00:00:07
[suspenseful music] When we saw the enormity
of the crime scene, [camera clicks]
00:00:19
It was very clear that something
really terrible had happened. [camera clicks] This is the first time they
have ever seen Matthew Hoffman.
00:00:29
But this is not the first time
Matthew Hoffman has seen them. With the amount of
blood that we saw,
00:00:34
it's clear that they
could die very shortly if we didn't recover them. When you look at it, I think
it certainly is a domino effect.
00:00:42
Where do I stop? [suspenseful music] The level of violence that he
displayed is far beyond anyone
00:00:53
that I've ever really seen. [theme music] Matthew Hoffman,
his mom described him
00:01:33
from an early age as somebody
who was interested in trees, loved to climb. He would take his
friends in trees.
00:01:41
Friends of his said he
was incredibly bright, but had no common sense. Kind of a quiet kid, somebody
who liked to jump on things
00:01:49
and jump off of things,
kind of a risk-taker. And also, a kid sometimes
who seemed to struggle,
00:01:56
sometimes, socially. Not a behavioral problem so
they just kind of, I think, shrugged it off for
the most part as,
00:02:02
well, that's just Matthew. NARRATOR: In 2001, 20-year-old
Matthew Hoffman has his
00:02:07
first encounter with the law. After he graduated,
he seemed to get lost, like he didn't really know
exactly what he wanted to do.
00:02:16
He's living with his mom,
and so he eventually decides to get a job in Colorado.
00:02:21
So he moves to Colorado
Springs and he's working as a plumber's assistant. People tend to like him.
00:02:27
He makes a good impression
at the beginning. He realizes that
one of his jobs-- the owner of the condominium,
is going to be out of town.
00:02:36
And so he decides to essentially
visit and set up camp there. Cooking meals there,
watching cable TV.
00:02:48
He's using the Jacuzzi
or the hot tub. He ends up stealing some
things out of the home.
00:02:54
And then in his head, he
is concerned about all these fingerprints that
he might have left behind.
00:03:01
And so what does he decide? He decides to burn
up the condominium. Arson was one in which
we often find juveniles
00:03:13
are very much involved in. But to have an arson to cover up
another crime is another level.
00:03:21
We start to see the development
here of an individual that has tendencies that are
not socially bonded,
00:03:30
that can lead to more
serious crime in the future. It suggests a
couple of things.
00:03:35
It suggests certainly poor
judgment, poor decision-making, and just a complete disregard
for the safety of other people
00:03:45
who are in that
condominium complex. So at this point, he decides
he needs to go back to Ohio
00:03:53
and live with his mom. Meanwhile, in Colorado, there
are these investigations. They ask him, did you do it?
00:04:01
And he goes, yep, I did do it. And so they said,
you've got to come back and face these charges.
00:04:06
So he gets in the car and
he drives back to Colorado. And he ends up
serving six years.
00:04:14
My name is Bob Moledor, and
I'm a retired Columbus police officer. I was assigned to the
Columbus resident agency FBI
00:04:24
as a member of their
Violent Crime Task force. After he committed the
burglaries in Colorado
00:04:31
and set those buildings on
fire to cover his crime, being caught and sent to prison
was very hard on Matthew.
00:04:42
He had a very difficult
time in prison, and it was a very
bad experience. Eventually, he gets
out at six years.
00:04:52
He gets a job as a tree trimmer. He ends up saving up some money
and he buys a little house.
00:05:02
His neighbors initially
describe him as a good guy. And then starting, you know, at
the end of the summer of 2010,
00:05:14
people just notice this
abrupt change in him. He had developed
this fascination with squirrels in his yard,
and neighbors had noticed this.
00:05:23
And all of a sudden,
he starts trapping and killing and eating them. Whenever somebody's behavior
starts changing, particularly
00:05:33
of course when it's changing for
the worse, that's a red flag. Something is going on.
00:05:38
As we look at the
research related to serial killing
and violent crime, we often do see a
pathway to that.
00:05:47
The mistreatment of animals,
the abuse being shown early age. And here, we have
another example of this.
00:05:57
The ability to control
one's environment is seen as something
that we all want to do.
00:06:03
But the question
becomes, how we do it? [suspenseful music] He becomes violent with his
girlfriend, who then leaves.
00:06:14
His boss finds out that
he's misrepresented his qualifications and that
he had failed to tell them
00:06:22
that he had a criminal record. He's starting to
watch the neighbors. They talk about him just
literally sitting in a tree
00:06:29
and staring at them for hours. I believe that Matthew
Hoffman made a good faith effort when he got
out of prison to lead
00:06:38
a normal, law-abiding life. And I think it wore on him. And I think over time, he
got tired of pretending
00:06:47
to be something he was not. Because in reality,
he was a deeply disturbed and troubled person.
00:06:54
My name is Harry Trombitas. I'm a retired FBI agent. During the Matthew Hoffman case,
I was involved in investigations
00:07:04
of violent crime. [music playing] NARRATOR: Matthew Hoffman
spends the night camped out
00:07:14
in the woods overlooking the
home of the Hermann family, around 25 minutes
from his house.
00:07:20
Mom Tina works at a local
fast food restaurant, while her children, Sarah, 13,
and Kody, 11, are popular pupils
00:07:28
at the local high school. Hoffman appears to be staking
out the area for a burglary.
00:07:35
Tuesday night, he
had seen the house. He drove his vehicle parked not
too far from the area there.
00:07:44
And he actually spent the
night in the woods right across the street
from the house.
00:07:51
We have Hoffman literally
camping out across the way from this house in suburban
Mount Vernon, Ohio.
00:08:00
But there becomes this
question of staying overnight is a very long time to look at
your potential victim's house.
00:08:10
A typical burglar has the
ability to see the issues, see the lack of security, and
say that is a good target.
00:08:19
[music playing] So he waited for a while. He walked across the
street from the woods.
00:08:29
And he was able to crawl
underneath the garage door. He went into the garage. He kicked the door
into the house,
00:08:38
actually into the kitchen. He said there was a
sense of excitement of being in somebody else's
house when they weren't there.
00:08:49
He hears the pickup truck
pull back into the driveway and he hears Tina
Hermann come back, parked
00:08:58
the vehicle in the driveway, and
come in through the front door. [suspenseful music]
00:09:10
A burglar is one
that wants to get in and out without any
contact with an individual.
00:09:17
A burglar usually is not
prepared to physically have an altercation
with an individual.
00:09:24
Instead, we find
that he attacks Tina. [suspenseful music] He immediately confronted
her with the knife,
00:09:32
made her lie down on the bed. All of a sudden, another woman,
Stephanie Sprang, shows up.
00:09:43
And she starts yelling
at him and he's panicked. He doesn't know what to do, but
he brought a knife in with him
00:09:51
and he panics and
stabs Tina Hermann a couple of times in the
back, gets up and runs
00:09:58
after Stephanie. And Stephanie, instead
of leaving the house, she goes back into
another bedroom.
00:10:05
He's able to catch
her, stabs her a couple of times in the chest. Then he goes back to
where Tina is and stabs
00:10:15
her a couple of more times. And he said, by this time,
it's clear both women are dead.
00:10:25
Matthew Hoffman's motive
depends on what you believe. He says that he
just wanted to break
00:10:31
in to burglarize the house. However, there are some things
that don't add up for me.
00:10:37
Number one, he brought
a huge knife with him. Number two is he apparently
attacks Tina the minute
00:10:47
she walks in the door. Number three, he takes
nothing from the house. There's no evidence that
he's burglarizing anything.
00:10:56
Not only did Matthew
Hoffman brutally kill Tina and Stephanie,
he continued to stab
00:11:06
them long after they were dead. There was no reason to keep
stabbing them, and yet he did.
00:11:11
When you look at it, I think
it certainly is a domino effect. I'm already in a
terrible situation.
00:11:18
Then it moved to that of a
murder, then another murder. Where do I stop? After Matthew Hoffman kills
Tina and then kills Stephanie,
00:11:32
the dog is barking
and he's worried that's going to draw attention. So he kills the dog as well.
00:11:38
He then proceeds to take
each one, one at a time, into the bathtub,
where he then basically
00:11:47
dismembers all of them. And puts them in plastic bags. So killing has occurred. Mother, the mother's friend,
even the dog have been killed.
00:12:02
Now, the children come home. [music playing] NARRATOR: Matthew
Hoffman has murdered
00:12:17
Tina Hermann and her
friend Stephanie Sprang, So he carried them
both into the bathroom
00:12:23
and started sawing
their body parts. And while he's in there and
finishing up with the two women,
00:12:32
the family dog was
barking at him and that. So he killed the
family dog as well.
00:12:40
And all of a sudden, he hears
the children come in the door. They open the door and they
see drops of blood on the floor.
00:12:51
And so immediately, Sarah and
Kody call out for their mom and instantly, Matthew
Hoffman comes running
00:12:59
out full force toward them. [suspenseful music] Sarah manages to run by him. Kody tries to run out the door.
00:13:09
He grabs Kody and stabs
in the back of the head. And kills him pretty
much instantly.
00:13:19
Meanwhile, Sarah is in
her room, desperately fumbling for her phone,
trying to call 911.
00:13:25
Unfortunately, before
she can do that, Matthew burst into the
room and does not kill her.
00:13:32
Stops, and then ties her up. I know it's horrendous. Here, we have a
horrific situation
00:13:46
where the brother is killed,
but the daughter is kept alive. I think we see
control factor here.
00:13:54
13-year-old child
exists in the picture. She is saved, I think, to
be his controlling element.
00:14:02
Perhaps he's even
thinking she can humanize me for the
demon type activities that I have just done.
00:14:13
Serial killers,
we often find, are more interested in those people
in which they can control.
00:14:18
And for a male, it is
often that of a female. Multiply that even
to a smaller female,
00:14:25
a younger female, and the
control element goes up. NARRATOR: Tina works at a
local fast food restaurant,
00:14:34
and on the evening
of her murder, Tina's boss is
the first to worry that something isn't right.
00:14:54
This is Wednesday,
November 10th of 2010. The first information I received
was that Tina Hermann failed
00:15:02
to show up for her 4:00 PM start
time at the local Dairy Queen. The manager was so
concerned about Tina
00:15:12
not showing up because she
had never missed work before. She had never been late.
00:15:17
So about 7 o'clock that
night, a Sheriff's deputy went to the home, saw a blue
pickup truck in the driveway,
00:15:29
which was registered to Tina. But when the deputy
knocked on the door, nobody came to the door.
00:15:37
So he left. And then he went back later
that night around 11 o'clock. Knocked on the door
again, no activity, nobody
00:15:47
came to the door. There didn't seem
to be any problem. [music playing] NARRATOR: The day after the
attack, Stephanie Sprang's
00:16:04
boyfriend reports her
missing and the police discover that Sarah and Kody
haven't gone into school.
00:16:11
Tina's boss is
even more worried. Tina still hadn't
shown up for her shift. The manager got so
concerned, she went ahead
00:16:20
and drove to Tina's house. There were no cars
in the driveway and she noticed a
window was partly ajar.
00:16:31
So she was able to raise it, and
actually get into the kitchen. NARRATOR: On seeing
the crime scene,
00:17:01
the local Sheriff's office
asked the FBI for assistance. Harry just
contacted us and said,
00:17:07
looks like we have
a homicide up here and we're going
to need some help. When we saw the enormity
of the crime scene,
00:17:15
it was very clear that something
really terrible had happened. NARRATOR: Investigators
arrive just
00:17:22
hours after Hoffman has left. At this stage, investigators
are unaware of his involvement.
00:17:29
It's not clear if any of
the victims are still alive or where they've gone. Do we have any inclination,
was this self-inflicted?
00:17:37
Do we have any
information that tells us, was there another person? Are there any cameras, any
neighbors, or any individuals
00:17:45
that can give us time frame
so that we can have a picture of when did this happen?
00:17:51
There's not a lot of
wealth in the house. There's no indication
that there is any kind of narcotics activity
taking place at the house.
00:18:00
So we had four people
that seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. We felt as though there had to
be at least one other person
00:18:09
involved, possibly two. We had a real life
whodunit on our hands. If they weren't already
dead, with the amount of blood
00:18:22
and everything that
we saw, it's clear that they could die very shortly
if we didn't recover them.
00:18:27
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Police immediately
conduct interviews with known contacts of Tina and Stephanie.
00:18:37
Tina's boyfriend was
a suspect at the time, but he was very cooperative. He provided an alibi to us.
00:18:44
It appeared as though he
had nothing to do with this. We knew Tina and actually
Stephanie had been
00:18:51
out and about on Wednesday. Could have met anybody, could
somebody have followed him home,
00:18:57
it was pretty much an unknown
because we had received no information, no suspicious
people or vehicle reports
00:19:05
in the area. So it was truly a
mystery at that point. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Police
are still looking
00:19:17
for the perpetrator
and the victims of what appears to be a murder. The crime scene was pretty
much based out of the bathroom,
00:19:27
yet there was blood
also down the hallway. There were two bedrooms
where they found blood.
00:19:35
And once they finished
inside the house, they went into the garage
and started processing
00:19:41
the items inside the garage. And they found a
bag from Walmart. They looked inside and they
found a receipt where somebody
00:19:52
had gone on Thursday
and made a purchase of some heavy duty garbage
bags and a couple of tarps.
00:20:03
That is where the first
big break in the case came, was the discovery of a
receipt at the crime scene.
00:20:12
That receipt really
broke the case open. Now, people should know
there's a lot of information
00:20:18
on your receipt from Walmart. It tells what items
you purchased. It tells the location in
which you purchased them.
00:20:26
And the time and date in
which you purchased them. That's a lot of information that
can get an investigation going.
00:20:34
So good policing says,
let's go to this Walmart. Let's look at the cameras. Let's try to put
evidence together to see
00:20:43
who does this bag belong to. NARRATOR: Police are yet to
identify Hoffman as a suspect.
00:20:51
Since breaking into
the Hermann's house and killing Tina, Stephanie,
Kody, and the family dog,
00:20:57
he's moved the bodies, but
he's still keeping Sarah alive. She's now his prisoner.
00:21:04
[suspenseful music] And he takes
Sarah to his home. Finds her, keeps her bound up,
puts her in the crawlspace,
00:21:20
told her that he
had accomplices, that if she made any
noises or anything, they would be there to take
care of her and perhaps kill her
00:21:29
if she didn't
continue to cooperate. Won't let her take a shower. Won't let her go
to the bathroom.
00:21:36
He sexually assaults her
on multiple occasions. [music playing] I think Matthew's motivation
is sex and control.
00:21:50
Not only does he want to have
sex, I think, with Sarah, but he wants to have
complete control over her.
00:21:56
I think that Kody and
Tina and Stephanie were collateral damage
in this situation,
00:22:02
that he just wanted to
get them out of the way and he was willing to
kill anybody that he
00:22:06
needed to, to get Sarah. I think this desire to
essentially capture somebody and have them under
your total control
00:22:18
is so telling in terms of
that person's psychology. I think there was some
fantasy going on for him.
00:22:24
This is going to be like a
girlfriend or this is going to be somebody who we're going
to watch a movies together,
00:22:31
which of course, would
never, ever, ever happen. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Police don't know if
Sarah or her family are alive
00:22:42
or where they are. So far, their only lead
is a Walmart receipt found in the Hermann's garage.
00:22:49
They don't know they're
in a race against time to save the only survivor. The family went missing
technically on Wednesday.
00:22:57
We really didn't know
about it until Thursday. It wasn't until Friday that
they found the receipt.
00:23:05
So the investigators
went to the Walmart and they were able
to pull up video of the individual that was in
there shortly after midnight.
00:23:14
And they saw this person
walking in the Walmart store, going directly to the
tarps and the garbage bags,
00:23:23
and buying those. Going up to the cash
register, unfortunately paid with cash so we
weren't able to get a name.
00:23:31
But we could see him walking
to his vehicle, turned out to be a Toyota Yaris. So let's pull up all the known
Toyota Yarises in this area.
00:23:44
They were able to click on
the information about one of the Yarises and it
belonged to an individual
00:23:51
by the name of Matthew Hoffman. So they pulled up his
driver's license photo, and he happened to have the same
shirt on in his driver's license
00:24:05
photo that we saw in the video
of the individual that was walking around in the Walmart.
00:24:12
And that's when
Matthew Hoffman was identified as a suspect. Once that occurred, they
did some quick background
00:24:20
information checks. He is a convicted
felon for some crimes that he had done in Colorado,
spent time out there in prison.
00:24:28
You then now start
looking at that person as your person of interest. They find Hoffman has
been fired from his job,
00:24:36
has a case of domestic
violence against him. We're starting to
see the puzzle gather
00:24:43
pieces that may fit together. [suspenseful music] Saturday night, heading
into Sunday morning,
00:24:59
we were able to get
the search warrant. And based on what we found with
the tarps and the garbage bags,
00:25:06
we felt we had enough
information there to get an arrest warrant for him. NARRATOR: Police have two
addresses for Hoffman.
00:25:15
One of them is his house and the
other his parents', both a short drive from the Hermann's.
00:25:21
Police plan to monitor both
properties simultaneously. Harry Trombitas heads to Matthew
Hoffman's parents' house.
00:25:28
Bob Moledor heads to
Matthew Hoffman's house. So we're going
to the residents that belong to Matthew Hoffman.
00:25:38
Because of the condition
of the crime scene, I don't believe
that anybody there really expected that we were
going to find anyone alive.
00:25:50
So right now in
the investigation, you know that Hoffman
is a person of interest,
00:25:55
but you don't know where the
people who lived at the crime scene where they are.
00:26:03
So this is a very tense time. And the question still
remains, where are these people?
00:26:11
And how are we
going to find them? [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Police have evidence
linking Matthew Hoffman
00:26:27
to the suspected
murderers of Tina Hermann, her children, Sarah
and Kody, and her friend
00:26:32
Stephanie Sprang. They have no idea that
Sarah is still alive and are preparing to
search his parents'
00:26:38
home and his own residence. Has he fled the state? If not, where is he? We had to assume that
the possibility was there
00:26:49
that Hoffman would
be either house. We pulled up in front of
Matthew's mom's house.
00:26:57
We're wearing our
bulletproof vests. We've got our handguns out. I said, I'm with the FBI.
00:27:02
We're looking for Matthew. Is he here? The stepdad said no. We were disappointed that
we didn't find him there,
00:27:13
but we realized that more
than likely, Matthew would be at the house in Mount Vernon.
00:27:20
[suspenseful music] When the officers
went to the door, they knocked and announced.
00:27:31
And he actually
came to the door. So he was taken into
custody right away. As far as Matthew's
demeanor, he was quiet.
00:27:43
He almost seemed relieved
that we were there. But as you go into the house,
the first thing that you see off
00:27:52
to your right-hand
side is a living room without any furniture inside,
but there's a enormous pile
00:28:00
of leaves covering the floor. It covers an entire room. It was really shocking. We looked at that and
wondered right away,
00:28:15
are we going to find
four bodies covered up in this pile of leaves? NARRATOR: With Hoffman
now in custody,
00:28:23
the SWAT team searched for
survivors, fearing the worst. Anytime a tactical team enters a
house like that, the first thing
00:28:32
that they do is conduct
a room-to-room search. There were carcasses of
animals in his refrigerator.
00:28:41
The house itself was
in a state of disarray. And it was during that
search that Sarah was located
00:28:49
in the basement of the home. Everyone who was
involved in that was just shocked that we had
this young girl and she was OK.
00:29:01
She was bound and
sleeping in a pile of leaves with some blankets. She was pretty confused.
00:29:11
Obviously, she was
scared, but relieved. [suspenseful music] The main point now is to move
that 13-year-old Sarah to safety
00:29:24
and then to get her to
give us as much information about what occurred. We quickly interviewed
Sarah to see if she
00:29:32
knew where her family was. He had indicated to her that
he was holding her hostage
00:29:38
until the family
provided whatever money and that that they
were negotiating. He even showed her
what the word "ransom"
00:29:46
means in the dictionary. NARRATOR: With Sarah
now safe, investigators are desperate to learn the fate
of Hoffman's other victims.
00:30:01
You now have
Hoffman in custody. And usually, what we find
is that an individual
00:30:07
that's in this
situation is usually fearful, uncertain, and scared. And so with all of
that coming at them,
00:30:15
they want to defend themselves. And they usually say
at least something. But he does not.
00:30:36
He does not for four hours. Wow. He just sat there
like he was in a trance. After a couple of hours
of him just sitting there,
00:30:46
he made a motion like, Then he does this like
he's breaking something. And he kind of nods yes.
00:31:02
And that was all they
could get out of it. I think the longer this
capture or kidnapping went on,
00:31:12
I think the harder it would
have been for Matthew to let Sarah go for a
couple of reasons.
00:31:18
One is she's been
missing for so long and the criminal charges
are going to be just
00:31:22
racking up longer and longer. And I think he would have
considered her kind of his.
00:31:28
He's also killed
most of her family. So if he lets her
go, she is now going to find out that he has
murdered her mother,
00:31:38
her brother, and her dog. NARRATOR: With Hoffman
offering no information, police use other tactics to help
them understand what's happened
00:31:47
to Tina, Kody, and Stephanie. I was given the responsibility
of escorting his ex-girlfriend.
00:31:56
He would take this
young lady on dates and he would find a huge
tree, put up his equipment,
00:32:03
hoist them up 30 or
40 feet in the air, and they would hang out for a
whole Saturday in the hammocks
00:32:09
in the canopy of these trees. NARRATOR: Bob hopes
that he'll find some clues by
driving to the places
00:32:15
that Hoffman
visited with his ex. She said that he was actually
polite most of the time,
00:32:21
but towards the end
of their relationship, he was prone to fits of anger
and they would come on quickly.
00:32:28
When she finally put an
end to the relationship, it was because he had held her
down and choked her to the point
00:32:34
that she thought she was
going to lose consciousness. And that really scared her.
00:32:40
It seems like Matthew
liked the thrill of being in someone's house
that didn't belong
00:32:47
to him when they weren't there. That's what I was
hearing from the words of his former girlfriend.
00:32:54
And in her case, that led to
the demise of their relationship as she came to know him better.
00:33:01
So she and I drove all
over Knox County, put hundreds of miles on my
truck those couple of days,
00:33:09
but to no avail. We just assumed
that they were dead and that they were
hidden somewhere.
00:33:17
And it was going to be up to
Matthew Hoffman to tell us where they were. You can start
to then think, was
00:33:24
there a movement of body parts? Are the pieces all in one place? And this is where they
make the horrific finding.
00:33:33
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Matthew Hoffman is
in custody for the kidnapping of Sarah Maynard and
the suspected murder
00:33:52
of her mom, Tina, her
brother Kody, and her mom's friend, Stephanie. After two days of
interrogation, the police
00:34:04
have no information
about whether or not he's killed Sarah's
family or what he might
00:34:09
have done with their bodies. He didn't talk a lot. He seemed easily frustrated. He was just sort of a
haunted personality.
00:34:20
It was extremely frustrating. We just weren't able
to get him to admit anything or tell us any of
the information at that point.
00:34:31
He was eligible for
the death penalty, but we wanted to find
out where the family was.
00:34:37
So basically, the
prosecutor said, we think that if we drop
the death penalty charges
00:34:44
against Matthew
Hoffman, in exchange, he'll tell us where
your family members are.
00:34:51
And all of the family
members were in agreement that they wanted to know
where their loved ones were
00:34:57
so they can bring them home. What's extremely important is
trying to bring closure not just
00:35:06
to that of the case, but what is
very important, to the families. Not knowing is often
the question that
00:35:14
eats at them every single day. NARRATOR: The deal works. With the prospect of the
death penalty removed,
00:35:23
Hoffman reveals the truth
in a written statement. In his statement,
Matthew Hoffman
00:35:30
indicated that while
he completed, you know, processing the
bodies, he realized that those bags weren't going
to be strong enough for him.
00:35:41
So he loaded Sarah
and the body parts into Stephanie's vehicle,
and he parks the vehicle,
00:35:50
goes back and gets his vehicle. And he takes Sarah to his home,
finds her, keeps her bound up,
00:35:59
and goes to the Walmart where
he purchases the garbage bags and the tarp, transfers the body
parts that are in the smaller
00:36:08
bags into the larger bags,
goes to Kokosing wildlife area, which is about 10 miles
from Tina's house.
00:36:16
And had remembered a tree that
he had a particular liking to. This is a 60-foot tree.
00:36:24
And about halfway up
is a hollowed out area. And he hauls the body parts
up, drops them down the center,
00:36:32
and then he goes back home. He tells us these
different things. You know, it's just
very difficult for us
00:36:41
to believe what he went
through to do this. So we were very skeptical. During his
interviews, they talked
00:36:49
to him about why
he chose to dispose of the bodies in that manner. And he said that
at one point, he
00:36:58
had thought about putting
the bodies into Stephanie Sprang's Jeep vehicle and
driving it into a pond
00:37:05
and letting it sink. The reason he didn't do that
was because he was concerned that because of the water
temperature and the time of year
00:37:13
that he would not be able to
safely escape from the vehicle and swim to shore. So that tells me that
this is a guy who's--
00:37:21
he's worrying about himself. So the attorney leads us out
to Kokosing wildlife preserve.
00:37:32
And all of a sudden, after,
you know, a quarter of a mile or so, he stops, he
gets out of his vehicle,
00:37:38
he's looking at the map and he
comes back to the Sheriff's car and he goes, I think that's
the tree right there.
00:37:48
You got to be kidding me. This tree is 60 feet tall. There is a hollowed out
portion in the tree,
00:37:55
but it's 30 feet off the ground. And, you know, we're
just real skeptical. The crime scene
guys, they got a saw
00:38:02
and they cut out, about 6 feet
off the ground, a little hole where they could stick
a pole and a mirror
00:38:10
attached to the end. And as they're looking,
they go, I think we see garbage bags down there.
00:38:18
And sure enough, just
like Matthew Hoffman had said that he had
dropped seven garbage
00:38:24
bags down the center of the
tree and inside the garbage bags were the body parts.
00:38:33
Those bodies may not have
been discovered for decades in that tree the way they were.
00:38:41
It's very possible it
could have been 50 or 60 years go by until that
tree rotted and fell,
00:38:47
that those bodies would
have been discovered. I think that for
Matthew Hoffman, trees meant so many things.
00:38:55
And I think one of the
things they did mean to him is like it's a
sacred space for him.
00:38:59
And it's a place that's his. And so I think by
putting these bodies down in this tree,
number one, it'd be
00:39:06
almost impossible to find them. It's that practical part of it. But I think even
more importantly
00:39:11
for him psychologically
is it was kind of like, if not
like an offering, a sacred place that was his.
00:39:21
So it was a sense of
ownership as well that he's putting them in this tree. [music playing]
00:39:34
He faces aggravated
murder, abuse of a corpse, burglary, kidnapping, and rape. When you're going into trial
with such an emotional case that
00:39:47
has the loss of life and
still has a 13-year-old that went through this
ordeal, you've got
00:39:57
a lot there to deal with. The family was all there. I remember being
in the courtroom.
00:40:03
There was no trial. It was just a plea. He pled guilty. And, you know, it's just awful
situation for the families,
00:40:13
certainly for Sarah. He is sentenced
to life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
00:40:25
We see some horrific things
throughout our careers, and to recover, you know, a
family is just a horrific thing.
00:40:34
Nobody should ever have
to go through that. But, you know, that's what
we do in law enforcement.
00:40:40
We see the worst of the worst. But, you know, it
was closure for them. Matthew Hoffman will never,
ever get out of prison again.
00:40:53
[music playing] As far as Hoffman's
mindset, it's so difficult to
tell exactly where
00:41:06
he was at the particular time. I've been involved
in a number of cases where this kind of thing
will repulse somebody.
00:41:15
And I've also worked
cases where when somebody actually does this, and
they feel the power of control.
00:41:25
It can feel a fire inside
them that, you know, I like this feeling. I think that he
was escalating.
00:41:36
Once he had killed, I think
he would have killed again. [music playing] My daughter, who
is now an adult,
00:41:48
actually teaches at
the middle school where Sarah and her
brother went to school at,
00:41:55
and she lives in the
Mount Vernon community. Kody would have
graduated in 2019. And for the graduation
ceremony, the school
00:42:05
placed a chair with
Kody's cap and gown and his diploma on that chair,
along with a white rose.
00:42:19
When my daughter sent
me that photograph, it hit me like a load of bricks. This particular case has
always stuck with me.
00:42:29
I have kind of followed after
Sarah to just kind see how she's getting along in life.
00:42:37
It's unimaginable to me how
you could experience something this horrific and still go on.
00:42:45
I'm just honored to have
been able to afford her the opportunity to have a
life and just hope and pray
00:42:53
that she finds solace and
can go on with her life and not allow this experience
to define who she is.
00:43:04
[music playing] [theme music]