MAN, 79, ARRESTED OVER 1981 KILLING AFTER SODA BOTTLE DNA

Larry Dean Brown, a 79-year-old retired attorney from Colorado, was arrested on June 8, 2026, and later indicted on a murder charge in the 1981 Grapevine cold case killing of Beverly “Casey” Bruneau, a Braniff Airlines flight attendant and his wife’s best friend. Police allege DNA from a soda bottle in his trash could not be ruled out as the source of male blood on her nightgown, and an arrest-warrant affidavit alleges a fight over insurance money on a jointly owned Dallas house gave him a motive.

Brown has not been convicted, and his attorney says the case is largely circumstantial.

Bruneau, 35, was found dead on February 13, 1981, on the living-room floor of her Grapevine, Texas, apartment. An electrical cord was around her neck, and there was blood on her face and nightgown, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Her boyfriend told police she was asleep in the bedroom when he left for work that morning. When she did not answer his calls that afternoon, he went home around 3 p.m. and found her. The front door was closed but unlocked.

The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by strangulation, placing it sometime in the midmorning. Investigators found signs she had tried to fight off her attacker. CBS Texas reported that tests were negative for sexual assault and that her clothing was preserved during the autopsy.

The money, the fire and the thumb

Detectives first met Brown the day Bruneau was found, when they went to interview his wife, who was away on an international flight. According to the affidavit, one detective described him as evasive and noted he kept repeating himself.

He also had a fresh wound just below his right thumbnail, where the top layer of skin had been torn off. Brown later told police he hurt it on the job, but the affidavit says that “did not make sense to Detective Wilkins as the wound to his thumb did not align with the claimed explanation of injury.”

The affidavit alleges Bruneau and Brown’s wife shared a mortgage, with credit life insurance, on a Dallas home. Detective Johnson wrote that “Early in the investigation, it was alleged that Larry lived beyond his financial means,” and that the couple allegedly pressured Bruneau to take a new roommate, sell the house or release Brown’s wife from the payments. She refused.

The Dallas house then caught fire while Bruneau was out of town on a flight. Brown called in a second fire the same night, and investigators believed it was arson. He then dealt with the insurer and got repair estimates from a company he part-owned, exceeding the insurer’s appraisals, according to the affidavit.

Bruneau told her family Brown was pushing her to sign paperwork with inflated costs. Her mother told police Brown had a heated argument with Bruneau over the insurance check three days before she died, and that Bruneau said she was afraid of him.

Brown admitted in a May 7, 1981, interview that he had gone to her apartment to get her signature. Detectives said he later refused further questioning, fingerprinting and a polygraph.

How the trash cracked it

In December 2010, Bruneau’s nightgown and other evidence went to the University of North Texas lab, which found an unknown male DNA profile. It went into the CODIS database with no match.

Detective Johnson took over in 2025 and asked the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado to help get a covert DNA sample from Brown. Investigators swabbed bottles from his trash. CBS Texas reported a barbecue-sauce bottle was among the items collected.

On May 28, 2026, the lab reported that DNA from one soda bottle could not exclude Brown as the source of the male blood on the nightgown, according to the affidavit, as WHMI reported. WFAA reported the estimated frequency of that profile was about 1 in 17 billion among Caucasian individuals.

A Tarrant County grand jury indicted Brown on June 29, alleging he intentionally caused Bruneau’s death by strangling her with his hands or an electrical cord. The district attorney’s office said Grapevine police and its new Cold Case Task Force worked the case together.

“The determination of the Grapevine Police Department and our task force ensures that justice is never forgotten,” the office said.

Grapevine police said confirmatory DNA analysis was still pending. “Investigators are awaiting those results before releasing further details,” the department said.

Brown’s attorney, Bryan Hoeller, argued the warrant evidence leaned on unknown sources, witnesses who have since died and “one stain which allegedly matches.” He also argued that any DNA match could be explained by Brown and Bruneau having spent time together.

Hoeller noted that Brown was a Navy pilot who flew more than 100 combat missions in Vietnam, has no criminal record and was recently diagnosed with a debilitating disease.

Bond, originally set at $2 million, was cut to $100,000 on July 17 with conditions including a GPS monitor and house arrest, with travel allowed for doctors’ appointments. Brown was released on July 20, 2026, his 80th birthday, the Star-Telegram reported.