Charges Filed Against Convicted Sex Offender For 1988 Boston Murder Of Judy Chamberlain
BOSTON (CBS) -- A convicted sex offender is now being charged with murdering a woman in 1988. Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins announced the charges against Richard Vega on Monday.
Vega also goes by Carl Vega, Ricardo Vega, and Ricardo Mazzerino. The 59-year-old will appear in Suffolk Superior Court later this month.
In 1988, Judy Chamberlain was killed inside the former Fargo Building in what is now Seaport. She was strangled and sexually assaulted by her killer.
Vega was identified as a suspect in 2011 when a DNA sample taken from Chamberlain's suspected killer matched Vega's in a database, according to the DA.
Vega was required to submit a sample in 1990 after he was convicted of raping an elderly woman in Revere in 1987. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. At the end of his sentence in 2008, a jury found Vega to be sexually dangerous and he was civilly committed.
"Our family has waited 33 years for someone to be arrested for the brutal death of our sister Judy,'' said Judy's brother in the statement. "We thank all of those involved in his capture. Our sister can now lay in peace and our family has closure. We love and miss you Judy."
The indictment is part of Rollins' Project for Unsolved Suffolk Homicides program. Vega is the third person to be charged in connection with a significantly older unsolved murder since the program began.
