The body of Envoy Air flight attendant Rana Nofal Soluri turned up in a Texas creek more than a year after she vanished, with her roommate charged in the strangling and an alleged cover-up now exposed in court papers.
An unidentified fisherman found the remains on the bank of Brushy Creek under a bridge in June. Fort Worth police later confirmed the identity through the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, the New York Post reported.
Soluri, 47, had last been seen alive in March 2025. Her longtime roommate, 67-year-old Dennis William Day, now stands indicted on a murder charge. A second woman, Joni Thomas, 63, faces charges for tampering with evidence and helping dispose of the body. Both cases remain pending.
Detectives say the killing began with a fight inside Day’s home. Soluri allegedly filmed him acting irate and threatened to call 911. Day then choked her to death with his bare hands on the kitchen floor, according to police accounts of his statements.
Investigators obtained video from the night of March 21 that showed Day dragging what appeared to be a lifeless body from the house into the backyard. He allegedly stuffed her into a black trash bin, drove to a bridge near Bowie, and dumped the body. He also ditched her cellphone in a nearby river.
Thomas’s phone allegedly butt-dialed a voicemail that caught the pair in the act of moving a heavy object. Breitbart reported the recording includes a male voice saying, “Hey... help me,” “Make sure the lid’s on,” and “I’m sorry I got you messed up in this.”
Police described the pair’s later moves as a deliberate effort to create a false alibi. In the arrest warrant, officers wrote that Day and Thomas tried “to deceive law enforcement and make it appear like they never left [Day’s] house in Fort Worth, Texas, when they were dumping [Nofal’s] body in Bowie, TX.”
"This is a clear effort by both [Day] and [Thomas] to deceive law enforcement and make it appear like they never left [Day’s] house in Fort Worth, Texas, when they were dumping [Nofal’s] body in Bowie, TX," police said in the warrant.
That same pattern of concealment after violence appears in other recent cases, including a migrant arrested in Jordan after fleeing Ireland following an American mother’s murder.
Before DNA confirmed the remains belonged to Soluri, the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office filed a notice stating Day had bragged to people in jail that he could not be convicted if no one ever found her body. Cops had searched the same creek area a year earlier and may have missed remains covered in mud.
On June 10, officers conducted a welfare check. Day told them he had not seen Soluri for three months. He denied involvement and consented to a property search. Envoy Air co-workers had reported her missing that same month after she failed to show for work and could not be reached. She had been out of work since late March while recovering from minor surgery, an arrest warrant affidavit stated.
Court records in other fatal attacks have likewise shown suspects trying to erase evidence before arrests, as when elderly in-laws were arrested after a New York Times Games director was shot dead in California.
Soluri’s daughter, Lulu, plans to finish laying her mother to rest in Seattle. American Airlines, which owns the regional carrier Envoy Air, is helping fly the remains. A GoFundMe set up for burial expenses also notes Lulu will travel to Texas for an October court date, where she intends to release a statement.
A recent GoFundMe update said: “If you are unable to give, please send your strength and encouragement for her tremendous bravery and resilience during the court appearance. Again, Lulu is a very private person, so this is a huge feat for her to face the person accused of killing her mother.”
"If you are unable to give, please send your strength and encouragement for her tremendous bravery and resilience during the court appearance. Again, Lulu is a very private person, so this is a huge feat for her to face the person accused of killing her mother."
Another update added that Lulu “thanks everyone for their support. She is always overwhelmed knowing how many people have helped her during this process.”
Readers following violent-crime dockets have seen similar family confrontations after killings, including the court documents detailing alleged prior threats before a fatal stabbing.
Fort Worth Police Department Homicide Unit Detective Tom O’Brien confirmed the identification timeline to local reporters. The body discovery closed a search that began when Soluri simply stopped appearing for her flights and answering calls from colleagues.
Cases like the arrest of a 19-year-old found hiding after a university shooting show how quickly investigators can move once physical evidence and admissions surface.
Day’s alleged confession, the surveillance video, the dumped cellphone, and the butt-dial recording now form the core of the state’s case. Thomas’s role in transporting the body in her truck and the false-alibi effort sit at the center of the tampering charges.
Justice delayed is still justice owed. When a roommate can choke a woman to death, dump her body, and brag about beating the system, the system must answer with a full trial and a clear verdict.