A 78-year-old man incarcerated nearly 2,000 miles away has been charged with the 1980 sexual assault and murder of a 25-year-old Texas nursing student, as announced by Austin police in a recent press release. The suspect, currently serving time in Massachusetts for an unrelated crime, was identified as Deck Brewer Jr.
The victim, Susan Leigh Wolfe, was a 25-year-old nursing student who was tragically kidnapped and killed just a block away from her home on January 9, 1980. Wolfe had enrolled at the University of Texas Austin School of Nursing on that very day and was only four days away from her 26th birthday when the heinous crime took place.
According to a witness, Wolfe was forcibly taken by the suspect into a car after being grabbed off the sidewalk in a 'bear hug' and having a coat thrown over her head. The following morning, Wolfe was found dead in an alley, showing signs of strangulation, sexual assault, and a gunshot wound.
Despite numerous leads and suspects investigated in the initial year of the case, it wasn't until recently that a breakthrough occurred. Last year, DNA evidence from the crime scene was submitted to the Texas DPS Crime Laboratory, leading to a match in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database.
Deck Brewer Jr. emerged as a potential match, and after further investigation and a DNA search warrant, he was confirmed as the suspect. Brewer acknowledged being in Austin around the time of the murder but declined to provide further information without legal representation.
The Austin Police Department emphasized the accuracy of the DNA match, stating that the likelihood of an incorrect match was one in 550.5 quintillion, highlighting the robustness of the evidence.
The case remains active, with investigators now focused on identifying the individual seen in the passenger seat of the car during Wolfe's abduction. The use of advanced DNA technology has played a pivotal role in bringing justice to this decades-old case, shedding light on the events surrounding Susan Leigh Wolfe's tragic death.
