Grapevine Police Department arrest 80-year-old man in connection with the 1981 homicide investigation of Beverly Bruneau.
An 80-year-old man was arrested in Colorado this July in connection with the Grapevine cold case killing of 35-year-old Beverly Bruneau in the 1980s.
Larry Brown was arrested on a murder charge 45 years after the death of his wife’s best friend, according to his arrest records.
Brown was taken into custody in Colorado and booked into the Tarrant County Jail on July 14. He was released on a $100,000 bond on Monday, according to Tarrant County court records.
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Bruneau was found dead by her boyfriend in February of 1981 in their apartment, according to Brown’s arrest affidavit. Her boyfriend told police she was not answering the phone while he was at work, and when he got home around 3 p.m., the front door was unlocked. According to the affidavit, Bruneau was found dead on the living room floor with “a brown electrical cord wrapped around her neck.”
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Officers determined the cord was wrapped around Bruneau several times. According to the affidavit, blood was found in the living room, inside a toilet and in the kitchen. Officers also found bloody finger smudges on the kitchen sink.
Investigations determined Bruneau died from strangulation, and she tried to fight off her attacker before her killing. Her attacker cleaned himself up then left the apartment, police said in the affidavit.
Police said Bruneau’s boyfriend was interviewed “extensively” throughout the investigation, but he made clear he was at work during the murder.
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Police attempted to interview Bruneau’s best friend, who worked as a stewardess with Bruneau at Braniff Airlines. When they arrived at Bruneau’s friend’s home, the friend was not there, but her husband, Brown, was.
Police spoke with Brown, who revealed that Bruneau and his wife were roommates at a home co-owned by the two friends in Dallas, according to the affidavit. Police noted in the affidavit that during the interview with Brown, he allegedly had a “fresh wound to his right thumb.”
When questioned about the injury to his thumb, he said he hurt it working.
Bruneau’s case went unsolved. Her clothing and other evidence from the time of the crime were preserved, according to the affidavit.
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The evidence was sent to a lab for examination in December 2010, where a DNA sample from an unknown man was found, police said in the affidavit.
In 2025, a Grapevine detective investigating the case learned that Bruneau and her best friend had entered into a mortgage agreement while they lived together. As owners of the shared home, the women agreed that if either moved out or got married, they would “remain responsible for her share of the mortgage expenses until alternative arrangements were made,” according to the affidavit.
Their loan for the house also included credit life insurance. According to the affidavit, if either of the women died, a percentage of the loan would be paid out.
Bruneau’s friend later married Brown and moved out. The couple then bought a house in Grapevine, which police allege in the affidavit was a “financial strain” that prompted them to pressure Bruneau to find a new roommate, sell the Dallas home or release Brown’s wife from the mortgage agreement.
Police said Bruneau refused the couple’s offers, which caused tension between them.
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The home was later damaged in two fires that happened on the same night. Police said in the affidavit that the second fire was reported by Brown. Throughout the years, different investigators have indicated the fire was a result of arson, according to the affidavit.
Bruneau moved in with her boyfriend following the fire. Brown dealt with the insurance on the damaged property on behalf of his wife and Bruneau.
Brown obtained repair estimates through a company he partially owned that “substantially exceeded” the insurance company’s appraisals, according to the affidavit.
According to Bruneau’s family, Brown allegedly inflated the repair costs to the insurance company to get a larger insurance payout, police said in the affidavit.
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It was later learned that Brown was allegedly pressuring Bruneau to sign fraudulent insurance documents. After Bruneau’s death, investigations determined Brown’s wife forged Bruneau’s signature on the insurance paperwork, police said in the affidavit.
Witnesses told police that Bruneau and Brown argued over the insurance check a few days before Bruneau died, according to the affidavit.
Police said Brown also admitted to speaking with Bruneau and attempting to get her to sign a “Proof of Loss” document for insurance
purposes.
Police said Brown was cooperative during the beginning stages of the investigation, but later became unwilling to answer questions, refused fingerprinting, a polygraph, and to let officers photograph him for injuries, according to the affidavit.
In February 2026, Grapevine police obtained DNA evidence from Brown’s trash with the help of the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado, where Brown lived.
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Grapevine detectives confirmed that Brown was the only male living in the home with his wife, according to the affidavit. The DNA results returned in May and determined Brown’s DNA matched the blood found on Bruneau’s clothes the day she died, according to the affidavit.
Brown’s arrest follows an extensive investigation by detectives, Grapevine police said in a news release.
“The Grapevine Police Department is committed to pursuing justice for victims, regardless of how much time has passed, and appreciates the patience of the community and the media as investigators continue their work,” police said.