A Minnesota man was booked into the Denton County Jail on Friday evening on a murder charge after being arrested in Lakeville, Minnesota, this month.
A Denton County grand jury indicted Robert Otteson, 53, on Aug. 7 in connection with the Sept. 30, 1983, murder of Francisco Narvaez. A Denton district judge issued a warrant for his arrest the following day. He was taken into custody Aug. 13 by Lakeville police and officers from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Otteson did not fight his extradition to Texas. Denton police and a Texas Ranger were present at his arrest, after a break in the cold case. Department spokesman Orlando “Hino“ Hinojosa said Otteson was brought to Texas by a special transport unit of the Denton County Sheriff’s Office.
Otteson remained in the Denton County Jail on Saturday. Bail was ordered at $300,000.
Narvaez was found dead in Room 241 of the old Holiday Inn at 1500 Dallas Drive. Hours after his body was discovered, Oklahoma City police found his 1983 Oldsmobile. Someone had driven it from Denton to Oklahoma. The murder weapon, suspected to be a 2 1/2- to 3-inch knife, was never found.
Early in the investigation, several witnesses reported seeing Narvaez drinking coffee with a man in the hotel restaurant the day before his body was discovered. Those witnesses provided enough details to develop a sketch of the suspect’s face.
Eventually, tips and leads dried up for Denton officers who were investigating the case.
Police have not said what led them to Otteson in recent weeks. Denton authorities sought help from the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation in 2011, but the case hit a dead end when a pair of DNA samples extracted from the crime scene didn’t turn up any matches.
A search of the suspect’s Minnesota home last winter led to a break in the case. A shirt recently worn by the suspect was found in the garbage, and DNA from the shirt matched DNA taken from the crime scene, connecting him to Narvaez’s murder, according to court records.
Denton police haven’t offered details about the shirt, or a theory for why Narvaez was killed.
Narvaez was traveling with a consulting firm that helped credit unions convert records from paper to computer files.
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881.
