Benton County deputies investigate suspicious death
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BENTON COUNTY, Tenn. — Officers are working on a mystery in Benton County after a man is found dead lying in his yard. Deputies said it was not until they got to the hospital that an X-ray revealed a bullet in his lung. Deputies are investigating this case as a “suspicious death.” Officers said when they arrived at the secluded home in the woods of Benton County Tuesday night they did not expect this case to take so many turns. “He didn’t have a heartbeat,” Gregory Matlock said. “He didn’t have a pulse.” Matlock was the first person to try and save Richard Herbison. He said he found his 53-year-old brother-in-law lying in his driveway on Birdsong Road. “I came up here and I heard a gunshot as I was coming up the driveway,” Matlock said. “That’s when he hollered at me, ‘Greg!, Greg, help me!'” Matlock said those are the last words he heard. Officials said X-rays later revealed Herbison had a bullet lodged in his lung with an entrance wound on his outer left thigh. “I didn’t even know he had a gunshot wound until we got to the hospital,” Matlock said. “There was no blood, and you couldn’t see any evidence of a gunshot wound.” Matlock said he found a gun near his brother-in-law but thought it was one he had dropped. “I didn’t even think it was connected,” Matlock said. “I got ready to go home and took his gun and brought it up to my safe.” But Matlock said in recent weeks Herbison seemed scared for his life. “He’d been thinking that people were trying to get him and that he’d been shot at a couple times,” Matlock said. “But I don’t believe anyone shot him. I think he did it himself.” Investigators, however, said they are still investigating. “He had his problems, but he was a pretty good neighbor,” Matlock said. “He watched over my place and I watched over his.” The Benton County Sheriff’s Office has asked for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to assist in their investigation. Herbison’s body has been taken to Nashville for an autopsy.
