Reno cops identify suspect in student killing case

A Sparks pipefitter has been arrested in the slaying of a former Mendocino County student who authorities said was abducted while sleeping at a friend’s house, the victim’s family and police said Wednesday.

James Michael Biela, 27, was arrested Tuesday night and booked into the Washoe County Jail on suspicion of murdering Brianna Denison. He’s also charged with the kidnapping and sexual assault of another woman in Reno a month earlier, Reno Police Chief Michael Poehlman said at a news conference.

Biela was being held without bail. Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick said prosecutors have the option of seeking a death sentence in the case.

Biela provided a DNA sample that matched evidence found at the scene where Denison’s body was found in February, Poehlman said.

She had been reported missing in January.

“Can you believe it?” the girl’s aunt, Lauren Denison, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “The police said the DNA came back, and it’s him.”

“This is what we have been waiting for,” Lauren Denison added.

Denison, 19, a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College in California, was visiting her hometown during winter break when she vanished early Jan. 20. Authorities say she had been sleeping on a couch at a friend’s rented home near the University of Nevada, Reno.

Her body was found Feb. 15 in a brush-covered lot in south Reno.

An autopsy showed she was raped and strangled.

Investigators said from the beginning they believed the suspect, who taunted police by leaving two pair of intertwined women’s panties at the site where Denison’s body was found, lived in the area.

Public records show Biela has lived in the Reno area since 2002.

Poehlman said Biela left the area in March as police efforts to find Denison’s slayer intensified. He took a job in Washington state, but in September returned to Sparks.

Poehlman said Biela’s girlfriend went to Washington in September to drive back to Nevada with him, found some underwear in his car and mentioned that discovery to a friend who in turn tipped police on Nov. 1. That was one of more than 2,200 tips received by authorities since Denison’s slaying.

Authorities said Biela was put under surveillance following the tip, was questioned on Nov. 7, and was arrested on Tuesday as he headed to a child care center to pick up his son.

Denison was born March 29, 1988 in Reno to Jeff and Bridgette Denison.

The family moved to Mendocino, her mother’s home town, following the death of Brianna’s father when she was 6 years old, Lauren Denison said.

Brianna attended elementary school in Mendocino before the family returned to Reno about six years ago.

She graduated from Reno High School in 2006. She then moved away from home to attend Santa Barbara City College, where she was a sophomore studying child psychology.