Criminology - Matthew Restelli

Episode Date: September 21, 2025

In 2024, Matthew and Kathryn Restelli were living together on a seven-acre property in Aguanga, about eighteen miles east of Temecula, California. The couple had been married for about seven and a half years, but the marriage had started to fall apart around 2020. Kathryn decided to take the kids to her mom Tracey Grist's home in American Fork, Utah. She took the kids there without asking her husband, and that caused further friction. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Matthew Restelli. Matthew was found shot to death in his mother-in-law's home; it appeared as though he had broken into the house to get his kids back. However, authorities noticed some signs that led them to believe that everything was not as it seemed. And as the investigation unfolded, Kathryn and her family became the primary focus of investigators.   You can help support the show through Patreon. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok  Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford. 

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Just go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Zip to try ZipRecruiter for free. Don't forget, that's ZipRecruiter.com slash Zip. Finally, that ziprecruiter.com slash zip. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 377 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson.

And this is Mike Morford. Morph, how you doing, buddy? I haven't talked to you since you got back from CrimeCon. Yeah, we had a little bit of a break, I guess you would say. And, you know, I came back from CrimeCon with COVID, which, you know, at this point I expect. Uh, but wasn't too bad.

It was only sick for a couple days and feel 100% now. How you been? I've been good. Um, you know, I was talking to Gibby on our other podcasts about, you know, that weekend was rough for me because it was like the whole time. I kept thinking,

I'm supposed to be in Colorado and I really missed hanging out with everybody. So it was a, it was a rough weekend for me. Well, you know, we're only, what is it,

nine months away from Vegas, I think. So hopefully that's something you'll be able to go to and we'll hang out there. Yeah. No, I'll definitely be going to Vegas because my family is wanting to go. They love Vegas too. So something to look forward to. We didn't have any new Patreon shoutouts this week,

but we appreciate everyone who helps out the show. Yeah, we have a lot of great supporters. We can't thank them enough for anyone else that would like to help support the show. Head over to patreon.com slash criminology to get signed up. right we're diving in and this week's episode takes us to american fork utah though the story begins in riverside county california it's one very unfortunate act of violence that changed the lives of multiple people forever and ended the life of one man who's the subject of this episode matthew ristelli luckily it does seem that those responsible for the murder of matthew ristelli are going to be held

accountable and serve time in prison, his children will also be raised by his loving family, who are going to do their best to meet the same high standard of love and care that Matthew would have given them. The case is also seeing its resolution in the legal system far more quickly than many of the other cases we've seen that have dragged out for years. In 2024, Matthew and Catherine and Restelli were living together on a seven-acre property and along the California, about 18 miles east of Temecula. This is a small community with just a thousand residents. They lived there with their two young children. The couple had been married for about seven and a half years. The family began to have cracks in it starting in 2020, perhaps brought on by the COVID

pandemic. During the lockdowns and the first waves of COVID-19, as a handyman, it was hard for Matthew to find steady work, and the fluctuating and diminishing income caused some financial strains. By July, 24, Catherine decided to take the kids to her mom Tracy Grist's home in American Fork, Utah. She took the kids there without asking her husband, and that caused further friction. Matthew stayed behind at the family home in California. They had been apart for about three weeks, and he had started to take the steps necessary to get the kids back to California and back into their normal lives. In that scenario that you just touched on more, you know, going back to that time, 2020, during the lockdowns, the first waves, you know, it was tough for everyone.

And it did cause a lot of hardships for how many, many people. Yeah, I think there was some aspect of cabin fever. You know, maybe people stuck inside the house together and, you know, sometimes that you would think that would lead to family bonding. But a lot of times, you know, people need a little bit of space. a little bit of time apart and being stuck in the house sometimes isn't good. And then when you add the diminishing work opportunities and income hits that people had, you know, it just adds one more stress and probably just makes for, you know, not a good situation overall. Yeah. And I think

that's definitely what we're talking about here with the Ristellis as far as the financial strength, right? Being a handyman, whether, you know, you own your own, own business or whatever it was. People, people really struggled during that time. And it caused a lot of friction, I'm sure, in many households. And Catherine was well aware that she was the one who was in the wrong regarding custody of the children, legally speaking, she took them across state lines without their father's consent and was trying to keep them away from him. If Matthew went to the courts, she would have been ordered to return the children to California. This is the last thing that she wanted. And we now know that her family was willing to do

what was needed to keep the kids there. According to Fox13Now.com, toward the end of June, Catherine's mother, Tracy, began searching for various answers regarding custody, including phrases like, what are the legal implications of taking your kids on vacation with the other parents' permission. There was also the somewhat ironic search for what to do, parental kidnapping and no custody order. She was really looking for an answer because she also looked up, what if mom takes kids overstate lines for a visit and dad doesn't agree?

At first, these searches seem like those that might be done by a concerned family member trying to help out in a custody dispute, but as we'll see, they were just a tipping point in a deadly plan, one that would leave Matthew dead if it all came together right. At 10.01 p.m. on July 12, 2014, Catherine texted her brother, Kevin Ellis, telling him to keep an eye on find my. This was referring to the app that lets you see where your phone, computer, where air tag is located. At 10.11 p.m., just 10 minutes after that text, a 911 caller reported hearing gunshots in the upscale gated community of the Haymaker Retreat Condos in American Fork. Those shots had come from Tracy grist home. Officers were already en route by the time Catherine's mom, Tracy, called 911 to

report that her son-in-law Matthew had been shot while trying to break into her home. It had been six minutes since the neighbor's 911 call. This was the first thing that fell off to police. Why would they wait five minutes after the shots were fired to call 911? Investigators arrived on the scene before the ambulance or any EMTs or paramedics, and they actually photographed the scene exactly as they found it. Forty-year-old Matthew Ristelli was dead inside the home. He was lying face down on his stomach with a knife in his right hand. according to Catherine's brother Kevin who admitted that he shot Matthew it had been self-defense police were told that Matthew didn't call ring the doorbell or knock to tell them that he was

there he was just inside the house with a knife before anyone knew it or could do anything about it katherine was inside the home when it happened but she was in one of the upstairs bedrooms and didn't witness the altercation their two children were upstairs as well as well as she was in one of the upstairs as well. They were physically unharmed and taken into the custody of the division of child and family services. The way Matthew was found, holding a knife, on the surface, paints a picture of an angry, estranged husband, following his wife across state lines and suddenly showing up at her family's house with a knife and entering without warning or permission. That was the family story, at least with what little information they gave investigators before they stopped cooperating.

And more if I think in a lot of cases, you know, you look at the information that exists, right? At the time authorities show up. And in this case, you know, it's Matthew Ristelli shot dead holding a night. And, you know, by the accounts of the. of the family there, it would seem as if this is a guy who traveled from California to Utah to try to get his kids back and he broke into this house where his wife was, right? His wife's mother's house and his wife's brother defended the home and shot Matthew dead. But it's always that, right? it's the what do things appear to be on the surface versus what do police uncover as they go along

in their investigation? And a lot of the time, the two do not match up. And I think one of the first things that, you know, police would have looked at was this five-minute gap that we talked about. You know, if it went down the way the family said, Why was there a five-minute delay in calling 911? Why would a neighbor have called 911 five minutes before the family who was actually involved in what happened? You know, police are going to see that as a major red flag. Yeah, you think if somebody's coming in your house without your permission, you know, that's such a dire situation that you've got to shoot them,

to defend yourselves that you're going to get that call up to 911 as soon as possible. Sometimes, as soon as they enter the house, they might be on the phone with 911, or one of the family members might be, you know, even if it's happening at the same time, that Matthew's being shot by the other family member, you think there would be a mad scramble to get police there, and that five-minute delay just seems off. and I think the police, you know, seized on that as a chance to look to see if something more was going on here. It was Catherine's family's position that despite her fleeing to another state, staying with her family, and refusing to see Matthew,

he had followed her and showed up unannounced in the dead of night. He was armed and angry. Kevin did what he had to do to protect himself and everyone inside the house. This is what the family told the authorities, and they assumed that they would be believed. It seems like they were definitely expecting fewer questions, or maybe they had no idea that anyone would be able to tell that the scene had been staged after Matthew was shot, but before anyone responded to the 911 call. This is where documentation of the untouched crime scene was so crucial, even though it meant that unfortunately no medical help came in time for Matthew. When looking over the photos from the house that night, officers noticed that it did not appear that Matthew was holding this knife when he was shot. In fact, according to Fox 13 News now, it appeared that the knife was deliberately placed into Matthew's right hand after he had been shot.

If Matthew wasn't indeed armed at the time he was shot, the entire case would change. There would be no real way for self-defense to be plausible. Matthew wasn't shot just one time either. His autopsy revealed that he had been hit seven times, only once in the chest, which is where he would expect most self-defense-related gunshot wounds to be. but some of the wounds were to his back and he had been struck in his right wrist. The autopsy revealed a key clue that proved the knife was planted in Matthew's hand after he was dead or while he was dying. The autopsy report reads in part that the injury from being shot in the wrist would have practically prevented him from even gripping a knife.

He was also left-handed, but supposedly used his right hand to wield the weapon. and he was holding it completely wrong. The knife's blade was facing toward him instead of away from him, and it wouldn't have been an easy mistake to make because the knife was a single-sided blade that had a grip for the fingers. You would easily be able to feel the right way to hold the knife, especially if you were trying to threaten someone else with it. However, the grip of the knife was pushing into the palm of Matthew's hand,

while the spine part of the handle of the knife was pushing into his fingers. And even if he had been for some reason using his non-dominate hand holding the knife backward, would he have really been able to keep his grip after being shot in the chest, the wrist, falling down, and then being shot again? And I think when you sort through all of that, you know, it begins very quickly to just not make sense. sense. Now you could say, okay, have you ever seen someone in a movie hold the knife towards themselves? Yes. Yeah, you've seen that before. But how many people hold the knife with the, you know, the finger, not using the finger grooves, but the spine the wrong way. That, that doesn't make

any sense at all. It just wouldn't feel natural. Also, in a situation like that. If Matthew was really trying to hurt someone with a knife, he most certainly would use his dominant hand. Anyone would. And then I think secondly, as you kind of pointed out more, seven shots. And it's not so much the number for me. Because I think in a self-defense situation, someone could fire seven shots very quickly.

But it's the placement. You would expect in that, type of situation where you're being threatened for the shots to hit the person on the front of their body. When you start to see shots to the back, I think you have to question that. Yeah. To me, this is starting to look like, you know, maybe there's been a plan here, you know, like the police are thinking, I'm sort of thinking the same thing.

Maybe this was a planned attack by the family to make it look like they had killed him in self-defense. and they had thought through some of these things, we'll put a knife in his hand, but it's the little things they didn't think of. Well, they put it in the wrong hand. They put it in the wrong position. They didn't think about the fact that having been shot in that wrist,

he wouldn't be able to hold the knife. So, you know, it's these kind of little mistakes that, you know, I think are, you know, possibly making police think that there's more here than the story they're telling. But isn't that what trips up a lot of people? You know, you look at different true crime cases, especially when an act is committed by, you know, just an ordinary person, which most are. Let's face it, most of the things we're talking about are not contract killers or

professional killers, as you would say. They're ordinary people who, in the heat of the moment, moment are very likely to make a mistake. And it's a good thing because it is ultimately what leads to them being caught. The version of events at night that Catherine told her friends, despite supposedly being upstairs when the shooting happened, is that her brother Kevin went to the garage and got the firearm from the safe. Then he returned to the front door living room area where he shot Matthew. This threw up some red flags for investigators. If Kevin had to go to the garage to get his gun, and Matthew was really in some uncontrollable rage, so angry that he was waving a knife

around, and Kevin feared for his life. Why was Matthew still right at the front door when he was shot? Was he waiting patiently for Kevin to come back so that he could threaten him again? That seems unlikely. It was also determined that Matthew had taken off his sandals before entering the home, which isn't really characteristic of a blind rage. It seems more like something you would do if you were invited in and knew that the home was shoes off household. Yeah. And again, for me, you know, these are just little details that point away from the family story being accurate. And also little details that, you know, a person may not think about in the heat of the moment, you know, about how this is going to look later on to investigators, right? It doesn't really make sense that if Matthew is in this homicide,

idle rage. He's there to hurt people. He's going to take off his shoes and then wait patiently for Kevin to go get a gun out of the safe. No, he's going to attack right away and taking off his shoes would be the last thing on his mind if he's breaking into the home. And he probably would have chased after Kevin and Kevin might not have even had a chance to get to the safe and get the gun if Matthew was really there to try and attack them. as we'll discuss it turns out that the last thing Matthew wanted to do was show up at that house that night maybe Matthew had a bad feeling about the whole thing maybe he just didn't have time for the drama either way he initially wanted Catherine to come back to California even going

as far as to pay for a rental car for her so that she really had no reason not to be able to make the trip he didn't want to drive out there he wanted to his wife and his children to come home and patch things out. Feeling the pressure, Catherine's mother suggested that Catherine pretend she sprained her ankle. The one thing that would be easy to fake, but also keep her from being able to drive a car. Finally, on the day of his death, Matthew agreed to make the drive out to Utah. He likely thought it was going to be worth all of the hassle if it meant that they could reconcile and put all their problems behind them.

He drove across state lines to pick up his wife and children while Catherine, Tracy, and Kevin, laid in wait, counting down the minutes until Matthew would be dead, and apparently all their problems would be solved. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door, and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. American Fork Police Lieutenant Stuart Ford told Fox News now, it's rare that we have a murder, let alone one where someone is lured from another state to our city to be murdered. You have to really credit the American Fort PD in this case because in an upscale area, they don't usually deal with a lot of murders. If they didn't dig and notice the red flags, they may have accepted the story that they were told by Catherine and her family, and written all this off as a case of self-defense. Matthew was under the impression that Catherine had packed up her stuff and the kids' belongings

and that his family was going to return to California with him. When officers were searching the home, they found no evidence that anyone, was ready to go anywhere that night. Nothing had been packed, so that was another red flag. An additional red flag noticed was that the lights were off when they arrived at the scene, which is really unusual when a gun just went off inside the home, especially if it's really an unplanned shooting. You would think that the family would have thrown the lights on to see what was happening

or to try and call for help. When investigators searched the house, they discovered cocaine near Kevin's belongings in one of the bedrooms and a rolled up dollar bill with cocaine residue on it on his nightstand. When he submitted to a urine test, the analysis showed cocaine in his urine. So he couldn't really say it wasn't his. The day after the murder, Tracy called Matthew's mother Diane and told him that her son was dead. She didn't provide many details.

Leaving Diane to wonder whether he had been in a car accident somewhere along the drive, answers trickled out as news articles were published. Diane later told KSL.com, everything happened so quickly. Obviously, somebody was prepared. Catherine's family may have thought they got away with murder, but that wasn't the case. On October 29, 2004,

both Kevin Ellis and Tracy Grist were arrested on charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit murder, and two counts each of commission of domestic violence, in the presence of a child. Kevin was also charged with possession of a controlled substance. Investigators seized multiple devices, including Catherine's iPad and her mother Tracy's phone, which gave them more insight into the plan and how it was pulled off. Catherine, Tracy, and Kevin were all able to see the location of an air tag in Matthew's vehicle,

and they discussed this via text, including the one that read, Keep an Eye on, mind. Matthew's truck had to be searched from top to bottom, but authorities were able to find the air tag, proving that the three were tracking his every move. It was at the bottom of what was basically a junk drawer that was on the passenger side of the truck. According to Fox News now, detectives found that based on the location of the air tag, it would have been difficult to find if you weren't looking for. Matthew's truck was parked right outside of the house. And 911, was called as soon as shots were fired. There wasn't a lot of time for anyone to retrieve the air tag from the car so that it could

be destroyed. And as we've talked about, you know, the staging was pretty sloppy, possibly due to the time crunch or possibly due to overconfidence or even incompetence. Who knows? And it could be a combination of all of those, right? I mean, again, we're talking about people. who I'm assuming are not criminal masterminds. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest

that they would make a bunch of mistakes. You know, seasoned criminals make a lot of mistakes. Yeah, I think it just goes to show that even when you've got a plan, it doesn't always go exactly the way you wanted or there's something you overlook and it comes back to bite you and prove that you had some culpability. And I'm always blown away by how people don't think that, you know, some of their electronic communication isn't going to come back. I guess more of a lot of people mistakenly think that

their plan is so good, they're not going to be looked at. And I'm assuming that's the case here as well, so that their phones, their iPads, they're never going to be. searched because police are going to take their word or their version of events and see it a certain way. But man, once you get into somebody's electronics and start to really see the communications, things break down very quickly for people. The tracking of Matthew with the air tag proved that the family was fully aware of Matthew's arrival and that he didn't show up without them knowing. Despite Catherine insisting to investigators that Matthew showed up out of the blue and furious, her own text messages showed that she helped him plan his route to Tracy's house,

which she gave him the address to. There was a gate that required a code to even get into the neighborhood. Catherine gave him the code so he could get in, and when he asked her to set out some cardboard because his truck was leaking oil, she did. She also told Matthew that when he got to the house, the door would be unlocked for him, so he should just come in. While this might seem odd, it was going to be late, so it makes sense to not wake up the kids

if he thought they would be leaving in the morning after a good talk about the relationship. You could park and slip right inside, and everything would be fine. So as you talked about, once you get into these people's electronics and you can see their text and things like that, it really just paints a picture of how sloppy this plan was. you know, did they not think the police were going to find out that she had given him the code to come in and told him the doors unlocked, come on in?

I mean, that goes completely in the face of what they claimed happened. She even went as far as to put some cardboard out there so his car didn't leak oil on the ground. You know, I think this is just a mountain full of stuff coming back to haunt this family and really shattered their story of what they said happened. Yeah, and as I said earlier, the only thing that I can think is that people are so overconfident in their plan that they believe no suspicion is going to be cast on them. So there would be no reason for the police to, you know, seize their their phones, their iPads and get a look at those messages. That's the only thing I can figure out. And we say it in a lot of episodes where there are a group of people involved in the, crime, and I'm going to say it again here. How does somebody not come to their senses here in this

family and say, okay, you know, it's one thing to fantasize about wanting him dead and having you get full custody of the kids, but we can't do that. We can't commit a murder. And it boggles my mind that no one ever comes up in these situations with a voice of reason and pumps the brakes and says we can't do this. It's just scary that there's so many instances where a group of people commit to doing a crime and no one is a voice of reason that stops it from happening. Yeah, I think that's a great point. You know, one person can have a plan, carry out that plan, and maybe not see the flaws in it or the reasons why it shouldn't be done. But when you add people, two, three, four, five different people to the plan. It makes it harder to understand how

somebody doesn't say, hey, this is wrong. We should not do this. And also, it's not going to work. We're going to get caught. But we see it time and time again. It just, it doesn't seem to, you know, always make a difference. People don't push back. They go along. And that's how you get into some really nasty stuff like this. Likely due to the mountain of damning evidence that was piling up against her in July of 2025, Catherine Ristelli decided to plead guilty

on charges of second-degree murder, which had been downgraded from first degree, as well as conspiracy to commit murder, so that the prosecution would drop the other charges against her. For her cooperation, prosecutors also agree, not to charge Catherine with perjury. For certain lies she told during bail hearings.

In court, Judge Roger Griffin told Catherine, your children are lifetime victims of your actions, and they deserve to grow up without you in their lives, before ordering Catherine to have no further contact with her children. It was ironic. She had played a role in having her husband, the father of her kids killed, so that she could have full custody.

And now she won't see them at all. Judge Griffin handed down a sentence of up to 15 years behind bars, the maximum sentence possible under the law, plus an additional five for one charge of felony discharge of a weapon. She should serve at least six years in prison before becoming eligible for parole or release. The judge also told Catherine, your selfish actions show that you didn't love your children at all.

Catherine briefly spoke during her sentence in hearing, saying, he didn't deserve it. If I had the power to bring him back, I would. But no matter how much Catherine says she regrets it now, or claims that she wanted to cancel the whole plan, she continued to lure him there for his entire drive. She said, I didn't think about the pain it would cause. In court, Matthew's family described long-standing marital issues,

mostly caused by Catherine, that even pushed them away. Matthew's youngest brother, Mark, said Matt was low to Catherine over everyone else in his life. She had him trapped and was injecting venom. Mark hadn't seen Matt in over two years because of conflict with Catherine. According to Matthew's mother, Diane, Catherine had a very hot and cold type of temperament. Like his brothers, Diane was uncomfortable with Catherine and went as far as to cancel an annual family vacation to Las Vegas so that no one had to deal with the drama. As for her mothers and brothers involvement, Catherine has implicated them both equally.

Catherine admitted that she heard Kevin tell Tracy after the shots were fired to be careful because Matthew might still be moving. After the shooting, while they were trying to put the knife in his hand, this may explain the poor staging job. They didn't want to get too close or leave any evidence that they were near him after the shooting. Trying to hurry and not disturb any blood, whoever actually placed the knife in his hand just rushed and did it incorrectly. According to Catherine, after she got to her mom's house in Utah, on June 20th, her mother and her brother both started trying to find ways to get rid of Matthew. They both offered multiple times to shoot him.

hours before Matthew would arrive in Utah, Kevin and Tracy went to lunch, where Catherine says she believes they finalized the plan without her. So one of the things that's really jumping out at me is Catherine going out of her way, trying really hard to distance herself from her mother and brother and what they did. it's almost as if she is minimizing her role in this whole thing. And I get it. You know, she did plead guilty to second degree that I want to go back to her sentence. I understand it was the maximum under the law.

But when you talk about her serving possibly as little as six years, that doesn't seem right to me, Morph. That doesn't sit well. Yeah, especially because it was premeditated and, you know, she had any number of chances to call him or text him and say, don't come. You know, you're in danger. She could have stopped this even though it had gone this far and she didn't. No, if anything, she did the opposite, right? She texted him, almost luring him, you know, giving him the information to get into the gate, all of that.

Now, I understand she didn't pull the trigger. But normally, when you play a role as she did, you're just as culpable as the person who does pull the trigger. Yeah. And to your point, to get as little as six years, she could be free from this, you know, in the murder of the father of her children, her husband, someone that she supposedly loved, it's just so such a slap in the face to see a sentence that, like, And I do understand that maybe they offered her that so that she could turn on her brother and mother and maybe they could get harsher sentences against them. But still, it does seem super light for what she, for the role she played. Yeah. And a lot of prosecutors have to make that decision, right?

And I get that. But it doesn't stop the outrage. But there's no doubt she did turn. right on her mom and brother pretty quickly. And that's the thing I think is it's pretty ironic when you have a group crime plan and executed like this. Everybody when they go into it is sort of acting as a team. But then, you know, when they're caught, it's like protect your own ass and throw

everyone else that's involved with you under the bus even when that's your own family. Yeah, it reminds me of the old Mike Tyson quote where he said, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. So, you know, once things start going wrong, it seems just like it's a mad scramble for everybody to, you know, CYA. It was Wednesday morning, about 10 a.m. when Leslie Jenning Prier's colleagues became concerned. She hadn't come to work.

In 2001, Leslie Prier was living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. when on a spring morning, the unthinkable happened. There were signs of a struggle, but no forced entry. This woman was strangled and she was beaten. She was found in the shower with the water running. For the next two decades, Leslie Prier's case remained unsolved, and the shocking truth about the real killer stayed hidden until very recently when new technology allowed investigators to do

what had once been impossible. I'm Stephanie Ramos, and this is Blood and Water, a new series from ABC Audio in 2020. And he almost got away with it. He almost got away with it. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Tracy visited California in April, just three months before Matthew was killed. Authorities believe that this is where she obtained the weapon used to try and make Matthew's murder look like an unfortunate instance of self-defense. On April 10th, Tracy emailed customer support for a company called My Tactical Promos,

which is a subscription-based service that sends out boxes of self-defense type stuff and weapons, just as their name would suggest. Tracy was requesting a cancellation and stated that the subscriber had died, so the boxes were no longer needed, and obviously the person couldn't cancel for themselves. This was true. One of Tracy's friends needed help with estate plan. after her husband's passing, which is why Tracy went to California in the first place. The question here is really whether she just kind of ended up with a bunch of stuff her friend didn't want,

or if she took that knife specifically because they had already decided to use it to get away with their murder, three months before they put their plan in motion. According to Fox News now, just two months before Matthew was killed, Catherine texted one of her friends about being fed up with him, I'm saying something like, I'm trying to wait. I just might murder Matt today, though. The morning that Matthew was murdered, Catherine texted that same friend, something cryptic, but also telling.

It read, I have to do big girl things this morning. Wish me luck. This friend was very bothered by Catherine's behavior and actually contacted the police herself to file a report with all the information she had just days after he was killed. when her friend told Catherine how sorry they were about what happened. Catherine actually said, it's okay, I'm happy. Four days after Matthew was murdered,

making Catherine a widow, she excitedly talked to the same friend as she got ready to go on a date. She also confided in the friend that she never had any intention of returning back to California or getting back together with Matt. Obviously, in her mind, she had to get rid of Matthew or she would never be able to live the life that she won. Yeah, we talk about all these texts and things coming to light that police can go back and tie to premeditation. And here's just another instance where this friend comes forward with these troubling, damning, you know, interactions she had with Catherine that makes it look all the more like this was premeditated.

These things she said threatening Matthew before he was even killed. And who in the world goes on a date four days after your spouse is murdered? Now, I get it, you're not on the best of terms. But there's still, there has to be some grieving more for someone who is the father of your children, a person you were married to for years. But there's none of that. And she's planning on, you know, hitting the town with some new guy. None of it looks good or makes any sense, really.

It seems that there's no reason other than Matthew being an inconvenience that any of this had to happen. He wasn't abusing Catherine or the children. In fact, when Catherine consulted a divorce attorney in Utah, she was very clear that he was not physically abusive and that it wasn't part of the reason for the divorce. If he was really some dangerous and violent guy, would they have had to frame him by leaving the door unlocked and planting a knife in his hand? If he was really the kind of guy that would make you fear for your life, you would want to keep him as far away as possible. And you would know that you'd just have to wait from the fly into a rage,

which would be inevitable when someone had that kind of temper. And then you could actually commit a justifiable homicide. If you have to take all those steps to get him into your house, and then you have to retroactively make him look violent, it just obviously doesn't add up. It seems Catherine just didn't want to go through a lengthy divorce. She just wanted Matthew to disappear so that she could do whatever she wanted to do.

Investigators found text messages from Catherine admitting that she was nervous about going through the legal system with Matthew because the divorce attorney she consulted with in Utah told her that not much would work out in her favor. In her mind, she really couldn't let Matthew, you divorce her or she would lose everything, including full custody of her two young children. And sadly, this is what we see so very often in cases where, you know, one spouse is involved in the murder of another spouse. It just seems like, you know, when you look at the motivating

factors, it always comes back to money, custody, those types of things. things. And a lot of times, like you said, more, as is the case here, it has a lot to do with Catherine not wanting to go through the legal process because she doesn't believe that it's going to work out well for her. You know, when you have a man who kills his what? A lot of the time it turns out to be because he doesn't want to lose his money. He doesn't want to lose custody of the kids. And at a base level, these reasons seem so frivolous, right, compared to a person's life. I get it.

You know, who really wants to pay child support? Who really wants to not be able to see their kids all the time? That's, it's hard. Those things are tough. But in the context or in the context, or in the. contrast of taking someone's life? These are decisions that I just can't understand. And I go back to the thinking by these people.

Here on one hand, she doesn't want to go through the process of a divorce because things might not go in her favor, it might be drawn out, whatever the case. Yet she's willing to risk murdering somebody being part of a murder and go through the court system and then ultimately go to prison.

I can't square the thinking on her part, you know, comparing those two things. Yeah, because it's flawed. The thinking is flawed. That's why it doesn't make sense to us. At least by June, the trio clearly planned to use a gun to kill Matthew based on more of Tracy's internet searches. Things like, how does private sale of firearms work in Utah, Utah gun law registration, and Utah shoot break-in, which seems to show that they had the fake self-defense idea in their minds by this time. It also seems that Tracy was initially trying to figure out how she could get mountain lines to attack Matthew while he was on his property in the California desert, hoping that they wouldn't have to resort to a more complicated plane.

She was actually searching for ways to attract mountain lions to humans. I mean, we're talking about some truly disturbing things here. And I think it really shows to what level the intent here was to kill this man. I mean, they had set around, talked about it. Tracy was clearly searching the internet for, you know, very incredible. very incriminating things. Now that's one that you don't hear a lot, right? How do we get a mountain lion to attack and kill this guy?

Yeah, it's very disturbing, pretty diabolical to come up with that kind of idea. That's when you don't hear a lot about. But I think it just backs up the level of intent here that they were going to figure out a way for Matthew to die. Catherine's mother, Tracy Grist, and her brother, Kevin Ellis, are both still awaiting trial. Kevin was denied bail in the interest of public safety, and he's remained behind bars since his arrest last October. Currently, both trials are scheduled for January of 2006. The trio were originally scheduled for a joint trial as co-defendants. But after Catherine took a plea deal, Kevin requested a separate trial. As part of her plea agreement, Catherine Ristelli will likely have to be.

to testify for the state against her mother and her brother. She has immunity for anything she did as part of the conspiracy to kill Matthew, so she'll be able to give all the details, but time will tell as to how genuinely cooperative she will be. And maybe Kevin will be able to place the blame on someone else. According to KSL.com, Scott Williams, attorney for Kevin Ellis, said that Catherine was able to provide absolutely nothing that supports any concrete finding that Mr. Ellis was part of the conspiracy. There's evidence that Kevin is the one that shot Matthew, but there's a lot more evidence that Tracy wanted Matthew dead.

Even Catherine's statement that Tracy said she or Kevin would kill him doesn't exactly prove that he was involved. And I wonder if maybe it's in Kevin's mind, or is it a defense team's mind, to say that he feared for his life because of things that his mom said and that made him that much quicker to shoot Matthew because he thought he was dangerous based on what his mom said. And I think it would just be another case of C.Y.A. On Kevin's part, but it wouldn't surprise me if he took that approach.

No, I can see a defense attorney trying that avenue. I mean, you know, you got to try something. every defense attorney does. And with all these tax searches and air tags, Tracy could have some kind of evidence that Kevin was involved in the planning, but so far nothing in our research proves it the way it does between Tracy and Catherine. The statement that Catherine heard Kevin tell their mother,

to be careful because Matthew might move, could be disregarded by the jury if they don't believe her. According to KSL.com, six months before the murder, murder, Tracy told Catherine, I'll just drive nine hours and strangle him. Catherine responded by saying, I know. The month before the murder and a few days before Catherine left with the kids. Tracy texted her, Matt made it, so I want to kill him.

He straight up line. I'm going to kill him. We don't have anything like that so far with Kevin, so who will probably try to rely on the fact that it was dark, the lights were off. and he wasn't expecting Matthew to be inside the home. If there's even one juror who thinks that the knife could have ended up oddly in his hand due to a struggle or falling, there's doubt. Unlike Tracy's exact words of, I'll kill him.

And we've talked about it, but, you know, these text messages, this digital footprint of Tracy's is very damaged. And we don't know if any. to that extent exists with Kevin. We know it exists on the part of Tracy and with Catherine, but we're not sure about Kevin. Yeah, and with Tracy, it seems like everything that we've seen,

she seems the most hell bent on Matthew dying. And when you have all these words and threats that come back to haunt you, and then he's killed in your house, it's kind of hard to put that, you know, Cheney back in the bottle. That's, I don't know how a jury would look past those threats, and then he winds up dead in her house. And there's more that seems to indicate that Tracy was very involved with the entire plan. She actually took a fabric screen out of the front door

so that Matthew wouldn't have any trouble getting inside and walking right into his death. She also covered the couch in the living room in blankets that could be washed or thrown away if they got bloody. The most telling action was moving all the children's toys upstairs into an office so that none of them would be in the living room where she knew a murder was about to occur. Just hours before Matthew was shot, around the time the air tag would have started to move, Tracy looked for a funny picture, searching for a, it's happening meme.

At one point, Tracy had also searched for headlines about Winona Judd tracking her daughter, Ashley Judd's car. This may have been where they got the idea to use an air tag to track Matthew's truck in the first place. So the question now, as we wait for these trials, is how far under the bus Kevin Ellis is willing to throw his own mother? Will you try to let her take the fall for him? We've already seen Catherine throw her mom and brother under the bus, and it may happen again with Kevin. One or both parties, Kevin or Tracy, could still decide to change their pleas, especially if they end up not being able to go through with. with blaming such a close and trusted family member. It's not clear if there will be any more plea deals at this point,

but it would avoid a trial and the need to testify against each other. The alternative is two sets of defense attorneys, completely smearing the other defendant's character, dragging all the mud out in front of a jury and the way. world since, you know, we have televised trials now. I don't know if these will be televised or not, but there's still a lot to be seen how things are going to play out in this case. But, you know, you talked about throwing people under the bus. And in this case, it's not just people, it's family. But that's what happens. You know, self-protection kicks in when the, you know what hits the fan.

I think you said it more afraid in the beginning everybody's kind of on board with this plan but the minute things start to go south everybody is looking for a way to protect themselves and if that means they got to throw their mom or brother you know into the fire well so be it yeah and i'm a little bit surprised that Tracy and Kevin you know between the two of them they haven't raced or their defense attorneys haven't raced to the court trying to get a plea deal and offering evidence against the other because it seems like, you know, maybe they get a better sentence, a lighter sentence if they do take that approach. So the fact neither one's done that is a little surprising to me. Well, maybe they have tried that. And it just hasn't been reported on,

you know, it could be that the prosecution doesn't need. at this point to entertain any plea deals because, you know, let's face it, they have Catherine. Catherine, they gave Catherine a plea deal. Part of that involves her testifying against her brother and her mother. So do they really need to capitulate at all with Kevin or Tracy? And my thought is no, because Catherine is going to be the star witness. And my thought is her testimony is going to be very damning. Yeah, it'll be very interesting to see what happens in court and, you know, which approach the defense teams take.

Yeah, this is one of those cases that, you know, we're going to have to keep an eye on because things are going to be developing over the next year or so. but my thought is I think there's very little chance that Tracy especially comes out of this thing unscathed and Kevin as well, although there does seem to be a little more wiggle room maybe with Kevin's defense. Both of Matthew and Catherine's children are now being raised by his brother and his sister-in-law. Sadly, they have lost both their parents, one to a murder at the hands of their own family. and one to prison for that crime. Hopefully they're able to get the help they need and deserve as they get older and come to terms with this horrific family tragedy. So as we wrap this one up more, like I said, there's still some things to be on the lookout

for to see how Kevin's trial, Tracy's trial pans out. But I want to go back to kind of the impetus for this whole thing. and it's something that we see in many cases, yet it never fails to mystify me, how a person or in this case, a group of people can come to the decision that the best course of action is to end someone's life over what? A divorce, custody. I'm never going to understand that way of thinking. And I guess that's a good thing. because if I did understand it, what would that say about me? And I'm sure listeners are feeling the same way.

And some of these cases we discuss, it's hard to put yourselves in the shoes of these people that do these things because you just can't comprehend the lack of thinking and reasoning that these people have the lack of common sense, that they are willing to go to these lengths without thinking them through and considering the repercussions. Well, you know what? My family and I, we talk about a lot of things day in and day out.

You know what we don't talk about ever? Is planning to kill someone? Not once has that ever come up. And I'm hoping that it never does. I'm assuming it's never going to. I don't even know how that conversation kind of starts. But, you know, the one thing that, that I do want to point out is the callousness on the part of these people.

And we talked about Catherine essentially leading Matthew to his death through, you know, text messages. Here's the code for the gate. Just walk right in. The door will be unlocked. We talked about Tracy and some of her texts at one point looking for a funny meme. as the murder was about ready to take place or going to take place in a few hours. I mean, you talk about cold-hearted.

Some of this stuff is very, very cold. Yeah, and my takeaway here is the real tragedy, the victims, obviously Matthew, because he was killed. But these kids, now they're left fatherless and they're left motherless because their mom is going to be in prison. the judge ordered her to have nothing to do with the kids. And maybe when they're old enough, they wouldn't want anything to do with her anyway, when they realize that she's responsible for, you know, taking away their father. I mean, just, I hope these kids get the counseling they need to deal with this situation because this is not something you see commonly.

And I'm still kind of appalled at the fact that Catherine could get out in as little as six years. I mean, I feel like for her role in this thing, that's just not right. But I understand the prosecution probably needed her cooperation. That's how these plea deals, you know, sometimes come together. But, you know, she's going to get out and live a life. I don't know what life that will be. But she is certainly not going to spend the rest of her life in prison.

that's for sure. But that's it for our episode on Matthew Ristelli. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review, a five-star rating, all of those types of things. Also, keep telling your friends about criminology. The word of mouth really helps us out. If you want to find us on social media, we're on every major platform. Just search your favorite platforms for criminology podcast. You can also join our Facebook group, Criminology Podcasts, discussion, and fans. And for news about the show, updates, and episodes, check out our website, criminologypodcast.com. So that's it for another episode of Criminology.

But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone. Ryan Reynolds here from MidMobil. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month. plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants assistants switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do

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