The man charged with murdering Susan Cvengros in her Capitol Hill home in May 1999 has been released from jail before trial, after a judge cited his health problems and prosecutors chose not to fight the move. George Mudd, who was arrested in 2025 after DNA evidence allegedly tied him to the killing, is now living under GPS monitoring rather than behind bars while he awaits trial.
Judge Rainey Brandt granted Mudd's unopposed motion for release on Sept. 11, according to dcwitness.org. Mudd's defense attorney, Jessica Willis, had filed the motion in late August, citing multiple health ailments; separately, according to NBC4 Washington, Mudd had requested release citing neuropathy and sciatica, and the judge described him as over 70 years old, walking with a cane and dealing with multiple medical issues. Prosecutors said they did not concede that the evidence against Mudd was weak, but they told the court they would not oppose releasing him with GPS monitoring, per the dcwitness.org report. Brandt ordered Mudd to wear the monitor and allowed him to live at a senior residential facility rather than remain in custody.
A Killing That Went Unsolved for a Quarter-Century
Cvengros was found stabbed to death in her Capitol Hill home in May 1999, and her case sat unsolved for more than 25 years before DNA evidence allegedly connected Mudd, once her neighbor, to the crime. Investigators said the DNA link actually surfaced years earlier — NBC4 Washington reports that DNA evidence from Cvengros's sexual assault exam matched Mudd as far back as 2012, though he was not arrested in the case until 2025. Court documents described Cvengros as alive when her throat was cut, with froth indicating she was still breathing, drowning and conscious, and said she could have been sexually assaulted after she was killed.
Mudd has denied raping or killing Cvengros. He told investigators he used crack cocaine and paid many women for sex, according to NBC4 Washington's reporting. Mudd is charged with first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder, and his trial is scheduled for October 2027.
A Friend Calls the Release Terrifying
Sarah Powers, who described Cvengros as a role model and a magnetic force in her life, said Cvengros taught her compassion, care and respect for others. Powers called Mudd's release terrifying, saying it scares her to know he is now free somewhere in the D.C. area.
The DNA link to Mudd emerged because he had already been convicted in a separate attack on another neighbor. In that 2004 assault, Mudd stabbed a woman twice in the neck with a needlelike tool called an awl, wounds that came within a fraction of an inch of severing her main artery, according to The Washington Post. NBC4 Washington's report on that case adds that Mudd stabbed the woman in the neck and tried to sexually assault her. He was serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for that attack when the DNA match to the Cvengros case was identified.
Correspondence and Unanswered Questions
Mudd sent a handwritten letter to the judge in June, saying his public defender was not doing enough on his case and that he had not received a copy of the indictment against him, per his own account in the letter. He has since received a new public defender. Mudd's attorney declined to speak on the record with NBC4 Washington about the case.
The U.S. Attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, has not responded to NBC4 Washington's question about the release. Under D.C. law, pretrial release conditions can include regular reporting to a designated law enforcement or pretrial services agency and restrictions on alcohol, marijuana or unauthorized controlled substances, according to the D.C. Law Library, though it is not established which specific conditions beyond GPS monitoring and the senior facility placement apply in Mudd's case. Reports on Mudd's age have varied, with court filings and news accounts describing him as 70, 71 and 72 in different instances.
