82-year-old North Carolina man arrested after DNA identifies him as suspect in 1979 cold case murder

CBS News —- 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.

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