Abilene Police Unveil "Murder Wall" Case
By: Victor Sotelo
Updated: November 1, 2011
It looks like the basement of an accounting office, but it's actually an area few people have access to, until now. Ktab's Victor Sotelo pulled the cover off of some of the boxes that make up the Abilene Police Department's "Murder Wall".
Lift the lid on any of the boxes and you will discover some of Abilene's most notorious crime scenes. Evidence from a 1974 murder sits in one of the boxes. That evidence eventually brought a killer to justice, over 30 years after the crime.
It was a crime that captured headlines when it happened because the case reads like the plot of a horror movie. It was a case that recaptured headlines when it was solved because it read like a current crime television series.
Sgt. Lynn Beard with the Abilene police department's crimes against persons unit took us back to August 5, 2005.
Juan Bravo was pulled over in San Antonio on a DWI charge. He was fingerprinted and booked. It was that chain of events that unlocked secrets an Abilene family had been living with for decades.
In 1974 7-year-old Mickey Niles and his 13-year-old sister Kelly Niles along with their brother were asleep in their beds. They lived on the 3100 block of South 9th. Their mother was working the graveyard shift and their father who was an airman, was working on base.
A man came in to their home, while the kids were asleep and for no apparent reason stabbed Mickey in his chest.
The intruder then turned his attention to Mickeys sister. Kelly Niles fought with the stranger while she was being stabbed, eight times in her chest and back.
The man finally ran down stairs with Kelly chasing him out of the house.
That's where the boxes come in. As the man ran out the door he left part of him behind, a finger print on the back door.
Mickey Niles died, but his sister lived and later in the investigation a knife was found with blood. Investigators thought they hit a dead end.
Blood evidence and that fingerprint sat in the box for 32 years until Juan Bravo was pulled over for drinking and driving.
It's just one of the many stories here on Abilene's murder wall.
Juan Bravo did admit to the murder, but never said why he did it. He is now serving a 40-year prison sentence.
Lift the lid on any of the boxes and you will discover some of Abilene's most notorious crime scenes. Evidence from a 1974 murder sits in one of the boxes. That evidence eventually brought a killer to justice, over 30 years after the crime.
It was a crime that captured headlines when it happened because the case reads like the plot of a horror movie. It was a case that recaptured headlines when it was solved because it read like a current crime television series.
Sgt. Lynn Beard with the Abilene police department's crimes against persons unit took us back to August 5, 2005.
Juan Bravo was pulled over in San Antonio on a DWI charge. He was fingerprinted and booked. It was that chain of events that unlocked secrets an Abilene family had been living with for decades.
In 1974 7-year-old Mickey Niles and his 13-year-old sister Kelly Niles along with their brother were asleep in their beds. They lived on the 3100 block of South 9th. Their mother was working the graveyard shift and their father who was an airman, was working on base.
A man came in to their home, while the kids were asleep and for no apparent reason stabbed Mickey in his chest.
The intruder then turned his attention to Mickeys sister. Kelly Niles fought with the stranger while she was being stabbed, eight times in her chest and back.
The man finally ran down stairs with Kelly chasing him out of the house.
That's where the boxes come in. As the man ran out the door he left part of him behind, a finger print on the back door.
Mickey Niles died, but his sister lived and later in the investigation a knife was found with blood. Investigators thought they hit a dead end.
Blood evidence and that fingerprint sat in the box for 32 years until Juan Bravo was pulled over for drinking and driving.
It's just one of the many stories here on Abilene's murder wall.
Juan Bravo did admit to the murder, but never said why he did it. He is now serving a 40-year prison sentence.
