For the first time, a witness speaks describing what Matthew Marshall looked like after the night he's believed to have emerged from the dark waters of a Cape Coral canal.
The witness described Marshall as soaked to the bone when he walked past, shoes were sopping we.
Did this man kill and dismember his father? Then risk his own life in the gator infested waters.
“You can't swim in here, because there are gators in here," said the witness who we're not identifying.
Neighbors are telling us they've spotted a box in the water when the water recedes. And they wonder and worry it could contain more remains.
"It was so isolated and random, obviously it was a crime of some sort of passion," says the witness.
Words from the woman, who detectives say, had a close brush with a stone cold killer right after he dumped his own father's mutilated body.
Three months after the brutal murder of Rick Marshall, the witness speaking exclusively to 4 in Your Corner.
She fears going on camera but told detectives she was walking her dog the morning she saw a man dripping wet, walking outside of her cape coral condo.
Detectives say that man was 33-year old Matthew Marshall, coming from this canal where authorities say he dumped parts of his father's body.
The witness says, "[it] seemed strange because it was 7 o'clock in the morning." Adding, "Nobody swims in here; it's not a swimming hole."
The witness telling us Matthew was shirtless, carrying his shoes and walking intently with a blank stare as he headed upstairs towards his father's condo.
This raising alarms, especially since the canal is infested with alligators and a recently reported crocodile.
Witness: "the news came and took pictures out there because it's so rare and it was up on the beach up there.
Mike Mason: "they get big."
Witness: "yeah it was about 7 foot."
The witness also telling Mason that residents spotted a large box in the same canal during low tide, and planned to notify Cape Police. They worry it could be connected to the case.
Witness: "I'm gonna call the guy up, the guy who gave me his card.
When we told Rick Marshall's friend about the box, he immediately wondered if it could contain the head and arms of his murdered friend.
Neighbors don't know what to think.
Witness: "oh my god we had this happen here, it's absolutely unusual."
