“I THOUGHT THIS WAS BURIED FOREVER”!!! BELIEVE IT OR NOT, POLICE SAY A 62-YEAR-OLD MAN CONFESSED TO KILLING A WOMAN DISCOVERED IN A TEXAS FIELD 45 YEARS AGO… AND HE IS NOW UNDER ARREST IN ARIZONA AWAITING EXTRADITION TO BEXAR COUNTY.
On Tuesday, August 25, the Universal City Police Department held a news conference shared by KSAT-TV.
Police announced that a man confessed to killing a 23-year-old woman decades after her death.
The confession came 45 years after children discovered her body in a Texas field on their way to school, police said.
The victim was identified as Yolanda Herrera.
Her death remained the subject of an ongoing cold-case murder investigation, authorities said.
Police identified her alleged killer as Kelly Lee Brower Sr.
Brower is 62 years old.
Authorities learned that Brower was a Universal City resident when Herrera was killed, KSAT-TV reported.
Universal City is a suburb of San Antonio.
On an early Saturday morning, on April 11, 1981, Herrera vanished.
She disappeared after leaving the Johnny’s Inn bar, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Johnny’s Inn had been located in Universal City.
The bar is no longer in business, according to state authorities.
Two days later, Herrera was found dead in a field, authorities said.
She was found naked, authorities said.
Schoolchildren had discovered Herrera’s body on their way to school, WOAI-TV reported.
An investigation revealed that Herrera had been killed, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
She died of several injuries, according to the department.
“Evidence suggests she was sexually assaulted prior to her death,” the department said.
During her autopsy, fingernail scrapings were collected as DNA evidence, Universal City Police Department Lt. Stephen Rios said at the news conference, per KSAT-TV.
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Bodily fluid was also collected as DNA evidence during the autopsy, Rios said.
The investigation into her murder continued over the years without any leads to potential suspects, according to Rios.
But that would change.
“DNA technology was advancing, and in 2021, a male DNA profile was obtained,” Rios told reporters.
“But there were no matches in the database,” Rios said at the news conference.
The last name, Brower, was eventually linked to the case due to genetic genealogy, according to authorities.
Yet DNA testing was still limited until 2025, when Othram Laboratories tested the available evidence.
Othram’s forensic genetic genealogy team helped investigators in identifying Brower, 62, as a suspect, according to the company.
The ongoing investigation into Herrera’s cold-case murder involved further testing of that DNA evidence.
Then that evidence led Texas Rangers to Arizona, where they met with her alleged killer, according to authorities.
Texas Rangers met with Brower in Arizona, according to authorities.
As a result of the new breakthrough in the case, Brower allegedly admitted to killing Herrera when Texas Rangers met with him in Arizona, according to authorities.
Brower was arrested in Arizona in relation to her death, police said.
He is awaiting extradition to Bexar County, Texas, police said.
“It’s a rewarding feeling to know that we never gave up on Yolanda,” Steve Mihalski, assistant chief of the Universal City Police Department, said at the news conference, according to WOAI-TV.
It was not immediately clear whether Brower had retained legal counsel.
Investigators had the DNA evidence.
Investigators had the confession.
Brower was arrested in Arizona.
Brower is awaiting extradition to Texas.
The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
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