wfn.org | Double Murder of Indianapolis Pastor and Wife Baffles Police

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19-December-1996 
 
96506     Double Murder of Indianapolis Pastor and Wife 
                          Baffles Police 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. --Indianapolis detectives are searching for clues to the 
brutal Dec. 15 double murder of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister and 
his wife -- and security around the Northminister Presbyterian Church has 
been upgraded as a precaution against other attacks. 
 
     The bodies of C. Frederick and Cleta Mathias, both 64, were found 
bound with ropes in the family room of their home in suburban Indianapolis. 
The two were beaten with a blunt instrument and the house was set on fire. 
An axe was lodged in Mathias' head. 
 
     According to the Marion County Sheriff's Department, both died of head 
wounds.  The bodies were found when firefighters responded to a neighbor's 
report of a fire in the Mathias home around 11 p.m. 
 
     Mathias was the pastor for 11 years at the Northminster Presbyterian 
Church, a congregation of 1,700 in northeastern Indianapolis.  He intended 
to retire to the east coast in the summer of 1997, according to multiple 
sources, to be closer to the couple's three adult children. 
 
     "It's just a devastating experience," said the Rev. William Enright of 
Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis and a longtime colleague of 
Mathias in Whitewater Valley Presbytery. "Generally people are in shock and 
disbelief ... It's the brutality of it that is so shocking, unsettling. 
 
     "Fred was a man who was very respected and deeply loved," said 
Enright,  " ... a kind of gentle giant who had a strong sense of the church 
and an abiding faithfulness to the church." 
 
     Clergy members of Whitewater Presbytery Valley took turns working 
two-hours shifts at Northminister the day after the murders, offering 
pastoral care to church members.  A prayer service was held in the church 
on the evening of Dec. 16.  
 
     "Everyone is stunned, in shock.  We had folks streaming in and out of 
the church all day yesterday (Monday).  We had a service last night, as 
folks are trying to come to terms with this.  And people stayed long after 
the service last night," said Mark Moore, Northminister's attorney and 
spokesperson.  "I think people still find it almost impossible to believe." 
 
     Detectives in Indianapolis are particularly puzzled by the sheer 
brutality of the killings and the fact that very little was missing from 
the residence.  Detectives are speculating that the Mathiases either 
surprised an intruder or intruders at their home or were followed into 
their home by their attacker, according to Associated Press reports. 
 
       Moore told the Presbyterian News Service that because police have 
implied that the murders may not have been random, security has been 
upgraded around the church itself and members of the pastoral staff have 
been urged to be more cautious.  "If people think this may not be a random 
act, we need to be more attentive to security.  And individual members of 
the staff need to be more attentive to security as well," he said. 
Deputies were on hand for the prayer service, he said, and there are 
increased police patrols in the church's neighborhood.  Extra people are on 
site at the church, and staff are being urged not to walk alone and to lock 
doors. 
 
     "We're trying to run down names of people who had contact with 
Reverend Mathias, anybody that might have a motive,"  Marion County 
Sheriff's Department investigator Emil Daggy told the Presbyterian News 
Service.  He said detectives are asking neighbors about suspicious people 
or vehicles in the Mathias' upper-middle-class neighborhood the night of 
the murders. 
 
     "We don't know what the motive is. ... A few things were missing in 
the house.  But the Mathias' lifestyle was fairly conservative.  They 
didn't have anything of significant value to attract attention," said 
Daggy.  He said the level of force used was more than necessary to 
accomplish a burglary or a residential robbery.  He speculated that the 
intruder or intruders may have feared identification later.  "Why this 
particular house?  Why that particular time?  There are a lot of unanswered 
questions at this point." 
 
     Daggy said most burglaries occur in the daytime during working hours. 
The Mathiases were attacked minutes after arriving home from a Sunday night 
worship service at one of the city's Roman Catholic churches.  Coats were 
still on the bodies. 
 
     The Associated Press is reporting that an accelerant like gas or 
lighter fluid was used to start the fire in an upstairs hall. 
 
     The couple is survived by three adult children, Mark and Garth Mathias 
and Ann O'Neil, who live in Delaware and Maryland. 

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