Decades-old DNA ties brutal rape, murder of 78-yr-old with Alzheimer's to plumber

WEST PALM BEACH — In 1985, a bespectacled grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's disease wandered out of her home in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, and into the car of a stranger. He dumped her body 30 miles away on a dead-end dirt road, naked and badly beaten.

She died 11 days later.

The identity of Mildred Matheny's rapist and killer remained a mystery for nearly four decades — the only clue, a vaginal swab of genetic material for years considered too degraded for scientists to identify the rapist who left it. This year, a jury decided a partial DNA match was enough to convict a man of her murder: Richard Lange, who was 25 at the time of Matheny's attack.

Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss sentenced Lange, now 63, to life in prison for first-degree murder Wednesday. In a letter to the judge, Lange's family promised to appeal the conviction, which his attorney Scott Skier called "confusing and inconsistent" with the facts of the case.

"The man sitting in the defendant's chair is not the man we know," Skier said, reading aloud from the letter written by Lange's family. "The actions attributed to him are not his character."

Letter describes man found guilty as living 'life of virtue'

The letter cast a different light on the man convicted of beating 78-year-old Matheny so brutally that she was left moaning and incoherent on Old Indiantown Road west of Jupiter on April 27, 1985. It described Lange as a loving father, son, brother, and uncle who "led a life of virtue" in accordance with his Catholic faith.

In her own letter, Matheny's great niece reminded the judge that the trauma Matheny endured was so great, nurses at Martin Memorial Hospital in Stuart had to forcibly pry her legs apart to conduct a rape kit.

From their swabs, detectives created a genetic profile containing a mix of Matheny's DNA and that of her assailant. A forensic scientist with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office isolated the unknown DNA from Matheny's in 2021 and created a profile with compelling genetic similarities to Lange.

While that scientist and others who testified at Lange's trial couldn’t say with 100% certainty that the DNA came from Lange, they said it’s 27 quadrillion times more likely to have come from him than from another unknown, unrelated individual.

Skier argued that the same statistic is true of any of Lange's close male relatives — none of whom detectives tested for a DNA comparison after identifying Lange as a suspect.

Assistant State Attorneys Jo Wilensky and Chrichet Mixon dismissed the argument as speculative during Lange's trial in February, reminding jurors that there is no evidence anyone else from Lange's family was in Florida in 1985. Lange moved from Massachusetts to Boynton Beach, Florida, in his 20s and worked as a plumber.

Victim's family pleads with judge: 'Remember Mildred's agony'

Mixon read aloud the letter written by Matheny's great niece Wednesday, countering Lange's plea for leniency.

"May God have mercy on this man's soul — but not this court," Mixon said. "He does not deserve it."

The letter described Matheny as the matriarch of the family: a widow and mother who moved from Arkansas to Lake Worth to live with her sister two years before her murder; a gardener proud of the fruits and vegetables she grew; an Alzheimer's patient made introverted, docile and nonverbal by the time she wandered from her home wearing red-and-white-striped pajamas.

"Remember Mildred's unimaginable terror. Remember Mildred's agony," Mixon read. "And just as important, remember who Mildred was to those of us who loved her and cherish her memory."

Weiss nodded, calling Matheny's death "unfathomable and heinous." Mixon asked her to impose a second life sentence for sexual battery — the second of two charges on which jurors convicted Lange — and Skier asked for nine years. Weiss sentenced him to 15 instead.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post, a member of the USA TODAY Network. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Plumber who raped, killed Mildred Matheny, 78, gets life sentence