AUSTIN, Texas — Central Texans are setting the table, preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends. But it is a holiday one East Austin family would rather forget. Unfortunately, they're not able to.
For this segment of our KVUE Crime Files series, we're taking a look at the unsolved murder of Stephen Arevalo.
His sister recalls the moment she learned he had been murdered.
"I was actually driving in from Dallas to have Thanksgiving at my mom's house and when I got there, I saw the yellow tape. He said, 'Your mom is fine, she's at the police station. But your brother, Stephen, has been killed,'" Sara Lee said. "I haven't thought about that particular instance for 28 years, but yeah, that's how I was told."
The news shocked Lee and her entire family.
It was 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving in 1995 when their uncle made the gruesome discovery.
"He got up to make his coffee, and he noticed that the screen door was open. He found Stephen on the steps, unresponsive. So it appeared that Stephen was trying to get inside the house," said Det. Zachary Baldridge with the Austin Police Department (APD).
PHOTOS: Stephen Arevalo, 1995 Austin murder victim
Someone stabbed 30-year-old Arevalo, the father of two young girls, repeatedly. Investigators believe it happened in a shed where he often hung out, located behind his mother's house on East Sixth Street.
Just hours before his death, Arevalo went out for a couple of drinks.
"They dropped him off at my mom's house. My brother and my cousin said goodbye," Lee said.
After that, no one knows what happened. Police say at 2 a.m., caller ID showed that Arevalo had tried to contact his estranged wife. She didn't pick up. Two hours later, at 4 a.m., a relative inside the house saw a light on in the shed and a black truck in the alley.
Shortly afterward, police believe Arevalo was killed, sometime between the hours of 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. But the story has gaps.
"After he was dropped off, there's a couple of hours that we don't know really what happened or who was in that black truck or even if this black truck was related to this story. It's in an alley that people go up and down all the time," Det. Baldridge said.
Police don't have a motive, and detectives and family disagree on what it could be.
"We believe it may be a robbery. His personal items that he normally kept in his pocket, like his ID and stuff, were on the shed floor," Baldridge said.
"No, it wasn't a robbery. Nothing was missing. The stereo that they took was an old, beat-up stereo with no monetary value," Lee said.
Nearly three decades later, with no real leads, Arevalo's family has no closure, no peace. The family no longer gets together to celebrate Thanksgiving. But every year, a cousin brings Arevalo's mom a plate for dinner.
"She very rarely eats it. But yeah, it's a tough holiday," Lee said. "We know someone knows something. We just need that person to get a conscience and say something, you know, put yourself in our shoes. How would you how would you feel all these years?"
Just five months ago, Arevalo's father died. Shortly before he passed, when he was in hospice, he had a relative contact investigators one last time to see if there were any leads in the case. He was told no. Not long after, he died, never knowing who was responsible for the death of his son.
If you or anyone you know has information on what happened to Arevalo, call Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477. You can remain anonymous. A reward of up to $1,000 may be available for information leading to an arrest.
KVUE Daybreak's Yvonne Nava is shining a spotlight on several Central Texas cold cases as part of a monthly series called KVUE Crime Files.