The murder of Natalie Scheublin
Bedford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts · 1971
Overview
Natalie Scheublin, a 54-year-old wife, mother of two, and cancer survivor, was found bound, gagged, beaten, and stabbed to death in the basement of her Bedford, Massachusetts home on June 10, 1971. Her husband, Lexington Trust Bank president Raymond Scheublin, discovered her body. A set of bank keys was missing and the couple's 1969 Chevrolet Impala had been taken and abandoned at a nearby Veterans Administration hospital lot. The case went unsolved for decades. In 1999, Massachusetts State Police ran latent prints lifted from the Impala through the FBI fingerprint database and matched a print on the car to Arthur L. Massei. Massei was not arrested until a revived cold case investigation built the rest of the case around that print, including a witness to whom he had bragged about a knife killing. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2024 and sentenced to life without parole.
How it was solved
The break in the Scheublin case came not from DNA but from a fingerprint that had sat in evidence for nearly three decades. After the 1971 killing, investigators lifted multiple latent prints from Natalie Scheublin's stolen 1969 Chevrolet Impala but had no way to identify the person who left them. In 1999, Massachusetts State Police fingerprint examiners ran those prints through the FBI's Automated Fingerprint Identification System, technology that did not exist in 1971, and matched a latent print recovered from the car to the left thumb of Arthur L. Massei. The match alone did not produce an arrest. Detectives interviewed Massei in 2000, when he denied ever having been to Bedford, and again in 2005, when he changed his story and claimed an organized crime associate had solicited him to commit the murder but that he had refused. When Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan formed a cold case unit in 2019, investigators rebuilt Massei's life around the print. They located a woman who had been involved with him in 1990s bank-fraud schemes and who said Massei had told her he had stabbed someone to death inside their home. Armed with the AFIS match and the new witness, prosecutors took the case to a grand jury, and Massei was arrested in March 2022. The conviction rested on the fingerprint identification combined with this newly developed testimonial and circumstantial evidence rather than on any genetic analysis.
Sources
- DA: Man convicted in 1971 cold case murder of Bedford mother Natalie Scheublin
“In 1999, fingerprint examiners from the Massachusetts State Police used the FBI's Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to attempt to identify the fingerprints found on the Impala and other latent fingerprints found at the crime scene.”
- Natalie Scheublin's killer convicted of first-degree murder
“In 2019, a new witness came forward stating Massei told her he stabbed someone to death in their home. Massei was arrested in March 2022.”
- Salem man found guilty in 1971 cold case killing of Bedford woman
“2019: Cold Case Unit reopened investigation; identified a woman stating Massei told her in the 1990s he had organized crime connections and had stabbed someone to death in their home.”
- Salem man convicted in 1971 killing of Bedford woman inside her home
“1999: State Police began using FBI's Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) and matched Massei's left thumb to a print on the car window.”
- Cold case unit sees conviction in 1971 Bedford murder, IDs suspect in 1989 Framingham rapes
“It was really taking apart Mr. Massei's life and looking at every aspect of it. Who back in 1971 was he in contact with?”
- Man accused of killing bank president's wife in 1971 held without bail
“He was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, pleaded not guilty, and was held without bail.”
- District Attorney Announces Conviction of Arthur L. Massei in 1971 Cold Case Murder of Natalie Scheublin
“Natalie Scheublin was a wife, a mother and a cancer survivor who loved gardening and painting. She was brutally murdered by a stranger in her own home.”
- Mass. man guilty of cold case murder pleads guilty to extortion, loansharking charges
“He offered 1,000 dollars to anyone willing to give fabricated witness statements; in one message he wrote, be like a bullet heading for you, full steam ahead with no stops until I get on you.”
- Natalie Scheublin Murder: Judge Sentences Arthur L. Massei to Life in Prison
“Judge Deakin announced the mandatory life without parole sentence; the judge ruled that Massei's long and steady and serious crime history meets the statutory definition of a habitual criminal.”
- Man Accused Of 1971 Murder Was First Eyed As Suspect In 1999
“Massei was initially identified as a suspect in 1999 when investigators matched his fingerprints to one found on the door of Scheublin's 1969 Chevy Impala.”