Three Men Charged in Missouri Cold Case; 2018 Drowning Now Ruled Homicide

Seven and a half years after 20-year-old Robbie Crites was found dead in Missouri's Jacks Fork River and his death was written off as an accidental drowning, the Shannon County Sheriff's Office has charged three men with second-degree murder. Zachary Dalton Watson, Austin Drake Womack, and Ronald D. Brawley III were arrested following a case review that began in early 2025, and each is now being held on a $250,000 cash-only bond.

The original 2018 investigation had linked Crites' death to his epilepsy diagnosis. His mother, Angela Moyers, said she was told her son drowned on Father's Day weekend after going on a fishing trip near the Jacks Fork River. She never accepted that explanation. The case sat for years until the sheriff's office reopened it and conducted what it described as an "extensive and thorough review of the original investigation, evidence, and circumstances surrounding Robbie's death." New information and evidence led investigators to conclude the death was not accidental.

In a March 5 news release, the sheriff's office called the arrests a "major development" and did not soften the language: "A child's life was taken, and for seven and a half years the truth sat buried. That ends today." The release continued, "Our investigators refused to let this case remain closed when the facts did not add up."

What the probable cause affidavits describe is brutal. According to criminal complaints, the three men acted together with intent to "cause serious physical injury" to Crites, physically assaulted him, wrapped him in fishing line, and dumped him in the river, causing him to "drown to death." A witness told investigators that when authorities pulled Crites from the water, he had fishing line wrapped around his ankles, knees, and back, and a "grab hook" entering his rib cage area. A separate account described Crites being put in bushes, then wrapped in fishing wire and placed in the river underneath a log.

Witness accounts recorded in the affidavits point to conflicting alleged motives. According to one witness, Brawley made a drunken confession two days after Crites' death, saying the incident "started over a drug deal that turned into a fight" because "Robbie owed Ronnie and A. Womack money." That witness said Womack and Brawley had given Crites a gram of methamphetamine for $100 that he never paid back, and that Watson, Brawley, and Crites had spent the day at the river together before Womack arrived. A separate witness recalled asking Womack directly whether he had been involved and said Womack replied, "Yeah, I killed that motherf er. He owed me money for dope." A third account alleged Womack gave a different reason entirely, claiming he killed Crites for sexually assaulting his sister and describing beating and stabbing him with a fishing hook before kicking him into the river.

All three men face second-degree murder charges, which the Shannon County Sheriff's Office classifies as a Class A felony. No pleas have been entered publicly, and it is not known from available reports whether counsel has been retained for any of the defendants. The case is expected to proceed through Shannon County courts.