Police in Universal City have arrested a man in an old murder case. The case sat unsolved for 45 years. Officers say a DNA match led them to the suspect. It closed one of the area's oldest cold cases.

Kelly Lee Brower Sr. is 68 years old. Police arrested him Wednesday in Cottonwood, Arizona. He is charged with capital murder. Police say he killed a 23-year-old woman in Universal City back in 1981.

The case sat cold for four and a half decades. New DNA tests gave police an answer they could not find in 1981.

The Universal City Police Department worked the case. Police say they linked Brower to the killing with a DNA match. The match came up while Brower sat in jail in Arizona. He was there on a different, unrelated charge. That is when his DNA tied him to the old Texas case.

Police have not said what the Arizona charge was. They have not said how they got the DNA sample. They have not said if Brower has a lawyer yet.

The victim was last seen early on April 11, 1981. She had left Johnny's Inn, a bar in Universal City. Two days later, someone found her body. It was in a field near the 500 block of East Aviation Drive.

An autopsy found she died from many injuries. The autopsy also found signs of sexual assault. Because of this, El Tejano is not naming the victim.

For 45 years, her family had no answers. Cold cases like this are hard on families. Years pass. Detectives retire. Files sit in boxes. But police keep old evidence. They test it again as science gets better.

The woman was 23 when she died. She had gone out to a bar one night in April 1981. Two days later, her family and the whole community learned she had been killed. Then, for 45 years, the case sat open with no arrest.

Police say Brower's DNA got tested as part of that separate Arizona charge. That test matched evidence from the 1981 Texas murder. Brower had been free for 45 years. He got arrested this week only because of a DNA test tied to a case that had nothing to do with the 1981 murder.

Capital murder is one of the most serious charges under Texas law. The punishment can be very harsh. It can mean life in prison with no chance to get out. In some capital murder cases, it can mean the death penalty.

Universal City sits just northeast of San Antonio. That puts it close to El Tejano's South Texas readers. A murder from 1981 is back in the news because of a new DNA match, 45 years after it happened.

It is not clear yet when Brower will face the charge in a Texas court. Police have not shared a court date. The case is still active. More facts may come out as it moves forward.

Many questions are still open. Police have not said if Brower knew the victim. They have not said if he lived in the area back in 1981. They have not said why the case sat cold for so long before the DNA match. As the case moves through court, more of those answers may come out.

For 45 years, this case was a mystery on the shelf. It sat behind other, newer cases. It sat while science slowly caught up. Now it is back in the open, in a Texas courtroom, decades after it began.

For now, the arrest closes a 45-year gap in the case. The woman who died in 1981 finally has a suspect tied to her name. After decades of waiting, her family has an arrest in the case.