Boynton Beach man convicted of 1985 murder

A Palm Beach County jury on Wednesday convicted a Boynton Beach man of sexually assaulting and killing a 78-year-old woman in 1985.

Richard Curtis Lange, 62, will be sentenced formally to life in prison at a hearing on April 6, a week before his birthday.

Lange was identified through DNA evidence collected from the body of Mildred Lee Matheny, who was discovered beaten and wounded in the 12500 block of Old Indiantown Road in Jupiter, about 30 miles from where she was last seen at the Lake Worth Beach home of her sister.

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She died in a hospital a few days later.

Lange was 25 at the time of the murder, but investigators did not have his DNA to use for comparison until after he was arrested in 2012 on a weapons possession charge. Even then, the comparison was not made until last year. Once the match was identified, investigators went to Lange’s home in Boynton Beach to collect a new sample and confirm the results.

Jury selection in the case began Monday morning. The verdict came in at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Twitter @rolmeda.