Overview
- Police named Thomas Generazio, an Oceanside sanitation worker who died in 2004, as the person responsible for killing 31-year-old Barbara Waldman.
- Investigators linked Generazio to the case through DNA and investigative genetic genealogy after reopening the cold case in 2024 on a familial DNA lead.
- Authorities said Waldman was sexually assaulted, bound with her stockings, and shot in the back of the head, and her 5-year-old son discovered her body.
- The announcement cleared longtime suspicion of Waldman’s husband, Gerald, whose children said the finding brings long-sought relief.
- Earlier tips, including a prison confession and comparisons to a 1968 Valley Stream killing, did not match, and police say the motive remains unclear.