82-year-old man arrested after DNA identifies him as suspect in 1979 cold case murder
An 82-year-old North Carolina man was arrested this week after new DNA evidence connected him to a 1979 murder case.
Kathryn Donohue, of Arlington, Virginia, was found dead at her home in Glenarden, Maryland, on March 3, 1979. Donohue was 31 at the time. Detectives investigated the case as a rape and murder, but a suspect was never identified, the Prince George's County Police Department said in a statement on social media. The case remained open for decades.
In 2024, the Prince George Police Department's Cold Case Unit reexamined the case and used a grant to submit forensic evidence for new analysis. Evidence from the crime scene was sent to Othram, a forensic laboratory that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy and genome sequencing. Scientists there were able to extract DNA from the evidence and develop a comprehensive genetic profile, Othram said in a news release.
That DNA profile was used to contact potential relatives and led investigators to a suspect who police identified as 82-year-old Rodger Zodas Brown.
Brown was arrested at his home in North Carolina last week, the Prince George's County Chief of Police Malik Aziz said in a news conference on Tuesday. Brown is being held in North Carolina until he can be extradited, Aziz said, and has been charged with first degree murder, rape and related charges.
"This case serves as a reminder that we will never give up seeking the truth, no matter how much time has passed," Aziz said.
Aziz said that police have not uncovered any connection between Brown and Donohue. Brown lived in Hyattsville, Maryland, at the time of Donohue's murder, about seven miles from the neighborhood where Donohue lived.
The investigation remains open, Aziz said. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact officials.
In a statement shared online, Donohue's family thanked investigators for "their determination, their compassion, and their relentless pursuit of the truth which has finally given us a sense of closure that we never thought possible after all this time."
