Tarrant County DA task force brings fresh eyes to local cold cases

The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office is partnering with local law enforcement to bring justice to victims of unsolved homicides.

Investigators from the office’s recently formed cold case task force are bringing fresh eyes and advanced DNA testing - known as forensic genetic genealogy - to cases that previously seemed hopeless, according to Tarrant County prosecutor and trial specialist Kim D’Avignon.

“Everything had been done, everyone had been interviewed that could be interviewed, that kind of thing, was kind of everyone’s idea,” D’Avignon told the Star-Telegram during a sit-down interview in May. “But with this new (technology), with FGG in particular, it provides for leads that we never could have imagined 10 years ago.”

On Thursday, the Grapevine Police Department announced the arrest of a suspect in a cold case homicide from 1981. Larry Dean Brown was taken into custody in Colorado in June and later extradited to Tarrant County. The 80-year-old has been indicted on a murder charge in the strangulation death of 35-year-old flight attendant Beverly Bruneau.

Grapevine police and investigators from the cold case task force worked together to solve the case, according to a statement from the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office.

“The determination of the Grapevine Police Department and our task force ensures that justice is never forgotten,” the statement reads. “It is our hope that this is the first, but not the last, case that the partnership of local law enforcement agencies and the DA Cold Case Task Force is successful in solving.”

The Cold Case Task Force

The task force is composed of 14 investigators, three prosecutors - including D’Avignon - and a legal assistant. According to D’Avignon, the task force is the first of its kind in Tarrant County. Previously, cold case homicide investigations were always left up to each individual law enforcement agency.

D’Avignon said the agencies would love to spend more time on cold cases, but budgetary and personnel constraints make it challenging. Most of the county’s approximately 40 police departments don’t even have a dedicated cold case unit.

The Fort Worth Police Department is the exception, and its Cold Case Unit employs two full-time detectives and two part-time reserve officers.

“I don’t want to say they’re not as much of a priority, but they already have investigators, so they probably won’t get our investigators linked up,” D’Avignon said.

The city has nearly 1,000 unsolved homicides, going back to the 1960s. Sgt. Joe Loughman of the Homicide Unit told the Star-Telegram in December that the department had recently begun partnering with Texas-based forensic laboratory Othram. The lab is digitizing all of the Fort Worth Police Department’s cold cases.

“We are trying to get ourselves in a good position where we can get these ones - where we have DNA evidence that we’re able to find a genealogical tie - so we can solve these cases for these families,” Loughman said at the time.

The DA’s Office isn’t able to release information about the specific cases the task force is working on, but D’Avignon said investigators are reviewing 10 cold cases from departments across Tarrant County.

“All cases still belong to the agency,” D’Avignon said. “We are not in any way taking them away from the agencies, and we’re not doing anything without the agencies’ help.”

All the law enforcement agencies in the county have been notified about the task force, and they have the option of reaching out for help on unsolved cases.

“Our hope is, once they see this kind of working, they’ll all start like, ‘Hey, let’s go see what we’ve got,’” D’Avignon said.

Advanced DNA technology

According to D’Avignon, the task force is hoping to harness forensic genetic genealogy to track down suspects.

In 2018, Othram started making headlines with technology that pairs traditional DNA testing with genealogy. This advanced testing is especially important in cases where the suspect’s DNA is not in CODIS, the national law enforcement database.

“Like, CODIS, you have to have committed a crime, right?” D’Avignon said. “A lot of our (suspects) never got caught. It’s not they didn’t commit crimes - they didn’t get caught.”

Thanks to the advent of consumer genetic testing, more than 20% of the general population has submitted DNA samples to private companies. When DNA collected from crime scenes is compared to these samples, investigators can start building a family tree of the perpetrator.

D’Avignon said she got her first introduction to FGG when she was asked to prosecute the suspect in Carla Walker’s murder. Walker, a 17-year-old Western Hills High School cheerleader, was kidnapped from her boyfriend’s car on Feb. 17, 1974. Her body was found three days later in a ditch south of Fort Worth.

In 2020, a trace amount of DNA left on Walker’s clothing allowed investigators to build a genetic profile that eventually led them to Glen Samuel McCurley. The 78-year-old suspect pleaded guilty to Walker’s death in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison. He died in 2023 from natural causes.

DNA technology has changed dramatically, but it won’t solve every case, D’Avignon said. Shooting cases, for example, may not have DNA if there was no physical contact between the suspect and the victim. With older cold cases, the right evidence may not have been preserved.

D’Avignon anticipates there won’t be DNA present in at least some of the cases the task force investigates. In those situations, investigators will see if there are other clues that might lead them to the guilty party. Other cases may be solved just by sending DNA off to the lab.

“Both of those things need to be done, and it’s going to take a lot of work on all of our parts,” D’Avignon said.

Future of task force

D’Avignon said she’s applying for grants to cover DNA testing costs and other support - like getting cold case records digitized - that local law enforcement agencies need.

Getting those records digitized is a game changer, according to D’Avignon. It puts the documents into a form other police departments can see and may show links between crimes committed by the same person across multiple jurisdictions.

Right now the task force members are working on a volunteer basis. According to D’Avignon, it is something they are doing in addition to their regular duties, but she hopes that will change.

“We’re still in the trickling stage, but we’re very hopeful to be a solid unit within the DA’s office for years to come that can be counted on by our local law enforcement agencies to be their go to,” D’Avignon said.

Families who have questions about a loved one’s case are encouraged to reach out to the specific police department handling the case and not the task force.