DNA reportedly linked Cottonwood suspect in homicide 45 years ago
Kelly Lee Brower, 68, of Cottonwood, faces extradition to Texas on 45-year-old capital murder charges after investigators used modern forensic testing to connect him to a 1981 sexual assault and homicide, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced Aug. 28.
Brower was arrested Aug. 19 in Cottonwood by Texas Rangers and Cottonwood police officers.
While walking to school, two children discovered the nude body of 23-year-old Yolanda Herrera on the morning of April 13, 1981, in a field near the 500 block of East Aviation Drive in Universal City, Texas.
Investigators determined Herrera had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death after last being seen walking home from a local bar shortly after closing time several days earlier. Her body was found several feet off the roadway in an area that was not easily visible to passing drivers.
Detectives in Texas pursued leads for years following Herrera’s killing, but all known suspects were eliminated and the case remained cold for more than four decades.
In late 2020, the Texas Department of Public Safety selected the case for its Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a federally funded program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance to clear unresolved sexual assaults and sexually related homicides.
Texas Rangers and the Universal City Police Department submitted evidence preserved from Herrera’s autopsy for advanced DNA analysis and genetic genealogy research.
Bode Technologies conducted a surname search in 2021 that generated an investigative lead. The lab extracted a small amount of DNA from evidence that year, though the quantity was initially insufficient for genealogy testing.
Othram Laboratories reanalyzed the sample in 2025 using forensic investigative genetic genealogy to identify Brower as a suspect. Texas investigators traveled to Arizona to interview Brower, who reportedly confessed to the murder following multiple interviews, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“In October 2025, Cottonwood police collected a discarded Coors Light beer can from outside Brower’s residence on a trash run,” KSAT 12 in San Antonio reported. “Testing showed the DNA on the can matched DNA recovered from Herrera’s right-hand fingernail clippings collected during her 1981 autopsy. Analysts determined the probability of a random, unrelated individual sharing that DNA profile was at least 1 in 31 billion in the U.S. population.”
Agencies assisting in the investigation included the Cottonwood Police Department, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office SAKI Program, the Universal City Police Department, the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Bexar County Crime Laboratory and the Texas DPS Crime Laboratory Division.