WOBURN, MASS. (WHDH) - A Salem man is set to face a judge Wednesday in connection with a decades-old cold case investigation into the grisly killing of a woman in Bedford.
Arthur Lewis Massei, 76, is slated to be arraigned in Woburn District Court on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of 54-year-old Natalie Scheublin, Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan and Bedford Police Chief Ken Fong said during a joint news conference Tuesday.
“It’s a testament to how hard the police work at not forgetting about this and taking care of business,” Bedford resident Jim Sullivan said.
Scheublin, a wife and mother, was found dead in the basement of her Bedford home when her husband Raymond Scheublin, the president of Lexington Trust Bank, returned from work on the evening of June 10, 1971.
Scheublin was said to be stabbed multiple times and tied up with a makeshift gag around her neck. She had also been struck in the head.
“Based on the state of her body, it appeared that Mrs. Scheublin had only been dead for a short time,” Ryan said. “A subsequent autopsy determined that Mrs. Scheublin had been stabbed with a knife multiple times and struck with an unidentified object, which caused a massive blunt force injury to her head.”
Nothing of value was taken from the home but Ryan noted that a 1969 Chevrolet Impala was missing. The car was found hours later in the parking lot of a nearby VA hospital.
“Although the car appeared to have been intentionally wiped down to remove fingerprints, police were able to observe and collect several latent prints from it, including one from the passenger’s side back window,” Ryan explained.
The investigation continued for years and the prints were later entered into the FBI’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System in 1999. Investigators were able to match one of the prints to Massei’s left thumb, officials said.
Massei initially denied being in Bedford at the time of the murder, according to Ryan. He also allegedly claimed that he had been solicited by an organized crime associate to murder the wife of a banker and to make the murder look like a break-in.
Massei also claimed that he refused the solicitation and investigators found no corroborating evidence that Mr. Scheublin was involved in a plot to kill his wife, according to Ryan.
Ryan added that investigators later identified a woman who admitted that she had been involved with Massei in schemes to defraud banks in the 1990s. The woman is said to have revealed that Massei habitually carried a knife and bragged to her about having killed someone with a knife.
“I’m hopeful that the arrest in this case will provide some closure and sense of justice for Natalie Scheublin’s family, as well as assurance to all in our community who were shocked by this brutal crime,” Fong said. “I want to thank all the investigators whose determination and perseverance made this moment possible, from those who responded to the Scheublin’s home that day more than 50 years ago, to everyone along the way who has pursued leads and ultimately identified the suspect we arrested today.”
Massei was ultimately indicted on the murder charge after evidence was presented to a Middlesex County grand jury.
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