According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, Larry Gawatz was pronounced dead at the Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron shortly after noon on Friday, May 30, 2014. A news release from the DOC indicates Gawatz died of natural causes at the age of 73.
In 2012, a Buchanan County judge sentenced Gawatz to 12 years in prison for his guilty plea to charges of statutory sodomy.
Authorities say the six-year-old victim was abused over the course of two years.