Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - Matthew “Chilly” Macon

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

As a child in the ‘80s, Matthew Macon was thrust into a world of chaos and turmoil. From a young age, he was in and out of federal institutions, but nothing seemed to curb his darker impulses. Eventually, he gave into them, and his killing spree began. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, torture, and sexual assault. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On a bitter January morning in Lansing, Michigan, Jackie Evans was longing for her warm bed. She pulled her scarf tight around her neck, shivering a little as she crossed the street towards campus. She wasn't usually up this early on a weekend, but balancing college and a full-time job had proven difficult. Signing up for Sunday classes seemed like the only solution. She grabbed a desperately needed cup of coffee from the outdoor cart and headed into the building.

The hallways were quiet. Only a handful of courses were taught on the weekends. Most of the lights were off, which only added to her drowsiness. As she neared her classroom, Jackie realized she was all. almost 20 minutes early for the 9 a.m. start time. She peered into the room and saw it was empty. Not even her professor had arrived yet. Great. But a few paces past the door, she stopped in her tracks. Her cup of steaming coffee fell unnoticed from her hands,

splashing onto the floor. The room wasn't empty. Professor Carolyn Kronenberg was lying motionless on the floor behind her desk. Her laptop and papers scattered all about. Her arm was bent at an unnatural angle, and she was covered in blood. It almost looked like she'd been attacked by a wild animal. But as she screamed for help, Jackie knew in her gut that only a human could have done this. One who was out for blood.

Hi, I'm Greg Pulsing. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parkast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're exploring the murders of Matthew Macon. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Today, we'll discuss Macon's Michigan killing spree during the summer of 2007.

By the end, he'd have murdered six people in as many weeks. We'll explore how Macon's violent father shaped his upbringing. and how his early introduction to the penal system contributed to his destructive behavior. We'll also chronicle the tragic story of how another man was wrongfully convicted of Macon's crimes. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the lonely hearts killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels.

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Many of us vow never to become our parents. No matter how much we love and respect them, they sometimes become somewhat of a cautionary tale. But for those people unlucky enough to grow up with a truly toxic parent, this feeling goes much deeper. Most individuals who experience childhood abuse don't go on to perpetuate that cycle. Nonetheless, it is possible for violence to be passed down through generations, just as it can be a learned behavior. Whether through nature or nurture, Matthew Macon is an example of the worst-case scenario, a man who learned all the wrong lessons from his troubled upbringing and grew up to do nothing but harm. Instability surrounded Macon from the beginning.

He was born in September of 1979 in the capital city of Lansing, Michigan, and his home life descended into chaos before he even started school. In 1983, when Macon was four, his older sister was placed into foster care. Her father, James Macon, was accused of sexually abusing her. Shortly afterwards, the Macon's marriage broke down. Erlene Macon sought a restraining order against her husband, afraid that he would beat her. It seems her fears weren't unfounded.

James was a destructive man and soon moved on to terrorizing those outside his family. A few months after the restraining order in October of 1984, he was arrested for beating his 17-year-old girlfriend with a baseball bat. Apparently he was punishing her for refusing to do sex work. And that wasn't the worst of it. The teenager said he'd also tried to kill her. In the end, she recanted her testimony. and the charges against James were dropped.

However, the details are thin, and it's difficult to discern exactly what actually happened. Even so, these incidents suggest that abuse and violence were commonplace in the Macon household. Growing up in such an environment could have predisposed Megan to violence himself. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist,

but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. Psychologist Dr. Robert Geffner is an expert on violence, abuse, and trauma, and in 2007, he commented on Macon's childhood. He said that Macon was likely left with a deep well of anger after witnessing his father abuse his older sister and mother. When rage like this goes unresolved, it can turn outwards and become aggression. A 2017 review from Tara Pingley out of St. Catherine's University in Minnesota supports this theory. The review points out that early intervention is necessary to help children process the trauma of family violence. Without it, that violence can lead to long-term intergenerational cycles of abuse.

Unfortunately for Macon, there was little hope of intervention. Instead of counseling, he was placed into foster care at some point during his youth. This only added to the sense of volatility in his life, and his actions around this time reflected his feelings of discontent. In 1989, when Macon was 10, he ran away from his temporary home. This marked his descent into crime. That same year, he was charged with breaking into a bike shop and a comic club. He pleaded guilty. There isn't a lot of information available about Macon's life during this period,

but he probably felt reckless. After all, he didn't have much to lose. It's unclear if he had friends or what kind of relationship he had with his family. The facts that we do have paint a picture of a very angry, isolated young man headed down a dangerous path. Over the next few years, he spent time at several facilities for delinquent youth and continue to rack up convictions for petty crimes. However, his sins didn't remain petty for long. With no outlet for the trauma he'd experienced, Macon turned his aggression towards others. In 1993, when Macon was 14, he sexually assaulted a girl with a stick. We don't have any other details about this incident,

but it's a disturbing indication of just how twisted and cruel he'd already become. According to a 1995 Cambridge study in delinquent development, this outcome was predictable given Macon's home life. Researchers found that 63% of boys with felonious fathers went on to be convicted of crimes themselves. They also noted that having a convicted parent by age 10 was often correlated with antisocial personality traits. Other research has been pointed a father's criminal history as being the most important factor in predicting male delinquency. Of course, none of this is a sure thing.

Correlation is not causation, and many children with convicted parents turn out just fine. But Macon seemed hell-bent on following in his father's footsteps. After this episode, Macon was a man. was sent to a facility near Ann Arbor for young sex offenders. At this stage, it still seemed possible that he could turn his life around. At a juvenile court hearing in 1996, a court referee testified that 16-year-old Macon was making progress in the program. But there was a major caveat. The referee likened Macon's appetite for sexual offenses to an addiction. She cautioned that he would require lifetime vigilance

and monitoring. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that anyone took this. warning seriously. In October of 1997, Macon completed the sex offender treatment program. In contrast to the court referee's assessment, his social workers were optimistic about his future. They concluded that his odds of committing another sex crime were slim. So at 18 years old, Macon was let loose to make his way in the world, but he was far from rehabilitated.

Beginning with a larceny conviction in 2001, Macon spent his early 20s in, and and out of prison. He was angry, directionless, and stuck in a destructive groove. As far as we know, he didn't have much of a social life or any significant relationships during this time. Additionally, his job prospects were bleak. He'd never left Lansing and had no hopes of ever doing so. Considering these circumstances, it isn't surprising that Maken's impulses darkened during this period, though it doesn't excuse how he acted on them. All the same in 2004, the 24-year-old reached a tipping point. Walking through the old town neighborhood of Lansing,

Macon felt restless and tightly coiled. He was ready to explode. At the same time, 45-year-old Barbara Jean Tuttle was just arriving home from the grocery store. Macon watched from the shadows as she pulled up to the three-story Victorian house where she rented an apartment. Barbara set down her bags and opened the front door. That's when Macon appeared beside her. He grabbed Barbara and forced his way into her apartment. Once inside, he threw her to the ground, sexually assaulted her, and then beat her to death. Walking away from the house, Macon felt at peace for the first time.

He'd finally found an outlet for the rage that had consumed him since his earliest memories. Meanwhile, Barbara's friends and family were left to pick up the pieces. Although her body was found fairly quickly, it appears the investigation didn't get very far. We don't know what kind of evidence was left at the scene or whether the police pursued any specific leads. All we know is that Barbara's murder remained unsolved for years. Macon had claimed his first victim and faced no repercussions.

With his confidence bolstered, he was ready to strike again. In a moment, Macon tests his luck. The most urgent mysteries in the world are missing persons cases. The stakes are too high not to pursue every plausible possibility, and some implausible ones too. I'm Sarah Turney, host of the new podcast Disappearances. In 2020, after spending years searching for the truth, I use social media to help bring justice to my sister Alyssa's nearly two decades long disappearance. Now, every Thursday on Spotify, I'm exploring the many reasons people disappear, and the impact their absences can have on those left behind. From child abductions and mystifying murders, to those who took

drastic measures to start over, each episode of disappearances journeys through a different high-profile missing person's case, ripped from the headlines and ripe for explanation, because no one just vanishes into thin air. The answers are out there waiting to be found. Follow the Spotify original from Parcast Disappearances. Hear a new episode every Thursday, free and only on Spotify. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued, ask your doctor about zebbound, terseptite. The first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea,

OSA and adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zetbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. Zetbound contains tersepartite and should not be used with other terseptide-containing products or any GLP1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepbound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pins or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it,

or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia.

If you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepound with a sulfonal urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsened kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99 or visit Zepbound.l.l.com. Now back to the story. In late 2004, Matthew Macon claimed his first victim in Lansing, Michigan, 45-year-old Barbara Jean Tuttle.

The investigation seemed to stall quickly. So the 24-year-old killer carried on with his life as if nothing had happened. Macon had gotten away Scott-free and was eager to recapture the feeling of power he felt during Barbara's murder. He went back on the prowl. On a Sunday morning in January of 2005, Macon walked past Lansing Community College. He'd grown up near the school, but it's likely he hadn't spent much time on campus. He'd never had any reason to. That day, the buildings looked mostly empty, save for a few weekend classes.

Possibly in a bid to escape the biting cold, making headed inside. He stalked the quiet hallways, looking around as he strolled into empty classrooms and read posters advertising student clubs. It was like peering through a window into someone else's life. All the opportunities he'd never had. The anger inside him swelled. Looking through the door of another classroom, Macon saw 60-year-old professor Carolyn Cronenberg preparing for her first lecture of the day. Her head was bowed low over her computer as she worked.

Something inside of him stirred. Carolyn heard the classroom door close. She frowned. Her first student wasn't set to arrive for at least 15 minutes. She looked up just in time to see Macon charging at her. He grabbed Carolyn, threw her to the ground, and beat her in the head. Once she was unconscious, he raped her. The horrific attack took less than ten minutes.

Nobody saw or heard anything amiss. When it was all over, Macon poked his head in the hall and checked the coast was clear. He smoothed down his rumpled clothing and slipped out of the building, disappearing without a trace. Carolyn's class was due to start at 9 a.m. Around 8.40, her first student, who will call Jackie, arrived. Jackie found her professor lying in a pool of her own blood, barely alive. She screamed for help, unable to process the horror of the situation.

Paramedics treated Carolyn at the scene and rushed her to the hospital, but she died later that day. In the aftermath of Carolyn's attack, Lansing Community College was shaken to its core. A security officer had seen the beloved professor. just 20 minutes before Jackie had found her. That meant that the brutal sexual assault and murder had occurred in a 20-minute window in broad daylight and no one saw a thing. It was incomprehensible.

With the community on edge, the pressure was on for police to arrest someone and fast. So that's exactly what they did. 26-year-old Claude McCollum was a student at the college. He was homeless and often slept on campus. As far as we can tell, this was the only reason authorities honed in on him as a suspect. McCollum was arrested two days after Carolyn's murder and brought to the police station for questioning. It's important to note that McCollum had significant learning difficulties, which likely impacted his testimony.

During the interrogation, officers asked McCollum how he, hypothetically, might have committed the murder. Some of his answers seemed to be based on details he'd been fed. said earlier in the interview. Meanwhile, others were entirely inconsistent with the facts at the crime scene. Given this information, it seems likely that the police tricked McCollum into unknowingly confessing to Carolyn's murder. False and coerced confessions are alarmingly common, and the risk may be even higher for those with learning difficulties. A 2018 Stanford Law Review article analyzed 245 cases where a person was exonerated after making a false confession. More than a quarter of these people showed signs of intellectual disability. Since only

around 1% of the population has an intellectual disability, this strongly suggests a correlation. But the authorities in Lansing were seemingly unconcerned by the possibility of a wrongful conviction. They just wanted to solve the case. And so, the police charged McCollum with murdering Carolyn Cronenberg. There was a wealth of evidence that should have exonerated McCollum. The most obvious was security footage that placed him in an entirely different building during Carolyn's murder. However, for some reason, this video was never shown at trial. In addition to the recording, there was DNA evidence found underneath Carolyn's fingernails that didn't match McCollum's.

Instead, it was linked to an unidentified male, who we now know was Macon. Despite all of these inconsistencies, in February of 2006, Claude McCollum was found guilty of raping and murdering Carolyn. He was sentenced to life behind bars. When McCollum was locked up, Matthew Macon breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been watching the case closely, anxiously waiting to see if McCollum would go down for his crime. Nobody had. Macon could relax. But Macon knew he'd gotten lucky.

McCollum was an easy scapecoat and the city was eager to move on from Professor Carolyn Kronenberg's murder. Next time, he might not be so fortunate. That's probably why he tried to lay low. By Macon standards, that meant avoiding violent crime. We don't have much information about his activities over the next two years, but at some point he ended up behind bars for violating parole. By the time he was released, it was June of 2007, and Macon was nearing his 30th birthday.

It was a brutal wake-up call. He was acutely aware that his life was going nowhere. Ever since childhood, Macon had bounced around institutions, from foster homes and juvenile facilities to state prisons. He'd never been in command of his own life and didn't know how to function in the outside world. The only times he'd felt in control were in the throes of violence as his victims begged for mercy. That summer, he chased this feeling of power again and again.

On July 26, Macon was walking through downtown Lansing. just a block away from the community college where he'd murdered Carolyn Kronenberg. The memory of that crime of the rush of adrenaline he'd felt flooded his body. The time had come. He had to kill again. Turning onto a quiet residential street, Macon's gaze landed on a 76-year-old woman mowing her lawn. Ruth Hallman was a fierce local activist, known for her work on neighborhood safety. Her daughter, Carol Wood, was a city councilwoman. Megan knew none of this. All he saw was an easy target.

Ruth turned off the lawnmower and headed back towards her house. Macon slithered up behind the elderly woman and stopped beside her at the front door. He plastered an innocuous smile onto his face and asked Ruth if she needed help with any yard work. When she said no, his demeanor shifted. He forced his way inside the house and knocked Ruth to the floor. As she lay there, Macon demanded money. He threatened to kill her if she didn't pay up. Ruth insisted that she didn't keep any cash in the house.

Macon didn't believe her. After rifling through her purse, he tore through the cabinets but came up empty every time. And the longer he looked, the angrier he became. Finally, he gave up. At the same moment, his eyes happened to land on a hammer lying in one of the drawers. As Ruth tried to pull herself to her feet, Macon grabbed the hammer and smashed in her head. She toppled back onto the ground as Macon continued to beat her with the heavy tool, almost severing one of her fingers. Eventually, Ruth stopped moving.

In the quiet seconds after the attack, Macon made sure his clothes were free of blood and strolled out of the house. He didn't bother to check if Ruth was still breathing. A few hours later, Ruth's neighbor knocked on the door. Inside the house, Ruth had regained consciousness. She heard the knocking and managed to drag herself to the front door, but she didn't have the strength to open it. Her neighbor grew increasingly worried and somehow they made it inside. They almost stumbled over Ruth, who was lying on the ground, alive but incoherent.

She was rushed to the hospital, where she died from her injuries two days later. The police investigation moved swiftly. As a lifelong activist, Ruth reportedly had bad blood with some local drug dealers. Authorities reasoned that one of these people must have lost their patience with Ruth and decided to offer her. They compiled a long list of suspects, none of whom were Matthew Macon. Emboldened, he didn't wait long to strike again. On August 6, Macon met 36-year-old Deborah Kay Cook at a gas station. After speaking with her, Macon concluded that she was a crackhead.

He had a grudge against people that he believed were drug addicts. Some time earlier, one such person had testified against his brother, Melvin, landing him in prison. Even though Macon wasn't close with his brother and Kay had nothing to do with the trial, Macon held her responsible for Melvin's fate. In his twisted mind, she deserved to die, and that was that. He offered Kay money for sex and lured her to Hunter Park on the east side of the city. At night, the area became a haven for illicit activity. Macon knew that if anyone saw the pair walking together, they wouldn't look twice.

Soon they were alone in a deserted stretch of the park. Without warning, Macon turned on Kay and started to brutally beat her. She tried to fight him off, but passed out from the force of his attack. Once she was unconscious, Macon sexually assaulted. then left her beneath a tree to die. Around 5 o'clock the next morning, police officers on a routine patrol found Kay's body. Despite the similarities to Macon's previous murders,

the police viewed her death as an isolated event. Kay was much younger than Macon's other victims. And since she had a history of sex work, the cops might have assumed she was killed by an angry client. Whatever the reasoning was, it seems police didn't dig too deeply in the case. dig too deeply into the incident. Once again, Macon was in the clear, and he wasted no time continuing his deadly spree. On August 8th, he headed back to the Old Town neighborhood of Lansing.

He had a specific destination in mind, a three-story Victorian home in the 1,000 block of North Washington Street, the same house where he'd murdered his first victim, Barbara Jean Tuttle, three years earlier. Once there, he set his sights on forty-shington street. six-year-old Deborah Rent Force. Deborah had just moved into the building and was looking forward to a fresh start. She was attempting to leave behind her career as a sex worker, and had found a new job cleaning houses. Megan watched her for a moment before approaching the doorstep.

Then he lunged at Deborah and pushed her indoors. He forced his way into her apartment and sexually assaulted Deborah before beating her to death. As with his previous victims, he inflicted catastrophic head trauma. Once the deed was done, Macon made his way out onto the street. He looked back at the building, reflecting on the two lives he'd taken inside those walls. You've probably heard that criminals love to return to the scene of the crime. While that's not always true, there is evidence to suggest that some killers really do get a kick out of going back to the location of their past murders. According to the FBI's behavioral science unit, returning to the scene is usually a way for a killer to relive their crime.

and the sensations they felt during it. Sometimes there may be practical reasons to use the same location more than once. For example, it may be a secluded spot where the killer is unlikely to be caught. However, that wasn't the case here. Whatever Macon's motivation for returning to the Victorian house in Old Town Lansing, it proved to be a fatal mistake. When officers found Deborah's body, they finally began to suspect they were dealing with a serial killer. For the first time, they drew a line from Barbara's 2004 death to the recent murders in the area.

There were too many similarities to ignore. At long last, the net was beginning to close on Matthew Macon. Up next, Macon's spree comes to an abrupt end. Transport your senses with Soledigianato's limited edition perfume mist collection. At Sephora, spritz on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp sea breeze with Hefresco Paraiso. Embrace a floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with cheeky bikini. Or capture sun-kissed bliss with limonada gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets

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Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Now back to the story. On August 8, 2007, Matthew Macon had claimed his fifth victim. And this latest attack was the one that helped police finally connect the dots between his many crimes. They were raring to bring Macon to justice. Realizing they were dealing with a serial killer, local authorities organized a task force and brought in criminal profiling experts from the Michigan State Police and the FBI.

They didn't want to alarm the public, so they kept quiet about their suspicions. But by that stage, five women had been beaten to death, three of them inside their own heart. homes, so the Lansing community knew there was a murderer among them. As his hometown grew paralyzed with terror, 28-year-old Macon had never felt more relaxed. He had no idea that the police were looking for him, and he waited less than a month to strike again. On August 27, Macon went back to another familiar neighborhood. 64-year-old Sandra Eichorn lived less than a mile from Ruth Hallman, Macon's third victim.

night she was unfortunate enough to be out on her doorstep as Macon ambled down the street. He approached Sandra and put on the same friendly, hopeful smile he'd used with Ruth. He held out a business card and told her he was looking for work. He asked if she or any of her friends needed help around the yard. As she reached out to take the card, Macon grabbed her arm and dragged her inside the house. He tried to beat Sandra, but she struggled against him. The harder she fought, the anger angrier Macon got. He didn't have time for this. He grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her over 30 times. After Sandra was dead, Macon did something strange. He placed the business card he'd used to bait her on a plate of spaghetti on the counter. The card didn't actually have Macon's details on it. It was from a computer repair shop he'd recently visited.

But it was an important detail all the same, and it held the key to unlocking everything. When detectives got to Sandra's house, they immediately honed in on the piece of cardboard. The killer, whoever he was, had left it as a clue, as if he was teasing them. Many killers leave behind a signature at their crime scenes. According to criminology professor Jack Levin, this may be an attempt to take credit for their crimes, even anonymously. Other times, it's an effort to taunt the police. It's not clear what Macon's motivation was, leaving behind a business card from a computer store he'd visited doesn't really seem to qualify as an intimate touch. And as far as we know, he'd never

used a signature before. Since he didn't have a personal connection to the computer store, it's possible that this was a clumsy attempt to throw the authorities off his trail. If so, it didn't work. Police interviewed the computer store owner and asked if he'd served any dubious customers recently. As a matter of fact, the man said he had. The owner described a man who'd brought in a laptop that he wanted to unlock. He claimed it belonged to a friend. Something about his demeanor was suspicious, and he'd been reluctant to leave his name or address, but eventually he gave in.

That customer's name was Matthew Macon. And thanks to a perceptive retailer, his luck had finally run out. On August 28, the day after he killed Sandra Eichorn, Macon went to the east side of Lansing, hunting for unsuspecting women. Of course, he had no idea that the police were onto him. He spotted 41-year-old Karen Delgado-Yates. She had a history of sex work, and it's possible that Macon used this as an excuse to approach her. After chatting her up, he lured Karen to a vacant house nearby, perhaps by offering her money for sex.

Once they were inside, he beat her to death. But this time, Macon wasn't sated with a single murder. He wanted to kill again, right away. Most people are familiar with the idea that if you use a drug regularly, your body can build up a tolerance to it. Researchers have found similarities between the brains of drug users and sensation seekers. That is, people who are drawn to extreme sports, dangerous professions, and other adrenaline-producing activities.

It's possible to become addicted to that rush of excitement. We can apply this same idea to Macon. Perhaps he'd built up a tolerance to the high he once experienced from killing. Only now, he couldn't stop with just one victim. After beating Karen to death, Macon walked a few minutes north, searching for his next hit. At some point, he knocked on 56-year-old Linda Jackson's door. When Linda answered, Macon slipped back into a now-familiar act. He tried to present himself as a friendly down on his last.

luck young man looking for an honest day's work. He asked Linda if she needed help with any household repairs. Apologetic, she said she didn't, but offered to pass his information along to friends. She told him to wait a moment as she retrieved a paper and pen from inside. Back on the doorstep, Macon gave her a name, Chili Smith, along with an address and phone number. The pair spoke a little longer, and Linda noticed some red flags. Macon's eyes kept darting up and down the street, as if to check for onlookers, and his jaw was set tight. Linda tried to ignore her feeling of unease.

It was broad daylight, and her neighborhood was busy. She was just being paranoid, but the headlines about a serial killer had really freaked her out. Linda turned to put the pen and paper back. As soon as she did, Macon pushed her inside and slammed the door shut. He grabbed a beer bottle from the counter. and started beating her with it, but she fought him, screaming for help. Linda's dog Cheyenne had been sleeping upstairs,

but bolted awake at the sound of her human yelling. She hurtled down the stairs and ran to Linda's defense. Cheyenne lunged at the strange man, barking and growling furiously. Macon staggered backwards an alarm. He wasn't expecting this. He was used to being the predator, not the prey. He sprinted out of the house and fled down the street,

to avoid Cheyenne's gnashing teeth. It's not clear if Cheyenne had been trained as a guard dog or was simply acting instinctively. Either way, she unquestionably saved Linda's life that day. Research suggests that dogs can sense their owners' emotions and are particularly responsive to the sound of human crying. In a 2018 study from the journal Learning and Behavior, dogs were separated from their owners by a glass door

which they were able to open. Researchers found that dogs opened the door about 40 seconds faster when their owners were making a distressed sound, like crying, versus a non-distressed sound. They concluded that dogs really do respond to their owner's distress and quickly try to alleviate their pain.

Cheyenne is a prime example of such heroic canine behavior. As soon as Cheyenne chased Macon away, Linda called 911. She was in shock but hadn't sustained any major injuries. At this point, she believed she'd just been the victim of a particularly violent robbery. However, once the police arrived, Linda realized the truth. The investigators told her that Megan was thought to have killed at least six women. And as far as anyone knew, Linda was the

only known survivor. Linda gave officers a detailed description of her attacker and told them he'd called himself chilly. Both of these pieces of information implicated Mee. Her description matched him perfectly, and Chile was a known alias of Macon's. With that, the authorities had all the information they needed and ordered a citywide manhunt for the suspected killer. Within hours, police tracked down and arrested the 28-year-old. According to one of the arresting officers, Detective Sergeant Joey Dianice, Macon looked relieved as he was being handcuffed.

In general, the idea that serial killers secretly longed be caught, has been shown to be a myth. According to the FBI, these criminals become bolder with every kill. It's likely that they take risks not because they want to be caught, but because they assume they never will be. In Macon's case, though, it's possible he did actually feel relief. Remember, he'd spent more of his life inside institutions than not. He was never able to operate on the outside for long. Deep down, he may have longed to return to the structure of prison. The day after Macon's arrest, the body of his last victim, Karen Delgado Yates, was found by a realtor. Macon confessed to everything during questioning. He described his seven murders in detail,

including that of Professor Carolyn Cronenberg in 2005. Based on this confession, Claude McCollum was exonerated and released from prison. By then, he'd been behind bars for over a year for a crime he hadn't committed. He later sued the police and county officials and received a $2 million settlement. Meanwhile, Macon finally faced justice. In May of 2008, his trial began. He had two charges of first-degree murder for the deaths of Sandra and Karen. He was also accused of home invasion and assault with intent to murder by Linda Jackson.

Though Michigan authorities had planned to go after Macon for all of his murders, prosecutor Stuart Dunnings eventually opted not to pursue more charges. The defense counsel didn't present any witnesses. It seems they knew a fight would be futile. The evidence against Macon was overwhelming. Indeed, after just two hours of deliberation, the jury found him guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Despite his earlier confession, Macon appealed his conviction in 2010, but it was unsuccessful. He's currently being held at McComb Correctional Facility, a mixed security prison 100 miles east of Lansing. It's easy to look at a story like Macon's and conclude that he was doomed to follow in his father's violent footsteps. But there are always choices, and Macon made plenty of them.

For some, trauma can be transformative. Many people who come from abusive backgrounds use their experience to accomplish extraordinary things. it's always possible to choose a different path. Macon made his choice again and again and again. In the end, it seems his only impulse in life was to destroy. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with another episode.

For more information on Matthew Macon, amongst the many sources we used, we found Todd Haywood's coverage in the Lansing City Pulse extremely helpful in our research. You can find all episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast.

Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Michael Motion, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Emma Dibdin, with writing assistance by Natalie Pertzom, and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Haley Milliken, and research by Brian Petris and Chelsea Wood. Serial killers stars Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson. I'm Sarah Turney, host of the new Spotify original from Parkcast, Disappearances. Every Thursday, join me for an exploration into history's most gripping missing persons cases. Following timelines, analyzing clues, and piecing together as many answers as possible.

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