'Total shock': Half brother of 1993 cold case victim's daughter charged with capital murder

DALLAS - The daughter of a Dallas cold case victim said she was in "total shock" when she learned police arrested her half brother for the 1993 murder of her mother on Haskell Avenue.

Dallas cold case arrest

What we know:

56-year-old Gary Len Ross was arrested on October 2 by the Dallas Police Department and charged with capital murder.

Police connected Ross to the May 18, 1993, murder of 55-year-old Tommie Davis, who was found beaten and stabbed to death at her apartment in the 1500 block of Haskell Avenue.

Ross was identified as a suspect when Dallas Police Det. Andrea Isom reopened the case in 2025. The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) matched Ross' DNA to blood found on evidence collected at the crime scene in 1993.

Dig deeper:

An arrest affidavit states Ross, who was identified under the alias Tommy Lynn Jones, told police he had been to Davis' apartment in the days prior to her murder to "drink beer and the two had sexual intercourse," but was not involved in her death.

Ross was unable to explain why his blood was found at the crime scene, according to the affidavit. 

He had been released from prison in March 1993 for a narcotics charge, and has a history of theft and attempted murder.

"Total shock"

What they're saying:

Davis' daughter, Lashaune Saulsman, is the half brother of Ross, sharing the same father. 

Saulsman told police her mother was not close with the Ross family prior to her death, and was careful about who she would allow in her apartment.

"I said he was lying because we know he's lying," Saulsman tells FOX 4's Shaun Rabb of Ross' statement to police. "He knows he didn't have a relationship with my mother."

She tells Rabb she believes some of her family on her father's side knew Ross killed her mother, but never said anything to police.

"I was in shock because we've had family gatherings since then. I've expressed what I thought on who had done the murder. No one ever told me anything and when it turned out to be him I was shocked."

Saulsman says her mother made her into the parent she is today, and she's grateful to the Dallas Police Cold Case Unit for making an arrest in the case 33 years after her mother was murdered.

"I'm so grateful for them. I'm forever grateful for them because they did something that couldn't be done in 1993. They solved my mother's murder," Sauslman said.

Dallas Police Statement

"The Dallas Police Department is committed to pursuing justice in every case, no matter how much time has passed," said Major Bobbie Epperson of the Dallas Police Department’s CAPERS Unit. "Detective Isom’s meticulous and persistent work exemplifies the dedication of our CAPERS Unit. We hope this arrest brings a measure of closure to Ms. Davis’s family and serves as a reminder that justice will always be pursued."

What's next:

Ross is being held in the Dallas County Jail on a $500,000 bond.