In April 2017, just a few days apart, police in Texas found out about two brutal murders that were similar in how they were done. Molly Matheson and Megan Getrum were found dead and raped. The police were able to figure out that the same person was responsible for both crimes.
“Dateline: Wreckage” on NBC News tells the story of the shocking investigation, which raised more questions about how the killer was free even though he had been accused of sexual assaults before. So, how about we find out more about what happened?
Molly Matheson and Megan Getrum died in different ways
Molly Jane Matheson was born in Florida, but she and her family later moved to Fort Worth, Texas. She went to high school in Fort Worth at Keller Timber Creek High School and then went to college at the University of Arkansas. But the 22-year-old is said to have dropped out of college in 2015 and moved back to Fort Worth. At the time of the incident, she lived near Texas Christian University and worked as a sales manager at a women’s clothing store.
Molly’s mom, Tracy, went to check on her on April 10, 2017, when the young woman didn’t show up for work. On that day, Tracy found something terrible in the bathroom. Molly’s body was found under a shower that was running. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death, and the person who did it was trying to hide the evidence. The death of Molly was ruled to be a murder.
Megan Leigh Getrum loved to hike, camp, and travel. The 36-year-old went hiking in the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano, Texas, on April 14, 2017. Megan wasn’t seen alive again after that night. Her body was found in Lake Roy Hubbard, Texas, on April 15, 2017. She had also been sexually abused, just like Molly. Also, there were signs that the person had been strangled, hit in the back of the head with something, and drowned.
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Molly Matheson and Megan Getrum were killed. Who did it?
In the case of Molly Matheson, the police looked at her phone records and messages to see if they gave them any hints. On April 9, 2017, at about 10:26 p.m., she got a text message from a man named Reginald Kimbro, according to the records. A few days after Molly was found, he was brought in for questioning. The police found out that he knew the 22-year-old from when she lived in Arkansas. Molly and Reginald dated for a while, but they broke up. Even after they broke up, they kept in touch.
Reginald told the police that he went to Molly’s apartment that night and that they started kissing. But he said Molly didn’t want to have sex with him, so he left around 1:30 am on April 10, 2017. Around 2:59 am, she got a text message from Reginald thanking her for some advice. She never read that text, though. At the scene of the murder, it looked like the killer had gone to great lengths to hide his tracks. Molly was put under a shower to get rid of any evidence, but DNA was still found on her body and taken.
Also, wet laundry was found in the apartment by the police. Two pairs of women’s underwear, a fitted sheet, a pillowcase, washcloths, a towel, a pair of men’s underwear, and a pair of running shorts were in the load. Reginald said that he wore running shorts on April 9, and the ones that were found at Molly’s apartment were thought to be his. Later, Reginald’s DNA was found to match the DNA from the crime scene.
Megan, who was sexually assaulted, also had biological evidence taken from her. This also matched Reginald, which links him to two murders and sexual assaults. Then, the police found out that he had attacked women many times over the years. Before the murders, Reginald was on the police’s radar in 2012 and 2014 for sexual assaults in different parts of Texas. Three different women said that Reginald choked them and raped them.
In all of these situations, his sperm was found on the women, but he was not arrested. Authorities said that in the 2012 case, the woman didn’t want to press charges at first, but after the murder investigation started, she changed her mind. In January 2014, a woman in Allen, Texas, was raped, but the police didn’t know it was Reginald’s DNA in the rape kit until February 2017, a little more than a month before Molly was killed. Also, one of Reginald’s ex-girlfriends said that he liked to strangle during sex and would sometimes go too far and not stop.
In the end, Reginald took a plea deal in March 2022, right before his trial began. As part of the deal, he admitted to the two murders and four other sexual assaults. Reginald was sent to prison for life without the chance of getting out. Because of this, people didn’t like how the police handled the earlier sexual assault cases. One woman said that the officer who questioned her didn’t believe her. Advocates for the victims said that the murders could have been stopped if Reginald had been arrested sooner after his DNA was found to match that of the person who sexually assaulted a girl in 2014.
Kimbro said he was guilty before the trial even started. This saved him from getting the death penalty.
Matheson and Getrum were both killed in just a few days. Both of the victims dated the killer in the past, so they are both linked to the same killer. On the other hand, Megan had never met Kimbro, but she was badly hurt when she was hiking near her home in Plano. In both cases, the DNA evidence that linked the serial rapist to the murders was the same.
On Friday’s episode of NBC Dateline, they will talk about the horrible deaths of Molly Matheson and Megan Getrum. They will also talk about how Reginald Kimbro was finally caught and his campaign of sexual assaults in Texas came to an end. The episode is called “Wreckage,” and it will air on the network at 9 p.m. ET on September 23, 2022.
Who were Megan Getrum and Molly Matheson? What happened to them?
Molly Jane Matheson was born in Florida. After she was born, her family moved to Fort Worth, Texas. She went to Keller Timber Creek High School in Fort Worth for high school, and then she went to the University of Arkansas. The 22-year-old, on the other hand, seems to have dropped out of school and moved back to Fort Worth in 2015. At the time of the incident, she worked as a sales manager at a store for women’s clothes and lived near Texas Christian University.
Tracy Matheson, Molly’s mother, was worried on April 10, 2017, when her daughter didn’t show up to work. Even though her daughter lived across the street in a garage apartment, the worried mom called a friend.
Even though her friend said Molly’s car was parked outside, Tracy went to the 22-year-house old’s to check on things and make sure her daughter was safe. Molly wasn’t there when she opened the door and saw that it wasn’t locked. Tracy called her name and started to look around the house. Before going into the bathroom, she turned around to look at the backyard.
Megan Leigh Getrum liked to camp, hike, and go to new places. On April 14, 2017, the 36-year-old hiked in the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano, Texas. About a week after Molly Matheson was killed, Reginald Kimbro attacked Megan Getrum sexually and strangled her while police were looking into him.
Megan was attacked on April 14, 2017, when she went for a walk at night in the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in her neighborhood. That evening was the last time anyone saw Megan alive. On April 15, 2017, her body was found in Lake Roy Hubbard, Texas. Just like Molly, she had been sexually assaulted. There were also signs that the person had drowned, been hit in the back of the head, or been strangled. Reginald Kimbro, who was a serial rapist, raped and killed Molly Matheson, who was 22 and from Fort Worth, and Megan Getrum, who was 36 and from Plano. He was found guilty of two murders and four sexual assaults in 2017 and is now serving a life sentence without the chance of parole. Kimbro confessed before the trial, which got him a deal that kept him from getting the death penalty.
Matheson and Getrum were both killed just a few days apart. The killer knew the person who had been killed before because they had dated in the past. Megan, on the other hand, had never met Kimbro. When she was attacked, she was on a hike near her home in Plano. In both cases, DNA was the only thing that linked the serial r*pist to the murders.
On Friday, NBC Dateline will look back at the sad and violent deaths of Molly Matheson and Megan Getrum, as well as how the police finally caught Reginald Kimbro and put an end to his spree of sexual assaults across Texas. The episode is called “Wreckage,” and it will air on the network on September 23, 2022, at 9 pm ET.
Trigger Warning: This article talks about the details of the murder. Readers should use their own judgment.
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Molly Matheson’s mother found her body in the garage of their home
Tracy, Molly Matheson’s mom, was worried when she didn’t go to work on April 10, 2017. The mother was so worried that she called a friend who lived across the street from her daughter’s Fort Worth garage apartment.
Even though Molly’s friend said her car was parked outside, Tracy went to the 22-year-house old’s to check on things and make sure her daughter was safe. She saw that Molly wasn’t there and that the door wasn’t locked. Tracy went to the back yard and then the bathroom after calling her name and looking around the house for her.
Molly’s body was found in the bathroom on the second floor. She had been beaten and strangled very badly. Her mother is said to have said:
A press release from the government said that after killing her, the killer tried to get rid of the evidence, but instead left a set of clues:
“She had been beaten and strangled, and Kimbro tried to hide the evidence by washing her in the shower and putting his underwear in a load of laundry.
Reginald Kimbro was supposedly linked to the crime by DNA, cell phone records, power usage, and security camera footage. Sources say that Molly Matheson went to the University of Arkansas, where she met Kimbro and had a short relationship with him. Kimbro had told the police that Matheson had called him to her apartment the night before, but he said he didn’t kill her.
Reginald Kimbro raped and strangled Megan Getrum, a 36-year-old woman from Plano, about a week after Molly Matheson’s murder, while police were still looking into him.
Getrum was attacked on April 14, 2017, while she was hiking in the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve near her home. She had never met Kimbro before. A few days later, her body was found in Lake Ray Hubbard. Through DNA evidence, witness statements, and identification, detectives were able to link Kimbro to the crime. They found him in the parking lot of the Nature Preserve around the time Getrum went missing.
Kimbro was suspected of rape in 2012 and 2014, but no charges were brought against him. This important fact was only found out when police started looking into Molly Matheson’s and Megan Getrum’s deaths. Soon, more of the serial r*pist’s victims came forward and told horrifying stories about how he drugged, strangled, and r*ped them.
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