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our website. [music] Valerie Haythorne managed a Dairy [music] Queen fast food restaurant in
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the small city of Mount Vernon, Ohio. [music] One of her employees was 32-year-old
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Tina Herman, a good friend and one of the most reliable people Valerie knew. Tina loved her job and her colleagues,
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and she had never missed a shift [music] or abandoned her responsibilities. So when she failed to show up for work
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on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 10, 2010, [music] Valerie noticed immediately.
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She tried calling Tina, but there was no answer. Growing uneasy, Valerie [music] drove to
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the house that Tina shared with her boyfriend Greg Borders and her two children from a previous relationship,
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13-year-old Sarah and 11-year-old Cody Maynard. Although Tina worked in Mount Vernon,
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she lived about 9 miles outside town in the planned community of Apple Valley. Something of a resort area, Apple Valley
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surrounds a 511 acre reservoir named Apple Valley Lake. With rolling hills, tree dotted landscapes, and lakefront
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homes, it seemed like an idilic place to raise a family. Tina's house sat on a somewhat isolated
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stretch of a street called [music] King Beach Drive with a large wooded area across the road.
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When Valerie arrived, the inside lights were on and Tina's blue 2004 pickup truck was parked in the driveway, but no
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one answered the door. She left a note before leaving. [music] Later that evening, still having heard
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nothing from Tina, Valerie [music] called the county sheriff's office to request a welfare check.
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A deputy arrived at Tina's house at around 8:00 [music] p.m., but by then the scene had changed. The lights were
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now off and Tina's truck was gone. [music] The deputy rang the doorbell, but no one
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answered. With nothing appearing out of place and the missing truck possibly indicating
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the occupants were simply out for the evening, the deputy left, returning [music] a few hours later at 11:15 p.m.
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This time, the lights were on and Tina's [music] truck was back in the driveway,
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suggesting the family had returned home. The following day of Thursday, November
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11, Tina again failed to [music] show up for work. Valerie Haythorne called the sheriff's
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office immediately. Deputies contacted Tina's [music] children's school and discovered that
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although Sarah and Cody had attended classes the [music] previous day, they'd been absent on Thursday without
00:04:34
explanation. The school had called the family home to check on them, but received [music] no
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answer. This was a possibly concerning development. Not [music] only was Tina unaccounted for, but her two children
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were as well. Meanwhile, just a [music] few doors down from Tina's home, another disappearance
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was beginning to unfold. [music] 41-year-old [music] Stephanie Spring was one of Tina
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Herman's best friends. The two women lived on the same street [music] just a few houses apart. They did almost
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everything together, often helping each other out by babysitting for one another. [music]
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When Tina failed to show up for work, her manager and friend Valerie Haythorne called Stephanie's house. [music] She
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was sure that if anyone knew Tina's whereabouts, Stephanie would. But to Valerie's shock, Stephanie's family
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informed her that they had no idea where she was, bringing the total number of missing [music] persons to four.
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Stephanie and Tina had made plans to go house hunting together on Wednesday afternoon before Tina's shift. At 12:46
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[music] p.m. that day, Stephanie had called her partner, Ron. They spoke for nearly 4
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and 1/2 minutes, [music] and that was the last time Ron heard from her. Stephanie was usually home by 400 p.m.
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to greet her two [music] younger children after school, but she never returned. None of her three children, aged 20, 17,
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and nine, had heard from her. Ron texted Stephanie [music] asking what's up and assumed her phone's battery had died
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when he received no reply. When Stephanie still hadn't returned by Thursday morning, her loved ones grew
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worried. Their concern deepened when they learned that Tina Herman was also missing.
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A sheriff's deputy had since driven by Tina's house again, [music] noting that her truck was once more gone.
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By that afternoon, Valerie Haythorne's worry had grown too great to wait any longer. She and Ron arranged to meet at
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Tina's house. The front door was locked, so Valerie walked around to the back, removed a fly screen, opened a window,
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and climbed inside. The kitchen was silent and still, [music] but otherwise appeared normal.
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The curtains were drawn. A few [music] cups and water bottles sat on the dining table. Bags of groceries lay on the
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floor, and one of the [music] cabinet doors was open. Valerie moved through the kitchen
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towards the living area and was immediately confronted by a shocking sight. The living room carpet was covered in
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blood. [music] Upon arriving at the scene, authorities quickly sealed off the home and
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conducted a room by room search. Large amounts of blood were spread throughout. Streaks from the major stain in the
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living room led down the hallway and into the bathroom as if a wounded person had been moved and dragged along the
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floor. A second large stain found in Tina Herman's bedroom suggests that another
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victim had been attacked there with the drag marks indicating they too had been pulled into the bathroom.
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In 13-year-old Sarah's bedroom, investigators found another large stain and drag marks along with blood swipes
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on walls and doorways consistent with someone wearing gloves. The bathroom contained the heaviest
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concentration of blood smeared across the bathtub, shower walls, and toilet [music] with diluted pools in the tub.
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Scattered nearby were garbage bags, Clorox bathroom cleaner, and other cleaning supplies.
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The bathtub's rim was covered in bloody prints matching the gloved smears found throughout the home.
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A pair of shore grip gardening gloves lay in the sink. Another set of gloves was discovered in the living room.
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A gallon jug of motor oil was discovered in the hallway with a trail leading to a
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bedroom. Motor oil had also been deliberately poured over many of the blood stains on
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the home's carpets. It appeared the oil had been used in an attempt to conceal blood evidence and
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[music] maybe as a possible accelerant as well. Footprints of blood and motor oil were
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found throughout the home belonging to two separate pairs of shoes. One set was believed to be the
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perpetrators, while the smaller prints matching a size 7 and 1/2 airwalk shoe likely belonged to [music] one of Tina's
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children. These prints were found on the lenolium leading to the garage and inside the
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garage itself. Also in the garage, investigators discovered a Jeep Cherokee belonging to
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Tina's neighbor and friend, Stephanie [music] Sprang. Friends and family said it wasn't
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strange for her car to [music] be there, as she sometimes parked it in Tina's garage when she visited.
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As for Stephanie, Tina, Sarah, and Cody, none of them were anywhere to be found.
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Investigators [music] now had to grapple with four missing individuals and a gruesome crime scene
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that suggested at least one, if not more, murder. Whatever had happened to Tina,
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Stephanie, Sarah, and Cody was estimated to have occurred in the midafter afternoon on Wednesday, November 10.
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That morning, Sarah and Cody had caught the school bus as usual, and after seeing her children off, Tina had gone
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grocery shopping and filled her car with petrol before driving back home. The bags of groceries she purchased were
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the ones found on the kitchen floor, and a receipt inside one of the bags was [music] timestamped around 12:00 p.m.
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It seemed likely that Tina had been attacked shortly after returning home, as no one had heard from her since
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Stephanie Sprang had then driven to her friend's house, planning to take them both to see an apartment Tina was
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interested in. Investigators believed that when Stephanie arrived, she too was attacked.
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The asalent remained in their house for several hours until midafter afternoon when school ended and Sarah and Cody
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returned home. Then they were confronted, too. From the outset, investigators had a
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possible suspect. When Valerie Haythorne first raised the alarm about Tina Herman's disappearance,
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she'd explained that she was concerned because Tina had said she was planning to break up with her living boyfriend,
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Greg Borders. The couple had been experiencing some issues and Tina had started searching for a place to move
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out alone with her kids. As the investigation at King Beach Drive continued, Greg Borders arrived at the
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scene. He explained that he had been away for the past couple of days and hadn't seen
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Tina since going to bed on the night of Tuesday, November 10, the day before she
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went missing. Because he worked early shifts and had a long commute, he'd left the house at
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3:40 a.m. on Wednesday. [music] Greg worked roughly 60 mi away at a retail corporation's distribution center
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and had spent the entire day there. He said that instead of [music] returning home that night, he had stayed
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at a friend's house. Because Greg had Thursday off, he and his friend had planned to play golf. As
00:13:04
the friend lived near the golf course, it was easier to stay there instead of making the long drive home.
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Greg had last spoken to Tina on Wednesday morning over the phone. Their final communication was a text she
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sent shortly afterwards letting him know she had fed their dog, a miniature pincher named Tanner, who was also
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missing from the property. Greg admitted that he and Tina had decided to break up. Living together
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hadn't been very comfortable, though it hadn't been hostile either. He explained that his cell phone had
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been switched off earlier that day and that he'd only learned about the law enforcement presence at his house after
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a relative contacted him. Upon receiving that news, [music] he rushed home immediately.
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Greg gave investigators permission to search the house and agreed to be examined for injuries.
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They found no scratches or other wounds on his hands, arms, or torso. Although Greg had initially appeared to
00:14:10
be a possible suspect, his alibis for the past 2 days checked out. Investigators also interviewed Ron,
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Stephanie's [music] partner, as well as Stephanie's ex-husband and Tina's ex-husband.
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All were cleared of any involvement in the events on King Beach Drive. Sand dogs and watercraft were [music]
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dispatched to search Apple Valley Lake for any trace of the missing four, but nothing was found.
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Investigators checked bank accounts, credit cards, and cell phones for signs of activity, [music]
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but there were none. Tips from the public about suspicious individuals or potential evidence in the
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surrounding woods were investigated, but nothing proved relevant to the case. As nightfell on the first day of the
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crime scene investigation, a county sheriff's deputy was on a routine patrol in Mount Vernon.
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At 6:55 p.m., while driving past the parking lot for a recreational area known as the Kakosing Gap Trail, he
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spotted a blue 2004 Ford pickup [music] truck. It was Tina Herman's. The vehicle was located about a 20inut
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drive southwest of Tina's home in Apple Valley. Investigators quickly arrived and
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searched the surrounding area, but found no sign of Tina or the others. This would be the second biggest clue
00:15:45
investigators had so far. The first was found in Tina's garage and had been noticed for looking out of
00:15:53
place. a Walmart plastic bag containing two 6x8 ft tarpolins, an opened pack of 55 heavyduty garbage bags, and a
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receipt. The receipt showed that the tarpollins and garbage bags had been purchased at a
00:16:10
Walmart store in Mount Vernon in the early hours of Thursday, November 11, along with a turkey sandwich and a
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t-shirt. This was [music] significant because the attack was believed to have occurred
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about 12 hours earlier, [music] meaning the bag could not have been left there by Tina or her children.
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It seemed likely that after assaulting his victims, the perpetrator had gone to buy supplies to cover up the crime,
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[music] then returned to the King Beach Drive address. The perpetrator revisiting the house
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after the attack would also explain why it had appeared occupied at certain times with lights on inside and Tina's
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pickup truck in the driveway. The perpetrator must have moved Tina Herman's truck to the Kakosing Gap Trail
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parking lot for some [music] reason. Since motor oil had been poured on various surfaces throughout the home,
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[music] investigators considered whether the perpetrator had planned to return once more to set the house ablaze, only
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to be thwarted by Valerie Haythorne discovering the crime scene first. Detectives contacted the Mount Vernon
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Walmart and learned that the perpetrator had paid with cash, so no credit card information was available.
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However, they were able to review the store's security footage from the time of the purchase to try and identify the
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customer. Detectives [music] quickly honed in on one individual seen in the footage, a white male appearing
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to be between 25 and 40 years old, who left the store at 12:09 a.m. carrying a shopping bag containing garbage bags and
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tarpolins. He was [music] tall, around 6'1 with brown hair and a partially receding
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hairline. He wore a camouflage print shirt and glasses. Tracking him across the security
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cameras, detectives [music] saw him walk to the parking lot, get into a silver Toyota Yarus with a visible [music] dent
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on its rear passenger side, and drive away. Armed with this new [music] lead, investigators obtained records for all
00:18:29
silver Toyota Yaruses registered to male drivers in the Knox County area. It didn't take long to find a Yarus
00:18:36
owner who looked remarkably like the man in the security footage. Matthew Hoffman was a 30-year-old who
00:18:44
had renewed his driver's license just 2 weeks earlier. His new license photo showed a man with short brown hair with
00:18:52
a receding hairline. He wasn't wearing glasses like the suspect was, but license photos from
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earlier years did show him with glasses on. Most remarkably of all, in the new photo, he was wearing a camouflage
00:19:07
t-shirt that looked identical to the one worn by their suspect. Investigators had two possible addresses
00:19:16
for Matthew Hoffman on file. One was his mother's home in Apple Valley on Apple Valley Drive.
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This address was just half a mile from Tina Herman's home. The other address was about 10 mi away
00:19:31
in Mount Vernon. It was a rundown house that Hoffman had purchased cheaply the previous year.
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Records showed that Matthew Hoffman had a checkered past. Although he'd grown up
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in Ohio, he relocated to Colorado as a young adult in the year 2000. His grandmother lived in the resort city
00:19:54
of Steamboat Springs, and Hoffman joined her there. He found work as a plumber's assistant,
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but began committing crimes in his spare time. Hoffman stole several large wooden and
00:20:07
metal signs that stood on the outskirts of Steamboat Springs, welcoming visitors
00:20:12
to the town. He also burgled a condo that his plumbing company had performed some
00:20:18
repairs in, storing the burgal items in the condo owner's car before driving away in the car and leaving it somewhere
00:20:26
for safekeeping. Hoffman knew that he'd left his fingerprints all over the condo and
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believed he had to cover his crime. He returned to the residence and used 10 gallons of gasoline that he'd purchased
00:20:40
at a Walmart to set it ablaze. The fire spread across the entire condominium and the 16 individuals who
00:20:48
lived there had to run for their lives. Luckily, all survived and were unharmed,
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[music] but eight units within the condominium were burnt, and the damage was estimated at $2 million.
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It didn't take long for investigators to realize where the fire had started. When they found the car that Hoffman had
00:21:12
stolen filled with items from the burntout condo and his fingerprints, [music] they questioned him and obtained
00:21:18
a full confession. Hoffman pleaded guilty to a range of charges, including breaking and
00:21:25
entering, property theft, motor vehicle theft, and reckless endangerment of lives.
00:21:31
He was [music] sentenced to 8 years in prison. While incarcerated, Hoffman became known
00:21:38
as a model prisoner. He completed some studies as well as a victim awareness program.
00:21:45
Hoffman was granted parole 6 years into his sentence and was permitted to return
00:21:50
to his home state of Ohio for his parole period. [music] He was back in Knox County by
00:21:56
2007, 3 years before the attack at Tina Herman's home. [music] He found work as a tree trimmer,
00:22:04
purchased a house, and got a girlfriend. That relationship had recently ended and
00:22:11
his girlfriend had moved out. About 3 weeks earlier, on Sunday, October 24, she had returned to
00:22:19
Hoffman's home to collect some of her belongings, and the two got into an argument.
00:22:25
Hoffman's girlfriend would later file a police report stating that when she tried to leave, Hoffman pushed her over
00:22:32
a chair, knocked her to the ground, and began to choke her. [music] She struggled to fight him off for about
00:22:39
2 minutes, after which point he let go. She left and reported the incident to the police, though she later declined to
00:22:48
press charges. [music] Investigators looking into Hoffman reviewed a report from a past domestic
00:22:57
violence incident, as well as another record of a more recent run-in with the law.
00:23:04
Sheriff's Deputy Aaron Phillips was the officer who had discovered [music] Tina Herman's Ford pickup truck abandoned at
00:23:10
the Kakosing Gap Trail parking lot. At the [music] time, Deputy Phillips noticed just one other vehicle nearby. A
00:23:19
silver Toyota Yarus parked about 200 yd away. A man was visible in the driver's seat
00:23:26
and the car had a noticeable dent on the rear passenger side. Deputy Phillips approached the man,
00:23:34
finding his presence unusual. The lot was technically closed at that hour, and the deputy wasn't sure why he
00:23:42
was there. He asked [music] to see the man's license, which identified him as Matthew Hoffman.
00:23:49
Hoffman was cooperative, answering questions politely. When Deputy Phillips saw Hoffman's
00:23:56
license listed his mother's address in the Apple Valley area, he asked if it was near King Beach Drive.
00:24:03
Hoffman explained it was his mother's address and that he actually lived in Mount Vernon.
00:24:10
When asked why he was sitting in the car, Hoffman replied that he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish her shift
00:24:16
at a nearby hotel. Deputy Phillips informed Hoffman that the parking lot was closed and that he
00:24:23
would need to leave. Hoffman complied and drove [music] away. The interaction was recorded in Deputy
00:24:32
Phillips notes, which became available to other investigators when they ran Matthew Hoffman's name a few days later.
00:24:40
>> [music] >> One detail that had seemed insignificant to Phillips immediately alarmed the
00:24:45
investigators working the King Beach Drive case. Hoffman had said he had only just
00:24:51
started dating his girlfriend and didn't know her surname, but her first name, he said, was Sarah.
00:25:02
[music] The evidence against Matthew Hoffman was mounting, and his troubling reference to
00:25:08
Tina's [music] 13-year-old daughter, Sarah Maynard, made locating him urgent. [music]
00:25:14
Investigators were granted a search warrant for Hoffman's house. A team [music] of investigators joined by
00:25:21
members of the county sheriff's office and the Mount Vernon Police Department [music] SWAT team arrived at the
00:25:27
residence. Given the possibility that four missing people were being held inside, they
00:25:34
opted for a no knock entry using a battering ram. After the front door was forced open,
00:25:41
one [music] of the investigators tossed in a flash grenade as a distraction. Then the team swarmed in.
00:25:50
Matthew Hoffman was discovered asleep on a couch in the living room. He was told to show them his hands, but
00:25:57
he failed to do so, either because he was groggy upon being woken or as a deliberate act of defiance.
00:26:06
"What's going on?" Hoffman asked. [music] "You tell me," one of the officers replied.
00:26:13
Investigators approached and forced Hoffman down on the floor before arresting him and removing him from the
00:26:19
property. With their suspect secured, the team turned their attention back to his
00:26:25
house. [music] There was something bizarre about it that was immediately noticeable. [music]
00:26:32
The floor of the room that sat to the right of the front door had a tarp spread out across it. And the tarp was
00:26:39
almost entirely covered by dead leaves. Piles and piles of them had been strewn across the floor and almost up to the
00:26:48
window sills. They were about 3 ft tall at their highest [music] point. Some plastic bags
00:26:56
were scattered about as well. The rest of the house was equally odd and in a general state of disarray.
00:27:05
A large trampoline had been pushed up against a wall. There was [music] disused exercise equipment piled up in a
00:27:11
corner of another room. There wasn't much in the way of furniture, and [music] various
00:27:16
belongings were scattered messily throughout the house. One bedroom [music] upstairs looked to
00:27:22
have been set up as a cannabis growing operation, though it was inactive. Inside a freezer, officers found two
00:27:30
dead squirrels stacked alongside some popsicles. Strange drawings were painted on some of
00:27:37
the walls and other surfaces. One showed a middle-aged man with a tap emerging from his mouth.
00:27:46
Another [music] depicted a tree trimming truck. There was a giant peace sign on the door
00:27:52
as well as stars and random names scribbled on the walls in marker. The investigators used sticks to poke at
00:28:01
the leaf pile near the front door to make sure nothing untoward was hidden beneath.
00:28:07
There was nothing but leaves inside. [music] That wasn't the only room featuring a bizarre tableau.
00:28:17
In the bathroom, more than 110 plastic bags stuffed with dead leaves had been stacked on top of one another.
00:28:26
They lined every wall of the room surrounding the toilet, covering the mirror, and reaching up to the ceiling.
00:28:32
[music] Another room also had a wall covered in similar bags. The leaves seemed to be the home's
00:28:40
consistent decorating theme. Throughout the house, there were bags full of them and loose ones lying on the
00:28:48
floor. Investigators searched every room and the attic, but found no trace of Tina,
00:28:56
Sarah, Cody, or Stephanie. Then one patrol officer noticed a basement door hidden behind a cabinet.
00:29:05
He shoved the cabinet out of the way and another investigator slowly proceeded down the basement stairs.
00:29:13
To the immediate left of the stairs was another room. It had a large wide hole in its block
00:29:20
wall that was big enough for a person to step through. There was enough light in the space for
00:29:26
the investigator to make out another enormous pile of leaves in the small room. Several blankets have been placed on top
00:29:34
of the pile, and on top of those was a person lying down. The investigator shone a torch on the
00:29:43
person and shouted for them to show their hands. The small figure sat up but couldn't
00:29:49
show her hands. They were wearing black work gloves and had been duct taped together, then bound even tighter with
00:29:56
yellow bungee cords. Cords had been wrapped around her ankles as well. The investigator recognized the
00:30:05
individual as 13-year-old Sarah Maynard. Wednesday, November 10, 2010 had started
00:30:17
out like an ordinary day for Sarah. She had breakfast with her brother Cody and then they both caught the bus to school.
00:30:25
They rode the bus home together as well. And as they headed up to their house's front door, everything looked normal.
00:30:33
When they entered, however, they could immediately sense something was wrong. The children always removed their shoes
00:30:42
after returning home, but as they went to do so, [music] they noticed blood by the front door.
00:30:49
The house was also strangely quiet. Their mother, Tina, typically greeted them when they came home.
00:30:57
Sarah and Cody, both called out to their mother. There was no reply. Instead, a large man suddenly appeared
00:31:07
from the hallway and barreled towards them. It was Matthew Hoffman. Stunned and terrified, Cody turned and
00:31:16
went to run out the front door. Sarah managed to slip past Hoffman and raced to her bedroom, slamming shut its
00:31:24
door. She scrambled to find her cell phone and was about to call 911 when Hoffman burst in and grabbed her. He was
00:31:33
holding a large knife. Sarah struggled and the knife cut one of her fingers. Hoffman then cut the electrical wire
00:31:43
from a nearby fan, then used it to bind Sarah's hands together. He threatened to kill her if she made
00:31:51
any noise. Hoffman gagged Sarah with a piece of fabric and carried her down to the
00:31:57
basement. There, he found more rope to tie her legs together and a pillowcase that he
00:32:03
threw over her head. Finally finished with tying and blindfolding her, he carried her back
00:32:10
upstairs and put her on the kitchen floor. The pillowcase slipped off, but Sarah
00:32:17
couldn't see what Hoffman was doing. He was no longer in her line of sight. She could hear him rummaging about and
00:32:25
coming and going. He moved between the kitchen and the bathroom. Sarah could hear water running in the
00:32:33
bathroom and the toilet being flushed repeatedly. Sometimes there were banging noises.
00:32:40
As the hours stretched on, the house became dark and Hoffman switched on some lights. Whenever he returned to the
00:32:48
kitchen to get more supplies, he sounded out of breath. Finally, Hoffman approached Sarah,
00:32:56
warning her again not to make any noise. [music] He blindfolded her again and carried her
00:33:02
out to Stephanie Sprang's [music] Jeep in the garage, placing her in the back seat and covering her with blankets.
00:33:08
[music] Hoffman then backed the Jeep out of the garage and drove for a little while.
00:33:15
He left the car, warning Sarah to stay where she was and not move. She eventually [music] sat up and the
00:33:23
blindfold fell slightly, allowing her to see that he parked the car at a nearby baseball field.
00:33:31
Next to her [music] were some large garbage bags. Hoffman was gone for over an hour. When
00:33:38
he eventually returned, he moved Sarah from Stephanie's Jeep [music] into a smaller car parked nearby.
00:33:46
He'd seemingly left Sarah to retrieve his own car. He then drove her to a house and carried
00:33:53
her inside to the bathroom. It was late at night now, close to 12:00 a.m. Hoffman made sure Sarah was [music]
00:34:03
tightly tied up. Then he left the house, leaving her lying on the bathroom floor.
00:34:12
Sarah was terrified. She drifted in and out of sleep over the following hours, though she was [music] plagued by
00:34:19
nightmares. By the time Hoffman returned, it was morning. [music] When he came to check on Sarah, she
00:34:27
tried to chat to him as a way of hopefully making him sympathize with her. She asked about the drawings on the
00:34:34
wall, and [music] he explained that they were of various characters. When Hoffman took Sarah out of the
00:34:41
bathroom, she saw all the bags of leaves and asked about them. Hoffman replied that they were for insulation.
00:34:51
Sarah then tried to ask about what had happened at her house. She asked Hoffman if he'd broken in and if he'd murdered
00:34:58
her mother and brother. [music] His answer to both was no. Sarah queried what he'd done with her
00:35:06
dog, Tana, as she'd noticed Tana hadn't barked the entire time she'd been there.
00:35:12
Hoffman said he'd let the dog out of the house. He gave her some cereal to eat, but the
00:35:19
milk was off and made Sarah feel sick. That was the only food Hoffman ever provided her with.
00:35:29
At some [music] point, Hoffman blindfolded and gagged her again and put her in a closet. Sometimes he would go
00:35:35
out, leaving Sarah in the house alone, but she was so tightly restrained that there was no possibility of escape.
00:35:45
Eventually, Hoffman created a makeshift bed for Sarah in the basement using dead
00:35:50
leaves. He layered four or five blankets on top and placed Sarah on them. He removed her blindfold, but it was so
00:36:00
dark down there that she couldn't see much. Sarah spent hours and hours in the basement by herself.
00:36:08
Sometimes though, Hoffman would come down to visit her. He would just stand there staring at her and not saying a
00:36:15
word. Then he'd head back upstairs. Whenever he went out, he warned Sarah that someone else would be watching her
00:36:23
and she wasn't to make a sound. Sarah did as Hoffman said. The basement was cold despite the blankets, and she
00:36:33
was stuck there without food or a toilet. She spent the next two days down there
00:36:39
all alone, except for the brief occasions when Hoffman would come down to look at her.
00:36:45
It was difficult to tell how much time was passing due to the dark state of the basement.
00:36:52
On Saturday, November 13, several days after the attack, Hoffman spent more time at home, during which time he
00:37:00
sexually assaulted Sarah. During one visit to Sarah, Hoffman gave her a dictionary and made her look up
00:37:08
the word ransom. He explained that was what he planned to hold her for and he might release her by
00:37:16
Christmas. Sarah's ordeal was finally interrupted early on the morning of Sunday, November
00:37:25
14, when a police officer descended the stairs into the basement and shone a torch in her eyes.
00:37:32
The officers immediately recognized the young girl with long blonde hair as Sarah.
00:37:39
She was still wearing the same jeans, gay hooded [music] sweatshirt, and Doug boots that she'd worn to school several
00:37:45
days earlier on Wednesday, November 10. The officers took photographs of Sarah in the basement as evidence of how they
00:37:54
had found her while speaking reassuringly to the young girl. [music] Then they carefully untied Sarah and
00:38:01
helped her stand. Sarah told the officers that she didn't know where any of the other missing
00:38:08
people were. She seemed dazed and disoriented, telling the police that she had to get to school.
00:38:17
Sarah was taken to a hospital for medical care and told the police about everything that had happened up until
00:38:23
that moment. When asked if she knew who Hoffman was or had ever seen him before the day of
00:38:30
the attack, she said no. She had no idea why he would want to hurt her family. Investigators conducted a thorough
00:38:47
search of Matthew Hoffman's car and house, as well as taking photographs of what they found there. [music]
00:38:53
They uncovered a camouflage shirt identical to the one Hoffman had worn on the Walmart CCTV footage and they
00:39:01
discovered a digital camera that had photographs of Sarah Maynard on it. All of the photos had been taken at
00:39:08
Hoffman's house. Other items of interest found included rope, duct tape, several cell phones,
00:39:16
$1,000 in cash, a weighted blackjack club like the kind used by police, and an SOG brand knife with a sheath.
00:39:26
Records showed that Hoffman had ordered the knife online quite recently. Receipts were also recovered that showed
00:39:33
Hoffman had purchased a pair of shore grip gloves, the same as the ones found in Tina Herman's house at a nearby
00:39:40
hardware store almost a week before the crime. 4 days later, he'd bought duct tape and
00:39:47
a second pair of gloves. No trace of the three still missing victims was found, but some of Hoffman's
00:39:56
neighbors were able to provide more information about him and his habits. Dorna Davis lived next door to Hoffman,
00:40:04
and when he'd first moved in with his girlfriend in 2009, she found him friendly enough.
00:40:11
Hoffman's girlfriend had a young son, and Dorn's own son would often go next door to watch television or play
00:40:17
football with him. Dorna felt comfortable with her son spending time at the Hoffman residence,
00:40:25
but that changed around mid 2010 when Matthew Hoffman started behaving strangely.
00:40:32
He seemed irritable and was no longer as friendly. He started setting traps for squirrels that frequented his yard so
00:40:40
that he could kill and eat them. This upset Dorna, who had enjoyed feeding the squirrels with her children.
00:40:49
A turning point came when Hoffman gave Dorna's 14-year-old daughter a lift home from the movies one day. Something he'd
00:40:56
done a number of times without incident. Dorna's daughter told her that Hoffman hadn't driven the main roads home. He'd
00:41:05
taken them through back roads and wooded areas instead. After that, [music] Dorna no longer
00:41:12
allowed her children to have anything to do with Hoffman. Dorna also had the sense that Hoffman
00:41:18
was abusive towards his girlfriend, who had been friendly and outgoing, but had become increasingly reserved and seemed
00:41:26
[music] to sneak out of the house when she wanted to leave. The girlfriend left with her son in October. Hoffman was
00:41:34
fired from his tree trimming job not long after that after he made his supervisor feel uncomfortable.
00:41:42
Unable to pay his bills, his electricity was cut off just weeks before winter. Hoffman appeared to take solace in
00:41:51
trees. Dorner often saw him sprawled out in a hammock he had in a tree. There was
00:41:58
also a large tree on his property that he loved to climb. He would sit high up in its branches [music]
00:42:04
for hours at a time. Neighbors told investigators about Hoffman's habit of taking walks in some
00:42:12
woods nearby. This area was cordoned off for a proper examination. While a large number of investigators
00:42:24
were processing the scene at Hoffman's house, two officers headed into an interrogation room with Hoffman at the
00:42:30
county sheriff's office headquarters. He was repeatedly asked where Tina, Cody, and Stephanie were. He said
00:42:39
nothing and just gazed downwards towards his hands that were cuffed in his lap. Eventually, Hoffman looked up and made
00:42:48
eye contact with the interviewing officers. He raised his hands to his chest and
00:42:54
made a fist with his right hand before wrapping it four or five times against his heart.
00:43:01
Then he cupped [music] both hands together and made a gesture like an explosion.
00:43:07
Heart hurts, one of the officers guessed. I don't understand sign language, Matt.
00:43:14
Hoffman wrapped on his heart again and then made a snapping gesture. When asked if he was saying his heart
00:43:21
was broken, Hoffman gave a small nod. The interrogation went on for hours, but Hoffman refused to speak.
00:43:31
Finally, an agent from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation stepped in to try. Hoffman began speaking to him after
00:43:39
just 15 minutes, telling him that he didn't know what had happened. He'd come home on Thursday to find Sarah Maynard
00:43:48
tied up in his basement with no knowledge of how she'd gotten there. Hoffman admitted that he must have done
00:43:55
something wrong, but hadn't been able to piece everything together. He claimed to
00:44:00
have taken care of Sarah after discovering her despite having no idea who she was.
00:44:07
Investigators didn't believe this story for a second. Hoffman continued to maintain it before
00:44:14
again lapsing into total silence. Detectives concluded the interrogation. They picked it up again the following
00:44:23
day of Monday, November 15, with similar results. Hoffman mostly refused to talk and when
00:44:31
he did speak, he would not do so on the subject of Sarah Maynard and the missing
00:44:36
people. One investigator offered to drive Hoffman to some locations associated with the crime, suggesting that it might
00:44:44
help him remember what had happened. Hoffman agreed, but the drive amounted to nothing.
00:44:52
Meanwhile, members of the police and public were searching Apple Valley and the surrounding area for any trace of
00:44:58
the missing victims. Some people phoned in a tip line to report sightings or possible evidence.
00:45:05
[music] None of these led to the discovery of Tina, Cody, or Stephanie. >> [music]
00:45:11
>> With no trace of them at either Hoffman's house or his mother's home nearby, investigators were beginning to
00:45:17
conclude that all three were almost certainly dead. [music] On the morning of Tuesday, November 16,
00:45:28
an agent from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation took Hoffman into an interrogation room for questioning
00:45:34
again. First, Hoffman insisted on having all recording equipment switched off. Then,
00:45:41
he asked to go to the bathroom. Once there, he asked the agent to remove any recording devices he had on him,
00:45:49
prompting the agent to hand over his two cell phones to another officer outside of the room. Hoffman then told the agent
00:45:57
that he'd had a disturbing dream the previous night. in it. [music] He'd been at a food
00:46:03
processing plant where he opened up a garbage bag and saw human remains inside. Upon waking, his memory of what had
00:46:12
happened slowly started returning to him. Hoffman said he wanted to write his confession down [music] and then the
00:46:20
agent should take him on a drive somewhere. During the drive, Hoffman would pretend
00:46:26
to escape so the agent could shoot him. Hoffman said he wanted things to unfold this way because he couldn't live after
00:46:34
remembering what he'd done. The agent could make Hoffman's confession public once he was dead.
00:46:43
Hoffman added that if the police wouldn't kill him, then he would kill himself in jail.
00:46:49
The agent said he could not agree to this plan, but encouraged Hoffman to relieve his guilt by confessing.
00:46:57
Hoffman clammed up once again. He was placed on suicide watch and monitored closely.
00:47:06
Two more days passed before there would finally be a break in the case. Hoffman told investigators that he would
00:47:14
disclose where Tina, Cody, and Stephanie were if prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. A deal was struck
00:47:23
and at around lunchtime on Thursday, November 18, a team of investigators along with Hoffman's attorney drove out
00:47:31
to a wooded area about 15 minutes drive north of Mount Vernon. The woods were part of a large public
00:47:39
wildlife area with hiking trails and a lake popular with swimmers and fishermen.
00:47:46
The team drove about half a mile along a winding path, then had to walk on foot into the woods.
00:47:54
They found what they had been told to look for by Matthew Hoffman, a tall American beach tree about 60 or 70 ft
00:48:03
high. It had healthy living branches at the top, but the main part of its trunk appeared to be hollow.
00:48:11
This was a common feature of beach trees. There was a large hole in the trunk about 30 to 40 ft off the ground as well
00:48:20
as a smaller hole at about 5 1/2 ft high. A sniffer dog the investigators brought
00:48:27
with them did not alert at the tree which had a [music] thick trunk. But when one of the investigators shone
00:48:35
a torch into the smaller hole, they saw what appeared to be several garbage bags
00:48:40
inside. A tree expert was summoned to cut into the tree with a chainsaw without damaging the evidence inside.
00:48:50
Once all of the garbage bags were removed from the trunk, investigators opened them up.
00:48:57
Inside was several bloodstained towels, a hat, clothing, and shoes, as well as the remains of Stephanie Spring, Tina
00:49:05
Herman, her 11-year-old son, Cody, and the family dog, Tanner. The three victims had all been stabbed
00:49:14
with a heavyduty serrated blade consistent with the knife found in Hoffman's home.
00:49:20
Their bodies [music] had been dismembered and then hidden inside the tree. Matthew Hoffman provided a detailed
00:49:31
confession. In early November, he'd been feeling angry and destructive after he lost his girlfriend and his job in quick
00:49:38
succession. He had long been someone who enjoyed breaking into other people's homes and
00:49:45
decided to do so once again on the night of Tuesday, November 9. He had previously noticed the house
00:49:52
where Tina Herman and her children lived as it was a short walking distance away
00:49:57
from his mother's home. Hoffman was aware that the house's garage door was broken and couldn't close all the way.
00:50:07
So just before midnight, Hoffman got into his Toyota Yarus and drove from his home in Mount Vernon to Apple Valley.
00:50:16
He parked in the nearby town of Howard, then walked from his car to Tina Herman's home, which was about 2 and 1/2
00:50:22
miles. Hoffman set himself up in the wooded area across the street from the house
00:50:28
and slept in a sleeping bag he'd brought with him. [music] By the time he woke up the following
00:50:34
morning, Tina's boyfriend, Greg Borders, had left for work, and only Tina's Ford
00:50:40
pickup remained in the driveway. Hoffman waited for her to leave, too. And once the coast was clear at around
00:50:48
10:30 a.m., he crossed the street and slid under the partially closed garage door.
00:50:55
Inside the garage was a door that led to the interior of the house. Hoffman kicked his way in, checked that no one
00:51:03
was in the residence, and began looking for easy items to steal, like jewelry and cash. He didn't find much, but got a
00:51:11
thrill out of being in someone else's home while they were gone. He grabbed a purse and put some items of
00:51:18
expensive jewelry in it, a gold necklace, and two rings. Hoffman said he was just getting ready
00:51:25
to leave when Tina Herman returned home at 12:30 p.m. This meant Hoffman had spent about 2
00:51:33
hours lurking inside the residence. Hoffman said that when Tina returned, he was in a back bedroom and consequently
00:51:42
trapped. His only way out without discovery would have been to smash a window and climb out. [music]
00:51:50
Instead of doing that, Hoffman pulled out a large knife that he'd brought with him. Quote, "For a certain amount of
00:51:57
intimidation in case I ran into someone and needed to make an escape." Hoffman was also armed with a blackjack
00:52:06
club. When Tina walked into the room, Hoffman said he forced her to lie face down on
00:52:13
the bed. [music] He claimed his intention was to knock her out and he hit her in the back of
00:52:19
the head a couple of times with the club. Tina did not pass out and Hoffman [music] began to panic.
00:52:27
At that same moment, he claimed a second woman, Stephanie Sprang, walked in and discovered the [music] scene.
00:52:35
She shouted at Hoffman, who said this only made him panic further. He picked up his knife and stabbed Tina.
00:52:43
Then he chased after Stephanie, whom he said had run away into Sarah's bedroom. Hoffman stabbed Stephanie, killing her,
00:52:52
[music] then returned to Tina to stab her further. He claimed that after this, he continued
00:52:59
wandering the house in a days, realizing what a terrible thing he'd done. Still,
00:53:05
he didn't leave. When the family dog started barking repeatedly, Hoffman killed it as well.
00:53:14
Hoffman decided to get rid of the bodies and burn the house down. He said he dragged both women to the bathroom where
00:53:22
he dismembered them and placed their remains in garbage bags. Hoffman described these actions as him
00:53:30
processing the bodies. As he was doing so, Sarah and Cody arrived home from school and called out
00:53:37
for their mother. Hoffman raced towards them, immediately [music] stabbing Cody as he turned to
00:53:44
run from the house. Then he went after Sarah. Hoffman said that he couldn't bring
00:53:51
himself to kill her. Instead, he duct taped her with tape he'd found in the house, though Sarah [music] said they
00:53:59
hadn't had any duct tape, and people who knew Hoffman said he typically kept some
00:54:03
in his car. Hoffman disposed of Cody as he had the two women. When he was done, he placed
00:54:12
the garbage bags in the back of Stephanie's jeep along with Sarah and [music] parked the vehicle in a baseball
00:54:19
field. Hoffman left Sarah and the victim's remains in the Jeep while he walked to
00:54:25
the parking lot where he'd left his Yurus, then drove it back to the field. After driving Sarah to his home and
00:54:33
restraining her there, he napped for a little while. Just after midnight, he went to Walmart
00:54:40
to purchase supplies and headed back to Stephanie's [music] Jeep with the garbage bags still inside.
00:54:47
Hoffman drove the Jeep to the wooded area with the hollow tree, a tree he'd already known about.
00:54:54
At around [music] 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 11, he lowered the bags with the remains into the tree. then headed
00:55:01
back to Tina's house to leave Stephanie's Jeep there. His plan was still to burn the house
00:55:08
down, so he took Tina's pickup out to buy gasoline. But he struggled with driving the car,
00:55:15
which he said wouldn't stay in gear. Abandoning his plan, he left Tina's pickup in a parking lot, then walked
00:55:23
back to where he'd left his own car and drove home again. He wanted to try again that night, but
00:55:30
was once again foiled after a deputy spotted him parked near Tina's pickup. Scared that law enforcement must have
00:55:38
discovered the crime scene at King Beach Road, Hoffman decided against burning the house down.
00:55:45
He did start a bonfire in his own backyard, however, where he burnt the shoes he'd been wearing during the
00:55:51
crime. None of his neighbors reported this as they were used to Hoffman doing strange
00:55:57
things. Hoffman also went back to Apple Valley one last time as he'd left his sleeping
00:56:04
bag and a backpack in the woods across from Tina Herman's house. While sneaking around in the woods to
00:56:11
get them, he spotted the heavy police presence over the road. None of them saw him.
00:56:22
A number of Hoffman's claims contradicted Sarah Maynard's account of her ordeal. He claimed he'd made her
00:56:29
breakfast, gave her hamburgers, and let her shower. He'd done her laundry so she
00:56:34
could wear clean clothes, and they watched movies together. He even let her play video games.
00:56:43
Sarah [music] refuted all of this. Hoffman denied sexually abusing Sarah, instead claiming it had [music] been
00:56:50
consensual. This was patently false. Hoffman said he'd intended to slowly give Sarah more and more freedoms before
00:57:00
eventually letting her run away. He claimed that when the police showed up at his house on Sunday, November 14,
00:57:08
he was intensely relieved that Sarah would be reunited with her family. Investigators believed Hoffman was lying
00:57:18
about a number of details in his confession. They queried why he had decided to knock
00:57:24
Tina out [music] instead of simply restraining her before escaping. Hoffman said that had been his ultimate
00:57:31
intention until Stephanie walked in. Investigators also asked why he hadn't left right after killing the two women.
00:57:41
As Sarah and Cody's belongings [music] were strewn across the house, he must have known children lived there and
00:57:47
would be coming home from school soon. Hoffman said he thought school finished later than it actually did.
00:57:56
Crime journalist and author Robert Scott wrote a book about Hoffman's crime titled The Girl in the Leaves.
00:58:04
In it, Scott pointed out how odd it was that Hoffman claimed Stephanie Sprang had tried to escape from him by running
00:58:11
into Sarah's bedroom. Stephanie was very familiar with the layout of the house and would have known
00:58:18
that fleeing to Sarah's bedroom would have trapped her inside as there was no way out from there.
00:58:25
Robert Scott pointed out that Hoffman might have been lying about this and that he had actually dragged Stephanie
00:58:32
into Sarah's room to kill her. While the prosecuting attorney confirmed that they believed Hoffman's essential
00:58:40
claim that the murders and abduction followed from a burglary gone wrong, [music] others have suggested that Sarah
00:58:46
may have been Matthew Hoffman's intended target all along. This is a theory shared by Sarah's
00:58:54
father in Robert Scott's book. If Hoffman had been by the house previously and knew it well enough to
00:59:01
note the broken garage door, perhaps he'd seen 13-year-old Sarah there before. If he went to the house intending to
00:59:09
abduct Sarah, it would explain why Hoffman remained there after deciding there was little worth stealing, hanging
00:59:17
around long enough for Tina to return home. Moreover, the jewelry that Hoffman had
00:59:23
stashed in a purse and supposedly intended to steal was found abandoned in the garage.
00:59:31
Hoffman had previously exhibited concerning behavior towards other young girls, such as when he drove his
00:59:37
neighbor's daughter home through back streets and wooded areas. It seemed likely that whether planned in
00:59:45
advance or not, after realizing that Sarah lived at the King Beach Road residence, Hoffman might have decided to
00:59:52
take her. In an episode of the A&D television network's program, Interrogation Row, a
01:00:00
forensic psychologist, discussed the bizarre state of Matthew Hoffman's home. He described Hoffman's obsessive
01:00:08
collecting of leaves as indicating a desire for camouflage and possibly pointed at Hoffman having a mental
01:00:14
health disorder. It has never been confirmed whether or not Hoffman was diagnosed with any
01:00:21
mental illness. However, shortly after his arrest, he stated that he did not want to be injected with thorazine, a
01:00:28
drug that is primarily used in the treatment of psychotic disorders. [music] Matthew Hoffman was charged with a range
01:00:39
of felonies, including three counts of aggravated murder, three counts of gross abuse of a corpse, aggravated burglary,
01:00:47
tampering with evidence, and kidnapping, and sexual assault. He pleaded guilty to all charges and was
01:00:54
sentenced less than 2 months after committing the crimes. A number of family members and friends
01:01:01
delivered victim impact [music] statements in which they spoke of their devastation and trauma following the
01:01:07
brutal murders and how Hoffman's actions had left them feeling terrified and unsafe.
01:01:14
Stephanie Sprang's daughter, who was 17, said that the pain she was having to endure was unbearable.
01:01:21
I never thought I'd lose her and become completely helpless. Everyone tries to help me, but no one can help like her.
01:01:30
She knew what to say [music] and how to say it. Sarah Maynard was present for the
01:01:38
sentencing as well, facing the man who had killed her mother and brother, then kidnapped her for the first time since
01:01:44
she'd been rescued. She had written a statement of her own, which was read aloud by the prosecuting
01:01:51
attorney. It told of Sarah's grief at losing her mother, her brother, and her dog, as
01:01:58
well as Stephanie, who had always looked after Sarah and Cody whenever Tina needed.
01:02:04
Sarah found herself plagued with fear that somebody else might try to harm her, as well as intense sorrow that she
01:02:11
would never see her family members again. She ended her statement by trying to focus on the good things, writing,
01:02:21
"Some memories of Cody. [music] He was a left-handed pitcher and he was really good. A whole bunch of people always
01:02:29
told him how good a player he was. In life, he wanted to be a helicopter pilot in the Coast Guard.
01:02:37
Some memories of mom. She always made sure we were happy. And she went [music] out and did stuff with Cody and me, even
01:02:44
though she didn't have that much money. She was a really caring woman, and when someone needed help, she would take her
01:02:51
time to go help them. She loved dolphins and sunflowers. One thing she said to me, "Sarah, when I
01:03:01
die, I want you to send me with the dolphins." [music] Sarah's statement concluded by
01:03:08
explaining that while she had started a new school and was very happy there, Matthew Hoffman was about to go to a new
01:03:15
place too, where he would be the one living in fear. The judge sentenced [music] Hoffman to
01:03:22
life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the days after Tina Herman, Cody
01:03:32
Maynard, and Stephanie Sprang were found, a makeshift memorial was established at a tree near Tina's home.
01:03:39
Friends of the victims, as well as members of the public touched by their story, left teddy bears, balloons,
01:03:46
flowers, baseballs, handwritten cards, and candles as momentos for the murdered trio.
01:03:54
Purple ribbons also became a symbol of the public's shared grief with the dozens of them tied to the treere's
01:04:01
branches. Those who had loved the victims spoke about how special they had been.
01:04:07
Stephanie Spring had been someone who always had a smile on her face. She loved singing rock songs, was
01:04:14
vivaceious, and lived life to the fullest. Tina Herman was described as courageous
01:04:20
and energetic. She took delight in life's simple pleasures and loved being a mother.
01:04:28
Cody Maynard was remembered as a gentle and kind-hearted child who adored baseball and other sports. [music]
01:04:35
He had been especially close to his big sister Sarah and was protective of her despite [music] being 2 years younger.
01:04:44
On the night of Friday, November 19, a memorial was held at Apple Valley Lake. Members [music] of the victim's families
01:04:51
along with friends, community members, and volunteers who had helped search for them, lit tea candles, then set them on
01:04:58
the surface of the lake [music] to float away. A reverend from a local church addressed
01:05:04
the crowd, stating, "We're here tonight to show that we can raise a light in this world that is
01:05:11
greater than any darkness or gloom that may overcome us." In the years after Sarah Maynard's
01:05:19
ordeal, she struggled to return to regular life. Attending school, being in social situations, and making friends
01:05:27
was difficult. The loss of her mother and brother increased the trauma she was already
01:05:32
experiencing from her own victimization. Sarah found some comfort in adopting a new dog named Elsa, who was one of the
01:05:41
police dogs that had helped in the search for Tina, Cody, and Stephanie. Sarah found a way to pay tribute to her
01:05:49
family members by working with the Healing Hearts Memorial Fund, a charity led by Tina Herman's mother that raised
01:05:56
funds for families affected by violence. Sarah's grandmother, Barbara Herman, told the Columbus Dispatch [music] that
01:06:04
Sarah had lost her two best friends. Sometimes Barbara could see her own daughter, Tina, shining through Sarah.
01:06:13
Barbara told the newspaper, "I'm so proud of what she's accomplished. She's our survivor,
01:06:19
[music] and that's what people need to see." In 2019, Sarah featured on a Lifetime
01:06:28
special program called Smart Justice, speaking with [music] kidnapping survivor and child safety advocate
01:06:34
Elizabeth Smart and a panel of other survivors about her ordeal. Sarah, who is now in her 20s and a
01:06:43
mother herself, said that her grief and trauma had changed her in both good and bad ways.
01:06:50
Knowing that you can never say mom again is the worst feeling in the world. Sarah
01:06:55
said they didn't just [music] die. Their lives were brutally taken. At the same time, Sarah believed that
01:07:05
she was a stronger person for surviving and rebuilding her life as she had. Quote,
01:07:12
"It made me become a really strong woman. [music] It made me become a really strong
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mother.