HENDERSON COUNTY (KLTV) – Nearly 40 years after the murder of Rickey Herriage, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday that it has identified the person responsible for the 1987 crime.
Herriage’s body was discovered on March 8, 1987, beneath a bridge on County Road 1500. Despite extensive investigations at the time, the case went cold and remained unsolved for decades.
In 2019, Sheriff Botie Hillhouse ordered a re-examination of the evidence. Clothing recovered from the scene was sent to Pure Gold Forensics in Redlands, California, where analysts were able to extract a DNA profile. While the profile was entered into the national CODIS database, no match was initially found.
The Sheriff’s Office then partnered with Season of Justice, a nonprofit that funds cold case investigations, to continue DNA testing. In 2022, Othram Inc., a forensic genomics company based in The Woodlands, Texas, conducted further analysis.
With assistance from the FBI Dallas Violent Crimes Task Force, advanced genealogical methods identified the likely suspect as Dallas Reynolds Casanova. Investigators said Casanova lived in Henderson County at the time of the murder and later died in 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Additional testing by Pure Gold Forensics confirmed Casanova’s DNA on Herriage’s clothing, along with Herriage’s own DNA, directly linking him to the crime.
Sheriff Hillhouse credited the resolution of the nearly four-decade-old case to the collaboration of multiple agencies, including the Henderson County District Attorney’s Office, FBI, Season of Justice, Othram Inc., and Pure Gold Forensics.
“This case would not have been solved without the relentless dedication and collaboration of everyone involved,” Hillhouse said. “We are thankful for the support from our partners and proud of the determination shown by our team. I’m extremely proud that this new evidence can provide some answers to the family.”