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DNA confirms body found in Texas creek is missing flight attendant

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Cite

Siemaszko, C. (2026, October 5). DNA confirms body found in Texas creek is missing flight attendant. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dna-confirms-body-found-texas-creek-missing-flight-attendant-rcna601681

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

NBC News · collected 2026-10-05 · by Corky Siemaszko

Quick Summary

DNA testing has confirmed that remains found in a Texas creek belong to Rana Nofal Soluri, an American Airlines flight attendant who went missing in early 2025. The body was discovered by a fisherman near a bridge in Montague County and later released to her daughter for burial. Dennis Day, Soluri’s former roommate, admitted to police that he strangled her before dumping her body into a creek. Joni Thomas faces charges of tampering with evidence related to assisting Day with disposing of the body.
Written by AI on 2026-10-05, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

In June 2025, Rana Nofal Soluri, a 47-year-old flight attendant from Fort Worth, Texas, was reported missing after taking a leave of absence due to minor surgery. She had not returned to her job at Envoy Air, a regional carrier under American Airlines, by the end of March as expected. Her coworkers reported her missing in June when she failed to return and could not be reached.

In June 2026, nearly a year later, a fisherman discovered Soluri’s body on the bank of Brushy Creek near a bridge in Montague County, approximately 70 miles northwest of Fort Worth. DNA testing at the University of North Texas confirmed it was her remains two weeks after the discovery.

Soluri's former roommate and longtime friend, Dennis William Day, 67, had been arrested in June 2025 and charged with murder following his alleged confession to strangling Soluri to death in March 2025. Police said he then drove her body about 65 miles northwest before dumping it off a bridge near Bowie.

Her daughter, Lulu, helped arrange for American Airlines to fly the remains to Seattle for burial on September 29. A GoFundMe page was set up to cover Soluri’s funeral expenses and support Lulu during court proceedings in Texas.

Written for “Flight Attendant Murder Case Solved” on 2026-10-30, grounded in this article and the 4 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Flight Attendant Murder Case Solved
Crime & Law · 5 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 12% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Fox News
Hedges 5 of 19 claims Outlet record 70/100
New York Post
Hedges 7 of 21 claims Outlet record 66/100
The Independent
Hedges 6 of 15 claims Outlet record 59/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
24
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
12%
3 of 24 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
60/100
NBC News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
5
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-05 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

NBC News · 1918 article(s) · 1 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 1 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Corky Siemaszko
15 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The legal team for Jennings acknowledged they received the letter and said a response would follow, but no “substantive response” has been issued, the complaint said. As of Wednesday, Jennings’ post that includes the allegedly doctored video was still on X and had racked-up three million views.
🔮 While paramedics took the injured boy to a nearby hospital for treatment of what turned out to be an apparently minor injury, the deputies tracked Miller down by telephone. “She told the deputy that she was working in Las Vegas and would return on October 23, 2026,” the sheriff’s statement said.
🔮 “We encourage anyone who may be struggling to seek support.”
🔮 “I am a proud Mexican who has always been and will always be a supporter of my community,” Trejo wrote in an Oct. 9 post on Instagram.
🔮 Investigators have not released a motive for the mayhem and autopsies were scheduled Tuesday for all three individuals.
🔮 Allen “sustained a laceration to his forehead” but was not hospitalized, the department said, adding that they are “actively investigating this incident” and additional patrols will sent to the area.
🔮 “Your imitation of chugging a beer constituted an offensive demonstration and could reasonably be construed as being in poor taste,” the NFL wrote in its fine letter ESPN first reported.
🔮 Day, police said, may have implicated himself and Thomas by accidentally recording themselves while transporting the victim’s body.
🔮 He would remain on campus and could continue to play football, she said.
🔮 The FAA said in a statement that the problem was an issue with “some frequencies” but didn’t say how long it would take to get the systems back up and running. “The FAA is pausing flights into Philadelphia International, Teterboro and Newark Liberty International airports due to issues with some frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON,” the statement said.
Also by Corky Siemaszko
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 15 articles by Corky Siemaszko →

Topics

American Airlines Montague County NBC News Texas the Fort Worth Police Department

Subjects

Soluri PERSON · 11× Day PERSON · 10× Thomas ORG · 3× American Airlines ORG · 2× Dennis Day PERSON · 2× Montague County GPE · 2× NBC News ORG · 1× Rana Nofal Soluri PERSON · 1× Texas GPE · 1× the Fort Worth Police Department ORG · 1×

Narrative

“This report also confirms the fact that not only did [Thomas] travel to [Day’s] house and allowed [Day] to use her truck to transport [Soluri’s] body, but that she actually helped load [Soluri’s] body into the truck.”
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-05
🔮 Day, police said, may have implicated himself and Thomas by accidentally recording themselves while transporting the victim’s body.
2026-10-05 · NBC News
DNA confirms body found in Texas creek is missing flight attendant · assertive framing

Claims (24 extracted, 3 hedged)

Prosecutors seeking to convict the Texas man charged with killing flight attendant Rana Nofal Soluri and throwing her body off a bridge have a powerful new piece of evidence — the victim’s body. asserted
Prosecutors → seek → evidence
Soluri’s remains were found on June 13 but only recently have been “confirmed to be her through DNA testing,” a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Police Department told NBC News on Sunday. asserted
spokesperson → find → Sunday
Her body was found by a fisherman trolling beneath a bridge on the bank of a creek in Montague County, which is about 70 miles northwest of downtown Fort Worth, police told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. asserted
police → find → Telegram
The body was then taken to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification. asserted
body → take → Identification
It has since been released to her daughter, Lulu Soluri, according to a GoFundMe page set up on her behalf. uncertain
It → release → behalf
American Airlines flew the body to Seattle for a Muslim burial that took place on Sept. 29, an update on the GoFundMe announced. asserted
update → fly → GoFundMe
Soluri worked for a regional carrier owned by American Airlines. asserted
Soluri → work → Airlines
The break in the case came more than a year after Soluri’s former roommate, 67-year-old Dennis Day, was arrested in June 2025 and charged with murder. asserted
roommate → come → murder
Police took Day into custody two months after the 47-year-old flight attendant went missing around March 19, 2025. asserted
attendant → take → March
A short time later, Joni Thomas, now 63 and also known as Joanne Walters, was accused of helping him dump Soluri’s body, police said. asserted
police → know → body
She was charged with tampering with evidence with intent to impair a human corpse. asserted
She → charge → corpse
Soluri had lived with Day for approximately a year, police said. asserted
police → live → year
She had taken some time off for a minor operation and was supposed to return to work on March 31st, 2025. asserted
She → take → 31st
When she didn’t, a co-worker reported her missing on June 11, 2025, police said. asserted
police → do → June
Suspicion quickly fell on Day, who later admitted to police that he “snapped” during a dispute with Soluri before he “began to strangle her with his bare hands,” his arrest warrant said. asserted
warrant → fall → hands
After the slaying, Day loaded Soluri’s body “head first, into a large black trash bin and transported” it 70 miles away to Bowie, a town in Montague County, where he dumped the remains over a bridge, according to the court document. uncertain
he → load → document
Day, police said, may have implicated himself and Thomas by accidentally recording themselves while transporting the victim’s body. uncertain
police → say → body
Investigators in September revealed they found an “inadvertent call” and message on Thomas’ phone on which a panicked Day can be heard asking for her help to move Soluri. asserted
Day → reveal → Soluri
“This report is consistent with how Dennis Day stated that he moved [Soluri’s] body into a trash can and into the bed of a truck at his house,” Day’s arrest warrant said. asserted
warrant → state → house
“This report also confirms the fact that not only did [Thomas] travel to [Day’s] house and allowed [Day] to use her truck to transport [Soluri’s] body, but that she actually helped load [Soluri’s] body into the truck.” asserted
she → confirm → truck
Investigators also found home security video from Day’s home, showing him dragging “what appears to be a lifeless body from the home into the backyard,” on March 21, police said. asserted
police → find → March
It was not immediately clear where Day was being held. asserted
Day → hold → ?
He had been listed as a prisoner at the Tarrant County Corrections Center. asserted
He → list → Center
But his name did not come up Monday in a search of the prison’s online registry. asserted
name → come → registry
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