A 76-year-old man has been indicted and arrested in connection with the 50-year-old slaying of a woman in her Bedford, Massachusetts, home, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.
On June 10, 1971, 54-year-old Natalie Scheublin was found dead in the basement of her home by her husband Raymond Scheublin, who at the time was president of the Lexington Trust Bank.
Natalie Scheublin was face down on the floor with her ankles tied. A makeshift gag was around her neck, Ryan said. She was stabbed multiple times with a knife and hit in the head with an unknown object. When Raymond Scheublin found her, it appeared she had only been dead a short time, Ryan said.
Nothing of significant value was taken from the home except her car, a 1969 Chevrolet Impala, which was later found a short distance away at the Bedford VA Hospital. The car appeared to have been wiped, but investigators were able to recover a fingerprint from the window.
Ryan said a suspect, 76-year-old Arthur Massei, has been indicted and arrested on a first-degree murder charge.
Ryan and Bedford Police Chief Ken Fong announced the charges at a 2:15 p.m. press conference at the district attorney's office in Woburn.
Authorities said Massei was first tied to the case by fingerprinting technology in 1999, technology that was not available when the print was first recovered from the Impala in 1971. When interviewed by police, Ryan said, Massei denied ever having been to Bedford or having any knowledge of the killing.
In a later interaction, he claimed he was solicited by an organized crime contact who asked him if he would be interested in a contract to kill a bank president's wife and make it look like a break-in. He claimed he turned down the job. Ryan stressed that there was no evidence to support that Raymond Scheublin had anything to do with his wife's death or that such a contract ever existed.
In 2019, the DA's office formed a cold case unit that would review the Natalie Scheublin case. At that time, investigators found a witness who admitted to being involved with Massei in the 1990s in schemes to defraud banks. That witness told investigators that Massei often carried a knife and had bragged to her that he had previously killed someone with a knife.
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That, and other pieces of information collected during the review of the case, gave investigators enough information in the case against Massei.
Ryan said he was arrested at his home in Salem, Mass. without incident. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Woburn Wednesday morning.
"It's good to know this guy's behind bars," said Alison Young, who grew up in the home years after the victim's husband and children moved out. "In high school, the case was reopened, and there was some chatter here and there, but that was kind of it from that period of time. This is the first news I've gotten of it since then."
Jim and Marsha Sullivan live in Bedford and remember the killing.
"Had everybody in town talking about it at the time, y’know," Jim Sullivan said.
The couple lives near the Scheublin house now and give credit to the police for cracking the case so many years later.
"I think it’s a testament to how hard the police work. Not forgetting this. Taking care of business. Very good. Nice to see an arrest has been made," he added.
