DNA testing has identified remains found under a Texas bridge as missing flight attendant Rana Nofal Soluri, and her former roommate now faces a murder charge for the alleged killing.
Authorities say laboratory testing recently confirmed that a body recovered from a creek bank in Montague County belonged to the 47-year-old Envoy Air crew member, who had been missing since March 2025. Fox News reported that her longtime friend and former roommate, 67-year-old Dennis Day, is charged with murder in the case.
Police allege Day strangled Soluri in their Fort Worth home, stuffed her body into a trash bin, drove roughly 70 miles, and threw her remains off a bridge. A second woman, 63-year-old Joni Thomas, also known as Joanne Walters, faces a charge of tampering with evidence with intent to impair a human corpse. Both cases remain pending.
The identification closed a months-long gap between the alleged killing and the recovery of Soluri’s body. A fisherman found the remains on June 13 on the bank of Brushy Creek under a bridge about 70 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The University of North Texas Health’s Center for Human Identification performed the DNA work that matched the remains to Soluri.
According to the arrest-warrant account cited in reporting, Day admitted he “snapped” during a dispute with Soluri before he attacked her.
"began to strangle her with his bare hands."
Investigators say he killed her on the kitchen floor, dragged her body into the backyard, and loaded her head first into a large black trash bin. He then allegedly transported the remains about 70 miles and dumped them over a bridge.
Home surveillance from Day’s Fort Worth house on March 21, 2025, showed him dragging what police described as an apparent lifeless body from the home into the backyard. Police also cited an inadvertent call and message on another woman’s phone that captured a panicked Day asking for help moving Soluri’s body. Officers allege Thomas helped him dispose of the remains.
Soluri had taken time off for a minor operation and was expected to return to work on March 31, 2025. She never came back. A co-worker reported her missing on June 11, 2025, after she could not be reached. Day was arrested in June 2025 and charged with murder.
Before DNA results confirmed the identity of the remains, prosecutors said Day bragged to people in jail that he could not be convicted if authorities never found Soluri’s body. The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office filed a notice to that effect, which local reporting highlighted.
That claim did not age well. Once the Center for Human Identification matched the Brushy Creek remains to Soluri, the central obstacle Day allegedly counted on was gone. The Fort Worth Police Department confirmed the DNA result through a spokesperson who spoke to other outlets covering the case.
Soluri worked for Envoy Air, a regional carrier owned by American Airlines. After the identification, American Airlines helped fly her remains to Seattle. She received a Muslim burial there on Sept. 29.
Soluri’s daughter, Lulu Soluri, has a GoFundMe page set up to support her through the aftermath. The page describes the personal cost of the coming court process.
"Lulu is a very private person, so this is a huge feat for her to face the person accused of killing her mother."
The same page thanks supporters who have stepped in during the ordeal.
"Lulu thanks everyone for their support. She is always overwhelmed knowing how many people have helped her during this process."
Lulu plans to travel to Texas for a future court date and is expected to deliver a statement. The murder and tampering cases against Day and Thomas are still pending in the Tarrant County system.
The timeline is stark. Surveillance from March 21 captured the alleged movement of a lifeless body. Soluri was reported missing in June. A fisherman found human remains under a rural bridge days later. Day was already charged with murder that same month. Only after DNA testing did the public learn those remains were hers. In the interim, prosecutors say he talked in jail as if the missing body would keep him safe.
None of that talk changes the charge now on the books. Day, 67, faces a murder count. Thomas, 63, faces the corpse-tampering charge. The alleged method, bare-hand strangulation, a trash bin, a long drive, and a bridge dump, is laid out in the warrant narrative police and prosecutors have put forward. The science that named the victim came from a state university identification lab, not from the defendant.
For a national audience, the geography is simple: a Fort Worth residence, a creek under a bridge in Montague County northwest of the city, and a Seattle burial after the airline helped return the remains. The people are equally clear. A flight attendant who failed to return from medical leave. A roommate charged with killing her. A second adult charged with helping hide what was done. A daughter preparing to stand in court and speak.
Violent crime cases still turn on evidence that holds up, video, phone records, admissions, and DNA. When a body is hidden to break that chain, the bet is that time and distance will erase the crime. In this case, a fisherman, a lab, and a warrant file closed the gap.
Justice does not always move fast. It still has to move. A murdered mother’s name is no longer missing from the record, and the people charged with her death will have to answer in open court.
