Published March 22, 2022
Dallas-area women reported Reginald Kimbro to authorities before he killed in 2017. They said they waited years to get justice and lamented that he wasn’t stopped sooner.
Katie Coates thought she was going to die when she looked into Reginald Kimbro’s eyes the night he attacked her in a bathroom in 2014, during Spring Break on South Padre Island.
His hands were around her neck and she was terrified, Coates told a packed Fort Worth courtroom Tuesday morning, as Kimbro sat shackled at a table about a dozen feet away.
“In some twisted sense, now my hands are around your neck,” she said. “How does that feel to be so helpless and hopeless?”
Kimbro pleaded guilty last week to two charges of capital murder for killing Molly Matheson, 22, of Fort Worth and Megan Getrum, 36, of Plano in April 2017. He also pleaded guilty to the aggravated sexual assault of Coates. For those crimes, he was sentenced to three life terms in prison — two without the possibility of parole.
Kimbro also pleaded guilty to three sexual assaults in Collin County, one reported in Plano in 2012, another in Allen in 2014 and a third that had not previously been reported. Kimbro received 20-year sentences for those attacks, the maximum allowed under the law. Prosecutors said four additional women had come forward and were prepared to testify.
His case revealed gaping oversights in the earlier investigations that allowed him to keep offending. Prosecutors called Kimbro a serial rapist and killer, and families who spoke Tuesday believe only “a fraction” of his victims are accounted for.
After Coates reported her rape in South Texas’ Cameron County, Kimbro was arrested and released on bail.
A prosecutor said Tuesday that the case was dropped in October 2014 because officials were waiting for DNA results. He was indicted after the final results were received in June 2017 — after Matheson’s and Getrum’s slayings.
“I’ll never understand why we weren’t believed and why nothing was done,” Coates said.
Kimbro’s crime spree ended in April 2017 after his arrest for the slaying of Matheson, whom he once dated. But before he was in custody, Getrum’s body was found dumped in Lake Ray Hubbard in Dallas County, with Kimbro’s DNA on her.
On Tuesday, survivors reminded those in the courtroom that each time Kimbro got away he was allowed to escalate his violence.
“When you understand the details of these cases, it’s unimaginable that investigators and the prosecutors in Plano, Allen and South Padre turned their backs on you despite overwhelming evidence,” David Matheson, Molly’s father, told the women. “I want y’all to know that you are the heroes in this story.”
Ana Winton, the mother of the first known victim to report Kimbro to Plano police in 2012, said she pleaded with a detective to catch Kimbro. Instead, the detective said Kimbro seemed nice and smart and that he passed a lie detector test. If they went to court, a jury wouldn’t believe her, she recalled the detective saying.
More than a month before Matheson and Getrum were killed, Allen police received DNA results from the rape kit in their 2014 case. The DNA matched Kimbro, who was already the primary suspect. But nothing was done, survivors said.
“For 41 days, a detective from the Allen Police Department sat on this critical piece of evidence,” Tracy Matheson, Molly’s mother, said to Kimbro. “Your guilty plea to that violent rape cements the truth that had he paid attention, had he done something — anything — at any point during those 41 days, Molly and Megan just might be alive today.”
Plano police declined to comment Tuesday. Allen police did not respond to a request for comment.
Kimbro entered the courtroom Tuesday with a smile and waved at his family. He did not respond as survivors and relatives addressed him, and his family quietly left the courtroom afterward.
Kimbro reached the plea deal days before he was set to go on trial, but Tracy Matheson said she was willing to forgo a trial — in which prosecutors would’ve sought the death penalty — so there was no question he was guilty.
Each survivor and relative vowed to live unconsumed by thoughts of Kimbro, and they spoke of walking out the courtroom doors with strength and joy. The parents of Matheson and Getrum said they’d live in honor of their daughters.
Diane Getrum, Megan’s mother, described her as an adventurer who traveled and enjoyed hiking and foreign foods. She doubted Kimbro could understand her family’s loss.
“I will admit there was a time when Mr. Kimbro was my personal demon,” Diane Getrum said. “But my life is too short to spend anymore time on him. And today, I’m going to walk out that door because I have mountains to climb and silly snacks to sample and people who love me who I love in return.”