Deceased Man's Most Wanted Listing Shocks Family

A Denton man was listed in a local newspaper as one of the county's 10 most wanted -- just four months after his obituary was published.

Gary Lee Parker Sr. died of cancer in August. Family members said they knew about his troubles with the law and drug possession charges, but they were shocked to see him on the list in the Denton Record-Chronicle.

"It's been terrible," said Tom Parker, his brother. "It's like the whole thing came right back in my face -- I mean, just heartbreaking."

He said that seeing his brother in the paper again reminded him of the day he read his obituary.

"My whole family was torn up about his death," he said. "Now this -- they are reliving it all over again."

Jamie Parker said investigators could have simply called a family member before adding her uncle to a Crime Stoppers list.

"I'm thinking someone dropped the ball somewhere," she said.

The Denton County Sheriff's Department said it doesn't check death records before listing its most wanted.

"We don't have the time or manpower to go out and check the death index to see that all 1,100 warrants that we have at one time are dead or not," sheriff's spokesperson Tom Reedy said.

But he also apologized for "any inconvenience to the family we may have caused."

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