THREE RIVERS, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Cold case suspect Robert Waters has died. According to a WOOD-TV report on Saturday, May 6, 53-year-old Waters, who’s accused of killing Cathy Swarts of Three Rivers in 1988, was found dead in his cell at the Beaufort Count jail in South Carolina. The Three Rivers Police Department also made the announcement on Saturday in a Facebook post.
Waters was taken into custody in South Carolina on Sunday, April 30, and faced charges of open murder in the death of 19-year-old Swarts, and was awaiting extradition to St. Joseph County.
Swarts was found dead by her fiance in her Three Rivers apartment on December 2nd, 1988. Her 9-month-old daughter was in the next room at the time of the murder.
According to investigators, the mother had been beaten, stabbed multiple times and strangled to death, with evidence of self-defense wounds and signs of attempted rape.
Her ex-boyfriend was taken into custody after her death but was released days later. The investigation eventually went cold, until forensic genetic genealogy tests of DNA found at the scene led investigators to Waters decades later.
Up until that point, Waters, who had no criminal history, had never been a suspect until he was fingerprinted by the Beaufort Police Department on April 30th. One of his fingerprints matched a bloody print found on a phone at the crime scene.
Waters could have faced life in prison if convicted.
The details surrounding his death are being investigated by The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, according to Three Rivers Police.
