BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — It took almost 36 years, but detectives say they have finally arrested a man in the kidnapping, raping and murdering a 78-year-old woman who wandered off one afternoon in Palm Beach County.
Mildred Lee Matheny left her sister’s home in Lake Worth Beach on the afternoon of April 27, 1985, and never returned. She was believed to have dementia, detectives said.
The retired nurse was found naked and bloody from blows to her head and face. Her discarded clothes were strewn around her, and her blood-stained dentures were found in the dirt. She died days later.
Without suspects or leads, the case went cold until new DNA tests identified a potential killer: Richard Curtis Lange Sr., 61, of Boynton Beach, who was arrested Thursday. He denied knowing anything about Matheny’s death.
Gary Matheny, the victim’s 88-year-old son who lives in Arkansas, said Friday he is “joyful that they finally have the culprit.”
“It was a terrible death for my mother,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Matheny, a widow, moved from Arkansas to Crestwood Boulevard in Lake Worth Beach. 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.
This time was different.
A passerby found Matheny about 10 p.m. that day lying on the ground on Old Indiantown Road in Jupiter. That was more than 30 miles from where she lived with her sister.
Matheny — 5-foot-9 and 120 pounds — was taken to Martin Memorial Hospital where she died on 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.
It wasn’t until last month that the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Cold Case Homicide Detective John Cogburn, part of the Sheriff’s Office’s cold case squad, revisited the case. Crime lab forensic scientist Tara Sessa matched the DNA from Matheny to Lange.
Lange had a specimen in a DNA offender database because of an arrest on a weapons possession charge in 2012. Detectives went to his home Thursday to obtain a fresh DNA sample from a saliva swab to confirm the crime lab match.
Lange was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping-false imprisonment and sexual assault with a weapon or force. He was being held in the Palm Beach County Jail without bond.
Records show he has lived in Boynton Beach since 1986, but the arrest report lists his occupation as “disabled.”
