Suspect Charged In Cold Case Kidnapping And Murder Of University Of Texas Nursing Student

A 78-year-old man has been charged in the murder of a University of Texas Austin nursing student who was found fatally shot in an alley 40 years ago, a day after she enrolled in the school, Austin Police announced Friday.

Deck Brewer Jr., 78, who is already serving time in Massachusetts for an unrelated crime, is now accused of killing 25-year-old Susan Leigh Wolfe after modern forensics matched his DNA with that found on the victim, authorities said.

Wolfe was kidnapped a block away from her home while walking to a friend’s house at around 10 p.m. on Jan. 9, 1980, police said. She had enrolled at the University of Texas Austin School of Nursing that same day.

A witness to the kidnapping told detectives they observed a person exiting a 1970 Dodge Polara and placing a coat over Wolfe’s head before forcing her into the car, police stated. Wolfe’s body was found the next morning in Austin.

The medical examiner found evidence that Wolfe had been strangled, but determined she died from a single gunshot wound to the head, according to police. A pathologist also found evidence that the victim was sexually assaulted by one of the suspects.

Throughout the investigation, detectives found 40 persons of interest and interviewed at least six suspects, some of whom lived across the country.

Wolfe’s case remained cold until last year, when detectives submitted evidence related to her sexual assault to the state’s crime lab. Austin police received a notification from the lab in March that the DNA they supplied possibly matched Brewer’s.

Brewer told detectives in July that he had been in Austin and San Antonio, Texas, around the time of Wolfe’s killing, police said.

It’s unclear what crime Brewer is serving time for in Massachusetts. However, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections told HuffPost in an email that he is in custody at the Massachusetts Treatment Center, a separate facility that houses male inmates identified as sex offenders.

Austin Police say they are continuing to investigate Wolfe’s case and following leads to identify another suspect, the passenger in the car at the time of the kidnapping.