East Austin murder still unsolved after almost 30 years
AUSTIN, Texas - November 23, 1995, was the day police say 30-year-old Stephen Arevalo was found stabbed to death.
His sister, Sara Arevalo-Lee, reflects on the passage of time.
"It doesn't get easier. It gets different. You know, his two little girls were five and seven at the time. Now they're grown young ladies. They're doing good, but they miss their dad, and he would have been a grandpa," she said.
Some loved ones never get to know what happened.
"It's been tough. This year was a tough year because my dad passed away, not knowing who killed his son, and when my dad was literally on his deathbed, he asked the detective if there were any new leads, and unfortunately, there were not. Then Stephen's wife passed this year too," Arevalo-Lee said.
Austin police hosted a press conference last year looking for tips. They say they haven't gotten any leads since then.
Detectives say Arevalo was dropped off in an alley behind his home near Sixth Street and Brushy Street. Today, it's an apartment complex.
Two hours later, a relative in the house saw the lights of the backyard shed and a mid-1980s black GMC or Chevrolet pickup truck speed out of the alley.
"We have the information about the truck and that's really it. A lot of times we get details in cases that may or may not even be related. We follow up on the black truck, put a lot of energy into a black truck," Sgt. Matt Sanders with Austin Police said in 2022.
A family member told police he got up to make coffee when he noticed the back screen door was open and found Arevalo lying on the ground with stab wounds.
"We didn't think, his family didn't think he had any enemies, but something can happen, and we don't know what or why," Arevalo-Lee said. "He was a good guy. He was a caring father. He was a hard worker. He was adventurous."
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Police say they've re-evaluated the case and, despite advances in technology, they don't have any forensic evidence worth pursuing.
"In 1995, you know, those items were left behind, or they were collected, but they were collected in ways that didn't preserve the item for DNA," Sanders said.
"Please come forward. Please let us know why you did what you did. Why did you take him from us? Put yourself in our shoes. How do you think it feels to lose a family member, especially a brother and a father and a husband?" Arevalo-Lee said. "If you want to get into heaven, you better tell us, because hell is rough. Our family's been through hell. It is rough. I don't wish hell on anyone."