Curtis Don Brown was born on August 2, 1958. He grew up in a family with two younger siblings. When he was 13 years old, a tragic event changed his life. His family home caught fire. In this fire, he lost his two younger siblings, and his mother was injured. This incident deeply affected him and changed how he behaved afterwards. He began to show signs of worrying behavior during his teenage years.

In the early 1980s, Curtis moved to Texas. He wanted to be closer to his mother, who had survived the fire.

On May 28, 1986, Curtis Don Brown was arrested for the murder of 51-year-old Jewel Woods in Fort Worth, Texas. Jewel Woods was raped and bludgeoned to death just outside her home. Officers observed Brown fleeing the scene and, when stopped, he was found out of breath and in possession of Woods' purse. He was convicted of this crime in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2005, Brown had to give a DNA sample while in prison. This sample matched evidence from two unsolved murders from 1985. The victims were Sharyn Kills Back and Terece Gregory. Sharyn Kills Back's body was discovered on March 23, 1985, inside a storm drain in Arlington. A rope around her neck suggested she had been strangled. She had been missing for eight days prior. Terece Gregory's body was found in the Trinity River in Fort Worth on May 30, 1985. She was last seen coming from a nightclub and was determined to have been raped and shot.

After the DNA findings, Brown was indicted for the capital murder of Terece Gregory and later charged with the murder of Sharyn Kills Back. In 2009, Brown took a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to both murders in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. He received life sentences without the possibility of parole, which are to run concurrently. Investigators believe Brown may have been responsible for 18 other murders that began in 1984, but no additional charges have been filed against him.