Preserved clothing ties Texas inmate to 1986 murder, police say

Clothing from a Dallas sexual assault and murder case has led local police to a Texas inmate nearly four decades after the attack took place.

Marvin Lee Holloway, 57, has now been linked to the rape and murder of Ruby Battee, 34, in Dallas on May 27, 1986, according to the Dallas Police Department. Holloway is currently incarcerated, serving a life sentence at the William G. McConnell facility in Texas for the murder of his coworker, the department said in a news release. 

Authorities said Holloway broke into Battee’s Dallas home that day and then attacked her. Police collected evidence and, last January, submitted previously untested items, such as sexual assault kit swabs and underwear, for analysis. The kit matched Holloway’s DNA, the department said.

Here’s what else we know about Battee’s case.

Testing was limited in the 1980s, police say

Dallas police said that back in 1986, there was little evidence that could help police identify the suspect who’d attacked Battee. DNA was very limited at the time, and investigators weren’t able to gather any concrete evidence, they said.

In January 2025, Dallas detectives sent the underwear and sexual assault kit swabs to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification in Fort Worth. 

Last month, detectives learned that the center developed a partial male DNA profile, which investigators were able to enter into the Combined DNA Index System. CODIS is a database that allows federal, state and local forensic laboratories to compare DNA profiles.

On May 5, nearly 40 years after Battee was murdered, detectives got a CODIS match for a name of the alleged killer – Marvin Lee Holloway.

Man who killed Dallas woman is a ‘known offender,’ police say

Dallas police, in their news release, called Holloway a “known offender" and said he was arrested in 1988 for the murder of his coworker Emily Proctor. The arrest came just a few years after Battee was killed. 

Detectives working the case secured a search warrant for a DNA sample from Holloway, police said. On May 13, investigators with Dallas police traveled to Beeville, Texas, where Holloway is incarcerated, to get a DNA sample and interrogate him. The new evidence allowed officials to get a warrant and charge him with capital murder in connection with Battee’s death.

"I hope this serves as a reminder to victims as well as criminals who believe they have gotten away with their crimes. Justice will come," Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said in a statement.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s trending team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at [email protected].