Texas man pleads guilty to 40-year-old murder case

EL PASO, Texas ( KTSM ) — A 40-year-old murder case has been solved after a Texas man pled guilty last month and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).

Billy Wayne Ludwigson, 62, was recently arrested and sentenced after pleading guilty to the murder of Velma Nesset, 64, back in April 1982.

DPS says Nesset worked at the Permian Mall in Odessa and usually walked to and from work. On April 19, 1982, her coworkers and family discovered that she did not show up for work and a report was filed with the Odessa Police Department.

Nesset’s body was later found partially nude in a drainage culvert and had been sexually assaulted, according to DPS.

Odessa Police initially arrested a man who confessed to the crime. However, in 1983, he was acquitted for lack of evidence and a false confession. The case then went cold.

In 2020, Nesset’s case was eligible for the Texas DPS’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative program.

The program is funded by the Department of Justice/Bureau of Justice Assistance which provides funding for agencies across the nation to further unsolved sexual assaults and sexually related homicides.

Advanced DNA testing and genealogy research through Bode Technologies led to identifying Ludwigson.

In July 2020, the Texas Rangers and the Odessa Police Department arrested Ludwigson in Denver, Colo., and were able to obtain his confession for Nesset’s murder.

In October 2020, Ludwigson was extradited to Texas and was indicted by an Ector County jury on murder charges.

On Aug. 9, Ludwigson pled guilty and was sentenced to 20 years at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison.

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