DNA Leads to Arrest 45 Years After Texas Killing

Yolanda Herrera was 23 when she was killed in Texas in 1981. Nearly 45 years later, investigators say DNA preserved from the original case led them to an Arizona man who confessed during police interviews.

Kelly Lee Brower, 68, was arrested Aug. 19 in Cottonwood, Arizona, and is expected to be extradited to Texas to face a capital murder charge. Authorities say modern forensic genetic genealogy identified Brower after decades in which investigators had been unable to name Herrera’s killer.

The arrest gives Herrera’s family something the case had not produced since Ronald Reagan’s first year in office: a person accused of her killing.

The Case Began in April 1981

Herrera was last seen in Universal City, Texas, after leaving a local bar in April 1981. Her body was discovered two days later in a field in Bexar County.

Investigators collected biological evidence during the original investigation, but the forensic tools available at the time could not turn it into the identification police needed.

Authorities pursued suspects over the years, but Texas DPS said all known candidates were eventually eliminated.

The investigation went cold.

For Herrera’s family, that meant decades without an arrest and without knowing whether the person responsible would ever be identified.

Old Evidence Met New DNA Technology

The case received new attention in late 2020 when it became eligible for the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.

That program allowed Texas Rangers and Universal City police to send evidence collected during Herrera’s original autopsy for more advanced testing.

In 2021, BODE Technologies developed a lead through DNA analysis and extracted a small amount of genetic material from evidence preserved in the case. At the time, however, officials said there was not enough DNA available to complete the genealogy work investigators wanted.

The evidence did not change.

The technology did.

In 2025, Othram Laboratories analyzed the sample again using forensic investigative genetic genealogy. Investigators say that work produced a possible name: Kelly Lee Brower.

Investigators Found Him in Arizona

Brower had lived in Universal City at the time Herrera was killed, according to Texas authorities. He later moved to Cottonwood, Arizona.

Investigators traveled there as they worked to confirm whether the genetic lead could be tied to the man they had identified.

Authorities say a reference DNA sample collected from Brower matched evidence from the original investigation.

Then came another major development.

Texas DPS said investigators interviewed Brower multiple times and that he confessed to Herrera’s killing.

He was arrested in Arizona and is now awaiting extradition to Texas.

A confession reported by law enforcement does not replace the criminal court process. Brower has not been convicted, and the capital murder charge against him will still have to be adjudicated.

One Case Survived Four Decades of Dead Ends

The arrest is notable partly because of what investigators still had after so much time: evidence collected in 1981.

It was preserved long enough for technology developed decades later to extract information investigators at the time could not access.

The Texas Rangers credited Universal City police, forensic laboratories and agencies in both Texas and Arizona with keeping the case moving as new testing became available.

Herrera’s case is now entering a stage her family waited nearly 45 years to see.

There is an accused defendant.

There is a DNA connection that authorities say links him to the old evidence.

And investigators say there is a confession.

None of that erases the decades between Herrera’s death and Brower’s arrest. But after generations of forensic technology came and went, evidence collected when she was 23 finally gave investigators the name they had been trying to find.

References: Texas DPS - Texas Rangers, Universal City Police Solve 1981 Murder | People - Arrest Made in 1981 Killing of Yolanda Herrera | AZFamily - Arizona Man Confesses in 1981 Texas Cold Case

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