Forty-five years after Yolanda Herrera vanished while walking home from a Texas bar, investigators say they have finally identified the man responsible for her killing.
Universal City Police Department Lt. Stephen Rios said during an Aug. 25 press conference that Kelly Lee Brower has been arrested on a capital murder charge after DNA evidence from the 1981 crime scene was matched to him.
“This is a testament,” Rios said, “to the commitment of all those involved that after 45 years we have made an arrest in the murder of Yolanda Herrera.”
What Happened to Yolanda Herrera?
Herrera disappeared in the early morning hours of April 11, 1981, as she made her way back to her home in Universal City, Texas, after leaving a bar.
Two days later, police said, two young children walking to school found her body near a greenbelt off East Aviation Boulevard.
“She was nude and appeared to have been beaten,” Rios explained. “An autopsy ruled her death as a homicide due to multiple blunt force injuries.”
Investigators also found evidence that she’d been sexually assaulted. During her autopsy, Rios said authorities collected DNA evidence from underneath her fingernails and a semen sample.
For years, investigators worked the case, but were unable to link the death to any suspects.
Police Arrest Kelly Lee Brower in Killing of Yolanda Herrera
In 2021, investigators used advancing DNA technology to get the profile of a male suspect from the evidence in the case and tested it against saliva samples of potential suspects, but found no match.
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That same year, the DNA profile was sent to Bode laboratories for genealogical testing. The company was able to tell detectives they were likely searching for a suspect with the surname “Brower,” but they were unable to link it to a specific individual and no additional DNA tests could be performed at the time due to dwindling sample, Rios said.
Then, in 2025, Universal City Police sent the sample to Othram laboratories who were able to identify Brower as the possible suspect using genetic genealogy.
After learning that Brower was living in Universal City at the time of the murder, Rios said they obtained Brower’s DNA sample and matched it to the crime scene evidence.
Detectives traveled to Cottonwood, Ariz. to speak with Brower in 2026. According to Rios, he confessed to the crime.
“It appeared that it happened to be like an opportunity,” Corporal Catilin Brown added at the press conference. “She happened to be there walking home. He happened to be at the bar and saw her. So we don’t have any indication that he knew her or she knew him.”
She added that although Brower had a prior arrest for larceny, there was “nothing that would lead us to believe that he would be capable of this.”
Brower is expected to be extradited to Texas. It’s unclear whether he has retained an attorney.
For investigators, the arrest comes after decades of work to solve the case.
“It’s just it’s a rewarding feeling to know that that we never gave up on Yolanda for her or for her family,” University City Assistant Chief Steve Mihalski said. “There were often times that that we hit dead ends, and you get frustrated, and you wish for more, and you hope more comes along, and then it’s just a waiting game. But we never stopped. We never, never stopped trying.”