AUSTIN, Texas – The brother of a woman murdered in 1980 is speaking out after law enforcement say they have identified her alleged killer.

Austin police say they have identified a murder suspect in a cold case from 1980. 

On January 9, 1980, 25-year-old Susan Wolfe enrolled at the UT Austin School of Nursing. Her brother, Charles Wolfe, describes her as a great spirit.

“She was working at the state hospital at the time and really cared about people. That was kind of a crossover for her, to get her foot in the door at University of Texas,” he said. 

Austin Police say that on that same day, around 10 p.m., she was kidnapped about a block from her home while walking to her friend’s house. 

A witness saw a car, described as a 1970 Dodge Polara, stopping and the driver grabbing her in a bear hug, putting a coat over her head, and forcing her into the car. The witness said the passenger door also opened, but didn’t see what they did. 

Susan’s body was found the next morning in an alley on East 17th Street near Poquito Street. Police say she had been strangled, sexually assaulted, and shot in the head. 

Charles was a junior in high school at the time. 

“I was in disbelief, denial, thinking that must be some kind of mistake. Things like that just don’t happen,” he said.

MORE MISSING IN TEXAS

APD had over 40 people of interest, interviewed at least six suspects, some as far away as New York State. 

“It was really tough on our family. It was like an open wound that would fester,” Charles said. “After, I’d say a decade, our family had given up.”

Last year, police sent DNA for testing. They got the results in February, which eliminated the six known suspects. The results were then entered into CODIS, a DNA database of offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons.

In March, a possible match was found in Massachusetts: 78-year-old Deck Brewer, Jr. He’s incarcerated there on unrelated charges.

He told APD detectives he had been in Austin and San Antonio around the time of Susan’s death. He has been charged with her murder.

“I was shocked, I was dumbfounded. I was just ecstatic. It was, I tell you, one of the best days of my life,” Charles said. “It’s tempered with a little cautious optimism because we want to make sure that it’s justice delayed, but not denied. I want to make sure that we bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice ultimately.”

Susan was the big sister to two younger brothers. Their parents passed away without ever knowing who was responsible for Susan’s death.

“She’s still alive in the hearts and minds of anyone who ever knew her that was touched by her,” Charles said.

The case isn’t closed yet. Detectives still want to know who the passenger in the car was.

If you have any information, call the APD Cold Case Unit at 512-974-5250.

“We want to heighten the visibility of this case to let people out there know there’s still someone out there. There’s someone that probably knows this individual or has seen this car, knows the history of this case. I like to encourage them to come forward, to cooperate, to help bring these people to justice. Someone knows something,” Charles said.

Dunia Bautista was watching TV in her home in East Austin when her power went out.

“It’s really hot. It’s truly very hot,” Bautista said in Spanish. She sat on the porch with her kids, trying to cool off. “I bathed my baby because she’s vulnerable and young and was heating up, so I cooled her down,” Bautista said.

Wednesday was the city’s hottest day of the year so far and about 15,000 people were without power from about 5-9 p.m. in the East Austin and Riverside neighborhoods, according to Austin Energy. The utility company said high energy demand caused the outage.

The East Side can get pretty hot and suffers more from extreme heat than other parts of Austin. Without power, neighbors stepped outside to cool off, many fanning themselves on porches, while others packed up and left for places with electricity and running air conditioning.

Clint Muhlenburg said his power went out at around 5 p.m. and his house instantly warmed up. “I’d been sitting in the dark for a while and realized … this isn’t getting better,” he said, while loading his belongings and his dog into his car.

He thought the evening would cool things down a little, but when that didn’t happen, he made plans to head to a hotel. Muhlenburg said he had no idea when the power would be back and wanted better communication from Austin Energy.

“I know it’s probably a difficult circumstance for them but just communicating would be helpful,” he said.

Cooling centers in South Austin extended their hours until 11 p.m. in case people needed a place to escape the heat. They usually close at 9 p.m.

Wednesday’s heat overloaded a transformer, which helped prevent any serious damage to the system, but resulted in the power outage. Matt Mitchell, a spokesperson with Austin Energy, said the power was restored to all customers by 9 p.m. and crews checked on other systems across town to prevent similar power outages from happening.

“We are confident it will continue to operate as it should and we will not be in a situation like we were in yesterday,” he said.

When power returned to East Austin, a warm glow returned to neighborhood windows and Austin’s iconic moonlight towers flickered back on. Cheering could be heard from the street and some residents lit a firework in celebration.

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