Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
the brown family had a simple good olds-fashioned name and they enjoyed a simple good -old fashioned life down on the farm in in Pennsylvania .horses, goats ,sheep , chickens, donkeys,cows
dad greg brought home the bacon as an architectural and engineering executive
while mom maggie took care of the property there three childrem and all the animals.
they´re nice amber grew up like one of the browns own kids. becoming more than just cousins but also best friends with the browns youngest child and only daughter megan.
megan´s older brother Aaron says she was more like a best friend to him to.
megan was trhe pride of the family a medal winning track and field star who would run her way into Penn state university. but magen had more than athletic talent in brains going on for her and there was lots of guys who came around
one of them was adam mato an aspiring awantguard DJ megan had began dating when they were both in their early 20s.
beore she knew it megan was pregnat with adams child ,soon after thet met.megan was said to be thrilled
as was her family who had just one reservation.They were happy for her but didnt know a lot about adam.
shortle after she had got pregnant they split up. but after giving birth to a beautiful little baby boy they the named trisan.
megan would reunite with adam for the sake off their child who needs extra care because he is autistic. and adam would even move in to the brown family house with megan and tristan with the family´s full blessing to give the child a good home.
but adam would soon start wear out his welcome with mom maggi . she wasn´t too fond of him only because over the course of time she would see how he really is. he doesnt do anything , dosen´t clean up after himself, doesn´t contribute. and megan and adam were continuing to have problems. she would call him a deadbeat ,obviously
but even when dad greg decided to retire and move the family to florida there was still no shaking adam .the decision was adam could go down with the contingency that he would get a job and eventually move out of the home.
and the relationship between adam and megan would only to continue to deteriorate.
architectural executive greg brown had deicided to retire selling familyfarm in pennsylvania and and mowing to florida with wife maggie for an knew kind of laid- back life.
the couple renting a waterfront house in hudson about 20 miles from Tampa.
while their tropical island dreamhome was being built.
but for now at least greg and maggie also had daughter megan and her baby boy ttristan and the babys father adam matos all living with them.
to make ends meet ,maggie has to take a job as a convenience store cashier
magen starts waitressing at a local bar and adam
and adam briefly works in a resturant kitchen until reportedly being fired .
not contributing causing only more conflict between adam and megan who werer already squabbling more than ever and reportedly even sleeping in separate bedrooms. they were pretty much done at that point . megan had also begun going out wth a new group of friends she´d met
leaving the the unemployed adam at home babysitting tristan and battling the green -eyed monster.jelousy, wondering what megan was doing and who she was doing it with into the early hours of the morning. he was pissed off if she was out with anybody let aone another friend that happend to be a male. he was obsessed with megan.said magen brother.
and adam seething jelousy eventually leads to a violent showdown. one morning when megan comes walking through the door around dawn after another fun night out
a frantic megan c alls 911
megan weeping and sounds in fear for her life as she tries as she comfort her baby boy tristan .
police arrived at the house to find megan distraught and bleeding from hand wounds she´d suffered sruggling to get the knife away adam .adam took off after megan called 911. she tells police he might come back even angrier than ever. days would go by without any further word of trouble between megan and adam.only for the silence to break when a relative calls police to report that nobody had been able to reach any of the browns by text or phone.
it´s been six days now and when cops show up nobody appears to be home at th brown´s house. but they detetect the foul and all too-familiar odor of death and decaying bodies . the thought something bad has hapened here.and there was a door tha twas left open.
so they enter through the open door
leading to the garage where the brown family van is parked
they immediately see blankets on the ground behinde a van
there´s appears to bee blood all over the floor on the blankets
and at almost the same moment ,a veteran cop makes another grim discovery, just a stones´s throw away after also noticing that the same smell of death coming from a wooded area ,he just happened be driving by. and the detective find´s something worse than he´s ever seen in all his years in law enforcement. a pile of bodies ,decomposed.beyond recognition.
the detective could easily deduce that the brown family was among them .
it was a common sense,we had a house for several people that are missing and now we have a pile of bodies less a mile away right up the street.
as the medical examiner tries to identify the victims .detectives swoop with forensic experts.and find a shocking scene.
The place turns pink when it´s sprayed with luminol with a trail of blood throughout the house.
signs that the killer had tried to clean up some of it and other clues to the horror that had occured there.
but some of the best evidence is found in the van parked in hat blood -soaked garage.,patrolmen had reported when earlier visited the house . the van had indication that they were bodies in there. including blood….
…and maggots..
detective found also a shovel in the back of the van….
which detective believed the killer had used to to try to bury the bodies in the yard on the side of the house. there was a freshly dug area .you can´t dig more than a foot your´re running tinto what´s called lime rock so investigators say the murderer loaded bodies into the back of the van and dumped them in that wooded area where they´ve just been found and just leaves them under a tree .
the medical examiner picks through the mound of flesh and bones to identify exactly which members of the family are dead, detectives try find they killer .but their main person of interest is adam matos ex -boyfriend of the the browns 27 years old daughther megan and the father of their four years old tristan. the detectives knew that adam lived in that house and they knew that adam and megan had been having serious problems
Adam had fled the house when megan mad the 911 call less than 24 hours before she and her family are believed to have been murdered. but for all detectives knew,he might even be among that unidentified pile of bodies. and so they turned heir immediate attention to another possible suspect.nicolsas léonard.
a new guy megan had met after she moved from pensylvania to florida with mom ,dad and adam and baby tristan a few months earlier .
detectives already suspect that nick´s relationship with megan may have turned into a love triangel …
…that could have sparked the mass murders.
megan apparently hadn´t told her friends and family about nick.
on the other hand nick and caprpenter and and landscaper had told told his family all a about megan saying he was head- over- heels in love with her. that he finaly found the love of my life and i thinks this may be the girl i may ask to marry one day.
they news took his mom paula and dad daniel by suprised.
Nick told them he and megan were keeoing their romance quiet until adam had moved out of the house.
he told his parents that adam had found out he was seeing megan and was jealous.
paula warned nick to stay away from megan until adam was out of the picture. but nick and megan continued seeing each other and detectives learn that nick had actually been among the friends megan had been out with that night she arrived home near dawn.
sending adam into that jealous rage that led to this 911 call.
then megan´s new boyfriend nick leonard suddenly disappears .and nick is discounted as as a suspect in the murder of the family, when the f medical examiner finally identifies those found in that pile of decomposed bodies because ,he´s one of them.
nicks family is devastated when they get the tragic news and mom paula was inconsolable.
and the brown family victim´s the medical would identif them as megan ,her dad greg and mom maggie ,all slaughtered in an unspeakable horror that will haunt friends and family forever.
the one small yet heart lifting mercy is that megan´s little boy tristen appears to be still alive
and detectives believe hie´s probably with his father adam who is now the prime suspect and more than jsut another wanted man. police haven´t been able to find adam since he fled the brown house the night megan called 911.threatened to kill her .
but now they´re about to get a few lucky breaks.he was dropped off near a bus terminal in downtown ,Tampa. and they finally located adam matos a week after the four was slaughtered.
Tracing adam to a hotel where they find him holed up with his little boy Tristan.,shown on this security video checking in at the front desk and casually leading tristan to their room .and sure enough he checked in under his own name.
cops say when they picked up tristan the little four year old seemed in a state of shock and not talking to police .
but the police take the child´s father into custody ,hoping to get more information out of him.he was very calm, didn´t put up a fight or anything.
detective dont´let on that they found the bodies of megan ,her parents and her new man nick leonard. hoping they can trip adam up.instead detectives tell adam he´s being arrested on domestic violence charges stemming from that first frantic 911 call from megan. detectives ask adam who he would lik e to care for tristan now that he can´t.
detective: obviously you know we would like for him back to megan. do you know if that´s going to be possible?
adam: i wouldn´t know.
detective: ok. how about megan´s parents, can he stay with them maybe? you can check , you can call them and ask.
they ask adam about his troubled relationship with megan.
detective: when did you guys break up?
adam:about a week ago.
detective: a week ago? okej. what was that about ?
adam: jsut a bunch of drama ****** you know.
Adam denies he attacked megan in a jealouse rage the night she called 911.
detective: do you know if s he was seeing anybody else?
adam:no, i don´t.
but he admits they got ino a loud argument after megan arrived home near dawn.
adam: well,her mom came out ,she tom ,e to leave and i left.
It isn´t until he´s locked up on domestic violence charges that adam learns detectives had fooled him and had actually found the bodiess of the brown family and nick leonard a week earlier.
In this videotape jailhouse interview with Tampa bay times reporter adam says he´d never killed megan and her family.and of -camera with detectives present adam would drop a bombshell pointing the finger of blame at a jealous ex-girlfriend of her new boyfriend nick.suddenly detectives had another possble suspect .
and they would discover that the ex an allegedely obsessed married women might indeed have had a fatal attraction.there were some indications that she was having issues with nicolas léonard ,she stalked him for years his ex-girlfriend was crazy, she would do anything she could to try ruin any relationship that he tried to have with anyone.perhaps even commit murder according to nick´s family.
who say the ex acctually hacked into his phone, calling and warning off any other women, whos numbers happened to be on it. megan being the final girlfriend she allegedly called and threatened.
Now megan´s little boy tristan holds the key to the case as the only witness who can tell police who really murdered his mother, her news boyfriend and his grandparents.and its´believed that he may have seen or at least heard the murders.but the trauimatized austistic child noe in the care of relatives while his father is behind bars still isn´t talking or just simple doesn´t want to remember ,the horror he witnessed that night.
detectives have prime suspect adam matos locked up on domestic abuse charges trying to hold him as they gather enough evidence to prov he´s a cold -blooded killer. the monster woh massacred his cihld´s mother megan brown ,her parents greg and maggie and her new boyfriend nick at the familys home in hudson florida.
detectives had been suddenly sidetracked after adam pointed them to another possible suspect.one of nicks ex girlfriends who had allegedly been jealously stalking him for years and is said to have even treathened megan after learning she was seeing him .
detectives flew to where she´s at ,they found her,they talked to her coworkers only to learn nick´s ex had an airtight alibi.she was not in florida at the time detectives believed the homicides occured. they couldn´t find any indication that she and adam had any kind of communication and they were able to rule her out as a suspect right away
and again back on adam. whos ´s traumatized austistic son tristan just four years old whitness the bloody massacre and starting to open up to investigators. he described hearing the gunshot that killed his mother and her saying ” please don´t “. tristan tells them what else he heard and saw. he grabbed a little dol and he wrapped up in like a little blanket and starting pounding on it and saying ” mommy, mommy” and finally the poor kid points tthe finger at his owns father.
Tristan:” daddy killed mommy
Now with that detectives and proscecutor have an eyewitness to corroborate their findings that adam matos is the murderer.in terms of they´re understanding it largely just confermed what they already could decipher from from the evidence and the scene and they are able to reconstruct shot by deadly shot blow by brutal blow their scenario of what happened the day of the brown family massacre.
There timeline starting with that first 911 call from magen. shortly after that call adam stormed o uit in a jelous rage .but detectives learned that adam bombarded megan with more than a hudnred threatening calls and text messages in the 12 more hours that followed.he threatening to come back and finish her off .
a terrified megan called her new boyfriend nick who rushed to her home armed with a gun to protect her if adam should try to make good on his threat . and investigators sa adam did indeed return to acctually stake the place out . aware by early evening that nick was in there with megan, tristan and dad greg and now just waiting for the last member of the family to join them .and adam makes his move when mom mggie arrives home from her night shift at a local convenience store around midnight. she pulls in the van, she gets out of the van and he attacks her in the garage.
viciously pounding her with a hammer. he hits her multiple times about the head. adam then ties her up and grabs a plastic bag,putting the bag over her head trying to ensure that she was either gonna die or least not be able to get away . then he would go upstairs still armed with the hammer making a beeline for the bedroom he used to share with megan and finding her now in there with her new man nick and just start attacking nick, just starting wailing on him , nick tries to defend himself. the medical examiner indicated that it was approximately 21 strikes to the head.
and adam is able to get nick´s firearm ,he then goes after megan who was run withson tristan to the master bedroom to seek refuge with dad greg.he´s a hunter so he had some hunting weapons in the house there´s indication that he was in his closet trying to get a weapon to help protect the family.but he was shot before he could load. he may have probably loaded one bullet into a weapon b ut just didn´t have time to react .detectives think adam got the drop on him adam kills greg ,shoots him twice
then turnes and deals with megan shooting her once in the face. just one bullet for her .the way he shot her she´s facing him he can take his time to aim hit her in the left eye .
and detective would learn to their disbelief that adam would then settle bac into the house of horrors with son tristan and make himself right at home among the dead. police believed while the bodies lay murdered inside the browns home ,adam matos started taking out ads on the craigslist to sell all their stuff. he selling jewelry ,the entertainment center,laptops,as well as several of the dogs mom maggie bread.which he sold for 50 bucks a pup
One lady indicated she purchased a dog and the dog itself smelled so bad, she had to go home and give it a bath several times .
and he also had pizzas delivered to the murder scene. adam carrying on and hiding in plain sight as if nothing had happened. he had already make contact with neighbors telling them that the family had gon to west virginia on a hunting trip. so would go over there periodically throughout the next few days and nights and just hang out. that is until police find the bodies he had evidently dumped in nearby woods.
when cops came knockning at the door ,adam took off with his son running through backyards then police say he stole a canoe,jumped in it ,paddled to the otherside,hopped in a cab and went to Tampa
and less two weeks after being captured at this tampa hotel.
adam matos would be charged with first -degree murder of the brown family and nick leonard. matos shocks a packed courtroom by claiming he killed his son´s mother megan brown her parents and her new boyfriend nick in self -defense.after they actually attacked him.but matos testifies it was mehan´s new boyfriend armed with a pistol who first pounced on him after he entered the house.
but instead of shooting him matos admits he bludgeoned nick to death with 21 blows of a hammer, he also admits killing maggie the same way and matos says he used the gun he took from nick to kill megan´s father greg before he could shoot him with a riflle .
he also claims megan had been screaming at her father to shoot and he says he then turned the gun on megan, again claiming self-defense.
Now the horrified prosecution takes aim at matos and matos finds himself under fire when an angry prosecutor reminds he´s facing the death penalty. matos couldn´t convincingly explain why he never called the police if it was a case of self-defense.
matos would also struggl to explain why he threw the murder weapons into the canal at the rear of the hosue where they were retrieved by police divers .
and he has a hard time explaining why he shose to dispose of the four bodies.first by trying to dig a grave for them beside the house with a shovel.
the same shovel after the murders. he eventually dumping them in nearby woods to spare his four years old son any more trauma. but now he´s about to find out the jury has reached a vedict.
” the defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree as to nicolas leonard as charged in the indictment.
and matos would hear the same guilty vedict for the murders of greg brown, wife maggie and daughter megan. but matos catches a break when only 11 of 12 jurors vote for execution . the judge finally gave matos the harshest punishment allowed by law.
-life in prison without the posibility of parole
But her most moving words are reserved for the littlest and most innocent survivor of this horror 4 years old Tristan whos is now being raised by his late grandmother´s family .
judge: he will grow up withoutout a father .because he will know that his father murdered his mother and murdered his grandparents.
The part of the deal that was mad requires that tristans adopted mother send picture of the by to adam matos in prison until Tristan turns 12.
.