WOBURN – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Ayer Police Chief Brian Gill have announced that, more than forty-five years after the crime occurred, Joseph Leo Boudreau, formerly of Ogunquit, Maine, has been identified through DNA evidence as responsible for the unsolved 1980 murder of Katharina Reitz Brow. Boudreau was 27 years old at the time of the murder and died in 2004.
“Today’s announcement illustrates the cornerstones that define this Office: integrity in our convictions, persistence and an unwavering commitment to accountability. Although the original conviction in this case was vacated, we did not stop there. We do not forget when someone enters Middlesex County and violently takes a person’s life. No matter how much time passes, our priority remains the same, to seek answers. In this case, that meant identifying the person responsible for Mrs. Brow’s death, even though they could no longer be held accountable through the criminal system. Today, we are able to name her killer and provide long-overdue clarity to her family,” said District Attorney Ryan.
“In 1980, the brutal murder of Katharina Reitz Brow shook the Town of Ayer to its core. Since the conviction in this case was vacated in 2001, many investigators had been assigned to review the investigation, follow up on leads, and apply known investigative techniques. Unfortunately, information to further the investigation never developed. The investigative breakthrough came when forensic investigative genetic genealogy DNA testing was applied to evidence recovered at the scene. This ultimately led us to today’s announcement. I am thankful, that we may be able to finally bring some closure to the Brow family and a measure of justice for Katharina,” said Chief Gill.
Katharina Reitz Brow, 48, was found murdered in her trailer home in Ayer on May 21, 1980. She had been killed between 7:10 AM, when her husband left for work, and 10:45 AM, when her body was found. She suffered thirty stab wounds, with five stab wounds penetrating her heart. She had also been struck repeatedly with a blunt instrument. The interior of the home showed signs of a struggle and the victim’s purse was missing as was a large sum of cash that the victim had kept in her linen closet. One of the murder weapons, a knife, was recovered from a wastebasket in the home.
Kenneth Waters was arrested on October 13, 1982 and convicted of the murder of the victim on May 11, 1983. Waters’ conviction was vacated March 15, 2001, after DNA analysis determined that a bloodstain at the scene was left by a male but could not have been left by Kenneth Waters. At the time of the original investigation the crime laboratory was only able to do blood typing. That stain had been found to be type O blood, which was a match to Kenneth Waters.
In 2022, the Cold Case Unit of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office turned to Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy, to identify the man who had left his blood at the crime scene. Working with forensic chemists at Parabon NanoLabs, investigators were able to isolate a genetic line that identified two potential suspects who were brothers, both of whom were deceased. Investigators successfully identified two living relatives of those brothers and secured their voluntary cooperation in the investigation.
Using DNA standards provided by the living relatives scientists from Bode Laboratories were able to determine, to an overwhelming statistical likelihood, that it was one brother – Joseph Leo Boudreau – whose DNA had been left at the scene. The DNA evidence was at least 660 million times more likely to have come from a male who was a sibling of the first cooperating witness and the uncle of the second cooperating witness, as compared to untested and unrelated individuals. The DNA evidence was determined to be inconsistent with having come from a person who was a sibling of the first cooperating witness and the father of the second cooperating witness – eliminating the other brother.
Joseph Leo Boudreau was a long-time Massachusetts resident. Born in Natick in 1943, he worked in the Framingham area as an adult. Boudreau was convicted of Armed Robbery in the state of New Hampshire in 1975. In 1987 he moved to Maine, where he lived until his death at age 61.
Investigators have identified no link between Joseph Leo Boudreau and Kenneth Waters.
This case was investigated by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Unit, Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and Ayer Police Department detectives. The prosecutor assigned to this case is Assistant District Attorney David Solet, the Chief of the Cold Case Homicide Unit. The victim witness advocate is Renee Leone.
View the Press Conference here: https://youtu.be/K7kZpgcZM6s?si=EROBH8MXtGYdvVtM
Images available here: https://www.middlesexda.com/press-releases/news/district-attorney-announces-forensic-update-1980-cold-case-murder-katharina