First Responder: The Killing of Melissa Lamesch

0:06 Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast. Or I tell stories of real crimes with real victims whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering, how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning Unspeakable as intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey y'all, kJ you're back with another episode of Unspeakable. How's your week go in? What is what is happening in your life?

1:04 I've been getting messages of people that are just having like these big life events and having babies and moving into new houses, and then the next message is this horrible story coming out of their hometown and all of that. So a lot going on, but I'm here to help you celebrate your wins. And then, if there are these amazing cases that you think I need to look into, please keep sending them to me. I want you to know that I do read them. I may not always get to respond. Sometimes I'm writing it down and I'm researching it, but I'm never ignoring you. And I appreciate that you think enough of me to send me these these articles, are these stories because you think that I would do a good job telling those stories. Keep sending me this stuff, and I just really look forward to these, these messages and these suggestions. So it got me thinking though about how you know everyday life. Okay, how often do we say this next line? I'm about to say, it was just a normal day win, or it was just a normal day until and all too often when I'm watching true crime shows or you know, telling a story or hearing someone tell a story, that's the way they start, right before tragedy strikes. You know, it can be just the beauty of a warm, sunny day in spring, and it can instantly become one of the darkest days in memory when you hear horrible news or you get a phone call that something tragic has happened, and just in an instant, your life can change. And I think that's partly why so many people are drawn to true crime.

2:38 It's because you know, when these victims are in these cases and they can no longer speak. If they could, I guarantee you they would start out by saying, guys, it was just a normal day until it wasn't. And that fragility and that vulnerability that it could be any of us makes everybody's story so real to me because it was just a normal day. And that's gonna be the case yet again in this week's episode. And this one's gonna take us to Mount Morris, Illinois, and this is where twenty seven year old Melissa Lamish lived in November of twenty twenty. Now, just who was Melissa, Well, I'm gonna start out, I'll tell you and you she was actually a two for one human being at the moment this story is going on because she was proudly expecting her very first child. This was gonna be a son who she would be holding in her arms in less than forty eight hours. And if you have ever been pregnant, I'm included, Okay, raise in my hand. You know that those last forty eight hours are the most measurable yet anxious two days of your life. Right, you're just over it, but you're just wanting to meet this baby that you have been so tied to and you're drawn to and ready to meet for the last nine months it's just been the excitement of your life. Well, that's where Melissa was. She was waddling, and she was tired,

4:10 and she was so ready to get this little dude out of her body. But at the same time, y'all just beyond excited to see his little face for the very first time. What would he look like, you know, would he favor her brother Carl or would he have his father's eyes? Who knew? Nobody knew, right, it was just a weight and see. And it was almost time, and it was November and the day before Thanksgiving. As Melissa was hardcore nesting in her own home. And I'm going to tell you something real quick. Nesting is real. If you have ever had a child, you know what I'm talking about, Like, all of a sudden at the end of your pregnancy, you just feel this desire to wash all of the clothes and everything's got to be in order, and you want to make sure that the curtains are hung. Or at least that's how it affected me.

4:58 But I was just like nestling in and getting ready for this baby. Well I say it was her home, let me just be clear, it was actually a home that she shared with her daddy because it was his house, but it was her home nonetheless, and Melissa was not married to the baby's father, nor were they in a formal relationship so to speak. So moving in with her daddy felt like the best move at the moment for Melissa. She was young, she was single, she was a brand new mom to be very very soon, and so she needed and she wanted that male figure to make her feel safe and not alone. And who better than your daddy to be that man to help you. Melissa's parents were divorced, but both were overwhelmingly supportive of their daughter and their grandson who would be changing all over their lives in just two days, the longest but shortest two days that ever existed at that moment. The baby bed was bought, the clothes were washed, newborn outfit was ready to go for little man's grand debut. And his room y'all so special because he would be taking Melissa's own childhood bedroom to be his room, and then she had moved into what was her childhood brother's bedroom, and so it was just like something new mixed with the sentiment of days gone by, and Melissa just could not wait.

6:27 And you know, right as I'm recording this. I have a very good friend whose daughter is expecting, and I just looked at her baby shower photos, the huge smiles as the gender was revealed, and the pure excitement, but Loki probably just a little bit of fear in the eyes of these young first time parents, you know. I was looking at that and experiencing it literally as I'm writing this episode, and I thought about the fact that Melissa was single, you know, having this baby. But yet she was prepared, y'all. She was prepared to do this alone. And regardless of the fact that she knew going into this she was going to be a single parent, there would be no less love in the home. Her son would be surrounded by cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents, and there was more love to go around than you could possibly ever imagine. It was going to be wonderful.

7:24 But here's the kicker. No one in the family knew what the baby's name was going to be. Melissa and her sister, Cassie, they had talked about possibly naming him Emmett in some past conversations. That double letter in the spelling of the name. It was just too cute. But Melissa was going to surprise everyone with the official name on the day that he was born, So just something adding to that excitement, that mystery and what was to be. But regardless of his chosen name, he would want for nothing as far as this tight knit family was concerned. Melissa, y'all, don't even play about her being worried, because you know she had enough spunk for the both of them. Okay, she was happy. She was a go getter in hell.

8:10 I mean she was prepared already to be a mommy because putting on band aids and kissing booboos, that would be nothing compared to her typical days that she spent working as an EMT. That's right. She was in the medical field and she had seen her share of pain and suffering, so this would be a welcome labor of love. And with every tear and every cry and every diaper change, she was ready to be the very mama that her baby needed. And while this would be Melissa's first human baby, Okay, I would be remiss if I didn't mention her feline son that she already had named Antonio. And Antonio was a girl's best friend. He was all black and he had those piercing green eyes. His purr was enough to bring comfort to anyone whose lap he snuggled in, but due to his own anxiety, he actually wasn't much of a snuggler. He didn't even like to be around other people.

9:09 But Melissa he loved, and that was her baby. And this was really rather comical, just so y'all know, because she got the damn cat to help with her own anxiety. But together they both had anxiety and it just became this hot mess, but a great duo. Nonetheless, Melissa had rescued him from this animal house shelter, which she was a huge supporter of because they were a no kill shelter. They had a no kill policy and that was something that she just loved. So hopefully Antonio the cat would take well to her new baby and give nothing short of snuggles. But I'm gonna be real here for a second. There'd probably be a few unwanted little bibity pats or two on the baby's head with his little paws as he was kind of showing that baby who was boss.

9:52 But it was all good. They were gonna all learn to coexist, Melissa was sure of it. So who was the baby's father. Though, I don't want to skip over this, but when I say the next thing, I bet you it's not going to be shocking to a lot of people. But if you have ever worked around public safety before, there is this strange pull, this phenomenon between certain groups of responders. And I'm laughing because if you are a first responder, if you have worked in the fire or police or medical realm, you know what I'm about to say. Because cops, Okay, for example, cops, for some reason, they cannot resist a tatted up single mom who is a nurse with a mild anger management problem. Okay, I know that sounds oddly specific, but it's funny because it's true.

10:41 And you know who you are if you're listening to this right now. This cop nurse dynamic is weird. Okay. And firefighters you know who they love? Your wife. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Don't come at me, fire don't come at me. I'm just kidding. But there's just this thing, you know, this joke that goes around that first responders seemed to find companionship with either other first responders or teachers or nurses. It's weird, but it's true. So whether it's fire, police or medical, they tend to run in the same circles, which probably has a lot to do with it, and they have these same odd schedules, and there's just this attraction or this draw between these people that are experiencing something together over time. Well, in this case, Melissa was an EMT and her baby's father was none other than a firefighter. Now, his name was Matthew, and he looked the part of your average firefighter. He was six foot tall, he had blue eyes, but nothing necessarily to write home about. I'm just trying to give you the vibe here. They're just kind of like your average guy.

11:47 But what's kind of interesting or funny is that they didn't actually first meet on the job. They met at trivia night, and that is what would initially bring them together. Because, as the story is folding, the two had known each other for a long time. I believe it was like twelve years total, but their connection when they got tight again was more of a friendship. They reconnected in college, but years back, when Melissa was hosting trivia night at the local Applebee's, Matt had been a frequent attendee there and that's whenever their friendship really had sparked back up. But I want to be very clear, y'all. It was just that. Okay, come on, we're all adults here, and this relationship was one that they both knew was not destined to be something long term. They weren't looking to be an exclusive relationship with one another, but they just appreciated each other's company from time to time at night when things would turn romantic. All right, But then again, neither one of them was looking for commitment with the other.

12:56 It just was what it was. Okay. I know her mother would probably not like me to say friends with benefits, but I don't say that in a derogatory way. I say that in two consenting adults recognizing the enjoyment of each other's company from time to time. How's that? Okay, no shade at all. Okay. But when Melissa unexpectedly found herself pregnant, it was like a huge oops, because that is not what they were planning for. That oops, however, was instantly something that she was in love with, and it was what it was. She understood it, and they were going to be having a baby together even though they were not in a relationship. But Matt however, was not so easygoing. Thrilled with the situation. When she broke the news to him, his immediate thought was, okay, well, what are you going to do about it? As in, like, are you going to terminate the pregnancy? And Melissa was like, absolutely not, that's not something that I want to do.

13:57 She made it very clear that she was gonna have the baby, but also she made it crystal clear, I expect nothing from you. Okay, it's fine, I will do it all on my own. You can walk away. You do not have to be a part of this baby's life. And she genuinely didn't care, as I said, because this had been not a relationship. It was just, you know, just no strings attached situation. So since she made that abundantly clear, Matt was relieved and he followed suit. No harm, no foul, right. You know, they spoke periodically, but their communication was very limited after the pregnancy was realized and he just kind of went his way and she went hers.

14:42 But nine months had now passed and she was ready to give birth. But there was another huge event taking place at that very moment, and we all know about this very well because it was that damn thing called COVID, right, it justugh, it interrupted everything. I would say. We all would agree it was just the worst time for you to ever have anything great happen because the social distancing and you know, it sucks that the very first time you're ever going to have a baby, your child's birth is going to happen during social distancing season and just boo on all of it. You know, you couldn't be around people. We didn't know exactly in the throes of it, how COVID was going to affect different people, and it just put a damper on the day. The meeting of the baby would be limited. Everyone wouldn't be able to storm the hospital in droves, as you know typically happens when there's a new baby and everybody is excited. Plus, her sister Cassie wasn't feeling too well herself right around this time, and Melissa was worried. Look, girl, I think you might have COVID. I wouldn't say worried, but she was like, you might have COVID. You know, your symptoms are kind of along those lines. And so that now was also going to put a little little bit of a damper on the Thanksgiving holiday, which was going to be the following day, and so the tight knit family wouldn't get to have the usual hustle and bustle of this holiday with kids screaming and everyone stuff in their bellies full of food and just the fun feast of

16:15 the holiday. Now this year was going to be a little different. It's going to be a lot less, very low key event because of everything I just explained. So everyone was really going to do their own thing, but all out of love for Melissa and the baby. There was no reason to take unnecessary risks. And this year for Thanksgiving, Melissa was just going to spend it with her daddy because they lived together, and she was tired and she was swollen. But Daddy, he was ready to eat all right. He was going to make a meal. And so the morning before Thanksgiving, Dad got up. He did go to work for a few hours, hoping that he could finish up some loose ends before heading to the grocery store to get some fixings for the next day's feast. Well, Melissa was up whenever Daddy left. She was at home doing her thing when the phone rang, and she was thrilled that it was her sister Cassie on the other end, and so they chitchatted for a while, and they were even discussing the fact that it was their little sister's birthday that very day. There was a lot going on in the next few days, including that current day full of celebrations. Their little sister was turning seventeen while they were talking on the phone, and then they had Thanksgiving, and then the next day she was going to be having that baby. So they had just had that baby shower for her too in just previous weeks, and it was amazing. Everyone that came brought beautiful gifts.

17:43 Melissa was well stocked, and she was, you know, looking about the baby's room and kind of organizing some things as she and Cassie chit chatted on the phone. One of the most beautiful and meaningful gifts, however, was one that her little niece had given her, which she smiled at as she was talking on the phone and looking It was a hand drawn picture of Melissa and her baby, which she was too proud to display in his little room. It was perfect, the perfect gift that costs nothing but time and love from her little niece. What a beautiful gift to receive. So as Dad was at the grocery store and he was walking down the aisle. He was looking for those last minute ingredients. He looked down because his cell phone rang and the ID on his phone showed it to be the local sheriff. But y'all, he wasn't alarmed or anything, because the two were actually very good friends. They saw each other every week. They would meet up for a basketball game at the local gym.

18:42 And so Dad answered the phone, what's up man, as it was ringing, But the answer on the other end wasn't that playful banter between two men. Instead, he heard Gus, where are you? And he said, I'm at the grocery store. Why And he said, look, man, there is a fire at your house. I need to know now is there anybody inside? And mister Guss said, what, there's a fire? He said, yes, your house was on fire. He need to know is there anybody inside? And he said yes, Oh my god, Melissa. Melissa is in the house. And he said, okay, well where is her room? Where would she be? Let me know, we're going to go in. We got to try to get her. And so Daddy Guss explained the home and kind of the layout to the responders, who then jumped into action trying to locate Melissa in the home, and really the big hope was that maybe she wasn't inside as they were trying to make entry. Now, the focus of the fire did seem to be in one part of the home, but it had spread quickly and it was burning extremely hot. There was smoke and flames coming out of the roof, out of the rafters, and so when the firefighters initially attempted to make entry to the home, they found that a little more difficult because not only were all of the windows locked that they checked, but all of the doors were locked. So in order them to even get in, they had to force entry through the doorway, which they did, and working through the home, they made their way into the kitchen area and they were scanning for Melissa when a firefighter caught glimpse of a foot on the ground

20:16 in front of the refrigerator, and as they approached, it was determined that this was in fact a person, and it was determined to be a female. She was lying on the kitchen floor on her back. There was debris on top of her, and she wasn't moving, but her massive pregnant belly was an instant giveaway that this was in fact Melissa, and the town where this home was located was very small. Firefighters from multiple agencies had actually responded to the fire, and this meant that a lot of them actually knew who Melissa was. They knew her personally, they knew mister Guss personally, and most people, I would argue, don't consider that reality, but it happens. You know, seeing the unconscious body of someone you know and feeling that drive that everything depends on you is a stress like no other when you know these people. So the firefighters worked, I think there was three of them, and they worked quickly to kind of get Melissa up, and they worked to get her out of the home to remove her into the front yard as they also were fighting to put out the blaze. So they carried her out and they placed her carefully on the ground and hopes that they could get her revived and get her breathing. And so, as Melissa was checked for signs of life, the somber look on the faces very quickly told the truth long before it was vocalized, and that was the reality that Melissa was dead. She was already gone, so making her

21:48 death even more traumatic was that she had been in the home deceased longer than just a few minutes, and so that meant that her baby boy was all already gone. Without the continuous oxygen and blood flow from his mama, there's no way that he could have survived more than you know, a minute or two at best, before he too would have passed away. So in the moments that all of this is happening, a crowd of onlookers had gathered, and the firefighters immediately took issue with this, as you can imagine, and so no one should be paraded onto their front yard dead, where the onlookers or people that are just passing by can slow down and just stand and galk and look at you. So, in a moment of pure humanity, and in an effort to maintain Melissa's dignity, the firefighters created a circle around her with their own bodies and shielded her from onlookers, who, may you know, very insensitively tried to take a photo or a video or anything of that nature. And about that time an ambulance did arrive and Melissa was loaded onto a gurney and placed inside of the ambulance, but it wouldn't take off lights and sirens, you know, blazing down the road, and it would actually remain on scene for a bit because there was no reason for it to tear off.

23:20 The emergency, as far as Melissa was concerned, was already gone because Melissa had passed away. So by this time the fire was out, but another just as devastating event was taking place near the road. And that's the fact that Melissa's mother, Miss Deanna, had already been notified of the fire, and so she came flying up to the scene. So she actually had to park a few blocks. I guess she would say away because of all the response vehicles and fire trucks and everything, and the road was cut off. So she just jumps out of her car and she goes running up to the scene. You know, where is my daughter? Where is she? Oh? My god, where is she? But the news had to be broken to her that Melissa was gone. Not only that that you know she's in the ambulance, but you're not going to be allowed to go inside of the ambulance right now at this time. And she just begged. She wanted she wanted to be with her baby. She wanted to see her daughter and hold her hand. But they just could not allow her to do that. The emotion, as you can tell, was overwhelming. The wail of a mother who has been told that her daughter and her grandson were gone was almost too much. And so she ran over to the ambulance, you know, and she's outside of it, and she's wanting in, and they're like, I'm sorry, you can't, you can't. You don't want to see her like this.

24:46 And so miss Deanna just remained outside of the ambulance, you know, hands on it, just never leaving its side. If she couldn't get in it, she was going to remain right outside of it, always close to Melissa, never her alone. She would remain right there, and y'all, she continued to beg and beg, but again they said, look, you know, you can't see her like this. You don't want to see this. So when the ambulance finally left the scene, her mama did the only thing she could think to do, which was to pull out her cell phone and hit record, and she filmed as the ambulance drove away from her and got further and further down the road, in just a mix of shock and this feeling of goodbye. It was like she wanted to just film until the ambulance was out of sight, and so she sat there just taking in the gravity of what is the house is burned down? You know. Melissa was like, everything that's being told to her is just out of the box, unreal. And it was moments later that she said, my god, no, and she ran and she got in her car because she was going to go find Melissa.

25:58 She didn't want to be at the house. There was no reason to be at the house. That's things. Where is my baby girl? And she was just now in denial at this point that this was real and so you know, maybe maybe she's alive, Maybe this isn't what's happening. And so she's driving and she she made her way to the fire station where she knew that the ambulance had gone, and so she pulled up and she stopped and she's just staring through her windshield and at this point she's watching as they're using a hose to wash off the ambulance, and that's when it was realized. She got, you know, oh my gosh, Melissa's been transferred to another vehicle. And that vehicle was now driving off and so as it made its way to the hospital with her daughter inside.

26:43 Miss Deana was right behind it and she followed it turn for turn until it made its way to the hospital. And once that car parked, she sat in her own vehicle. She put it in park and she just sat there watching it, hoping, maybe, you know, maybe Melissa's alive. Maybe it wasn't her. Maybe that's why we are at the hospital, you know. And she got out of her car and she walked up to the vehicle, and not knowing what to do, she just started circling it, just walking around the car, her hands on the vehicle, just wanting to see Melissa, but she couldn't. But she knew that she was in that car, so she made the decision. She refused.

27:25 She refused to even leave the parking lot. She stayed right there until it was clear that Melissa was safely inside of that building. She wasn't leaving. It didn't even matter the condition of her daughter, she was not leaving her alone until she was safely inside of that hospital. Back at the house, as the firefighters were walking through the remnants of the home, you know, they're ensuring that no flames remained and that the fire was actually fully put out. They had to notify the Marshal's office, the Fire Marshal's office, that this had happened, and so they could come and they could do a report, and they could determine the cause of the fire. But when looking at the structure, the home wasn't a total loss in terms of the physical structure, but the smoke had destroyed everything that hadn't burned, so it was a total loss, but it wasn't because it burned completely to the ground.

28:23 So the Fire Marshal would come eventually, and that would take some time for all of this to be done. So as the day passed, Melissa's beloved cat hadn't been found. So the family decided that they were going to return back to the house the next day and they were going to search the neighborhood for him. They were going to go through the neighborhood call him, and even though the cat had this high anxiety and wasn't really friendly with them, maybe in this circumstance they would be able to find him. Hopefully he was hiding out at a neighbor's house. Maybe someone was feeding him, not realizing that it was Melissa's cat, But no one had seen Antonio. They couldn't find him, and so at the house remnants, the family decided that they were just gonna go kind of look through and see if there was anything that could be salvaged. And it was in the baby's room that another straight gut punch was delivered to the family because while they were looking through and down and digging and trying to figure out what, if anything could be saved, that's whenever they located little Antonio's body curled up and lying dead underneath the baby's bed. He had tried to escape the smoke. He had tried to, you know, run away from the flames, and he went and he succumbed to the fire and too the smoke in the safest place that he could find, and it was underneath that

29:55 baby's baby bed. So Melissa, her as well as her beloved cat were now all gone in the blink of the of an eye, and the family was left in shocked but also puzzled because how could this have happened? How did this happen? You know, it just it makes no sense. Everyone's standing there just shaking their heads. Why didn't Melissa just get out of the house. And it's not like they're trying to blame her. They love her, but she's gone. But like, why didn't she just go out of the house. There were multiple doors that she could have exited, but she ended up collapsed in the kitchen. And like I said, the whole house wasn't a total physical loss. The doors were still there. Why didn't she just go out if the door was stuck? Why didn't she try to go out of a window? And it just seemed like a very survivable fire. So it's like, was she overcome by the smoke? Did she try to put out the fire herself after realizing that it had started, but stayed too long and then passed out? Just it just didn't make any sense. So the initial belief at the very start, whenever everyone was looking over everything, the initial belief was that she had to have died from asphyxiation from the smoke inhalation, because she was laying on the ground and her body did not have any obvious forms of like burn trauma or you know, she hadn't

31:26 been burned up in this fire. She was actually relatively intact. Considering what had happened. The flames had ended up basically smoldering themselves, and the fire fizzled out before the home could burn to the ground, so an autopsy would have to be performed, of course, to confirm that she had died from the smoke inhalation, and that was going to take some time. As a matter of fact, this was going to hurt even more because it was going to take more than the average weight time because while it was also an autopsy, it was also going to serve as her baby's birth, but it was also during COVID, so again the family would have to wait so until that could be completed, her family was left to just pick up the pieces and attempt to make sense of how their lives had just been changed forever, just in a moment. And the thing was this, The baby's father, Matt, also had to be notified. Obviously he would want to know this, but the family, no one in her family was very close to him, None of them really knew him that well at all. But Melissa's brother, her name was, His name was Carl, excuse me. Carl was able to get in touch with Matt that day, the very day of the fire, and he asked him, listen, have you seen Melissa today? And he said, yeah, I did. He said, you saw her you spoke to her and he's like, no, I saw her, and Carl said, well, then you are the last one to see her before hanging up the phone.

33:00 So matt was somewhat confused, like, okay, you know what was that about? Yeah, all right, whatever, and so he just kind of went about his business. He thought it was weird, but they were again, they weren't tight or anything, and so, you know, he just went about about his way. It was the police who would be the ones that would actually break the news to him whenever Matthew was contacted and asked to come down to the station because obviously Carl realized, okay, he saw her alive. We think he was the last one to see her alive, and so he told police this. So they call him in to ask about the last time whenever he saw her, and that's whenever they had to break the news to him. Look, Melissa's dead. Melissa died. So when they break the news to him, he just kind of sits there for a moment and just looks at them. You know, he's got his mask on because of COVID and all that, and he's just staring at them. Before after absorbing it for a second, he goes okay, like he was not. You know, it was kind of like out a left field, you know that she's dead. So once the news is broken and he kind of has a grasp of the fact that she's gone, police went straight into questioning and they wanted to ask him about, you know, what had happened between the two of them before she had passed away.

34:19 And what I will tell you from the jump is that two things were very odd to me in that interrogation when I was watching it at the jump. Number one, Matt never asked about his son. He never said, Okay, Melissa's gone, what about my baby? You know, is the baby okay? He never he never asked about his son at all. And number two, he never then asked how did Melissa die? What happened? Now, if you're a true crime fan, you know that that's odd. You agree with me, what the hell? Because the first thing everyone asks is what happened? And then if your baby's about to be born, you know, even if you don't care about Melissa and it wasn't this relationship and you know I hadn't been speaking, you still would want to know what happened. So, but Matt did continue to answer the officers questions about what they did that day before they went their separate ways.

35:19 Matt said, up front, look, I have not been involved in this pregnancy at all. Okay, we agreed that, you know, we're not in a relationship. I have not been involved at all. But the closer that the birth deadline came, he decided that he really wanted to be involved in what was going on, and so he said he had called into work that day because of a knee injury that he had sustained while he was running, and so he didn't really have much to do, so he had made up an excuse that he had some work in the area where Melissa lived. He said he was installing hot tubs on the side. But he said he made up that excuse use that he was in the area so that he would have a reason, you know, really to stop by to try and speak to Melissa. So whenever he got there, he knocked on the door, he said, Melissa let him in, and that's whenever they really kind of just started talking. Look, the baby's going to be born in two days, he said. We talked about money and finances, what about you know, child support? What are we going to do about this, and he said that she was very clear, as was you know, her family, that he didn't need to pay if he did not want to be a part of this, they were going to take care of it, and that he was not obligated to pay or do or do anything. And so he said they were having all of that discussion, but then one thing ended up leading to another, and so they ended up having sex together on the couch before

36:51 just kind of talking for a little bit more and then he left the house. So they're like, okay, what do you when you left? What happened? He was like, oh, well, I mean, you know, she walked me to the door. She said that she was about to make some lunch, and she i walked out, and it was kind of like bye, we'll talk whenever the baby's born whatever. So obviously detectives were documenting all of this and taking their notes, and then after he explained everything that he had done for the day, he was left to go, you know, release to go basically process it all and take it in because he had not only lost his son but now Melissa. So whenever detectives were checking in and wanting to check up on the story, they obviously wanted to go speak to neighbors in the neighborhood and see if they hadn't known anything or seen anything. And one neighbor was able to confirm that he had seen who was believed to be Matt at the house, and this was before the fire department arrived and the timeline and everything was just as Matt had said. So the neighbor his name was mister Clayton. He lived directly across the street from the Lambishes, and he had noticed some time, he said it was around that afternoon that there was a white male. He said he was probably in his mid twenties to his early thirties. He saw him walking down the street and he said the man walked right up the driveway. He knocked on the front door of the Lambishes, at which point he did see Melissa open the door.

38:18 They talked and Melissa said or looked like she said, you know, come on in, and then shut the door. But it was around four thirty PM when a different neighbor said she noticed smoke that was coming from the Lambish's house. She could hear their fire alarm or a fire detector going off, and she went and she looked, said, oh my god, there's a fire, and she called nine to one one. So the timeline basically that I'm telling you, the timeline of events was fitting with everything that they were being told so far. But whenever police then spoke to Melissa's sister, Cassie, the vibe about Matt was like different than what they had kind of gathered whenever they spoke to him. So what do I mean by that, Because I know vibe is kind of a funny word or a weird word choice. But Cassie, Melissa's sister, she lived almost two hours away, so she and her sister when they would talk on the phone, they would talk for extended periods of time whenever they connected. In the morning of Melissa's death, Cassie said that she had called Melissa around ten am and they stayed on the phone for roughly two hours, so they had been talking, and Cassie said that the reason they hung up the phone was because Melissa told her, oh, Matt's here, he needs to stop doing this. I'll call you back shortly and I'll let you know what he says. And that's whenever they hung up the phone. But what was off with

39:49 the vibe that I'm talking about is that Cassie said, Melissa at this juncture, you know, in the pregnancy, was pretty much disgusted by Matt. She was not disgusted with him like as a as a guy. She was more hurt by the lack of friendship that he had extended her after she had gotten pregnant. You know, it was okay that they weren't together, and I can't emphasize that enough. This was not jealousy or anger, like you don't want to be with me I'm having your kid. It wasn't that at all. It's that Melissa was really hurt that he seemed to have just ghosted her, even though she said it was okay. She just thought more of him just as a friend, that he would not just ghost her, But she was disappointed for their son. You know what kind of guy. I get it, you don't want to be in his life, but my god, you're the dad.

40:44 You know, I want more for my baby. And so why the police really latched onto that was because if that was the case, and Melissa was so disgusted with the way Matt just didn't want anything to do with their son, then why would she have agreed to have sex with him when he showed up. But let's be real, crazier things have happened, so investigators, we're gonna have to continue to ask questions and talk to people. But that just sat weird with them that she would be so disgusted and tell her sister how much she was frustrated for her baby, but then would have sex with him right after they hang up the phone. Well, in the meantime, the family of Melissa had the heartbreaking task of planning a funeral. But this funeral wouldn't just be for one.

41:33 It would have to be for two, and the baby would need to be buried as well. So as incredibly sad as this is, the baby's birth would be done not under the joy of waiting, as you know, labor intensifies and you know, someone dilates and you're getting an update, you know, hour by hour. This just wouldn't be that type of situation. It was done really in an unknown fashion because the family didn't know exactly when the autopsy would be done. And again it's during COVID, so everything was moving much slower than usual. But finally the day, the day came, but there would be no crowd anxiously waiting to see him born, because they wouldn't get to see him born. You know, he was really the mother was laid on the table and he was removed from her body in a very cold and just very very cold medical way, and his body was taken out of Melissa, and then his body was laid on a table while they continued to examine Melissa. The joy in every aspect had been robbed from this entire family, in every single way.

42:52 And something that just hit them was that, what is what is our grandson's name? We didn't get to see him be born, we didn't get to even meet him alive, and we don't even know what his name is. How must that have felt? Nobody knew? Well, thank God for this family and thank God for the siblings of Melissa, because while they were waiting to get the results of the autopsy and for the baby to be born, Melissa's brother jumped into action. He was on a mission, and this mission was to find out what his nephew's name was.

43:34 And I know it's odd, but it gave this family something in terms of hope, in terms of gaining something. We're gonna learn what was his name? Supposed to be and it took some time, but Carl was able to get into Melissa's electronics like her tablet and her phone, and looking through her search history, he was able to locate searches that would break the name of their grandson to the family. Now, Cassie and Melissa they had discussed the name Emmett in the past because of the whole double letter thing, if you remember, they thought that was cute, but nothing had ever been confirmed. And when the name was finally uncovered, everyone really smiled, this bittersweet smile because Melissa had stuck with that double letter thing after all.

44:26 But it wasn't Emmett. Melissa's little man's name was revealed to be Barrett, little Barrett Lamish. What was his nickname? You know, what would it have been? Would they have maybe called him bear or b Man? Yeah, I guess we'll never know that. But these are the thoughts that, you know, with such immense joy of knowing who this baby was, this was Barrett was just instantly stripped away because that's all it was a baby named Barrett. So when the autopsy it was completed, the family was notified that they could come and they could see him for the very first time and when Melissa's mom would first lay eyes on her grandson. This would happen at the coroner's office and the moment. I want you to know, the coroner worked very hard in this moment to try to make it more than just seeing a dead body.

45:25 And whenever a Barrett was brought out, they had dressed him for the occasion. The coroner had picked him out a little, tiny outfit complete with matching booties. It was a Disney themed little outfit, and so whenever she got to see him, it was like seeing a new baby. He was perfect. Now Grandma wasn't allowed to hold him, she couldn't touch him, but just seeing him for the first time filled and broke her heart simultaneously. There was her little man. There was the guy that she should have she should have met. He was perfect. Barrett was seven pounds and a few little ounces. And she noticed that his little fingers were long, and he he even had tiny little fingernails that they were ready to be trimmed.

46:14 They would have needed to be filed, you know, right after he was born, so he wouldn't have scratched his little face. And most breathtaking was the fact that baby Barrett had his mama's nose. Melissa's nose was something that her mother just loved because it was cute, it was little, and it had this slight little upturn at the end. And as she was looking over a little baby Barrett, he was a perfect match. He had his mama's nose. So, after looking him over and just feeling the heartbreak again of what would never be, Barrett was taken back to the back and the family left with tear filled eyes because again they met and then lost him all in the same moment. And sadness just was not only overwhelming in this moment, but it was quickly becoming replaced with a lot of anger because from the jump, Melissa's siblings started pointing the finger at Matt, especially Carl. He felt like Matt had something to do with this. Now, was it this thing where maybe you know it's Melissa's brother, Maybe you know how brothers have that thing. You know, this guy got my sister pregnant and then decided to just up and leave. Was it that he was just very angry and he was needing someone to blame, and so that's why he was pointing the finger at Matt.

47:37 And then Cassie obviously didn't like him because again he didn't want anything to do with this baby. And so Cassie was like, he must have done it. You know, he's a firefighter. After all, the damn house was on fire. He must have done it. But Mom Deana wasn't convinced. You know, y'all can't just be pointing fingers at people we don't know when you know, we have to wait, we have to see what happened. Well, the police would really be they were going to work on this. They weren't waiting, and so they were speaking to a lot of people, and this included coworkers of Matt's. They wanted to go talk to other firefighters and see what they knew, if they knew anything about this situation. But when they went to go speak with the coworkers, what they had to say was somewhat surprising. They interviewed multiple people on the twenty eighth, so this is just a couple of days after Melissa and Barrett had died, and Matt had worked up until he had worked on the twenty eighth.

48:33 But the thing was, every single person that they interviewed, every fellow firefighter, was shocked and surprised to learn that Matt was even having a baby. They didn't even know. Matt had never mentioned it to any of them. But here's the thing. Not everybody's just this open, you know, open with their life. You're allowed to be private with your life. And to that point, some of the firefighters also agreed that, you know, I didn't share my private life with him, and so he didn't really open up and share it with me. And that's okay, But what about death. Okay, so maybe he didn't want to talk about his private life, but like, damn, his baby, mama and his baby had died, you know, it was his son.

49:23 But Matt never told anybody. He never told his supervisors, he never told his coworkers, and he had just continued to go to work and never mentioned it to them. That was odd. So police called Matt back in and they wanted to interview him some more. And this time the interview was going to last a whole lot longer, like a total of seven hours, I believe, and the detectives are really going to ask him things that got straight up into the nitty gritty things, all the way down to like what were you wearing the day that you went to go visit her, and he said, I was wearing jeans, a T shirt, you know, baseball cap. Okay, where did you park? I parked in front of her house.

50:05 When directly asked, did you kill Melissa or did you hurt her? Matt wholeheartedly denied it. He said things like, you know, I never intended to hurt Melissa. I never intended to hurt anybody. And when he was confronted with these questions and he answered intended. The word intended again that just was an odd word choice to the police. And he also kept referring to speaking with Melissa and that they needed to talk because of the upcoming deadline. And deadline again was an odd word for the police because most people don't say deadline. They would say the baby's do date. So deadline just that term. You know, you don't want to hang on everybody's word, but like deadline, that seems like a countdown until something bad happened, you know, pay the ransom. You have this deadline to get it done or do your work, or you have this deadline or your fire. Deadline just doesn't have it has a negative connotation to it. So while Matt was known to be a single guy. He would admit during the questioning to police at this point that he had been seeing a couple of women over the last nine months, but it was nothing serious, and again that was fine. He was a single guy, and Melissa didn't care because she didn't want to be with him either. But Matt's work schedule was one that they wanted to look into as well, and when they did that, it looked like he had

51:37 worked a normal schedule, but he had taken off the Monday and Tuesday of the week of the fire before he then called in on Wednesday because of that knee injury, which when they spoke to the supervisor, he confirmed that was true. That was real. He had taken off Monday and Tuesday, and then he did call in he did have the knee injury. Then the supervisor confirmed that Matt had been off for roughly ten days where he could grieve and deal with the loss of Melissa and the baby before returning. But this became somewhat controversial. It wasn't controversial that Matt was off for those ten days. What was controversial was that when they were speaking to another firefighter, that firefighter mentioned that he had been diagnosed with COVID in the days prior, and so the reason that a lot of them were off of work for upwards of ten days was because they were forced to take off because they were being quarantined because of his COVID diagnosis that included Matt and so detectives are going back and they're looking. They're like, okay, hang on a second. So he took off Monday, he took off Tuesday, he called in Wednesday, which is when the fire occurred. But then he came back to work and he worked on the

53:10 twenty eighth, after he already knew that Melissa and the baby had died, but before being quarantined. So it was looking more like the ten days that he took off to grieve in retrospect, was more like a convenient excuse of why he was off ten days because he was forced to be because of that COVID diagnosis. Things that make you go hmm. Well, when the results of the autopsy came back, everyone did expect that she would have died from smoke, you know, asphyxia or smoke inhalation, but there was more found than was expected. Because when someone dies from smoke inhalation, you a lot of us already know this, but your lungs and your mouth, even off times, your nose and the airway that will be covered in soot because you've been breathing in this heavy, thick smoke, and the soot will line wherever the air goes. But the testing showed in the autopsy that Melissa had no soot in her lungs, but the overall findings weren't really definitive enough as to her cause of death. But the lack of soot in her lungs meant one very clear thing to the detectives when they were looking at this, and that was that Melissa was not breathing at all as this fire was raging, because there would have been soot.

54:41 That's like Captain Obvious type shit. There's no way that she lay on the floor in that fire and didn't inhale any smoke if she was alive. So the house, remember, was a total loss, even the structure that didn't burn, everything was covered in smoke. But somehow she mysteriously didn't breathe any in no frickin' way that's not going to happen. So while that autopsy report was leaning towards something more nefarious, having happened. It wasn't very clear, and so the investigators were not happy basically with the autopsy. And a lot of people think, oh, well that's the doctor. If the doctor said it, that's how it's going to go. Well, these investigators are like, nah, I don't think I like this because it looks like something very nefarious here has happened.

55:29 And any defense attorney worth their salt would argue in court if we were able to get somebody for doing something wrong that, well, how do we know that Melissa didn't have a medical emergency and die right before the fire sparked. I mean, she could have had a heart attack or something, and then you know she's cooking and the house caught on fire. And I say this because remember Matt mentioned that Melissa was making lunch whenever he left, so that argument would be, well, she had that medical emergency and that's why the house caught on fire. So as a result of all of this, the detectives were adamant. We won a second autopsy from a different facility on Melissa's body. So, as heartbreaking as this is, the families wanted to have a funeral, they have to wait again and they have to be told sorry, we need to send your daughter's body for another autopsy. So that was done.

56:22 And while the second pathologists also found that there was no soot in Melissa's lungs or her throat, her report and her testing and all of her assessment seemed to be much more in depth than the first autopsy. Part of that was that this examiner really thoroughly washed Melissa's body, cleaned her up really, really well. And when that was done, it became apparent that around Melissa's face and her neck there was bruising. Now, if you have soot all over you, that might not be seen unless you're thoroughly cleaned off. Not only was there bruising, but there was particul hemorrhaging that was found. And this is a typical finding and strangulation when those little microvessels are bursting and right, you get the little blood speckling that comes to the surface.

57:15 But the bruising on her neck, combined with this particular hemorrhaging, this aligned very much with what strangulation typically looks like. Not to mention that the doctor noted the hemorrhaging on Melissa's face was noted as the most particular hemorrhaging that pathologist had ever seen in any case that she had ever done. That's more than just a couple of broken vessels here and there. There was no doubt in that pathologist's mind that Melissa had been murdered by being physically strangled. So this doctor also went a step further and did a rape test kit on her, and the results of that, though only confirmed what Matt had said because his semen was present inside of Melissa. However, let's not forget a few things about Melissa. She was nine months pregnant, she was due any day. Let's also not forget that Melissa was telling her everyone in her family that she was disgusted by Matt because of his lack of friendship and all of that. So with that in mind, Okay, and I know everybody's different, but just listen to what I'm saying here. And this is not a judgment, this is an observation. Okay, her rape test kit would show that she had not only been penetrated vaginally sexually, but she also had been penetrated anally as well. Okay, there was also DNA underneath her fingernails. Now, listen, anyone can do

58:48 anything you do you. I'm not hating. You can have sex any way you want to, You have fun, wave your freak flag, do whatever. But something that just as a woman who been pregnant before multiple times, something that I'm going to draw the line at in this autopsy is that not only had she had sex vaginally and anally, but she had trauma to her genitalia. There was bruising and there was injury to her inner thighs as well as the surrounding area. There was also contusions and abrasions inside of Melissa's vaginal vault, and these injuries, according to what this doctor was looking at, she felt these were more consistent with like sexual assault slash rape, not consensual sex.

59:41 And so I'm thinking about the fact that when you're nine months pregnant two days before giving birth, you're pretty miserable, and it just seems out of character for someone to be having anal sex, vaginal sex and being this rough and tom right before you're about to give birth with a man that you were disgusted by. And I think a lot of people might might agree with that. Well, whenever the pathologist went further and was looking at her scalp, she would locate a few places on the scalp where it looks like Melissa had suffered blows to her head.

1:00:22 So what happened to Melissa was very clear if you read the full report in totality of circumstance of Melissa and her situation, Melissa Lambish was brutally raped in multiple ways and she fought her attacker as best she could before she was struck in the head multiple times and then strangled to death. And that is what this pathologist believed had happened. Police believed that as well, and that afterwards a fire was started, likely to conceal her murder because she had been conclusively not breathing as the house burned around, you know, burned down around her. So when this news was broken to her family, they're obviously now even more horrified, outraged, angry, heartbroken, all of the emotions that you can possibly feel. And they now also have to absorb all of that. But now it's time for them to have a memorial service or a funeral for Melissa and baby Barrett. And I want to tell you this.

1:01:27 I didn't plan on sharing it, but I'm going to share it to you just to add to just the horrors that this family went through. But do you know that, because Barrett was born during the autopsy, the first place that the family chose to have their funeral would not allow them to bury the baby in the in the casket with his mama. They refused to embalm the baby. It was a religious thing. So now the family's being told, oh, look, sorry, this happened, but we're not going to have your final wishes and we're not going to let the mom have the baby in her arms. That pissed me off when I learned that, and I learned that directly from Melissa's mom.

1:02:07 That is not speculation. Her mother told me that with her own mouth. How dare somebody do that to a grieving family? So now they have to go, Okay, now we have to go shop for another funeral home. That is just beyond me. Either way, they did end up finding a place that would let them honor Melissa and her baby the way that they wanted to do so, and they were able to have the funeral and Barrett, his sweet little precious self. He was wrapped up in a purple blanket and a hat that Melissa's aunt had handmade for him and was actually given to her as a gift at the baby shower just weeks prior, and of course I'm not going to let this go either.

1:02:47 Of course, that had to be washed and thoroughly cleaned before he could even be wrapped in it, because that too had been covered in soot and smoke and all of that. But that was made for him and it was special and the family wanted that to happen. So after they got that done though, and they got to show up, and they got to see baby Barrett and Melissa for the first time together. He looked like a perfect angel, laying right there in his mother's arms. In the same casket, Melissa was buried with her baby boy, holding him like the chance that was stolen from her in her lifetime. She got to have her baby in her arms. And as everyone cried and they tried their best to make it through the service, there was one person who notably did not show and that was a man by the name of Matt, the man who had created this very baby that was dead, and the man that knew that the baby's mother was also passed away.

1:03:49 He didn't show up to say goodbye or even hello to his newborn son, nor to show the basic respect for the woman who was the mother of his son passing away. But some other people didn't show up either, and that was Matt's parents. They were not at the funeral. Now to that point, speaking with Matt's parents later on, I'm talking about the police speaking with them, that would be a pretty eye opening moment because they confirmed to police that they had no idea Matt was even going to be having a baby. That was until very recently when Melissa had broken the news to them. Now, Melissa, why did she go tell his parents, Well, it's because she felt like they deserved to know that they had a grandson coming into the world, and she wanted her son to have grandparents. It was not about Matt, it was about her son. So she told them. She broke the news to them, and when they found out, they were beyond excited. They were over the moon that they were going to get a grandson. But at the same time, they had been hurt that Matt had not even told told them this and this was something that you know, people look forward to, is knowing that they're going to be a grandparent. But either way, I want you to remember they were very supportive of Melissa. They were very excited to meet the baby. They also had sent gifts to the baby shower because Melissa had let them know

1:05:20 about it. Now they didn't go because of COVID, but they did send gifts. Okay, they were very excited about this. So whether they even knew that Melissa and the baby were deceased before the service was even held isn't actually clear. So I want to be very clear that from all accounts, Matt's parents were good and very decent people, and I am in no way throwing shade at them. They too, in my opinion, at this point, seemed to be another casualty by association in this unfolding tragedy. It's horrible. So other part of victimization too that I want to bring up that I think a lot of people who aren't in this world miss is that, you know, the family felt like Matt was responsible for what had happened. But knowing it and being able, you know, to talk about it and scream from the rooftops that you think that this guy did something to your daughter that became an issue.

1:06:24 And I'm going to call it another facet of victimization. Because Melissa's family was asked by the police to please remain silent about the investigation, not in a hurtful way, but because anything that this family may have said or shouted to the media or posted online it could possibly impact not only the investigation, but even worse long term, if Matt was responsible for this, it could affect the long term outcome, possibly in a courtroom, and it's just not worth the risk for that to happen. So while this family has already lost everything to this point, they now have to be quiet. And that is something that we just if you have not been in that probably don't appreciate how horrible that is. And I don't care how good of a person you are. Everyone has a limit, and these people had been kicked in the teeth over and over and over again. But I want to tell you something about this family, this Lamish family, they fell in line. They may have cussed and cried and mourned behind closed doors, but they remained tight lipped in public.

1:07:34 They remained a united force for over a year. This family, they tread water for over a year. Imagine that a year came and went with no arrest for what had happened to their daughter, after they already know the results of the autopsy, there was no movement in the case publicly, and life for everyone else just kept going, even for Matt, Even for Matt, who this family wanted to shred to pieces because they felt like he was responsible. Matt was just living his life. But the wheels of justice, guys, they may turn slow, and then you add in in COVID, and it feels like it's come to a stop. And maybe it felt like the wheels of justice might have been rolling through quicksand, but they were still rolling. So days after day after month after months, nothing was happening.

1:08:31 Matt just continued to work, and the town was so small that Melissa's sister and brothers and her parents would often see Matt out and about and there was nothing they could do about it. They should have been celebrating Barrett's first birthday by this point, but instead they're still dying inside with their mouths shut. Melissa was dead, her child never even got a birthday, her cat suffocated, their home and all of its contents destroyed. Thanksgiving would never be a holiday they would ever celebrate again. And to boot, the day of Melissa and Barrett's death, well, that was the little sister's seventeenth birthday. The suffering here is just unreal that this family is going through. But even with that, more just kept happening. One day, Melissa's mom went out to get her mail, and as she went to go open her mailbox, she looks up to see none other than Matt driving down the road in an ambulance. Now he was an EMT as well as a firefighter, just so you understand here. And when he got close, he looked at her and even waved as she stood there, mail in hand, just staring at him, and all she could do was just shake her head. No, he waved at her. Imagine the restraint. I'm gonna say it right here,

1:10:03 right now. That's one hell of a woman, my friends, that is one hell of a woman. And then they would realize that he was coming by a lot, like they would see him pass by a lot. Why why was that? No clue? Still to this day, no clue. But he was seen often and Miss Deana she lived on a dead end type of road, which made it even more concerning one time. And I'm sharing these with you because I want you to understand victimization and what it's like, because it's not just what happened it's what else happened. One time, her son, Melissa's brother started to have a medical emergency and so they had to call nine to one one. So she calls for help, but then Mama Deanna runs outside standing there, you know, just all bowed up because she was terrified that the man that she believed was her daughter's killer was going to be the very person to respond to the house. So as this is happening, she's freaking out. I hope he doesn't show up. Her daughter, okay, was there. Another daughter was there, and her daughter, Melissa's sister has pots syndrome.

1:11:11 If you know what that is, it's people that can pass out and it can be triggered and all that. Well, her daughter became so upset and stressed out by seeing the fire trucks pull up because the daughter was afraid it was going to be Matt pulling up as well, that the daughter fell out pass smooth out right there. They had to call another ambulance which came to help the daughter. So tell me that this family was not feeling terrorized. So there's Mama Deanna out front, there are multiple fire trucks, there are multiple ambulances, and she has multiple children down having medical episodes. It was so wild that when the supervisor showed up and got out of the car, he goes up to Miss Diana and says, look, I'm really worried about all these people falling out. I think I need to go check your house for carbon monoxide.

1:11:58 And she looks at him and has come here and as a pull him off to the side and has to explain, we don't have carbon monoxide. We have tragedies happening here. My son is having a medical emergency and my daughter is passing out from stress because we think that one of your employees murdered my other daughter and might show up. We are having a hard time right now. And no shade on that supervisor, because who would have thought that could happen. Who would have ever imagined that you cannot make this shit up. The vicarious trauma that these families go through after an event is undeniable, and this is a perfect example of that. But the investigation had installed, y'all. It was just moving slow, and they were trying to secure a solid case, one that Matt couldn't beat if he had done this, and the small things would become the big things. The building blocks in this case, because remember that neighbor that had been interviewed said that, yeah, I saw Matt arrive that day, blah blah blah, so I'm going in the house. But there was a few things that the police caught after they had the long interview with Matt. Number one, the neighbor was very clear that there were no vehicles parked on the street when he saw that person walk up to the Lamish's house. When Matt was interviewed, he said that he parked right in front of the house. That was a lie. That was a confirmed lie by other people.

1:13:23 So why you have to ask yourself would you park blocks away from the house that you're going to unless you're up to no good and you didn't want your vehicle seene. Secondly, that neighbor was also able to describe what Matt was wearing to a tea. Remember Matt even told them what he was wearing. The neighbor in Matt's descriptions aligned except for one thing. The neighbor mentioned that the man was wearing a backpack on his back, something that Matt failed to mention. How did you forget that? You don't remember having a book sack? And he was like oh, no, no, And they say, okay, well what would have been in that bag? And he just tells the investigators, I don't know. Well, to me, you and everybody else, sounds like you might have had some fire starting tools in that bag. He also had been wearing his hat and his sunglasses, which I'll let you know.

1:14:18 When the family was digging through the rubble and they found the cat, they ended up finding his hat in the house. So he remembered his bag. He remembered to grab that, but you didn't remember to grab your hat and your sunglasses. And then when you left the house, you didn't realize, ooh, I don't have my sunglasses. Why didn't you just turn around and go back and grab your sunglasses and get them when you realize that you didn't have them. So all of this is kind of putting things in place. Well. During the fire investigation, it was noticed that there was an echo dot or like an Alexa style device on the countertop in the kitchen. So police wondered, is it possible that that device may have, you know, recorded their final conversation or if there was an argument or something. So depending on the device that you have real fast, I'll let you know, the audio can either be stored to the device, it can go to a cloud. It just depends on what type you have.

1:15:11 But they cut a warrant to Amazon to retrieve the last recordings that were caught on that device, so it took time for that to come back. Well, when they got the report, unfortunately it was found it had voices on it, but it was not a recording that helped in any way, shape or form, and the recording the voices, it wasn't even relevant to the day of the fire. So that ended up being kind of a dead end. But the report from the Fire Marshal's office would finally be available and the results of this would be very telling because this report said that they believed that the fire started in the cabinets above the stove. So you're like, oh, well, the stove caught on fire or a pot and then burn the cabinets, right, will No, because they did this thorough investigation and found that the stove itself was not on even the location of the burners, the knobs they were turned to off. So it's not like Melissa had been cooking fell out like would have been argued. I guarantee you and the fire started, and if the oven had been the cause of the fire, there would have been fire damage inside of the oven, but there was none.

1:16:22 It looked almost perfect on the inside. There was no cooking that was going on at any time whenever this fire started. Plus it was in the cabinet where it started, which meant that there was some sort of combustible or gas that was used, some sort of accelerant that started the fire in the cabinet. But what was the motive? Okay, sure you could, you know, prosecute somebody without a motive, but but that really will talk to a jury. Okay, if the motive was her having a baby, he could have done something for nine months. So why did he do it now? Why would he wait until now? Right whenever?

1:17:03 You know she's about to have the baby? And that's when the word deadline was revisited from his interview. See, Matt was found in this interview to have been dating another woman and her name was Katie. Well guess what. He had been dating Katie for over a year when Melissa became pregnant. Now, Katie didn't obviously didn't know anything about Melissa or her pregnancy. So Matt now was saying no no, no, no, no, I was I had planned to break up with Katie on the on the twenty fifth, but he just didn't. He just didn't do it. He didn't get around to it. So he was going to break it up with her. So I mean, that wasn't a big deal. But text messages in his cell phone found that Matt had had sex with another woman. This woman's name was Alissa on the night of November the twenty fourth. But detectors are looking at this going, so, wait a minute. You called into work on that day because you were too injured to do anything because your knee was so injured. But you weren't too injured for a booty call with a woman who wasn't your girlfriend.

1:18:12 Kind of seems like a lot, huh. Now, some guys right now are like, oh, yeah, I'll have a booty call with a hurt knee. But come on, guys, you know this is this is child's play. Whenever you put it all together, this is what happened. Matt had a girlfriend, he was a dog, and he was sleeping around. Melissa had no idea about that, and she ended up getting pregnant during a random rendezvous with someone that she considered to be a friend, and when he found out, he panicked. That's why he told her to get the abortion, and she flat out said no, and that's why he ghosted her so as to not get caught and din and distance himself from her. And the great news is this. Melissa was fine with that, but by I don't need you, I don't want anything, she made that very clear. So he continued to sleep with other women, even though it looks like he was supposedly dating this katie chick, and he planned to just go on with his life being a deadbeat sperm doner. But that's when Melissa told his parents about the baby, and when they found out, they were shocked but thrilled. So when Matt found out about this and then was basically confronted by his parents with the information that he was going to have a baby and why didn't he tell them, he got pissed with Melissa, but he didn't plan to have anything to do with Melissa or the baby right Well, that's until his parents started basically telling him, come on, dude, you need to man up. You need to take care of your son.

1:19:40 You need to do the right thing. We have a grandchild. They wanted a part of that grandchild's life. And this happened very close to the quote unquote deadline of the baby being born, and so that's why he decided he had to do something about it before this baby could even enter in to his life. Turns out this wasn't a one time thing gone wrong of him showing up with Melissa, because even when police tried to give him an out in questioning, you know maybe that you know, this was an argument that maybe didn't get out of control, or you know, something happened. I spoke to Melissa's sister in real life me and she opened my eyes to some things that I did not know. One night, Melissa, right very close to her death, was on the phone with her sister, Cassie, and they were just chit chatting on the phone, and Melissa was playing on Snapchat on her phone. Well we all know this if we use snapchat, but it has that mapping thing where you can look at it and you can see which friends of yours are nearby. So she's playing around on the phone and Melissa just opens up the map to see if any of her friends or in the nearby area, and that's when she vocalized that she realized that Matt was near the house. This is who has not had any contact with her this entire pregnancy. The thing about it that was weird was that, you know, she lived in a more rural area. It was a small town off the

1:21:10 beaten path, way out of the way of where Matt lived, and certainly off the path where he worked. And so she said something to Cassie about that, like why would he be out there? You know, we haven't spoken in forever. He didn't know anybody out here, Like why is he out in this area? And so Melissa texted him in that moment and was like, you know, why are you near my house? Like what are you doing? But Matt never answered her. He didn't answer her, but she continued to look at the map, and then she saw that his location moved away from her shortly after she texted him. But then he went and he turned off all of his location where she couldn't see where he was. It was weird in the moment, they felt it was weird, like in their gut, and now looking back on it, it really was looking like he had been planning to do her something for a few days based on all of the timeline events. Matt took off of work to kill Melissa, but it took him a couple of attempts to make it happen. So after he started pushing those couple of days of wanting to see her and being around her, she really wasn't that interested in him. When he showed up and he knocked on that door. It's my belief that she emotionally caved because she wanted her son to have a dad, and if he was willing to make this effort to drive all the way out there to talk to her, even if it was laid in the pregnancy, she was going to let him in so that they could talk about the baby. Matt arrived at the home around one point thirty. He parked blocks away so that he wouldn't be seen, but the neighbor

1:22:42 ended up seeing him walk anyway, and the lack of the car told a story. He showed up unexpectedly, as evidenced by her reaction while on the phone with her sister, and then Melissa let him in before she was attacked. At some point. If she wouldn't abort the baby, he was going to abort both of them. He cracked nine month pregnant Melissa over the head and he beat her. Eventually she fell to the ground where he ripped off of her clothes and brutally raped her both vaginally and anally while she is nine months pregnant, fighting him off and trying to get away from him, and once he got on top, he started strangling her until she took her last breath. Once she was dead, he got his fire starting stuff out of his bag. He started the fire in the cabinets. As the fire grew, he grabbed his bag, but he forgot his baseball cap and his sunglasses, possibly knocked off while they were fighting, and then he went out of the house, locking the door behind him.

1:23:37 As his child was now actively dying in Melissa's womb. He walked to his car and he drove away, feeling as though he had just solved all of his problems and just continued on with his life for a year as if it was no big deal. It took time, and it took a lot of effort, but nearly a year and a half after Melissa and Barrett's death, this case was brought before a grand jury who issued a ten count indictment against Matt. Matt Plody was arrested and charged and would go on trial in March of twenty twenty four, and Melissa's mama was there for every day of the trial, and she had a special photo in her hand the entire time, because when the funeral had been held a year and a half prior, she took a photo of baby Barrett, the only one that she would ever have of her grandson, and his little hand was in Melissa's and that photo was with Miss Diana, the grandmother in court every single day as a testament to her devotion to not only her daughter Melissa, but also to Barrett. Two lives gone but never to be forgotten.

1:24:50 And after five days of testimony and the attorneys for Matthew Plody blaming everyone but Matt, including Melissa's own father, the man that loved her more than life itself, the jury came back with a guilty verdict and he was sentenced to a total of seventy five years behind bars, and considering he was in his late thirties at that point, he was effectively given life. Matt put on a uniform, counting on the public to see a firefighter, a protector, someone people trusted with their lives, but uniforms don't create character, they just reveal it when the heat is on. When the woman carrying his child needed courage, honesty, and accountability, he chose lies. When she deserved a future, he stole it from her. And when that innocent baby was just days away from entering the world, he made a choice that no uniform, no title, and no excuse could ever erase.

1:25:57 Real firefighters run toward day to save lives when the heat is on. Matthew Plody created life just to destroy it. I would consider it appropriate that when you hear his name from this point forward, you don't remember him for the patches on his sleeve or the truck he climbed into, because that wasn't real. Remember him for what he proved he was when nobody was supposed to be looking. Because at the end of the day, he was not a firefighter. He was a wanna be wearing the uniform of a real man, but someone who could never earn the title of what it means to be a man, nor a father.

1:26:41 And since he is obviously in the business of playing dress up, he needs to shoot for something a little more realistic. My immediate suggestion would be exchanging that fireman's uniform for something maybe a little more feminine, maybe like a fur, because with the right lighting and sitting on the floor, you matt or a dead ringer for nothing more than a little bitch.