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December 2, 1988, was a Friday. In Three Rivers, Michigan, the winter air was biting, but inside an apartment on East Hoffman Street, a nightmare was unfolding that would take thirty-five years to settle. Cathy Swartz, just 19 years old, was at home with her nine-month-old daughter. When her fiancé walked through the door after his shift, he didn't find a quiet evening. He found a bloodbath.
Cathy had been beaten, stabbed, and strangled. In the next room, her baby girl sat in a crib, physically unharmed but left alone in a house where her mother had just fought for her life. For decades, the name Robert Waters wasn't even on the radar. He was just a guy who used to live in the area.
Honestly, the case went cold so fast it was devastating. Investigators had fingerprints. They had blood that wasn't Cathy’s. They even had a bloody footprint in the bathroom. But in 1988, DNA technology was basically in its infancy. You couldn't just "run" a sample like they do on CSI. The evidence sat in a locker, gathering dust while the killer went on to live a full, quiet life hundreds of miles away.
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The Breakthrough That Changed Everything
How did they finally catch him? It wasn't a "rat" or a deathbed confession. It was forensic genetic genealogy.
Basically, the Michigan State Police and the Three Rivers Police Department teamed up with a company called Othram in 2022. They took that old DNA from the crime scene and built a family tree. This didn't point directly to one person at first. It pointed to a family of four brothers.
One by one, they ruled them out.
Eventually, all roads led to South Carolina. Robert Waters was 53 years old when police showed up in Beaufort County. In 1988, he would have been 18. He was a childhood friend of Cathy’s. He knew her. That’s probably why there was no forced entry at the apartment that day. She likely opened the door for him.
The tech they used is the same stuff that caught the Golden State Killer. It’s wild to think that your second cousin’s 23andMe profile could be the thing that puts a murderer behind bars. In this case, it was the only way. Robert Waters had never been in the system. He hadn't been fingerprinted for a crime. He had a business. He was married. He was a "normal" member of society.
Why Robert Waters and Cathy Swartz Became a Headline Again
People often ask why this case feels different from other cold cases. It’s the sheer brutality of it. Detective Sergeant Mike Mohney, who was one of the first on the scene, described it as one of the most violent things he’d ever seen. Cathy fought back. She had defensive wounds on her hands.
When the arrest happened in April 2023, the town of Three Rivers breathed a collective sigh of relief. You’ve got to imagine living in a small town for 35 years wondering if the guy who killed your neighbor is still at the grocery store or sitting next to you at a high school football game.
The DNA was a "perfect match." There was no wiggle room.
The Sudden End in South Carolina
There was never a trial. Just days after Robert Waters was arrested and charged with open murder, the story took its final, dark turn. While he was being held in a Beaufort County jail cell awaiting extradition to Michigan, Waters took his own life.
He died by suicide before he ever had to look Cathy’s daughter in the eye.
The St. Joseph County Prosecutor, David Martin, didn't mince words. He called the act "cowardice." For the family, it was a mixed bag. On one hand, they knew who did it. The mystery was over. On the other hand, they were robbed of a day in court. They never got to ask why.
- 1988: The murder occurs on East Hoffman Street.
- 2022: Forensic genetic genealogy begins on cold case evidence.
- April 2023: Robert Waters is arrested in Beaufort, SC.
- May 2023: Waters dies in custody.
The Western Michigan University Cold Case Program actually helped organize the massive case file—over 10,000 documents. Those students scanned every page so detectives could search through the mess of paperwork from the 80s. Without that legwork and the DNA tech, Robert Waters likely would have died a free man.
Lessons from the Case
The reality of the Robert Waters Cathy Swartz story is a reminder that the "perfect crime" doesn't exist anymore if you leave biological evidence behind. If you're looking for closure in similar cold cases, here is how the landscape has shifted:
- DNA is King: If there is any preserved biological material (blood, hair, skin), forensic genealogy can find a suspect through their relatives.
- Cold Case Programs: Universities are increasingly using students to digitize and index old files, making them "searchable" for modern investigators.
- Local Connection: Most cold case victims knew their attacker. The FBI profile in this case was right—the killer lived nearby and was familiar to the victim.
For those following cold cases or seeking justice for loved ones, the best next step is to advocate for the use of Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing on old evidence. Agencies like the Michigan State Police are proving that decades of silence can be broken with the right technology. The case is officially closed, even if the ending wasn't the one many expected.