AUSTIN, Texas — For the past six years, Tracy Matheson has turned the pain of the 2017 murder of her daughter, Molly Jane Matheson, into advocacy.
The 22-year-old student at Tarrant Community College in Fort Worth was found dead in her apartment after she failed to show up for her part-time job.
“That day is forever etched,” Tracy Matheson said.
The killer, Reginald Kimbro, struck again just four days later – murdering 36-year-old Megan Getrum, whose body was found in a lake outside Plano.
The cases drew attention because of questions about whether police could have prevented each woman's death.
Forty-one days earlier, police in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) suburb of Allen got an electronic notification that Kimbro was positively linked by DNA to a sexual assault case. But the police did not arrest him.
“It is my understanding that it went to an inbox that didn’t belong to anyone," Tracy Matheson said. “It was not being monitored. It was not received by whomever should have received it. And so it sat unread, and Molly was killed 41 days later.”
What happened in that DFW case bears similarities to the case against Raul Meza Jr. in Austin, who police consider a possible serial killer.
Staff at the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) sent the Austin police Homicide Unit a notification on June 5, 2020, that it had found Meza’s DNA on the body of 65-year-old Gloria Lofton, who was discovered dead in her home the prior year.
The KVUE Defenders have learned that Austin police now believe a lead investigator possibly missed an email notification of the DNA hit linking evidence found at the crime scene and Meza’s profile in the national CODIS offender database.
Police say Meza then went on to kill again. He’s now charged with the May murder of 80-year-old Jesse Fraga, a friend with whom he was living in Pflugerville.
Sonia Houston, Lofton’s daughter, told KVUE recently: “A lot of people dropped the ball, but when is it going to stop? It’s just not making sense to me.”
DPS officials say that at the time of Lofton’s death, crime lab staff used either a phone call or an email to alert investigators – a process filled with potential pitfalls that lawmakers sought to fix this session.
Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne, who represents the state sheriff’s association at the Legislature, urged lawmakers to pass the measure.
“Many times, depending on the type of case it is, it could be a cold case or an older case, and that investigator has either been promoted, moved on, retired, terminated and that email falls on dead air, dead space,” Hawthorne said.
Under a new Texas law that takes effect Sept. 1, labs must notify investigators in writing within 30 days of “any verified match that identifies a suspect or offender.” The law also requires that within five business days, a law enforcement agency “shall acknowledge receipt of the notification.”
“You could have a very active hot lead that could be preventing a crime or stopping other crimes if you are able to move forward,” Hawthorne said.
Tracey Matheson took the proposal to shore up communication gaps to State Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Fort Worth), whose district includes her home. Goldman authored the legislation.
“When the CODIS hit happens, you need to follow the trail and figure out how to get the evidence so you can make the case,” Tracey Matheson said.
In a statement, the Allen Police Department acknowledged delays:
“Due to case reassignment over the intervening years along with the volume of active cases at that time, the Allen Police Department has since made several improvements to case management.”
Austin police have not said when they may have a final report about the possible communication lapse that delayed action in the Meza case.