by Emerson Clarridge on October 25, 2019
Molly Matheson used wit to maneuver in her family of three brothers.
She offered advice on handling girls and cheered their achievements.
It seems at times to her relatives that the Fort Worth woman, who was 22 when she was raped and killed in April 2017, is still in their lives.
“She’s just not present,” Tracy Matheson, her mother, said Friday.
Matheson found her daughter’s body on the floor of the shower in her garage apartment behind a house about two blocks from the Texas Christian University campus. The assailant, law enforcement authorities allege, is a man she dated in college. After killing her, he washed her body, clothes and bedding in an attempt to destroy evidence, they allege.
Reginald Kimbro, who has been indicted on a capital murder charge in the case, is to be tried in May. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty.
Kimbro has also been indicted in the capital murder of a Plano woman that occurred less than two weeks after Matheson’s death. He is accused in the rape and slaying of 36-year-old Megan Leigh Getrum.
Tracy Matheson spoke Friday to about 30 Bank of America employees who volunteered at its Amon Carter Boulevard office to assemble bags of clothing and other items to give to sexual assault victims soon after they are examined.
The bags are distributed to hospitals and rape crisis centers by a nonprofit organization, Project Beloved, which Tracy Matheson created that is focused on helping sexual assault victims.
The organization has donated 1,700 of the bags, called beloved bundles, that hold clothing, hygiene products and other items.
Bank of America donated $50,000 to Project Beloved. The grant will fund bundles and the creation of “soft” rooms in which detectives interview victims at law enforcement offices . The rooms include comfortable seating, pleasant lighting, artwork and rugs to help people feel safe. Such a room recently was added at the Bedford Police Department.
Emily Boydston, a wealth management advisor at Merrill Lynch, nominated the nonprofit for the bank grant. She met Tracy Matheson at a Trinity Valley School alumni gathering after Matheson’s daughter’s death.
Molly Matheson grew up in Winter Park, Fla., before moving to Fort Worth with her family in 2010. After graduating from high school, she attended the University of Arkansas. She left the school in 2015 and returned to Fort Worth.
At the time of her death, she was working as a sales manager at a women’s clothing store in the University Park Village shopping center. Matheson’s mother learned that she had not arrived for a scheduled shift and found her body when she went to check on her.
“She was the glue that held our family together,” she said.
As she prepares for the Kimbro’s trial next year, Tracy Matheson is focused on the work of her organization. Next up, she will oversee the installation of six soft interview rooms at the Austin Police Department.