Deroshia Matthew was born in 1951, the only child of Pinkie Mae Wiggins Foster, born on July 16, 1932. Pinkie married James Foster on March 6, 1955, and they relocated to Waterloo, Iowa, from Nebraska and raised Deroshia there. However, they moved back to Omaha in the late 1960s.
Pinkie then attended cosmetology school and opened her shop, Artiste Fashion, which she owned for over 50 years.
In 1971, Deroshia, then 20, gave birth to her only child, Kamal Matthews. Deroshia secured work as a crossing guard and teacher’s aide at Clifton Hill School five years later and resigned in February 1979.
By spring of that year, Deroshia was unemployed and a single mother to Kamal, now seven and a second-grader at the now-defunct Clifton Hill School.
Deroshia had never married, and Kamal’s father resided in California. She and Kamal lived in a one-and-a-half-story, two-bedroom home at 4264 Binney Street in the Clifton Hills neighborhood of Omaha.
Despite being on her own and raising a small child, Deroshia had support from her mother; the two shared a strong bond. So, when Pinkie could not reach her only child one spring day, she knew something was terribly wrong.
Murder of Deroshia Matthews and Kamal Matthews
Pinkie was getting worried. Since their phone call early that morning, she had not been able to reach Deroshia all day on Monday, April 23, 1979.
Pinkie and three others — Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Strong and Mrs. Ralph Martin — went to Deroshia’s home on Tuesday, April 24, when Pinkie failed to contact her daughter. The four got a key from a neighbor, Wanda Jo Peak, and entered the home. They went to Kamal’s bedroom, located on the southeast corner of the main level. There, they found the child dead on the floor, clad in pajamas, and hands and feet bound with rope. (Sweet, 1979) The group immediately called the Omaha Police Department.
When officers arrived at the crime scene, they found Deroshia dead on a waterbed in the basement. She was partially clothed and also had a rope around her neck. An autopsy later determined that the killer had strangled both victims and had also suffocated Deroshia.
Investigation
Homicide Lt. Foster Burchard said the Matthews home was “ransacked” and “drawers were pulled out and papers were all over the place.” (Sweet)
“Her living room was all torn up,” Mrs. Martin said. “Her front window was up and her television was still on.”
Despite the victims’ brutal deaths, Burchard said there did not appear to be signs of a violent struggle in the home.
Police believed the murders occurred early Monday morning as Kamal did not attend school that day or deliver newspapers on his regular route that evening.
Because Pinkie and her friends had opened the front door, police could not say it was locked. However, the back door to the home and the only other entrance into the house was closed and bolted from the inside.
According to the World-Herald, days, months, and years passed without an arrest, and the case went cold. Deroshia’s loved ones pleaded with the police for an arrest that did not come for 25 years.
2004 Arrest of Louis M. Walker, aka Abdul Malik Husain
In the early 2000s, nearly $200,000 in “federal grant money was awarded to the Omaha Police Department and Nebraska State Patrol. It allowed investigators to reanalyze old evidence and plug the results into the FBI’s national DNA database.” (Safranek and Cole, 2004)
Omaha police intended to use the grant to pay for the analysis of approximately 90 biological specimens from 20 homicides, including the Matthews double homicide, and about 400 from 80 sexual assaults. (Safranek and Cole).
In 2003, a detective was reviewing cold-case homicides when he received DNA evidence in the Matthews murders. In 2004, Omaha investigators charged Louis M. Walker, who had recently changed his name to Abdul Malik Husain, with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the double homicide. Husain and Deroshia knew one another.
Born on Valentine’s Day 1957, Walker had previously served a three out of four-year prison sentence for burglary and robbery from November 1975 to September 1978, six months before the murders. Because Deroshia’s house was ransacked, robbery seemed a likely motive, although they never officially established one.
A quick Nebraska inmate search does not show Husain in prison for any crime other than the burglary and robbery charges in the ’70s. It appears he was never convicted for the murders, and they remain unsolved.
Husain currently resides in Omaha, is now 67, and is divorced.
Aftermath
Deroshia’s mother, Pinkie, died on June 3, 2020, in Omaha. Her husband preceded her in death. Pinkie loved God and was very active in the community.
TCD’s Thoughts
There is hardly any information on this horrific double murder. However, four years later, in 1983, media attention was all over the murder of a young, pregnant white woman, and it continues to this day. There has never been much attention paid to the Matthews. That is wild. Not to mention, it is a bunch of BS.
It appears that Husain was never convicted for the Matthews murders. He is on Facebook and seems to have lived a hard life. If DNA led to his arrest 20 years ago, why the hell is he not in prison?
The fact that the house was ransacked could mean that the killer wanted it to look like a robbery. There was no evidence of a forced entry or signs of a violent struggle, so I think Matthews knew her killer. We know that she knew Husain.
Police found Deroshia in the basement on a waterbed, half-naked. There was no mention of whether her killer had sexually assaulted her, but I am assuming he did or attempted to do it.
I find it interesting that the killer tied Kamal’s hands and feet and did not gag him to keep him from screaming for his mother. Did the boy know his killer? How long was it before the killer strangled Kamal? He obviously did not kill the boy right away. Why not?
We know Deroshia and Pinkie Mae were on the phone in the morning on the day of the murders. Kamal was still in his pajamas and had not gotten dressed for school yet. The murders must have occurred shortly after the phone call, so possibly between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. There is no mention of how Deroshia sounded during the call or when the call occurred.
I do not think robbery was the motive because who robs a place when its residents are likely awake and ready for work? I think it was sexual and personal, and Kamal was killed because he was old enough to be a good witness. I also think it is possible the killer was there when Deroshia spoke with her mother.
Anyone with information can call or message the Omaha Police Cold Case Homicide Unit at 402-444-5656 or opdcoldcase@cityofomaha.org. Those wishing to remain anonymous and be eligible for the $25,000 reward must contact Omaha Crime Stoppers at (402) 444-STOP or through the P3 Tips mobile app. Additional information on Omaha Crime Stoppers is available at www.omahacrimestoppers.org. (Omaha Police Department)
Sources
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/255446854/deroshia_ann-matthews: accessed November 12, 2024), memorial page for Deroshia Ann Matthews (1951–24 Apr 1979), Find a Grave Memorial ID 255446854, citing Garden Memorial Park, Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, USA; Maintained by Just us (contributor 50412950).
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/211241074/pinkie_mae-foster: accessed November 12, 2024), memorial page for Pinkie Mae Wiggins Foster (16 Jul 1932–3 Jun 2020), Find a Grave Memorial ID 211241074, citing Mount Hope Cemetery, Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska, USA; Maintained by Linda Jenkins Werts (contributor 47016781).
Safranket, Lynn and Kevin Cole. “DNA Leads to Arrest i 1979 Slayings.” Omaha World-Herald via Find A Grave.
Sweet, Jon. “Omahan, Son Murder Victims.” The Lincoln Star. April 25, 1979.