DNA match – Nearly 40 years after Ruby Battee was raped and murdered in Dallas, DNA analysis connected the case to Marvin Lee Holloway, now serving a life sentence in Texas. Dallas detectives used newly tested evidence, a CODIS match, and a fresh DNA sample to file capita
When investigators reopened Ruby Battee’s case, the evidence was old—what changed was the ability to read it. This time, DNA pointed to the man police say broke into her Dallas home on May 27, 1986, attacked her, and later, as prosecutors now allege, killed her.
In a news release, the Dallas Police Department said DNA testing linked Marvin Lee Holloway, 57, to the rape and murder of Battee, 34, on that date. Holloway is currently incarcerated at the William G. McConnell facility in Texas, serving a life sentence for the murder of his coworker.
The case had carried a long silence. Dallas police said there was little evidence in 1986 that could help identify a suspect, with DNA “very limited” at the time. Investigators weren’t able to gather concrete evidence then—until they tested items again decades later.
Police said they collected evidence from Battee’s case and, last January, submitted previously untested items—specifically sexual assault kit swabs and underwear—for analysis. The kit matched Holloway’s DNA, according to the department.
The turnaround depended on how investigators followed the DNA trail. In January 2025. detectives sent the underwear and sexual assault kit swabs to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification in Fort Worth. Last month, the center developed a partial male DNA profile. Detectives entered that profile into the Combined DNA Index System. or CODIS. 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 received a CODIS match for the name of the alleged killer, Marvin Lee Holloway.
Dallas police also described Holloway as a “known offender.” In their news release. they said he was arrested in 1988 for the murder of his coworker Emily Proctor. an event that happened only a few years after Battee’s death. After the CODIS match, detectives secured a search warrant for a DNA sample from Holloway.
On May 13, Dallas investigators traveled to Beeville, Texas, where Holloway is incarcerated, to obtain a DNA sample and interrogate him. Authorities said the new evidence allowed officials to get a warrant and charge Holloway with capital murder in connection with Battee’s death.
Justice, in the department’s telling, is now arriving through what law enforcement couldn’t do in the 1980s. The sequence the case took is clear: previously untested items were sent for modern DNA analysis. a partial male profile was entered into CODIS. and a match led to warrants and a new sample—closing a gap that had lasted since 1986.
Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said in a statement, “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,”
The case still carries the weight of its timeline—decades between a crime and the point when the evidence becomes readable. But with DNA now tied to Holloway. Dallas authorities say they’ve brought Battee’s murder to a moment where the legal process can begin again. this time with the kind of evidence that earlier testing couldn’t provide.
Ruby Battee Marvin Lee Holloway DNA match CODIS capital murder Dallas Police Department University of North Texas Center for Human Identification