Murder victim’s relative offers $5,000 reward in case

Robert Martin says enough is enough.

“How long can a murderer hide?”

He is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the death of his cousin, Rickey Gene Herriage.

Martin has watched Virginia Culpepper mourn her bother's death for 31 years. In the years since Herriage's body was found in a remote part of Henderson County near Athens on CR 1500 in Walnut Creek, the family is no closer to finding his killer than the day his body was found in 1987.

He had been shot multiple times.

Culpepper has never given up on finding the person who took Herriage's life. She remembers the day her brother's body was found like it was yesterday and has spent the last three decades keeping his memory alive.

In 2015, the Herriage murder was spotlighted as a cold case on NBC Dateline. A website, Project: Cold Case,” has had the murder featured for the past three years.

“Someone, somewhere, knows something about Rickey's murder,” Culpepper said. “This is Athens, Texas. You can’t sneeze here without everyone knowing.”

The Athens Daily Review reported the day after Herriage's body was discovered that no evidence was found at the scene to indicate a struggle, leaving investigators and Culpepper to believe Herriage was killed elsewhere. Officials believed the murder happened in the early hours of March 8, 1987.

Culpepper said her brother was well known by many people in Henderson County, which leaves her to believe someone knows something.

“We just want to know what happened,” she said. “For him to be shot numerous times and thrown off a bridge, it's hard to believe no one knows anything. A lot of things just don't make sense.”

With the unsolved murder now this old, it's questionable whether the killer or killers or witnesses are still in the area — or alive. But Culpepper believes the people who know something are still in Henderson County.

According to reports, investigators have never named a person of interest or any suspects in the case.  All leads have been exhausted.

Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse has said the murder remains under investigation.

Each year on the anniversary of Herriage death, Culpepper places an advertisement in the Athens Daily Review asking if anyone has information that may help solve Herriage's murder.

Anyone with information about the case or any unsolved crimes in Henderson County is asked to call the Henderson County Sheriff's Office at 903-675-5128 or Henderson County Crime Stoppers at 800-545-8477.

The reward offered through Henderson County Crime Stoppers and Martin are separate rewards.