Rana Soluri’s remains were found by a fisherman in Montague County as a murder case against her longtime friend remains pending.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Human remains found along a North Texas creek have been identified through DNA testing as Rana Nofal Soluri, a 47-year-old flight attendant who disappeared in March 2025, giving investigators a major new piece of evidence in a pending murder prosecution.
A fisherman discovered the remains June 13, 2026, along Brushy Creek near FM 1749 in Montague County, about 75 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The remains were sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, where DNA testing confirmed they belonged to Soluri. She had been reported missing June 11, 2025, although investigators determined she had not been seen alive since March 21 of that year.
Soluri worked as a flight attendant for Envoy Air, a regional carrier owned by American Airlines Group. A colleague contacted police after being unable to reach her and told investigators that their last communication had been in March. Soluri had been on leave from work and was expected to return but did not, according to police records and news reports based on an arrest warrant affidavit.
Dennis William Day, a longtime friend who had lived with Soluri for about a year, was later arrested and indicted on a murder charge in connection with her death. Day remains in the Tarrant County Jail on a $200,000 bond. The criminal charge remains pending, and he has not been convicted.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Day initially denied knowing what had happened to Soluri. Investigators later reviewed surveillance footage from the Fort Worth residence the two shared. The footage from the night of March 21 appeared to show Day dragging a motionless person from the house into the backyard. Investigators said the home’s surveillance system stopped recording afterward.
Day later told investigators that he strangled Soluri during a confrontation inside the home, according to the affidavit. Police said he told detectives he then moved her body outside and transported it toward the Bowie area in Montague County. Investigators searched bridges, waterways and other locations after Day provided information about where he said the body had been disposed of, but those searches did not initially locate Soluri.
Authorities said repeated flooding in North Texas complicated the search. Fort Worth homicide Detective Tom O’Brien later said Soluri’s remains may have been covered by mud when investigators previously searched near the location where the fisherman ultimately discovered them. The June discovery came more than a year after Soluri was last known to be alive.
Police have also accused Joanne Walters, also known as Joni Thomas, of helping Day dispose of Soluri’s body. She was arrested in 2025 and indicted on a charge of tampering with evidence with intent to impair a human corpse. Her case remains pending, and the allegation has not been proven in court.
The identification of Soluri’s remains resolves one of the central unanswered questions in an investigation that had proceeded for more than a year without her body. Fort Worth police spokesperson Daniel Segura told FOX 4 that investigators were grateful to be able to provide Soluri’s family with additional answers. Authorities had not publicly released a final medical determination of the cause and manner of death in the latest reports.
Soluri’s remains have been released to her family, with plans reported for her burial in Seattle. Day remains jailed while the murder case moves forward, and the evidence-tampering case against Walters also remains pending.
Author note: Last updated October 5, 2026.