Connect with us

Austin, TX

After more than 4 decades, DNA leads to arrest in nursing student’s killing | CNN

Published

on

After more than 4 decades, DNA leads to arrest in nursing student’s killing | CNN




CNN
 — 

One January evening in 1980, a 25-year-old nursing student began walking to a friend’s house.

She never made it. Instead, a man got out of a car, grabbed her, and drove her away.

Her body was found the next morning. She had been sexually assaulted, strangled and shot, police say – and their search for her killer began.

Advertisement

More than four decades later, there’s been a breakthrough in the cold case: Police have arrested a 78-year-old man whose DNA sample matched evidence from the autopsy, Austin, Texas, police said in a press release.

The Austin Municipal Court on Wednesday found probable cause to issue an arrest warrant charging Deck Brewer Jr. with murder in the death of Susan Leigh Wolfe. He already was being held by the Massachusetts Department of Corrections on unrelated charges.

The turning point came this year with DNA testing, police say.

Wolfe enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin nursing school on January 9, 1980, police say. That night around 10, she was walking to a friend’s house and was kidnapped about a block from home.

A witness told police a car stopped and the driver exited, grabbed Wolfe in a ”bear hug,” placed a coat over her head, and forced her into the car. The passenger door opened, but the witness said he did not see what the passenger did during the abduction. The witness said the car was a 1970 Dodge Polara.

Advertisement

Wolfe’s body was found early the next morning in an Austin alley. She had been sexually assaulted, strangled and shot. Investigators found DNA evidence at the scene.

“During the first year of the investigation, APD investigators tirelessly followed up on dozens of leads, investigated and tracked down numerous cars fitting the witness’s description, produced over 40 persons of interest, and interviewed at least six suspects, some as far away as New York state,” the police press release says.

In April 2023, detectives from the APD Cold Case Unit submitted evidence from the sexual assault to the Texas DPS Crime Laboratory. This year, police learned of a possible match in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) of convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence and missing persons.

They obtained a DNA sample from Brewer, who told them he had been in Austin at the time of the murder.

“Brewer invoked his right to counsel after he was told his DNA was found at the scene of a homicide,” the police release says.

Advertisement

“On August 14, 2024, based on the totality of the investigation thus far, the Austin Municipal Court found probable cause to issue an arrest warrant charging Deck Brewer Jr. with the murder of Susan Leigh Wolfe,” it says.

Information about Brewer’s arraignment and his attorney were not immediately available.

CNN affiliate KEYE-TV spoke with a cold case expert about advances in DNA technology that have led to many cold cases being solved after decades.

It’s possible investigators didn’t have enough of the DNA sample originally, said Michael Arntfield of Western University in Ontario, Canada.

“Until recently with improvements in DNA technology, a considerable amount of DNA was required to be uploaded to the system to be compared,” he said.

Advertisement

The station said Wolfe’s parents died since her killing, as did her then roommate.



Source link

Austin, TX

Austin, TX venue Emo’s on the move again, AEG to take over the building

Published

on

Austin, TX venue Emo’s on the move again, AEG to take over the building


Emo’s in Austin is on the move again. 

After more than a decade at 2015 E. Riverside Drive (following the original Red River-era venue closing in 2011), Emo’s current Riverside space will be taken over by AEG Presents when the lease ends later this year. The Los Angeles, CA-based company will assume operations in January 2027 and plans to reopen the building under a new name in early 2027 following upgrades, renovations and a full rebrand.

AEG are also opening a new 4,000-cap venue nearby next spring as part of the River Park mixed-use development in southeast Austin.

C3 Presents, who reopened Emo’s at the Riverside location, say this isn’t the end of Emo’s — they’re working on a new home and plan to move the venue back to downtown Austin, with more updates to come.

Advertisement

AEG Presents Vice President Robin Phillips shared the following:

There’s like no weirdness or any bad blood or anything. It just, you know, new lease and they’ll [Emo’s] go do something great. They have been important to the Austin music scene, so I have a lot of respect for them.

But I don’t think the Austin music scene or legacy is limited to one name. I know people will remember the original Emo’s and this Emo’s as, you know, both great venues… And I don’t think Austin’s music scene is just a name, it’s the artists, in my opinion.

 

A C3 spokesperson added:

Emo’s has a long history in Austin and we’ve been working behind the scenes for some time on a new home for this venue. After we wrap up at this venue in December, we will focus our efforts on our new location.

 

Advertisement

Emo’s gave the following statement to Austin local news KXAN:

We’re grateful for all of the fans and artists who’ve shaped Emo’s to what it is today: a community of like-minded people who love live music. We have a vision for our future and will be moving into a new building downtown that celebrates our punk rock roots with the new amenities that fans are looking for from a venue. We’ll continue to share updates on the next chapter for Emo’s on social media.





Source link

Continue Reading

Austin, TX

Highly pathogenic virus found in herd of Texas dairy cows

Published

on

Highly pathogenic virus found in herd of Texas dairy cows


State and federal agriculture officials said highly pathogenic avian flu has been found in a herd of dairy cows in Texas.

What we know:

Advertisement

Officials said the H5N1 virus was confirmed with laboratory tests in late May after cows at an unspecified farm became sick and milk production dropped. The dairy has since been quarantined and an investigation is underway.

This is the first case of avian flu in a Texas dairy herd this year, officials said.

What they’re saying:

Advertisement

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is confident that pasteurization is effective at inactivating H5N1, and that the commercial, pasteurized milk supply is safe,” officials at the Texas Animal Health Commission said in a statement.

A dairy cow is seen at a farm on June 1, 2026.

A dairy cow is seen at a farm on June 1, 2026. (Tim Evans/Bloomberg / Getty Images)

Advertisement

Dig deeper:

H5N1 has a high rate of severe disease and death in animals that become infected.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk to the general public from avian flu is low. Some sporadic human infections have been reported around the world since 1997. There have been no known cases of person-to-person spreading of avian flu.

Advertisement

The Source: Information in this story came from the Texas Animal Health Commission, the USDA, the FDA and the CDC.

TexasHealthPets and AnimalsFood and Drink



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Austin, TX

New Texas law tightens rules for autonomous vehicle companies, including Waymo

Published

on

New Texas law tightens rules for autonomous vehicle companies, including Waymo


Self-driving cars have become a common sight on Austin streets, but a new Texas law is adding tougher requirements for the companies behind the wheelless vehicles.

Senate Bill 2807 imposes stricter rules on autonomous vehicle companies operating in the state, including state authorization, emergency response plans for law enforcement, and a public portal where residents can verify operators and file safety complaints.

The changes come as Austin continues to track incidents involving autonomous vehicles. The city’s autonomous vehicle dashboard shows 75 incidents in 2026, including a collision, eight near misses, and seven incidents of ignoring police direction.

Attorney Drew Gibbs, a partner at Slingshot Law, said one crash involved a Waymo vehicle.

Advertisement

“There was a T-bone collision. A pretty serious T-bone collision where a Waymo just crashed into the side of my client’s vehicle,” Gibbs said.

ALSO| Waymo files voluntary software recall over flooded-lane risks on high-speed roads

KEYE

Advertisement

One of the incidents of ignoring police direction happened during the mass shooting on West Sixth Street back in March, when three people died, and 15 others were injured.

Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock said autonomous vehicles can struggle in unusual situations.

“It didn’t impede on anything in the moment, but it’s not necessarily uncommon where these vehicles don’t quite know how to deal with these one-off scenarios,” Bullock said.

The new law requires autonomous vehicle companies to be authorized by the state, to provide an emergency response plan for law enforcement, and to participate in a public-facing portal that allows the public to verify operators and submit safety complaints.

Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation and engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, welcomed the added oversight.

Advertisement

“I’m glad that the state is taking this a bit more seriously now,” she said. “It’s important not to just let others slip in without kind of meeting those basic minimums.”

Bullock said the emergency planning requirement may not make a major difference in fast-moving situations. Asked how impactful it is to have a fully laid out emergency response plan, Bullock said, “These plans are great, but it takes time to work through all of those versus the immediacy of having someone behind the wheel.”

The four autonomous vehicle companies operating in Austin — Waymo, Zoox, AV-Ride, and Tesla — are all state-authorized.

The Texas DMV said an autonomous vehicle company can lose its authorization to operate in Texas if the agency deems the vehicles are operating in a way that endangers public safety.

Waymo was contacted for comment, but had not responded.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending