Suspect charged in kidnapping case of University of Texas nursing student

A 78-year-old man has been charged in the murder of a nursing student at the University of Texas, Austin, who was found fatally shot in an alley 40 years ago, a day after she enrolled in the school. The Austin police announced this on Friday.

Deck Brewer Jr., 78, who is already serving time in Massachusetts for an unrelated crime, is now charged with the murder of 25-year-old Susan Leigh Wolfe after modern forensics matched his DNA to it found on the victim, authorities said.

Wolfe was kidnapped around 10 p.m. on Jan. 9, 1980, while walking to a friend’s house, police said. She had enrolled at the University of Texas Austin School of Nursing that same day.

A witness to the kidnapping told investigators they saw a person exit a 1970 Dodge Polara and put a jacket over Wolfe’s head before forcing her into the car, police said. Wolfe’s body was found the next morning in Austin.

The medical examiner found evidence that Wolfe had been strangled but determined she died of a single gunshot wound to the head, according to police. A pathologist also found indications that the victim was sexually abused by one of the suspects.

Throughout the investigation, detectives located forty persons of interest and interviewed at least six suspects, some of whom lived across the country.

Wolfe’s case remained cold until last year, when detectives submitted evidence related to her sexual assault to the state crime lab. Austin police received a report from the lab in March that the DNA they provided may have matched Brewer’s.

Brewer told investigators in July that he had been in Austin and San Antonio, Texas, around the time of Wolfe’s killing, police said.

It is unclear what crime Brewer is serving time for in Massachusetts. However, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections told JS in an email that he is in custody Massachusetts Treatment Centera separate facility housing male inmates identified as sex offenders.

Austin police say they continue to investigate Wolfe’s case and are following leads to identify another suspect, the passenger in the car at the time of the kidnapping.