Larry Matthews, a 46-year-old Black man, was found dead beside a pond near the railroad tracks in Paradis, Louisiana, on October 9, 2004, after a railroad worker discovered his body. Investigators estimated he had been there about a day. An autopsy by the Jefferson Parish Coroner attributed the death to a drug overdose compounded by an internal injury consistent with a fall; authorities noted no signs of blunt-force trauma or assault and treated a fall from a moving train as a working theory rather than a concluded cause.

Fingerprints confirmed Matthews’ identity and revealed an extensive criminal record for burglaries and drug offenses, which investigators said pointed to a transient lifestyle and complicated efforts to reconstruct his final movements. Records listed a brother’s home in Thibodaux, though the brother said Matthews was not living there. The St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office asked anyone who saw Matthews in the Thibodaux–West Bank area around October 9–10 to contact detectives.

Did anyone in the community see Larry Matthews or have information about where he had been in the days before October 9, 2004?