Nearly three decades after a nurse was raped and killed at the former Prince George’s County Medical Center in Cheverly, Maryland, police said the case has been solved.

Prince George’s County Police said Monday a man named Edward Watts is responsible for the 1998 killing of Sherry Crandell, a 50-year-old mother of three from Bowie. Watts died in 2019 at age 69.

Crandell was found dead in her fourth-floor office at the hospital on Jan. 13, 1998. Police said she had been tied up, raped and choked to death.

Despite an extensive investigation at the time, no arrests were made in the immediate aftermath of her murder, Prince George’s County Police said in a news release.

In a news conference Monday, officials said that in December 2021, officers got a warrant to investigate genetic material collected after the murder. Police then brought this evidence to the FBI Baltimore’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy Team who identified the suspect last month.

Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy, who was the state’s attorney of Prince George’s County from 2018 to 2025, said at the news conference that during that time, her office worked with the police department to obtain a Department of Justice grant to conduct more forensic investigative genealogy testing for murder cases.

“The Crandell case was the first case we investigated with this grant,” Braveboy said at the news conference.

Officials said there was no known connection between the victim and Watts, but Watts lived about a mile from the hospital in 1998. They said the motive for the murder is unknown.

Watts was known as Baari Shabazz at the time of his death, Police Chief George Nader said during a news conference Monday.

Investigators said DNA evidence left at the scene ultimately led them to Watts. A breakthrough came after a match was found through a genealogy website, which pointed detectives to Watts’ family. His nephew’s DNA — already in a state database — helped confirm the match.

Police said they are confident Watts was the killer.

Because Watts has died, Braveboy said no formal charges will be filed and there will be no trial.

“While this news might not bring justice the Crandell family rightly deserves, we hope it brings closure,” after 27 years, she said.

Crandell’s case was the focus of Season 2 of WTOP’s ‘American Nightmares’ podcast: ‘Murder in a Safe Place’, hosted by reporter Paul Wagner.

Anyone who might know something about the crime is asked to call police at 301-516-2512.

WTOP’s Diane Morris contributed to this report.