KCBD Investigates: Seagraves ISD superintendent found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wound

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Seagraves ISD Superintendent Joshua Goen has died by suicide, just days after being released from jail. Goen was accused of recording female students in their locker room without their consent.

The Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office received the call about a death investigation at 10:15 a.m. on Friday.

When they arrived at his parent’s home near Shallowater, deputies found 43-year-old Goen deceased with a single self-inflicted gunshot wound. The medical examiner was notified, and the sheriff’s office said this incident remains under investigation.

Seagraves ISD released this statement, “Our deepest condolences go out to the entire Goen family. We are a small community and we all mourn with the family for their loss and we will all rally together to support them in their time of bereavement.”

Gaines County Sheriff’s deputies, with assistance from the Seagraves Police Department, arrested Goen on Monday, Dec. 5 on a charge of invasive visual recording. Goen bonded out of the Gaines County Jail on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

Hale Center ISD’s Superintendent Steven Pyburn said the investigation into Goen began after the girls’ high school basketball team played a game at Seagraves ISD on Nov. 15.

Pyburn said when the Hale Center ISD team entered the Seagraves ISD visiting team’s locker room, they saw something that looked like a phone charger. The players did not think anything of it, but did set down a speaker in front of the device, which they later learned was a camera.

Pyburn said fortunately, the speaker blocked the view of the girls changing.

After the game, a Hale Center ISD athlete grabbed the device, thinking it belonged to one of her teammates.

Pyburn said she brought it on the bus and no one claimed it, so it was left there.

The next day, Pyburn said an 8th-grade student was on that same bus, noticed the device, and identified it as a camera.

The student took it to the Hale Center ISD dean of students who then turned it over to the county’s school resource officer.

That prompted a multi-agency investigation, including the FBI, Homeland Security, Hale County Sheriff’s Office, Gaines County Sheriff’s Department, and Seagraves Police Department.

Seagraves ISD’s school board and administrators said they learned of this investigation on Nov. 22. The school board held an emergency meeting and voted to place Goen on paid administrative leave.

Seagraves ISD’s High School Principal Daylan Sellers is now serving as interim superintendent.

The Seagraves school board had scheduled a meeting for Monday, December 12 that has now been rescheduled to Tuesday, December 13 at 7 p.m.

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