Fort Worth Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The first time Michael A. Gilbert "died," he faked drowning while swimming off the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2002.

The Coast Guard searched the waters but soon determined that the "cousin" who had reported the drowning was, in fact, Gilbert, a registered sex offender who had been trying to avoid arrest on a parole violation warrant.

For his second "death," Fort Worth police say, Gilbert tried to make his demise more convincing by providing a body, this time in an attempt to skirt a new sexual molestation case.

Fort Worth police suspect that Gilbert targeted a homeless man who was roughly his same size and build, shot him in the head, placed his body in the trunk of Gilbert's car and set it ablaze, hoping investigators would believe that the body was Gilbert's.

STAR, Texas -- For game wardens, the work begins where the pavement ends.

Texas' all-terrain cops don't just check deer hunters and fishing licenses anymore.

They're on call around the clock for everything from picking up the pieces after a NASA shuttle disaster to swift-water rescues and hurricane evacuations.