1980 slaying in Ayer MA was made into movie. Now authorities say they know who did it

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13-06-2025

For decades, the May 21, 1980, murder of Katharina Reitz Brow in her Ayer home has been discussed at length.
The murder itself was brutal. Later, the man convicted of the crime, Kenneth Williams Waters, was freed from prison after serving 18 years when blood evidence at the scene cleared him of wrongdoing. He died six months after he was freed, with a movie created to tell the story of his conviction and effort to clear his name.
On Thursday, June 12, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced during a press conference in her Woburn office that the murder has been solved, more than 45 years after it happened.
'We could have easily just let the case stand at that point (after the murder conviction was thrown out), but in this office, we don't forget when someone comes into Middlesex County and attacks someone and someone loses their life,' Ryan said.
Ryan said the murder has been tied to Joseph Leo Boudreau, a former Natick resident who worked in Framingham. Boudreau died in 2004 at age 61.
Brow was 48 when she was killed sometime between 7:10 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. on May 21, 1980. She was stabbed 30 times — five times in the heart — and there was evidence she was severely beaten with a blunt object. Brow would have been alive 10 to 20 minutes after she was attacked and conscious for about half that time, Ryan said, citing the medical examiner at the time.
Cash in the home was stolen. Waters, who worked at a nearby diner that Brow frequented, was eventually arrested and convicted for the murder in 1983.
In 2001, he was freed after blood found at the scene, and believed to be of the suspect, did not match Waters' blood, Ryan said. At the time of the murder, experts could only test the blood type, which matched Waters', she said.
Waters' conviction, and the efforts of his sister, Betty Anne Waters, who had no college degree but worked to earn a law degree for the purpose of freeing her brother, was made into the 2010 movie 'Conviction,' which starred Hillary Swank.
The district attorney's cold case division, using more modern testing techniques called forensic genetic genealogy testing, which uses both DNA and genealogical research to identify matches, led investigators to two men, Boudreau and his brother, Ryan said.
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Living family members voluntarily provided investigators DNA, with testing proving that the blood stain belonged to Boudreau. She said it was 616 million times more likely to be Boudreau's blood than anyone else.
Ryan said Boudreau was a longtime Massachusetts resident, born in Natick in 1943. He worked in the Framingham area, but had been convicted in an armed robbery in New Hampshire.
She said he moved to Ogunquit, Maine, in 1987 and died in 2004. There was no known connection between Brow and Boudreau, Ryan said.
Ryan said solving the case highlights the 'integrity of our convictions,' and said investigators have been in touch with Brow's surviving family members. She said she hopes the new information brings them a sense of closure.
Ayer Police Chief Brian Gill said Brow's murder 'shocked' the community and ever since Waters was freed, the case had been 'assigned and reassigned to many investigators' in hopes of finding the person responsible.
'I'm thankful on behalf of the town that we may be able to bring some closure to the Brow family,' Gill said during Thursday's press conference.
Brow's daughter, Melrose Brow, could not be reached for comment on Thursday. A son, Charles Brow, died in 2019. He was 65.
Ryan said Brow should be remembered as 'a hardworking wife, mother and sister who died violently in her own home.'
Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or [e-mail]. For up-to-date public safety news, follow him on X @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Middlesex DA: Former Natick man responsible for 1980 Ayer slaying