A 78-year-old man incarcerated nearly 2,000 miles away has been charged with sexually assaulting and murdering a 25-year-old nursing student in Texas in 1980, Austin police announced in a press release Friday.
Police say DNA technology has led them to believe that Dec Brewer Jr., currently serving a prison sentence in Massachusetts on unrelated charges, kidnapped and killed Susan Lee Wolfe about 10 p.m. on January 9, 1980, a block away from her home as she was walking to a friend’s house.
Wolf had just enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing that day and was just four days before her 26th birthday when she was killed.
A witness to the kidnapping said he saw a car pull up and the suspect grab Wolf from the sidewalk in a “bear hug,” pull his coat over his head and then force him into the car.
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Susan Lee Wolf, 25, was abducted around 10 p.m. on January 9, 1980, while walking to a friend’s house one block from her home. (Austin Police Department)
Investigators found her the next morning in an alleyway with gunshot wounds and signs of strangulation and sexual assault. Witnesses also believed there was another person in the car, who may have been a second suspect.
During the first year, Austin Police Department investigators followed up on dozens of leads, identified as many as 40 suspects at one point, and interviewed at least six.
Last April, detectives from the department’s cold case unit submitted DNA evidence from the crime scene to the Texas State Police Crime Lab, and results from last February ruled out six known suspects.
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Dec Brewer Jr. was charged with the murder of Susan Lee Wolfe decades ago. (Austin Police Department)
The evidence was entered into the Integrated DNA Index System (CODIS), a national DNA database of convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence and missing persons.
Brewer was identified as a possible match in March, and then last month a DNA search warrant turned up Brewer again as a match.
Wolf had just enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Nursing on the day she was killed. (Google Maps)
Brewer admitted to investigators that he was in Austin around the time of the murders but would not say anything other than he did not have an attorney.
APD said there was a one in 550.5 quintillion chance that Brewer’s DNA was a false match.
“It’s 1 quintillion followed by 18 zeros,” police said.
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The case remains active and investigators hope witnesses can identify the person who was sitting in the passenger seat when Wolf was abducted.
