Robert Odell Waters allegedly stabbed, beat, and strangled Cathy Swartz in her apartment on Dec. 2, 1988, police said. (Inset image of Swartz: Three Rivers Police Department; mugshot of Waters: Beaufort County, South Carolina)
After more than three decades, cops say they have found the man responsible for murdering a young mother whose infant daughter was in the next room.
Robert Odell Waters, 53, has been arrested and charged with murder in the death of Cathy Swartz, 19. On Dec. 2, 1988, Swartz died after her killer repeatedly stabbed her, beat her viciously, and strangled her even as she managed to fight back, according to the Three Rivers Police Department in Michigan. Using genetic genealogy, investigators used blood found at the scene to track down and identity the suspect.
"While nothing can replace the loss of Cathy Swartz, and the impact this senseless tragedy has had, we hope the identification and arrest of a suspect will bring some long-awaited closure to her family and friend," police said.
Swartz's murder long went unsolved. Swartz's boyfriend left home for work early that morning and returned to find the bloodied scene, according to local news station WSBT. An investigator said there was no sign of forced entry.
"From the scene and the evidence at the scene, it looks like the struggle started downstairs in the kitchen area and then it carried to the foyer that leads to the front door and then up the stairway and then down the hallway to her bedroom," Mike Mohney, a rookie cop in 1988, reportedly said.
The killer left behind blood, a fingerprint, and even a footprint, officers said. Police suggested the killer changed clothes before leaving.
"For 25 years, someone out there knows something that has yet to be provided to the proper authorities," her father David Swartz told the Sturgis Journal in a 2013 report. "I had hoped Cathy's mom would be alive long enough to see the case solved, but Audrey died last year … at least she's finally together with Cathy again."
Cathy Swartz's parents raised her daughter, Courteney, who has since had her own children.
"When Courteney has her hair a certain way and has a certain look on her face, she looks just like her mom," Dave Swartz said. "She has asked a lot of questions about her mom through the years, what she was like, just things that a daughter in this situation would want to know about her mom."
Cops said that investigators turned to genetic genealogy in 2022 and tracked the DNA to a single family.
"Investigators then interviewed, fingerprinted, and DNA tested the family members until the suspect was identified as Robert Waters," officials said.
Records from Beaufort County, South Carolina, where Waters reportedly lives, showed Waters was booked into jail on Sunday under a fugitive arrest warrant.