Juan Leon Laureles was 30 when he was found shot in the back of the head beside his burning 1988 black Ford Thunderbird on a warm May night in 1996. He had left for his usual 11:30 p.m. shift at Kroger’s, was seen briefly in the store parking lot, and did not reach his graveyard shift; two passing motorists called 911 about a car on fire near a secluded rifle range on Farm to Market Road 2126 outside Brownwood.

Leon grew up in a small Texas town as the youngest of nine children in a traditional Mexican Catholic immigrant family. Quiet and shy, he cared for his aging parents, played trumpet in band with his niece Arlene, moved to Brownwood to be near family, worked nights at Kroger’s and helped care for Arlene’s boys by day. Weeks before his death he reported harassment and threats; the morning before the murder he told his sister someone was harassing him.

The Texas Rangers list the case as open; Leon’s family questions whether an autopsy was properly completed. If anyone knew Leon, saw his Thunderbird that night, or has information about threats he reported, contact the Brown County Sheriff’s Office or Heart of Texas Crime Stoppers.