Man Charged in 1989 Murder of Zahia Salem

Twenty-two years after 87-year-old Zahia Salem was found dead by a neighbor in her South End apartment, police are using DNA evidence to bring the decades-old case to a close. 

The Boston Police Cold Case Squad has identified and charged Charles Brook, Jr., 66, aka Charles Brooks, as the person responsible for sexually assaulting Mrs. Salem in her apartment on November 30, 1989 and then beating and strangling her until she died.

Brooks, who lived in the South End, is currently behind bars on an unrelated rape conviction. A Suffolk County Grand Jury returned indictments on the new charges last month.

At the time of her death, Mrs. Salem was living alone on the second floor of a three-family house she owned on Union Park in the South End. A downstairs neighbor located Mrs. Salem several hours after she was killed, police reported.

No arrests were made at the time of the incident, but police working in the Unsolved Homicides Square were able to reexamine the 1989 murder under a Solving Cold Cases With DNA grant earlier this year.

As part of the investigation, physical evident recovered from the scene was reevaluated while "investigators doggedly sought out potential witnesses and conducted additional interviews,” police said.

Eventually, police were able to create a DNA profile, which matched Brook’s when searched against a database of incarcerated individuals. Police worked with prosecutors from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office to determine probable cause against Brook, who is scheduled for arraignment today in Suffolk Superior Court.