Her Burned Body Was Found In The Woods And 38 Years Later Her Killer Has Finally Been Arrested

Bre Avery Zacharski |

May 24, 2021

Laura Marie Purchase had been living in Houston, Texas, back in March of 1983.

She had gone missing that year, and her loved ones didn’t have a lot of information to give authorities.

They had mentioned she was last seen in Houston on March 5th. They also noted that at that time, she was residing with a man named Howie or Howard, and he was part of a band called Malibu.

A few weeks after Laura disappeared, a deputy from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office made a gruesome discovery.

It was 3 in the morning on March 17th, 1983 when this deputy spotted something concerning in the woods off League Line Road in Conroe, Texas.

A fire was burning, and a woman’s body was lying in the middle of the flames. Someone had set the fire shortly before the deputy arrived there, and sadly the woman was already dead.

An autopsy was performed on her, and although they had no idea what her name was, authorities did learn that she had been strangled to death and sexually assaulted.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office; pictured above is Laura

There was also evidence that the fire had been started with some kind of accelerant. Another piece of evidence that was discovered was a sample of male DNA on her body.

Although authorities had no idea who she was, they thought they had a break in the case when serial killer Henry Lee Lucas admitted to murdering her.

Henry was ultimately convicted of her murder in 1986, 3 years after this woman was sadly discovered dead in the woods.

That same year, the FBI was able to run her fingerprints and figure out who she was. In May of 1986, she was officially identified as Laura Marie Purchase.

It seemed like the case was closed, right? But it actually wasn’t that easy. Henry was known for owning up to murders he didn’t commit, and it turns out Laura was one of his imaginary victims.

In 2008, it was determined that Henry’s DNA did not match the male DNA that was found on Laura’s body.

The DNA of Otis Elwood Toole was also ruled out as Laura’s killer, and he was Henry’s alleged killing companion.

Authorities never stopped hunting for the man who took Laura’s life. It would take 38 years for authorities to find Laura’s killer, but they did it, and here’s how they found him.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office; pictured above is Thomas Elvin Darnell

“In October 2019, Investigators sent the DNA evidence for genealogy testing,” the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.

“An investigative lead generated from that genealogy report showed Thomas Elvin Darnell, a 75-year-old male from Kansas City, Kansas, as a potential suspect. A DNA search warrant for Thomas Darnell was obtained as a result of the investigation.”

“Montgomery County Cold Case Detectives went to Kansas City, Kansas on March 17, 2021 (38 years later to the day), and collected a known DNA sample from Darnell.”

“On April 30, 2021 that DNA sample was positively matched to the unknown male’s DNA profile collected from Laura Purchase.”

“A warrant for Capital Murder was issued in Montgomery County, and Thomas Elvin Darnell was arrested at his home on May 11, 2021. On May 20, 2021, Darnell was extradited to Montgomery County and is currently in the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Jail on Capital Murder charges with no bond.”