Unseen - The Ohio Hollow Tree Fetish Murders | The Case of Sarah Maynard | UNSEEN

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

“I just know it, there’s something wrong with my kids” On November 11th 2010, cops enter Tina Hermann’s home after receiving a 911 call from her manager Valerie, who reported how unusual it was for her to miss a day’s work without telling anyone. The house is empty, and Tina and her entire family are gone: a suspicious scene reveals bloodstains, motor oil, a Walmart receipt, a missing car, but most shockingly, a woman-size shoe print leaving the home, meaning someone walked out of there, alive, and as the community begins to hunt for the missing family, time is running out for Sarah, who is now trapped in ‘the house of leaves.’ You can donate for Sarah’s ‘Healing Hearts Memorial Fund’ here:https://fairfieldcf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1199 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sheriff Barber's office. Yes, this is Valerie Hathorn. One of my employees did not show up for work this afternoon, which is totally uncharacteristic of her. I'm out of her house now. I just went in her home because I'm so worried about her. There is block. Everywhere.

On November 10, 2010, Tina Herman and her entire family suddenly disappeared without a trace. She had two children, a 13-year-old girl, Sarah, one and an 11-year-old boy. Coldie. The police searched the home and disappeared. discovered that the victims had been brutally attacked. There was bleating from the front door, through the hallways, back into the rooms, and into the bathroom. The perpetrator poured motor oil over most of the red stains in the house,

which not only contaminated the evidence, but also revealed a single footprint in the hallway. They were able to find that that was a seven and a half airwall. It was most likely the 13-year-old girl who had walked out of there, and we hoped that she was still alive. Next, detectives interviewed Tina's ex-husband, a man with a violent past, but who seemed to be genuinely distressed by the disappearance of his children. I have said, Paul, freaking, I just got this weird, creepy feeling that something is wrong with the kids. 48 hours later, investigators found a receipt that led them to the local Walmart parking lot.

The security person actually said that he thought the vehicle he was driving was a Toyota Yaris. So I thought, well, how many Toyota Yaris could there be in not? Following the trail of clues, they found a second house linked to the case, but nothing could have prepared them for what they discover inside. I mean, the whole house was full of leaves, you know, in bags, but there were just huge piles of leaves all through the house. And then they noticed that there was a dresser pushed against the basement door, and it was only on removing that dresser and going down into the basement that they discovered Sarah. And I could hear Joe yelling. They found her. She's alive. She's alive. In the remote community of Howard, Ohio, their 13-year-old,

Sarah Maynard was coming home with her little brother, Cody. As she entered the house, she expected her dog or her mom to greet her, but instead was met with silence. She began removing her shoes and noticed something sticky under her soul. She saw a clot of blood as she turned it over. She took a step back away from Cody and witnessed an unsettling scene. As she turned her attention back to her little brother, she noticed his wide-opened eyes weren't focused on her, but rather fixed on something else, something behind her. Later that same day, Valerie Haythorne, Tina's manager at the local Dairy Queen, grew concerned when she didn't show up for work. She tried calling Tina's phone, but it went straight to voicemail.

The manager grew increasingly worried as the hours passed. She eventually tried to call Tina's emergency contact number, Stephanie Sprang, but again, received no answer. Finally, as the sun began to set, Valerie got in her car and drove to Tina's house to check on her. When she arrived, she noticed that her Jeep wasn't in the driveway. The manager knocked on the door and got no answer. She had a bad feeling and knew something had to be done. The door was unlocked, so she took a look inside. What she saw prompted her to call the police immediately.

Farber's office? Yes, this is Valerie. Hey, Thorne. One of my employees did not show up for work this afternoon, which is totally uncharacteristic of her. I'm coming out of her house now. I just went in her home because I'm so worried about her. There is blood everywhere.

Don't go back in the house. We begin tonight with a developing story, a mystery that grows stranger by the minute. An entire family just vanishes. As the search intensifies, so does the fear in this community. I think everyone's just kind of really scared that something like this could happen so close to home. Combing through the whole residence proved to be difficult. There was forensic evidence in literally every room, and analysis had to be carried out in each of them. Drag marks from each of the rooms converged into the bathroom.

Motor oil had also been poured all over the place. Detectives assumed this was done in an attempt to eventually set the scene on fire or contaminate the evidence. On top of that, many footwear impressions were found on the floor. One was so accurate that they were able to not only identify the size, but also the brand. Right beside the door, heading outside, was an imprint of a small women-sized airwalk, probably something a teenager would wear. This information led Agent Winterrich to think that Sarah had probably been kidnapped by the person behind the attack.

We made our conclusion that it was most likely the 13-year-old girl who had walked out of there, and we hoped that she was still alive. An entire family going missing in such a small town left the police dumbfounded. But even if the case was unusual, the clock was still ticking for Sarah. So the Knox County Police split their forces into three entities. The first group would stick to the department, gather as many relatives and friends of the victims as possible, and conduct back-to-back interviews. policemen, canine squads, and volunteers would search the fields, forests, and mountains across the area.

Friends and neighbors scouring a wooded area looking for any sign of a missing family. The last group, the detectives, kept investigating the house and identified four different blood samples. Everything matched the family profiles, except one, which was later identified as Stephanie Springs, Tina's best friend. Back at the station, the officers interviewed Larry, the kid's estranged father. they once received a complaint of domestic violence against him in the past, so he was high on their list. I just got this weird, creepy feeling that, you know, something is wrong with the kid. And I have said, Paul, freaking, I haven't even, I haven't been blessed. You know, he says, I need this.

But the police couldn't identify any true motives on his part. On the other hand, they learned more about Tina's recent breakup, which directed them toward another lead. Tina Herman was in a relationship with a man by the name of Greg Borders. a living boyfriend that they'd been living together in this house for some period of time. Greg was the last person to arrive at the scene after the incident, and also the last to show up for his interview. He said that he and Tina had a big fight the very same day she went missing, so the police decided to keep him close while they checked up on his alibi.

You tell me a little bit about Tina. I know we had our problems, but I still never... Why was Tina living for an apartment? She was mad. She knew I was going to stay with my friend that night, And she thought maybe I was going to see a girl going to do something. What day was in? I said more of us. You never did sound good with everything that's going on.

You know what? You got to understand. And I don't worry, and I'll be worried too. With nothing else to go by, they turned to Stephanie's friends and Tina's co-workers to no avail. Well, she didn't show up on Wednesday. And nobody could get a hold of her phone was all up. And we're like, what's going on? I talked to Tuesday night.

and I talked to you on the more Wednesday and 12 times. After a whole day dedicated to interviews, the officers found next to nothing, but on the other end of the town, the detectives inside the house were on the verge of making a discovery that would change everything.

They still hadn't looked at the garage, the only unsoiled area on the property. Inside, they discovered a Walmart plastic bag laying against the wall. They unpacked two tarps, some heavy-duty garbage bags, and a receipt. So the detective

headed to the neighboring town of Mount Vernon, where the store was located. They requested to review the CCTV footage matching the receipts date and time. They carefully scrutinized the video for any clues that could lead to the identity of the kidnapper, and what they found was nothing short of shocking, a discovery that completely altered the course of the investigation. Gagged and tied up, Sarah was let out of her mother's Jeep in the middle of the night. She looked around for a second, trying to figure out where she was, but her abductor immediately put a pillowcase over her head before pushing her into the trunk of another car. Inside, she attempted

to piece together what had just happened to her, and more specifically, what actually happened to her family. Her thoughts were interrupted when, suddenly, the trunk opened. He then drove me to another house. He unblindfolded me and then he put me in the basement. Inside, Sarah noticed a most unusual odor from under the pillowcase, almost as if she was in the middle of a forest or standing over a freshly mowed lawn, but the underlying smell of decay crept in after a while. Before she could identify where it came from, she was thrown on to a weirdly textured mattress, but all of it came together when the kidnapper finally removed the pillowcase covering her eyes. I saw leaves everywhere. The leaves were all over the walls. He had told me he wanted to put

leaves to make my bed comfortable. Three days had passed since the kidnapping, and Sarah's situation had gone from bad to worse. Her abductor forced her to wear garbara. She had been to wear. garbage bags as clothing, before throwing her in a damp crevice behind a wall under the stairs. He then told her she should be grateful for how he treated her. He felt good about himself for him to think that you fed me and stuff and he didn't. He didn't let me shower or do any of that stuff. I didn't eat anything for days. Didn't sleep.

I stayed awake worrying about where my family was. Furthermore, she had to deal with the unending descent into madness her captors subjected her to. I think I just listened to everything he told me to do and just thinking about what had happened to them and just staying strong. Back at the store, the CCTV footage didn't fit the detective's original conclusions at all. Instead of someone either from Tina's or Stephanie's life, the video depicted what initially looked like a complete stranger. The security person actually said that he didn't. thought the vehicle he was driving was a Toyota Yaris. So I thought, well, how many Toyota Yaris could there be in Knox County? And on the first page, the last one on the page was Matthew

Hoffman. The police made a crucial discovery when they checked the suspect's driver's license. Matthew Hoffman's mother's address was registered as Apple Valley Drive, which was located a short walk away from Sarah's home. Although he moved to the neighboring town of Mount Vermont since then, they finally had a lead that could link him to Sarah's family. He looked very much, like the subject in the video and was actually wearing the same shirt in his driver's license photo that he was wearing at the store. Armed with the information they gathered, the detectives obtained a warrant and raided Matthew Hoffman's house early in the morning.

When they entered, they found him sleeping on the couch, surrounded by leaves. I mean, the whole house was full of leaves. He had collected a large amount of leaves, had him tacked to his walls, you know, in bags, but there were just huge piles of leaves all through the house. While they took him into custody, they started exploring the ground floor but found nothing related to the missing family. They started doing a room-by-room search. The house's layout was disorienting, with walls of leaves and a weird smell permeating the air. And they didn't find anything else on the ground floor.

They didn't find anything else on the second floor. That was until they found a dresser that was oddly placed amongst the walls of leaves. They moved it aside to reveal a hidden door leading to the basement. There, they found traces of Sarah's captivity, such as ropes and duct tape around a makeshift bed, but no sign of her. As they were leaving, one officer noticed a crevice in the wall near the stairs, and this is where they found her, sitting motionless and quiet. They carefully helped Sarah out of the crevice.

Her legs trembled uncontrollably as they walked up the stairs, and her eyes remained fixed on the floor, avoiding any eye contact with the policeman. The day I was rescued, I clearer remember. I was down in the basement and I heard these guys come down the steps and they said, we're not down here to hurt you. And then they picked me up and put me in the ambulance. Upon arriving at the hospital, she was rushed to the emergency room where a team of doctors and nurses stabilized her.

Her father rushed to her side, but when he saw her, he was taken aback by her appearance. Her face was sunken and gaunt. She looked like she had aged 10 years. Her ability to speak had also been hindered by the trauma, causing her to walk. whisper and stutter, but Sarah managed to tell the officer what happened during her captivity. Sarah did confirm in her interview after she was rescued that he had sexually assaulted her. But the most difficult part had yet to come when the detective asked Sarah to account what happened inside her own home four days prior. Her gaze fixed on the floor.

I can't think about how they died. It is too much because that's not a way a human being should die. In a whisper, Sarah recounted the horrific events of that day. When I started to go down the hallway, there was a guy who came out real fast. She screamed at Cody to run and escape while she raced further inside the house to call the police. Once in her room, panic engulfed Sarah's mind as she heard horrific screams coming from the hallway. I got to the phone and dialed 911, but I didn't hit talk because he'd kill me. He got out his knife and cut me on my finger. There was already blood on the knife that he had in his hand.

That is the moment when I began to think he killed my mom. He took her into the kitchen and tied her up. From this point on, she listened intently for any sounds that might give her clues about her family's whereabouts. Soon enough, she realized something happened to Cody. At that time, I knew he was killing my brother in the bathroom because I heard the toilet flush and then I heard running water. He then came back and dragged Sarah to the garage before forcing her to sit on top of a pile of plastic bags in the back of her mother's car. Later I found out that he had laid me on their dead bodies in the car. Now convinced that the missing family had actually been murdered, the police interviewed Hoffman over several days.

He eventually confessed in exchange for a diminishing plea deal. True to his twisted nature, the truth was hard to bear. He murdered Stephanie, Tina, Cody, and their dog. Afterward, he took care of their bodies in the bathroom with a pocket knife. Then, two days later, he stuffed the garbage bags with the remains. inside a hollow tree in the middle of the woods. In the end, Hoffman pleaded guilty to three aggravated murder charges, burglary, assault,

kidnapping, tampering with evidence, animal cruelty, and abuse of a corpse. But his plea deal prevented the state to sanction the death penalty so he was instead sentenced to life without parole. I have no regrets about this case whatsoever. I mean, you know, life in prison without parole. There was a part of me that just felt like Matthew Hoffman, you're no longer in control. In the wake of the tragedy, Sarah hoped to find solace in the care of her father.

However, the return home was far from comforting. The sole survivor of the 2010 Knox County killing says she's been the victim of abuse after her rescue. Along with Sarah's stepmother, Larry was often violent towards her. She found herself trapped, once again, this time, in a different kind of prison, but she wouldn't allow herself to be abused again. Instead, she decided to break the cycle of violence and pain. once and for all. She said she simply cannot take it any more.

That is why she said something. Both were served with protection papers and ordered no contact with Sarah. Despite the difficulty of her ordeal, Sarah never gave up. As a teenager, she wrote a book about her case and started a victim advocacy fund with her grandmother. She also adopted Elsa, one of the police dogs who participated in her search. I have a dog named Elsa. She used to be on the K-9 team that. was searching for my mom and my brother.

Sarah, now a mother of two, plans to study pediatrics with a grant provided by Dr. Phil and the University of Florida. Because we are all inspired by your courage and your bravery, and we want to do everything we can to help this dream of yours come true. After taking time away from the media to focus on raising her own family and carrying on the legacy of her loved ones, Sarah chose to break her silence for Jamie Klaus, a fellow kidnapping survivor whose case closely mirrored her own. If she is able to look up to me, I can help her in a very positive way.

Sarah, I think your case is the closest to Jamie's. What is your advice to Jamie? Of course, we feel days, you know, where we feel hopeless and we want to give up. You know, of course, I'm sure all of us feel that way, but we can't. Despite her difficult past, she continues to move forward and embrace her journey as a survivor. It made me become a really strong woman. It made me become a really strong mother. I've just got to hug you for a second.

Are you okay with hugs?