Natalie Scheublin, a 54-year-old wife, mother, painter and breast cancer survivor, was viciously murdered in her home in June 1971 by an intruder who stole a set of bank keys. Decades later her cold case was reviewed by Middlesex assistant district attorney David Solet, who spent two years working the case with the assistance of Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Sullivan and Bedford PD cop Richard Vitale.
Their hard work paid off. Arthur Massei was arrested for the 1971 crime and convicted of first degree murder in May 2024.
Here is one of several amazing things about this solve. This cold case unit was build from the ground up by an assistant district attorney, not a state police or local PD.
While it is of small significance to the overall story of this solve, a piece of rope was found under Natalie’s body. Four decades later, the rope was still in evidence. Forensic breakthroughs allowed lab analysts to determine the rope was handled by an unknown male. There was not a match to Massei, but it was thought perhaps the touch DNA was from an accomplice. Unlike the ropes from the Christopher Busch death scene initially evaluated by MSP lab scientist David Metzger in 1978, the evidence was retained and did not go “missing.”
According to Metzger’s affidavit, some 35 years after the fact, there was no blood on these ropes, because certainly he would have noted this in his little report. Whether there was blood on those ropes or not, today’s testing could have revealed who handled those ropes or had been bound by them. But they are long, long gone. Metzger’s report advises that the ropes be retained. He stated the OCCK case was very much on his mind when he evaluated the evidence from Chris Busch’s bedroom. Amazing that in the biggest case in Michigan at the time that the evidence was so poorly accounted for. (Or is it?)
Following Massei’s trial, Assistant DA Solet reinvestigated and prosecuted several murder and sex assault cases to conviction. Solet was named Middlesex County’s prosecutor of the year.
Solet used genetic genealogy to match crime scene DNA from a 1980s rape case to a man who was still alive. The 15-year statute of limitations prevented prosecution. He urged his boss, DA Marian Ryan, to use the case to lobby for a new state law like those of 47 other states to extend the statute of limitations and add a DNA exception that stops the clock until a suspect is identified.
Apparently more politician than prosecutor, she refused. Solet then resigned his post and is running to unseat Ryan. The election is September 1, 2026.
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2026/05/05/natalie-scheublin-murder-prosecuted/