{"id":311341,"date":"2026-05-27T20:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/311341\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T20:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:40:07","slug":"dallas-police-solve-1986-cold-case-killing-of-ruby-battee-with-dna-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/311341\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas police solve 1986 cold-case killing of Ruby Battee with DNA match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kwtx.com\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/kwtx.com\">DALLAS, Texas (KWTX) &#8211;<\/a> Dallas police say they\u2019ve solved the 1986 cold-case killing of Ruby Battee after new DNA testing linked evidence from the scene to an incarcerated offender.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Investigators said Battee was murdered and sexually assaulted May 27, 1986, after an unidentified suspect forced entry into her home. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Detectives recovered limited evidence at the time, including DNA on her clothing, but testing capabilities in the 1980s were not able to identify a suspect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In January 2025, Dallas homicide detectives submitted previously untested items \u2014 including swabs from the sexual assault examination and panties recovered at the scene \u2014 to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Ruby Battee and Marvin Lee Holloway\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7CIXFLFYNBAVPANZBAP3SD66MY.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"980\" \/>Ruby Battee and Marvin Lee Holloway(Photos Courtesy Dallas Police Department)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police said a partial male DNA profile was developed and entered into CODIS on April 13, 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On May 5, 2026, a detective was notified of a CODIS match identifying the profile as Marvin Lee Holloway, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Holloway was arrested in 1988 in the murder of his co-worker, Emily Proctor, and remains in TDCJ custody.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Isom obtained a search warrant for Holloway\u2019s DNA and traveled to Beeville with Det. David Grubbs on May 13 to collect a sample and interview him, police said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Authorities then secured a murder warrant. Holloway is now charged with capital murder.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KWTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS, Texas (KWTX) &#8211; Dallas police say they\u2019ve solved the 1986 cold-case killing of Ruby Battee after new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,112174,112172,112169,112170,398,112173,112171],"class_list":["post-311341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-how-new-dna-technology-is-helping-solve-cold-cases","tag-marvin-lee-holloway","tag-ruby-battee","tag-texas-cold-case","tag-university-of-north-texas","tag-university-of-north-texas-center-for-human-identification","tag-unsolved-murders-in-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}