Marshall Warren Muros, 75, died peacefully in his sleep on April 6, 2026, while napping in his favorite recliner with his wife of 40 years nearby.

He was born in Alexandria, Va., in 1951. Because his father was in the Navy, the family traveled all over the world. During his childhood, Marshall lived in China, England and Europe. The family returned to the United States in 1967, and Marshall graduated from West Springfield High School in 1968.

After one year at Virginia Military Institute, at the age of 18, he joined the U.S. Army. He was sent to flight school and trained as a helicopter pilot before he was grounded due to an eyesight issue. Given his choice for a new Military Occupation Specialty (MOS), he was sent to the Defense Language Institute, where he became fluent in Russian and German. He later added proficiency in Serbo-Croatian and a working knowledge of French. 

From 1969 to 1983, he served in the U.S. Army with Military Intelligence and subsequently with Special Forces. Due to the sensitive nature of much of his work, Marshall could not share many of the details of his military service with friends and family. While he was officially stationed in Germany, he served some months of temporary duty in Vietnam. He worked behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. At one point, he worked as a disc jockey in a rock bar in Berlin as a cover.

In 1983, he received an honorable discharge and transferred to a Reserve/National Guard Unit. He received a National Guard scholarship and an academic scholarship to attend Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, specializing in history and criminal justice and was accepted as a master's degree candidate in history and political science.

In 1986, he joined the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office as a road patrol deputy.  He was promoted to detective a year later. In his first two months as a detective, he solved more than 80 felony cases and recovered more than $50,000 in stolen property. In 1988, he was named Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.

Marshall treated everyone with professionalism. Often, when Marshall and his wife were out together at community events in Okeechobee, various people would greet them and exchange a few pleasantries. When his wife would later ask Marshall who that person was, he would explain it was someone he “knew from work” – meaning someone he had arrested. 

Marshall was calm in a crisis and skilled in de-escalating dangerous situations. Twice in his law enforcement career, he found himself facing armed murder suspects. He talked them down; in both cases, the suspects were arrested without further bloodshed.

From 1993 through 1996, and again from 1999 through 2010, he was the director (Lieutenant Commander USN-NSCC) of the Naval Special Warfare Trident NJROTC program sponsored by the U.S. Navy’s UDT-SEAL Association and the Naval Special Warfare Foundation. In 2002, he was selected as the USNCC Officer of the Year.

For 15 months in 1996 and 1997, Marshall was recalled to active duty to serve with the U.S. State Department as Chief Logistics Officer for the International Police Task Force, United Nations Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was the U.S. Contingent Commander for all U.S. law enforcement officers in Bosnia. The tour was initially supposed to last only 12 months, but he agreed to a three-month extension to manage logistics for the security of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the war-torn country in April 1997.

Upon his return to the United States, Marshall resumed his work for the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office. He served as the Okeechobee County Diving Officer and was the founder of the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team. He wrote and managed grants for the sheriff’s office. He held a post-secondary teaching certificate for criminal justice from the State of Florida and taught criminal justice and related subjects in the Florida State College System.

He retired as an OCSO Detective Captain in 2010.

Marshall loved spending time with his wife and children and was always ready to fire up the grill for a family barbecue. He enjoyed SCUBA diving, snorkeling, riding motorcycles and target shooting. He enjoyed traveling but was always happy to return home to the “Muros Micoranch.”

He attended the original Woodstock in 1969. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll music of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. In his retirement, he learned woodworking skills and restored Klipsch speakers.

He had a soft spot for animals, especially those whose lives had not previously known kindness. Such was the case with his dog, Wanda, who was skin and bones and suffering from heartworms when he adopted her from a shelter in 2019. He was heartbroken when his faithful companion passed away in late 2025, and in 2026, he adopted a “second chance” shelter dog that had already been returned by its first adoptive family.

Marshall is survived by his loving wife of 40 years, Katrina Elsken Muros; his son, Michael Muros of Orlando; his daughter, Rachel Parker and son-in-law Grayson Parker of Rochester, Minn.; as well as by Tiffany, Davus, Leon and Malakai Johnson, whom he always considered part of the family. 

In addition, Marshall is survived by sisters, Hilda Auffret and Sarah Ann Muros, both of Arlington, Va.; Lynn Hartmann of Fort Lauderdale; Lesli Torres of North Platte, Neb.; and brother, Scott Booker of Vancouver, Wash.

He is also survived by his aunts Marlyn Booker Brause and Ruth Booker Howard, both of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Funeral services are planned for Monday, April 13, 2026, at Buxton Funeral Home, 400 Parrott Ave., Okeechobee, receiving friends from 2 to 3 p.m. with services at 3 p.m.