Katharina Reitz Brow. Credit: Middlesex DA
Using forensic genetic genealogy, authorities have now identified Joseph Leo Boudreau as the man responsible for the 1980 murder of Katharina Reitz Brow. Kenneth Waters spent nearly 18 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of Brow’s murder in 1983. Waters was exonerated in 2001 after his high-school dropout sister Betty Anne put herself through college and law school to prove his innocence. The Waters’ siblings’ story was popularized in the movie “Conviction,” released in 2010.
Now, police are certain they have identified the man actually responsible for Brow’s murder after modern-day analysis of blood left at the crime scene and subsequent genetic genealogy.
The murder
Brow, 48, was found murdered in her trailer home in Ayer, Massachusetts on May 21, 1980. She had been murdered between 7:10 a.m., when her husband left for work, and 10:45 a.m., when her body was found, although the coroner estimated it was closer to 7 a.m. than 11 a.m.
Brow suffered 30 stab wounds, with five penetrating her heart. She had also been struck repeatedly with a blunt instrument while alive. At the time, the coroner estimated the victim lived for 10-20 minutes after the fatal stab wounds.
While there were no signs of forced entry, the interior of the home showed signs of a struggle, and Brow’s purse was missing as well as a large sum of cash she was known to have kept in the closet. One of the murder weapons, a knife, was recovered from a wastebasket in the home. Police also found a bloodstain at the scene presumably left by the murderer. At the time, the crime lab was only able to determine that the bloodstain was type O blood.
The wrongful conviction
Waters became a suspect because he lived next to Brow with his girlfriend, Brenda Marsh, and worked at a nearby dinner where Brow was a frequent customer. He was questioned by police and provided a strong alibi that he had worked until 8:30 a.m. on the day Brow was killed, then was in an Ayer courthouse for a 9 a.m. appearance with his attorney. Waters said he left the courthouse after 11 a.m. and returned to the diner, where he stayed until 12:30 p.m. Officers examined his clothes and body and did not see any apparent blood stains or cuts. He was fingerprinted and questioned further but was not initially charged.
Then, two years later in October 1982, a man named Robert Osborne—who was living with Marsh, Waters’ ex-girlfriend by then—went to the Ayer Police Department and allegedly offered to provide information on the murder in exchange for money. Osborne said Marsh told him that Waters confessed to her that he had killed a woman. Police then interviewed Marsh and while she initially refused saying Osborne’s statements were untrue, she eventually told police Waters had returned home on the morning of the murder with a long, deep scratch on his face. According to the Innocence Project, it is unknown whether Osborne was ever compensated for the information he provided.
Roseanna Perry, another former girlfriend of Waters, also initially told police that she had no information about the crime but after more than three hours of interrogation, she claimed Waters said something about stabbing a woman and stealing her money and jewelry.
Although fingerprints at the crime scene did not match Waters, nor did hairs collected from Brow’s hand and the murder weapon, Waters was charged and convicted of murder based on these statements.
After the conviction, Betty Anne sought to prove her brother’s innocence. A working mother, Betty Anne got her GED and put herself through college and law school. In 1999, she located the blood evidence collected from the scene of the crime and obtained a court order to preserve the evidence for possible DNA testing.
In 2000, Betty Anne began working with the Innocence Project on the case. Together, she and the Innocence Project reached an agreement with the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office to allow a private lab to conduct DNA testing on the evidence. The results excluded Waters, and his conviction was vacated soon after.
The modern analysis
Brow’s murder case was reassigned multiple times after the conviction, with instructions to review the investigation, follow up with any leads that had been developed, and apply known investigative techniques at the time they received the case. For officers in 2022, that meant forensic genetic genealogy.
“We could have pretty easily just left the case to stand after the conviction was vacated, but in this office, we don’t forget when somebody comes into Middlesex County, attacks someone, and they violently lose their life,” said Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan during a press conference late last week.
So, the Cold Case Unit of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office worked with forensic chemists at Parabon NanoLabs to isolate a genetic line that identified two potential suspects who were brothers—both of whom were already deceased. Investigators then successfully identified two living relatives of those brothers and secured their voluntary cooperation in the investigation.
Using DNA standards provided by the relatives, scientists at 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 crime scene.
Boudreau was a long-time Massachusetts resident—born in Natick in 1943, he worked in the Framingham area as an adult. He had also been arrested before, convicted of armed robbery in New Hampshire in 1975. In 1987, Boudreau moved to Maine, where he lived until his death at age 61 in 2004. Investigators say they have identified no link between Boudreau and Waters.
“Over the past four decades, this case has received an enormous amount of attention both with respect to the initial crime, the crime of Mr. Waters, the vacating of Mr. Waters’ conviction and the fact that this story was made into a movie. Today, what’s important is, we want to keep the focus on Katharina Reitz Brow. She was a hardworking wife, mother and sister who died violently in her own home,” said DA Ryan.
The aftermath of the wrongful conviction
After Waters’ conviction was vacated in 2000, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office opened a new investigation of the case to determine whether to retry him. The reinvestigation, led by a Massachusetts State Police Officer, required the Ayer Police Department to turn over complete records from the case.
According to the Innocence Project, this included a police report confirming Waters’ work schedule and alibi and extensive documentation on the fingerprint evidence that had been collected before trial. None of this evidence was presented at trial or seen by Waters’ attorneys prior to his vacated conviction. On March 15, 2001, the district attorney’s office dropped all charges against Waters and his exoneration became official.
Waters died in a tragic accident on Sept. 19, 2001, only six months after he was released from prison. He was 47 years old.
In 2009, the estate of Kenneth Waters, headed by Betty Ann, settled its case against the town of Ayer for a total of $3.4 million dollars.