Cold Case Files: Details are sparse on homicde victim from Polk County whose body was found near Texarkana in 1994

On November 11, 1994, the body of Paul Eugene McCandless was recovered from the Sulphur River near Texarkana. He was 52 years old, a white man whose home stood in Mena, Polk County, roughly 120 miles to the north. He had last been seen on October 30 leaving that home.

During the investigation that followed, authorities determined he had been murdered.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office requested assistance from the Arkansas State Police. The case was assigned number 87-550-94. The date of death was placed sometime in late October or early November of that year.

How McCandless traveled from Mena to the river, and the precise circumstances that led to his death, have never been publicly detailed.

No records of a funeral, burial site, or cemetery have been located. No occupation, family information, or other personal history appears in available sources. No suspects have been named. No theories or motives have been published.

The only official account remains the cold-case listing maintained by the Arkansas State Police.

More than three decades later the investigation is still open. Anyone with information is asked to contact Arkansas State Police Company

C at (870) 777-8944. The homicide of Paul Eugene McCandless remains unsolved.