A 61-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Tuesday after being found guilty of the 1988 murder of a 21-year-old woman whose body was found in a basement. Richard Vega was found guilty of first-degree murder on June 20 in the death of Judy Chamberlain of South Boston. DNA evidence linked him to Chamberlain's unsolved murder.
“After 36 years, we finally have justice for Judy. She was a person. She did not deserve to be murdered the way she was,” said Chamberlain’s sister, Jill Burr.
“Judy Ellen Chamberlain. She was a person. She was loved and she was beautiful,” her brother Jon Olson said.
Chamberlain was found strangled in the basement of the Fargo Building at 451 D St. in South Boston on July 20, 1988. A maintenance worker discovered her body in a large sump pump, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney.
“He threw her in the trash. You know what I mean? In a well with trash. So, that tells you right there.
He had no sympathy; he had no empathy,” Burr said. There was evidence indicating she had been sexually assaulted, investigators said. Chamberlain’s siblings spoke in court Tuesday to share stories of their sister and how her death changed their lives.
“It's been nothing but a nightmare,” Olson said. “Today, this family gets closure and Judy gets justice.” “She had a heart of gold.
She wouldn't say ‘no’ to going out dancing, or going out anywhere. She would be like, 'yeah, let’s go,'” Burr said. Vega was first identified as a suspect in 2011 when a database matched Chamberlain’s killer’s DNA to his DNA.
Vega was required to submit a DNA sample after a 1990 rape conviction in connection with a 1987 attack on a 72-year-old Revere woman. In that case, Vega was sentenced to 191⁄2 to 20 years in state prison. He remained civilly committed after a jury found him sexually dangerous in 2008.
A re-examination of Chamberlain’s murder yielded additional evidence and witness testimony, resulting in a Suffolk County grand jury indictment..
