Going West: True Crime - Matthew Hoffman // 136

Episode Date: September 1, 2021

In 2010, a 30-year-old man turned criminal in Ohio set off on a sinister path of destruction. After hiding in a tree while he stalked a local family of 3, he went on a murderous rampage and held one of them hostage. From revealing surveillance footage, a hollow tree hiding spot, and a house full of leaves, this case proves to be one of the strangest we’ve covered. This is the story of Matthew Hoffman. And it’s also the story of Tina Herrmann, Stephanie Sprang, and Kody and Sarah Maynard. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.dispatch.com/article/20101121/news/311219718 https://murderpedia.org/male.H/h/hoffman-matthew.htm https://www.dispatch.com/article/20110209/NEWS/302099677 https://www.toledoblade.com/State/2010/11/21/Central-Ohio-murder-suspect-known-as-loner-who-took-risks.html https://www.10tv.com/article/news/knox-county-killer-i-did-not-know-single-one-them/530-bce26d0a-7feb-48d0-82c5-40901a730740 https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Matthew_Hoffman https://www.cantonrep.com/article/20110222/NEWS/302229924 https://scarestreet.com/matthew-hoffman/ https://nypost.com/2010/11/20/slain-ohio-family-were-stabbed-to-death/ https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/oh-matthew-hoffman-victims-found-in-a-tree-apple-valley-media-links.119851/ https://www.dispatch.com/article/20101112/NEWS/311129654 https://www.dispatch.com/article/20101119/NEWS/311199718 https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-4-missing-from-ohio-home-truck-found-near-college-2010nov12-story.html?_amp=true https://www.10tv.com/article/news/sheriff-3-missing-people-could-be-dead/530-ea47f1d3-3cca-484d-a31f-8626daff0a71 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Heath, and I'm your other host Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. Couple things, but first we need to start off by giving a huge thank you to our friends Val and Beverly. If we didn't get drinks at the brewery with you last week, we would never have learned of this case, so thank you for being amazing and also sharing this very bizarre case with us. And second, a bunch of you guys asked for Honolulu Strangler merch?

After hearing me say don't be a Strangler at the end of last week's episode, so we made it happen. Head over to goingwestpod.com, hit the shop tab and check it out. I think they're pretty cute and cool designs if I do say so myself, but let me know what you guys think. And lastly, we just released August final bonus episode on the murder of 19 year old art student, Jesse Blodgett. So if you're interested in hearing that case, along with 46 others, head on over to patreon.com slash

going west podcast and get ready to binge. Yes, and thank you so much to everybody who goes and joins our Patreon. It really helped support the show. And we do give you shout out at the end of each episode, so stay tuned for your name if you joined last week. Alright guys, this is episode 136 of Going West, so let's get into it. In 2010, a 30-year-old man turned criminal in Ohio set off on a sinister path of destruction. After hiding in a tree while he stalked a local family of three, he went on a murderous

rampage and held one of them hostage. From revealing surveillance footage, a hollow tree hiding spot, and a house full of leaves. This case proves to be one of the strangest we've covered. This is the story of Matthew Hoffman, and it's also the story of Tina Hermann, Stephanie Sprang, and Cody and Sarah Maynard. Matthew John Hoffman was born on November 1, 1980 to parents Patricia and Robert Hoffman in Warren, Ohio, which is a city in Northeastern Ohio that at this time had a population of about 56,000 people. When he was about 16 years old, his parents divorced and he moved with his mother to Knox County, Ohio in 1997, which is just outside

of the city of Columbus and about a two-hour drive from his hometown. He and his mother settled into the small Lake Town of Apple Valley and Matthew began his sophomore year at East Knox High School. Matthew was later described by a friend as being intelligent, but without a lick of common sense. He also did things like catch squirrels in his attic, and then he would clean them, kill them, and eat them. He would also do things like catch small animals in his yard, and set fires on his parents' lawn. Okay, so we're already getting that hint of serial killer here. There are so many clues at this age.

I wonder what was going through his parents' mind. I really do. So he was a risk taker. He was always doing things like back flips, off of picnic tables. He was jumping off his roof onto a trampoline and pretty much anything else that involved danger. One of his favorite risks was to use a tow strap, T-O-W, so one of those straps that hooks

from car to car and can help you pull a car out of a ditch, or you can strap down heavy stuff in the bed of a truck, you get the point. He used it basically as a tight rope between two trees in his backyard and he would repeatedly walk across it. And this is a thing it's called slacklining, so that's what he was doing. Yeah, he was just kind of doing his own homemade slacklining. Yes, and he was tall, lanky, and he really kept to himself. He had a few friends, but he was mostly referred to as a loner.

And the friends that Matthew did have, they would sometimes get into a bit of trouble, mostly due to Matthew's stunts. Shortly before moving to Apple Valley with his mom, 16-year-old Matthew and a few of his buddies went on the roof of nearby Lakeview High School, where they were eventually caught by police. Matthew's response to why he was on the roof was, I just wanted to see whether I could get up there or not. But this is pretty much the most trouble he had gotten into as a teen, which wasn't very much at all. In the spring of 1999, Matthew graduated from East Knox High School at the age of 18, and then went on to study to become an industrial electrician at the nearby Knox County

Career Center. And we're not really sure if he completed his electrician courses and became certified, which only typically takes one year, but we can kind of assume that he may have because one year later in 2000, Matthew picked up and moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and landed a job with a contractor. And Steamboat Springs is a stunningly quaint town in Northern Colorado as many Colorado towns are, and it's home to, I think, it's the Housen, or Housen, Hill Ski area, as well as the Steamboat Ski Resort. But it wasn't long before Matthew caused this gorgeous town lots of trouble.

Up until this point, he didn't have a criminal record. But in August of 2000, so about three months after moving to the area and taking that job, almost 20-year-old Matthew Hoffman set fire to a townhouse in St. Moat Springs to cover up the fact that he had burglarized it and stole a vehicle. Luckily, no one was killed or injured, but the fire did spread to a joining townhouses, and it caused more than $2 million worth of damage and affected 16 people's living situations. So this was a big deal. Yeah, this isn't just some small petty thing. Yeah, this is, I mean, this is a huge crime. And after setting the fire, Matthew left Colorado

and fled back to his mother and stepfather's house in Apple Valley to kind of hide out. And after speaking to witnesses and investigating the fire, police were quickly able to figure out that Matthew was likely the one to set it. And they also believed that he had been involved in a local theft case as well. Someone had been stealing different welcome to and her city name here, signs. And he was the prime suspect, which is such a weird thing to do. Yeah, like what's the purpose of doing that? What is the purpose? It's just you're just causing trouble.

Just to like look cool in your house. It's bizarre. So police headed to Matthew's mother's home, where they found him and arrested and charged him with both crimes. So the contractor who had originally hired Matthew described him as, a little on the strange side, and went on to say, he was a follower and did not have a strong personality. For a 20 year old, that's unusual, especially to an employer who hires a lot of different kids. End quote.

About a week or two before the fire and the burglary, Matthew had stopped showing up for work as well. And as far as stealing those welcome signs go, it seems like Matthew was just really trying to cause trouble, even if it was something small and seemingly juvenile like stealing welcome signs. Yeah, that seems like something a 14 year old would do with his friend thinking it was funny, but this is a 20 year old guy who has like a career. Right, grow up Matthew.

Anyway, so the prosecutor that was on Matthew's arson case later said, Matthew struck It was funny, but this is a 20 year old guy who has a career. Right, grow up Matthew. Anyway, so the prosecutor that was on Matthew's arson case later said, Matthew struck me as someone who had a horrific appetite, a premeditated appetite, to cause that kind of damage, and the potential loss of life. Yeah, because he set that fire. He didn't know if he was going to burn anybody. He didn't know if anyone was going to be stuck inside know, he didn't know if anyone was gonna be stuck inside the building.

That's an incredibly dangerous thing to do. Right, so his friend was correct. He didn't have any common sense whatsoever. And for this arson, Matthew was sentenced to eight years in prison, but only ended up serving six years in a Colorado prison. He was paroled in 2007 at the age of 26 and was able to return to his home state of Ohio where he reported to local parole authorities as most people do when they get out of prison. Matthew tried to return to normal life, but due to the $2 million in restitution that

he owed for the fires, he found it continuously difficult to stay afloat. When he was released from prison just before his 27th birthday, he was able to pay nearly $5,000 of that $2 million, making a very small dent in his debt. He began working as a truck driver for a short while and often stayed with his mom Patricia in Apple Valley. And after this, he reportedly worked as a tree trimmer for a company in Columbus, Ohio, which was something we're sure that he loved doing

because Matthew had an extreme fascination with trees. And like not just fascination, it was an obsession really. So his love for trees began as a teenager when he built a tree house in his backyard. And as I mentioned before, he sometimes used two trees to hold a toastrap as a tightrope and walk it, you know, for fun. But he also liked to climb trees

and oftentimes when he climbed them, he would use that opportunity to peer into his neighbor's windows. I wouldn't expect anything less from Matthew. I know. And one of his neighbors who had seen him doing this described him as, quote, a real weirdo. He was always climbing trees and even got various gear to climb tall ones. Now you're probably like, that's not really weird to climb trees.

Of course it's not really weird to climb trees. Of course it's not. But later on in the episode, you'll see how extreme this obsession really was. Yeah, it may not seem weird now, but we'll get there. Oh boy, Will. After his release from prison, Matthew would sometimes stay at his mom's house, as we mentioned. But when he wasn't doing that, he was more of a nomad, if you will. He was known to be very lost and to be on a bad path. He would pitch tents in the woods amongst the trees, which was surely his favorite thing to do, or he would sleep in his car.

But in November of 2009, so two years after his release from prison at the age of nearly 29, Matthew was able to buy a 109-year-old house built in 1901 on Columbus Road in Mount Vernon, Ohio for about $37,500 according to Zillow.com. And we posted photos on our social medias in case you want to see, because it's actually a pretty cute four-bedroom two-bath house on a main road. And we won't say the street number because it looks like someone else bought that house a few years later for just $13,500. And you'll find out why whoever bought it got it for that price here in a little bit. The year after Matthew bought his house, which was 2010, things still proved to be going very poorly for him. He lived a

very troubled life, he had a girlfriend who he mistreated, and on October 24th, 2010, he and his girlfriend had gotten into an argument, and according to her, he had choked her so hard during this argument that she thought she was going to die. And by the way, I say according to her because he wasn't charged for it, that's not to say we don't believe her because we definitely do, I just kind of have to say that. And due to this abuse, his girlfriend broke up with him. That year, Matty was working part-time for another tree-trimming job at a company called Fast Eddies. But due to him creeping out his supervisor, he was fired.

So although we don't know the details of that, he must have done something pretty creepy. Also he had allegedly oversold his experience before he was hired, you know kind of telling his employer that he was much more qualified for the job than he was. So that was also part of why Matthew was fired in the fall of 2010 as well. So now that Matthew didn't have a job, his financial situation was much worse. He still owed a lot of money and restitution for setting the condominiums on fire in Colorado. And with that, alongside his regular bills,

money was a huge concern. Life wasn't going well for him, and even his dog had run away from home, likely because the dog knew he was also a weirdo. But instead of figuring out how to turn things around, he chose violence and destruction once again. Nine days after his 30th birthday, on the night of November 9, 2010, Matthew set up a sleeping bag in the woods across from a home of a woman and her two children. 32-year-old Tina Herman, 13-year-old Sarah Maynard, and 11-year-old Cody Maynard. The family of three lived on King Beach Drive in

Howard, Ohio, which is 10 miles from Matthew's home and a 20-minute drive. Matthew lived essentially in central Mount Vernon, whereas this family's four-bedroom rural home was just a half mile from Apple Valley Lake and surrounded by woods in the rear and left of the house and across the street from vast farmland. Also living in Tina's home was her recent ex-boyfriend of six years, 30-year-old Greg Borders, who still resided in the house on and off since they had purchased the home together in 2007. Tina Herman was born on February 13, 1978 in Ohio to Barbara and Raymond Herman alongside her three brothers, Eric, William and Jason. Tina was known to be an incredibly

energetic as well as courageous woman who brought so much joy to other people's lives. So it's really no wonder that she loved being a mother when she became one at the age of 19, when she and her partner Larry Maynard had a daughter named Sarah. Then two years later, they had a son on September 16, 1999, named Cody Maynard. 99, named Cody Maynard. In 2010, Tina turned 32 and was working at the dairy queen in Mount Vernon, Ohio. And for those not living in the U.S. and don't know what dairy queen is, it's a fast food restaurant chain and offers food as well as soft serve ice cream. So that's where she worked and she was an awesome employee.

She loved the simple things in life like her dolphin collection and sunflowers. In late 2010 Cody was newly 11 years old and he was known to be very gentle and just a sweet boy. He was a few months into his fifth grade year at East Knox Elementary School and he loved playing sports especially baseball. Sarah Maynard was 13, and she was a seventh grader at East Knox Middle School. At this time, their house was preparing to be foreclosed on after Tina and Greg missed a few months of mortgage payments. So Tina was actually planning on looking at apartments in November of 2010 and

was going to take her good friend Stephanie Sprang with her. And here's a little bit about Stephanie. Stephanie Sprang was born on November 1st, 1969, so she had the same birthday as Matthew Hoffman, actually just 11 years older, to parents Patricia and Stephen Thompson in Mount Vernon, Ohio. She graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1987, where she was on the track team and also ran cross-country. She had an amazingly bubbly personality and always sported a smile. She had three loving children, Michael, Trisha, and Seth, who she absolutely adored. Her favorite things to do included spending time with her kids and family, hosting parties, or even just going to a local college football game.

In 2010, Stephanie lived just up the road from Tina, so she was also in the rural area surrounded by farmland and woods. And she was 41 years old when she was set to accompany Tina to look at apartments in November of 2010. The last time Greg borders heard from his recent ex-girlfriend Tina Herman, she had texted him at around 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday November 10, 2010, saying she had fed their dog, who was a miniature pincher named Tanner. Greg wasn't at the house as of 3.40 am that day when he left to go to work at the Target Distribution Center in West Jefferson, Ohio, which is about an hour and a half drive and whole 80 miles from their home.

That morning, Tina took Sarah and Cody to school and returned to their house later in the morning with her friend Stephanie, which is when she texted Greg. But that day, Tina missed her 4pm shift at work, which really worried her co-workers and supervisor. When Tina wasn't answering the phone, her manager decided to call the Knox County Sheriff's Office and see if they could do a welfare check. And at 8pm that evening, which again was Wednesday, November 10th, a deputy went over and did

just that. No one answered the door, even though Tina's Ford F-150 pickup truck was sitting in the driveway and the lights in the house were on. The deputy checked on the house again three hours later at 11pm, but still no answer. And the deputy noted that the truck was still in the driveway. The following day, with still no response from Tina, her manager at Dairy Queen decided to go over to her house herself, and she noticed that Tina's pickup truck was gone, and she entered the house to find blood.

Neither Sarah nor Cody attended school that day, so something appeared very wrong. As soon as the manager noticed the blood, she called the sheriff's office once again and explained her findings. With that, the deputy returned to the house to inspect it. So going back to the previous day, which is Wednesday, Greg Borders got off work at around 4pm, but as we said before, he didn't always stay at the house. He had the following day Thursday off of work, so he decided to spend the evening of Wednesday November 10, 2010, at a friend's

house. He hadn't heard from Tina the rest of that Wednesday nor the next day, but while he was golfing on Thursday, he received a call from his mother, saying that something was wrong with Tina. Since they were broken up, Greg just assumed everything was fine, but when he returned to the house that day at around 5.30pm, the driveway was flooded with police. He gave the officer's permission to enter the home, but they wouldn't let him inside. When the police explained to Greg that the house was a mess, Greg became even more worried. The kids hadn't been to school that day, Tina hadn't gone to work again, their dog was

missing and now Tina, her truck, and the kids are gone and there's blood in the house. So at this point, Greg thought, I think something bad happened. Something happened inside that house. It's not like Tina or me to leave the house unsecured. That same day, Thursday, November 11, 2010, Tina's truck was found abandoned seven miles away near Kenyan College in Gambier, Ohio. And Stephanie Sprang's Jeep, who remember was Tina's friend, was found inside the garage of Tina's home on King Beach Road, so things were just not making sense.

By this point, Stephanie had been reported missing, and no one knew where she was either. So for her car to be found in Tina's garage, and for all four of them to be missing, was very, very concerning. Because of Tina's truck being found near the school, police worried about the safety of the college students, so the entire campus was put on lockdown and were told to stay indoors. And while they were searching Tina's truck,

investigators noticed a man in a silver Toyota just sitting in his car nearby. So they questioned him even though he wasn't, you know, necessarily acting strange, but since he was kind of near the truck, it only felt right to get his information and see if he saw anything. The man said he was waiting for his girlfriend to get off work, and when investigators asked for his name and information, he gave it to them. That man was Matthew Hoffman. Investigators had no reason not to believe his story, and didn't have any reason to suspect

him of anything either. So they kept his information and let him go on his way. The following day, which was Saturday, November 12th, investigators continued to search for evidence at Tina's house on King Beach Drive, while other officers and volunteers searched throughout the county for this group of four people. Now, let's talk a little bit more about the scene at Tina's house. Inside, there were beer cans strewn about in the foyer, where there were also multiple blood stains.

To officers, it appeared that people had been attacked inside the house. Because there was three different locations of believed attacks and blood spatter. A large area of the living room was soaked with blood, and it looked as though someone had been dragged down the hallway. It was clear that the victims had been left there for a bit of time before being moved to a different location, and some of the bloodstains had been covered in motor oil, but the house was not set ablaze. There were also empty Walmart bags in the house that included receipts for large tarps and trash bags. Of course, their next step was to go to that Walmart and see if they could obtain any footage

of who bought those items. And when they went and requested that footage, they could see a young man with dark hair on the camera buying the tarp and trash bags. They had no idea who the young man was, but they were able to see him leaving in a silver Toyota and they requested the DMV records for that vehicle. And as this was happening, the officer who had questioned Matthew Hoffman when he was near Tina's truck recognized his face and car on the video and everything became the slightest bit more clear. Now that they knew who the man was, they needed to come up with a tactical plan to arrest

and question him, and also see if they were able to uncover any details about Tina, Stephanie, Cody, and Sarah. So on Sunday, November 13th, just three days after the family disappeared, a SWAT team entered Matthew Hoffman's home on Columbus Road in Mount Vernon, Ohio at 8 a.m. and they uncovered a slew of disturbing things. To say that the contents of Matthew's house were bizarre is in understatement, and we

urge everyone to go look at the photos on our social media accounts so you can see for yourselves. When they went into the house, they found Matthew sleeping on the living room couch, so rounded by tons of dried leaves. Remember how we talked about how he loves trees? Well, we're getting into it. His living room was filled with them, so police immediately arrest and detain Matthew Hoffman, and they receive no resistance from him at

all. When police eventually checked his freezer, they found dead squirrels and popsicles. I know some people, you know people hunt things and they do that. It just seems a little creepy to me. The squirrels thing is a little weird. I think also in the context of who this man is, knowing that he did that as well, it just rubs you the wrong way. It definitely does. And as the SWAT team made their way around the rest of the house, they entered the bathroom to find plastic shopping bags

filled with leaves completely stacked against the walls, stacked from literally the floor to the ceiling, which is also a very creepy site. So go look at the photo as well. It's, I remember the first time that I saw this photo, and it was before I had finished doing all my research. And I was kind of like, what is that? I couldn't figure out what it was, but knowing that it's just

bags of leaves, it's almost like it's a makeshift, like wallpaper, it's just these bats, it's so bizarre, you have to see it. Yeah, exactly. And now lastly, police attempted to go into the basement that had been barricaded from the inside, and once they finally got in, they found 13-year-old Sarah Maynard alive wearing only plastic bags as pants and laying in a big pile of leaves, which was apparently this makeshift bed. Like I don't even know, that's just a terrifying thought. So she was bound and she was also gagged, and she had been sexually assaulted by 30-year-old Matthew Hoffman. But she was the only one in the house, and Tina, Cody, and Stephanie were all still missing.

Not knowing whether or not they were alive, police were desperate to get answers out of Matthew Hoffman, but he refused to speak at all like he would not say a word. So the next day, investigators searched the woods and lakes near Matthew's home, as well as other parts of the neighboring towns, but to no avail. Then, Matthew decided to fess up. He agreed to confess only after having a nightmare, where he was working in a food processing plant, and he opened a plastic bag to find human body parts in it, and then he supposedly like suddenly remembered what he did to this poor group of people.

So here we go from the beginning. On the evening of November 9, 2010, as we stated, Matthew set up a sleeping bag and hit out in a tree overnight, just watching Tina's house. Once everyone in the house had left in the morning, he quickly ran into the garage as it was closing and snuck under the garage door and inside the house. He had committed a robbery like this in the past, but all he did was rob those people. This time, he was much more sinister. Matthew says that he only intended to rob the house, yet he brought a hunting knife and

a blackjack club with him. About an hour into invading the house, Tina returned to her home with her friend Stephanie Sprang. So shortly after they entered the house, Matthew made himself known by stabbing both of them to death and then dismembering their bodies. He said he first tried to knock Tina out with a blackjack, which is this concealed club, but that it wouldn't work. He then said that he panicked,

especially when Stephanie entered the bedroom, because he didn't even know that she was there. So he stabbed Tina to death and then chased Stephanie out of the room where he killed her. The dismembering process took a very long time, so he was still in the process of doing so when Cody arrived home from school. And sadly, as a 11-year-old Cody entered the house, Matthew stabbed him to death as well. Then he proceeded to kill the family dog. After Cody enters the

house, 13-year-old Sarah came in, and afraid of what was going on, she ran into her bedroom, where Matthew captured her, tied her up with electrical cords, and then blindfolded her. After Matthew finished dismembering the other three, he bought the tarp and the trash bags, wrapped them up, put them in his car with Sarah, who was still bound, and drove them all to his house in Mount Vernon. After locking Sarah Maynard in his basement, he took Tina, Stephanie, and Cody's remains out to a wooded area. And he made this rope and police system with his, you know, tree climbing equipment

that we know he had. And he used that to put all of their remains, including the dogs, in a six foot tall hollow tree. Police tried to press Matthew on where this tree was, and Matthew tried to convince them that after telling them everything they wanted to know, he basically said, can you let me do a fake escape that would end in you shooting me? So he wanted to tell them everything, and then pretend to try to flee, and then shoot him to death. But of course, police refused to agree to this, and this led Matthew to just stop talking completely for two whole days.

Ultimately, he only agreed to tell them where Tina, Cody, and Stephanie's remains were, if they agreed not to give him the death penalty, which they did agree to, and it's kind of weird because he basically just asked them to kill him, and then essentially asked them not to, you know, kind of confusing. I think maybe on the spot he was thinking, like, I'm never going to get away with this, I'm going to be in prison forever, just kill me, but then, you know, a lot of times people think and they're like, wait, no, I don't actually want to die. But in the moment, I mean, maybe there's an inkling of remorse, I don't know, but to be that savage and to do what he did is just so disturbing.

It absolutely is, and yeah, you're right, he did have a couple days to think about it, I guess. So basically, he did not want the death penalty, and they agreed that he would not get it, essentially. So Matthew continued on in his story, and he explained that he was the one to move Tina's truck near the college He also explained that he quote could not hurt Sarah and that he took good care of her while she was with him That he fed her hamburgers played video games with her and slept with her under his arm, which is so creepy But we know

Sarah his arm. Which is so creepy. But we know Sarah explained that he sexually assaulted her. So obviously you didn't take good care of her and also you made her wear a paper or a plastic bag as pants. Like what are you talking about? And you made her sleep on a bed of leaves. Like you didn't do anything good for her. Well I mean come on you kidnapped her. So I mean that's the initial thing there is like you kidnapped a child. He also stated that he figured once enough time had passed that he would just let her leave and go back to her life, but Sarah later refuted these statements saying quote, I think he was just trying to say that to make people think that he felt good about himself,

for him to think that he fed me in stuff, and he didn't. He didn't let me shower or any of that stuff. Her father Larry later described her strength in the whole situation as an inspiration. After the events, she wanted to try to get back to a normal life and not let that horrifying and unthinkable event control her. Which is really amazing, and I was also reading about how all of the officers and everybody who worked on this case were just amazed by her because she's only 13. She was kidnapped, her family was killed, and she was held hostage and sexually assaulted, potentially raped by this man.

And everyone was just amazed by her strength and how she could get through that situation. Yeah, her strength and her resilience. The day after murdering Tina, Cody, Stephanie, and Tanner the dog, Matthew took the remains in bags to the Cucosing Wildlife Area, which was just about a 20-minute drive north of Mount Vernon. And for reference, Howard, which is where, again, where Tina's house was, is about 20 minutes east of Mount Vernon. So the bodies were put in that tree in a totally different area than where police were searching. Matthew wrote down the directions to said tree, and police were able to locate it quite

quickly. The supervisor of Ohio's division of wildlife stated that his staff cut the tree down and that they did this out of respect for the family and so that the tree didn't become some kind of sight-seeing thing. He just felt it was best that the tree was cut down instead of the bodies just being removed out of it,

which I agree, I think that was the best choice. The autopsies matched with Matthew's story, that they had all been stabbed numerous times in the chest and back. When Stephanie's kids learned about what had happened, they were rightfully devastated, but one of them stated that he doesn't have any hate for anyone, even Matthew. It was very clear that Matthew had suffered from delusions as well as hallucinations, but he was apparently never treated for any kind of mental health issues. It's believed that Matthew may have suffered a mental breakdown due to all the things going

wrong in his life, and it led him to murder. But Matthew had clearly been making poor choices for many many years, as we can confirm since he set that condo on fire and even served prison time for it. Matthew claims that he had never met this family and that he didn't know them, but you have to kind of wonder how he came across their house of all these houses when it was 20 minutes away from his. The only connection that could be made was that Matthew's mom lived within walking distance from Tina's house. Which we know that he had stayed with his mom sometimes, so that could be the only connection, but still, like, why, why their house? Well, clearly, you know, sexual assault was definitely a motive in this case, because we know

that that happened, so I don't know if that was a primary or a secondary thing in this situation, but it kind of seems like that could have been why. Yeah, I mean, he definitely could have been watching the house for longer, which we will get into, and he may have already had an interest in Sarah, because what I think about is the fact that he was in the house for an entire hour before Tina came home. This was a family's home that was about to be foreclosed on, so I'm not sure how it would take him an hour to go through the house, and I don't know how many valuables he would have been able to even find. So robbery just couldn't have been his plan that

day, especially because even if he quote, panicked when Tina and Stephanie got to the house, why would his jerk reaction be to brutally murder and then dismember them? Like for him to have the capacity and ability to dismember them and sexually assault a 13 year old says a lot about him and this quote robbery motive. Right, and we have to think about the fact that he killed Stephanie Tina in Cody, but he left Sarah alive. Yeah, he killed two women that were around his age, one of who was only two years older than him,

but then he goes after the 13 year old. And he then I were talking about this before and I know that looks have nothing to do with killing or what you're capable of, but we posted photos of him at the time of this happening and he, like he legit has like black eyes and he looks so creepy. But then you look at the photo of him in his high school yearbook and he just looks like

this chipper young guy who couldn't do anything wrong. I mean we know that he was off since he was a kid but it's just very weird to compare because boy does he look evil when he's caught. But anyway as we know Matthew was watching the house before he entered. But apparently, this wasn't the only time that he, or someone else, but most likely he, did that. According to Greg, who remember his teen as ex-boyfriend, a man in camouflage would sometimes sit on a stump across the street and just watch the house. Yeah, that sounds like Matthew.

And other times, someone would knock on the door and whenever someone answered it, the person would take off running. So it's possible that Matthew had, you know, for one reason or another, targeted Tina's family and had been just waiting to carry out these crimes. After his arrest, Matthew threatened to harm himself, so he was officially

put on suicide watch during his first night in the Knox County jail, and he was checked on every 10 minutes. His trial didn't occur until June of 2011, so only about seven months after the killings. Since Matthew had already confessed, he pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and rape of Sarah Maynard, as well as the murders and dismemberments of Tina Herman, Cody Maynard, and Stephanie Sprang. People who knew Matthew were shocked and disgusted at what he did, but it also didn't really surprise them. His neighbor said, quote, he was weird.

It's just weird to know that he's been next door and he could do something so horrible. His friend stated, quote, the guy was kind of off, a little weird, but I chalked a lot of it up to him being in prison. Something had to snap, maybe he's living in a fantasy world or stuck in his imagination? I sense that he's pretty happy with the outcome that he caused turmoil and his infamous. On June 6, 2011, Matthew has found guilty of 10 crimes and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He's been incarcerated at the Toledo Correctional Institution in Ohio since 2011, and he will

remain there for the rest of his days. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. One thing I wanted to clear up is I couldn't find anything in my research regarding if Matthew was ever diagnosed with anything after his arrest. There's a lot of speculation about his mental health, but there's no actual reports regarding if he was ever diagnosed with anything and obviously he was not found not guilty by reason of insanity or anything like that

He was just found straight up guilty. So for anyone wondering about that There's no evidence of any kind of diagnosis. Yeah, exactly. I mean, we talk a lot of a lot of shit in this episode But at the end of the day we would never never come down on somebody who has a mental illness Yeah, that would never be the case. So in Matthew's case, I don't think it applies here. So don't come after us. I think there is a good angle of a potential mental breakdown, but I don't really, you know, I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know enough about that to speak on it.

He was obviously a very sick man and he did a lot of terrible things to some very innocent people. But thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. It was definitely a strange and very tragic one. We really appreciate you guys sticking with us. Yeah, and please go check out those photos that we posted. They are so strange and we'll give you nightmares. Yes, Instagram is at going West podcast, Twitter is at Going West Pod, and then we also are

on Facebook. And we want to give thanks, of course, to all of our amazing patrons who have joined our Patreon in the last week. We now have 47 full-length ad-free bonus episodes, some US cases, a lot of international cases, and cases that we're not gonna cover here on Going West. So go check them out patreon.com slash Going West podcast. So big things going out to Kristen, Cameron, Don, FOMO, Claire, Melissa, and Martha.

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