Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Texas Murder: Who killed Molly Matheson?

Episode Date: April 14, 2017

Fort Worth, Texas, police found no signs of a forced entry at the pool house where Molly Matheson’s mom found the 22-year-old college student strangled to death on April 10, 2017. No suspects have been identified in the killing, which happened in a quiet neighborhood blocks from the Texas Christian University campus. Nancy Grace and Alan Duke discuss the Texas murder mystery in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. There was no forced entry in the strangulation death of a 22-year-old Fort Worth woman. Though they couldn't say whether Matheson knew the person who strangled her in her apartment bathroom. Fort Worth police tell me that they do not have a suspect identified right now. Police also said the 22-year-old likely died sometime Sunday night or Monday morning. Her mother discovered her body around 4.30 Monday afternoon. This is Current Stories with Nancy Grace. A family friend described her as the funniest person.

Nobody could ever hate her. She was just so amazing. A woman who was involved in church and had a clever sense of humor though she lived near TCU Molly was not a student here she spent time studying at the University of Arkansas and graduated from Keller's Timber Creek High School in 2012 that's just one class ahead of Zuzu Burke who was also murdered at 22 back in October. A church-going sorority girl has been found dead in her apartment near Texas Christian University. Now let's be clear, the fact that she is a sorority girl or a church-goer or a devout Christian does not make her life more or less valuable than any other crime victims, but it does delineate the pool of suspects.

I can tell you that much. This is Crime Stories. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with us. I'm talking about Molly Matheson. So, as you know, when you start a homicide investigation, you look at those closest to the victim. You look at her husband, her lover, her boyfriend, her ex. Then you start looking at her neighbors, her classmates, her extended family, the delivery boy. It goes out, out, out, further and further attenuated. People she talked to online. The checkout boy at the grocery store. You start at her nucleus, her emotional

nucleus, and then you move out. That is how a homicide investigation works. It's tried. It's true. It's proven. So when I say this was a church-going sorority girl, where's first place I would look? At her church. I would look at her Sunday school teacher. I would look at her pastor. Yes, I said it. I would look at whoever drove her to church. I mean, come on. Look at Tad Cummins, the perv who took off with 15-year-old Elizabeth Thomas. He took her to church. Oh, yes, he did. I would look at everybody she's connected to at church. Then I would look at her sorority.

I look at everybody, all the male, quote, sponsors, all the guys that were at the last party. I would start there. I would start to go to her classes, her family, her boyfriend. For those of you just joining us, I am talking about a gorgeous young co-ed, a church-going sorority girl, as she has been dubbed, who has been found strangled dead in her home. It was in the 2600 block of Waits Avenue, just two blocks from the Texas Christian University campus in Fort Worth. An autopsy was conducted by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner. It is definitely homicide by strangulation. Don't know whether it is a ligature or manual yet. We're waiting to hear that, but even that

piece of evidence is a major clue. Also joining me right now is the Duke, Alan Duke on the story. You know a lot of missing and murdered women that we have covered. Some of them we found out had an angry ex. We found out that they had a TRO out against a boyfriend or an ex-husband. We found out that they had had a drug history and that some of the people they had dealt with, let's just say, were not the most upstanding members of the community, i.e. drug dealers. Not so with this woman. As of right now, we don't know whether the strangulation was ligature or manual.

And that in itself can be a major, major clue. If it was by ligature, with what? And if by ligature, could there be any touch DNA or any DNA from the perp on it? What more do we know about her, Alan? She was not a student at TCU, but as you say, she was a churchgoer and had been a member of the Alpha Delta Phi sorority. That's according, at least to her social media posts. So, I mean, she looks like just an all-American girl. The reason that you're saying that she was not a student, she was not currently enrolled. Right, not currently enrolled. But to be in the sorority, you have to be a

student, whether you're active or inactive. Correction. When you're saying alpha delta phi, do you mean alpha delta pi? Phi pi. Phi pi. Yes. Well, which one is it? Nancy, i was not a sorority guy okay okay it's pie it's pie as an apple alan it's very significant whether she was an alpha delta phi or an alpha delta pi and frankly alan deep i don't know how you've gotten as far as you have in life without knowing the entire greek alphabet alpha beta gamma delta epsilon zeta iota. I mean, do you want me to finish it? My point is, it's very important. I either think of Apple or 3.1415926535. I could go on with that too. Now, those are the trivia things I know. Okay. Well, I know the Greek alphabet and I'll tell you why it's significant because I also was an 80 pi now there now now.

Oh, so granted, granted, I was only an 80 pi for half of my college junior for the rest of the time. I was quote independent. Okay. And both of them had their good points, but I want to get back aside from you not knowing the Greek alphabet

illiterate, I will move on back to her. She's a 22-year-old co-ed found dead near Texas Christian University on Monday. We know that she was strangled. The medical examiner has confirmed that she was not enrolled at classes at the time of her murder. She was between semesters is my understanding and she was found in a bathroom by her mother in her home just a few blocks from the campus at Fort Worth. Her own mother found her and I'm trying to figure out how that happened. Now, the TCU, Texas Christian University Police, asked students to, quote, remain vigilant and immediately report suspicious activity. So they're not saying, Alan, you're safe, don't worry. That's what they say when they think they know who did it. So what else do you know about her, Alan? Molly Matheson's family lived in Virginia

before they moved to Winter Park, Florida and attended the United Methodist Church there when she was younger. Then when she was a teen, they moved to the Fort Worth, Texas area. She has an older brother and two younger brothers. A check of her social media account shows a young lady who liked to make fun videos of her and her friends and at least one pet rabbit. While she left the University of Arkansas two years ago, she enrolled in Tarrant County College, which offers two-year associate degrees. It said of her, she could take your bad mood and turn it around with a wonderful sense of humor, said her sorority sister. She was easy to talk to. She would always make you feel better and relate to what you were saying. She was always doing something to make others

laugh, and she would always give everybody nicknames and a catchphrase with everybody. She attended Keller Timber Creek High School. There is another woman, Alan, which I'm very concerned about at Timber Creek, Keller Timber Creek High School, named Zuzu Virk. And if you remember her, she was a 21-year-old college student that was killed last year in Texas. Now, in Zuzu's case, her boyfriend has already been charged. So that's quite a coincidence, right? That two girls at the same age from the same small high school are both murdered. That's highly, highly coincidental. But I mean, it couldn't possibly be the same perp because the guy that killed Zuzu's in jail. Right, the boyfriend. He was charged just last month with murder. I want to go back to the scene. What we're talking about,

everyone, is a young co-ed. It's unclear whether she was set to resume classes. I know she had been at University of Arkansas. That has now been found strangled dead in her own home. But, you know, for the longest, I thought that she was renting an apartment by TCU. But it sounds more like this was her family home because her mother found her. Her mother is the one that found her. She was renting the back pool house, which is behind a gated driveway. Huh. Okay. So what does that mean to you? Does that mean it's not her family home? No, it was not her family home. It was just a house near the campus that she was renting. And, you know, there's a guest house a little removed from the main residence. Before we go any further analyzing the murder, the strangulation death of Molly Matheson,

a sorority sister there near Texas Christian University campus, I want to thank our sponsor today. Our sponsor is Blue Apron. Blue Apron has awesome food that you make that is delivered to your home. We ordered it. My son, John David, told me about it. He's nine. I guess he saw it on the internet.

And when we got that box, they acted like it was Christmas morning. We opened it up. It was a fish and chicken entree and cooked it. And they loved it. And what's so great? It's affordable around or under $10 a person. It's fresh food. You know what goes into your meal and you can have it ready in about 30 minutes.

So check out this week's menu. Get your first three meals free. Repeat, first three meals free with free shipping. Go to blueapron.com slash nancygrace for that discount. blueapron.com slash nancygrace. You'll love how great it feels, how it tastes, and how great it is to create an incredible home-cooked meal with Blue Apron. So don't wait.

Go to blueapron.com slash Nancy Grace. Blue Apron is just a better way to cook. Thank you, Blue Apron, and helping us highlight the mystery surrounding the death of Molly Matheson and our search for justice. How did Molly Matheson, a sorority sister, come to be strangled at a Fort Worth College community on guard now after this mystery homicide? The word of her death traveled quickly across campus.

Cops were called around 430 on Monday, and her death was ruled homicide by strangulation. You know, I was looking at her background, Alan Duke, again, the former University of Arkansas student, returned to Fort Worth and was renting near her family's upscale home. Now, this is a neighborhood where there's not a lot of crime, and it seems to me that because of that, this is more of a targeted homicide. Weigh in. It does sound targeted. It's not like it was along a path that somebody would find that would have to go into this family's residence and back to the pool house to find her, perhaps following her there. So one would deduce that either the person went back there with her or knew that she was there.

If this is an upscale home area, a residence that is upscale, I wonder what their security system is. I'm wondering if the Fort Worth police have security camera video from the home. You know, in a neighborhood like that, Alan, I would think that they're going to have security footage, but I'm also wondering if they to have security footage. But I'm also wondering if they did have security footage, why they haven't already released it. I mean, think about it. You're in an upscale area, which what I mean by that is the houses are expensive. You've got a pool house, which means there's a pool. I mean, this place ain't shabby. Nancy, I looked at the crime mapping online of this neighborhood,

and the only crimes investigated recently anywhere near the residence where she was killed was a car break-in in October on that same block, just a couple of doors down, and then a house burglary one street over in January. Otherwise, this neighborhood stands out on the crime map as being particularly quiet. The home appears to be the nicest on the block since it takes up about two lots, one of them being where the pool and that pool house is located. And that area is surrounded by about a six-foot-high fence. It would appear the only way to get to the pool house where Molly was murdered

would be to go through the main house. Molly lived alone in the pool house where Molly was murdered would be to go through the main house. Molly lived alone in the pool house apparently, which looks like it would be only big enough for an efficiency apartment in one person. It's in the southwest corner of the lot up against a backyard fence. And if you were wondering if somebody could jump that fence, well, they would have to jump another one just to get to that one. As I stated earlier, police were called to the scene around 4 30 p.m. after her death was discovered by her mother. Authorities were said to have been on the scene at that pool house bathroom through the night and were still at the home late into the next day investigating. It's not known yet whether Molly's death was a random attack

or was it committed by someone she knew or that had targeted her. She was renting this, it's been called a pool house apartment, it's been called a garage apartment at a nearby home. She was killed in her bathroom. I'm curious, was she clothed? Was she unclothed? Was there a sex attack? If so, there should be DNA. Tributes are pouring in for the former 80 Pi member described as funny, kind, and loving. But what it's done to the campus, everyone is afraid. Women are afraid. But what's interesting to me, aside from that, Alan, every time there is a murder or rape on campus, everyone's afraid for about a minute. Then they go right back to where they were before the incident, and nothing really changes, Alan. I kind of disagree with that because this strangely

is about 40 miles away from where Terry Missy Beavers was murdered. And by the way, the one year anniversary of that, April 18th, is Monday. And we're re-examining that now and we'll update people on the latest. But the Midlothian community, I can tell you, is still on edge from that a year ago. And it's 40 miles away from the Creekside Church in Midlothian where this woman was found strangled. Okay, I believe I said on college campuses. But these are around college campuses. Alan, come on. I said college campuses. And you know that next week or in two weeks or in three weeks, they're going to go right back to their regular practices the way they always do. Nothing ever really changes. I'm not so sure. I think that this is one suggest police even have a suspect or even a person of interest. I mean, do you know anything to suggest that there's a person of interest?

Because I don't. Nothing. That is what is so scary about it. Again, in the shadows of TCU, Texas Christian University, this co-ed, Molly Matheson, found dead. Still waiting for an update from police, the 22-year-old found dead in the bathroom of her rented apartment by her own mother. While she was not, and Ellen has established, enrolled at TCU, she was set to graduate from a local college. Which one was it? The Tarrant County College she was about to graduate from? Yes, Tarrant County College

is where she was attending. And she started there in the last summer. So we're waiting to find out the very latest on that other than the cause of death. Again, thank you, Blue Apron, for being our sponsor today. And go to blueapron.com slash Nancy Grace for an even deeper discount. Thank you, Blue Apron. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.