An intelligent and friendly young woman with hopes for a new life, Sharyn Kills Back, an 18-year-old member of the Oglala Sioux tribe, had moved from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to Arlington, Texas, just two months before she was killed. Born on July 1, 1966, Sharyn grew up in Porcupine, South Dakota. At 16, she moved to Utah for Job Corps training before settling in Texas in January 1985.
She loved her family and corresponded with them daily, and in her last letter, which arrived at the reservation on March 14, 1985, she wrote that she was coming home for a visit in two weeks.
The very next day, March 15, 1985, Sharyn disappeared while walking to a friend's house in Arlington. Her family's anxious wait for news ended in the most devastating way. Eight days later, on March 23, a plumber working in a south Arlington neighborhood discovered her body inside a storm drain near the 1400 block of Bandera Drive. Sharyn had been raped and strangled; a rope was still tied around her neck, and her face and body were caked in mud. Her sister, Suzanna Kills Back, would later recall the heartbreak: "She did come home in two weeks, but in a different way."
For two decades, Sharyn's murder remained a painful cold case for the Arlington police and a source of unanswered prayers for her family. The initial investigation yielded no suspects, and the trail went cold. The break in the case would come from an entirely different investigation and the advancement of forensic science. The man responsible for Sharyn's death was Curtis Don Brown, a serial killer who terrorized the Arlington and Fort Worth areas between 1985 and 1986, committing at least three murders and suspected in as many as 18.
Brown was first arrested on May 28, 1986, for the brutal rape and bludgeoning murder of a 51-year-old nurse named Jewel Woods in Fort Worth. He was caught fleeing the scene with her purse and was convicted of her murder in 1989, receiving a life sentence. While incarcerated, a new prison policy implemented in 2005 required inmates to submit DNA samples. This routine collection would finally bring justice for Sharyn and another of Brown's victims.
In 2005, Fort Worth cold case detectives were notified of a DNA match from the state database. Brown's DNA profile corresponded with evidence found on the body of 29-year-old Terece Gregory, who was raped and shot before her body was found in the Trinity River on May 30, 1985. This breakthrough prompted Arlington detectives to re-examine their own cold cases for possible links to Brown. They submitted DNA evidence recovered from Sharyn's body and clothing, and in September 2005, they received confirmation of a perfect match to Curtis Don Brown.
After being indicted for the capital murders of both Terece Gregory and Sharyn Kills Back, Brown faced the possibility of the death penalty. In January 2009, less than a week before his trial for Gregory's murder was set to begin, he accepted a plea agreement. Brown pleaded guilty to the two additional murders in exchange for avoiding a death sentence. He was given two more life sentences, to be served consecutively after his current life term, ensuring he will never be eligible for parole.
The legal resolution brought a measure of peace to Sharyn's family. Her sister Suzanna stated that the family was pleased with the plea agreement and grateful to avoid the trauma of a trial. "I was kind of getting scared the closer we were getting," she said, adding that she didn't care about the death penalty, "as long as he paid for what he'd done." Another sister, Blanche Kills Back, expressed sadness that their parents were not alive to see justice served. The family of Terece Gregory, however, was angered by the deal, calling it "a crime in itself." Curtis Don Brown, also known as the "Bandit," remains imprisoned for life, his violent spree brought to an end, but not before cutting short the promising life of a young woman who had just begun to build her future.
