Texas Rangers‘ Joshua Ray and Conde Benoist arrested Larry Allen West, 68, of San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, United States at his residence in San Antonio on April 13, 2023. West is accused of murdering Carol Joyce Deleon of San Antonio.

West allegedly fatally shot Deleon in the head and left her partially nude body along Interstate 35 in southern Comal County, Texas where she was found on June 4, 1981. She was 18.

Deleon had told her family she would be moving away once she turned 18. On May 28, 1981, she graduated from Thomas A. Edison High School in San Antonio.

Days after the graduation, Deleon went missing. Her family tried to report her missing but a report was not taken because she was 18 and no foul play was noted at the time.

Investigators failed to identify Deleon’s body. She was buried as a Jane Doe in New Braunfels, Texas.

In 2007, Deleon’s family asked help from the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification in Denton, Denton County, Texas. The center could not help them without a missing person’s report so her younger sister filed one to the San Antonio Police Department.

In May 2008, the Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program (UCIP) of the Texas Rangers reviewed the case file and found only one missing person similar to Deleon’s description from the 1981-time frame. Family deoxyribonucleic acid testing confirmed her identity.

In 2010, an unknown DNA profile was developed and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) but no matches were found. In 2020, evidence in the case was subjected to Advanced DNA testing under the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) program of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice/ Bureau of Justice Assistance (DOJ/BJA). 

The testing led to the identity of West which was confirmed through normal forensic DNA testing. He was booked into the Bexar County Jail in San Antonio.

Bond for West was set at $125,000. Details about his indictment and trial are still pending.