Florida’s Adam Matos case

[Music] the Brown family had a simple good old-fashioned name and they had enjoyed a simple good old-fashioned life down on the farm in Pennsylvania we had horses we are goats sheep chickens donkeys cows dad Greg brought home the bacon as an architectural and engineering executive while mom Maggie took care of the property there are three children and all the animals they were a fantastic couple they were always having fun doing things together they would you know together forever they're nice amber grew up like one of the Browns own kids I love the farm that was like my favorite place I would go up there every weekend if I could becoming more than just cousins but also best friends with the Browns youngest child and only daughter Megan Megan was awesome we would always be together lively a loving person caring person Megan's older brother Aaron says she was more like a best friend to him to me and my sister developed a real tight bond Megan was the pride of the family a medal winning track and field star who would run her way into Penn State University she did get a full ride from track and field you know a full scholarship but Megan had more than athletic talent in brains going for her her sister was a gorgeous young woman you know stunning and my guess is there were lots of guys who came around calling yes try yes yes try I guess one of them a de Matos an aspiring of OnGuard deejay Megan had begun dating when they were both in their early 20s well she thought he was so handsome like just like her type and she was happy she was would you say that she was ultimately in love with him maybe in lost you know you meet a handsome man and he's nice to you so they're not too I guess before she knew it Megan was pregnant with Adams child soon after they met right Megan was said to be thrilled as was her family who had just one reservation we were happy we just we didn't know a lot about this guy pattern how did Adam take the news about the baby I believe shortly after she had gotten pregnant they split up so it wasn't much talk about the baby and had in the future together in that point but after giving birth to a beautiful little baby boy they named Tristan Megan would reunite with Adam for the sake of their child who needs extra care because he is autistic and Adam would even move into the brown family house with Megan and Tristan with the family's full blessing to give the child a good home my dad was too kind of a hard person to just dismiss him in his life that's my dad's baby girl you know and that's his grandson but Adam would soon start to wear out his welcome with mom Maggie my mom wasn't too fond of him only because over the course of time she would see how he really is it doesn't do anything doesn't clean up after himself doesn't contribute and Megan an Adam were continuing to have problems there's to her moral you don't like she would call him a deadbeat obviously a person is not gonna like hearing that so they would react and there would be vulnerable finding anything but even when Dad Gregg decided to retire and move the family to Florida there was still no shaking Adam so what was the decision then the decision was Adam could go down with the contingency that he would get a job and eventually move out of the home and the relationship between Megan and Adam would only continue to deteriorate architectural executive Greg Brown had decided to retire selling the family farm in Pennsylvania and moving to Florida with wife Maggie for a new kind of laid-back life I think Florida was kind of their relaxation and retirement life the couple was renting a waterfront house in Hudson about 20 miles from Tampa while their tropical island dream home was being built and they can live out in the keys but for now at least Greg and Maggie also had daughter Megan her baby boy Tristan and the baby's father Adam Matos all living with them I think that they're trying to create as a normal family for Kristen as they could to make ends meet maggie has to take a job as a convenience store cashier Megan starts waitressing at a local bar and Adam briefly works in a restaurant kitchen until reportedly being fired I think he was lazy and was not working it was not contributing causing only more conflict between Adam and Megan who were already squabbling more than ever and reportedly even sleeping in separate bedrooms they were pretty much done at that point Megan had also begun going out with a new group of friends she'd met leaving the unemployed Adam at home babysitting Tristan and battling the green-eyed monster jealousy wondering what Megan was doing and who she was doing it with into the early hours of the morning he would be very pissed off if she was out with anybody let alone another two-door another friend that happened to be a male was he obsessed with your sister I would have to say so I would have to say so and Adams seething jealousy eventually leads to a violent showdown one morning when Megan comes walking through the door around dawn after another fun night out a frantic megan calls 911 no your hand with the knife that's the father of your son yes Megan is weeping and sounds in fear for her life as she tries to comfort her baby boy Tristan it's okay baby beliefs arrived at the house to find Megan distraught and bleeding from hand wounds she'd suffered struggling to get the knife away from Adam which was consistent with exactly what she described both on the night won't call and to the witnesses she was obviously very upset took off after Megan called 900 might come back even angrier than ever mr. Mathis was texting her threatening to kill her threatening to come back and finish her off what days would go by without any further word of trouble between Megan and Adam only for the silence to break when a relative calls police to report that nobody had been able to reach any of the Browns by text or phone when after a while she said I'm just gonna have to call law enforcement and get them involved it's been six days now and when cops show up nobody appears to be home at the Brown's house but they detect the foul and all-too-familiar odor of death and decaying bodies the police thought something very bad has happened here and there was a door that was left open yes so they enter through the open door leading to the garage where the brown family van is parked they immediately see blankets on the ground behind a van there's what appears to be blood all over the floor on the blankets and at almost the same moment a veteran cop makes another grim discovery just a stone's throw away after also noticing that same smell of death coming from a wooded area he just happened to be driving by so he called me I showed up just a few minutes later and detective check Google finds something worse than he's ever seen in all his years in law enforcement I could smell it and I peeked over and I could see there was a pile of bodies decomposed beyond recognition we didn't know exactly who or even how many total bodies were in the pile that we saw but detective Google could easily deduce that the Brown family was among them it was just a common sense you know we had a house for several people that are missing and now we have a pile of bodies less than a mile away right up the street as the medical examiner tries to identify the victims detectives swoop on the Brown House with forensic experts and find a shocking scene the place turns pink when it's sprayed with luminol with a trail of blood stretching throughout the house signs that the killer had tried to clean up some of it and other clues to the horror that had occurred there but some of the best evidence is found in the van parked in that blood-soaked garage patrolmen had reported when they earlier visited the house we knew that there were people dead decaying in the back of that van the van had indications that they were in there including blood and maggots we also found a shovel in the back of the van which detectives believed the killer had used to try to bury the bodies in the yard on the side of the house there was a freshly dug area but in that area you can't dig more than a foot you're running into what's called lime rock so investigators say the murderer loaded the bodies into the back of the van and dumped them in that wooded area where they've just been found and just leaves them under a tree friends and relatives are devastated by the horrifying news you know I kind of just like fell to the ground I didn't believe that it was true like who would who could think that that could actually happen detectives have just learned the Brown family had been murdered in their home in Hudson Florida now as the medical examiner picks through the mound of flesh and bones to identify exactly which members of the family are dead detectives try to find their killer but their main person of interest is Adam Matos ex-boyfriend of the Browns 27 year old daughter Megan and the father of their four year old son Tristan we knew that Adam was a person that lived in that house and they knew that Adam and Megan had been having serious problems [Music] Adam had fled the house when Megan made this 911 call less than 24 hours before she and her family are believed to have been murdered obviously we wanted to find him but for all detectives knew he might even be among that unidentified pile of bodies and so they turned their immediate attention to another possible suspect Nicolas léonard a new guy Megan had met after she moved from Pennsylvania to Florida with mom dad Adam and baby Tristan a few months earlier and we wanted to locate him as well detectives already suspect that Nick's relationship with Megan may have turned into a love triangle that could have sparked the mass murders they had a burgeoning relationship that was romantic Megan apparently hadn't told her friends and family about Nick did she ever tell you about a guy named Nicholas no I never heard about Nicholas no on the other hand Nick carpenter and landscaper had told his family all about Megan saying he was head-over-heels in love with her he said I finally found the love of my life and I think this may be the the girl I may ask to marry one day the news took his mom Paula and dad Daniel by surprise and I was shocked I said why haven't I met this girl yet Nick told them he and Megan were keeping their romance quiet until Adam had moved out of the house he said he can be a problem and I said what do you mean he can be a problem he told his parents that Adam had found out he was seeing Megan and was jealous and he said well he's threatening me Paula warned Nick to stay away from Megan until Adam was out of the picture and I said well why don't you back off on this until that happens because I'm not liking the scenario but Nick and Megan continued seeing each other and detectives learn Nick had actually been among the friends Megan had been out with that night she arrived home near dawn sending Adam into that jealous rage that led to this 911 then Megan's new boyfriend Nick Leonard suddenly disappears and his sister knows something is terribly wrong so I drove home of course hysterically crying and I called my dad and I I said I think I think Nick's gone I think he's dead and Nick is discounted as a suspect in the murder of the family when the medical examiner finally identifies those found in that pile of decomposed bodies because he's one of them it was chilling Nick's family is devastated when they get the tragic news and mom Paula was inconsolable I recall going into the bathroom and dropped to my knees and just wailing and vomiting and I couldn't stop and my daughter came in and said mom you need to get it together and I said I can't and the Brown family victim's the medical examiner would identify them as Megan her dad Greg and mom Maggie all slaughtered in an unspeakable horror that will haunt friends and family forever what I'm sorry no I'm sorry you've been through a lot your whole family's been through a lot I'm sorry she was just I miss her the one small yet heart lifting mercy is that Megan's little boy Tristen appears to be still alive and detectives believe he's probably with his father Adam who is now the prime suspect and more than just another wanted man there was a child yes and we had a missing child as well police haven't been able to find Adam since he fled the brown house the night Megan called 911 threatened to kill her yeah but now they're about to get a few lucky breaks he was dropped off near a bus terminal in downtown Tampa he was our number one suspect and they finally locate a de Matos a week after the four were slaughtered tracing Adam to a hotel where they find him holed up with his little boy Tristan shown on this security video checking in at the front desk and casually leading Tristan to their room and sure enough he checked in under his own name brilliant yeah lucky for us cops say when they picked up Tristan the little four year old seemed to be in a state of shock did it seem like this child had been traumatized and had witnessed something horrific yeah he was going through something and not talking to police there really wasn't much we got from that interview on that day but police take the child's father into custody hoping to get more information out of him he was very calm he didn't put up a fight or anything cunning detectives don't let on that they found the bodies of Megan her parents and her new man Nick Leonard hoping they can trip Adam up I never mentioned anything about the homicides that we found people deceased instead detectives tell Adam he's being arrested on domestic violence charges stemming from that first frantic 911 Megan detectives ask Adam who he would like to care for Tristan now that he can't you know that's gonna be possible no tell me his parents they asked Adam about his troubled relationship with Megan when did you guys break up I demanded my gun in a jealous rage the night she called 911 but he admits they got into a loud argument after Megan arrived home near dawn it isn't until he's locked up on domestic violence charges that Adam learns detectives had fooled him and had actually found the bodies of the Brown family and Nick Leonard a week earlier [Music] Adam says he was shocked and in this videotape jailhouse interview with a Tampa Bay Times reporter Adam says he'd never killed Megan and her family and off-camera with detectives present Adam would drop a bombshell pointing the finger of blame at a jealous ex-girlfriend of her new boyfriend Nick Leonard we did find that there was an ex-girlfriend of Nicolas léonard that we wanted to talk with suddenly detectives had yet another possible suspect so obviously we had to go ahead and look into that ourselves and they would discover that the ex an allegedly obsessed married woman might indeed have had a fatal attraction there were some indications that she was having issues with Nicolas léonard she stalked him for years stalking him for many years his ex-girlfriend was crazy she would do anything she could to try to ruin any relationship that he tried to have with anyone perhaps even commit murder according to Nick's family who say the ex actually hacked into his phone calling and warning off any other woman whose numbers happened to be on it she did it frequently very frequently and actually called girls that he was trying to date and told them that that she was his wife and she needs to leave him alone Megan being the final girlfriend she allegedly called and threatened so I ended up talking to bacon for probably a good half hour just telling her you know that my brother was a good person and he just had this crazy ex girlfriend that wouldn't disappear she kept popping in everything every time he wanted to talk to somebody now Megan's little boy Tristan holds the key to the case as the only witness who can tell police who really murdered his mother her new boyfriend and his grandparents and it's believed that he may have seen or at least heard the murders yes definitely but the traumatized autistic child now in the care of relatives while his father is behind bars still isn't talking or just simply doesn't want to remember the horror he witnessed that night has it hard for you when you imagine what it is he likely witnessed and experienced over the course of those days nobody wants to see anything like that especially a four-year-old with special needs detectives have prime suspect Adam Matos locked up on domestic abuse charges trying to hold him as they gather enough evidence to prove he's a cold-blooded killer the monster who massacred his child's mother Megan Brown her parents Greg and Maggie and her new boyfriend Nick Leonard at the family's home in Hudson Florida but detectives had been suddenly sidetracked after Adam pointed them to another possible suspect one of Nick's ex-girlfriends who had allegedly been jealously stalking him for years and is said to have even threatened Megan after learning she was seeing him we actually flew in it flew to where she's at we found her we talked talked to her coworkers only to learn Nick's ex had an airtight alibi she was not in Florida at the time we believe the homicides occurred we couldn't find any indication that she and Adam had any kind of communication and we were able to rule her out as a suspect right away and the focus is once again back on Adam who's traumatized autistic son Tristan just four years old what it's the bloody massacre and des starting to open up to investigators so what did he say he described hearing the gunshot that killed his mother and her saying please please don't Tristan tells them what else he heard and saw he grabbed a little doll and he wrapped it up in like a little blanket and he started pounding on it and saying mommy mommy and finally the poor kid points the finger at his own father did he say daddy killed mommy absolutely the daddy killed mommy now with that detectives and prosecutor Brian Sarabia have an eyewitness to corroborate their findings that a de Matos is the murderer in terms of our understanding it largely just confirmed what we already could decipher from the evidence and the scene and they are able to reconstruct shot by deadly shot blow by brutal blow their scenario of what happened the day of the Brown family massacre their timeline starting with that first 911 we know your hand with the knife and that's the father of your son yeah shortly after that call Adam stormed out in a jealous rage but detectives learned that Adam bombarded Megan with more than a hundred threatening calls and text messages in the 12 or more hours that followed he was threatening to come back and finish her off a terrified Megan called her new boyfriend Nick who rushed to her home armed with a gun to protect her should Adam try to make good on his threat Nick had indicated he was gonna go over there just to make sure everything was okay because obviously mr. Mattos violence and investigators say Adam did indeed return to actually stake the place out I think he could see the house aware by early evening that Nick was in there with Megan Tristan and dad Greg and now just waiting for the last member of the family to join them once he got his mind set that says that's what he was going to do and Adam makes his move when Mom Maggie arrives home from her night shift at a local convenience store around midnight she pulls in in the van she gets out of the van and he attacks her in the garage viciously pounding her with a hammer he hits her multiple times about the head Adam then ties her up and grabs a plastic bag putting the bag over her head trying to ensure that she was either gonna gonna die or at least not be able to get away then what does he do he would then go upstairs still armed with a hammer making a beeline for the bedroom he used to share with Megan and finding her now in there with her new man Nick and just start attacking Nick just start wailing on him Nick tries to defend himself the medical examiner indicated that it was approximately 21 strikes to the head and Matt house is able to get Nick's firearm he then goes after Megan who was run with son Tristan to the master bedroom to seek refuge with dad Greg he's a hunter so he had some hunting weapons in the house and there's indication that he was in his closet trying to get a weapon to help protect the family but he was shot before he could load right I believe he may have probably loaded one bullet into a weapon but just didn't have time to to react I think Adam got the drop on him at those kills Greg shoots him twice and then turns and deals with Megan shooting her once in the face and that's it just one bullet for her it only took one the way he shot her she's facing him he can take his time to aim hit her in the left eye and that's that and detectives would learn to their disbelief that Adam would then settle back into the house of horrors with son Tristan and make himself right at home among the dead police believed while the bodies lay murdered inside the Browns home a de Matos started taking out ads on Craigslist to sell all their stuff he's selling jewelry the entertainment center laptops as well as several of the dogs mom Maggie bread which he sold for 50 bucks a pup one lady indicated she purchased a dog and the dog itself smelled so bad she had to go home and give it a bath several times and he also had pizzas delivered to the murder scene absolutely a nightmare it's terrible Adam carrying on and hiding in plain sight as if nothing had happened he had already made contact with the neighbors telling them that the family had gone to West Virginia on a hunting trip so he would go over there periodically throughout the next few days and nights and just hang out with them that is until police find the bodies he had evidently dumped in nearby woods when cops came knocking at the door Adam took off with his son running through backyards then police say he stole a canoe jumped in it paddled to the other side hopped in a cab and went to Tampa which is about an hour south of here and less than two weeks after being captured at this Tampa Hotel a de Matos would be charged with the first-degree murder of the Brown family and Nick Leonard do you have any doubt that Adam Matos was responsible for these murders I have no doubt he was definitely responsible 100% did he threaten your life with a guy yes he did mato shocks a packed courtroom by claiming he killed his son's mother Megan Brown her parents Greg and Maggie and her new boyfriend Nick Leonard in self-defense after they actually attacked him did you defend yourself against them yes I just wanted to get my things just gather the stuff that I had but Matos testifies it was Megan's new boyfriend armed with a pistol who first pounced on him after he entered the house he grabbed me by the throat and did he reach for a gun he reached into his right pocket and he pulled out a gun and he pointed it at my chest did you struggle to stop him from getting the gun today we didn't we struggle and I was able to get it out of his hands but instead of shooting him Matos admits he bludgeoned Nick to death with 21 blows of a hammer and I just kept hitting him until I couldn't anymore he also admits killing Maggie the same way yes and motto says he used the gun he took from Nick to kill Megan's father Greg before he could shoot him with a rifle I shot him in his lower back as he was trying to turn around with his wet he also claims Megan had been screaming at her father to shoot him said shoot him dead shoot him and he says he then turned the gun on Megan again claiming self-defense I thought she had something in her hand and I just reacted in that shot now the horrified prosecution takes aim at Matos and Matos finds himself under fire when an angry prosecutor reminds him he's facing the death penalty yes Brian Sarabia says that mattis's version of the story is literally unbelievable but the circumstances he described in the way he described his actions didn't really match up Matos couldn't convincingly explain why he never called the police if it was a case of self-defense I believe my phone was dead at that time Matos would also struggle to explain why he threw the murder weapons into the canal at the rear of the house where they were retrieved by police divers I don't want it to be a threat to anyone else or to me or to Tristan and he has a hard time explaining why he chose to dispose of the four bodies first by trying to dig a grave for them beside the house with this shovel the same shovel Matos is captured carrying through a store the surveillance video proves Matos bought the shovel after the murders I wanted to moved the bodies out of the house eventually dumping them in nearby woods to spare his four-year-old son any more trauma so Tristan won't be exposed to them I don't think anybody believed him but now he's about to find out the jury has reached a verdict the defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree as to Nicolas léonard as charged in the indictment and Matos would hear the same guilty verdict for the murders of Greg Brown wife Maggie guilty and daughter Megan guilty but Matos catches a break when only 11 of the 12 jurors vote for execution any one person on that jury felt enough sympathy mercy for you that they decided and the judge voices her disagreement if there was ever a case Matos makes a pathetic attempt to show remorse I would just like to say I'm sorry to the victims of the family I know that's not enough only to be shouted down by Aaron Brown Megan's angry older brother I told him he said I screamed it at him and the judge finally gives Matos the harshest punishment allowed by law - life in prison without the possibility of pole but her most moving words are reserved for the littlest and most innocent survivor of this horror 40 year old Tristan who is now being raised by his late grandmother's family and murdered part of the deal that was made requires that Tristan's adopted mother send a picture of the boy to Matos in prison until Tristan turns 12

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 1,470,900

Rating: 4.7391944 out of 5

Keywords: Adam Matos, Megan Brown, Matos Tampa, Florida crime, True Crime Daily, Crime Watch Daily

Id: C5hqur5mm9k

Length: 35min 21sec (2121 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 21 2019