32-Year-Old Murder Cold Case Cracked, Suspect Gary Len Ross Has Family Connection

Police arrested Gary Len Ross this month for the 1993 murder of Tommie Davis. Davis was 55 when someone killed her inside her Dallas home. Read on for more details about the breakthrough in the cold case.

The Murder

On May 18, 1993, Tommie Davis was found dead inside her residence in the 1500 block of Haskell Avenue in Dallas.

According to Yahoo News, an autopsy showed Davis suffered “multiple skull, rib, and facial fractures, as well as stab wounds.”

They were able to establish that someone had hit her with a 2X4 piece of wood and also slashed her with a knife.

Detectives who checked out the scene noted minor damage to the front door and missing items suggested there had been a break-in. Despite that, the case went cold but new forensic technology helped to find a suspect.

Cold Case Reopened

It took roughly 32 years but in 2025, Dallas Police Detective Andrea Isom reopened the file and submitted old evidence for modern testing.

Lab workers tested some blood that was found on a wall inside the home and People reported that tests showed the blood didn’t belong to Tommie Davis.

The cold case detectives had the blood uploaded into the national DNA database, CODIS. It hit on a match for someone named “Tommy Lynn Jones.”

Police later identified Tommy Lynn Jones as a pseudonym used by 56-year-old Gary Len Ross. He was arrested on October 2, and prosecutors charged him with capital murder.

Family Ties

Ross talked to detectives during an interrogation. According to Dallas Morning News, Ross admitted he visited Davis’s home a few days before her death, telling police they had “drunk beer and had sexual intercourse.”

Ross denied killing her but he couldn’t explain how his blood ended up on her wall.

Per Yahoo News, Ross is the half-brother of Davis’s daughter through their shared father, which makes the murder a family affair in more ways than one if his story about intimacy turns out to be true.

Viewers React

When Fox 4 Dallas covered the news on YouTube, true crime watchers weighed in on the story.

One viewer wrote, “imagine all those years wondering who killed your mother and you’re sitting at family gatherings eating across the table from your mother’s killer.”

“I like seeing all the cold cases being solved,” another person commented.

Someone else asked, “Dang i wonder why he snapped and what his confession is ultimately[?]”

Another person wondered about the timeline. “damn, this took a long time to solve,” adding, “Why didn’t they do DNA test a few years ago on that part of the wall?”

“This is awesome,” another commenter said. “Never give up.”

Your thoughts? Join the discussion and come back here often for more true crime news and updates. Remember, we also have a crime channel on TikTok that you can follow.