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The Disappearance of Matthew Weaver · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the deep Dive. Today, we're taking a
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  deep dive into one of those cases that, well, it
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  truly keeps you up at night. It's the enduring mystery
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  of twenty one year old Matthew Weaver. He vanished back
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  on August tenth, twenty eighteen. We've gathered quite a bit
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  of material articles, police reports, family statements. Our mission today
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  is really to unpack Matthew's life, the really perplexing circumstances
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  around his disappearance, the massive search efforts, and also what
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  this story tells us about missing person's cases today. For me,
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  what immediately jumps out is just the sheer human element,
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  you know, and how many questions are still just hanging there.
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  Speaker 2: It really is a case that sticks with you. It
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  forces you to think about that tricky transition into adulthood.
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  It's supposed to be about gaining independence, but here it
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  just became the backdrop for this totally inexplicable event.
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  Speaker 1: So let's try and paid a picture of Matthew. Based
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  on our sources, they often call him a typical twenty
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  one year old back in twenty eighteen, But what does
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  typical even mean when someone just disappears like that? Were
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  there complexities hinted at.
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  Speaker 2: That's a really good starting point. Matthew was born in
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  ninety seven, grew up in southern California, and yeah, on
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  the surface, he fit that description. Friends, family, they all
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  described him as, you know, genuinely kind hearted, adventurous, pretty
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  determined guy.
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  Speaker 1: Sounds like someone people liked being around, definitely, And the
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  sources paint this picture of someone really trying to establish
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  his independence, figure out his goals for the future. Yeah,
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  the classic period of transition, kind of trying to find
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  his footing. I mean, if you think about it, most
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  of us have been there. Yeah, those early twenties, pressure's money, career,
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  who you are. It's a lot exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And it's important to note our sources are clear there's
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  no evidence he was facing like insurmountable obstacles or anything
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  truly out of the ordinary before he disappeared. But naturally,
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  when someone vanishes like that, it makes everyone wonder what
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  was really going on. It just adds layers of complexity.
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  Speaker 1: So we have this picture of Matthew's life, but then
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  comes the morning of August tenth, twenty eighteen. That's when
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  everything changes. He was last seen in the Granada Hills
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  area of LA. He'd been hanging out with friends the
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  night before. Reports say everything seemed totally normal.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing seemed to miss, no red flags mentioned.
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  Speaker 1: And then the key piece of evidence, the really baffling part.
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  Speaker 2: His car, right his two thousand and three BMW three
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  twenty five I. It wasn't just park somewhere strange. It
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  was found abandoned on a fire road. Now, for anyone
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  who doesn't know the area, this is off Santis is
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  on a pass road. We're talking a rugged, pretty remote
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  spot in the Simi Hills. Think winding roads, deep cliffs,
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  just wilderness.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so the location is already odd. But the condition
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  of the car and what was inside here's where it
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  gets really interesting, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: It's absolutely crucial. So the car was locked, no obvious
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  signs of a break in, no struggle, But inside investigators
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  found Matthew's wallet and his phone.
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  Speaker 1: His wallet and his phone left behind.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly left behind. And for his family and friends, that
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  immediately set off major alarm bells. They knew Matthew, he
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  wasn't the kind of guy to just walk away from everything,
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  especially not without his phone and wallet. It really suggested,
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  you know, maybe a sudden departure, unplanned, maybe under unusual circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: So the moment he's reported missing, things kick into high gear.
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  An extensive search effort starts pretty much immediately. The LAPD
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  took the lead, classified it as a missing person's case,
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  law enforcement volunteers, his family, friends, everyone mobilized.
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  Speaker 2: And given where the car was found, the main focus,
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  understandably was the Santa Susana Pass area itself. Now you
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  have to imagine trying to search that kind of terrain.
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  It's huge. We're talking canyons, thick brush, Even with helicopters,
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  using thermal imaging, ground teams, search and rescue dogs, it's
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  like looking for a needle in a haystack, a really
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  really big haystack. The topography alone was a massive challenge,
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  and it.
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  Speaker 1: Wasn't just the official search teams, right. The sources really
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  emphasize how vital the community was.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely crucial. Volunteers just jumped right in. They were distributing flyers,
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  knocking on doors in nearby areas, and really use social
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  media to get the word out.
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  Speaker 1: That community push must have been a huge.
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  Speaker 2: Immense and Matthew's family you just have to admire their determination.
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  They were relentless, keeping his face and story in the
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  public eye, organizing search parties, talking to the media constantly.
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  You hear that phrase so often in these situations, and
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  they truly embodied it. We just want to bring him home.
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  Speaker 1: But of course, as days turn into weeks with no
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  solid leads, you can just feel the frustration building for
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  the investigators and for the family, the devastation that initial
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  hope starts to face this awful reality of uncertainty. It's
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  hard to even imagine.
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  Speaker 2: It's an unimaginable emotional roller coaster.
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  Speaker 1: So the search was intense, but yielded nothing concrete. This
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  lack of answers naturally led to speculation, to theories. What
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  were the main ideas being floated?
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  Speaker 2: Well, there were basically three main lines of thought. The
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  first one was perhaps the simplest, that Matthew had gone
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  hiking or exploring in the area and gotten lost or injured.
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  I mean the sentence is in a pass it's genuine
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  only rugged. Even people who know the area well can
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  run into trouble, a fall, disorientation, the elements. It's definitely plausible.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense given the location. Then you circle
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  back to the car right, locked wallet, and phone inside.
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  How does that fit with just getting lost? Doesn't that
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  complicate things?
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  Speaker 2: It absolutely complicates it. Yeah, while getting lost is possible,
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  the state of the car, it suggests he didn't plan
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  to be gone long, or that leaving the car wasn't
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  let's say a casual decision. Did he step out intending
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  to come right back? Was he meeting someone? It opens
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  up other possibilities, and that brings us to the second theory,
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  foul play.
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  Speaker 1: Right the remote location, it naturally makes you wonder if
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  something bad happened, if someone else was involved.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly could someone have harmed him or taken him from there?
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  It's a question investigators had to ask. But, and this
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  is important, based on our sources, they found no immediate
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  physical evidence and no signs of a struggle at the car,
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  no forced entry, nothing concrete to point directly to foul
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  play at that time. For you listening, this lack of
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  obvious evidence is key. It makes the whole situation much
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  more baffling than a clear cut crime scene.
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  Speaker 1: So no immediate signs of foul play. What was the
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  third main theory?
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  Speaker 2: Then? The third possibility considered was voluntary disappearance. The idea
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  that maybe Matthew chose to leave his life behind, maybe
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  pressures we don't know.
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  Speaker 1: About, But didn't his family push back hard against that idea?
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  Speaker 2: They did very strongly. Our sources say this theory was
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  largely dismissed by those who knew him best. They pointed
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  to his strong connections with family and friends, no signs
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  he was planning to run off, and again leaving the
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  wallet and phone. That really undermines the idea of someone
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  planning to start a new life elsewhere you'd typically take
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  those essentials.
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  Speaker 1: It really keeps coming back to the car, doesn't it
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  locked belongings inside, parked on this remote fire road. It
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  just doesn't fit neatly into any of those theories. Why
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  there did he drive there on purpose? Was he following
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  someone or meeting someone? It leaves you with his feeling
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  that maybe he left the car in a hurry or
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  under circumstances that were just really unusual.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, each theory has elements that fit, but also significant
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  questions raised by the state of the car and his belongings.
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  It creates this puzzle with missing pieces, and that's why
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  it remains so compelling and so deeply frustrating for everyone.
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  Still searching for answers.
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  Speaker 1: And this all happened in twenty eighteen. Technology and social
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  media were already huge factors in these kinds of cases.
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  Matthew's disappearance really highlighted both the good and the bad
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  of that, didn't it?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely? On the positive side, His family and friends
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  were incredibly savvy with social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. They
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  used everything, sharing photos, updates, desperate pleas for information. Hashtags
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  like hashtag find Matthew Weaver actually gained real traction locally.
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  It allowed information to spread incredibly fast, helped coordinate volunteer searches,
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  you know, cast a really wide net very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: That sounds like a huge advantage compared to say, twenty
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  years earlier. But there's always a downside with social media,
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  isn't there? There is?
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  Speaker 2: The sources mentioned the inevitable rise of well misinformation, unverified tips,
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  online speculation getting out of hand, and that unfortunately complicated
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  the investigation. It could potentially pull limited police resources away
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  from more credible leads. It's a double edged sword.
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  Speaker 1: So how did law enforcement use tech? Did they get
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  anything useful from his phone? For instance?
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  Speaker 2: They definitely utilize technology analyzing his phone records, his social
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  media activity trying to piece together his last known movements
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  and contacts, and our sources say these efforts did provide
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  some insights, maybe clarifying his timeline a bit before he vanished,
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  but ultimately it didn't lead to that critical breakthrough, the
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  piece of information needed to actually find him. Technology is powerful,
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  but yeah, not a magic Wand.
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  Speaker 1: Beyond the search and the theories, we really need to touch
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  on the human cost, the emotional toll this took and
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  continues to take on his family and friends. The sources
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  describe it as an unimaginable ordeal, constant grinding mix of
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  hope and despair. You just can't help but think about that,
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  that agony of not knowing day after day, year after years.
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  Speaker 2: Profound, it truly is. And if we zoom out look
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  at the bigger picture, Matthew's story, while unique, reflects a
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  much larger issue. You mentioned NEMS, the National Missing and
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  Unidentified Person System. Their stats are stark. Over six hundred
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  thousand people reported missing each year in the US.
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  Speaker 1: Six hundred thousand. That's staggering, it is, and.
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  Speaker 2: While many are found, thousands remain unresolved cases like Matthews.
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  This leads to what psychologists call ambiguous loss. It's a
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  specific kind of grief, maybe even worse in some ways
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  because there's no closure. Families are stuck. Is he alive?
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  Is he gone? How do you even begin to heal
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  when you don't have an answer. It's a perpetual limbo.
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  Speaker 1: And that brings up a tough question about how society
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  responds resource allocation, media attention. Our sources point out something
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  uncomfortable that quote, young men like Matthew often receive less
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  attention than other demographics. Why do you think that might be?
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  Speaker 2: It's a complex and sensitive issue. There could be many factors,
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  societal biases about who seems most vulnerable, maybe certain media
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  narratives that catch on more easily. It's hard to pin
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  down definitively. But what Matthew's case also highlights powerfully is
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  the importance of community involvement. All those volunteers, the people
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  sharing his story online who never even met him, his
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  friends who kept pushing it shows this incredible sort of
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  collective determination to help each other when official systems maybe
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  aren't enough, or when attention fades. It's quite moving, actually, So.
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  Speaker 1: Where does the case stand now in twenty twenty five?
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  Speaker 2: Tragically, as of our recording. Matthew Weaver's case remains unsolved.
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  The LAPD file is still open technically, but active leads
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  seem to have dried up. Updates are rare, and the
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  hard truth is time makes these cases harder. Memories fade,
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  evidence degrades, leads grow colder. It's an uphill battle.
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  Speaker 1: But his family hasn't given up hope, not at all.
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  Speaker 2: They continue to show incredible strength and resilience, still advocating
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  for him, still working to keep his story out there.
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  They're determined not to let him just be another statistic,
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  which is so important.
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  Speaker 1: That's why we need to reiterate. The Los Angeles Police
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  Department still wants information. Anyone who might know anything, however
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  small it seems about Matthew Weaver's disappearance back in August
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  twenty eighteen, is urged to come forward. That one small
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  detail could be everything. So to wrap up Matthew Weaver's story,
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  it's deeply unsettling. A twenty one year old kid, dreams,
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  potential just vanished, leaving behind this void, this profound mystery
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  that years later still perplexes everyone. It touched.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and if we try to connect it back to
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  that bigger picture cases like Matthew's, these unsold disappearances, they
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  really speak to something deep in us, don't they Our
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  fundamental need for answers, for closure, even when those answers
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  just aren't there. It makes you think about, you know,
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  what these mysteries reveal about our communities, how we connect,
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  and ultimately, how we cope with the vastness of the unknown.
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  The empty space left behind. It demands something, even if
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  it's just remembering