DNA leads cops to suspected killer in rape and beating of 78-year-old woman — 36 years ago

BOYNTON BEACH — Gary Matheny waited almost 36 years for the call he got Friday: Someone had been charged in the brutal killing of his elderly mother.

“I’d given up hope,” the 88-year-old son said of his mother, Mildred Lee Matheny. “I am joyful that they finally have the culprit”

The Arkansas man was 52 when detectives told him that his 78-year-old mother, then a Lake Worth resident suffering from dementia, had wandered from her sister’s home and was found with life-threatening injuries on the night of April 27, 1985.

A passerby discovered the retired nurse naked and bloody from blows to her head and face, authorities said. Her discarded clothes were strewn around her, and her blood-stained dentures were found in the dirt. She died in a hospital days later.

Without suspects or strong leads, the case went cold until new DNA tests last month identified a suspected killer: Richard Curtis Lange Sr., 61, of Boynton Beach, who was arrested Thursday. He’s charged with kidnapping, rape and murder and is being held at Palm Beach County Jail without bond.

“Mr. Lange vehemently denies the allegations brought today by the Palm Beach County State’s Attorneys Office, and we look forward to aggressively challenging the forensic evidence attributed to Mr. Lange,” defense attorney Scott Skier said in a statement to reporters. “Nothing in Mr. Lange’s past indicates a propensity for such abhorrent behavior, and given his age and health, we will argue that he should be released to home detention as we prepare for trial.”

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has not elaborated on the detective work they say led them to Lange, who was 25 at the time of the slaying. It’s unclear how Lange and Matheny may have crossed paths. The victim’s son says he’s never heard of Lange before.

Records show Lange has lived in Boynton Beach since 1986, but the arrest report lists his occupation as “disabled.” He is a convicted felon. Lange had a specimen in a DNA offender database after his arrest on a weapons possession charge in 2012 in Palm Beach County.

Homicide Detective John Cogburn, a cold case detective for the Sheriff’s Office, revisited the Matheny case last month. Crime lab forensic scientist Tara Sessa matched the DNA collected from Matheny’s body to Lange, according to an arrest report.

Detectives went to his home Thursday to obtain a fresh DNA sample from a saliva swab to confirm the crime lab match.

Skier, Lange’s attorney, said defendants in cases with DNA links typically tell juries there is reason to doubt the evidence.

“It’s going to be an attack on the whole process,” he said. “How did police gather the evidence originally? What were the standards of preserving evidence in 1985?”

A Sheriff’s Office video on the case, released two years ago, said Matheny was reported missing about 4:30 p.m. Witnesses reported seeing Matheny get into a brown Oldsmobile sedan at the intersection of Dixie Highway and Lucerne Avenue. The witnesses told police that the man behind the wheel said he was Matheny’s neighbor and was going to help her get home.

But Matheny was found about 10 p.m. that day, lying on the ground in the 12500 block of Old Indiantown Road in Jupiter. That was more than 30 miles from where she lived with her younger sister, Gladys Nowlen, in the 1300 block of Crestwood Boulevard in Lake Worth Beach

Matheny — 5 feet 9 inches tall and 120 pounds — was taken to Martin Memorial Hospital, where she died May 8, 1985. The Martin County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide caused by cardiac arrhythmia, a skull fracture and internal bleeding.

Among other evidence, DNA samples were collected for a sexual assault kit. Detectives canvassed the area where Matheny was found but had no luck finding new information or a possible suspect.

Matheny, a widow, had moved from Arkansas to South Florida a couple of years before her death. Her family indicated it was not the first time she had wandered off and become lost, but they were always able to find her and bring her home.

“You can’t believe how fast they can disappear,” Gary Matheny said.

He said his mom had worked with psychiatric patients in a Little Rock hospital. She enjoyed sewing, cooking and the company of family, he said.

Matheny said a cousin in Lake Worth called his cellphone with the surprise news of Lange’s arrest on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping-false imprisonment and sexual assault with a weapon or force.

“It’s been a long time, and I’m thankful to the cold case people for finding that dastardly SOB,” Matheny said. “It was a terrible death for my mother.”

Wayne K. Roustan can be reached at wkroustan@sunsentinel.com or 561-379-6119 or on Twitter @WayneRoustan