Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
when valeri haythorn became concerned that something horrible had happend to her co-worker.
after she failed to show up for work she broke in to her house only to find a disturbing scen.however she she would soon discover that her co-worker wasn´t the only one missing. and the thruth of what happened was even more horrific than anyone feared.
The nightmare began on Wednesday ,november 10th ,2010.In apple valley Ohio .
when 32 year Tina herman a reliable employee at the local dairy Queens missed a day for work .
however , she also wasn´t answering any text or calls .all of which was highly unusual for her concerned for her wellb eing ,valerie haythorn, Tinas manager ,decided to drive by her house and make sure everything was okej .she saw tina´s truck was in the the driveway. with another unknown car
and that the lights were on s inside the house.but she still felt like something wasn´t quite right. she called the police and told them that tina hadnt shown up for work.
dispatcher :” sheriff barbers´office.
valerie: hi,my name is valerie haythorn and i work at diary Queen.i´m the general manager out there.one of my employees did not show up for work this afternoon at four oclock.which is totally uncharacteristic of her she´s one of my managers.
i drow out by her house and went and knocked on the doore and left her a note.she´s not answering the phone ,she´s not answering text message. and she is not at home. but her truck and her coat are in the house.
im very concerned about her.dispatcher: whats´s her name ?
valerie: her name is tina hermann.i know that she and her boyfriend are splitting up and he can be a real jerk with her .
dispatch: i will have a deputy swing ot there and check on her .
two different officers at different times showed up to check the residence
but when they knocked no one came to the door. they left the mater unresolved.
The next day an officer called East Knox schools to find out if Tinas two children, 13 years old sara maynard and 10 years old kody maynard had been in school.
they were told that both children were in school on wednesday but hadn´t shown up on thursday.
soon a man named Rone metcalf was also contacting the police because his girlfriend, 41 years old stephanie sprang appeared to be missing. she was Tina´s best friend and they ´d been together before he lost contact with stephanie .
Ron sad last spoken to stpehanie around 12:45 on wednesday.but she hadn´t answered any of his calls since then . Around 4. pm. on this same thursday, tinas determined boss ,valerie decided to take matters into her own hands. when she got to Tina´s house she noticed that Tina´s truck was now gone from the driveway.and only the unknown veihicle was left.This vehicle would turn out to belong to stephanie.
when her knocks on the front went unanswered valerie decided to enter the house using an unlocked window on the back porch.once inside she, saw blood in the bathroom on the carpet .
as well as splattered thorughout the home. she immediately left the house and called the police.
valerie: this is valerie haythorn i called in last night about tina hermann being missing.i am pit at her house now.i jsut went in her home, because i´m so worried about her . theres is blood everywhere.
deputy: okej.where are you at? i m sorry , i just got back today ,so you kinda fill me in a little bit , okej?
valerie: Tina hermann works for me. she did not show up for work yesterday and we have not been able to locate her or her children for ..its been 24 hours now.i just spoke with…deputy: no, om´s orry, ma´m.
valerie: okej.
deputy : i just need an adress.
valerie : king beach drive in Apple Valley .
deputy:okej, just give us a few minutes and we´ll be on route.
valerie: okej ,
deputy: don´t go back in the house.
The police were officially investigating four disappearances;
Tina, Sarah ,Kody and stephanie ,the family dog , a miniature pinscher named Tanner was also missing.
the initial crime scene investigation concluded that the evidence indicated assault with body injury including a large amount of blood.
and what looked liked drag marks leading to the bathroom.
there was also blood onthe top of the basement stairs.
and in the basement,something terrible had happened in Tiná´s home.
but the exact extent of the horror stil wasn´t clear. the first suspect in the disappearances was the most obvious. Right at the beginning of the investigation the police were told that Tina and her boyfriend were in the middle of a breakup , and friends were worried that something happened them .
Gregory borders ,Tina´s live- in boyfriend who was not the father of her children was interviewed inmmediately, after he came to the police station volutarily.in his statement he admitted that he and Tina had split up.but they were still living in the house toghether until either of them could make other arrangements.interestingly
Gregory normally has wednesdays off from work ,the day (Tinas went missing) but he had decided to woirk overtime at Target Distribution in west jefferson, Ohio.about one and a half hours away. he worked from 6 a.m to 4. p.m.but instead of coming back home, he said he stayed at a friends hosue in Urbana as they had plans to play golf.
In Bellefontaine the next day.it alls seemed very convienient ,exept that all of his time was accounted for.and his friend verified that they had dinner together and stayed in watching TV.Gregory received a call from his mother around noon on thursdsay,and she told him that tina was missing.but instead of panicking and coming to help look for her he jsut assumeds he took the day ofand continued to golf.Gregory only realized his assumption couldn´t have been more wrong. when he finally returned home he shared with tina
after investigators cleared the crime scene gregory´s own family arrived witch bleach to clean up the blood in the house.so that he wouldn´t have to see it.with gregor cleared investigators moved on to other leads. on that same thursday …..
when Tina´s vehicle was discovered abandoned in the campus parking lot of the nearby kenyon college with no signe of her or anyone else.
but it was something at the crime scene back at tinas house that soon became the most promising piece of evidence.
investigators found Walmart shoppingbags and a box of heavy duty trash bags.now that´s not a good sign at all ,but in this case
it was also the investigation´s big break. becauise along with the shopping bags they also found a receipt for the purchase ,from the walmart in mount vernon.
The detectives wasted no time requesting the surveillance footage. and began scouring int for someone makin the suspicious purchase of garbage bag and tarps along with a turkey sandswich and a t-shirt.
wihch was seen on the receipt.it wasn´t long beforeb they found him bying the itmes jsut after midnight on Thursday morning .
just to be sure they had the right guy .investigator obtained a copy of the recepeit from the suspsisious transaction and they match the recepeit they found at the crime scene. and they matched.
the suspect was a white male 25 to40 years old, with brown hair, wearing camouflage shirt and glassess . he was caught on the fotage leaving the walmart in a silver Toyota Yris.using still image of the suspect, the investigators ussed the Oaho law enforcement Gataway to searsrch for an yowners of a silver toyota yris. it was then they found a
name. 30 years old matthews J hoffman .
His vehicle appaeared mach he surveillanse video, and in his Ohio BMW photo taken only 16 days before the walmart footage was caught. he was even wearing a camouflage shirt. similar to the video.
Obviously the police knew they had to talk to him.but matthew had two possible adresses, one belonged to his mother,patricia hegland ,and was only 0,4 miles from Tina´s home.
the other was registred under his name,and was only 10 miles from Tinas´s.
if there was any doubt that matthew was the right guy. a search of the Knox County sheriff´s office revealed that he had actually been stopped near where T ina´s van was found.
within the same hours that it was discovered, an officer had stopped him to sk why he was in the area. but believing nothing wasa amiss, and let him go.
The sheriff´s office also revealed that there was also a report of domestic violence. between matthew and his then live – in girlfriend. that occured about one month before the disappearances. during an argument , matthew allegedly choked his now ex-girlfriend.
it was also discovered that following the breakup, mathew had just recently been fired from his job as a tree trimmer for apparently. making his supervisor uncmfortable.
his ex-girlfriend was contacted and she told the police that matthew no longer lived at his mothers´s house, and hadn´t for severeal months.
Finally ,the police knew where to look for Tina ,sarah ,kody and stephanie. Once search warrants obtained just three days after the dissappearances. A SWAT t-team descended on matthew´s home.
because the weren´t sure if matthew had kidnapped the four people. they conduct a no knock search and used a ram . to force entry through he front door.
They then thrw in a flash grenade before they entered the home.what they found was more bizarre. then they coiuld have ever expected. matthew was a sleep on the sofa. he restisted a little by not showing his hands when asked. but was quickly arrested an removed from the home.
as soon as he ras taken car of officers notice something particuarly stange about he house.
there were leaves everywhere. the livingroom floor was almost completely covered in huge pile of leaves.
at first the police were worried that the leaf pile might be hidning something sinister.like a body.
but after searching through, they were relieved to find that this wasn´t the case. still, things only got weirder from here. there was also ……
After breaking down the door of a locked bedroom,police discovered wthat looked like a marijuana growing operation that wsas not a active. in the freezer they found two dead squirrels lying right next to a few red popsicles.
But the biggerst suprise was hidden in the basement.
A cabinet was blocking the doorway ,but once moved,an officer disvobered Tinas daughter , Sarah Maynard, lying on a sleeping bag on top of pile of leaves.
in matthew´s basement. her feet and hands were bound with yellow rope and duct tape.
Alongside her in the basement. were more trash bags filled with leaves.
Thankfully, sarah appeared to be unharmed,but she was wearing a makeshift diaper made from a plastic bag.
As oficers approached her ,she was very confused,and told them that she was late for school and kept asking if they knew anything abouit what happened to her dog ,Tanner.
Sarah was likely in schock or possibly dissociating.
There was no sign of Tina, Kody ,or Stephanie anywhere in the home.
Investigators took care to photograph the way sarah was bound before they freed her and bought her upstairs to wait for medical attention.
Sarah was then brought by EMS to knox Community Hospital, where she was throughly examined and questioned ,despite the trauma she´d endured, she carefully outlined every detail of what had happened.
She said that she and her brother ,had returned home from school on wednesdayand were attacked by matthew as soon as they entered
she ran to her bedroom, but matthew grabbed her and carried her down into the basement. there he found some rope that was already in the house and used it to tie her up .
he then left her on the kitchen floor for a period of time. she wasn´t sure how long before he put her into stephanies´s jeep and drove her to Howard ball field parking lot .
he covereds her with blankets and left her there. matthew later returned and put her into another car.and drove to his house, once there , he bound her hands in worked gloves and duct tape.
had her dragged and kept her locked in the bathromm in a closet .
before he put her into the basement.
Sarah saud that s he believed matthew had killed her mother, brother , Stephanie and her dog. but she wasn´t sures. she revealed that during her time matthew had kidnapped her ,about for days, he cut her finger with a knife. repatedly assulted her.
and said that he was going to release her before christmas.but he never told her what happened to her mother ,brother or stephanie. Sara was then released into her father´s custody.
initially ,after he was arrested, matthew was placed under 24 -.hours watch ,after crying and treatening to harm himself.
eventually though ,he was brought in to speak with investigators ,the folliowing interrogations took place over four days and have the interrogator reads matthew his Miranda rights,but he´s almost completely unresponsiive and barely even acknowledges the dectetives.
finally , after sitting in silence and almost completely unresponsive for over four hours matthew cracks.
matthew :” can´t tell you anything cause i don´t know, i knew i must done something´wgrong i fiound her in my house , she was tied up .so i took care of her.
matthew feed her ,let her watch the movie” iron man,” and allow her to borrow his copy of the book” treasure island.”
matthew:” i dont really know anything else ( sniffling)so i was trying to figure out what had happened.
detective: at what point did you find her tied up in your house ?
matthews: thurday.
detective :thursday? did you ask her ,did you speak with her abut ,you know what happened? how did you get here., anything like that?
matthew:just that i´d done it.i figured i had done something i didn´t know. i just could try to put pieces together.
it still isn´t clear what happened to Tina,Kody or stephanie ,or where they are.however given the evidence of blood found in the home. and sarah´s testimony that she believed matthew killed them,investigators weren´t hopeful. that they would be found alive.
detective:did you recognize her as someone that yhou had seen before? did your realize that this was a person you´d seen before. that now was in your house or….
matthew : i dont know her .
detective: did you make that connection? you dont know her? i mean , i´m just asking because
they were the pictures in the camera and they weren´t taken at the time that this happened so i was jsut wondering if you….in o ther words , if it was someone else you knew an then ..”wow ,and then -how did you get here in my house? cause she said that she asked you a couple times .do you remember that ?
matthew : i dont wanna talk anymore.
In 2001 , matthews was convicted of arson ,burglary , asssult ,and motor vehicle theft,while on rout to county ,colorado. it¨s believed that he set fire to a vacation condo to hide any evidence that he´s been staying there without the owners permission. he was eventually released from prison and paroled back to Ohio.
In addition ,detectives found an extremely large number of leaves inside matthew´s home. This is certainly unusual and maybe a sign of severe mental health disorder.
one of the syptoms of schizophrenia is delusions, in whitch the person may hold strange or odd beliefs, allthough matthew has made no mention of the leaves.its possible that he holds some type of delusion involving leaves. the sheer amount of time that i t would´ve taken him to gather that many leaves and bring inside lends support to the theorty that he likely has a very strongly belief about the leaves .
Whether or not the police truly believe matthew´s claims that he can´t remember what happened to the three missing people, they took him on a ride in an effort to refresh his memory. he didn´t reveal anything.it pssible that matthew simply wanted to esacape the interrogation room and this car ride was a break fro him from the intense questioning.
The next day , matthew was once again brought back into the interogation room.
this is now day four.detective removes matthes´s handcuff, this is a gesture of goodwill in hopes that he will apreciate it and be more cooperative with them.
giving him food and coffee are gestures of friendliness they hope he will reciprocate. the detective even offers to heat up his food again , trying to build rapport and seem like an ally to matthew.
he just come out of his jailcell and maybe even more receptive to the outside comforts they providing him. he dosen´t say thank you or appear apreciative with futher displays his antisocial personality.
On a trip to the bathroom matthew reveal something to the detective.the his concerned the female detective will find out about.he may feel embarrassed for her to know because she´s a female or because he still wants to appear like the victim ,as she was previously treating him.
matthew : our conversation .like is that ….
detective:the only thing …my intention , i´ll be honest with you right now,is just tot tell chris whar we said ,okej?but i tell you this,okej? if you tell us , i will keep that private.
matthew is about to unveil a disturbing and unexpteced revelation .
Matthew : so i had a really horrific dream last night….it was disgusting. gave me a knot in my stomach…. i saw some really disgusting stuff in the garbage can.
matthew :i was hoping i could make up some exuse for you guys to kill me.
femal detective : from what i´ve heard from yoru family, that´s something that they, that would just hurt them more.and hurting yourself it´s not gonna help anybody.including yourself.
Decteve: matt said that he had … that dream dealth with a food processing plant.um…where they chop food up and that there were garbage bags there thar were…that then he opened or looked in garbage can or bag not sure which , and he saw body parts , choppped up stuff. and i´am not sure what to think now , in terms of wether he does or doesn´t know. he doesn´t appaer to have any concerns about the consequences in terms of trials or courts.
The detective reiterates matthews story.as if he believes his verseion of events.but then makes it clear,his holding back additional information.this is to try to get matthew todeclose the location of the bodies.
detective: matt , in terms of this deal i´m offering you ..i mean , so to speak , what can you tell us what you do remember?i mean , my concern again was the location. can you tell us what you do remember?
matthew: i don´t know what you´re teven talking about .
detective: well, i thought that you didn´t want t me to talk about the offer you made to me. what you wanted to have accomplished as a result of the day , the trip.
matthew: i figured that´s ..
detective: you figured you already revealed that?i mean, in other words you even asked me earlier
“am i gonna say that?”.and i said ” that i would not say that “i would not give .. what im´figuring is that .. chris ,step out for jsut a minute.i´ll bring you right back in.
female detective: okay
femal detective lives the room.
detective: i thought that what your concern was that i didnt tell them about the dessire to have us shoot you escaping.
matthew ´s secret is that he wants to be shot by the detective. the detective agrees to keep this a secret so he maybe be able to carry it out . this is all just a ploy ,to try to get matthew to dsclose the body´s location as he clearly cannot agree to kill him.
detective: an that because if i shared that , then , it would go to extrem measures…
matthew: they allready have. theres nobody to trust onthe other side.there´s no wa of proving it. is there anyway you can jsut shoot me ? if i try yo escape.
detective: but was does … what does all this have to do with not telling uis where they are? how does that hurt things?
matthew: you dont understand.
detective: well, help me understand.
it hard to tell if matthews actually believes his claim about his dream or if all of this is just him buying time or trying to play crazy.
female detective returns in the room
detective: nobody thinks that a person in this position that comes to this point does this of their own .throught their own fault.im not gonna try and figure it all out .but i mean . i know your dad and your mom split up when your were three. you went through a life without a dad. that´s a major impact.it affects a lot of people in a lot of really negatives ways.i know your dad was a s40-years firefighter and you set some fires.
His obsession with the leaves and the fact that he accumulates a large collection in his home could be his way of cooping with the abandonment issuses related to his father. who reoprtedly was a firefighter.its possible that setting fire to leaves and thus his obsession with leaves. could be related to his hatred for his father or his desire for his father to notice him.
people who feel lonely ,hopeless or empty inside often derive comfort from material objects because they might not be able to get the love and attention they want from people in their lives ,as a result they turn to obession and fixations with things in order to feel less alone.
in matthew´s case , accumulating large quantitites of leaves may have broguht him a feeling of fullness and comfort.
However it´s also possible that matthew may have some sort of mental illness and has some strange beliefs about leaves.
one of the symptoms of schizophrenia is delusions. yeat matthews dosen´t seem to have schizophrenia as he doesn´t appear to be in a psychoitic episode during these interrogations .
and matthew was never diagnosed with schizophrenia.
female detective: with all honesty matt ,i say this very genuinely , your sitting in self -pity.
the female detective call matthew out fot his self-pity and victim mentality.this is a signe that they´re done using this theme to get him to speak.since allowing him to play the role of the victim has not produced any answers. she then direct him to think about the future and how he´ll be viewed in the hopes this will get him talking.
matthew: i just wanna wanna talk to you guys. cause it´s lonely in the cell.i don´t have any life left.
female detective: well i disagree on that.i think you do.
matthew knows if he tells them where the bodies are , there´s no guarantee of any real benefit to him ,the most likely way to get him to give up tihs information would be an exchange for a plea deal. such as removing the death penalty. however ,given mathew´s expression of wanting be shot , that may not be motivation to him.
female detective: they´re pushing to have ou come and have a hearing and this is it. this is your last chance to talk to us ,literally. and..
matthew: unless there ´s a layer present.
female detective: that´s what they´re pushing for your saying …yeah, ouré saying your´still willing talk to us without an attorney, but hey´re ..that´s waht´s being done now, as far as pushing for that .so this is your last chance. right now to talk to us.
detective: they´ll kinda make the decisions for ya.
female detective:yeah..
detective: i mean literally.they make it sound like it´s your freedom to ( indistinct)
the detectives knows that it´s very important for matthew to feel like he is the one in control and he is calling the shots. he makes it sound like if he gets a lawyer ,the lawyer will be controlling him.he knows matthew won´t like feeling powerless.
detective: and the lack of media pressure.
female detective: think about it and think about what youcan do for yourself after you talk to an attorney.
the detectives ends things on a friendly note ,calling him buddy and touches him on the shoulder as a last ditch effrt to leave a positive impression, this is in the hopes that he may at some point change his mind ,and confess to the location of the bodies .
The big question is , is matthew´s stange behavior in the interrogation all an act either for pity , attention or a ploy to get an insanity defense? or as what we are seeing actaully the real matthew?
matthew later revealed that he made uo the entire story about his dream about the food processing plant.where he opened a trash bag and saw cut up body parts.
he admitted that it was all a lie to try and get himself killed by the police. because he didnt want tho be inected with Thorazine an atipsychotic medication, for the rest of his life .
He said he stil didn´t remember where the bodies were.in a written confession,matthew admitted even more.
Telling the investigators that he´d been staking out Tinas home the night before the attack sleeping in the woods across the street. the next morning he watched as everyone left and snuck into the home through the garage.his plan had been to burglarize the home and sneakaway without anyone seeing him. he choose Tina´s house because there wrent any close neighbors. and the door was often left ajar.
However ,Tina and Stephanie returned and caught matthew in the act.he claimed he ambushed them in a panic. he wrote” i was in a total state of shock.i wandered around the house. slowly coming to realization of what i´d done. and how bad it was.
During this time i killed tina´s dog.”because it would not stop barking.” it only got worse. because then sarah and kody returnedhome.matthew attacked and killed kody before tying up sarah. he wrote” i didn ot enter the house to kill those people.”and “i did not know a single one of them.”
shrotley after killing tina ,stephani and kody.matthew drovw to gambier to collect gas cans from his own whicle with the intension of burning down Tina´s house.it was then he was stopped by an officer .who eventually let him go. he gave up his pplan to burn down the house and instead returned to his own, where he bilt a campfire.
burned his shoes ,and drank a bottle of wine.
On november 18thm matthew finally cracked and agreed to show investigators the location of Tina, Kody and stephanie´s bodies.it´s unclear if matthew´s memory of what he did came back or more likely , if he´d been lying about not remembering all along.
He descibed the spot to officers where i dumped the bodies
Hidden in the The Kokosing Wildlife Area.
As the detectives traveled through fields to a wooded area,other officers secured the perimeter.
They evenutally found a hollow beech tree.
that matched matthew´s description. which had a hole about six feet up from the ground.
There was also a second larger hole near the branches, when an officer looked inside the hole they spotted what looked like trash bags. hidden inside the tree.
another hole was cut in the tree and the trash bags were examined revealing remains belonging to Tina Herrman, Kody Maynard, Stephanie Sprang and Tanner the dog .
Matthew later revealed he got the bodies inside the tree using the top hole and a rig and pulley system to drop them inside.
There some speculation that when matthew worked as a tree trimmer, he had hollowed out the tree himself.
On january 6th ,2011 ,matthew avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty to 10 felonies. after everything that was found,it was clear that matthew. had a bizarre obsession with leaves .
forensic psychologists testified that his leaf obsession was delusional and they believed that he may have hidden the boddies inside of a tree because itwas familiar and comforting for him.
matthew hoffman was then sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
that same months , his leaf -filled home went into foreclosure and eventually the tree where the bodies had been hidden was cut down .
