A forgotten blood sample, a cold case, and a DNA match that brought a 1993 murder investigation back to life

ALLAS — For more than three decades, the murder of Tommie Davis remained one of those cases that seemed destined to become a footnote in an old police file.

Then investigators looked again.

On May 18, 1993, 55-year-old Davis was found murdered inside her residence on Haskell Avenue in Dallas. Police said she had been beaten with a piece of lumber and stabbed. Investigators also found broken objects, debris and blood inside the home. (FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth)

But the investigation quickly ran out of leads.

According to the Dallas Police Department, the available clues included damage to the front door and missing property. With little else to pursue, the case was eventually classified as a cold case. (DPD Beat)

Then time did something unexpected: it became an ally.

In 2025, Detective Andrea Isom revisited Davis’s case and submitted previously collected evidence for modern forensic testing. Investigators discovered that blood found on a wall inside the residence did not belong to Davis.

That distinction became crucial.

A DNA profile was developed from the blood and entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, a national database used to compare forensic DNA profiles. According to Dallas police, the search produced a match to an individual using the name Tommy Lynn Jones. Investigators subsequently determined that the name was an alias used by 56-year-old Gary Len Ross. (CBS News)

Ross was located and arrested on October 2, 2026. He has been charged with capital murder. Police say the arrest warrant was based not only on the DNA evidence, but also on Ross’s connection to Davis and evidence surrounding the manner of her death. (DPD Beat)

Ross is accused—not convicted. The investigation remains active, and the allegations will ultimately be tested in court.

But there is another deeply human dimension to this case.

Davis’s daughter reportedly learned that the man arrested in connection with her mother’s death was her own half brother, according to FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth. She described the revelation as a complete shock. (FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth)

And that may be what makes this case so haunting.

The killer, if prosecutors ultimately prove their case, may not have been discovered because someone suddenly remembered what happened in 1993.

He may have been discovered because evidence remembered for them.

A drop of blood survived the passage of time. Technology eventually caught up with it.

Thirty-two years later, a cold case spoke again.

And its first words were written in DNA.

Sources: Dallas Police Department, CBS Texas, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, and FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth. (DPD Beat)