AUSTIN — An accused killer lived in Austin free to work for decades, but on Thursday, a jury indicted the Austin man for a murder dating back to 1979.
64-year-old Michael Anthony Galvan is accused of sexually assaulting and killing then 18 year old Debra Sue Reiding. The two worked together at the now closed Montana Mining Company restaurant in Austin.
Galvan was a suspect in Reiding’s murder in 1979, but police didn’t have the kind of DNA technology available in 2018, so there was no way to connect him to the murder.
So, Galvan was free to work and live in Austin, while Reiding’s murder went unsolved for nearly 40 years.
The accused killer got his barber’s license, and began cutting hair.
"My son called me this morning and told me and I think he was as shocked as I was -- as I am I should say,” said John Kinney.
Kinney’s son owns the first floor of the building on West 10th Street where Galvan worked as a barber.
"About ten years ago, I began to use him as a barber,” said Kinney. "Over the course of ten years, I felt like I had gotten to know him pretty well."
What Kinney didn't know was back in 1979, police considered Galvan as a suspect in the brutal death of Reiding, who was a newlywed. Her husband found her in their South Austin apartment dead.
"I'm shocked,” said Kinney, learning of the accusations. "He cut the hair of my son, he cut the hair of my daughter-in-law. He cut the hair of my 18-year-old granddaughter who is a looker and I've never heard her or any of my other family members say that he ever said or did anything untoward to any of them."
On Thursday, a jury indicted Galvan based on newly tested DNA evidence -- something Kinney and his family never saw coming.
"They did not expect this," Kinney said.
Galvan was arrested and booked into the Travis County Jail. His bond was set at $750,000.