AUSTIN, Texas — Investigators in Austin say advancements in DNA technology has led to the indictment of a 64-year-old man in the 1979 death of a newlywed. Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore confirmed to the Austin American-Statesman that Michael Anthony Galvan is charged with capital murder.
He was being held Friday at the Travis County jail on a $750,000 bond. Online jail records don’t indicate whether he has an attorney to speak for him.
Galvan is charged in the death of 18-year-old Debra Reiding, a newlywed from Choteau, Montana, who had recently moved to Austin with her husband. Her husband discovered her remains in their South Austin home, the paper reports. Investigators found evidence that she had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
Galvan was a suspect at the time but there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge him.
The two had worked together at an Austin restaurant. Galvan reportedly quit the week before Reiding’s murder and took a job at another restaurant. He’s reportedly lived and worked in the Austin area since the slaying.
Investigators didn’t detail what type of DNA technology was used to confirm Galvan as a suspect. The paper reports the Travis County District Attorney’s office has been teaming up with the Austin police cold case unit to review unsolved crimes in the area.
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