Rapist charged with ’88 Hub slay
A convicted rapist deemed too dangerous to live among the public has been charged with murder in the brutal 1988 slaying of Judy Chamberlain, Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins announced.
Richard Vega, 59, who is currently civilly committed under the state’s sexually dangerous person statute, will appear in Suffolk Superior Court later this month to answer for the charges in the cold case that went unsolved for 33 years. A grand jury returned an indictment last week, Rollins’s office said.
“Ms. Chamberlain’s family has been waiting 33 years for answers. We were finally able to offer those answers some three decades later. Ms. Chamberlain’s life mattered. And we will seek a lifetime of accountability for her brutal murder and callous disposal,” Rollins said. “Her family and loved ones never stopped loving and missing her and we never stopped searching for answers.”
Chamberlain’s body was found strangled in the basement of the former Fargo Building on D Street in the Seaport on July 28, 1988. Police said DNA evidence collected from her body showed she had also been sexually assaulted by her killer.
Boston Police and Suffolk prosecutors first identified Vega — who also goes by the aliases Carl Vega, Ricardo Vega and Ricardo Mazzerino — as a suspect in the murder back in 2011 when a DNA database matched Chamberlain’s killers’ DNA with Vega’s profile.
Despite the DNA hit, Suffolk prosecutors at the time “did not believe that they had sufficient evidence to meet their burden of proving Mr. Vega’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” The DA’s office said.
Vega was required to submit a DNA sample as a result of his 1990 conviction on three counts of rape in connection with a 1987 attack on an elderly woman in Revere — crimes for which he served 20 years.
As his release neared, Suffolk prosecutors petitioned to have Mr. Vega civilly committed. A jury found him sexually dangerous in 2008 and he remains locked up to this day.
Suffolk prosecutors and police continued to collect evidence and work the case, resulting in last week’s indictment.
“Our family has waited 33 years for someone to be arrested for the brutal death of our sister Judy,’’ said Chamberlain’s brother, who withheld his name, in a statement provided by the DA’s office. “We thank all of those involved in his capture. Our sister can now lay in peace and our family has closure. We love and miss you Judy.”
Vega is the third person indicted and charged in connection with a cold-case murder since Rollins took office.
Suffolk prosecutors secured murder indictments against William Sanchez in the fatal 1995 shooting of Jorge Medina and against Steven Fike in the 1980 rape and murder of Wendy Dansereau. These three indicted cases are over 20, 30 and 40 years old, respectively.
“We will never stop searching for someone that has taken a life. There is no statute of limitation on murder. And we will never give up,” Rollins said.