The combination of “good old-fashioned detective work” and a relatively new high-tech investigatory tool has led to the conclusion of one cold case and a breakthrough in another, both with the help of the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.
The conviction of Arthur L. Massie in the brutal 1971 slaying of a Bedford homemaker culminated decades of investigatory work.
Conversely, the identification of Stephen Paul Gale, the man accused of sexually assaulting two women at a Framingham department store in the 1980s, involved a state-of-the-art, gene-matching mechanism.
Middlesex DA Marian Ryan announced the developments in these cases on Tuesday.
We’ve previously examined the slaying of Natalie Scheublin, the wife of a prominent banking executive who was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in her Bedford home, and the murderer who managed to evade authorities for 50 years.
But Arthur L. Massie will now finally pay his debt to society, after freely living for decades while a family grieved and investigators chased leads.
More than half a century after his heinous act, a jury convicted the 78-year-old Salem man of first-degree murder. Massei was also convicted of solicitation to suborn perjury, according to Ryan, who announced the verdicts at a news conference late Tuesday afternoon.
The jury returned its verdicts after three days of deliberation, with Scheublin’s son and daughter-in-law present in the courtroom, Ryan said.
Investigators identified Massei as a potential suspect in 1999 after they matched his left thumb to a print found on the victim’s car, which had been stolen.
But law enforcement’s eureka moment occurred in 2019, aided by the creation of the Middlesex DA’s Cold Case Unit. Investigators began digging deeper into Massei’s past and “were able to identify a woman who admitted that she had been involved with Mr. Massei in schemes to defraud banks back in the 1990s,’’ Ryan said.
In October of 2022, investigators “learned that the defendant, who was in the custody of the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office in Billerica at the time, had been communicating by letter with a woman outside the prison.”
The woman said Massei told her he had organized crime connections and had stabbed someone to death inside their home, according to Ryan.
“… While he was in custody on the murder case, Massei attempted to procure a witness to give false testimony at his trial,’’ Ryan said. “He offered a $1,000 cash payment if the witness would falsely claim that Massei was being framed for the murder.’’
That act led to the additional charge of solicitation to suborn perjury, she said.
Ryan said the case was ultimately solved using “good old-fashioned detective work.’’
“It was really taking apart Mr. Massei’s life and looking at every aspect of it, who was he, who back in 1971 was he in contact with?’’ she said. “Where had he been, who had he been talking to, and really essentially retracing his life to find that.’’
Framingham cold case
Back on Dec. 27, 1989, a white male — now ID’d as Stephen Paul Gale, 71 — entered a Framingham department store on Route 9. He showed a .357 Magnum handgun, and forced two female employees to the back of the store, police said.
He made one of the women empty the money from a locked safe, the store’s register and her pocketbook into a bag. He made the second victim lock the doors, and put a sign on the front door saying the store would open late.
Gale is then accused of sexually assaulting both women while holding the gun to their heads, police said.
Police collected evidence, and obtained the suspect’s DNA. A DNA profile was developed and uploaded to the CODIS database in 2001, but there were never any hits identifying the suspect.
Then two years ago, Middlesex DA prosecutors and the Framingham police contracted with Parabon Nanolabs to conduct an investigative genetic genealogy to try to develop new leads.
Forensic genetic genealogy combines traditional genealogy research with DNA analysis.
It’s the same high-tech method that allowed DA Ryan’s Cold Case Unit, along with the Acton Police Department and several other investigative assets, to identify a suspect in a 2013 rape case.
After additional police investigation, DNA samples were obtained from members of Gale’s family. This DNA evidence provided probable cause to identify Gale and led to Tuesday’s arrest warrant.
Gale has been known to use the aliases Stephen Pisarcik, John Rossi, Paul Costa, Paul DeRosa, Paul DiCarli, Paul Joseph DeCarlo, Steve Miner, Paul Williams, and Paul Ptaszynski.
He is last known to be living in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He also may have ties to Arizona, Texas, Utah and Florida. He previously has been identified as having ties to organized crime. He stands 5’11” and weighs about 200 pounds.
Police are urging anyone with information regarding Gale’s location to contact the Framingham Police Department at 508-532-5923.
The lessons learned from these two updates – crimes committed decades ago – should give comfort to other loved ones still waiting for justice.
Whether by dogged detective work or scientific investigatory breakthroughs, cold cases can be cracked.
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