Arthur Massei Arrested For 1971 Murder Of Natalie Scheublin In Bedford
BEDFORD (CBS) – More than 50 years after Natalie Scheublin was murdered in her Bedford home, a suspect has been arrested. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced that 76-year-old Arthur Massei has been charged with first degree murder connected to the 1971 death of Scheublin.
Scheublin, a 54-year-old Bedford wife and mother of two, was found dead in the basement of her home on June 10, 1971. Prosecutors said Scheublin had been tied up, stabbed multiple times, and struck in the head with an unknown object.
"This is a very bittersweet day," Ryan said, noting it has been a "horribly long" wait for the Scheublin family. "Today we were able to call her son and daughter and tell them that we were taking the first step in holding to account the alleged perpetrator."
Scheublin's husband, who was the president of Lexington Trust Bank at the time of her murder, came home and discovered his wife's body. It appears Scheublin had not been killed long before her husband returned home.
Nothing of value was taken from inside the home. Scheublin's car was stolen after her murder. The 1969 Chevy Impala was found less than a mile away at the VA Hospital.
The vehicle appeared to have been intentionally wiped down, but investigators were able to locate several partial fingerprints. In 1999, investigators used new technology to identify Massei as a candidate for review in a national FBI database.
Years later, further investigation allegedly confirmed the prints belonged to Massei, who denied being in the home and killing Scheublin.
Massei allegedly later told investigators that he had been solicited by an organized crime associate to kill the wife of the banker and make it look like a break-in, but that he had turned down the job. Ryan said that there has been no evidence showing that Natalie Scheublin's husband had anything to do with a plot to kill his wife.
Ryan said Massei had no known connections to the home or to Scheublin.
After Ryan's office created a new cold case unit in 2019, the case was given a more in-depth look. During that time, detectives identified a woman who they said admitted she had been involved with Massei in schemes to defraud banks in the 1990s. She said Massei "habitually" carried a knife, and bragged that he had killed someone with a knife.
A grand jury indicted Massei on Tuesday, and he was arrested without incident later in the day.
Massei is expected to be arraigned Wednesday in Woburn Superior Court.
Alison Young now lives in the home where Scheublin was killed more than 50 years ago. She said her family only knew some basic details about what happened to Scheublin decades earlier when the house was under different ownership.
"It was crazy to find out when I was younger too to find out that kind of thing happened in our house. It's good to know the person is behind bars now," she said. "Definitely a little weird just to know everything that happened in those walls."