Texas nursing student’s kidnapping, murder solved after 44 years: Police

(AUSTIN, TEXAS) — A 78-year-old man has now been charged with a murder committed over 40 years ago after genetic genealogy helped investigators identify him as a suspect.

Deck Brewer Jr., a man already imprisoned in Massachusetts, has been charged with the 1980 murder of 25-year-old Susan Leigh Wolfe, according to the Austin, Texas, Police Department.

Wolfe had just enrolled as a nursing student at the University of Texas at Austin when she was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed on Jan. 9, 1980, according to police.

Wolfe was kidnapped one block from her home while walking to a friend’s house at around 10 p.m. A witness saw a car stop before the driver exited and grabbed Wolfe in a “bear hug,” placed a coat over her head and forced her into the back of the car, police said.

Wolfe’s body was found the next morning in an alley in Austin. Her body had evidence of ligature strangulation and the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, police said.

During an autopsy, a pathologist found evidence of a sexual assault by one of two unknown suspects seen in the car, police said.

For a year after the murder, investigators followed dozens of leads and tracked down dozens of cars that fit the witness’s description. Police said over the years they had over 40 persons of interest and conducted interviews with at least six suspects.

In April 2023, detectives submitted evidence related to Wolfe’s sexual assault to the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory, where forensic experts evaluated it and determined it was suitable for testing, police said.

In February, Austin police received the test results — which produced a male profile for the suspect — and eliminated the six suspects who were not a genetic match with the evidence police had, police said.

Police then entered the profile into the Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, which operates local, state and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence and missing persons, police said.

In March, Austin police received a notification for a possible match in Massachusetts, where Brewer is currently incarcerated on unrelated charges, police said.

Detectives conducted a short interview with Brewer in which he said he had been in Austin and San Antonio, Texas, around the time of the murder, police said. Brewer asked for his right to a lawyer when he was told DNA was found at the scene of a murder, police said.

After the DNA comparison was conducted, an Austin court found probable cause to charge Brewer in the murder of Wolfe, police said.