Trucker shot near semi ID’d as cowboy, third generation livestock hauler

A truck driver found dead of a gunshot wound near his semi truck in Texas last week has been identified as a third generation livestock hauler running a regular route. 

Third generation livestock hauler and cowboy, 26-year-old Austin Winn of Tecumseh, Oklahoma, was found dead of a gunshot wound in the 10,000 block of South FM 1788 in Midland, Texas near a truck stop on May 12th. Now, less than a week later, his family is asking for help in raising money for a reward fund to help the family “get justice,” reported YourBasin News.

Winn’s sister, Ashlyn Jones, says that Winn “had been to Presidio, and he always comes home and that’s an area (Midland) that he stops to get fuel on his way home. He runs that route anywhere from one to three times a week, that same route.”

“My brother had got off at I-20 in 1788 and he had just sent my mom a text telling her ‘Happy Mother’s Day’, he’d be home, you know, at 9:37 is when he sent that message to her. He had been on the phone with his girlfriend, you know, talking to her, telling her the same thing and that he would see her, you know, that night. The sheriff showed up to my parents between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. telling them that, um, you know, my brother was found dead outside the truck,” she continued. “What we think happened he, he pulled in there across the street from the pilot on 1788 And I-20, and I believe he went in to go get a drink and some food and came back out to the truck, and then everything happened,” reported Fox 25 OKC.

Winn was hauling horses through west Texas at the time of his death. 

“It’s three generations that have hauled horses and cattle,” Jones explained. “Our grandpa for 40 years, my dad is still hauling horses and then my brother had started hauling horses and cattle. With my husband working in the oil field, our family’s down in Midland/Odessa all the time and it, I mean, it wasn’t anything new for him to be, be there.”

“We’ve been in contact with the Midland County Sheriff’s Department, and as of right now, we have no new news on the investigation,” Jones added. “Right now they’re pulling footage from every place possible, where the truck was parked, and where he came in on I-20.”

Police still have no suspects, but the family is hopeful a reward may help them get the information they need. In lieu of flowers, Winn’s family is asking anyone who can contribute to the reward fund set up at First National Bank, 130 e. Macarthur St., Shawnee, OK 74804 in the name of Austin Winn.

“You know, one share on Facebook could get it to someone that may know something, someone has to have information on what happened on 1788 And I-20, it’s a busy busy place,” said Jones, “We just hope that our family can find peace and closure… We just want answers. We want to find the person who did this.”

“We just want answers,” she said, “We want to find the person who did this.”

“You know, one share on Facebook could get it to someone that may know something, someone has to have information on what happened on 1788 And I-20, it’s a busy busy place,” said Jones, “We just hope that our family can find peace and closure.”