A 79-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the 1981 strangulation death of a Texas woman, more than four decades after the case first went cold.
Larry Dean Brown was booked into the Tarrant County Corrections Center after being extradited from Colorado, the Grapevine Police Department announced Thursday, July 16. Court records show he is charged with murder intentionally causing death.
The arrest stems from the killing of 35-year-old Beverly Bruneau, who was found dead inside her home on Feb. 13, 1981.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE, Bruneau’s boyfriend returned home from work and discovered her lying on the living room floor with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck and blood on her face.
Investigators said the house showed signs of a struggle and that Bruneau had suffered multiple injuries. Her death was later ruled a homicide caused by strangulation, which authorities believe occurred sometime that morning.
Brown first came to investigators’ attention when officers went to his home to speak with his wife, Thelma Brown, who was Bruneau’s best friend.
At the time, Bruneau and Thelma co-owned a home in Dallas that had been damaged by a fire. The affidavit alleges that Brown pressured Bruneau to sign fraudulent insurance documents containing inflated repair costs.
Bruneau reportedly refused to sign the paperwork. Investigators further allege that after her death, Thelma forged Bruneau’s signature on the documents.
Despite the suspicious circumstances, the case remained unsolved for decades.
In 2010, investigators reexamined evidence and developed a DNA profile belonging to an unidentified man. However, the profile did not match anyone in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS.
When detectives later reopened the case, they worked with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado, where Brown was living, to obtain discarded DNA from soda bottles found in his trash.
Testing later indicated that Brown could not be excluded as the source of blood found on Bruneau’s nightgown, according to the affidavit.
“The arrest follows an extensive investigation by detectives and represents a significant development in the case,” the Grapevine Police Department said.
Authorities noted that additional forensic testing, including confirmatory DNA analysis, is still pending. Investigators said they are waiting for those results before releasing further details.
Brown is being held on a $2 million bond. His attorney, Bryan Hoeller, has filed a motion asking for the amount to be reduced, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office also praised the Grapevine Police Department and the county’s Cold Case Task Force for continuing to pursue the decades-old investigation.
“The determination of the Grapevine Police Department and our task force ensures that justice is never forgotten,” the office said in a statement.
Officials added that they hope the arrest will be the first of many successful cases solved through cooperation between local police agencies and the district attorney’s cold case team.
Glad they never stopped trying to solve this case.This man has an opportunity to get things right before he meets his Maker