UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — After more than four decades of silence, the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Cold Case Unit has brought a long-elusive killer to justice. On March 11, 2025, 82-year-old Rodger Zodas Brown of Pinehurst, North Carolina, was arrested for the 1979 rape and murder of 31-year-old Kathryn Donohue, a case that began when a passerby stumbled across her body in a Glenarden parking lot. The arrest, announced March 18, marks a triumph of modern forensics over a crime that stumped investigators for generations.
It was March 3, 1979, when Donohue, an Arlington, Virginia, resident, was found dead in the 8400 block of Hamlin Street. The PGPD Homicide Unit launched a relentless probe into her brutal rape and strangulation, but leads dried up, leaving the case cold.
Fast-forward to 2024: detectives, armed with a 2020 federal grant per State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy’s office, turned to forensic genetic genealogy. With court approval—a Maryland requirement—they partnered with the FBI Baltimore Field Office and Othram Inc., a lab specializing in DNA sequencing.
By late 2024, a relative’s genetic trail pointed to Brown, then living in Hyattsville in ‘79. A DNA match from a discarded fork outside his home sealed it, and with help from the Moore County Sheriff’s Office and FBI Charlotte, he was cuffed last week.
Brown, now facing first-degree murder, rape, and related charges, sits in North Carolina awaiting extradition to Prince George’s County, where he could face life without parole.
“This case serves as a reminder that we will never give up seeking the truth, no matter how much time has passed,” Chief Malik Aziz said at a March 18 news conference, per The Washington Post. No link between Brown and Donohue is known, though his 1967 armed robbery conviction—11 years served, released in ‘78—paints a violent past, per police statements.
Prince George’s County, with over 900,000 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau, has leaned into genetic genealogy, solving cases like this one—Maryland’s fifth via Othram tech, per dnasolves.com. The investigation rolls on; tips are welcome at 301-516-2512 or anonymously via Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS, case number 79-062-0218. For Donohue’s family, closure dawns after 45 years, a testament to science and stubborn resolve.
