48 Hours - The Firefighter's Secret

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

A young woman is found dead in her burning home. She’d been involved with a firefighter– could he have set a fire to cover her murder? Nikki Battiste reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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it was the day before Thanksgiving, I received a phone call shortly after four o'clock from the Mount Morris police chief. And he asked me kind of frantically, is anybody at my house? And I said, my daughter Melissa is. And so there's a fire. And it's bad.

And it's bad. My sister, Melissa, she was nine months pregnant, about to have a baby in two days. What do you remember from November 25th, 2020? It was my 17th birthday. My birthday is November 25th. Me and my mom were at a store. We're picking out a cake, and we finally got home. And my brother Carl frantically is calling my mom, have you heard from Melissa?

Have you heard from Melissa? And we're like, no, why? Carl said, the neighbor called, and he said the house is on fire. So at that point, my heart just sank, because we were not sure if Melissa was home or not. I just wanted them both to be okay. And all I could think was, please just have one of them, at least one of them, make it

through the night. When everyone said they didn't know where she was and they couldn't hear from her, I knew, I knew. Just had that gut feeling that she was gone. For a huge tragedy like that to occur, the day before Thanksgiving, on Julia's birthday, right before the baby was to be born, it was just so much. When I arrived at the scene, I was told the victim was found

laying on the floor in front of the stove. Melissa Lamish was a 27-year-old EMT. We're trying to figure out why there's a fire in the kitchen. We couldn't tell if it was intentional or accidental. There was all kinds of possibilities running through our heads, but we didn't know what happened to her. but we didn't know what happened to her. My daughter Melissa, she's very thoughtful and that's why she got into being a paramedic. She wanted to help people.

When Melissa first told me she was pregnant, she told me a couple things about the dad. Matt Ploety, they on and off hung out for years and had a similar clique of friends. Matt Ploety, they on and off hung out for years and had a similar click of friends. Matt Ploety was a firefighter paramedic. He was a good firefighter. Matt was somebody that was dependable on the fire scene. He was just one of the guys. He was keeping a secret, the fact that he fathered a baby in the hopes that the child wouldn't be born. For Matt, he never had a child before. He didn't want to make it known to other people because he just wanted to keep

that part of his life private. Matthew Ploety was a person of interest on day one simply because he was at the scene. Matthew Ploety later told investigators that he was at the house to see Melissa, to talk about the baby. He admitted he was there. He told them everything that they would have needed to know about his presence there. Didn't have anything to hide.

They discussed their finances, and then Matt left as she was making some lunch. I believe from the very beginning he was trying to set up a story that there was an accidental house fire, that she had been cooking something, which would explain why her body was found in the kitchen. When you got the call about Matthew Ploety possibly being involved in a murder, what did you think? A denial that it wasn't one of our people. It doesn't chime with what a firefighter is.

We put fires out, we don't start fires. We help people, we don't hurt people. It is unthinkable. Nikki Battiste reports, The Firefighter's Secret. Before the fire that set Melissa Lamish's home ablaze on November 25, 2020, the day had started with excited anticipation. Melissa was due to give birth to a baby boy in just two days, and Thanksgiving was a day away. She was going to have a nice private Thanksgiving with dad. So I gave her a call the morning of the 25th, and we talked for about two and a half hours.

Cassie Ball and her sister Melissa had lots to chat about. We talked a lot about the future. We talked about what was going to come with the baby. The conversation ended because she looked outside the window. She said, you got to be kidding me. She's like, he's freaking here again. I told him he's got to stop doing this.

At the door was 33-year-old Matthew Plotey, the expectant father of Melissa's baby. She said, I'll tell you what he wanted. I'll give you a call right back. Bye. Hung up. Did she ever call back? No, my sister never called back.

Melissa Lamish and Matthew Ploety met and became friends seven years earlier while each was in college. They maintained a casual relationship. The friendship, says the Lamish family, cooled off once Melissa let Matthew know about the pregnancy. Melissa told her family he did not share her interest in becoming a parent. He wanted her to get an abortion. She didn't want that.

He blamed her, ghosted her. It did come to upset Melissa because they were friends for so long. She thought he'd at least want to be involved a little bit. Yes. And also thought that he would want something to do with the baby. To that point, she thought he was a pretty nice guy. Then she saw a different side of him and that really upset her. Deanna and Gus were fully prepared to help their daughter with whatever she needed for the baby. I had said, if he doesn't want to be a part of the baby's life, you know, don't push.

The baby is your child. I told her, whatever you needed, I'll help you financially. She knew she had plenty of family support. Everything would have been fine. The Lamish family was a large one. Melissa had four siblings. She was already an aunt and was known for following her own path. Melissa was unapologetically herself and that is what she was.

She's the perfect mix of sugar and spice. Not too spicy, not too sugar, it's just perfect. Melissa was strong. She was fierce. She was a go-getter. Melissa liked to reinvent herself through hairstyles and careers. Most recently, the 27-year-old had been working as an EMT. Melissa kind of fell into the line of work. She had an experience in college that took

her to an emergency room, and she really appreciated how she was treated, and she wanted to do the same for other people. You're proud? Yes. It was her job and she took it seriously. As her due date neared, Melissa had to stop working. To make things easier, she moved into her childhood home with her dad. Her parents had divorced several years earlier.

Melissa grew increasingly excited about becoming a mom, even though she and Matthew had little contact. Melissa would continue to send him like sonograms or when things would happen, because sometimes he would respond a little bit, but she didn't know really where he stood exactly. But Melissa wanted her baby to have the option of having the mother and the father.

So she kept the communication with him. He often shut down. Matthew wasn't just shutting out Melissa. He kept the fact he was going to be a father a secret, including from his coworkers and Chief Rob Schultz at the Carroll Stream Fire District, several counties away from Melissa's home.

We're here 24 hours a day and it's just a normal course of being a firefighter and that you talk about your family, your personal life and what's going on, good, bad or indifferent. I knew Matt as a single guy that didn't have any kids. Even Matthew's own parents did not know about the pregnancy until Melissa told them. Melissa wanted them to have the opportunity to be part of their grandchild's life. How did Melissa say his parents responded

to the news of a grandson? Melissa said that his parents were very nice, that they said, let me know what you need. I'll help you any way we can. How did Matthew find out that Melissa had told his parents they were having a baby? I believe that the parents then approached him. But it was not long after that, that she had said, he's mad I told them. Because he had kept it a secret? Yeah.

Melissa celebrated the upcoming birth with family and friends at a baby shower. She had let everyone know she was having a boy. It was a happy time until nearly two months later on that fateful Thanksgiving Eve. It wasn't just all so surreal. Thanksgiving Eve. It was just all so surreal. While Melissa's family tried to process their loss, investigators were hoping to provide

them with answers about what had happened. The fire debris is everywhere. Brian Ketter, then the lead detective at the Ogle County Sheriff's Office, headed to the kitchen where Melissa had been found. Everything's covered in smoke, ceilings, walls have fallen down, and everything's a mess. Ketter and other investigators also headed outside to an ambulance to view Melissa. We've noticed that she didn't have a whole lot of fire damage to her. What does that say? That the fire didn't kill her.

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Michael Poole, then a special agent with the Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office, was trying to establish whether the fire at Melissa Lamish's home was accidental or intentionally set. What are you looking for? We're the greatest damages at where the fire patterns are at. We're looking at everything and everything in this picture that may have something to do with the origin of the fire. Where do you think the fire started? I believe the fire's over here.

Actually, it's in these cabinets. Where these cabinets used to be, above the stove area. But when Poole examined the stove, thinking that perhaps cooking flames caused the cabinets to catch fire, he saw that neither the oven nor the burners had been turned on. All the controls are in the off position,

and there is no fire damage in the interior of this oven to show that this was some type of cooking fire. Pool also did not find any electrical issues. So we're starting to run out of accidental causes and we could identify at least three very simple and easy ways to exit this residence. Much of the house besides the kitchen remained accessible, so Poole thought Melissa could have found a way out. It was what I would call a survivable fire. This young lady was a paramedic.

She's used to dealing with emergencies. For her to totally lose her perspective and stand there and try and fight that fire. When you start putting all these things together, then you start coming up with, okay, this makes no sense. While Poole was inspecting the house, investigators talked with the Lamish family. Ketter learned about the phone call that day

between Melissa and Cassie, that Melissa ended when Matthew Ploate arrived at the house. We learned from the family that he was a fireman. Melissa's brother Carl told investigators he had already spoken on the phone to Ploety, telling him he knew he had been at the house that day. Carl also told Ploety about the fire and that someone had died, but not that it was Melissa. Investigators did that when they asked Plooti

to come in for an interview that evening. As you watched his interview, what did you think about his demeanor, his responses? Emotionalist. Very soft spoken. Matthew said he went to talk to Melissa. He wanted to talk about money, about being allowed at the hospital when she was set to be induced in two days, and that's why he was there. In that interview, Matthew made a reference to a deadline when explaining his decision to go to the house that day. There's a deadline for that so we were prepared to do that. It was a phrase that investigators didn't quite know how to interpret.

Was Matthew a suspect at that point? No, he was not a suspect. What are the next steps in the investigation? We need to determine the cause of death. We don't know if Melissa had a medical episode or if somebody did something to her or if the carbon monoxide from the fire killed her. We don't know. To get those answers, two autopsies would be performed.

One two days after Melissa's death, and then another about two weeks later, while lab work was completed. The results, normal carbon monoxide levels and no soot was found in her system. What was found was evidence of strangulation, including hemorrhages around her system. What was found was evidence of strangulation, including hemorrhages around her neck. Melissa, it was determined, had been murdered. We have to plan a funeral and while

we were still waiting for things, it was nearly three weeks. On December 14, 2020, the Lamish family held a funeral for Melissa and her unborn baby, who Melissa was going to name Barrett. We didn't get to kiss his forehead, touch his cheek. The first time we got any kind of contact, they were in a casket. contact, they were in a casket. And the first time I touched his hand, I just remember gasping, just, and I had decided I was going to keep holding his hand. Something Melissa didn't get to do. Melissa's family was convinced that Matthew Ploate was responsible for their profound grief

that he killed Melissa simply because he did not want to become a father. Matthew, investigators would learn, had been juggling multiple women in his life. I believe he did it because he's selfish and it was going to change his life having a child. Melissa wasn't asking him for anything. No money, nothing. He could have walked away, so why? I think it was his pride. He wanted to keep it a secret.

With no other suspects and with Matthew admitting to being at Melissa's home that day, investigators were also circling in on Ploetie, but were still gathering evidence. We had collected DNA evidence at the autopsy and we sent that to the crime lab. We'd gotten search warrants for phone records. We were in the process of getting that information back. They were also waiting to get information back from Amazon about possible recordings from an echo dot that Ketter had noticed and was retrieved from the fire-damaged kitchen.

We were hoping it would record conversations or something from the day between the two of them. That Amazon Echo Dot could turn this case around. Could have. It could have recorded Melissa screaming for help, yelling out his name. We didn't know what it would be. I was contacted by our police chief to give him a call immediately that he had something very important, sensitive to talk about. When Carrolstream Fire Chief Rob Schultz returned the call, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

One of our firefighters was being investigated in a suspect in a murder that occurred about two hours from our fire district's boundaries. It was now nine months since Melissa Lamish's death in a house fire that had sent shockwaves through the community in Mount Morris, where her home was located. But firefighters, where Matthew Ploate worked in Carol Stream, about 75 miles away, were

unaware of the fire. Ploety had said nothing. When you heard the name Matthew Ploety in that call, what did you think? I was, you know, there's no way this could be Matt. They have something wrong here. But that disbelief started to change when Chief Schultz checked to see if Ploade worked the day of the fire and learned he had called out sick. Not in my stomach. Like literally wanted to throw up. The fire chief's sinking feeling only got worse when he learned that investigators believed Matthew killed Melissa and their unborn child

because he did not want to be a father and then set the house on fire in hopes of destroying evidence. We had placed Matt immediately on paid administrative leave. When I called Matt in to tell him, I just said, I'm being told that you're under investigation for a murder of your estranged girlfriend and the baby that your father owned. Did you ask him why he hadn't mentioned it?

Didn't feel that it was something that he wanted to talk about, and he felt it was personal matter and didn't want to disclose it. While on leave on August 28, 2021, Matthew Ploade was called in again for questioning. My name is Brian. I'm a lieutenant with the Sheriff's Office. Ploade willingly appeared without an attorney. I want to contribute to the life of our child. Over the course of the seven-hour interview, he explained to investigators why he was at Melissa's the day of the fire.

We talked about in a wagon, a pair, and that we just said we'd work it out later to visiting. He said when he left that afternoon, Melissa was talking about making lunch. Most of the seven hours was filled with investigators asking questions and Matthew Ploate saying very little. So did you go there to kill her? Or did you just go there to kill her? Or did you just go there to talk to her and something happened? We kept accusing him of things, and he never said, I didn't do it. He never said, you guys got the wrong person.

He was just emotionless and he wouldn't communicate. Not once in seven hours, not once did he get upset. Most people would have told us, I'm done. But he just sat and listened to us. Had you ever experienced an interview like that before? Never. It wasn't just the lack of communication that made Lieutenant Ketter think Ploaty was guilty. But on the rare times Ploaty did talk, the unusual way he phrased things.

Did you intend to kill her? During that seven-hour interview, at one point Matthew did say, I had no intentions of hurting Melissa. Did that make you do a double take? Yes, because in our opinion, that means I hurt Melissa, but I didn't intend to do it. But it was not an admission of guilt. So Ketter wanted to see if Ploate would say anything more and made an unusual request of Fire Chief Schultz. We asked Chief Schultz if he would wear a listening device so that he would have a conversation with Matthew.

We would be able to hear it and record it and try to gain some evidence that way. When Brian asks this of me, I'm pretty taken back. And initially, I had said no way, and I did some thinking about it And initially I had said no way. And I did some thinking about it and called them back and said, yes. You have a lot of responsibilities as a fire chief,

but I can't imagine you ever thought wearing a wiretap would be one of them. No, I don't really talk about it. It's not something that I'm proud of. It was something that needed to be done in the hopes of helping the investigation. There is a grieving family out there that's looking for answers. And so on September 9, 2021, Chief Schultz called Matthew Ploety and asked him to come

in to talk. And he agreed. He says, I'd like to come talk to you. Matthew came in later that day. The fire station was quickly cleared of all other personnel, and Brian Ketter and other investigators headed over. They were able to place a device that just recorded audio on a phone on Fire Chief Schultz' desk and listened in from outside the fire station and from an adjoining office.

How are you feeling? Nervous. Very nervous. A bit scared. Chief Schultz tried to learn what happened to Melissa by appealing to Plote on a personal level. I'm trying to find answers. I'm trying to help you, help me, help me walk through, I mean, what happened? But the nearly two hour conversation yielded very little info from Ploati, with him again, barely speaking about the day Melissa died. I remember saying, fill in all the blanks for me.

And isn't it odd that no one here knows that you're gonna be a father? Like, that's something we celebrate here. What do you say? Nothing. A head was down a lot of the conversation. Did he ever say, I didn't kill Melissa and my baby? He did not.

With none of the interviews resulting in a confession, there was still no arrest, something that exasperated the Lamish family. there was still no arrest, something that exasperated the Lamish family. Oh, it was excruciating. I mean, we were pestering the police constantly. There were several reasons for the delay. There was the wait for the fire marshal's report, which concluded that the fire cause

is most likely incendiary in nature, possibly the result of a fire being intentionally set in an effort to conceal a potential homicide. And getting information from Amazon on whether Matthew's voice was recorded on that echo dot they retrieved from the kitchen took time. It did reveal voices, but nothing that proved helpful for our case. It wasn't even on the day of the murder. Investigators had also waited to obtain Matthew Ploate's DNA

until after the August 2021 interview, hoping he would first confess to killing Melissa. We got the results back saying that it was his DNA under her fingernails. Turn around. Put your hands behind your back. On March 9, 2022, after a year and a half of investigating Melissa Lamish's death, with a police body cam rolling, Matthew Pote was arrested on charges including murder, the intentional homicide of an unborn child, and arson.

Technically, right now you are under arrest. The motive that the state painted was just an inaccurate portrayal of Matt. By the time of Matthew Ploety's arrest, he had hired attorney John Cupp. They painted him to be this monster that at the drop of a hat, after a career of saving people, decided to suddenly start killing people.

You were indicted by the grand jury. The evidence doesn't show that Matthew Ploety murdered Melissa Lamish or their own bone child. Dracula, the ancient vampire who terrorizes Victorian London. Blood and garlic, bats and crucifixes, even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story. One of the incredible things about Dracula is that not only is it this wonderful snapshot of the 19th century, but it also has so much resonance today. The vampire doesn't cast a reflection in a mirror. So when we look in the mirror, the only thing we see is our own monstrous abilities. From the host and producer of American History Tellers and History Daily comes the new podcast, The Real History

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Follow Redacted Declassified Mysteries with me, Luke Lamanna, on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen ad-free, join Wonderyanna on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts to listen ad-free Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app Melissa Lammish was loved This is not someone who had enemies lined up around the block who wanted to see her deceased. Rather, there was one person and one person only, and that was Matthew Ploade. Assistant State's attorneys Allison Huntley and Heather Cruz were part of the team prosecuting Matthew Ploade. All signs pointed toward Matthew Ploate from the very beginning.

What we wanted to portray to the jury is that he was a guy saving lives for his entire career. Defense attorneys John Cupp and Liam Dixon say their client was misunderstood and as a firefighter was a responsible person, not a murderer. Matt's plan was to financially support her. He had offered her money before.

His plan was to be there. Matthew Ploate pleaded not guilty to all charges. On March 18th, 2024, more than three years since Melissa's murder, his trial began in Ogle County, Illinois. The prosecution argued that Ploate murdered Melissa and their unborn child because he didn't want to be a father.

He was keeping a secret, the fact that he fathered a baby in the hopes that the child wouldn't be born. The defense told the jury there's no evidence Ploate harmed Melissa and that he had gone to see her that day just to talk. They discussed their finances. They discussed what would happen with the birth of the child.

And then Matt left as she was making some lunch. I believe from the very beginning he was trying to set up a story that there was an accidental house fire, that she had been cooking something. I believe that was how he laid out the scene, which would explain why her body was found in the kitchen. Prossicators called fire investigator Michael Poole to testify about his findings. He told the court that he found no evidence of an electrical or cooking fire.

And you start ruling these various different things out. How certain are you that this fire was intentionally set? I'm certain that it was intentionally set. No doubt. No doubt. During cross-examination, the defense suggested that Michael Pohl was unsure of his findings, citing language in his report such as most likely and it is believed. You use the phrase didn't believe because that's an uncertain opinion, correct?

It's just the way I describe it. But that's an uncertain opinion, correct? Not to me. Poole says he was just using standard terms used during fire investigations. The state also called forensic pathologist Dr. Amanda Youmans, who had performed one of the autopsies. There was no soot in her airways. And her measure of carbon monoxide in the blood was within normal limits.

So she was deceased prior to the fire. Dr. Youmans testified that Melissa's body showed evidence of a violent struggle. The jury heard about the hemorrhages around Melissa's neck, a specific type of broken blood vessels called petechial hemorrhages, which according to Dr. Youmans is a telltale sign of strangulation. This is the most petechial hemorrhages I've ever seen in a strangulation case. To sit through trial was beyond devastating. Deanna Lamish came to court every day.

I had been prepped by the victim's advocate. Things were going to be gruesome. I was going to see a lot. Deanna says she always kept Melissa and her baby Barrett in her thoughts. She was so strong-willed and had such pride. That baby was going to be a strong guy. Matthew Ploety's parents also attended the trial. They've been by his side throughout this? Yes, every court date. One of the most important witnesses to testify

was Melissa's sister Cassie, talking about the day Melissa died and that call, which Cassie says was interrupted by Matthew Ploate. What was the last thing your sister said to you during that phone call? Sorry. She said she'd make the conversation quick and she would call me right back. Did Melissa call you back?

No. Jurors watched those recorded interviews with investigators, where Matthew Ploate admitted he was at the house. How long were you at the house? It took me about an hour, I'll say. Prosecutors wanted jurors to hear that phrase Ploati used. There's a deadline for that. Referring to the birth of his son as a deadline. He said, there's a deadline to these kinds of things.

That was his deadline to murder Melissa. If you think about it logically, Thursday's Thanksgiving and Friday is her due date, his deadline. The only time to do this was Wednesday. So he took off work and completed his goal. The prosecutors found even more telling what Ploate didn't say, especially during that seven-hour interview, four hours of which were played for the jury.

What is chilling is the fact that he never denied murdering Melissa, and he never denied killing her baby boy. Not one time. It's chilling from a personal perspective, but that's also excellent evidence that the defendant couldn't bring himself to lie about that fact. Over the course of multiple interviews for several hours,

he was calm and reserved. His silence, Defense says, actually points to his innocence, not his guilt. He had a right to remain silent, but the police are allowed to continue to poke and prod and try to get him confused, and he just didn't buy into any of that. They say their client, when he did speak, was open with investigators.

He told them everything about his presence there. He didn't hide any of that. He just never admitted what they wanted him to admit, which was that he killed Melissa and his child, which he didn't do. Do you think the fact that the fire didn't burn down the whole house, does that play in Matthew's favor or not? I believe it does. If he's a firefighter and he's trying to destroy evidence, you would think he would have the ability to set a fire to complete that goal. But during three days of testimony, the state laid out the case that it could have only been

Matthew Ploate who set that fire to conceal evidence of the murder of Melissa and their unborn baby, something the defense was about to contest. The state's fire expert deemed that this was arson. He did, and so we had an expert who directly contradicted that. What do you think of Matthew Ploety's interview with investigators? Join the conversation on Facebook and X. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island.

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that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery+, in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify. It was 1983. Power suits and perms were all the rage. Nightclubs pulsed with energy. And from bedrooms to boardrooms,

cocaine was the drug of choice. One woman was raking in cash to keep that supply chain moving. Her name was Laney Jacobs. But Laney had her sights set higher. She dreamed of becoming a Hollywood movie producer. That's how it starts. Before it ends,

someone will be shot dead. From Wondery and the team behind the hit series Hollywood and Crime comes a gripping tale of ambition, betrayal, and the dark side of moviemaking. Follow Hollywood and Crime, the Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen everywhere on December 2nd, or you can binge all episodes early and ad free on Wondery Plus starting November 11th. ["Wonderful Plus Theme"] The state's expert didn't do a fraction of what he should have done to properly determine

the cause of the fire. This should have been an undetermined fire. To try to poke holes in the prosecution's case, the defense called only one witness, retired firefighter and independent inspector John Knapp. He was not at the scene of the fire, but did study reports and photos. I felt like there was probably more information that could have been gathered that wasn't there. He disputed the prosecution's claim that Ploadey set the fire.

He testified that the evidence collected doesn't prove that the fire was intentionally set by anyone. I couldn't make that determination to whether or not what the cause of the fire should be other than determined. When you're not there at the scene, you don't see what we've seen. Not always does every little tidbit end up in a report. Michael Poole says the defense's expert is wrong and that his investigation was thorough.

We're looking for anything and everything that could have contributed to the origins of this fire. If they weren't there, you needed to be there when we were doing the examination. Matthew Ploate waved his right to testify. During closing arguments, the defense accused investigators of having tunnel vision. The complete lack of investigation of any other individual is shocking. I've never seen such a poorly investigated case. They didn't follow up on any other leads that may have happened, any other boyfriends,

any other anybody else. If there had been another lead, investigators certainly would have followed it. There simply wasn't. Prosecutors told the jury that the evidence was clear. Melissa Lamish was strangled to death by the only person who had a motive to kill her, Matthew Ploety, who was juggling multiple women and didn't want to change his lifestyle. He clearly did not want to be involved in this baby's life. This is someone who actively hid the fact

that a woman in the community was carrying his child. He clearly had made some choices about having multiple relationships, but did not make him a killer. The trial lasted a week, and after two hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a verdict.

We the jury find the defendant, Matthew Ploate, guilty of first degree murder. Guilty of all charges. I could hear people sobbing and gasping but like I couldn't even lift my head. What did you feel? Shock. Shock. Shock. The verdict was a relief for Chief Robert Schultz.

He says the case had long weighed on him and everyone at the firehouse who had worked with Ploade. There was a huge closure here when that was found guilty. You still have the family out there that lost a daughter or lost a grandson. You're never going to change that. Three months later, on June 27, 2024, Melissa's family and friends gathered at the courthouse for sentencing.

Matthew Ploate listened with little reaction as victim impact statements were read. We lost Melissa in the prime of her life. Melissa and Barrett should still be alive and enjoying life with their loving family. I shouldn't have spent Thanksgiving that year feeling like there was nothing to be thankful for. This shouldn't be real. But it is real. It is all real because one man decided to make this decision

that Barrett and Melissa weren't needed or wanted. None of this had to happen. All he had to do was walk away. It's all real because one man decided to make the decision that Barrett and Melissa weren't needed or wanted. None of this had to happen. All he had to do was walk away. Matthew Ploate also addressed the court with this brief statement. Do you believe him? Oh, no, definitely not.

For him to say, I too have pain and loss from Wilson Barrett, like, what a joke. The judge imposed the maximum sentence. Mr. Ploety, you are sentenced to natural life in prison. Life behind bars. Matthew Ploety will likely die in prison. Does that give you any sort of peace? No.

I know it's the justice system and we've received our justice, but nothing about this is just. It's not fair. Nothing about this is fair. No punishment in the world brings them back. I miss her personality. I think it's her sass. Melissa's sister, Julia Lynn, tries to hold onto fond memories. Melissa was, I believe still is, the best person that I've ever met. What do you miss most about your daughter?

And there's a grandson you never got to meet. Where do you start? I mean, he was gonna come into my home. I was looking forward to raising him. Through all of their grief, the Lamish family honors Melissa in many ways. We took toys to a local homeless shelter. To honor Barrett?

To honor Barrett. We donated money to the no-kill shelter that Melissa got her cat from. They also sponsored a tree at a local arboretum that Melissa loved. Every year at the holidays, this tree will always be lit as part of their display. Shining brightly like Melissa always did.

Also strong, she was fierce, she was powerful. Nothing was gonna stop her and she was always gonna prove herself and she'd do whatever it take to do it. she was always gonna prove herself and she'd do whatever it take to do it. Matthew Ploate is appealing his convictions. You've probably heard of the NCIS from the Hit TV series, but we're about to take you inside its real life work.

Listen to 48 Hours NCIS early and ad free on the 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. The true story behind the bathroom mirror murder wherever you get your podcasts. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at Wondery.com slash survey. His name is Dexter Morgan, but you know him as Dexter, and nobody knows his beginnings. Enter to win a pair of tickets to the screening of the Paramount Plus exclusive series, Dexter

Original Sin on December 12th. Hosted by me, Rick Campanelli. Enter at chfi.com. From student to avenging serial killer, you never forget your first crime. Dexter, Original Sin, streaming December 13th, exclusively on Paramount+. From the award-winning masters of audio horror. Oh, I see a face right up against the window. Bleach white, no hair, black eyes, a round hole for a mouth.

It's flat, Taylor. It's completely flat. I don't know what that is. I don't know what kind of a head is flat. Comes the return of Dark Sanctum. Look. What is that coming under the door? It's blood. Seven original chilling tales inspired by The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt. Get back in your car. Lizzie, it's okay. I'm here now. Josh, get in your car!

No! No! No! Starring Bethany Joy Lenz, Clive Stanton, and Michael O'Neil. Welcome to the Dark Sanctum. Listen to Dark Sanctum Season 2 exclusively on Wondry+. Join Wondry+, and the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.