Dark Downeast - The Murder of Natalie Scheublin (Massachusetts)

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Investigators who first worked the 1971 homicide case of Natalie Scheublin in Bedford, Massachusetts considered every possible theory for her death – kidnapping for ransom, burglary gone wrong, a random attack in an otherwise quiet community – and yet nothing led police to the truth. For years, Natalie’s family waited for answers until decades later, forensic technology finally identified a suspect.View source material and photos for this episode at: darkdowneast.com/nataliescheublin Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case

Investigators who first worked the 1971 homicide case of Natalie Shublin in Bedford, Massachusetts, considered every possible theory for her death. Kidnapping for ransom, burglary gone wrong, a random attack in an otherwise quiet community. And yet nothing led police to the truth. For years, Natalie's family waited for answers. Until decades later, forensic technology finally identified a suspect. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Natalie Shublin on Dark Down East. It was just after 5.30 p.m. on Thursday, June 10, 1971, when Raymond Shublin turned into the driveway of his home

at 75 Pine Hill Road in Bedford, Massachusetts. He was the president of Lexington Trust Bank at the time and had just finished up a day at the office, complete with a board meeting, and was finally home to have dinner with his wife, 54-year-old Natalie Shublin. The Shublin home was a classic Cape Cod-style house set back on a large wooded lot with a swimming pool out back. The house itself was perched on a hill, but the attached garage sat lower on that hill, almost below the house itself, adjacent to the basement.

So Raymond pulled his car into the garage and made his way inside through the cellar door entrance, as usual. He hadn't been inside for more than a few seconds when he encountered a terrible scene. There on the cellar floor, Raymond found his wife, laying at the bottom of the basement stairs in a pool of blood. She'd been stabbed and beaten, and he could see that her legs were tied and a makeshift gag was fastened around her mouth and neck.

Raymond went for the phone to call the police and soon Bedford police arrived to the scene of what was immediately ruled a homicide. The medical examiner performed the autopsy and concluded that Natalie Shublin died as the result of blunt wounds to the back of her head and stab wounds to her chest. He remarked that the wounds were indicative of overkill. There was no evidence of sexual assault. Detectives from Bedford Police, as well as a state police detective from the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office,

would ultimately handle the case, among other investigators. And the investigation into what happened inside the Shublin home that day began swiftly. Investigators immediately noted that Natalie's vehicle, a 1969 blue and white Chevrolet Impala, was missing from the driveway. Police began patrolling the neighborhood

and canvassing the neighbors' houses, hoping to find anyone who saw the car leave that afternoon and find out who was behind the wheel. Meanwhile, back at the house, crime scene technicians were dusting for prints, collecting evidence, and looking for clues that could begin to piece the timeline of events together. Nick Karaganis of the Lowell Sun reports that the back door that was typically kept shut and locked was found open. There was no sign of forced entry, so police theorized that whoever killed Natalie was possibly let in under some sort of ruse, or that Natalie might have been going in

and out of the house either to tend to the garden or clean the pool, and the intruder managed to sneak in while the door was unlocked but while Natalie was out of sight. In the upstairs bathroom, benzidine tests revealed blood on the sink, and in Natalie and Raymond's bedroom, two purses and a wallet had been emptied out and discarded on the floor. But the rest of the house didn't appear to be rifled through or ransacked in any way. The valuable china and silver were untouched. Investigators did not find a weapon anywhere in the house, but believed that the killer, or killers, had beaten Natalie with a hammer-like or other blunt object, maybe a sledgehammer or a pry bar. A 24-inch black pinch bar was reportedly missing from the house, along with a five-inch un-serrated

paring knife thought to be used to inflict the stab wounds on Natalie's chest. About four hours after Natalie's body was discovered, police tracked down Natalie's car in a parking lot at the nearby Bedford Veterans Administration Hospital. Officers staked out the car in case whoever killed Natalie and stole the car returned to the vehicle, but hours later, there was no sign of a suspect, so they seized the car to process it for evidence. Interestingly, the car keys were missing. Now, the VA hospital was about a mile drive from the Shublin house on the main roads, but it was a much shorter walk

through the woods, just about 500 meters. The fact that Natalie's car was discovered abandoned in the hospital parking lot gave police one of the first leads in the case. Investigators spoke with hospital staff, who disclosed that four patients were apparently missing from the hospital on the day of the murder. The director of the hospital reported to police that the patients, all men, had left sometime during the day for what was considered an unauthorized absence, and they still hadn't come back yet the following day, June 11th. Police were extremely interested in speaking with the men regarding their whereabouts at the estimated time of the murder. Although the VA hospital director and other staff were nothing but cooperative with the investigation,

there was reason to believe that Natalie's car being in the lot was a coincidence and not proof that a patient was somehow connected to the killing. The hospital director shared that it actually wasn't unusual to find random vehicles in the hospital lot and said that stolen cars showed up there all the time. The campus was pretty large with nine buildings and multiple parking lots, so it was apparently easy for a car to remain somewhat anonymous once on the grounds.

By the evening of June 11th, police had tracked down two of the four VA patients for questioning, and after that, they didn't have any reason to believe the patients were involved with what happened to Natalie. The search for the other two men continued as detectives followed up with neighbors in the area about what they saw and heard on the afternoon of the murder. The houses along Pine Hill Road and the surrounding neighborhood, which was described as well-to-do,

were fairly spread out and wooded areas tended to separate each lot. Neighbors didn't report hearing anything alarming. However, a man who was biking down Spring Street around the estimated time of the murder said he saw two strange men walking away from the general area of the Shublin house. Another witness reported that she had to slam on the brakes after an oncoming car nearly collided with her as she was driving home on Pine Hill Road the day of the murder. Unfortunately, the woman couldn't remember what the driver looked like, nor could she give a description of the car.

Of course, investigators also interviewed Natalie's husband, Raymond. He told police that he last spoke to his wife on the phone around 12.45 or 1 p.m. that day. He then went into a board meeting at the bank, which gave him a rock-solid alibi for the presumed time of the murder. He was cleared as a suspect in his wife's killing early on. Though there was little to go on in the first 48 hours of the investigation, police were developing a working theory based on the circumstances they were able to uncover. According to reporting by Ed Corsetti and Bill Duncliffe for the Boston Record American, investigators theorized that the intruder or intruders entered the Shublin house through the rear door and the intent was to ransack the place, starting with the bedroom where

her empty purses and wallet were found. But Natalie surprised them. Police believed that Natalie then attempted to flee the house through the kitchen when she was struck in the back of the head with a blunt, hammer-like object. She either fell or was carried to the basement, where the intruder bound her legs and stabbed her. Police further theorized that, based on the blood found in the bathroom, the killer went back upstairs and attempted to wash his hands and then left in Natalie's car that was parked in the driveway. This person then drove down Pine Hill Road, turned into the

Bedford VA Hospital campus, and dumped the car in Lot 5 and took the keys when they left. But who was responsible and why they did it were questions that still evaded the case. Jack Gallant reports for the Boston Herald that by the time Natalie was laid to rest in Shawshank Cemetery on June 12th, investigators had ruled out all four of the VA hospital patients as potential suspects for her killing. However, they weren't done with the hospital patient angle yet, and they asked workers in the hospital's laundry room to keep an eye out for any items they found with blood on them. The laundry room staff reportedly turned over at least one article of clothing for testing. Other pieces of the investigation were ongoing, with results of the

fingerprinting and examinations of Natalie's car still pending. In the meantime, the state detective working the case said they intended to check with all recently released individuals from the Bill Ricka House of Correction with a record for daytime burglary to see if that turned into any solid theories. Until then, investigators continued to encourage the public to come forward if they'd seen Natalie's blue and white sedan either on Pine Hill Road or Spring Street or parked in lot number 5 at the VA hospital between 1 and 6 p.m. on the day of the murder, Thursday, June 10th. Less than a week later, police disclosed several details

regarding the condition of Natalie's car when it was recovered from the VA hospital parking lot. They said that the back seat was pushed forward and the trunk had been emptied out. A duffel bag, some boat motor oil, a pair of canvas camp stools, a mounted spare tire, and some other items that should have been inside the trunk were taken out. Everything but the tire and stools was later found in the Shublin garage.

Investigators speculated that the tire was missing because whatever car the killer got into after ditching Natalie's car may have had a bad tire and that Natalie's spare tire, a five-lug wheel, fit that getaway car. Police didn't have a logical explanation as to where the stools ended up, though, and asked the public to be on the lookout for them. Bob Ward's reporting for the Boston Globe in June of 1971 indicates that, based on the car's condition, police were beginning to lean more towards a kidnapping-for-ransom theory versus a robbery gone wrong. With the items being removed from the trunk and the backseat being pushed forward, police suggested that perhaps the killer intended to kidnap Natalie in her own car and cleaned out

the trunk, but then realized she died of her injuries and abandoned that part of the plan. Not only that, Bedford Police Lieutenant Francis Sullivan explained that the items that bound Natalie's limbs were random items the killer found at the house, and they were not carried in by the assailant. The murder weapons were also presumed to be items from the Shublin home. Lieutenant Sullivan believed that if the killer or killers intended to harm Natalie, they would have brought their own weapons. This was all based on the assumption that the knife and pry bar were missing from the Shublin home

and still hadn't been located despite extensive searches in the wooded area surrounding the house and at nearby Fawn Lake. The week after the murder, police handed out hundreds of flyers to passing motorists on the road near the house between 2.30 and 5.30 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon to see if those who regularly traveled the route on that day saw anything suspicious on the day of the murder. The canvassing effort drummed up a significant influx of tips, but nothing developed into anything solid. As reported by Ed Corsetti for the Boston Record American, in early July, the bank where Raymond Shublin was president, Lexington Trust Co., offered a $5,000 reward for information relating to his wife's murder. Around the same time,

Lt. Sullivan of the Bedford PD shared a significant detail. Although police determined that nothing of value was stolen from the Shublin home, they'd since learned during a thorough search of the house that a key to Lexington Trust Bank, kept in a bedroom dresser drawer, was missing, presumably stolen, during the home invasion and murder. The bank swiftly changed their locks. That wasn't the only key that turned out to be missing either. Jack O'Shea reports for the Boston Herald that police were looking for a missing tan-colored key case with two car keys and several house keys inside and a silver keychain with six keys on it.

About a month later, with new information gathered over the course of the investigation, Bedford police held a press conference to announce yet another theory about what happened that June 10th afternoon. And along with the theory came a composite sketch of the suspect they believed was responsible for Natalie Shublin's death. On July 10th, 1971, Bedford police announced at a press conference that they had reason to believe Natalie Shublin's murder was drug-related and two men were involved in the killing. One man was believed to be the killer and the other was an accomplice

who dropped the killer off at the house and later met up with him at the Bedford VA hospital. According to Ed Corsetti and Bill Duncliffe's reporting for the Boston Sunday Advertiser, police said that they thought the duo picked the house at random and this was indeed a burglary attempt that Natalie interrupted, not a kidnapping for ransom as previously thought. Investigators also

revealed that the time of the murder was now believed to be after 3 p.m., and not closer to 2 o'clock as originally estimated. This change in time was based on investigative findings that Natalie called one of her doctors in Bedford around either 2.45 or 3.15, reports vary here, and further investigation indicated that she'd been killed only about an hour before Raymond found her in the cellar. Also, during the press conference, Bedford police released a composite sketch of a man seen walking near Pine Hill Road sometime on the afternoon of June 10th. You can see this sketch at darkdowneast.com. It was paired with a description of the suspect, between 40 and 45 years old, 140 to 150 pounds, and of slim build. The man had sandy hair with a bald spot on the right side

and a fair complexion. He was said to walk with his left arm held out in front of his body with a backward tilt. The witness who reportedly saw the man said he was neatly dressed at the time in a pressed short-sleeve sports shirt. By the time of the press conference, investigators also had the results of the examination of Natalie's car and the fingerprint analysis at the house. Unfortunately, they weren't able to pull any complete prints from anywhere. They surmised that the killer wore gloves or cleaned up the scene inside the house and appeared to have wiped down the surfaces of the car, too, leaving hardly anything behind. Police did collect partial latent prints from Natalie's car near the right rear window, but those partial prints were basically useless at the time. Investigators were flummoxed by the circumstances, but were willing to chase down any shred of a lead to progress the case forward.

So when another homicide in another Massachusetts town presented with a similar M.O., detectives on Natalie's case paid attention. According to reporting by Frank Souza, Martin Lauer, and John Okai in The Morning Union, on July 3rd, 1971, 30-year-old John Pearson was found dead at his home in Granby, Massachusetts with blunt force injuries and more than 20 stab wounds. A 20-year-old North Carolina man named Douglas Earl Black turned himself in shortly after, alleging that the victim kidnapped him while he was hitchhiking and had made unwanted sexual advances. When Douglas saw a window to escape, he claimed he killed his alleged captor and fled, but later

was convinced by his brother to confess to the murder. Douglas ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges and was sentenced to life in prison. What police in Bedford were most interested in was Douglas Earl Black's M.O. Granby and Bedford were about a 90-mile drive, so not like it was the next town over, but the fact that John Pearson was stabbed and beaten was similar enough to Natalie's cause of death for investigators to take notice and compare notes. However, it seems that lead didn't go very far before it was ruled out. Douglas alleged that he killed John in self-defense to escape unwanted sexual advances, and that didn't align with the suspected burglary turned deadly in Natalie's case. Just a side note,

since Douglas did not go to trial, there's little record that I can find of the investigation, if any, into the claims Douglas made about John Pearson. Those who knew John remembered him as an excellent and dedicated teacher who was loved and respected by his students and colleagues alike. Despite the multiple detectives from two counties and local

Bedford police working Natalie's case, it was growing colder by the day. Review of records for more than 750 men who were patients or had once been patients at the VA hospital, including 56 individuals who were treated at the facility on the day of the murder, had cleared each and every one of them as potential suspects. Reading through the source material for this case, there seems to be a lot of theorizing and speculating based on very little evidence. The ideas police offered up seemed to be loosely educated guesses in an attempt to make sense of it all. Police thought the killer or killers might have been using drugs at the time of the killing. They flip-flopped back and forth on motive. It was a burglary gone wrong. No, it was a kidnapping for ransom. No, not that,

because the Shublins weren't exceptionally wealthy. Investigators were grasping. Before long, the case went completely cold. More than two decades passed without progress in Natalie Shublin's case. There were no big breaks, no arrests, and no answers for her surviving children and husband. According to a 1994 article by Andy DeBillis published in the Boston Globe, investigators still had no discernible motive for Natalie's murder even 23 years later. Witnesses were interviewed and re-interviewed

and any leads that occasionally trickled in were followed up on, but investigators seemed to be stuck in the same place they were back in 1971. But as we've seen again and again, with the passage of time also comes advancements in forensic technology. And that was the case for Natalie Shublin's unsolved homicide. In 1999, Natalie's case was revisited by the Massachusetts State Police using a new tool from the FBI called AFIS, which stands for the Automated Fingerprint Identification System. AFIS is a computerized system that stores, compares, and matches

fingerprint data. It significantly enhances the speed and accuracy of fingerprint identification, which completely changed the landscape of using fingerprint data in criminal investigations. Although APHIS, or an early form of it, was around in the 70s, the data stored in the system wasn't anywhere near what it evolved into in the 80s and 90s. What was once a labor-intensive manual process of comparing prints that could take months was revolutionized with digital scanning, which could process comparisons in minutes. The FBI launched a fully operational integrated automated fingerprint identification system on July 28, 1999. That same year, the partial latent prints collected from Natalie Shublin's car almost 30 years earlier were entered into the system,

and for the first time, police working the unsolved murder had a name. Arthur Louis Massey's run-ins with the law dated back to the 60s when he was a teenager and continued throughout most of his life. Everything from larceny to breaking and entering to armed robbery, receiving stolen property, interstate transportation of stolen securities, assault and battery on a correctional officer, and more. Even a jailbreak. During the course of his criminal career, Arthur escaped jail more than once. There simply isn't enough time to cover each and every line item in Arthur's rap sheet, because the list of charges and convictions and complicated pleas and sentences is long. But let me hit the big ones that are most relevant to Natalie's case.

Source material shows that in March of 1971, just a few months before Natalie's death, Arthur was indicted by a federal grand jury for 12 counts of alleged interstate transportation of stolen checks. But he was either released on bail or was otherwise somehow not in jail after his arrest on those charges, and he went right back to his scheme in May and June, signing and cashing stolen checks throughout the state of Vermont until he was apprehended and held on $200,000 bail. As of July 15th, 1971, Arthur was in custody in Boston, but not on July 10th when the murder was committed. According to reporting in the Daily Item, in 1979, Arthur was given an 8-10 year sentence for an armed robbery he committed in 1974 and for holding a guard hostage during his escape from jail in 1975. When that sentence was up, he would begin serving a five-year suspended sentence for assault and battery,

and after that, another four to five-year suspended sentence for another assault and battery, escape, and carrying a gun charges. In 1986, Arthur had apparently served his time for the various convictions and was free again. But it wasn't long before the law caught up with him, this time for his role in a major stolen check ring spanning five states. Deborah McDermott reports for the Daily Hampshire Gazette that the scheme involved split deposits, meaning they'd forge stolen checks and deposit half the money into a random bank account, with the account number sometimes found on discarded deposit slips in the dumpsters outside of banks, and then they'd take the rest of the amount as cash. But Arthur himself wasn't doing the dirty work. As the ringleader of the whole operation, he'd pressure other people, primarily young women and men, to complete the task. By the time he and other ring members were arrested, they'd netted several hundred thousand dollars. Arthur later took a

deal and pleaded guilty to 14 counts of forgery and was sentenced to four to five years. Some of the accomplices were convicted on various related charges too. When that sentence was up, Arthur went back to his old tricks and was arrested and charged with more fraud, more split deposit schemes throughout the 90s. He went back to jail again and was able to earn furlough privileges, but then he failed to return one day and got five more years on top of what he was already serving for that escape. So the suspect had some violent criminal charges in his past, and he was no stranger to breaking the law. He was active in the greater Boston area in 1971, not far from Bedford, and APHIS had indicated this was a guy worth a closer look based on the partial print found in Natalie's car. Finally, after decades without any major leads to go on, police had a suspect for Natalie's brutal and senseless unsolved killing.

And yet, it wasn't enough for an arrest. Still, it was more momentum than the case had seen in decades, and investigators pressed forward. Two state police fingerprint experts further examined the partial prints identified on the rear window of Natalie's car and compared them to those on file for Arthur Massey. The experts were satisfied that the prints were indeed a match to Arthur's left thumb. But that print being in the car was just part of the case. So, investigators located Arthur for an interview in 2000. When detectives asked Arthur about Natalie's murder back in June of 1971,

he denied ever being in Bedford and said he had no knowledge of the killing. What's more, Arthur said he was in jail at the time, so there's no way he could have committed the murder. It would have been a strong alibi, sure, but when police went to verify that info, they saw that Arthur had actually been a fugitive from justice at that point, definitely not incarcerated. It's unclear why, but it would be another five years before police sought Arthur Massey out for a second conversation. When they did catch back up with him in 2005, though, his story changed.

According to court records, Arthur told police he knew about Natalie's murder and that he'd actually been approached by a member of the Winter Hill criminal organization to murder the wife of a banker and stage the crime to look like a break-in. He was offered a large sum of money as a fee for the hit. Arthur assured investigators that he refused to take the offer, but he heard a cousin of his did it. Arthur also had an explanation for why Natalie's car was found abandoned at the Bedford VA hospital. According to reporting by John R. Element and Emily Sweeney for the Boston Globe,

Arthur said he heard from his cousin that the getaway driver who was supposed to pick him up either got lost or got cold feet and stranded his cousin at the scene so he had no choice but to steal the vehicle and flee. When police fully investigated the information Arthur gave them, they learned that Arthur's cousin, who he accused of killing Natalie, was deceased, and so they couldn't talk to that person. More importantly, though, they couldn't find any evidence that Raymond or anyone else had put out a hit on Natalie.

Raymond had been cleared long ago, and there's no way he was involved in his own wife's murder. The suspicion hovered over Arthur like a storm cloud, but without further evidence, there could be no arrests. All the investigation had was Arthur's partial left thumbprint found three decades earlier and a changing story filled with red flags. So Natalie's case simmered for another 10-plus years.

Around the 40-year anniversary, in July of 2011, the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office was taking another look at the case file, but they were mum for specific details relating to the renewed attention on Natalie's case. The DA would only say that forensic investigation methods had come a long way in recent years and hinted that investigators were pursuing new opportunities with new technology available to them. Unfortunately, those opportunities could not be developed in time for Raymond to see any form of justice for his wife. He passed away at the age of 92 in December of 2011 following a brief illness. His late wife, Natalie, is the first loved one listed in his obituary. It wasn't until 2019, when the district attorney's

office formed a cold case unit in Middlesex County, that investigators dug back into the case file for Natalie Shublin's unsolved murder. Working together throughout 2020 and 2021, Massachusetts State Police and Bedford Police detectives dissected the evidence they had and the suspect that still hadn't been ruled out. They decided to dig deeper into Arthur's past and all of his criminal dealings over the previous five decades, some good old-fashioned detective work finally shook out a new lead. Investigators knew that Arthur had many accomplices in his various check-cashing schemes throughout the years, some that felt they were pressured into it by Arthur. As it turned out, there was one accomplice in particular who proved to be the key to closing Natalie's case for good. Detectives began tracking down the others

implicated in Arthur's criminal activity and eventually located a woman who said she was part of his scheme to defraud banks in the 1990s. The witness told police that she remembered that Arthur always carried a knife, and he once told her that he had connections with organized crime. But what Arthur told her next was the most critical piece of the reopened case. Arthur had bragged to the woman that he once stabbed someone to death at their own home. With that, along with other pieces of the case developed over a nearly 50-year investigation, a Middlesex grand jury indicted Arthur Louis Massey on March 22, 2022, for the 1971 murder of Natalie Shublin.

He was 76 years old at the time of his arrest. A Middlesex Superior Court judge ordered Arthur held without bail as he awaited trial. When he finally faced a jury in April of this year, 2024, new charges had been added to the list. Investigators learned that in 2022, while he was in custody of the Middlesex Sheriff's Office in Billerica, Arthur attempted to pay a witness to falsely testify that Arthur was being framed for Natalie's murder in an attempt to throw the prosecution's case against him.

According to Mike Rosenberg's reporting for the Bedford Citizen, Arthur offered the female witness $1,000 to give false testimony and instructed her on what to say she heard, who she heard it from, and where she was when she heard it. Arthur also threatened the woman if she didn't comply, saying that he'd send someone to harm her or he himself would get to her like a bullet, he said. For those offenses, Arthur was indicted for solicitation to suborn perjury in a capital case, attempted extortion, and threatening to cause physical injury or death, on top of the murder charge for Natalie's death. The trial of Arthur Massey lasted just a few days, and in mid-May of 2024, a jury returned a verdict after only three hours of deliberation. It was a mere blink of an eye compared to the nearly 53 years of waiting for Natalie and her family.

Arthur Lewis Massey was guilty, on all counts. At the sentencing hearing a few weeks later, one of Natalie's surviving children delivered a victim impact statement. Kenneth Shublin was 79 years old. Nearly an entire lifetime had passed since his mother was killed so senselessly in her own home. Kenneth addressed his mother's convicted killer and the court, saying that he'd felt many different things as he reflected on his mother's death during his lifetime.

Quote, one thing that hasn't varied is the ache in my heart that I have carried with me for 53 years. End quote. Kenneth continued on to share that he often thought about the horror of his mother's final moments and the similar horror his father had to live with having discovered her body. His parents had big plans for early retirement, he said, but instead Raymond was a widower for 40 years, never remarrying. Natalie never got to meet Kenneth's daughter. He said they would have adored each other But that and so many other beautiful things were taken away when Natalie was killed

Natalie's son admitted that he was once resigned to the fact that the case would never be solved That the killer was somewhere thinking they'd gotten away with murder But he said directly to the convicted killer, quote, it didn't quite work out that way, did it, Mr. Massey? End quote. Arthur reportedly had an outburst in response

and was immediately silenced by the court. No one deserved to get the last word on this more than Natalie's family. The judge handed down the mandatory sentence of life without parole. According to Massachusetts inmate records, Arthur is currently in custody of the Massachusetts Department of Correction at the Sousa Baranowski Correctional Facility in Lancaster, Massachusetts. In recent years, the spotlight has often shown brightest on the remarkable advancements in forensic DNA technology and DNA analysis. These breakthroughs have revolutionized the field of criminal justice, providing powerful tools to solve long-standing cold cases that once seemed unsolvable. The ability to extract, amplify, and analyze DNA from minute biological samples

has led to the identification and conviction of numerous offenders, bringing long-awaited justice to victims and their families. However, amidst this focus on the marvels of DNA technology, we cannot forget that other forensic methods and traditional detective work continue to play a vital role in solving cases. One such method is the automated fingerprint identification system, AFIS, which remains a cornerstone of modern forensic science. The closure of Natalie Shublin's case with the conviction of Arthur Louis Massey just this year, after more than 50 years of waiting, is the perfect example of how APHIS and good old-fashioned detective work can crack even the most challenging cases. Natalie's murder had baffled investigators for years until it was ultimately solved not through DNA analysis, but through the meticulous efforts of forensic

experts using APHIS. The system's ability to quickly compare and match fingerprints against a vast database provided the critical lead needed to identify the suspect. But the success of this investigation was not solely due to technological prowess. It also relied heavily on the dedication and perseverance of detectives who tirelessly pursued every lead, re-examined evidence, and conducted thorough interviews. Their dogged determination and attention to detail were instrumental in bringing the case to a close. This case serves as a powerful reminder that while DNA technology

is a remarkable tool in the forensic arsenal, it is not the only one. Tools like APHIS combined with the experience, intuition, and hard work of skilled investigators continue to be indispensable in the quest for justice. Natalie Shublin had survived cancer. She raised her children who went on to have children of their own. She was a loving wife to Raymond and an avid gardener and painter. Her legacy lives on through her family. And finally, they now have justice and answers after more than half a century later. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at darkdowneast.

This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and Audiocheck. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?