THE UNSOLVED MURDER OF DEBRA REIDING

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to True Detective Stories podcast, a podcast where homicide
detectives share their most intense cases. Let's begin. We'll be

(01:01):
looking at a murder that remains unsolved after forty six years.
Austin has suffered in Texas from dozens of homicides in
the last few years, but not all of those cases
are lucky to be solved. Some tragic deaths from the
capital city remain unsolved. Over four decades ago, an eighteen
year old woman was found sexually assaulted and strangled in

(01:21):
her Central Texas apartment. Now, forty six years later, Deborah
Sioux Whiting or Reading r Eidng murder continues to haunt
Austin as the city's oldest case. Here's what they know.
Debora married Robert Reading and moved from Choateau, montanaa asked
to Austin in November nineteen seventy eight to escape the
brutal winter. The newly weds got an apartment together in

(01:44):
South Austin and started working. Debora got a job at
the Montana Mining Company Steakhouse. If anybody knows anyone who
ever worked there about forty five years ago, let them
ask questions and see if they remember. Deborah Reading. They
went to the steak house they used to sit on
the corner of Old Twarf Street in I thirty five. However,

(02:06):
nearly two months into settling into the new city, Robert
came home from work to discover Deborah slain in their
apartment on Algarita Avenue on January twenty second, nineteen seventy nine.
Robert found Deborah in bed bound under the covers with
a pillow overhead. Since there was no phone in their apartment,
Robert went to a payphone to call the police. Authorities

(02:27):
classified her case as a homicide and her cause of
death was asphyxia. Reading's murder happened at a time when
Austin was experiencing a huge growth spurt and crime was
also on the rise. The police chief described Reading's case
as a gruesome crime that left the stain on the city.
The case went cold for decades until it was reopened

(02:48):
in twenty thirteen. Investigators connected a sixty four year old
Michael Galvin after filing a search warrant in August twenty
seventeen to test as DNA against seamen stains found on
a robe that Reading was wearing when she died. Galvin
and Reading reportedly worked together at the same restaurant in
Austin before her death. In May twenty eighteen, at Travis

(03:10):
County grand jury indicted Galvin over Reading's murder. Galvin was
believed to be a susteck A suspect in nineteen seventy nine,
but police said there was not enough evidence to charge him.
Austin PD credited advances in DNA technology that helped detect
us positively link him to the crime, but in July
twenty twenty, Galvin's case was dismissed pending further investigation due

(03:30):
to evidence issues. The Travis County's DA's office told that
evidence arose after Galvin was indicted, including the death of
a witness and other witnesses difficulty remembering events surrounding Read's death,
and Austin police spokes Wasn't told the newspaper that Reading's
case is currently under investigation with the Texas Attorney's General

(03:51):
Cold Case Unit Homicides Investigations. Investigators were asking anyone with
information concerning the case to police call the Austin PD
Homicide tip line in five one two four seven seven
three five eight eight. That's five one, two, four seven
seven three, five, eight eight about the deba reading murder. Now,
I don't know what happens. Is all we got in

(04:12):
the regards to the report on Galvin and why he
was released, or at least why there was not enough
evidence in the court case against him, or what was
happening with that. Something is really strange in regards to that.
We don't get a whole lot. He was believed to
be the suspect. They thought they had a DNA link

(04:33):
and something must have happened to them to do that.
His bond was set at seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
The police at Galvin, who was who has worked and
lived in Austin since nineteen seventy. I was arrested and
booked into the Travis County Jail. But at the moment
he is being held at jail. This is what we got.

(04:58):
In June twenty, twenty tw Travis County District Attorney's Office
dismissed the capital murder charge against Galvin, pending further investigation
by the Austin Police Department's Cold Case Unit. Prosecutors cited
challenges improving the case beyond a reasonable doubt, including the
death of a key witness fading memories of other witnesses,
and issues with evidence collected over forty years ago. The

(05:18):
dismissal followed an agreement with the defense to use new
DNA testing technology, which raised further questions about the evidences strength.
One of the individuals called the initial arrested travesty of justice,
argument that the case relied heavily on a single piece
of DNA evidence from the bathrobe. This was the defense attorney,
which could be explained by the alleged affair that Deborah

(05:40):
Reading might have been having with the coworker. Galvin, who
worked as a barber in South Austin before his arrest,
maintained his innocence and sought a speedy trial to resolve
the charges. His attorney highlighted inconsistencies such as the lack
of DNA matches on other critical evidence, and the questionable
use of psychic notes from a two thousand and six
report by a self styled psychic, which the defense argued

(06:02):
weaken the prosecution's case. The dismissal has left the murder
of Deborah Reading unsolved. No new public developments reported as
of the latest available information.