Trial begins for 1974 murder of Fort Worth teenager Carla Walker

After more than four decades, the man charged with murdering Carla Walker is going on trial in Tarrant County.

FORT WORTH, Texas - After more than four decades, the man charged with murdering Carla Walker is going on trial in Tarrant County.

On Valentine’s Day in 1974, 17-year-old Walker was abducted at gunpoint while sitting in a parking lot with her boyfriend. She was sexually assaulted and strangled.

Police linked Glen McCurley to the gun used in the crime but he claimed the weapon had been stolen.

For years there was no other evidence connecting him to the murder.

In 2020, Walker's family expressed amazement and relief when the cold case collided with new technology, and a DNA match connected 78-year-old McCurley to crime scene evidence.

With the case re-opened, new DNA from McCurley’s trash outside his Fort Worth home was collected, and later during an interview, detectives said he confessed.

"Sometimes, when you do testing, you don’t always get a full profile. This time, when we retested it, we got a full profile," Det. Leah Wagner explained previously.

Walker had gone to a Valentine’s Day dance with her boyfriend at their high school, and they were sitting in a car in a parking lot when police say McCurley forced her out of the car, fired a shot, and pistol whipped her boyfriend until he was unconscious.

Three days later, her body was discovered in a culvert near Benbrook Lake.

"He was within proximity, as far as where he lives, and that’s why they couldn’t make an arrest. They just did not have enough back then, but He was someone they were looking at," Det. Wagner said in 2020.

"He’s been working here locally and just living very normal life and married and 10 children and just going about his life," another detective said previously.

Jim Walker, Carla’s brother, said his family waited decades for the arrest and another two years to get to McCurley’s trial.

He previously expressed thoughts about his sister’s accused killer and his family.

"We are praying for you. We don’t hate you. We really are praying for you. I hope that the city of Fort Worth has prayers for the family. It’s not their fault," he said last year.

McCurley is charged with capital murder, but prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

Jury selection for the trial began Thursday morning.

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