A woman’s unintentional butt dial helped expose her involvement in the murder of a missing flight attendant whose body remains missing.
The accused killer, 66-year-old Dennis William Day, confessed to the authorities earlier this year that he’d strangled the victim, 47-year-old Rana Nofal Soluri, in the kitchen that the two roommates had shared.
Dennis William Day snapped and strangled his roommate. He has a 200,000$ bond. pic.twitter.com/k0CXweHB4P
— Leigh10021 (@tarheel_texas) June 28, 2025
His accomplice, 62-year-old Joni Thomas, wasn’t busted until the authorities listened to Thomas’ voicemail and found an accidental one that had been triggered by an unintentional butt dial phone call.
In the voicemail, Day could be heard telling Thomas, “Hey, help me.” He also instructed her to “Make sure the lid’s on,” and at one point said he was sorry he’d gotten her “messed up in this.”
It turns out, according to Law & Crime, that after Day killed Soluri, Thomas drove her pickup to Day’s home (the one he’d shared with his victim) and helped him discard the body in the nearby town of Bowie.
Soluri was reported missing on June 11 by a co-worker, months after she actually went missing in mid-March. Her co-workers waited so long to report her missing because she’d taken a leave of absence earlier in the year and wasn’t expected back in until March 31 at the earliest.
According to a warrant reviewed by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Day’s plot began unraveling in early May, when the police were called to his home to tow Soluri’s 2023 Mazda, which she’d purchased a week before she disappeared.
When asked, Day denied knowing where Soluri, who worked for American Airlines subsidiary Envoy Air, happened to be.
“He also told police he moved Soluri’s belongings out of the house and into a storage unit, but did not ‘express knowledge or concern’ about her,” according to local station KDFW.
Detectives learned Soluri bought the vehicle about a week before she disappeared.
Weeks later, on June 18, detectives obtained a warrant for Soluri’s cell phone records. The records showed that she’d last used her phone on March 21. This is an important date.
A week or so later, on June 23, the police obtained Day’s consent to search his home and examine his home video surveillance system.
While examining the system, investigators found surveillance footage from March 21 showing Day dragging “what appears to be a lifeless body from the home into the backyard,” according to the warrant.
Day at this point finally admitted to strangling Soluri to death, dumping her body in a trash container, and then driving 65 miles (with Thomas’ car, which the detectives didn’t know yet) to dispose of her body.
“[A]fter learning what the police found, he said Soluri was videoing him and threatened to call police when he ‘snapped’ and began to strangle her with his bare hands,” according to KDFW.
“He said he strangled her on the kitchen floor until she died. He said he dragged her body out to the backyard, and when he realized he was being recorded on his video surveillance, he disconnected the equipment,” the reporting continues.
As of September, Soluri’s body still hadn’t been recovered.
Day, for his part, is being held in jail on a murder charge with a bond of $200,000. Thomas, meanwhile, has been hit with charges for tampering with evidence.
Soluri’s friends are shocked by her horrifying death.
“That word is hard to say — I will tell you that — saying murder. We’ve just been writing killed,” friend Sholon La Bar told KDFW. “It’s not fair. It’s not right.”
“She was always a great person to talk to. A ton of fun. Rana was amazing. She would give the shirt off her back. She would come to you.. If you needed that help,” Bar added.
Soluri’s employer, Envoy Air Inc., has also spoken out.
“We’re saddened to hear of the passing of one of our employees, Rana ‘Rain’ Soluri,” they said in a statement. “Rain joined Envoy in March 2017 and was a valued member of the Envoy Flight Service team.”
“While we cannot comment on an active police investigation, I can share what our Flight Service team sent to Envoy crewmembers earlier today. We’re continuing to cooperate with law enforcement and work with Rain’s family to provide support during this difficult time,” they added.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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