Albuquerque police arrest Illinois man in 1983 motel murder case

A 41-year-old homicide case in Albuquerque has moved from cold file to active prosecution, with police arresting a 73-year-old Illinois man and tying him to evidence preserved since Agnes Tybo was found dead in a Sundowner Motel room near Central Avenue. The case now hinges on DNA work that investigators say finally gave a name to a killing that had shadowed Tybo’s family, the Indigenous community and Bernalillo County detectives for generations.

Charlie Brown Jr., 73, of Champaign, Illinois, was charged with first-degree murder after a criminal complaint and arrest warrant were filed June 8, 2026, in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court. He was arrested in Illinois and is awaiting extradition to New Mexico. Tybo was 71 when she was killed on November 11, 1983, in room 252 of the Sundowner Motel at 6101 Central Ave. NE. The Office of the Medical Investigator ruled her death a homicide by strangulation.

Police say the case stalled for years after witnesses reported hearing a woman scream for a long time and seeing a man trying to enter motel rooms, while a composite sketch was circulated to the public and tribal agencies. Investigators also found Tybo’s room in disarray. Her purse turned up in a dumpster or in the bed of a dump truck parked in the motel lot, and it contained a checkbook, driver’s license and tribal membership card. A white cotton towel was recovered with her belongings.

The breakthrough came in 2021, when a civilian investigator reviewed the old file and submitted original evidence for advanced forensic testing. In July 2022, the National DNA Index System reported a state-to-state match between crime-scene evidence and an offender profile for Brown. Detectives later traveled to Champaign and collected a direct DNA sample under search warrant. That testing showed Brown could not be excluded as a contributor to male DNA found underneath Tybo’s fingernails, and probabilistic genotyping linked his DNA to the white towel.

Tybo, who came from Owyhee, Nevada, had traveled to Albuquerque with her brother to meet family and attend the Indian National Finals Rodeo at Tingley Coliseum. Her family has said the arrest brought relief after years without answers, but also reopened the loss. One relative said the whole family “fell apart” after the killing.

Police Chief Cecily Barker said the arrest reflects the department’s commitment to victims and families, and to the detectives who kept the evidence intact long enough for modern science to work. APD had also featured the case on Duke City Case Files and its cold-case podcast in an effort to generate leads. The arrest marks a rare turning point in a case that long seemed beyond reach, while also showing how far DNA can go in old Bernalillo County homicides, and where human loss still cannot be undone.