{"id":182130,"date":"2025-06-13T21:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T21:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/182130\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T21:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T21:48:09","slug":"decades-old-murder-mystery-in-ayer-solved-as-genetic-testing-links-maine-man-to-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/182130\/","title":{"rendered":"Decades-old murder mystery in Ayer solved as genetic testing links Maine man to crime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PORTLAND, Maine (WGME) &#8212; A cold case with Maine ties is closed.<\/p>\n<p>A Maine man is accused of killing a woman in Massachusetts decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators announced Thursday they&#8217;ve solved the murder of an Ayer woman in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>The Middlesex District Attorney now says Joseph Leo Boudreau, formerly of Ogunquit killed 48-year-old Katharina Reitz Brow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also read: <a href=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/local\/norway-fire#\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/local\/norway-fire#\" class=\"themeColorForLinks\" rel=\"noopener\">Fire in Norway displaces seven people, Red Cross helps to relocate them<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The DA says genetic testing led to a DNA match of evidence at the scene that could only be Boudreau.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We now &#8212; can be clear as to who the killer of Mrs. Brown was,\u201d says Marian Ryan, Middlesex district attorney.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m thankful on behalf of the town that we may finally be able to bring some closure on behalf of the brow family and a measure of justice to Katharina,&#8221; says Chief Brian Gill, Ayer, MA Police.<\/p>\n<p>Katharina Reitz Brow was found murdered in her trailer home in Ayer on May 21, 1980.  She had been killed between 7:10 a.m., when her husband left for work, and 10:45 a.m., when her body was found.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also read: <a href=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/local\/juvenile-charged-in-chelsea-double-murder-maine-windsor-road-maine-state-police#\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/local\/juvenile-charged-in-chelsea-double-murder-maine-windsor-road-maine-state-police#\" class=\"themeColorForLinks\" rel=\"noopener\">Juvenile charged with murder in Chelsea double homicide<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brow was stabbed 30 times and had wounds telling she had been struck repeatedly with a blunt object.<\/p>\n<p>Her purse and cash were missing from the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Boudreau had a previous robbery conviction from 1975 but was never tied to Brow\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>Boudreau then moved to Maine in 1987 and died in 2004 at 61-years-old.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Middlesex DA\u2019s Office, a different man was convicted of Brow&#8217;s death in 1983, but his conviction was vacated in 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Maine (WGME) &#8212; A cold case with Maine ties is closed. A Maine man is accused of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[74812,59641,74808,8747,267,74809,74810,5253,74811,74807,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-182130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-ayer","9":"tag-cold-case","10":"tag-dna-match","11":"tag-genetic-testing","12":"tag-genetics","13":"tag-joseph-leo-boudreau","14":"tag-katharina-reitz-brow","15":"tag-ma","16":"tag-middlesex-district-attorney","17":"tag-murder-mystery","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114678261733220353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}