DNA Discovery in Trash Unravels 44-Year-Old Texas Murder Mystery, Reopens Cold Case

A significant breakthrough has been made in a decades-old cold case as a 79-year-old man from Colorado has been charged with the 1981 murder of a Texas flight attendant. This development comes after investigators matched DNA retrieved from the man’s discarded trash with that found on the victim’s clothing.

The suspect, Larry Dean Brown, was taken into custody in Colorado on June 8. On June 29, a grand jury in Tarrant County indicted him for murder. Following this, Brown was extradited to North Texas, where he now resides in the Tarrant County Jail.

Brown faces allegations in the murder of Beverly “Casey” Bruneau, a 35-year-old flight attendant with Braniff Airlines. Her body was discovered in her Grapevine apartment on February 13, 1981.

The case, as detailed in an arrest warrant affidavit reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, reveals that Bruneau’s boyfriend found her lifeless in her living room around 3 p.m. He discovered her after she did not respond to his phone calls.

An electrical cord was wrapped around her neck, and blood was visible on her face and nightgown, the newspaper reported. The apartment contained evidence that Bruneau had struggled with her attacker, according to the affidavit.

The Tarrant County medical examiner determined that Bruneau had been strangled during the midmorning.

Brown came to investigators’ attention on the day of the killing when detectives went to speak with his wife, who was Bruneau’s best friend and former roommate. Both women worked as Braniff flight attendants and jointly owned a house in Dallas, according to the outlet.

Brown’s wife was working an international flight when detectives arrived so Brown instead spoke with the investigators.

One detective described Brown as evasive and noted that he repeatedly gave similar answers. Detectives also documented a fresh injury beneath Brown’s right thumbnail, where the top layer of skin appeared to have been torn away.

Brown later told investigators that he had injured his thumb while working. The detective did not believe the explanation was consistent with the wound, according to the affidavit.

Investigators also examined financial disputes involving the Dallas house owned by Bruneau and Brown’s wife.

The property had been badly damaged by fires in November 1980. Investigators believed at least one of the fires was arson.

Brown, who had been laid off from his job as a Braniff pilot and flight engineer, held a partial interest in a construction company, the newspaper reported. After the fires, he allegedly obtained repair estimates through that company that exceeded the insurance carrier’s appraisals.

Brown allegedly attempted to pressure Bruneau to sign fraudulent insurance documents with inflated repair costs, according to the outlet.

The case remained unresolved for decades.

In 2010, investigators submitted Bruneau’s bloodstained nightgown and other preserved evidence to a University of North Texas laboratory for additional testing. The examination produced the DNA profile of an unidentified man, according to the affidavit. The profile was entered into the national Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, but did not produce a match.

A Grapevine detective began reviewing the investigation again in 2025.

In 2026, Grapevine police asked the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado to help collect what the affidavit called a “covert DNA sample” from Brown.

Investigators retrieved two discarded soda bottles from trash placed outside Brown’s home and sent swabs from the bottles to the University of North Texas laboratory, the Star-Telegram reported.

On May 28, investigators received results indicating that the DNA profile recovered from one bottle could not exclude Brown as the contributor of male blood found on Bruneau’s nightgown, according to the affidavit.

Grapevine police said in a statement that additional forensic testing, including confirmatory DNA analysis, remained pending.