Some Justice At Last for Lexington Murder Victim?

The murder of Kathleen Dempsey, unsolved since 1992, may be nearing a resolution.

According to an announcement from the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, authorities this morning will announce significant developments in the nearly 20-year-old murder of Dempsey, a 31-year-old graphic artist who was brutally stabbed multiple times by an unknown assailant in her Ridge Road apartment on Aug. 23, 1992.

Last night, Fox News reported Craig Conkey, already in jail for the murder of 49-year-old Lexington resident Mary Lou Sale, is about to be charged with the first–degree murder of Dempsey, who was repeatedly stabbed by an intruder in the bedroom of her Ridge Road apartment.

Conkey was twice convicted for Sale’s murder but won two appeals and new trials. In 2009, he plead to second-degree murder and was locked up at MCI Cedar Junction. The following year, he reportedly offered information in the unsolved Dempsey and was transferred to Main State Prison, but never delivered and was transported back to Cedar Junction in September of this year, Fox says.

Now, according to Fox, Massachusetts State Police have again approached Conkey about the Dempsey murder and this time, the station's sources say, he’s talking. 

According to reports, an intruder entered Dempsey’s basement apartment in the early morning hours of Aug. 23 and stabbed her repeatedly in her bedroom. She called for help, but it took five hours for someone to respond to her call for help and she was found dead when her call was answered at nearly 11 a.m.

A week later, then-Town Manager Richard White announced ex-prosecutor Ralph Gants would join the investigation into the mishandled call.

According to a Globe story from Sept. 1, 1992:

Gants, a former federal prosecutor in Boston, will join his investigation into why it took five hours for someone at the Lexington Fire Department to respond to a telephone call Kathleen Dempsey made Aug. 23 at 5:30 a.m. when she pleaded, "Help me, I've been stabbed."

A dispatcher and a supervisor initially dismissed the call as a hoax. Help was not sent until 10:47 a.m. when it was too late. Dempsey, a 31-year-old graphic artist, was found dead in her basement apartment on Ridge Road.

Editor's Note: Due to a reporting error, the story posted at 10:10 a.m. said Dempsey called 911. Later today, officials said the town had not yet adopted the 911 system at the time of the murder. Check back on Patch later this week for more information about the crime and the call.