FORT WORTH (1080 KRLD) - It may have taken nearly a half-century, but Fort Worth Police have made an arrest in connection with the abduction and murder of a teenage girl.
Glen McCurley, 77, is charged with kidnapping Carla Walker, 17, from her boyfriend's car in a bowling alley parking lot and killing her.
On Feb. 16, 1974, Carla and her boyfriend went to a Valentine's dance at Western Hills High School.
Afterwards, they went to the Ridglea Bowling Alley near the Alta Mere traffic circle (the site is now the Cendera Center event venue); and police say while the couple was in the car early the following morning, McCurley pistol-whipped the boyfriend and abducted Carla.
Carla's body was found in a culvert near Benbrook Lake three days later.
The Tarrant County medical examiner at the time, Dr. Feliks Gwozdz (for whom the street in front of the medical examiner's office is now named), said Carla died of asphyxiation due to strangulation; she had also been sexually assaulted.
"46 years, seven months and five days -- or 17,053 days -- ago, Carla was abducted," says Carla’s brother, Jim Walker. "We (now) have a name and face (of the suspect), and we're moving forward (towards) complete resolution."
McCurley is charged with capital murder and is in the Tarrant County Jail on $100,000 bond.
McCurley was actually a person of interest back on April 3, 1974 -- less than two months after the abduction.
According to the arrest affidavit, McCurley told investigators on that day that he was a truck driver and had worked until 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 and was off Feb. 17, the day of the abduction.
After interviewing McCurley on April 3, 1974, detectives did not pursue him any further.
"Although he was a suspicious person and somebody that could have been responsible, there just wasn't enough information at the time to make a direct connection," says Det. Leah Wagner, who along with Det. Jay Bennett reopened the case in February of 2019.
"DNA has been around basically since the mid 80s," says Det. Wagner, "but there are continual advances in how they attempt to find that DNA, and then also how they extract that DNA."
As they started investigating the cold case, Wagner and Bennett sent Carla's clothing and other evidence for DNA testing, and a male profile was found.
The profile was uploaded into CODIS in March of this year, but no match was identified.
The DNA was then sent to another lab, which uploaded the information into genealogical database GEDMATCH.
At that time, potential suspects were narrowed to a family of three brothers, all with the last name of McCurley.
Glen McCurley became a person of interest once again.
In July, detectives collected trash from in front of McCurley's Fort Worth home, and a DNA test on that trash yielded a match to the DNA collected from Carla's clothing.
Detectives visited McCurley, and he agreed to give detectives a DNA sample.
A lab analysis found that the DNA sample matched the DNA on Carla's bra.
McCurley was arrested without incident on Monday.
Det. Bennett says McCurley had flown under the radar for nearly a half-century.
"He's been working here locally and just living a very normal life," says Det. Bennett, "and (he's) married and (has) two children."
Dets. Wagner and Bennett say they're very happy that they're able to bring justice to the Walker family.
"This is a culmination of efforts over the last 46 years and countless hours in time put in by prior detectives," says Det. Bennett, "and then bringing that together with current technology that we have available to us today has brought us where we are."
Det. Bennett says McCurley did not know Carla Walker; the crime was completely random.
Jim Walker says he and the rest of the family are thankful and relieved.
"The feeling that I had when I was notified, the word that came across my brain was 'finally,'" says Walker.
Walker was emotional as he delivered a message to McCurley.
"We're praying for you," says Jim Walker. "We don't hate you. We really are praying for you. I hope that the city of Fort Worth has prayers for the family -- it's not their fault."