Around 1 o'clock that afternoon, a police patrolman from the small town of Fulshear in Fort Bend County spotted what turned out to be Mabry's unmarked HPD car abandoned on the side of Bois D'Arc Road, about 15 miles northwest of Mabry's house. The car was facing east, just beyond a small low-water bridge that spans Jones Creek. Mabry's empty wallet and the container of milk were still inside. His keys were found on the road about 20 yards behind the car.
After learning that Mabry had been reported missing, divers were called and arrived at the scene around 6 p.m. Two hours later, Mabry's body -- with a single fatal gunshot wound to the back of his head -- was located in the muddy water about 260 yards downstream to the south. His glasses and .38-caliber Smith & Wesson were later discovered at the southern base of the concrete bridge. Investigators at the scene theorized that Mabry may have shot himself while standing in the water at the base of the bridge. The impact of the gunshot could have knocked off his glasses, and the current could have then carried his body to the point where the divers found it.
Mabry's death is not officially being investigated by the Houston Police Department, since it did not occur within the city, but the department did dispatch homicide detectives that night to monitor the scene. According to one veteran investigator, the prevailing sentiment in the homicide division is Mabry's death "is what it is" -- in other words, a suicide. Another detective points out that if Mabry did kill himself, he would have had financial incentive to make his death look mysterious. An insurance agent who handles benefits for Houston police officers confirmed that Mabry's life insurance policy paid $120,000 on an accidental death. And even if it is determined that he committed suicide, Mabry's policy will pay his beneficiaries $60,000 -- apparently, a not unusual benefit for the families of police officers.
But there are others in the department, as well as his friends and family members, who seriously doubt that Alan Mabry took his own life at a time when things seemed to be going his way again.
"A lot of guys, they're just real suspicious," says one HPD officer. And, in fact, there are a few odd, if not suspicious, details about Mabry's death. They could mean something -- or nothing at all.
For example, Jones Creek, where Mabry's body was found, is actually part of an irrigation system for area farms and usually doesn't have any water in it, although it did that day. And, according to a law enforcement official who was on the scene, when a team of tracking dogs was turned loose, they never headed for the south side of the bridge, where Mabry's glasses and gun were found -- and where he supposedly entered the water and shot himself. Instead, the dogs immediately headed west on Bois D'Arc Road, sniffed around for a moment on the northwest corner of the bridge, then headed south along the edge of the creek to where Mabry's body was found.
Some reports characterized Mabry as having been unusually subdued just before his death. If he was, it was something that had gone unnoticed by Mabry's neighbor and Little League acquaintance, Susan Parkman, who saw Mabry at the ball game the night before he died.
"My husband had his arm around him and was asking him how things were going," says Parkman. "We stood there and talked. He didn't have a care in the world. He was just delighted to be at the ballfield. Happy that things were working out in his life. Everything was right with the world. His team was getting beat horribly that night, but he was still sitting there cheering. So when we heard the news the next day there was no doubt in our minds that he had not killed himself."
This coming Tuesday, 12 registered Fort Bend voters will be assembled from a pool of potential jurors to examine the evidence in the death of Alan Mabry. Among others, they will hear from the Texas Rangers, the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office, the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Department and the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office, which conducted the autopsy on Mabry's body. After weighing the evidence, the jurors will decide whether or not the case should be investigated further as a homicide, or simply ruled a suicide. Even if a determination is made that Mabry killed himself, it is not likely to put to rest all the questions surrounding Mad Dog's demise.
"Alan was a mystery," observes pension board chairman Craig Goralski. "And I suspect his death will remain that way, like his life. Maybe the rest of us were just missing something. Maybe he saw things other people didn't. And you can take that either way.
