Verna Dennis biography: 13 things about Fort Worth, Texas prison ministry volunteer

Verna Lee Johnson Dennis was an American woman from Ridglea Hills, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, United States. She was a prison ministry volunteer.

Dennis was 24 years younger than her husband Frank Stanley Dennis, who was born in Paris, Lamar County, Texas. During their marriage, she took up golf, became the chairperson of a women’s golf association, opened an antique store and co-owned a beauty salon in Fort Worth.

When Verna was found dead on August 10, 1997, tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry were missing from her residence. Also missing was her 1993 Acura Legend.

Verna and Frank have three children together. Here are 13 more things about her:

1. She is one of the children of Wynema Faye Drury.
2. She has a son who attended Southwestern University in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas. His roommate was Michael Puryear.
3. In 1956, she married her first husband. The marriage did not work out.
4. On October 27, 1972, she and Frank got married.
5. In 1973, she gave birth to Rebecka Dennis.
6. On November 6, 1995, her husband Frank died in Tarrant County at age 78. After his death, she began visiting the John M. Wynne Unit, a men’s maximum security prison in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas as a part of a prison ministry. She became engaged to an inmate in the unit.
7. On June 30, 1996, she turned 56.
8. On August 9, 1997, she went to the Wynne Unit and visited the inmate she was engaged to as part of a scheduled prison ministry appointment. She was last seen leaving the prison.
9. On August 10, 1997, friends went to her residence in Ridglea Hills for a Bible study and prayer meeting and found her dead. Fort Worth Police Department detective Curt Brannan responded to the scene and found in the kitchen sink a steel pry bar, which was used to strike her in the head 23 times, and a butcher knife used to cut her throat.
10. In September 1997, her 1993 Acura Legend was found in the parking lot of a 24-hour Kmart in San Antonio, Texas.
11. In 2006, Puryear was arrested in connection with her murder. In June 2007, he was released from jail and on June 1, 2009, all charges filed against him were dropped.
12. On June 20, 2021, her mother died at age 94.
13. On July 31, 2023, Puryear was arrested again for her murder.

Verna Dennis was a vivid person, passionate about her faith and helping others, who knew how to have fun, her daughter said. Fort Worth police arrested a suspect in her death this week. https://t.co/XDDAZIM3hb

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram (@startelegram) August 7, 2023