How Natalie Scheublin's 1971 Murder Took 53 Years to Solve
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Longform<br>The Oldest Cold Case Murder Ever Solved in Massachusetts
In 1971, Natalie Scheublin was murdered in her Bedford home. Her killer walked free for more than 50 years. Then prosecutor David Solet started asking questions.
By John H. Tucker·
5/5/2026, 11:40 a.m.
Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning — great with coffee!
Illustration by Jonathan Bartlett
The blue-and-white Chevy Impala was missing. Raymond Scheublin noticed it the moment he pulled up to his home on Pine Hill Road—a quiet street in Bedford—in June 1971. He’d spoken to his wife, Natalie, earlier that afternoon, and the family car should have been parked out front. He walked through the garage door into the basement and glanced toward the stairs.<br>More:
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He froze.
Natalie, in shorts and a blouse, lay face-down on a blood-soaked rug. She had been stabbed twice, part of her skull bludgeoned into fragments. Her mouth had been gagged, her hands and feet bound with clothesline and articles of clothing. A piece of rope lay beneath her body. Raymond, a 52-year-old bank president who had served in World War II, hurried upstairs and called the police.
Bedford police officers arrived within minutes, calling in help from state troopers and homicide investigators. The door to the yard was unlocked—no sign of forced entry. Upstairs, Natalie’s purses had been rifled through, but nothing was taken. The silver and china were in their place. In the bathroom, the sink was streaked with blood, as if the killer had washed his hands before leaving. Police noted they found no murder weapon, but a paring knife and pinch bar were missing from the home.Bloodstains in the sink of Scheublin’s Bedford home. / Photo by Tony Luong
Natalie was 54. She painted landscapes of the Concord River, kept a vegetable garden, and boated in Essex. She’d survived breast cancer—her daughter-in-law had washed her hair and helped her dress during the recovery. She had one grandchild and was planning to retire early with Raymond.A police officer called the couple’s son, Kenneth, a Simmons graduate with a social work degree. “Your mother has been the victim of a homicide,” he recalled later, according to court records.“Is this a sick joke?” Kenneth remembered saying. “I don’t believe you.”The officer told him to hang up and call his parents’ house. On the other end of the line, Raymond told his son it was true.Kenneth and his wife didn’t have a car and were out of cash, so they borrowed money from a neighbor and took a cab—17 miles to his childhood home. I just can’t believe this is happening, Kenneth repeated to his wife. When they pulled up, a hearse was backing out of the driveway.Inside, investigators moved through the rooms, snapping photos and lifting fingerprints. Kenneth approached his father—not typically an emotional man—and offered a rare hug. Later that night, Kenneth...