FORT WORTH, Texas — Editor's note: The video published above is a WFAA Investigation from 2019 about the murders of Molly Jane Matheson and Megan Getrum.
A man charged with raping and murdering two North Texas women has been sentenced to life in prison for both cases, Tarrant County officials told WFAA.
Reginald Kimbro pled guilty on Friday, March 18, to the April 2017 rapes and murders of Molly Jane Matheson, a 22-year-old Fort Worth woman, and Megan Getrum, a 36-year-old Plano woman. He has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for both cases. Getrum's murder case was handled in Dallas County.
In 2017, Matheson's mother found her daughter raped, strangled and murdered in her Texas Christian University-area garage apartment. Kimbro had previously dated Matheson while she attended the University of Arkansas, but they had not been in a relationship for years at the time of her murder, officials said. Fort Worth police connected Kimbro to Matheson's murder using DNA, cell phone records, electricity usage and surveillance cameras, officials said.
Days after Matheson's body was found, Getrum disappeared from a Plano nature preserve. Her body was found the next day in Lake Ray Hubbard. She had also been raped and strangled, police said.
During a years-long investigation by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and law enforcement, they learned that Kimbro had also been accused of aggravated sexual assault in Plano in 2012, in South Padre in 2014 and in 2014 in Allen, officials said in a press release. None of those cases had been filed in their respective counties at the time of Matheson's murder, Tarrant County officials said.
After the investigation revealed these accusations, he was indicted for all cases and had been positively linked to each victim through DNA and CODIS, according to Tarrant County officials.
“Reginald Kimbro is a serial rapist and a serial killer. He used his personality and charm to attract women or drugged them when that did not work,” prosecutor Allenna Bangs said. “He talked his way out of case after case until his violence culminated in the deaths of Molly Matheson and Megan Getrum.”
Kimbro pled guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in the Plano case, life in the South Padre case, and 20 years in the Allen case.
On Tuesday, March 22, the families of victims gave impact statements. Dozens of people gathered in the courtroom, and an overflow courtroom, to hear what the victims and families had to say to Kimbro.
You can watch the impact statements on WFAA's YouTube page here:
“I honestly have nothing to say to you,” said David Matheson, Molly's father. “You don’t exist. You don’t occupy any space in my head. You never will. You are the definition of a coward.”
Tracy Matheson said she will "spend the rest of my days making sure that this battle is won," referring to the conversation about sexual assault and empowering the voices of victim's voices.
Diane Getrum, Megan’s mother, held up a picture of her daughter for the courtroom to see. She told stories of her daughter’s adventures and her missed opportunities and ended by telling Kimbro that her life is too short to spend any more time focusing on him.
"Our decision to accept your guilty plea, allowing you to avoid the death penalty, has absolutely nothing to do with mercy. You have done nothing to deserve that. Instead, it has everything to do with silencing your voice. No longer will you be able to sit behind the lie of innocence," Tracy Matheson told Kimbro as she looked him in the eyes. "The light – Molly’s brilliant, joy-filled, bright light – will shine over the darkness brought by your cowardly decisions. … Her light is the fuel for the revolution.”
In 2019, the Texas Legislature created Molly Jane’s Law, which requires law enforcement officers investigating sexual assault to input pertinent information into a national database which is maintained by the FBI.