I always believed Matthew McConaughey’s first acting role was in the Richard Linklater comedy Dazed and Confused, but I was wrong. Oh so wrong. There I was preparing to help solve 25-year-old crimes by vegging out to some Unsolved Mysteries when Dennis Farina, who took over as host for the late Robert Stack when the series adeptly solved the mystery of cancellation back in 2008, informed me that the next story would feature an appearance from Matthew McConaughey, which, honestly, is the only way you can actually improve on the perfection of Unsolved Mysteries. Before the actor evolved into Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey, he portrayed a murder victim on a true-crime series, and of course he did it with that trademark McConaughey aplomb.

Originally airing back in 1992, McConaughey played Larry, an ex-marine, youth counselor, and father of a three-year-old girl. Larry was mowing his mother’s lawn when a sexual predator wanted for murder (who was nude from the waist down) exited his truck and began making his way towards a group of children. Larry courageously intervened by stealing the flasher’s truck keys and attempting to keep the perv at the scene until police could arrive. Tragically, Larry’s heroism led to him being shot multiple times. In reality, this is heartbreaking, but in the campy reenactment world of Unsolved Mysteries, it looked a little something like this:

Do you think a 13-year-old Kate Hudson saw this episode and was like, “Someday I’m going to star in over one hundred rom-coms with that man”?

I have mixed feelings about stumbling upon this pop culture treasure. On one hand, I applaud the Unsolved Mysteries production team for sticking to the script. I would have taken one look at Matty Mac’s magnetic performance and been like, “We’re changing the whole story. His character survives and becomes a folksy vigilante now.” But on the other hand, how dare you kill off Matthew McConaughey’s character, Unsolved Mysteries! This man is a future Academy-Award winner, Emmy-nominated actor, and MTV Movie Awards presenter. Would you treat Meryl Streep or the guy who starred in Life Is Beautiful with such blatant disrespect?

I think not. McConaughey would eventually go on to appear in critically-acclaimed films like Dallas Buyers Club and Mud; plus other movies that technically exist like Fool’s Gold and Failure to Launch.

All joking aside, this was a legitimately meaty part compared to other roles in the true-crime reenactment game, and McConaughey knocks it out of the theatrical park. Not only were we treated to the first of many glimpses at that sweet, sweet, McConau-torso, but the future star of Edtv was even afforded the opportunity to showcase his dramatic chops during an emotional death scene.

There are no small parts, only small actors.

Eleven days after this story aired, the man who shot Larry was arrested, which I 100% attribute to McConaughey’s gritty performance. The actor reflected on his Unsolved Mysteries role during a 2016 interview with IMDB.

“I was the guy who got shot while mowing my mother’s grass,” McConaughey said. “Somebody had seen the Unsolved Mysteries [episode] I was in and made a call, and they caught the guy 11-days later.”

As it turns out, the dirtbag only knew How to Lose the Police for 10 Days.

Case closed.

Where to stream Unsolved Mysteries