Winter Park church holds prayer service for former member who was murdered in Texas

Leaders of a Central Florida church say a young woman who was recently murdered in Texas used to be a part of the congregation.

They say Molly Matheson pretty much grew up at First United Methodist Church in Winter Park and was recently in town for a visit.

I remarked to a friend that she looked better than I've ever seen her, she just looked happy and content and in a good place so this is just devastating,” said Laura Toshie, who works at the church and knew Matheson.

Police say the 22-year-old was strangled and found unresponsive by her mother in a Fort Worth home near Texas Christian University.  News of what happened has traveled fast back to her hometown. We’re told the Mathesons were longtime members of First United Methodist Church in Winter Park before moving to Texas.

“Just one of those kids that was kind of all over town, all about the town, and doing stuff at the school and doing stuff at church and always had a real heart to serve,” Toshie said.

Church leaders say Matheson was involved in youth groups and went on mission trips. Tuesday night, they opened up the sanctuary so that people could come together and pray for her family.

“We've provided notes for them, for people to come up who want to share some words with the Matheson family. Words are kind of hard to come by right now but just share something with the Matheson family. We’ll put those together and mail them off to them,” Pastor Gary Rideout said.

Police in Texas are still looking for the person who killed Matheson. They have not said whether they think the murder was random, or committed by someone Matheson knew