Texas man arrested in 1979 cold case murder of newlywed
AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) — New DNA evidence that was recently tested in a cold case murder nearly four decades old has helped detectives “positively link” a 64-year-old Austin man to the crime.
On Thursday, a Travis County grand jury indicted Michael Anthony Galvan on one count of capital murder and one count of murder in the death of Debra Sue Reiding.
He has been booked into the Travis County Jail with bond set at $750,000.
Reiding was 18 years old when she was found dead in her apartment on Algarita Avenue in south Austin on Jan. 22, 1979.
Reiding and her husband, Robert, were newlyweds originally from Montana. Robert found his wife’s body still in their bed when he came home from work the evening of Jan. 22. Investigators found evidence she’d been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Looking through the original case files, Detective Jeff Gabler realized Galvan, who was always a person of interest, was never ruled out as a possible suspect.
The file noted the man worked at the same restaurant, the Montana Mining Company, as Reiding and would give her rides home.
The day after the murder, Reiding’s co-worker denied knowing the victim and ever being in her apartment, but detectives learned he had been there at least twice, the affidavit for the search warrant says.
At the time, there was not sufficient evidence to charge him in relation to the crime. Last summer, Galvan’s DNA was tested against semen stains found on a robe Reiding was wearing at the time of her death. The Austin Police Department says the DNA “positively link him to the crime.”
