For more than four decades, the family of Lois Marshall waited for answers about her 1981 murder. Galveston police say modern forensic technology delivered them.
GALVESTON, Texas — The Galveston Police Department said it solved a 45-year-old cold case murder, identifying a Texas City man as the suspect in the 1981 killing of a 22-year-old Galveston woman, though he died before charges could be filed.
On Sept. 11, 1981, Lois Marshall was found dead inside her home on Avenue O near 23rd Street in Galveston. Nearly 45 years later, William Clifford Lawrence, 70, was identified through fingerprint and DNA evidence as the suspect in the brutal murder. Lawrence died of natural causes on April 19, before he could be charged with capital murder. The Galveston County District Attorney’s Office documented that probable cause existed for a capital murder charge, and the department has officially cleared the case.
Marshall had suffered extensive blunt force trauma to the head and had been sexually assaulted, bound, gagged and murdered. Her official cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation.
During the original investigation, officers collected biological evidence and latent fingerprints from the scene, including evidence recovered from Marshall’s body. Over the following decades, investigators pursued numerous leads and eliminated many potential suspects through fingerprint comparisons, blood typing and DNA testing.
The case gained new momentum in February 2025 when investigators resubmitted latent fingerprints from the scene for additional analysis. A fingerprint collected in 1981 came back as a match for Lawrence, who had not previously been identified as a suspect.
When detectives attempted to speak with Lawrence in March 2025, he declined to be interviewed or even hear the reason for the visit, telling investigators he simply wanted to live out the rest of his life at home. Officers later got a search warrant to collect a DNA sample from Lawrence. He again declined to be interviewed after the sample was taken and during subsequent contact with investigators, denied knowing Marshall.
On March 27, 2025, the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory confirmed that DNA evidence from the sexual assault matched Lawrence. Additional DNA recovered from the bindings used during the crime was also determined to likely belong to him.
Investigators and the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office spent the following year building the case for prosecution before probable cause was established in April 2026.
Investigators issued a statement on the nature of the crime.
“This was a brutal and deeply disturbing crime,” they said. “William Clifford Lawrence is the only suspect identified in this case.”
The department thanked the many officers, detectives and forensic professionals who worked on the investigation over four decades, as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory, the Texas Rangers and all agencies that assisted in the case. Investigators determined Lawrence had lived in or frequented several locations over the years, including Galveston, Austin, Alice, Victoria, Kerr County, Houston, Baytown and parts of Louisiana.
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