Austin police use DNA to identify suspect in 1994 cold case murder

DNA analysis leads to 1994 cold case suspect

After a 29-year investigation, Austin police have finally identified the suspect in a cold case murder. Detectives used DNA evidence from the crime scene to help solve the case.

AUSTIN, Texas - After a 29-year investigation, the Austin Police Department has identified the suspect in a cold case murder.

On May 12, 1994, police say Bert Mann came back to his home on Star Grass Circle, in South Austin, and found a burglar in the foyer.

Police say the burglar violently attacked Mann, stabbing him multiple times. Mann died at the scene.

Bert Mann was murdered by a burglar at his South Austin home in 1994. (Austin Police Department)

During the attack, police say the burglar was injured and left his blood behind.

In 2005, when the Cold Case Unit was established, police used that blood to create a DNA profile and uploaded it to CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System, but unfortunately, the suspect wasn't in the system.

By March 2023, police had more than 40 people who had been looked at as potential suspects in the case.

They sent the DNA to Bode Technology, a private lab, for analysis and got the results back in June, identifying a possible suspect in the case.

Austin police identify suspect in 1994 cold case

FULL VIDEO: The Austin Police Department provides an update about the cold case murder of Bert Mann, who was murdered by a burglar in South Austin in 1994.

MORE COLD CASES

Over the next few months, police followed up on the lead, determining that the suspect was a long-haul truck driver living in Lubbock, Texas.

Officers got a search warrant for his DNA to compare with the sample from the crime scene. They took the sample on September 8.

On September 13, the detective was contacted by the trucking company. They said their truck was in Weatherford, Texas and hadn't moved in a suspiciously long period of time.

Weatherford police conducted a welfare check and found the suspect dead in his truck.

An autopsy determined that he took his own life.

After 29 years, Kenneth Robbins has been identified as the suspect in the murder of Bert Mann. (Austin Police Department)

The suspect has been identified as Kenneth Wayne Robbins. Police say he lived in Austin at the time of the murder.

"Mr. Mann is survived by his wife and his sister and they are happy enough to have an answer as to the who. I don't know that they will ever have an answer as to the why. And I don't know, quite honestly, if any of those answers would ever be sufficient for their grief," said Sergeant Melanie Rodriguez, with the APD Cold Case Unit.

This is the second genetic genecology case in Austin.