The Abduction & Murder of Brianna Denison
Brianna Denison was born on March 29, 1988. The Reno High School graduate would go on to attend Santa Barbara City College in California.
Shortly after she graduated from high school, her abduction would stun Northern Nevada.
The Last Hours
Brianna returned home to Reno from sunny Santa Barbara to see some friends and family. The psychology student spent the night of January 20, 2008, with friends. After a night of fun, they returned to a home near the University of Nevada to sleep.
Sometime in the night, Brianna disappeared.
Something Wasn’t Right
When her friend woke up the next morning, Brianna was nowhere to be found. It also looked like there was a small red stain on the pillow she’d been sleeping on. Her cell phone, purse, and shoes were all left at the house. Seeing all of this, the friend called Brianna’s parents and then the police.
Brianna had been abducted.
When investigators arrived, they assessed the scene. They found that DNA was present on a door knob that belonged to an unidentified man. They were also able to confirm that the blood on the pillow did belong to Brianna. Soon, the FBI joined the search.
Moving Forward
The DNA found on the door knob was actually linked to at least two sexually motivated attacks in the same area in previous months. Another possible link occurred in October 2007 when a woman was sexually assaulted on the university campus at gunpoint. The crime had not been reported when it initially happened, but it was deemed a positive connection.
In an effort to track down a suspect, police officers began to interview local sex offenders, of which there were many. None seemed to be responsible for Brianna’s disappearance.
In an effort to find Brianna, over 1,7000 people volunteered to participate in a physical search. The group searched an area of 100 square miles.
Nothing.
On January 29, investigators released a description of potential suspect. The description was based on identifiers used by women who had been sexually assaulted by the suspect.
A Discovery
Less than a month later, on February 15, a body was found near a Reno business park. A man walking back to work from lunch spotted orange socks. He ran back to work and call the police, who were able to confirm the identity. It was Brianna.
Brianna had been assaulted and murdered. Near her body was a pair of underwear that had DNA belonging to another women on it.
On November 25, 2008, 27-year-old James Michael Biela is arrested in nearby Sparks as he drops his child off at a daycare center. He was charged with murder, first-degree kidnapping, and sexual assault.
Biela had already given the police a DNA samples. In fact, he’d been arrested once in 2001 for threatening somebody with a knife. The DNA found at the scene and the sexual assault matched Biela. Biela refused to give another DNA sample, but his girlfriend allowed their son to be tested. It was a match.
It later came out that Biela had been turned in by the friend of his girlfriend through the Secret Witness program. Biela’s girlfriend told her friend that she had found some random underwear in Biela’s truck.
The Death Penalty
On May 27, 2010, Biela was convicted of murder. He was found guilty on all counts after nine hours of jury deliberation.
Biela wanted to avoid the death penalty, so his team argued that he had been abused as a child and had been a productive member of society up until his crimes. Still, the jurors opted for a death sentence in addition to four life sentences.
Over the years, Biela’s appeals have been denied.
Brianna’s legacy lives on, even if her life was cut short. In 2013, one-time governor of Nevada Brian Sandoval signed Brianna’s Law. The law calls for people booked for felony arrests to be swabbed for DNA. The DNA will be entered into a national database if the arrest is deemed to have probable cause.
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