A determined deputy's persistent efforts appeared to have cracked a nine-year-old Guadalupe County murder mystery.

Investigator Sharleigh Drake, the Guadalupe County Sheriff's Office cold case investigator, brought renewed tenacity to the 2017 shooting death of Joe James Rangel, 57, Sheriff Joshua Ray said.

Drake's efforts recently led to a man's arrest in Utah and a murder charge in the Rangel case, Ray said.