Police: Prime suspect in Jan 1st attack found dead 

The whole situation is still sad, but this is comforting:

A man who committed suicide this month is the prime suspect in the slaying of 29-year-old Esme Barrera early New Year's Day, and has been linked through DNA evidence to another assault that morning and attacks on women jogging in South Austin last year, police said Thursday night.

The unsolved crimes had kept women across the city on edge and prompted warnings at the University of Texas campus.

James Loren Brown, 25, was found dead in his apartment in the 3000 block of Guadalupe Street on Jan. 12, blocks away from where three women were attacked early New Year's Day, said police Cmdr. Julie O'Brien.

One of those was Barrera, a special education assistant teacher who was killed after someone broke into her home in the 3100 block of King Street . Police have not said how Barrera was killed.

"Although I am not going to say definitively that the suspect is absolutely the murderer of Barrera, we are prepared to say he is a prime suspect," Chief Art Acevedo said at a news conference Thursday night. "Based on everything we've seen so far, we can sleep a little bit more comfortably tonight. We've got a predator that is no longer among us."