AUSTIN, Texas —
Austin Police Department (APD) detectives announced Thursday that they now know who killed Bert Allen Mann back in 1994.
Sgt. Melanie Rodriguez with APD's Cold Case Unit said a DNA profile helped them identify Kenneth Wayne Robbins as the person responsible for Mann's murder. Robbins died in September 2023.
What happened back in 1994?
On May 12, 1994, 46-year-old Burt Allen Mann was killed at his home at 2510 Star Grass Circle in South Austin. Police said when he came home from work, there was a burglar – later identified as Kenneth Wayne Robbins – inside his home.
Police said the burglar stabbed Mann multiple times in the foyer of the home. Mann died there in the entryway, where he was later found by his wife.
In 1994, APD Lt. David Parkinson called the case "unusual" because he said in most property crimes, the offender would normally flee the scene and not become involved in any kind of confrontation with the homeowner.
KVUE crews spoke to Mann's neighbors shortly after the murder happened.
"It was the time of day when children could have been coming home from school, definitely people coming home from work. There was just a lot of risk with being in a house at that time," neighbor Cathy Torrey said. "It does make it scary."
Police said at the time that they believed the suspect had escaped out the back door of Mann's house and into the woods behind the home.
The investigation moves forward
In an update on Feb. 8, 2024, APD Sgt. Melanie Rodriguez said Mann's killer was injured as he left the home, leaving blood inside for homicide detectives to collect.
After APD's Cold Case Unit was established in 2005, detectives discovered that there was DNA in evidence in connection with this case. The DNA was sent off to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to have an original DNA profile completed. That profile was then uploaded to CODIS, or the Combined DNA Index System, but it did not turn up a match.
Nearly 30 years passed, and Rodriguez said more than 20 detectives worked to solve Mann's murder. More than 40 people were looked at as possible suspects. Finally, the single-source DNA from Mann's case was sent to Bode Technology, a private lab, in March 2023. Three months later, the company returned results to APD, identifying a possible suspect in Mann's case through a process called genetic genealogy.
APD detectives worked over the next couple of months to establish whether the person identified by Bode Technology – Kenneth Wayne Robbins – was in Austin at the time of Mann's murder.
APD tried to work with the Texas Rangers and the DPS Criminal Investigations Division to surreptitiously collect DNA from Robbins, who investigators learned was living in Lubbock, Texas, and was working as a long-haul truck driver.
The attempts were unsuccessful, so an APD detective wrote a search warrant for Robbins and drove to Lubbock. On Sept. 8, 2023, detectives found Robbins at his work, served the search warrant and took a sample of his DNA. Robbins refused to speak with the detectives.
On Sept. 13, 2023, APD was contacted by the owners of the trucking company Robbins worked for. They said their truck was parked at a truck stop in Weatherford, Texas, and hadn't moved for a suspicious amount of time.
APD contacted Weatherford police to do a welfare check, and they found Robbins dead in his truck. An autopsy later revealed he died by suicide.
Mann's family receives some closure
Sgt. Rodriguez said Robbins lived in Austin at the time of Mann's murder and he is believed to be the person responsible for Mann's death. APD had written a capital murder warrant for Robbins and intended to arrest him and bring him back to Travis County to answer to the charges in the court system.
"Mr. Mann is survived by his wife and his sister, and they are happy enough to have an answer as to the ‘who’ – I don’t know that they will ever have an answer as to the ‘why,'" Rodriguez said. "And I don’t know, quite honestly, if any of those answers would ever be sufficient for their grief.”
Rodriguez said while DNA is an important tool in investigators' toolboxes, it is "not quite an answer," and cases like this still need hard work on behalf of detectives in order to be solved.
Kathy May, Mann's younger sister, said it's been emotional hearing the news almost 30 years later.
"I always felt like ... I could walk past [Robbins] on the street and not even know it," May said. "We don't have that big question hanging over our hearts. I had really kind of given up hope that it would happen, and I'm so grateful."
May added that even though her family can begin healing, she feels deep sadness for Robbins' family after finding out the news all these years later.
"They stay on my mind all the time because I can't imagine learning this after nearly 30 years, within your son and husband and father's background," May said.
APD still asks that anyone with any additional information about this crime call the Cold Case Unit at 512-974-5250. Tips may also be submitted anonymously online or by calling the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program at 512-472-8477.