Why Can't We Talk About Amanda's Mom? - What to Listen to Next: Very Scary People

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

If you enjoyed Who Killed Jennifer Judd, we think you'll like the new season of Very Scary People: A Family to Fear. An intense custody battle turns deadly when Christine Belford’s ex-husband and his family become obsessed with controlling the couple’s three daughters. The family is willing to do anything including stalking, kidnapping, and even murder to get their way. Over eight episodes, host Donnie Wahlberg takes listeners down a dark and twisted journey, exploring how one family’s obsession became a mother’s worst nightmare. With exclusive interviews and audio, the story goes beyond the headlines of the sinister Matusiewicz family. Listen to Episode 1, The Takeover here, and follow Very Scary People wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a story that involves stalking, psychological torture, alleged sexual abuse, kidnapping and murder. Listener discretion is advised. This season on Very Scary People. This particular case involved an entire family. My mom started to panic. Why would he take them? 9-1-1, what's your emergency? These people are crazy on a level I've never seen before.

They'll never leave me alone. That's all I can think. He will never stop. At this point in time, the Matusowitsas take matters into their own hands. We have to get the girls now. We have to go get the girls right now. We had been doing everything we could domestically to find them. Now the focus moved international.

You cross the family and you end up dead. The first thing that hit me was the smell of gunpowder. It was a murder scene. It was an active shooting scene. We knew there were three people dead. At that point, it was all hands on deck. It's September 8th, 2007, in Wilmington, Delaware. With a population of just under 74,000, Wilmington is known for its rich industrial history,

lively neighborhoods, and a profound sense of community. But on this fall day, the weather is unusually warm and the leaves have just begun to change. 33-year-old Wilmington resident Christine Belfort sits at home waiting for her ex-husband, 36-year-old David Matusiewicz, to arrive with their three young children. David has decided to take their kids along with his mother, Lenore Matusiewicz, on a two-week trip to Disney World before the start of the school year.

The problem is they should be back by now. Christine tucks her shoulder-length dirty blonde hair behind her ears as she begins to slowly pace back and forth. She dials David's phone. It goes straight to voicemail. One hour passes, then another. Christine tries David again. And again. No answer.

Christine silently curses under her breath. Where are they? She knows their separation has been contentious and the custody battle put them both on edge. But why wouldn't he bring them home on time? What does he have to gain? As Christine's phone calls to David continue to go unanswered, an uneasy feeling begins to creep in. But as more time passes, she has a terrifying realization.

David never planned to bring the children back. This wasn't just a family vacation, but a carefully calculated abduction. And as her worst fears are realized, one chilling question fills her with dread. Why? Welcome to Very scary people. A family to fear. From an outsider's view, a father losing track of time or getting stuck in traffic on a road trip shouldn't set off these types of alarm bells.

However, this story doesn't begin with a late drop off. And to understand the panic that is overtaking Christine at this moment, we need to know how they got here. Who were David Matusiewicz and Christine Belfort? How did two people who once vowed to spend their lives together end up in a place of such mistrust and fear? And is there something in their past that could help make sense of all the tragedy yet

to come? David's story begins in 1967. He was born in New Jersey to parents, Tom and Lenore Matusiewicz. Thomas and Lenore had three children. David is the firstborn and eldest son. Soon after came Michael, and a couple of years later, Amy, who has fond memories growing up as the youngest of the Matusiewicz clan.

I had a good childhood. We always had like other kids at the house and everything. We always like went out and played, but we grew up with love. Reporter Chris Barish recalls learning about the Matusiewicz family during his time at the Wilmington News Journal. The Matusiewicz family never really had a lot of money

and the house was always like really messy. But they were very devoted to their children. They would spend a lot of time with them. And although Tom and Lenore were committed parents, financial struggles were a constant reality. There were multiple times when the water would be shut off or the rent fell behind because of a mispayment. Yet, rather than breaking them, these hardships

seem to draw the Matusiewicz family closer, forming an almost unbreakable bond between them. Tom's cousin, Jill Matusiewicz, recalls how this closeness also created a unique and at times unsettling dynamic within the family. As a family, David was always the favored child in every way. David could do no wrong even if he was doing wrong in front of them.

There was no discipline. The kids were kind of unkept. Growing up, they were always with the runny noses, and Amy had stringy hair. They were undisciplined, even when discipline should have been instilled upon them. It is clear to those on the outside that Tom and Lenore don't subscribe to conventional parenting methods, and that the state of the children definitely raises eyebrows. However, no one can deny that they are a tight-knit unit that sticks together,

especially when tragedy strikes. Michael, the middle child, develops leukemia as a teenager. The family is there to support him in his battle against cancer. But unfortunately, it proves incurable. And Michael passes away at the age of 18. Here's Amy. It was hard on us. We were just grieving. But I think it made us stronger. It made us Here's Amy. After Michael's death, the family focus on David only increases. Amidst their grief, David truly becomes the Golden Child. David enters college with the weight of his family's expectations squarely on his shoulders. Ever since he was a little boy, he has been told that he is special and destined for great things.

College was his first major step towards that bright future. It becomes clear very quickly that Tom Lenore's faith in David is well placed. He shines academically and forges a clear path towards a successful career in the medical field. He excelled in school. He went to Glassboro State College, and he became an optometrist and then moved to Delaware, where he started a thriving business. He was involved in Special Olympics. He talked about how he provided eyeglasses

to some of the participants. And he was very involved, and everybody you know, everybody looked up to him. David is making quite an aim for himself and his local community. Everything in his life seems to be falling into place. And his love life is no exception. David starts getting close with the receptionist at his optometrist practice, Christine Belfort.

The two become quick friends, and it doesn't take long for their feelings for each other to grow. And while David's upbringing has been well documented, Christine Belfort's origins have remained somewhat of a mystery until now. Eileen McDermott, Christine's stepmother, has been a major part of her life from a young age

and remained a close confidant throughout her most formative years. I met Christine through friends. I also lived down the street from her. She was, I think, 11. She was so neat. A smile that would light up the room. If you knew her, her personality soared through the roof. She had a huge heart, and I can remember any time somebody would do something for her, give her a gift, anything, she would sit down and write a letter to him and thank them.

And at a young age, that's rare. Things happened in my family and my house that forced me to leave my home. Christine's mother, Cathy, welcomed me into her home and then I never left. Christine saved me in many ways and she felt as though I saved her in many ways growing up. I was the big sister that she didn't have and she was the kid sister that I didn't have. Christine, being an only child, she loved the fact that I moved in. There was just the idea of having,

I guess, someone else in the house, somebody else palling around with. And when her parents, Kathy and Jim separated, there was a just fighting a lot, not getting along, that sort of thing. The separation was there long before I even got there. You know what I mean? They were just going through the motions

of just being parents to Christine. I can honestly say that Christine was loved by both parents. They might not have liked one another, but they loved their daughter. And eventually, when I started a relationship with her father, Christine really didn't, she didn't mind. There was never any anger, resentment at all towards me and the relationship that I had with Jim. I will never be her mom. I am her friend. I am her sister. I am her protector.

That's all I am to her. In July 1994, Christine marries her high school sweetheart, a man named Bill Mafa. Just a few months later, in September, they welcome a daughter, Katie. Bill came from a great family, great parents, good upbringing. I mean, they were a cute couple. Yeah, they really got along very well. Christine loved being a mom. She loved dressing Katie up in her cute little outfits and doing her hair. And they so much look alike. I want to say that Christine and Bill kind of grew apart.

It was a financial struggle, and he had struggles himself. He was going through drugs at the back end of that relationship. There was something that was there. Bill began to spiral deeper into his addiction, making it impossible to be the husband and father that Christine needed him to be. Although they still loved each other, she needed to do what was best for her and Katie

and made the heartbreaking decision to file for divorce. After her divorce from Bill in 1998, Christine finds herself a single mother, doing everything she can to support her young daughter. She takes a job as a receptionist at a local optometrist's office where she meets David Matusiewicz, one of the optometrists on staff. At nearly 6'4", with Sandy Brown hair, and a successful career, David is tall, strong, handsome, and accomplished. The two hit it off almost immediately.

They got along really well. She looked up to him, and she thought he was always friendly and helpful. She thought he was really good with patients, and I think she admired that. He was a good businessman. He was involved in the community. He also appeared on the local PBS affiliates, Weekly News Magazine, talking about vision care.

So he was very successful. Christine's former sister-in-law, Jenny Polisi, vividly recalls meeting David for the first time. Christine was married to my brother Bill. I was friends with her for a lot of years after. The first time I met David was I went to see him for an eye visit. So I needed to have my eyes checked.

She was dating him and working there, so I said, I'll just go in and he can be my eye doctor. And I liked him. He was very professional, nice guy, seemed very competent, no problems at all. I thought that he was a good fit for her. I think that's what really Christine's seen, somebody who is going to be able to provide for her or her child as well.

It's also hard to find somebody who's going to not only love you for you, but extend that love into your children. And that's hard to find anywhere. And she had that with Dave. And after about three years of dating, on October 13, 2001, David and Christine were married. It felt like Christine's dream of a big happy family was finally coming into focus She has one great daughter already and now she has a partner who she can build a life with In a recorded interview with reporter Chris Barish in 2008 Christine recalls details of her and David's relationship and can be heard here talking about their picture perfect wedding day.

So we were dating, we dated for a while. I guess we dated up until the year 2000. We got married in 2001. Yeah, it was beautiful. I know I knew, but okay. It was a great, great day, great ceremony. It was outside. Right. It was October. My oldest daughter by then was, I guess, about five. So she was one of the flower girls. And we went off to Maui for a honeymoon. So it sounds like Cinderella's story on this, right? Yeah. Christine's daughter, Katie Mafa,

fondly remembers her relationship with David during these happy times. Dave was fun. He would play with me outside. He put in a pool for me. He got a swing set. He taught me how to swim. He was a good stepdad. He took care of me and gave me everything I wanted. Dave treated Katie great. Heart of gold. When Katie was little, Katie wouldn't get out of bed. But she would sit up in bed and repeat mommy mommy mommy mommy a thousand times until somebody came to that room. That's just one of the things that he thought was adorable that it was just you know every time She wanted something. I don't care what it was if if she wanted a glass of milk if she wanted

You know to watch a movie whatever he was there he was he was a great guy he had a heart of gold David proved with Katie that he had all of the skills and desire to be an amazing father. David and Christine decided it was time for them to expand their family with children of their own. In 2002, Christine and David welcomed their first daughter. Two more daughters followed in 2003 and 2005. But Christine had three daughters in a four-year period. And that's a heavy load for any young family, you know, or young mother. Christine suffered from postpartum depression, and she needed to take medication.

She also told me once she had to buy, like, hamburgers for a picnic they were going to. And it took her an hour, because she was... The girls were a handful when she took three little... Imagine going to the grocery store with a two-year-old, a three-year-old, and a four-year-old and trying to keep them all together. Chrissy would have moved heaven and earth

for all of her children. I would say Christine felt drained, and there became that strain. Adding to the strain, Christine and David's middle daughter started displaying developmental concerns and was diagnosed with autism. That brought out, I think, every parenting difference that Christine and David had.

Christine would talk to me a lot about, David wants to cure her, and I just want to help her. I don't know that we can fix her, but I want to do whatever we can do to make her comfortable and thriving, and he thinks that she's broken. And so that created a layer of friction. So not only do you have a child that's clearly got some special needs, but now you're disagreeing on how you want to remedy it. She was carrying a heavy load. It was hard on her, but she was making it.

She was making it, but at the same time, the marriage was unraveling, slowly. In early 2006, with the honeymoon phase in the rearview mirror and the stresses of everyday life creeping in, David drops a bombshell on Christine. His parents, Tom and Lenore, would be moving in with them. David assures her that this is only temporary, until they find permanent housing nearby. He tries to convince Christine that his parents will provide much needed support when raising the girls. Christine is in total shock. Helping out with the kids is one thing, but adding two more people in a house that already has six sounds more overwhelming than anything. Christine protests, but David is not asking

for her permission. David just told her, hey, they're coming to live with us, and Lenore and Tom moved into their house. So after they sold their house in New Jersey and they were looking for a house in Delaware where they could be near Christine and David and the kids, and they moved in and they were only going to stay for a few months, but it extended to almost nine months.

In their 2008 interview, Chris Barish asked Christine how Lenore and Tom moving in started to affect her relationship with David. You know, we were together. It was, his family's involvement became more and more difficult. At one point, he moved them into the house without asking me if that was okay.

So now I have his mother and father living there. So you came home one day and they're just there? There they are. Get outta here. Where were they living? They were in New Jersey. They had been trying to sell their house for a very long time.

And when they finally got a buyer that wanted it, David's advice to them was take it. And if you don't feel like we don't have anywhere to go, apparently he said, come live with us. He came home and said, they're coming. Christina's always considered her connection with David's parents to be fairly standard. She didn't think she was their favorite person,

but everyone was amicable. Almost everyone. It was pretty much normal in the beginning. Anytime they would have a get together or they would have dinner or barbecues or whatever, we were always the guests in the home. Jim and myself, Lenore, Tom, was your typical household. The biggest question I think that was actually asked

was the idea that she had a child already. That was really the one thing that Lenore had a problem with. The fact that not necessarily her being damaged goods, but the idea that she was already in a relationship and she already has a child with someone. In her interview with reporter Chris Barish, Christine opens up about her relationship with Lenore,

including their tense first meeting. You don't really get along with the parents that well, or the mother? You know, I got along with the father fine at the time. The mother just, the very first day I met her, the father fine at the time. The mother just, the very first day I met her, she refused to speak to me. And I should have known again one of these signs that I should have known. She wouldn't talk at all.

I mean, she didn't even say hello. How are you? The person you met her in life, right? Right. Like we went out because it was David's birthday and we all went out and had the whole day together. Like we spent, did lunch and did some other things. She didn't say a word. Christine doesn't know just how right she is about Lenore.

As Tom and Lenore settle in, it starts to become clear that Lenore sees herself as more than just a helping hand. I think her plan from the beginning was to teach Christine how to be a good mother. Psychologist Dr. A.J. Marsden is an expert in organizational psychology as well as family dynamics. Because she felt like she was a good mother to the kids.

After all, look at how David turned out. He turned out he's a doctor. What a great child. So I think in her mind, she did want to teach Christine how to be a good wife and mother. Lenore, on the surface, looks like she's just trying to be a good grandmother, right? I just want to move in for a little while after the last daughter is born, help you out, you're clearly overwhelmed, I just want to be there for you. But in Lenore's mind, it wasn't, I just want to be

there for Christine and help her with these grandchildren. In Lenore's mind, it was, these are now my children, and I need to make sure that they are taken care of. Christine clearly is not doing a good enough job. There are many ways to raise children, and no such thing as a perfect parent. It was one thing when Lenore didn't care for Christine as a daughter-in-law, but it's becoming clear

Lenore has no respect for Christine as a mother. Lenore is watching Christine like a hawk. No matter what she does, Lenore always finds fault with how Christine decides to parent her children. Christine was kind of, you know, chill, go with the flow kind of individual. And some of the claims that Lenore makes was that Christine not feeding the girls until 2 p.m. In Lenore's mind, that's not acceptable. It's not acceptable for Christine not to be on a schedule, for Christine not to have the girls in this strict environment.

So she wants to be in that environment to exert control, to make sure that the girls are doing what she wants them to do, and to exert control over Christine. Christine said, it is really difficult to have David's parents here. They are intervening in my raising of the kids and I have tried to step in, I've tried to intervene and that causes a lot more friction. It was never a husband and wife.

It was always mom and son against daughter. Because Lenore wanted control. I kind of witnessed a couple of different things that were just a little off about her. I did notice that when the children were in the company of others other than Lenore, she would hurry up and grab them. It happened a couple of times. I would take the oldest daughter and swing her on the swings and it's not a sense of jealousy but it's the control factor. When she was seeing, she was laughing and enjoying herself. It's like she was watching and waiting and all of a sudden it was scooped up like,

okay, you're having way too much fun, we can't have this. That happened more than enough times. Chrissy had no say. It became a war. It became a battle to make a decision. Anyone can only take so much of that fight. And when you're fighting a team, there is no winning. There is no compromise.

Lenore, feeling more emboldened with each passing day, began to tread into deeper waters. She inserted herself directly into one of the most personal and contentious disagreements in David and Christine's marriage, the treatment of their middle daughter's autism. Lenore had a lot to say about what they needed to be doing for the middle child. They wanted to try magnet therapy

and some other kind of stuff. And David wanted to take her to somewhere in Canada to get this specialized treatment because it wasn't FDA approved. And she said, absolutely not. If it's not FDA approved, we're not doing it. I know that David thought that you could cure autism with goat's milk.

So my sister was put on a special diet of goat's milk and organic foods. And that created friction because David was kind of siding with Lenore about these special things they wanted to try to cure autism. And Christine was just saying, no, we need to decide this as a couple and without Lenore inserting her opinion in and that created a lot of problems in the marriage. Sadly, Christine was not the only one dealing with the fallout of David's loyalties. Up until Tom and Lenore moved in, Katie always felt like a full-fledged member of the family. David had always been so kind to her

and treated her like she was one of his own. Now, with Lenore creating dividing lines within the family home, Katie finds out the hard way that she and David are not on the same side. I remember getting in trouble a lot more for everything, like every little thing. I was always in my room and David would make me write sentences. I will not talk back or I will

not touch this or whatever I did I had to go up to my room and write it 500 times before I could come back down. Katie told me that there was an incident where she was sitting on the couch and the oldest child was about 18 months old. My sister was probably getting a lot of attention because she had finally learned to walk, and I was not getting any. So I just tripped her when she walked by,

and I got sent to my room. When I went up to my room, Dave came up with me, and he told me not to touch any of his kids ever again. David told her, if you touch my kids again, I'll throw you out this window. I honestly put the majority of this blame, in my opinion, goes to Lenore. I think once she got in there,

and once she was able to get her claws physically on David, Lenore constantly fed Dave bad thoughts all the time. She was a cancer in Dave's head. And it kept festering and festering and festering and festering. Forced a wedge between Katie and Dave. How do you break the spirit of a child? Makes no sense to me.

I remember being scared. He was standing over me, and he was probably like six, four. Like he was big. I was little. I don't think that Lenore has ever viewed Katie as part of the family. So she sees this as her opportunity

to permanently get rid of Christine and Katie and slide in as the girl's maternal caretaker. One time my mom and Dave did go way on vacation and when they came back Lenore had said that I had was causing problems the whole time that they were gone. She said that I had told her to shut up and that I was lying about it and that I stole one of her chapsticks. That was probably nine, eight or nine. None of it was true. and then I stole one of her chapsticks. That was probably nine, eight or nine. None of it was true.

So there was a lot of picking on Katie and then Lenora told Katie that she could no longer call her grandma. She was no longer her grandma. She was to call her Lenora in the house. And I do believe Lenora wanted her gone. And that's when it became clear to me that I was not a part of that family.

Christine remembers this incident all too well and confides in Chris Barish about how difficult things had gotten with Lenore. A lot of problems had ensued when his parents had lived there. At one point, his mother was accusing my oldest daughter of being a liar and stealing things from her. And my daughter said she didn't do it.

Even when my daughter swore she didn't do it, she, I said, we should try to write some kind of apology letter anyway to clear it up. So she did, and they said, I won't accept this because you're a liar. Christine and I were close. And so I just said, very frankly, there's something going on that you're not telling me, because Katie's

had an extreme emotional change. And that's when Christine said, Lenore's been mean to Katie, and I have tried to step in. And she said, I told Lenore that no child deserves to be treated like that in her own home. And Lenore did not take that well. Lenore's constant attempts to seize control of Christine's family are clearly taking their toll.

The incessant undermining and conflict is turning the Matusiewicz home into a war zone. And Tom isn't helping to downplay that feeling. Tom had brought us a collection of pistols and rifles and had a gun cabinet there. Tom had a lot of guns. When you would walk down to the basement, there was a gun safe at the bottom of the steps, and it was so full that it didn't actually shut. My mom, I don't think she particularly liked guns,

but nothing she can do about it. Christine, she had said, at one point, you know, Tom was always the nice one. Tom was the one that was the nicest to Katie. And then all of a sudden, it changed. One day, my mom went down to the house to pick up the girls or drop them off. David was there and Tom and Lenore.

Christine is in the middle of dealing with the kids amongst an errand-filled day, when Tom asked Christine to have a one-on-one conversation outside, in private. Christine tells him that she just doesn't have time to speak right now, and they'll have to do it another time. She never could have anticipated what would happen next. When David left the room, Tom grabbed my mom by her arm and drug her out back through the sliding glass door in front of all of us. He was yelling at her and I followed her outside crying.

That really shocked her and that happened. She's like, it's not safe here. I think that's when she decided to get divorced. She's worried about her daughters, and she was very protective. Everybody says they're protective of the girls, but she really was. She didn't want anything to happen to them. It's the end of August 2007, and Christine and David have been separated

for close to a year. Christine and her daughters are saying goodbye to Summer and preparing for the start of the new school year. I remember we went to the park and we spent a weekend together. It was like a normal weekend. David tells Christine that him and his mother want to take the kids to Disney World. And they had gone the year before without any problem. And Christine wants her daughters to have a relationship with their father. And she doesn't object to it in any problem. And Christine wants her daughters to have a relationship with their father.

And she doesn't object to it in any way. Christine is happy that the girls are excited for the trip. But being away from them for so long isn't easy. So, you know, they went on vacation and Christine called the oldest daughter for the first couple nights to talk to her. It is on one of these nightly phone calls that Christine's daughter tells her that she is really tired.

When Christine asks why, the girl's response is immediately unsettling. She told her oldest daughter that she would call her, and the daughter was crying and saying that they had been in the car for a long time, and they weren't at Disney World yet. Christine's heart drops. David, Lenore, and the girls were supposed to be flying to Florida.

So she would become more and more worried, and she said, I have been calling and I can't get ahold of David and Lenore. It just went to voicemail. She's calling around looking for her kids. They're nowhere to be found. Christine had a feeling something wasn't right, a mother's intuition. I don't have that, but I can only assume that, yeah,

you know something's wrong. Christine has watched David's entire personality shift day after day since his parents moved in with them. At this point, he was no longer the caring and loving husband she married, and Christine is starting to wonder if she's underestimated just how much he's changed and what he is truly capable of. My mom started to panic.

If this was their dad, why would he take them? She had no idea what was about to happen to her life. And their lives. And she said, Jenny, I don't think the... I don't think the girls are coming back. We knew the outcome could not be good if we don't find him. And find him as fast as we can. Next time on Very Scary People.

He definitely got kidnapping now. He had no plans to come back. Everything that went wrong is all now Christine's fault and he wants to give revenge for that. Usually with a fugitive case you have one individual, but this particular case involved an entire family. At that point, it was all hands on deck. Very Scary People is produced by Lionsgate Alternative Television for ID. I'm Donnie Wahlberg. You can follow our show wherever you get your podcasts. And we'd love it if you could take a second to leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.