50 YEAR OLD UNSOLVED COLD CASE MURDER OF DEBRA REIDING

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Atttttttttttttttttttts, we'll be looking at a murder that remains unsolved

(01:03):
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 her Central Texas apartment. Now, forty

(01:24):
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 South Austin and started working. Debora

(01:47):
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, nearly two months into settling into

(02:08):
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 classified her case as

(02:28):
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 in twenty thirteen.

(02:50):
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 County grand jury indicted

(03:11):
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 to evidence issues.

(03:32):
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 Cold Case
Unit Homicides Investigations. Investigators were asking anyone with information concerning

(03:57):
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 the
regards to the report on Galvin and why he was released,

(04:18):
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 and something must
have happened to them to do that. His bond was
set at seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The police

(04:41):
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. In
June twenty, twenty tw Travis County District Attorney's Office dismissed

(05:02):
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 dismissal
followed an agreement with the defense to use new DNA
testing technology, which raised further questions about the evidences strength.

(05:28):
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
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

(05:50):
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
weaken the prosecution's case. The dismissal has left the murder
of Deborah Reading unsolved. No new public developments reported as

(06:10):
of the latest available information.