AUSTIN, Texas — After more than four decades, a man has been charged in the death of a University of Texas at Austin nursing student.
On the night of Jan. 9, 1980, 25-year-old Susan Leigh Wolfe was kidnapped on Franklin Street while walking to her friend's house. A witness said a car, identified as a 1970 Dodge Polara, stopped and the driver got out, grabbed Wolfe, put a coat over her head and forced her into the car. The witness also said the passenger door opened, but he didn't see what the passenger did during the abduction.
The following morning, Wolfe's body was found in an alley at 2000 E. 17th St. Evidence showed she had been sexually assaulted, strangled and shot in the head.
In the first year of the investigation, Austin Police Department (APD) officers followed up on dozens of leads and interviewed at least six suspects out of more than 40 persons of interest. But ultimately, the case went cold.
Then in April 2023, detectives with the APD Cold Case Unit submitted DNA evidence to the Texas Department of Public Safety's Crime Laboratory.
In February of this year, APD received the test results and entered them into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a nationwide database of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence and missing persons.
On March 11, they got a match: 78-year-old Deck Brewer Jr., who is currently in prison in Massachusetts on a parole violation related to a 2006 kidnapping and rape conviction.
On June 10, the Travis County District Court found probable cause to issue a DNA search warrant to seize a DNA sample from Brewer Jr. On June 13, APD detectives executed that search warrant, obtaining a DNA sample from Brewer Jr. in Massachusetts and conducting a short interview with him. Brewer Jr. told police he had been in Austin and San Antonio around the time of Wolfe's murder, but invoked his right to counsel after he was told his DNA was found at the scene of a homicide.
On July 23, APD received the results of the direct comparison of Brewer Jr.'s DNA to the DNA found on Wolfe's body all those years ago. DPS ruled that Brewer Jr. "cannot be excluded as the contributor."
On Aug. 14, an arrest warrant was issued charging Brewer Jr. with Wolfe's murder.
However, the investigation is still ongoing. APD is still trying to find the passenger who was in the car when Wolfe was abducted. Anyone who has any information is asked to call the APD Cold Case Unit at 512-974-5250 or Crime Stoppers at 512-459-TIPS.