Shelley's wedding photo (and an update)
Our next bonus episode is coming soon — and it's a big one
Hey there! I hope you’ve had a nice week.
Carol and I just recorded a bonus episode of The Unforgotten, Season 1: The Labor Day Ghost. The episode will discuss a very credible (and extremely revealing) witness statement made shortly after Shelley Watkins’ death in 1993.
This witness statement is important because it pokes serious holes in family members’ account of Shelley’s final visit to the lake house at Cedar Creek Reservoir (as detailed in the search affidavit).
The statement was made to the Navarro County Sheriff’s Office — but as far as we can tell, Navarro County never connected the witness with the sheriff’s office in Henderson County, which had jurisdiction over the investigation. The way this witness apparently slipped through the cracks seems like yet another way the case was snakebitten from the beginning.
In the episode, Carol is also going to read an essay she wrote piecing together the witness account and other details to paint a fuller picture of Shelley’s last days. That’s the name of the episode: “Shelley’s Last Days.”
Paid subscribers will get the newsletter and the bonus episode (without ads) in a little over a week, after we’ve had a chance to finish editing it. Everyone else will be able to hear the episode on Monday, April 7. So keep an eye out … Whether you’re a paid or free subscriber, we very much appreciate you for sticking with us. What a journey it’s been! And, in some ways, it feels like we’re only getting started.
In the meantime, I’ve been meaning to pass along a photo that Shelley’s childhood friend Jennifer Boruch Herrick shared from Shelley and Jerry Mack Watkins’ wedding in 1987. Here it is!
I used a photo app to restore and enhance the image. You can find the original and three others wedding photos in the Facebook group Never Give Up #JusticeForShelley.
Thanks again for subscribing to our newsletter for The Unforgotten, a Free Range production. We’ll be back soon. — Wes Ferguson