Jun. 13—The scene inside the trailer in Ayer, Massachusetts, on May 21, 1980 was grim: 48-year-old Katharina Reitz Brow lay dead, her body covered with 30 stab wounds and beaten with a blunt instrument. The knife she was killed with was left behind in a wastebasket.
More than two years later, a man who lived nearby was arrested and convicted of her murder, but his conviction was vacated in 2001 after DNA analysis of a blood stain at the scene determined it was left by another man.
The case sat cold for more than 20 years until advances in genetic genealogy allowed investigators to identify the man they believed killed Brow.
The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office announced this week that the killer has been identified as Joseph Leo Boudreau, who was 37 and living in Massachusetts at the time of the murder. Boudreau moved to Ogunquit in 1987, where he lived until his death in 2004 at age 61.
“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,” District Attorney Marian Ryan said during a press briefing on Thursday. “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,”
Ayer police Chief Brian Gill said Brow’s brutal murder shook the town to its core.
When Brow, described by Ryan as a hardworking wife, mother and sister, was found, police said she was killed sometime between 7:10 a.m., when her husband left for work, and 10:45 a.m. Brow’s stab wounds included five to her heart. She had been repeatedly struck with a blunt object.
There were signs of a struggle in the house and her purse, jewelry and a large amount of cash she kept tucked between sheets in a linen closet were missing.
Kenneth Waters, who lived nearby and worked at a diner Brow frequented, was arrested on Oct. 13, 1982, and convicted of Brow’s murder the following year. His conviction was vacated on March 15, 2001, after he was cleared because of advances in DNA technology.
At the time of the original investigation, the crime laboratory was only able to do blood typing, Ryan said. The stain found at the house was type O blood, a match to Waters.
The 2010 movie “Conviction” centered on Waters’ wrongful conviction.
After Waters’ conviction was vacated, the case was assigned and reassigned to different investigators, but new information was never uncovered, Gill said.
“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,” he said, “I am thankful that we may be able to finally bring some closure to the Brow family and a measure of justice for Katharina.”
In March 2022, the Middlesex district attorney’s cold case unit decided to use forensic investigative genetic genealogy, which DNA analysis combined with genealogical research to try to identify the source of the blood found at the murder scene.
Ryan said investigators who worked with forensic chemists at Parabon NanoLabs isolated a genetic line that led them to identify a pair of brothers as potential suspects. The brothers are both deceased, Ryan said, but authorities were able to track down two relatives who cooperated with the investigation and provided DNA samples to investigators.
Bode Laboratories analyzed the samples and determined “to an overwhelming statistical likelihood” that the blood came from Boudreau, Ryan said. His brother was eliminated as a possible suspect.
Investigators have found no connection between Waters and Boudreau, Ryan said.
Boudreau was born in Natick, Massachusetts, in 1943 and worked in the Framingham area as an adult. He was convicted of armed robbery in New Hampshire in 1975, according to investigators.
Officials did not release any details about what Boudreau’s life in Maine, saying only that he was living in Ogunquit when he died in 2004.
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