Man charged in 1988 Michigan murder found dead in South Carolina jail cell, officials say

BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. – The person charged in a 1988 West Michigan homicide was discovered lifeless in his South Carolina jail cell on Saturday.

Robert Odell Waters, 53, was arrested on Sunday, April 30, in his hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina, in reference to the homicide of 19-year-old Cathy Sue Swartz.

Swartz was crushed, stabbed, and strangled in December of 1988 in her Three Rivers house. Police stated her 9-month-old daughter was within the subsequent room on the time of her demise.

The case remained chilly, though there was proof resembling blood, fingerprints, and footprints discovered on the scene that investigators believed all belonged to her killer.

In 2022, the Three Rivers Police Division partnered with Michigan State Police to make use of forensic genetic family tree to slender their suspect pool right down to a single household.

Learn: Chilly case: Man arrested in Michigan lady’s 1988 killing — how police cracked it

Officers have been then in a position to determine Waters as a suspect in Swartz’s homicide after investigators interviewed, fingerprinted, and analyzed the DNA of members of that household.

Detectives traveled to South Carolina to talk to Waters and obtained a warrant for his arrest. He was taken into custody on April 30, 2023 — 35 years after Swartz’s demise.

Nonetheless, on Saturday, Could 6, Waters was discovered lifeless in his cell on the Beaufort County Detention Middle, based on Three Rivers police.

The South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division will likely be conducting the demise investigation, which Three Rivers police say is ongoing.

WOOD experiences Waters was anticipated again in St. Joseph County this week to face fees.