Children of NY woman killed in 1974 speak out after advances in DNA, genealogy identify her killer
Barbara Waldman’s children share how their mother’s unsolved murder on Long Island shaped their lives — and the decadeslong fight that finally led to answers 52 years later.
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The children of Barbara Waldman lived for more than half a century with the gruesome images of their mother’s death inside their Oceanside, Long Island home.
Now, they’re focusing on happier memories — their mother singing, laughing and playing with them in home videos given exclusively to News 12 — after advances in DNA testing and investigative genetic genealogy finally led authorities to her killer.
Eric Waldman was just 5 years old when he came home from kindergarten in Oceanside, Long Island in 1974 and found his 31-year-old mother dead in her bedroom.
“She would always be near the screen door sitting on the steps, so I didn’t see her and I went in,” Waldman recalled.
He went upstairs and found his mother on the floor.
“I remember trying to untie her,” he said.
Barbara Waldman had been bound, gagged and shot in the back of the head. Despite leads and witness descriptions of a possible suspect, her killing remained unsolved for 52 years.
Eric Waldman later moved to Monroe in Orange County, where he raised his own family. His sister, Marla Waldman-Conn, spent decades trying to find out who killed their mother.
“That’s all I did — was obsessed over it,” Waldman-Conn told News 12.
The family also endured years of suspicion surrounding their father. His children say some people in the community believed he may have been responsible for his wife’s death. DNA testing eventually cleared him, but he died without ever learning who killed her.
Waldman-Conn continued pushing for answers and urged authorities to take another look at the evidence as forensic technology advanced.
The case was reopened in 2023. New DNA testing ultimately produced a full profile from biological evidence preserved on Barbara Waldman’s bathrobe. When searches of law enforcement DNA databases failed to produce a match, Waldman-Conn says she turned to the FBI to pursue investigative genetic genealogy — a technique that uses genetic relationships to help identify an unknown person.
The genealogical trail eventually led authorities to Thomas Generazio, an Oceanside man who worked as a sanitation worker in the Waldmans’ neighborhood.
Authorities compared the evidence from Barbara Waldman’s bathrobe with DNA obtained from Generazio’s biological daughter, ultimately identifying him as Waldman’s killer.
Nassau County police publicly announced the breakthrough on March 11, 2026 — 52 years after the murder.
The family believes Barbara Waldman was randomly targeted.
Generazio died of cancer in 2004 at age 57, before he could be prosecuted.
“When the person is deceased, it’s the hardest thing in the world,” Waldman-Conn said. “You can’t convict a dead man.”
For the Waldman children, identifying their mother’s killer cannot undo what happened or erase the memories they have carried since childhood. But it has finally answered the question that followed their family for more than five decades.
Waldman-Conn now hopes their case gives other families with unsolved crimes a reason to keep pushing for answers as forensic technology continues to advance.
“Never give up,” she said. “If you don’t ask — you don’t get.”
Eric Waldman and Waldman-Conn have both since moved out of New York. Waldman-Conn says she is now writing a book about her mother’s murder and her decades-long effort to help solve the case.
