FORT WORTH, Texas — A man is in custody for a nearly 26-year-old cold case murder, the Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) announced this week.
FWPD said on Thursday, July 31, officers arrested 46-year-old Michael William Puryear at his home for the brutal August 1997 murder of then-56-year-old Verna Dennis.
According to FWPD, on Aug. 9, 1997, officers were called to Dennis’ home in the 4300 block of Clayton Road West after her body was found by her friends who arrived at the home to attend a bible study. They told officers they arrived around 5 p.m. and when Dennis didn’t answer the door, they went to the back of the home and saw that her garage door was open, and her car was missing.
In court documents, it details the friends entering the home and finding blood just inside the doorway, near the alarm code box and a trail of blood that led from the front hallway, near the front door, where Dennis’ body was lying on the floor.
Police said Dennis died from blunt force trauma to the head and upper torso after being struck numerous times with a “tire tool”, and “it appeared the victim’s throat had been cut with a sharp-edged weapon.”
During the investigation, officers also discovered that a large amount of Dennis’ jewelry worth between $50,000 to $70,000 was missing from her bedroom closet.
Dennis was known in the community as an active church member with a passion for prison ministry. Friends and family said each week she would visit correctional facilities, where she felt like she was making a difference.
On the day she died, Dennis began her morning in Huntsville, Texas, to visit a prison inmate that she was in a relationship with, according to court documents.
WFAA spoke with her pastor following her death.
"She really loved to see God do neat things. She really didn't care where that was. She would invest her life in watching God do things that were real special. That's what she enjoyed," the pastor told WFAA.
At that time, investigators didn’t know if her work was tied to her murder.
FWPD said about a month after her death, her car was located in a K-Mart parking lot in San Antonio.
Detectives pursued all available leads until the case went cold.
Renewed leads
In 2005, a Fort Worth police detective was contacted by a witness who provided information on a possible suspect, which led to Puryear to being identified.
Court documents state the witness told police he was at Puryear’s apartment for a football game when Puryear admitted he murdered Dennis. The witness said Puryear told him he followed Dennis to her home, beat her with a pry bar and slit her throat while he watched her bleed out.
The witness went on to say Puryear told him about abandoning Dennis car in a parking lot and that he was “lucky” because the surveillance video tape recycled the night before police arrived to find it.
FWPD said the information was accurate and known to only investigators and close family members.
The witness said Puryear was roommates with Dennis’ son at Southwest College in Georgetown, Texas, at the time of her murder. Georgetown is en route to San Antonio where Dennis’ car was found.
FWPD said an arrest warrant was issued for Puryear on April 24, 2006, and he was arrested in Austin.
But the case was not prosecuted at that time and according to court documents was “dismissed for unknown reasons” in 2009.
FWPD said recent advancements in DNA technology allowed for more testing of the evidence in Dennis’ murder case and it was reopened.
FWPD said DNA results connected Puryear to the murder and new arrest warrant was issued.
Puryear has been charged with capital murder by terror threat and is currently in the Tarrant County Corrections Center. Police said his bond has been set at $500,000.
