when he had initially found Marshall deceased, he had driven all the way to his brother's house, which was pretty far away on 42nd street, before he called the police.

[Ashley Flowers]

There was also Carl's brother, former brother in law Eddie, who told police that he and his wife Carolyn had been over at Marshall's apartment the night of the shooting and that everything had been fine when they left. Somewhere between 7:45pm and 8pm he told police that he and his wife had each gone to separate friends houses after that. There's no mention in the file of neighbors seeing any other visitors come by later that night. But police talked to Marshall's next door neighbor, and he reported being awakened at like 10 or 10:15pm by the sound of two men and a woman arguing in Marshall's apartment.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

It sounded like screaming and yelling to him, but he could not understand the content of the argument and he just went back to sleep.

[Ashley Flowers]

A couple living in the building also mentioned hearing an argument shortly after 10pm so that wasn't the only time police heard about a potential fight. But Detective Gonzalez says there was nothing else in the case file about how police at the time investigated that alleged argument or how they confirmed Eddie and Carolyn's alibis. Then there was a woman named Tony, who Marshall had been dating. She told police that Marshall had gotten into a fight at a bar a few nights before he died. And she also said Marshall had told her that he had a number of enemies in the past.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

Marshall had told Tony that he, quote, had a contract out on him. And in layman's terms, what this means is what others would call a hit that someone had advertised, basically a murder for hire. If someone kills him, they could get paid. And he had told her that the person who put this out on him was someone named David golden and that he was from Dallas.

[Ashley Flowers]

And apparently this David guy wasn't the only one who had a problem with Marshall. Tony said that the same week he was killed, Marshall had gotten into a heated argument with a guy dressed like a cowboy at a local club called Graham Central Station. They also heard from a different woman that an Odessa drug dealer named Johnny had killed Marshall. Officers tracked Johnny down after another witness reported hearing him say something troubling about Marshall.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

He made a statement to the effect, quote, if you take a piece of candy from a candy store and you don't pay for it, you pay for it. He paid the ultimate price.

[Ashley Flowers]

Investigators asked him about that comment, and he didn't deny it.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

So they asked him about it. And he said he had made that statement to someone, but he had made it in a casual conversation, in jest. But when asked what he meant by the statement, he repeatedly said he had no explanation for it. He became very nervous and defensive about answering questions about that statement.

[Ashley Flowers]

Detectives followed other leads, too, including a possible connection between Marshall and a wealthy Odessa businessman named B.L. king, who owned several nightclubs. That name stands out to Detective Gonzalez because he was actually murdered in Odessa in 1996. And his murder is also unsolved. His case is on a deck along with a woman who worked as a dancer at one of King's clubs and who was also murdered. We covered the case of that woman already, actually. Eula K. Miller in another episode, which I'll link to in the show notes. But long story short, despite these extensive witness interviews and the many possible suspects, police have never been able to identify Marshall's murderer. But Detective Gonzalez believes that his death was likely tied to drugs.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

Marshall's lifestyle is definitely would put him in a high risk category, at a high risk for being a victim of violence. I would say the majority of murders that happen here in Odessa even today are drug deals gone bad type of situations and gang violence, things like that. It really widens that pool of possible perpetrators because, you know, living that lifestyle, he's kind of opening himself up to potential to, you know, someone to try to rob him, whether it be for money or narcotics. The way the crime scene looked, the manner in which he was attacked, I think he probably knew the person. There wasn't any type of forced entry. It appeared that Marshall let the person into the apartment. I think it was probably somebody that he knew or someone that maybe started out there having a reason to be there.

[Ashley Flowers]

So this made the murder of Augustine, who had no known history of drug use, all the more puzzling and challenging for police to solve. Detective Gonzalez says that his murder seems like it was possibly a random attack, but again, with so few details about his life, it's been hard to develop a real solid theory.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

I mean, most of the time people are murdered by someone they know. I think it's possible that this was a random crime of violence, but I can't say for sure because I don't have enough information about the victim. Not getting that adequate victimology from the get go was the largest mistake, and it continues to be my biggest challenge in this case.

[Scott McCarthy]

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[Ashley Flowers]

While the initial investigation into Augustine's murder was flawed, Odessa police did attempt to chase down the few leads that they did have. Remember, Augustine was still alive when he was taken to the hospital the night of the shooting. And police learned that he might have left them with one clue. Apparently, before he died, he had mustered the strength to speak just a few words, and he told a nurse that he knew he was going to die and that he had been robbed. Now, this information gave detectives at least some indication of what the motive was for Augustine's shooting. And one of Augustine's roommates did mention when police re interviewed him that Augustine had money on him the night he was shot from selling a Mustang a few days before. He thought Augustine had sold the car in Littlefield or maybe Brownfield, Texas, but he didn't know how much he got for it. Now, this was the first time detectives heard about this car, but not the last. Another roommate also told police that Augustine might have recently sold a car in Brownsville and that he may have had money on him from that sale. But when they looked at Augustin's wallet, what they found confused them a little.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

It had a payroll check in it, made out to Augustin, a notice to appear from the Midland Municipal Court, a food stamp card in his name, a Social Security card for someone named Lupe Chacon, and a Social Security card for Augustine Chacon. He had a resident alien card in his name and $1,484. One penny in cash. He had a driver's license as well. So, yeah, he said he was robbed, but, I mean, he had a significant amount of cash on him for 1982.

[Ashley Flowers]

Could Augustine's sale of the Mustang have been connected to his murder? It certainly seemed like a lead that was worth tracking down. But if detectives ever located the buyer, it's not noted in the file. And the other items in his wallet just seem to support his roommate's description of Augustine as a hard worker. The court summons was just for a traffic ticket. And that other Social Security card turned out to be for Augustine's wife, Lupe, who was believed to be living in Mexico with their four daughters. The report Detective Gonzalez has doesn't say when investigators first talked to Lupe, but it does Note that on March 6, which is three days after the shooting, Police received a call from her with another possible lead.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

She was calling from Fieldton, Texas, and she said that she had gotten information from some of the men that had been living with her husband at the time that he was killed. And they told her that one of the men who lived there, a man named Javier, left right after the shooting. And he was reportedly en route to stay with someone named Carlos in Barstow, Florida.

[Ashley Flowers]

Lupe called back the next week, urging investigators to speak to two other men Augustin apparently knew named Julio and Gustavo. She told police that they had maybe been involved in some other crimes in Odessa, but there's nothing else in the file about them. Now, Lupe also passed along a rumor that she'd heard about a poker game that might have been going on in the house that night before Augustin was shot. If this is true, it would mean that the roommates police did talk to, who all had the same story, weren't truthful because they never mentioned a game. It's a possibility Detective Gonzalez has to consider.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

If I'm being honest, I am wondering what really happened in that house. Did it go down how everybody told police? Or is there some reason that people maybe had all their stories the same? I mean, it's possible that that really is what happened, what they said. But it's also possible that something went down and they just. No one was gonna be a snitch. And they just had this understanding that no one was gonna tell the police what really happened.

[Ashley Flowers]

Investigators did apparently look into a tip that came in from another one of Augustine's roommates about a beef he might have had with a man named Guillermo. From the notes, it seems like Guillermo might have owed Augustin gas money for rides to work. And when interviewed, Guillermo said that he'd been playing pool at a local bar the night of the shooting with a friend. And when they talked to that friend, he confirmed Guillermo's alibi. So that's where their investigation into him ended. Now, it seems at that point, investigators went back to Pedro, the roommate who was with Augustine in the kitchen when he was shot. And they told him, basically, listen, if you didn't really tell the truth before, maybe if you were scared or something, we can protect you. But he didn't change his story. And so that is where the investigation stopped. When Detective Gonzalez took over the Cold Case Unit In August of 2021, that is all she found on Augustine's case. No follow ups, no other leads to chase down. So she got to work. She sent the bullet and fingernail scrapings collected from Augustine at his autopsy out to the lab to be tested. She pulled all other evidence to be photographed to create a better record of the case, though the one thing she couldn't find was the window screen that investigators supposedly took into evidence. She found a few things that weren't noted in the original file, too. A citation from a minor car accident and a small handwritten receipt from Giles Motors in Littlefield, Texas, indicating that Augustin was making his last few payments on a 1973 Mustang. But what surprised Detective Gonzalez the most was the size of the file in her office. She has massive filing cabinets filled with folders for each case that she's trying to solve, and Augustine's is one of the smallest. When our reporter sat down with her, she placed the file for Augustine's case next to the file for Marshall's to show, like, literally the stark contrast. And Augustine's is less than a quarter of the size of Marshall's. The folder practically looks empty in comparison.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

The differences could be because of the crimes themselves, but it does make me wonder if the investigation was so much smaller because they didn't have any leads to go on or was because they didn't put in work. We could tell they maybe worked on that case a week, a week and a half, and then nothing else.

[Ashley Flowers]

She says Marshall's case may have gotten more resources simply because there were more leads right off the bat.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

Augustine's case is so difficult because I don't know if there weren't any leads, because people may have been worried about talking to the police if they weren't here legally. That may have made them worried to get caught up in something. Maybe, you know, they held back some information for a number of reasons, or this is truly a random crime that they didn't have any information. Either way, I need more information to be able to tell which one. I wasn't there. So I can't say for sure Augustine, being from Mexico, was the factor in his case getting less work and less attention. But it does make me wonder if it was part of the picture.

[Ashley Flowers]

She gave us a little insight into another reason the investigation into Augustine's death might have been so small. Odessa in the 80s was packed with men working temporary jobs in the oil fields, and the area catered to that demographic and at times suffered as a result.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

I would estimate at the time, you know, in the 80s, there were probably dozens of bars and strip clubs here. It was party town, boom town, you know, just people going out every night, partying all weekend long, blown off steam with that money that they had burning a hole in their pocket. There was a saying back then, I think it goes something like, raise your family in Midland, raise hell in Odessa. What I hear from people that lived here at the time, worked here at the time, was oh yeah, Odessa was murder capital of the world. That's how they would describe it. People were getting stabbed and shot, you know, daily occurrences here. People were being murdered at the bar every weekend in fights and things. Violent crime had skyrocketed here in Odessa and there was not enough police officers. I've been told that rookie cops were literally pulled off the street to work a full murder investigation as if they were a homicide detective.

[Ashley Flowers]

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[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

He stated he had been with Augustine at his house just before the shooting, and everything seemed normal. He didn't notice anyone unfamiliar at the house when he left. Ohenyo remembered him as a very hardworking man who was not involved in anything criminal.

[Ashley Flowers]

Detective Gonzalez also recently connected with one of Augustine's daughters, Socorro. Socorro was only three years old when her dad was killed, so anything she knows about him or his life in Odessa or even his murder is all secondhand. But she told the detective that there was a woman named Bertha who Augustine was close with when he lived there.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

She told me that Bertha had spent the day with her mother, Lupe, in London, Littlefield, Texas. The day of the funeral. Socorro speculated that maybe something had gone on between Bertha and Augustine while he was in Odessa and his wife and kids were in Mexico. And Socorro wondered if maybe Bertha was married or had a boyfriend because she was also killed in Odessa three months after Augustine was killed. This is something Socorro's telling me. I've never heard about Bertha before. This is just her speculating to me that perhaps Augustine and Bertha may have been together and got killed because of it.

[Ashley Flowers]

Detective Gonzalez hasn't been able to track Bertha down simply because she has so little information about her. And she hasn't found any record of anyone by that name being murdered in Odessa either. So she thinks that Bertha may have been a nickname, or maybe the murder took place somewhere else. Or maybe she's a missing person who no one reported missing. Or maybe Socorro was mistaken. Without more information, though, there's not much she can do to look into that potential part of Augustine's life. She's not sure if Socorro has any more information about Bertha, and she hasn't been able to get in touch with her again to even ask. Since Lupe had given the tip about the poker game happening the night Augustin was shot, Detective Gonzalez hoped to speak with her. She thought Lupe was living in Mexico, But Socorro told her that Lupe came back to Littlefield, Texas, often to visit family and would be in touch to discuss the case. But as of our recording this episode, that still hasn't happened.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

I was never able to get in touch with Lupe. And then reaching back out to Socorro, trying to check in and set something like that up, I've just never been able to reach her again.

[Ashley Flowers]

Detective Gonzalez wants people to know that they can feel safe coming to her with information. And if they want an extra layer of protection, there is an anonymous tip line that we'll give at the end.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

We're just focused on solving his murder is what we're worried about.

[Ashley Flowers]

She also wants people to feel comfortable coming forward in Marshall's case as well.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

If you were doing cocaine, buying cocaine, selling cocaine, or any illegal substance like that in Odessa in the 80s, that's. That's not something you're going to be charged with today. We're concerned with the murder investigation and finding out who killed Marshall. Why?

[Ashley Flowers]

She's going to need your help to do that. Detective Gonzalez said that unfortunately, she's never had the chance to talk to most of the suspects herself, and she never will because many of them have passed away. She said it's going to take new information from a witness to move this case forward. Marshall's cousin Scott also holds out hope for an answer. Scott told us about what he remembers about Marshall's murder and how it impacted his family, especially his aunt Wilma, who was Marshall's mom.

[Carl McCarthy]

She absolutely broke down. I do know that Wilma had a tough, tough time with that. He was her only child. And that's the worst part of the whole thing, really, what it did to her heart.

[Ashley Flowers]

Scott, like Detective Gonzalez, pleads with anyone listening to please call if you know anything about Marshall's murder.

[Carl McCarthy]

Even if whoever did it, if they're gone now, just to know this is who it was. You know, I realized this many years later. You know, a lot of the actors may have passed away, but just to know, hey, this is who did it. And hopefully my Aunt Wellman, heaven will know, because I know that bugged her the day she died. Her heart was broken over that. That was in her mind until the day she died.

[Ashley Flowers]

As for Augustine's case, Detective Gonzalez is still hopeful that someone will put her in touch with his family members and roommates, or even people who knew him when he was living in Odessa. She asked if we could list the names of people that she's hoping to interview to learn more about Augustine's life.

[Detective Lauren Gonzalez]

People I really want to speak with about this investigation are going to be individuals that were working and living in odessa in early 1982 named Pedro Valverde, Simon Loya, Jesus Manuel Vazquez, Ramiro Morales, Jose Francisco Benuelo Castilla, Gerardo Loya, Manuel Loya, A Bilardo Loya, Jesus Vargas Loya, and Efren Loya.

[Ashley Flowers]

Also, if there is anyone out there named Bertha or who might have known a woman who went by Bertha in Odessa in 1982. That's a line of inquiry that they would like to explore as well. So if you or anyone you know are connected to any of those people who were living in Odessa in 1982, please reach out. And if you know anything at all about the murders of Augustine chacon or Marshall McCarthy in Odessa in 1982, contact Detective Lauren Gonzalez at 432-335-4926. Or you can remain completely anonymous by contacting the Odessa Crime Stoppers. Their number is 432-333-8477. The deck is an audio Chuck Production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com so what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?

[Delia D'Ambra]

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