In the pre-dawn hours of October 16, 2023, the quiet of a rural Vermont morning was shattered by a single gunshot. Gunnar Watson, a 27-year-old White male, was fatally shot in the doorway of his Wheelock home as he was preparing to leave for his job as a foreman at a tree-trimming company. His wife was present in the home at the time and called 911 to report the shooting.
Emergency responders arrived to find Watson inside his residence, where he was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to the torso.
The Vermont State Police immediately launched an extensive investigation into the homicide of Watson, who was also a respected sergeant and sniper team leader in the Vermont Army National Guard. For months, the case remained without an arrest, leaving the community unsettled and Watson's family searching for answers. Investigators pursued numerous leads and conducted searches related to the case, indicating a complex and challenging inquiry into the death of the young husband and father of two.
The investigation eventually zeroed in on a person of interest: 40-year-old Gary Larocque of Brownington, a co-worker of Watson's. However, before an arrest could be made, Larocque was found deceased on October 31, 2023, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a wooded area. Detectives had searched his residence in connection with Watson's murder just days prior. Following Larocque's death, the Caledonia County State's Attorney announced that had Larocque lived, he would have been charged with the first-degree murder of Gunnar Watson. With the death of the sole suspect, the investigation into Gunnar Watson's murder was officially closed.
