TCU-area murder suspect charged in Plano woman’s death

Hours after being questioned by Fort Worth police in connection with the death of a 22-year-old woman near TCU, Reginald Kimbro raped and killed a 36-year-old Plano woman whose body was later found at Lake Ray Hubbard, authorities allege.

Kimbro, 23, has been jailed since April 24 on a capital murder charge in the sexual assault and strangulation death of his ex-girlfriend, 22-year-old Molly Matheson, according to Fort Worth police. Matheson, a Keller Timber Creek High School alum, was found dead in her the bathroom of her TCU-area apartment April 10.

Friday, authorities added a new capital murder case against him in connection with the death of Megan Leigh Getrum, whose body was discovered April 19 at Lake Ray Hubbard, about 30 miles away in Dallas.

Getrum had not been seen or heard from since the evening of April 14, when she went for a walk at the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano.

Plano police, while investigating another case at the park, reported seeing Kimbro at the park about the same time, according to the affidavit. Investigators later found Kimbro’s sperm on Getrum’s body, the affidavit said.

Police allege that Kimbro raped Getrum and killed her by “compressing her neck and dumping her in a lake, which resulted in lethal blunt force trauma and indications of drowning,” the affidavit said.

Kimbro was questioned by Fort Worth homicide detectives at 11:32 a.m. April 14 in connection with Matheson’s death.

He told investigators he had previously dated Matheson while she was a student at the University of Arkansas in 2014 and that the two remained in contact.

Kimbro said Matheson had texted him on the night of April 9, asking if he wanted to hang out. He said he went to her residence, an unattached apartment behind a home in the 2600 block of Waits Avenue, and that they eventually started making out.

Kimbro told investigators he was going to have sex with Matheson but she declined, citing her boyfriend. He said he left about 1:30 a.m. April 10 and drove to Arkansas.

He denied being involved in her slaying and was upset at the end of the interview after Fort Worth investigators questioned him further about the time frame.

Later that night, Getrum went hiking in the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in west Plano. She was never heard from again.

Kimbro remained in custody Friday at Tarrant County Jail, with bail set at more than $1 million.

Detectives also learned that Kimbro was a suspect in two separate sexual assaults in which the victims reported being choked — one in September 2012 in Plano and the other in South Padre Island in March 2014.

Kimbro had been arrested in the South Padre Island case but charges against him later were dismissed by the Cameron County District Attorney’s office “pending further investigation,” an official has said.

“It is extraordinarily frustrating to know that neither of these senseless murders should have ever happened if our judicial system had done its job properly,” Matheson’s father, David Matheson, said in a statement Friday. “Twice Mr. Kimbro was accused and investigated by police for sexual assault by two brave young women. And unexplainably, both cases were dropped, thus allowing Reggie Kimbro to continue his predatory ways.”

According to Kimbro’s arrest warrant affidavit in the Plano case, he was not charged in the 2012 rape accusation because “there came a point during the investigation in which [the victim] no longer wished to pursue the case.”

The victim now wants to pursue charges, the affidavit said, and police are investigating.

Ex-girlfriend’s allegations

During their initial investigation into the rape accusation, detectives interviewed one of Kimbro’s former girlfriends in 2014.

The woman said Kimbro “liked to ‘strangle’ her while having sex,” according to the affidavit. Sometimes, Kimbro would choke her to a point where she would “tap out,” but Kimbro wouldn’t stop, the affidavit said.

The woman would then have to remove Kimbro’s hands from her throat because he had “gone too far,” she told police. Once, Kimbro choked her as she was taking a nap, the affidavit said.

This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 10:44 AM with the headline "TCU-area murder suspect charged in Plano woman’s death."