OCSO closes 37-year-old cold case

NICEVILLE, Fla. (WALA) - A fresh look at a 37-year old Niceville murder case has led an Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office investigator to a now-deceased killer.

Thirty-seven-year-old Catherine Ainsworth had been sexually assaulted and strangled on August 30, 1975 in her Hopper Street apartment in Niceville.

Investigator Travis Robinson started delving into the Ainsworth cold case and in March 2010, submitted several items of evidence to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab, including an orange rug the victim’s body was found on.

Based on that evidence, Robinson was able to provide long awaited closure to the Ainsworth family.

“It’s a good feeling to be able to close a 37-year old local murder,” said Robinson, “not just for the investigator, but for the remaining family members of the victim.”

In April 2011, testing turned up DNA evidence from sperm found on the rug.

The DNA profile was entered into a national law enforcement database, but never received a hit.

In going over the old files however, Robinson came across the name of an individual who seemed to be of special interest to Okaloosa investigators back in 1975, 27-year old Staff Sgt. William P. Rouse, assigned to Eglin Air Force Base.

Rouse, a neighbor of Ainsworth, had given conflicting stories to investigators who questioned him after the murder.

Robinson was eventually able to track Rouse’s whereabouts to a location in Sloatsburg, New York, north of New York City.

He was able to contact some family members and learned that Rouse had died in 2006. The family members then sent Robinson two of Rouse’s hats they’d kept after his death.

Robinson submitted the hats to the FDLE Crime Lab for DNA analysis. A DNA profile, developed through this testing, revealed a match with the DNA found on the rug underneath the victim’s body back in 1975.

Comparison of these profiles determined that the possibility of anyone other than William Rouse being the contributor of the sperm at the crime scene were over two-quadrillion to one.