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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Matthew Stewart · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
0:52
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
0:55
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
0:58
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
1:03
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
1:06
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
1:10
Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
1:14
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
1:17
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
1:21
Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
1:24
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:30
Speaker 2: At around twelve forty am on June ninth, two thousand
1:33
Speaker 2: and nine, Angela Stewart, who went by Angel, pounded on
1:37
Speaker 2: the door of her neighbor Mark Lawson's house in Morrisville,
1:40
Speaker 2: North Carolina. It's about thirty miles from Charlotte. They lived
1:44
Speaker 2: in a quiet, suburban neighborhood called Gabriel Estates, so getting
1:49
Speaker 2: a panic to knock on the door in the middle
1:51
Speaker 2: of the night was very out of the ordinary. Mark
1:55
Speaker 2: was shocked when he opened the door and saw Angel
1:58
Speaker 2: and her one year old son covered in blood. Angel
2:03
Speaker 2: lived next door with her husband, thirty one year old
2:05
Speaker 2: Matt Stewart, and their three children. She told Mark that
2:09
Speaker 2: she had woken up to find a gunman standing in
2:12
Speaker 2: her bedroom door, that the intruder had opened fire on
2:15
Speaker 2: her and Matt, and that Matt was fighting the gunman.
2:19
Speaker 2: Angel had grabbed their one year old son, who was
2:22
Speaker 2: in bed with them at the time, and ran for
2:24
Speaker 2: her life. Mark let Angel and her son into the house,
2:28
Speaker 2: and he called nine one one. According to the nine
2:31
Speaker 2: to one one call logs, it was twelve forty five
2:33
Speaker 2: am when Mark Lawson made that call. Four minutes later,
2:37
Speaker 2: at twelve forty nine am, police and paramedics were rushing
2:41
Speaker 2: to the scene. Mark Lawson later summarized the conversation he
2:46
Speaker 2: had with Angel to a local news station, saying, quote,
2:49
Speaker 2: she came to the door, said she'd been shot, called
2:53
Speaker 2: nine one one, her husband Matt was struggling with the intruder.
2:57
Speaker 3: End quote.
2:58
Speaker 2: Matt and Angel had an eleven year old daughter named Hannah,
3:01
Speaker 2: a one year old son, and another three year old daughter.
3:06
Speaker 2: Hannah was staying with a friend. It was the first
3:08
Speaker 2: time she had ever spent the night at a friend's house.
3:12
Speaker 2: Angel had her one year old son in her arms,
3:15
Speaker 2: which ment her three year old daughter was still in
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Speaker 2: the house with the killer. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the
3:23
Speaker 2: past eight years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone,
3:26
Speaker 2: I've learned that there is no such thing as a
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Speaker 2: small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds
3:33
Speaker 2: of messages from people all around the country asking for
3:36
Speaker 2: help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
3:40
Speaker 2: and their communities. If you have a cake she liked
3:43
Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach
3:45
Speaker 2: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at
3:47
Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
3:51
Speaker 2: That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five,
3:56
Speaker 2: or you can send us a message on Instagram at
3:58
Speaker 2: Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Dispatcher's rushed
4:49
Speaker 2: to Matt and Angel's house at one fifty eight Shepherd Drive,
4:52
Speaker 2: but they did not immediately go inside. Apparently they thought
4:57
Speaker 2: that this was some kind of a hostage situation and
4:59
Speaker 2: that the killer could still be inside the home with
5:02
Speaker 2: Matt and Angel's three year old daughter, so they called
5:05
Speaker 2: this white team. Now it's unclear why they waited that
5:09
Speaker 2: long with a house that was dead silent. But when
5:12
Speaker 2: they finally went into that house at two thirty am,
5:15
Speaker 2: so over an hour and a half later, they found
5:18
Speaker 2: the three year old daughter safe and sound. She had
5:21
Speaker 2: slept through the whole thing. But that was the end
5:24
Speaker 2: of the good news. Police found Matt's body in the
5:28
Speaker 2: upstairs bathroom. He had been brutally beaten, stabbed, and shot.
5:33
Speaker 2: Matt had clearly fought to the death to protect his family,
5:37
Speaker 2: and his killer or killers were still on the loose.
5:42
Speaker 2: From the very beginning, it seemed like there were a
5:45
Speaker 2: lot of things that were unusual about this crime scene.
5:48
Speaker 2: A lot of the reasons why police made the decisions
5:51
Speaker 2: that they did can't really be known now because this
5:54
Speaker 2: is still technically an open investigation. But something prompted police
6:00
Speaker 2: to contact the squat team. Why did they believe that
6:03
Speaker 2: this was a hostage situation when there was no sign
6:06
Speaker 2: of the gunman? And why did they wait so long
6:09
Speaker 2: if there was literally zero sign of an active shooter.
6:13
Speaker 2: Police have not said much publicly, but they did make
6:17
Speaker 2: it clear there was no sign of a forced entry
6:20
Speaker 2: into the home. Police believed that the killer had escaped
6:24
Speaker 2: out the back door. The back door had reportedly been
6:27
Speaker 2: left unlocked. If that's true, this would be very unusual
6:32
Speaker 2: for the family, because even in a safe neighborhood, they
6:35
Speaker 2: would normally lock their doors. This was a bizarre twist
6:40
Speaker 2: in a life that up until then, by all accounts,
6:43
Speaker 2: had been pretty straightforward. Everyone said Matt Stewart was a nice,
6:49
Speaker 2: stable guy. Matthew Stewart was born on March fourteenth, nineteen
6:54
Speaker 2: seventy eight.
6:55
Speaker 3: He lived in.
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Speaker 2: Mooresville for his entire life, which has a population of
6:59
Speaker 2: just over fifty thousand people and is nicknamed Race City,
7:02
Speaker 2: USA because it's a major hub for NASCAR. He graduated
7:07
Speaker 2: from Mooresville High School. He went to Mitchell Community College,
7:10
Speaker 2: where he earned his associate degree in nursing. He was
7:14
Speaker 2: made for that kind of work. He loved helping people.
7:17
Speaker 2: Friends and colleagues said he was kind, compassionate, and smart.
7:23
Speaker 2: Matt's three children, two daughters and a son, were his
7:26
Speaker 2: entire world. According to his obituary, Matt was very active
7:31
Speaker 2: in his church in his twenties and his Christian faith
7:34
Speaker 2: was very important to him. Friends told police that he
7:38
Speaker 2: had been involved with drugs in high school and then
7:41
Speaker 2: he completely cleaned up and changed it. Seemed like he
7:45
Speaker 2: credited his Christianity with helping him keep his life on track.
7:50
Speaker 2: Several years before the murder, Matt met Angel in church.
7:54
Speaker 2: At the time, she was a twenty year old single mom.
7:57
Speaker 2: Matt fell in love with Angel and wanted to marry
8:00
Speaker 2: her and help raise her daughter, and so that's what
8:03
Speaker 2: they did. Four months after they met, Matt and Angel
8:06
Speaker 2: got married. Matt went on to adopt Angel's older daughter, Hannah,
8:11
Speaker 2: and he and Angel went on to have their daughter
8:13
Speaker 2: and then their son together. Matt and Angel both worked
8:16
Speaker 2: as nurses. Matt was a nurse at Lake Norman Regional
8:19
Speaker 2: Medical Center, where he was highly regarded for his work, ethic,
8:23
Speaker 2: for his spirit. Everyone loved him and respected him. Angel
8:28
Speaker 2: also worked in nursing. She was enrolled in a nursing
8:31
Speaker 2: program at the time of the murder. She also worked
8:33
Speaker 2: at Carolina's Medical Center. Besides their work and their kids,
8:38
Speaker 2: Matt and Angel were both very passionate about and involved
8:41
Speaker 2: with their church, Riverlife Fellowship, where Matt volunteered with youth ministries. Now,
8:48
Speaker 2: everyone may have said that Matt adored his family and
8:51
Speaker 2: got along with everybody, but anytime something like this happens,
8:54
Speaker 2: it's natural to ask who someone's enemies were, and in
8:58
Speaker 2: this case it was hard to figure out. In fact,
9:01
Speaker 2: detectives were struggling to find a motive at all, and
9:04
Speaker 2: the only witness they had was Angel. At first, police
9:08
Speaker 2: thought this could have been a straight up home invasion,
9:10
Speaker 2: a robbery gone wrong, but the evidence did not match
9:14
Speaker 2: that theory because, first of all, nothing had been stolen
9:17
Speaker 2: from the home. Secondly, despite this brutal battle to the death,
9:21
Speaker 2: police were having difficulty tracing the killer's trail. Angel's mother,
9:27
Speaker 2: Brenda Hare, made some early statements to reporters. She indicated
9:31
Speaker 2: there was a lot of blood in the bedroom and
9:33
Speaker 2: the bathroom. Matt had bled heavily. The fight was brutal
9:37
Speaker 2: and prolonged, and yet there seemed to be no trace
9:40
Speaker 2: of blood anywhere other than the master bedroom and the
9:43
Speaker 2: bathroom through there were no drips of blood leading out
9:46
Speaker 2: the door or anywhere else. While the police and SWAT
9:51
Speaker 2: team were in this standoff waiting outside the home, paramedics
9:55
Speaker 2: were tending to Angel and her one year old son.
9:58
Speaker 2: Angel had been shot once in the arm, reportedly in
10:02
Speaker 2: the wrist. One of her family members wrote a post
10:04
Speaker 2: online stating that the bullet had gone clean through her arm.
10:09
Speaker 2: After she was examined, both she and her child were
10:12
Speaker 2: taken from her neighbor Mark's house to a local hospital,
10:15
Speaker 2: where her wound was treated. A lot of people have
10:19
Speaker 2: commented on this. On Angel leaving the scene with her
10:22
Speaker 2: son and leaving her daughter behind in that house, Some
10:26
Speaker 2: people find that strange. They say her maternal instinct should
10:30
Speaker 2: have taken over, and even if she was afraid for
10:32
Speaker 2: her life, they questioned why she would leave her second child.
10:37
Speaker 2: But I can somewhat understand Angel may have been in
10:39
Speaker 2: shock trying to help her son. What I can't understand
10:43
Speaker 2: is that after that, Angel was taken to the hospital
10:46
Speaker 2: for what seemed to be a superficial wound, rather than
10:49
Speaker 2: staying at the scene while police waited to see if
10:52
Speaker 2: there was an active shooter with her other child inside
10:55
Speaker 2: her home. When police initially asked Angel about the intruder,
11:02
Speaker 2: she said that she woke up and saw a shadowy
11:05
Speaker 2: figure in the doorway. She said the assassin didn't say anything,
11:08
Speaker 2: just started opening fire on them. Then, she said, Matt
11:11
Speaker 2: jumped up out of the bed and fought him. She
11:14
Speaker 2: grabbed her son and ran. Police canvassed the neighborhood, but
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Speaker 2: None of Matt and Angel's neighbors reported hearing anything unusual,
11:23
Speaker 2: no loud sounds, no gunshots, nothing odd until they heard
11:27
Speaker 2: the police cars. But at some point, and it's not
11:31
Speaker 2: clear exactly when these details leaked out, Angel was able
11:35
Speaker 2: to give police a description of the intruder. She said
11:39
Speaker 2: she couldn't really see anything except that he was very tall.
11:43
Speaker 2: A police started looking into similar crimes, and one name
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Speaker 2: came up pretty early in the investigation. Patrick Tracy Burris.
12:00
Speaker 2: Patrick Tracy Burris was a spree killer who committed a
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Speaker 2: string of murders in Gaffney, South Carolina, in Cherokee County.
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Speaker 2: It started on June twenty seventh, two thousand and nine,
12:12
Speaker 2: when he fatally shot a peach farmer named Clein Cash
12:15
Speaker 2: in his home. Police found the next victims four days later,
12:19
Speaker 2: Hazel Linder and her daughter Gina Linder Parker. Both of
12:23
Speaker 2: them had been gunned down in their own homes. Then,
12:26
Speaker 2: on July second, Patrick came into a furniture store. He
12:30
Speaker 2: shot the owner, Stephen Tyler, and his daughter, Abbey, both
12:33
Speaker 2: of them later died. Law enforcement in the area were
12:37
Speaker 2: understandably panicked about a spree killer who was murdering and
12:41
Speaker 2: robbing citizens seemingly at random, and so was the community.
12:45
Speaker 2: They were wondering who is going to be next. On
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Speaker 2: July sixth, two thousand and nine, Patrick got into a
12:51
Speaker 2: shootout with police and was fatally shot by an officer.
12:55
Speaker 2: Police later matched Patrick's twenty five caliber gun to the
12:58
Speaker 2: killings in Gaffney and found items from some of the
13:01
Speaker 2: victim's homes in his possession. They realized that he had
13:05
Speaker 2: been robbing people. Later, there was outrage when it was
13:09
Speaker 2: discovered that Patrick had been released from a ten year
13:12
Speaker 2: sentence early, which allowed him to commit these murders. There
13:16
Speaker 2: did seem to be some circumstantial similarities in that the
13:19
Speaker 2: crimes were seemingly totally random, but there were other differences.
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Speaker 2: For one thing, Patrick's murders all happened in a small,
13:27
Speaker 2: confined area near Gaffney. Secondly, he didn't leave his victims alive,
13:32
Speaker 2: at least not knowingly. He shot everyone he encountered, though
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Speaker 2: some of Patrick's victims died later in the hospital. And finally,
13:40
Speaker 2: Patrick stole things from the houses he went into. The
13:43
Speaker 2: police did take a hard look at him because he
13:46
Speaker 2: was a spree killer, and also he was very tall.
13:49
Speaker 2: The way Angel described Matt's killer. Patrick was over six
13:53
Speaker 2: foot five. The Morrisville Chief of Police, Karl Robbins, later
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Speaker 2: addressed this, telling the media quote, we don't have anything
14:01
Speaker 2: that links him to us right now, other than that
14:04
Speaker 2: he's been in the general area end quote. The theory
14:08
Speaker 2: about Patrick being the killer seemed to be put to
14:11
Speaker 2: rest for good after law enforcement tested his guns. Patrick
14:14
Speaker 2: used a twenty five caliber weapon in all of his
14:17
Speaker 2: known kills, and that was the only firearm he was
14:20
Speaker 2: believed to own. This firearm did not match the thirty
14:24
Speaker 2: eight and forty caliber ammunition found at Matt's crime scene.
14:28
Speaker 2: We're going to get back to that ammunition in a minute,
14:31
Speaker 2: because that is another bizarre detail of this case that
14:34
Speaker 2: has never been resolved.
14:35
Speaker 3: For now.
14:36
Speaker 2: Let's put a pin in that. Law enforcement confirmed the
14:39
Speaker 2: bizarre nature of Matt's case in two thousand and nine
14:42
Speaker 2: when the police chief told WBTV, quote, this is a
14:45
Speaker 2: very strange case, and detectives are putting all of their
14:49
Speaker 2: resources into trying to find the killer. End quote. In
14:53
Speaker 2: January of twenty ten, nearly six months after Matt was
14:56
Speaker 2: brutally murdered, police released a composite sketch. The killer was
15:01
Speaker 2: described as a tall, large framed man weighing around two
15:04
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty pounds. Police also announced an eleven thousand
15:08
Speaker 2: dollars reward for anyone with any information that could help
15:12
Speaker 2: lead to Matt's killer. After the initial headlines, the case
15:16
Speaker 2: kind of seemed to fade away. Matt and Angels families
15:20
Speaker 2: didn't really speak publicly about the case, but without public
15:24
Speaker 2: outreach by the police or Matt's family, no one in
15:27
Speaker 2: the area heard about the home invasion murder. In twenty eleven,
15:32
Speaker 2: according to the Morrisville Tribune, the police did make some
15:36
Speaker 2: more information public. They stated that Matt's autopsy quote showed
15:40
Speaker 2: several defensive stab wounds in addition to the gunshot WANs
15:44
Speaker 2: that killed him end quote. But still they seemed to
15:47
Speaker 2: have no suspects, and after that information dropped, nothing seemed
15:51
Speaker 2: to happen until twenty eighteen, when Freddie Wilson released a
15:56
Speaker 2: podcast called Unforgotten, the Unsolved Murder of Matt Stewart. Freddy
16:01
Speaker 2: didn't know Matt personally, but we talked to him about
16:03
Speaker 2: his connection to the case and to Matt's church.
16:07
Speaker 4: So I went to a very small private Christian school.
16:12
Speaker 4: I was in sixth grade in two thousand and four,
16:16
Speaker 4: I believe more so Christian Academy. It was affiliated with
16:21
Speaker 4: a church called Riverlife Fellowship. My graduating class was of
16:25
Speaker 4: thirteen and I think it was the largest graduating class
16:29
Speaker 4: that ever went through the school. It shut down, I
16:32
Speaker 4: think the year after I graduated, but it was a
16:35
Speaker 4: very close knit maybe seventy five percent of the kids
16:39
Speaker 4: that went to the school their families were members of
16:43
Speaker 4: the church. And while I was attending in two thousand
16:47
Speaker 4: and nine, over this summer there was someone that was
16:51
Speaker 4: very prominent in the church and he was murdered.
16:55
Speaker 3: As the subject of.
16:56
Speaker 4: The podcast, I sent shot waves through the community and
17:00
Speaker 4: particularly the folks that I was close with in the school,
17:03
Speaker 4: some of my teachers who were also at the church,
17:06
Speaker 4: some of them pastors. So I kind of grew up
17:09
Speaker 4: hearing about the case and being there when people were
17:12
Speaker 4: talking about it very emotionally.
17:14
Speaker 2: Though this case is still an open investigation and we
17:17
Speaker 2: can't get many documents via FOYA, as Freddie pointed out
17:21
Speaker 2: in his podcast, some documents have been made public. They
17:25
Speaker 2: include the medical Examiner's report, and the medical examiner's report
17:29
Speaker 2: highlights another strange fact in this case, the fact that
17:32
Speaker 2: Matt was shot numerous times with two different caliber bullets.
17:36
Speaker 2: He was shot with both thirty eight and forty caliber bullets.
17:40
Speaker 2: This could mean either there was more than one killer,
17:43
Speaker 2: or that there was one killer who for some reason
17:45
Speaker 2: had different types of ammunition, or that there was one
17:49
Speaker 2: killer with two different guns. We know from what police
17:53
Speaker 2: released in twenty eleven that after shooting Matt several times,
17:58
Speaker 2: his killer began stabbing him in a frenzy. The medical
18:01
Speaker 2: examiner's report states that Matt had multiple defensive wounds that
18:06
Speaker 2: indicated he did try to fight while he was being attacked.
18:10
Speaker 2: Matt was shot multiple times in the face, chest, arm,
18:13
Speaker 2: and back. He was also stabbed several times in the face, neck,
18:17
Speaker 2: and shoulder. In addition to shooting and stabbing him, Matt's
18:21
Speaker 2: killer beat him with a heavy object. This caused blunt
18:25
Speaker 2: force trauma wounds and defensive wounds on his hands. Police
18:30
Speaker 2: said that the crime scene was covered in blood and
18:32
Speaker 2: that it appeared as though the fight had traveled into
18:35
Speaker 2: the bathroom. What can we learn from this? Matt fought
18:40
Speaker 2: hard for his life. That's obvious. It's also striking. The
18:43
Speaker 2: killer didn't just incapacitate Matt. They made a point to
18:48
Speaker 2: finish him off. To police, this was appearing less and
18:51
Speaker 2: less like a random shooting and more and more like
18:54
Speaker 2: Matt had been specifically targeted. It seemed clear from police
19:00
Speaker 2: statements there were several oddities at Matt Stewart's crime scene.
19:05
Speaker 2: Matt was shot several times with two different types of ammunition,
19:09
Speaker 2: but there were reportedly no shell casings found at the scene.
19:13
Speaker 2: This appeared to be a bedroom ambush homicide, because otherwise
19:18
Speaker 2: it would be very unusual for a robber to come
19:20
Speaker 2: into a home late at night, not steal anything, and
19:23
Speaker 2: then go straight to the bedroom and then to attack
19:26
Speaker 2: one person with several different weapons. Most home invaders who
19:31
Speaker 2: are targeting someone's stuff will just leave when they realize
19:34
Speaker 2: there are people home. Angel didn't say anything about the killers,
19:38
Speaker 2: telling them they wanted money or giving them any kind
19:41
Speaker 2: of verbal demands. Whoever it was, came into the house
19:44
Speaker 2: and just in her words, opened fire immediately. Then once
19:49
Speaker 2: they brutally killed Matt, they let Angel escape. If the
19:53
Speaker 2: killer or killers were so worried about having witnesses, they
19:56
Speaker 2: made sure to eliminate Matt by using two or potentially
19:59
Speaker 2: three different weapons. Why let Angel leave, of course, any
20:04
Speaker 2: time that a spouse has murdered and there's no immediate motive.
20:07
Speaker 2: The wife is always questioned and police did talk to Angel,
20:11
Speaker 2: but it's unclear what happened during those interviews. In twenty eighteen,
20:16
Speaker 2: before he released the Unforgotten podcast, Freddie did speak to
20:19
Speaker 2: Matt's sister, but for the most part, Angel's family has
20:23
Speaker 2: largely avoided speaking to any media outlet so far. In fact,
20:27
Speaker 2: they made it clear to Freddy they did not appreciate
20:30
Speaker 2: him making the podcast. But Angel has spoken out in
20:34
Speaker 2: recent years, in an episode of Dave Ramsey's podcast and
20:37
Speaker 2: also in a video posted on YouTube. She has also
20:41
Speaker 2: talked to people at her church about the attack, and
20:44
Speaker 2: when she spoke to the congregation, she said that she
20:47
Speaker 2: had been questioned by police and given a lie detector test.
20:51
Speaker 2: Angel has never been charged with any wrongdoing and there's
20:54
Speaker 2: no suggestion she has ever been considered a suspect.
20:58
Speaker 3: She gave a public talk at a church. She mentioned
21:00
Speaker 3: being polygraphed in that talk, so that would give some
21:05
Speaker 3: further evidence that she was questioned.
21:06
Speaker 4: But from what I heard, yes, she was questioned, and
21:09
Speaker 4: you know, there had always been an underlying presumption that
21:15
Speaker 4: this was someone that.
21:17
Speaker 3: Was close to Matt.
21:19
Speaker 4: Not quoting police or any came, but from what I've gleaned,
21:22
Speaker 4: you can hear in some of the episodes people talking
21:25
Speaker 4: that it was if not a crime of passion, just
21:28
Speaker 4: a crime of real emotions someone that knew and was
21:32
Speaker 4: familiar with Matt.
21:47
Speaker 2: In the music video for a band called Big Daddy
21:49
Speaker 2: Weave on YouTube, Angel talks about her faith and how
21:52
Speaker 2: it got her through the dark days of her husband's murder.
21:56
Speaker 2: She also gives more details about the night Matt was killed.
22:00
Speaker 2: She said that they were together in bed and that
22:03
Speaker 2: he went to ten to their son. Then she said
22:06
Speaker 2: he brought their son into.
22:07
Speaker 3: The bed with them.
22:09
Speaker 2: Angel made a comment about how she believed that he
22:11
Speaker 2: was a better and more attentive parent than her, But
22:14
Speaker 2: she said after Matt brought their son into the bedroom
22:16
Speaker 2: that night that Matt said their son just needed as mommy.
22:21
Speaker 2: Angel went on to say what a wonderful father Matt was.
22:24
Speaker 2: In that video, there were a couple of details that
22:27
Speaker 2: I had not heard publicly before. In the incident report,
22:31
Speaker 2: Angel said that she woke up to a shadowy figure
22:33
Speaker 2: who opened fire, But then in this YouTube video, she
22:37
Speaker 2: said she heard a sound and woke up before seeing
22:40
Speaker 2: the mysterious figure in the doorway. It's a tiny difference,
22:43
Speaker 2: but who knows. There may be more details that could
22:47
Speaker 2: help lead to the killer. Police have said they have
22:51
Speaker 2: no usable physical evidence, which seems odd as well because
22:54
Speaker 2: this was a pretty large crime scene. Maybe they collected
22:58
Speaker 2: no DNA, or there's another possibility that police did collect DNA,
23:02
Speaker 2: but that the foreign DNA if it wasn't either Matt's
23:05
Speaker 2: or Angels, could have been someone who had a connection
23:08
Speaker 2: with Matt or Angel. Maybe it was someone the couple knew,
23:12
Speaker 2: someone close to them, maybe someone who would have a
23:15
Speaker 2: reason for their DNA to be inside the home. Could
23:18
Speaker 2: this have been a contract killing, and if so, who
23:21
Speaker 2: would have wanted to hurt Matt. There were some very
23:24
Speaker 2: early rumors of drug involvement, but there has been absolutely
23:28
Speaker 2: no reason to believe that Matt was in any way
23:31
Speaker 2: involved with drugs since high school. What we know for
23:35
Speaker 2: sure is that once the killer got inside that house,
23:38
Speaker 2: they seemed determined to finish the job. Whoever attacked Matt
23:43
Speaker 2: brutally beat and shot and stabbed him. He was the target.
23:48
Speaker 2: There have been other brutal home invasions, some that have
23:52
Speaker 2: happened under bizarre circumstances and remain unsolved. We're going to
23:56
Speaker 2: be covering another home invasion murder in an upcoming episode,
23:59
Speaker 2: the killing of twenty five year old Josh Shulman on
24:02
Speaker 2: outer Bridge Lane in South Carolina. His father, Larry Shulman,
24:06
Speaker 2: was also pistol whipped and shot in the attack, but
24:09
Speaker 2: Larry survived. Larry told reporters that the police considered him
24:13
Speaker 2: a suspect due to the fact that Larry's mother was
24:17
Speaker 2: dying and left some money to Josh, which brings up
24:20
Speaker 2: a natural question in Matt's case. Is there any indication
24:23
Speaker 2: that Angel or anyone else could have gained financially from
24:27
Speaker 2: Matt's death. There have been rumors that Matt was having
24:30
Speaker 2: financial problems. A former colleague of Matt posted on Facebook
24:35
Speaker 2: that he remembered Matt Ann had worked with him at
24:37
Speaker 2: the hospital where Matt was on the day shift. This
24:39
Speaker 2: person said they were on the night shift. This person
24:42
Speaker 2: claimed about a week before his death that Matt was
24:46
Speaker 2: taking extra ships at the hospital due to what this
24:49
Speaker 2: person had been told by a charge nurse was money issues.
24:53
Speaker 2: But it's important to note this is only third hand information.
24:57
Speaker 2: There's nothing available publicly that I've found that indicates that
25:01
Speaker 2: Angel and Matt's debts were anything more than what any
25:04
Speaker 2: normal young couple with a family was facing. Brenda told
25:08
Speaker 2: reporters that Matt and Angel had just paid off their
25:11
Speaker 2: student loans and that they both had good jobs. Angel
25:15
Speaker 2: stated in the YouTube video that she had remarried. She
25:18
Speaker 2: was introduced to her husband through a friend who thought
25:21
Speaker 2: they should meet because they had both suffered tragedy. He
25:24
Speaker 2: had also lost his wife. Reportedly, she died of cancer.
25:28
Speaker 2: Angel said she credits her new husband and her Christian
25:31
Speaker 2: faith with getting her through the darkest times after the murder.
25:36
Speaker 2: I completely respect Matt and Angel's families desire to move
25:40
Speaker 2: on with their lives, even though I have no desire
25:43
Speaker 2: to retraumatize a family. It's terrifying to me that this
25:47
Speaker 2: killer is probably still out there and they could do
25:51
Speaker 2: this to someone else. We need to know why did
25:54
Speaker 2: this killer target Matt? Why take the time to brutally
25:58
Speaker 2: eliminate him using three different weapons? Could this be someone
26:03
Speaker 2: close to Matt and if so, are they still living
26:06
Speaker 2: in the community.
26:08
Speaker 4: Understandably, the public is very interested in this. It's a
26:11
Speaker 4: notable person and it's a horrible crime and they're not
26:15
Speaker 4: telling the public everything. Of course they can and shouldn't,
26:18
Speaker 4: but that kind of feedback and communication typically happens in
26:23
Speaker 4: cases like this. Even if you're not getting a lot
26:26
Speaker 4: of information, none of those things are happening.
26:29
Speaker 3: So it seems I think to many of the people
26:31
Speaker 3: that I talk to in the community, especially people.
26:34
Speaker 4: That really cared about Matt, that they're not doing anything,
26:38
Speaker 4: and fears start to set in.
26:40
Speaker 3: Is there something that went wrong with the investigation.
26:43
Speaker 4: There's been some real political upheaval in Morrisville, particularly in
26:47
Speaker 4: the last couple of years, and allegations of corruption has
26:51
Speaker 4: played the department for.
26:52
Speaker 3: A long time.
26:53
Speaker 4: But I think most people have a lot of grace
26:55
Speaker 4: and respect for what law enforcement do and that they
26:59
Speaker 4: can't come and tell everybody everything all the time.
27:02
Speaker 3: But I think that trust kind of erodes year after.
27:06
Speaker 4: Year, as especially as there's silence and what has happened
27:12
Speaker 4: locally to people in the community getting not only the
27:16
Speaker 4: cold shoulder, but feeling like they're doing something wrong.
27:19
Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen
27:24
Speaker 2: Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans
27:26
Speaker 2: and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine
27:29
Speaker 2: Townsend and produced by Etily's Perez Special thanks to Amy
27:33
Speaker 2: Tubbs for her research assistance and James Wheaton for legal review.
27:37
Speaker 2: Noah camer mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song
27:41
Speaker 2: is by Ben Sale, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
27:45
Speaker 2: and L. C. Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad free
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Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing documents and
27:55
Speaker 2: materials from the case, you can follow the show on
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Speaker 2: Instagram at Helen Gonepod. If you have a case you'd
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Speaker 2: like me and my team to look into, you can
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