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Kathryn Donohue

Rodger Zodas Brown, 82, of Pinehurst, Moore County, North Carolina, United States is accused of murdering Kathryn M. Donohue of Arlington, Virginia, USA. She was a secretary.

On January 27, 1979, Donohue turned 31. On March 3, 1979, someone walking through a parking lot in the 8400 block of Hamlin Street in Glenarden, Prince George’s County, Maryland, USA found the Arlington woman dead and called police.

The Prince George’s County Police Department responded to the scene and found that Donohue had been beaten and raped. She was buried at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery in Fullerton, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, USA.

At the time of the murder, Brown was a resident of Hyattsville, Prince George’s County. According to the PGPD, there is no apparent connection between him and Donohue.

Rodger Brown

Deoxyribonucleic acid that belong to a male individual was found on Donohue’s body. However, because forensic science and technology were not as advanced then as they are now, no suspect was identified and the case went cold.

After four decades, PGPD cold case detectives reopened the case. A court authorized them to conduct a forensic genetic genealogy DNA analysis in connection to the case.

In 2024, the field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Baltimore, Maryland identified a relative of the unknown male suspect through publicly available genetic databases. After additional investigation, Brown was ultimately identified as the suspect.

On March 18, 2025, PGPD officers arrested Brown at his residence in Pinehurst with the assistance of the FBI’s field office in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina and the Moore County Sheriff’s Office. He was charged with first-degree murder and rape.