Investigators said DNA collected from discarded bottles helped revive the decades-old case involving Braniff Airlines flight attendant Beverly Bruneau.
GRAPEVINE, TX — A 79-year-old Colorado man has been arrested and indicted on a murder charge in the 1981 strangulation of a Braniff Airlines flight attendant in Grapevine, authorities and court records said.
Larry Dean Brown was extradited from Colorado and booked into the Tarrant County Jail this week in connection with the death of 35-year-old Beverly Bruneau. Police said the arrest followed a renewed review of the cold case and DNA testing involving evidence preserved for more than four decades. Brown is accused of causing Bruneau’s death, but the charge remains an allegation and the case has not gone to trial.
Bruneau was found dead inside her Grapevine apartment on Feb. 13, 1981, according to an arrest warrant affidavit cited by local news organizations. Her boyfriend told investigators that she was asleep when he left for work that morning. After she did not answer his telephone calls, he returned during the afternoon and found her on the living room floor.
Investigators said an electrical cord was around Bruneau’s neck and that the apartment showed signs of a struggle. Blood was found on several surfaces and on Bruneau’s clothing, according to court records. A medical examiner determined that she died from strangulation during the midmorning hours.
Bruneau worked as a flight attendant for Braniff Airlines. Brown’s wife, Thelma Brown, was also a Braniff flight attendant and was described in court documents as Bruneau’s best friend. The two women jointly owned a Dallas home that had been damaged in a fire several months before the killing.
Detectives first spoke with Larry Brown on the day Bruneau was found dead when they went to his home seeking to interview his wife, who was away on an international flight. The arrest affidavit said Brown had a recent injury near his right thumb. Investigators documented the injury, but no arrest was made at the time.
The affidavit described financial disagreements involving the Dallas property. Investigators alleged that Brown had pressured Bruneau to approve insurance documents connected to repairs after the fire. Bruneau had refused to sign the paperwork, according to the court filing. Those allegations have not been tested at trial, and authorities have not said that a motive has been established.
The investigation remained unresolved for decades. In 2010, evidence from the case, including Bruneau’s blood-stained nightgown, was submitted for additional laboratory testing. The testing produced an unknown male DNA profile, according to the affidavit. Investigators uploaded the profile to the national DNA database, but no matching person was identified.
A Grapevine detective began reviewing the case again in 2025, examining the original investigation, financial records and preserved physical evidence. In February 2026, Grapevine police contacted the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado, where Brown was living. Colorado investigators placed his home under surveillance and collected items that had been discarded in trash left at the curb.
The discarded items included soda bottles and a barbecue sauce bottle, according to court records and news reports. Laboratory testing compared DNA from the containers with the unknown male profile recovered from blood on Bruneau’s nightgown. Investigators said the results indicated Brown could not be excluded as the source of that blood.
Brown was arrested in Colorado on June 8 and was later extradited to North Texas. A Tarrant County grand jury indicted him June 29 on a murder charge, court records showed. The indictment alleges that Brown strangled Bruneau with his hands or an electrical cord.
Grapevine police called the arrest a significant development but said the investigation is continuing. The department said additional forensic work, including confirmatory DNA analysis, remains pending. Investigators said they were waiting for those results before releasing further details.
Brown was being held on a $2 million bond. His attorney, Bryan Hoeller, has sought a bond reduction, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. No plea or trial date had been publicly reported as of Friday, and the court will determine whether prosecutors can prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
Author note: Last updated July 17, 2026.