A 62-year-old man indicted four years ago in connection with a 1982 murder entered a plea agreement Friday and was sentenced to 20 years in the Texas Department of Corrections.
According to the Odessa Police Department, Velma Nesset’s partially nude body was found in a drainage culvert along Tanglewood Lane on April 19, 1982 after she didn’t show up for work at what was then called the Permian Mall.
First Assistant Ector County District Attorney Greg Barber said the case had gone cold for years until DNA samples from the cold case were re-examined and run through genetic genealogy until a suspect could be identified.
Investigators from the Odessa Police Department and the Texas Rangers followed up on the leads and were able to eventually identify Ludwigson, who was 20 at the time of the slaying, as the suspect. He was arrested near his home in Denver, Colorado in September 2020 and has remained in custody since.
“The Ector County District Attorney’s Office worked up the case despite the issues involved in trying to prosecute a homicide that occurred 42 years ago,” Barber said via email. “With the approval of the victim’s family, the state and defense agreed to a 20-year TDCJ plea agreement that was approved by the court.”
Ludwigson was represented by Jason Leach and Judge Denn Whalen of the 70th Ector County District Court presided over the case.
