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19 months
into the investigation

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looking for these children

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and David Matusiewicz
and Lenore Matusiewicz...

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...I get a call
from Galveston, Texas,
Police Department,

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and they'd found
a deceased two year old child
in the Galveston Bay.

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They were thinking

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it may have been
Christine's missing child.

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-And so I had to
call Christine.

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That was one of
the hardest things I've done
in all my years.

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Welcome to Very Scary People.
I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

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From the outside looking in,

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the Matusiewicz family
seemed like a tight knit clan,

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pillars of the community,

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and completely devoted
to each other,

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but in reality,
a dark and twisted drama
was playing out,

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one that pitted an outsider
against the family,

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a drama that included
stalking, kidnapping,

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and, ultimately, murder,

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leaving a trail of carnage
in its wake.

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This is
The Courthouse Killers.

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I'm on my way into work...

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...and I hear
across the police radio...

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I'm in the courthouse,
in the Wilmington courthouse.

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We've got shots fired here.

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I'm heading in that direction.

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I get there
and immediately I find
Detective Shriner

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who said to me...

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I got two hit the lobby,
two hit the lobby.

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The first thing that hit me
was the smell of gun smoke.

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There were two victims
on the floor,

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and at that point,
I went into policeman mode.

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Two women were shot.
Gunman opened fire

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at the New Castle County
courthouse this morning.

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The Matusiewicz's
are a psychotic family

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that'll do whatever they want
if it'll meet their objective.

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I don't even wanna say sick.
It's not an illness.

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They're crazy,

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twisted, evil people.

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So, the Matusiewicz family
is made up of

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Thomas Matusiewicz,
who's the father,

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and then Lenore Matusiewicz,
who's his wife,

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and then David
is the oldest child,

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and then their youngest
was Amy.

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For the Matusiewicz's,
it was always family first,

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after Lenore's
troubled childhood.

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Lenore's upbringing,

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we know that she lived
in a chaotic house.

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One thing about her childhood
really stands out,

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and this is the claim
that she made

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that she suffered
from sexual abuse.

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As far as Tom's background,

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he was the golden child,
he was the favorite.

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Growing up,
Tom's mother and his father
spoiled him,

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and anything that Tom wanted,
Tom got.

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Having that type
of upbringing

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really causes you to develop

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some sense of entitlement,
some narcissistic tendencies.

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Myself and Tom, we were hired
at the same time

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for the City of Vineland
Police Department.

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We got to know each other
pretty well.

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He was more or less quiet.

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I mean, he wasn't
outgoing at all.

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He really kept to himself.

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He was always really
enthusiastic about guns.

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So, we would go out
shooting on our days off.

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He was a good shot.

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Lenore felt like, at first,

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Tom was a good provider
for the family,

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but throughout
their years together,

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she saw that wasn't
exactly the case.

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As a family,

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they were dysfunctional
at best.

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The kids were kind of unkept,

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and basically
they were undisciplined.

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For a period of time, though,
they lived in a motor home,

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and it was loaded
with roaches and such.

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He would say that,
"Well, Lenore says I gotta
get another job.

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Lenore says I gotta
get more money."

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So he started
doing landscaping work

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and he called in sick,

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but one of the captains
seen him

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cutting the grass
when he was off sick.

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They told them that
they were gonna fire him

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or he'd have to resign,

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and he resigned.

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But Tom thought
he had to do those jobs

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in order to survive,

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and that they didn't
want him to survive.

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Because of
the bad things

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that Tom perceived
happening to him,

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he also passed along
the belief that the government
shouldn't be trusted,

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family comes first,

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"We need to
take care of each other."

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All of the things that Lenore
hoped her husband would be,

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be a good provider,
be good father
to the children,

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she realized
he was not those things.

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So she shifts her focus
from Tom on to David.

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David was always
the favored child

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in every way.

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David could do no wrong.

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He was the one
that they expected

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to go on and do
great things for them.

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He excelled in school.

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He went to
Glassboro State College

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and he became an optometrist.

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Those parents
really admired him

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and were really proud of
everything he had done.

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After graduating,

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David starts his career
as an optometrist in Delaware,

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where a fellow employee
catches his eye.

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David Matusiewicz
and Christine Belford

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met in the late '90s

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at the Vision Center,
where she worked,

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and he was
a young optometrist,

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and they got along
really well.

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Christine was super bubbly,
very talkative,

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liked people, liked a lot of
activity around her,

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just a a genuinely
nice person.

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David was, by all appearances,

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a solid citizen.

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You would say that
he's a pillar of society.

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He appeared on
the local PBS affiliates
weekly news magazine

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talking about Vision Care,

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was involved in
Special Olympics,

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he provided eyeglasses
to some of the participants.

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David eventually bought
the optometry practice

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and it thrived
under his leadership.

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Christine admired that,

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and they sort of
fell in with each other.

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Before Christine met David,

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she was married
to another man.

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She did have a daughter
with that man.

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Christine was
my sister-in-law,
but also my friend.

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She was married
to my brother Bill

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and they had my niece, Katie.

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I was little
when they got divorced,

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and then we lived with
my grandfather, me and my mom.

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Christine
and her daughter Katie

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were on their own,
trying to find stability,

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and she found it in David.

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I don't remember the exact
first time I met David,

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but I do remember
living with David,
and he was fun.

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He would play with me outside.

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He put in a pool for me.

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He taught me how to swim.

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Christine and David married
in the fall of 2001...

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...and they bought a house.

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She thought she was, like,
living like a queen.

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He was a good stepdad.

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He took care of me.
He gave me everything
I wanted.

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Christine and David have
their first daughter together

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a few months
after their wedding.

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A year later,
the family welcomes
another little girl,

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I think they were
happy at first,
when she had my sisters.

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The oldest was like
his prized possession.

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She looked like his family.

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Yeah.

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Four years
into the marriage,

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they welcome a third daughter.

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The couple now has four kids,
three still in diapers,

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David's parents,
Lenore and Tom,

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move in with the young couple
to help out,

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but right away,

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there is tension
between Christine and Lenore.

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Almost immediately
upon their arrival,

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Lenore thought that
she ran the house.

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She questioned everything
that Christine did,

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from what the children ate,
to how they were dressed,

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to what time they went to bed,
to baths.

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I think that abuse
that she suffered
when she was younger

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really affected her
later on in life

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in that strong sense
of family comes first

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and I have to
protect my family

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and I have to keep them safe.

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In Lenore's mind, it wasn't,

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"I just wanna
be there for Christine

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and help her
with these grandchildren."

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In Lenore's mind, it was,

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"I need to make sure
that they are taken care of.

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Christine clearly is not doing
a good enough job.

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These are now my children."

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Now living with
their son and his wife,

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Lenore Matusiewicz
is driving a wedge
between the couple,

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questioning Christine's
parenting at every turn.

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David remained more loyal
to his mother

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than he did to his wife.

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Christine was just saying,

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"No, we need to decide this
as a couple,

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and without Lenore
inserting her opinion in,"

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and she kept losing,

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and it was frustrating

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and created
a layer of friction.

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Lenore has never
viewed Christine or Katie

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00:11:04,103 --> 00:11:05,448
as part of the family,

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so she sees this
as her opportunity

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to permanently get rid
of Christine and Katie

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and slide in as the girl's
maternal caretaker.

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There are a couple of
different, odd dynamics

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that we see in this family.

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Lenore was the one in charge.

201
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Lenore has always
ruled that family.

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00:11:24,068 --> 00:11:28,103
If she said, "No,"
it didn't happen,

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and if she said, "Yes,"

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they all did
whatever they could
to make it happen.

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With tensions rising
between Christine and David,

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Christine's daughter, Katie,
is in the line of fire.

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00:11:49,103 --> 00:11:51,068
Lenore was very

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00:11:52,206 --> 00:11:54,689
overtly mean to Katie.

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00:11:54,689 --> 00:11:56,793
Part of it was to make Katie

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00:11:56,793 --> 00:11:58,482
feel uncomfortable
in the house.

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It sort of kick started
some other angst in Katie.

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00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,862
So, my sister
was probably one and a half

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00:12:06,862 --> 00:12:08,275
and she was getting
a lot of attention

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00:12:08,275 --> 00:12:10,758
because she had finally
learned to walk,

215
00:12:10,827 --> 00:12:12,241
and I was not getting any,

216
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so I just tripped her
when she walked by,

217
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and I got sent to my room.

218
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When I went up to my room,
Dave came up with me

219
00:12:20,482 --> 00:12:23,724
and he told me not to touch
any of his kids ever again.

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David said,

221
00:12:27,172 --> 00:12:29,000
"If you touch my kids again,

222
00:12:29,689 --> 00:12:31,344
I'll throw you
out this window,"

223
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and Katie really
took that to heart.

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That's when
it became clear to me
that I wasn't his kid

225
00:12:41,310 --> 00:12:43,000
and I wasn't
a part of "the girls,"

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00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:45,241
so that wasn't my family.

227
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Things really
started to get bad,

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00:12:51,896 --> 00:12:53,137
and Christine said,

229
00:12:53,137 --> 00:12:55,896
"David has been saying some
really awful things to me."

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That was really
the clincher for her. Like,

231
00:13:21,965 --> 00:13:24,931
"Oh, my God. This guy
could do something to me."

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It's difficult
to describe David.

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David seemed to me
to be a person

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00:13:32,620 --> 00:13:34,827
who was uncomfortable
in his own skin.

235
00:13:36,586 --> 00:13:39,379
I don't know that he was
trying to cover for something

236
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or that he was truly
just living a life

237
00:13:43,724 --> 00:13:47,310
that he was afraid
was going to fall apart
at any moment.

238
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She just decided that
the marriage was not working,

239
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and she decided
to divorce David.

240
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It was so insulting to David.

241
00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:05,068
He was an eye doctor,

242
00:14:05,068 --> 00:14:08,000
successful, well liked
by his patients,

243
00:14:08,068 --> 00:14:10,275
and he was definitely
angered by the fact that

244
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this woman would leave him.

245
00:14:13,689 --> 00:14:16,551
David fired her from
her job at his clinic,

246
00:14:16,620 --> 00:14:19,068
and she very quickly got a job

247
00:14:19,068 --> 00:14:21,482
at another clinic
for more money.

248
00:14:21,482 --> 00:14:22,862
She's making him
look bad,

249
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and that pisses him off

250
00:14:24,724 --> 00:14:26,137
because he doesn't wanna
look bad to other people.

251
00:14:26,206 --> 00:14:27,827
He's built his reputation.

252
00:14:29,068 --> 00:14:32,482
David did not
wanna cooperate
with the process.

253
00:14:32,482 --> 00:14:34,931
He wanted the children
living with him full time.

254
00:14:35,896 --> 00:14:37,758
He wanted sole custody,

255
00:14:37,827 --> 00:14:39,000
meaning he makes
all the decisions.

256
00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:42,137
It was "my way of the highway"
kind of an attitude.

257
00:14:42,206 --> 00:14:45,172
He has in his mind
that she's an unfit mother,

258
00:14:45,172 --> 00:14:47,655
so he wants the court to have

259
00:14:47,724 --> 00:14:50,965
psychological evaluation
done on Christine

260
00:14:50,965 --> 00:14:52,965
and the court ended up having

261
00:14:52,965 --> 00:14:55,551
psychological evaluations
done on both of them.

262
00:14:57,379 --> 00:15:01,137
While the psychologist
found no issues with her
as a mother,

263
00:15:01,206 --> 00:15:03,896
they found
that David, at times,

264
00:15:03,896 --> 00:15:07,241
seemed to be at risk
of losing touch with reality.

265
00:15:07,310 --> 00:15:09,103
The psychologist
said that David

266
00:15:09,103 --> 00:15:12,448
would do the same thing
over and over and over again

267
00:15:12,517 --> 00:15:14,724
and think he was gonna
get a different result.

268
00:15:15,517 --> 00:15:17,655
Doing the same thing
over and over again,

269
00:15:17,724 --> 00:15:19,517
that's the definition
of insanity.

270
00:15:22,793 --> 00:15:26,586
We had
the custody hearing
in February 2007.

271
00:15:26,586 --> 00:15:28,655
They got joint custody.

272
00:15:28,724 --> 00:15:30,689
Christine was
really happy with it,

273
00:15:30,689 --> 00:15:33,000
but it didn't go
the way David wanted.

274
00:15:34,586 --> 00:15:37,275
That's not enough
for David, Tom and Lenore.

275
00:15:37,275 --> 00:15:39,758
They're all still under
the same roof

276
00:15:39,827 --> 00:15:42,310
and they want the kids
to themselves.

277
00:15:43,896 --> 00:15:48,103
David is now the person
who's been wronged.

278
00:15:48,413 --> 00:15:50,068
Lenore said at one point

279
00:15:50,068 --> 00:15:54,068
that Christine had annihilated
David's character.

280
00:15:54,068 --> 00:15:56,931
David's wanting to get revenge

281
00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:58,448
for what Christine
is doing to him.

282
00:16:02,172 --> 00:16:03,827
After the divorce,

283
00:16:04,586 --> 00:16:07,827
my mom went down
to the Middletown house.

284
00:16:07,896 --> 00:16:10,689
I think it was to
pick up the girls
or drop them off.

285
00:16:10,689 --> 00:16:13,931
And David was there,
and Tom and Lenore.

286
00:16:14,310 --> 00:16:16,000
When David left the room,

287
00:16:17,793 --> 00:16:19,896
Tom grabbed my mom by her arm

288
00:16:19,896 --> 00:16:23,482
and drug her out back through
the sliding glass door

289
00:16:23,482 --> 00:16:25,000
in front of all of us.

290
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:26,931
I followed her
outside, crying.

291
00:16:28,620 --> 00:16:31,172
He was yelling at her outside
and calling her names.

292
00:16:31,172 --> 00:16:33,827
That was probably
the first time I've ever
seen Tom violent.

293
00:16:37,068 --> 00:16:39,379
Despite
the escalating tensions,

294
00:16:39,379 --> 00:16:41,758
Christine still believes
it's good for the girls

295
00:16:41,827 --> 00:16:43,413
to spend time
with their father,

296
00:16:46,275 --> 00:16:47,965
so she gives David permission

297
00:16:47,965 --> 00:16:51,931
to take the three daughters
on a trip to Disney World,

298
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,655
even though Lenore
is also going.

299
00:16:55,620 --> 00:16:58,586
It was supposed to be
a two-week trip.

300
00:16:58,586 --> 00:17:00,379
-Christine called
the oldest daughter

301
00:17:00,379 --> 00:17:02,655
for the first couple of nights
and talked to her,

302
00:17:02,724 --> 00:17:04,965
and the girl said
she was a little tired,

303
00:17:04,965 --> 00:17:06,551
"We're doing
a lot of driving,"

304
00:17:06,620 --> 00:17:08,310
which made sense.
They were driving to Florida.

305
00:17:13,379 --> 00:17:15,724
The third night, she called...

306
00:17:19,068 --> 00:17:21,241
...and the phone kept
going to voicemail.

307
00:17:25,758 --> 00:17:27,758
She said,
"I have been calling...

308
00:17:29,965 --> 00:17:32,758
...and I can't
get ahold of the girls."

309
00:17:32,827 --> 00:17:35,724
She said, "Jeni, I don't think
the girls are coming back."

310
00:17:51,655 --> 00:17:53,586
I was the missing persons
investigator

311
00:17:53,586 --> 00:17:56,655
for New Castle County Police
in 2007.

312
00:17:56,655 --> 00:17:58,172
My first inclination was

313
00:17:58,172 --> 00:18:00,896
it was a father
taking his kids on vacation

314
00:18:01,689 --> 00:18:03,344
and they failed to return

315
00:18:03,344 --> 00:18:05,931
on the exact time they're
supposed to be returned.

316
00:18:07,379 --> 00:18:08,620
But you could tell
in her voice

317
00:18:08,689 --> 00:18:10,172
she thought
something was wrong,

318
00:18:11,379 --> 00:18:13,000
and now I'm thinking,

319
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:14,827
"Is he late coming home
from Florida,

320
00:18:14,896 --> 00:18:16,620
or did something worse happen?

321
00:18:16,689 --> 00:18:18,724
Did he just try to take off
with these children?"

322
00:18:21,137 --> 00:18:22,758
I was able to obtain
a search warrant

323
00:18:22,758 --> 00:18:24,379
for the residence
in Middletown.

324
00:18:24,379 --> 00:18:25,655
It was vacant,

325
00:18:25,655 --> 00:18:28,793
which was very unusual to me
because Thomas lived there.

326
00:18:29,793 --> 00:18:31,862
The house, for somebody
who's an eye doctor

327
00:18:31,862 --> 00:18:34,793
was very disheveled
from the outside alone.

328
00:18:34,793 --> 00:18:37,689
We didn't have a key.
We had to force entry
into the house.

329
00:18:44,758 --> 00:18:46,827
There was just
a bunch of trash.

330
00:18:48,068 --> 00:18:50,172
The most interesting
thing I found

331
00:18:50,172 --> 00:18:52,103
is when I went
to the fireplace

332
00:18:52,896 --> 00:18:54,344
and it was nothing but ashes,

333
00:18:54,344 --> 00:18:57,448
except the only thing
that did not burn

334
00:18:57,448 --> 00:19:00,241
was David and Christine's
divorce papers.

335
00:19:01,482 --> 00:19:04,586
There was
something bitter with this.
You could tell.

336
00:19:06,689 --> 00:19:10,137
At that point, we figured
it was a full on abduction.

337
00:19:12,379 --> 00:19:13,965
The number one thing
that concerned us,

338
00:19:13,965 --> 00:19:16,724
he had over a two-week
head start on us.

339
00:19:18,172 --> 00:19:20,827
The children's mother
reported them missing.

340
00:19:20,896 --> 00:19:22,827
Law enforcement
have determined

341
00:19:22,896 --> 00:19:27,517
Matusiewicz got away in an RV
with his mother Lenore.

342
00:19:27,586 --> 00:19:30,172
The thing about people
doing crazy things,

343
00:19:30,172 --> 00:19:32,034
you don't think about
a solid citizen

344
00:19:32,034 --> 00:19:33,482
running away from their house.

345
00:19:33,482 --> 00:19:34,793
He had a nice house.

346
00:19:34,793 --> 00:19:36,896
He had a very
successful practice.

347
00:19:36,896 --> 00:19:39,689
So it never occurred to me

348
00:19:39,689 --> 00:19:42,241
and probably, presumably,
never occurred to Chris

349
00:19:42,241 --> 00:19:45,551
that these boxes were
things he was packing

350
00:19:45,551 --> 00:19:46,827
to get out of there.

351
00:19:47,137 --> 00:19:48,275
He's not a vagrant.

352
00:19:48,275 --> 00:19:49,931
He's not a drifter.

353
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:51,689
He's not a drug dealer.

354
00:19:51,689 --> 00:19:54,137
He's not a fugitive from law.

355
00:19:54,137 --> 00:19:57,689
He didn't have the profile for
somebody who'd cut and run.

356
00:19:59,689 --> 00:20:01,862
We started pulling
credit card information

357
00:20:01,862 --> 00:20:04,172
and the last of anything
we could find

358
00:20:04,896 --> 00:20:06,448
was in North Carolina
where they stopped

359
00:20:06,448 --> 00:20:08,482
and got fuel
with a credit card.

360
00:20:11,034 --> 00:20:12,896
From that
point forward,

361
00:20:12,896 --> 00:20:15,517
there were zero transactions
on that credit card,

362
00:20:15,586 --> 00:20:17,931
there were zero
ATM withdrawals,

363
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:20,793
there was no financial trail
for us to look at

364
00:20:20,793 --> 00:20:22,793
to try and determine
where they went.

365
00:20:23,482 --> 00:20:26,000
It's not making
a lot of sense to me.

366
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,379
Then I end up
catching a break.

367
00:20:29,379 --> 00:20:31,379
Prior to departing Delaware,

368
00:20:31,379 --> 00:20:33,482
David took a lot of steps

369
00:20:33,482 --> 00:20:36,413
to liquidate a lot of assets.

370
00:20:36,482 --> 00:20:39,000
He had a very successful
optometry business.

371
00:20:39,068 --> 00:20:41,689
He sold that business
for a profit.

372
00:20:41,689 --> 00:20:44,586
He cashed out his individual
retirement account, his IRA,

373
00:20:45,655 --> 00:20:47,862
and then committed
wire and bank fraud

374
00:20:47,862 --> 00:20:50,586
by doing an illegal refinance

375
00:20:50,586 --> 00:20:53,931
of the home that he owned
in Middletown, Delaware.

376
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,000
So when the bank got upset,
the FBI got interested.

377
00:21:00,068 --> 00:21:03,724
David had upwards of
a million dollars in cash
when he took off.

378
00:21:04,482 --> 00:21:06,000
I know,
from my experience,

379
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:07,689
that someone with
a million dollars of cash

380
00:21:07,689 --> 00:21:09,482
is extremely difficult
to track.

381
00:21:11,482 --> 00:21:15,758
We had no idea where
this guy was running to.

382
00:21:15,758 --> 00:21:17,517
I was starting
to fear for these kids.

383
00:21:17,586 --> 00:21:19,724
The outcome could not be good
if we don't find them,

384
00:21:19,793 --> 00:21:21,310
and find them
as fast as we can.

385
00:21:23,137 --> 00:21:26,310
One thing that I've learned
as a fugitive investigator,

386
00:21:26,379 --> 00:21:29,000
for the most part,
people are creatures of habit.

387
00:21:29,068 --> 00:21:31,000
So we were trying
to interview people
that we thought

388
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,896
maybe David would reach out to
or keep in contact with.

389
00:21:35,482 --> 00:21:39,827
Investigators
start by reaching out
to David's sister, Amy.

390
00:21:40,793 --> 00:21:43,344
Myself and the marshals,
we drove over to New Jersey

391
00:21:43,344 --> 00:21:45,068
and met Amy face to face,

392
00:21:45,068 --> 00:21:46,896
and she gave
the similar type answers.

393
00:21:46,896 --> 00:21:48,379
Didn't know
how they got there,

394
00:21:48,379 --> 00:21:50,000
wasn't concerned about them.

395
00:22:03,137 --> 00:22:04,758
I was trying
to explain to her that,

396
00:22:04,758 --> 00:22:08,241
while she loves her brother
and she wants to protect him,

397
00:22:08,793 --> 00:22:10,724
she also has three nieces

398
00:22:10,793 --> 00:22:12,000
that she needs
to look out for.

399
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:13,689
I thought she was
ready to break

400
00:22:13,689 --> 00:22:15,724
and tell me
what I needed to know,

401
00:22:16,034 --> 00:22:17,344
and then very quickly,

402
00:22:17,344 --> 00:22:19,827
she composed herself,

403
00:22:20,689 --> 00:22:22,586
became a stone,

404
00:22:22,586 --> 00:22:24,310
and gave us nothing else.

405
00:22:26,241 --> 00:22:30,000
Next,
detectives tracked down
David's dad Tom,

406
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:32,344
who now lives
in Smyrna, Delaware.

407
00:22:32,344 --> 00:22:34,034
His answers were really vague.

408
00:22:34,034 --> 00:22:35,793
He didn't know
how they got to Florida,

409
00:22:35,793 --> 00:22:37,310
didn't know when
they were coming back.

410
00:22:37,379 --> 00:22:38,586
A lot of didn't knows.

411
00:22:38,586 --> 00:22:42,310
Now, we're talking
a month or two into this case.

412
00:22:42,379 --> 00:22:45,000
Had had no concern at all
about where his wife,

413
00:22:45,068 --> 00:22:47,172
son and grandkids were,

414
00:22:47,172 --> 00:22:48,482
and that part didn't sell.

415
00:22:49,793 --> 00:22:51,965
At that point, in my mind,

416
00:22:51,965 --> 00:22:53,241
I was thinking,
"You're complicit in this."

417
00:22:53,241 --> 00:22:55,000
You could tell
that this family,

418
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,655
A, they were smarter
than everybody else,

419
00:22:57,655 --> 00:22:59,793
B, they were
kind of narcissistic.

420
00:23:01,103 --> 00:23:03,310
Lenore thought
she's the only one

421
00:23:03,379 --> 00:23:04,620
who could raise these kids.

422
00:23:04,689 --> 00:23:05,965
That was her mindset.

423
00:23:05,965 --> 00:23:07,965
You know, obviously,
David it was her son,

424
00:23:07,965 --> 00:23:10,068
and she's gonna
stick with her son
through thick and thin,

425
00:23:10,068 --> 00:23:14,241
so, "If it takes us
grabbing a Winnebago
and taking off

426
00:23:14,241 --> 00:23:16,724
so Christine can't have 'em,
we're gonna do it,"

427
00:23:18,379 --> 00:23:21,068
and it was as much as her plan
as it was David's.

428
00:23:26,586 --> 00:23:28,275
I never saw Christine cry,

429
00:23:29,344 --> 00:23:31,551
but as time went on,

430
00:23:31,551 --> 00:23:33,517
she would become
more and more worried.

431
00:23:35,103 --> 00:23:38,137
Her biggest concern
was that she would
never see them again.

432
00:23:42,034 --> 00:23:43,724
During the course
of the investigation,

433
00:23:43,793 --> 00:23:47,517
we learned that Thomas
moved from Smyrna, Delaware,

434
00:23:47,586 --> 00:23:48,896
to Edcouch, Texas.

435
00:23:50,793 --> 00:23:54,551
Initially, it was just
Thomas living there.

436
00:23:54,551 --> 00:23:56,517
A ranch style home

437
00:23:56,586 --> 00:23:59,137
with a small bit of land
around it,

438
00:23:59,137 --> 00:24:01,689
pretty close
to the southern border,

439
00:24:01,689 --> 00:24:02,965
but then later,

440
00:24:02,965 --> 00:24:06,000
Amy ended up moving
to that same location.

441
00:24:06,689 --> 00:24:08,517
So I reached out
to our office in Texas

442
00:24:08,586 --> 00:24:11,000
and I asked them
to help me out with confirming

443
00:24:11,068 --> 00:24:14,482
that David and the three girls
are nowhere in that area.

444
00:24:18,551 --> 00:24:22,000
Weeks are going by.
They're spending significant
amount of time...

445
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:24,413
...checking on that property,

446
00:24:24,413 --> 00:24:27,310
researching,
interviewing people,
things of that nature,

447
00:24:28,793 --> 00:24:30,068
with no results.

448
00:24:31,379 --> 00:24:32,793
Becoming extremely frustrated.

449
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:40,206
And then
a grim discovery

450
00:24:41,482 --> 00:24:45,482
leads investigators
to another location in Texas.

451
00:24:46,068 --> 00:24:48,517
Galveston, Texas,
Police Department

452
00:24:48,586 --> 00:24:51,379
found a deceased
two-year-old child

453
00:24:51,379 --> 00:24:52,827
in the Galveston Bay.

454
00:25:02,482 --> 00:25:04,862
Christine Belford is in agony.

455
00:25:04,862 --> 00:25:06,896
Her ex-husband,
David Matusiewicz,

456
00:25:06,896 --> 00:25:08,310
and David's mother Lenore,

457
00:25:08,379 --> 00:25:10,586
have abducted
her three young daughters.

458
00:25:10,586 --> 00:25:14,103
Now a two year old's body
is found in the Galveston Bay,

459
00:25:14,103 --> 00:25:16,310
leaving the mother
to fear the worst.

460
00:25:20,379 --> 00:25:24,931
I get a call
from the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children.

461
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,896
They requested me
to get hold of Christine

462
00:25:27,896 --> 00:25:30,379
and get a DNA sample,

463
00:25:32,275 --> 00:25:34,931
and so I had to call Christine

464
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:36,517
tell her why I needed one.

465
00:25:37,379 --> 00:25:39,275
She had to wait

466
00:25:39,275 --> 00:25:42,689
to find out if that was
her youngest child.

467
00:25:45,586 --> 00:25:49,137
That was one of
the hardest things I've done
in all my years.

468
00:25:49,137 --> 00:25:52,068
You know, I've been around
murderers and all that.

469
00:25:52,482 --> 00:25:53,724
That was tough.

470
00:25:57,172 --> 00:25:58,931
But thankfully,
it was not heraldry.

471
00:25:59,965 --> 00:26:01,862
Tragically, that little girl

472
00:26:01,862 --> 00:26:04,620
turns out to be
Riley Ann Sawyers,

473
00:26:04,689 --> 00:26:07,896
who'd been killed
by her mother
and her mother's boyfriend.

474
00:26:07,896 --> 00:26:09,862
I think those things

475
00:26:09,862 --> 00:26:12,827
brought that
into her mind, like,

476
00:26:12,896 --> 00:26:14,551
"Maybe he would
harm the girls,"

477
00:26:14,551 --> 00:26:17,413
and that became
her biggest concern,

478
00:26:18,034 --> 00:26:19,413
that they would kill them.

479
00:26:30,379 --> 00:26:33,000
Christine said she couldn't
even go into stores

480
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,379
'cause she would just
remember being with the girls.

481
00:26:35,379 --> 00:26:38,310
She couldn't watch a TV show
with children in it.

482
00:26:38,379 --> 00:26:41,103
She was fully focused
on finding them,

483
00:26:41,103 --> 00:26:43,931
like any mom would.
You know, the flyers.

484
00:26:51,689 --> 00:26:54,379
She was just distraught.

485
00:26:55,275 --> 00:26:56,758
I told Christine that,
you know,

486
00:26:56,758 --> 00:26:59,551
I'm gonna do
everything in my power
to find her daughters.

487
00:26:59,551 --> 00:27:03,068
It's what police officers do,
you know?

488
00:27:05,172 --> 00:27:07,275
I'm trying to figure out
how I can generate new leads,

489
00:27:07,275 --> 00:27:09,724
another angle to take.

490
00:27:09,793 --> 00:27:12,103
I started focusing in
more on Amy.

491
00:27:12,103 --> 00:27:16,620
I need to know,
if she is in touch with David,

492
00:27:16,965 --> 00:27:18,413
how are they talking?

493
00:27:19,379 --> 00:27:21,103
I went to
the state AG's office

494
00:27:21,103 --> 00:27:23,034
for subpoenas
and court orders,

495
00:27:23,034 --> 00:27:27,551
and that response
is a half a ream of paper
of records.

496
00:27:27,551 --> 00:27:29,000
It's a needle in a haystack.

497
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,482
I'm trying to find
that one piece of information

498
00:27:32,482 --> 00:27:34,206
that will be my next lead,

499
00:27:35,482 --> 00:27:38,137
and what that
ended up being was

500
00:27:40,103 --> 00:27:43,620
a call that came
out of Panama to Amy,

501
00:27:44,793 --> 00:27:48,137
and when I started
to do a little bit of
research on that,

502
00:27:49,137 --> 00:27:51,965
it turns out to be
a hotel in Panama.

503
00:27:51,965 --> 00:27:54,689
That gave me the indication
that there was potential

504
00:27:54,689 --> 00:27:57,379
that David and the three girls
were in Panama.

505
00:28:04,551 --> 00:28:06,379
Well, now,
what do I do with that?

506
00:28:06,379 --> 00:28:08,655
Since that's
a foreign country,

507
00:28:08,655 --> 00:28:10,172
I have no jurisdiction there.

508
00:28:11,586 --> 00:28:16,068
The Marshals Service has
a diplomatic Security Service
liaison agent...

509
00:28:16,068 --> 00:28:18,344
...so I reached out and said,

510
00:28:18,344 --> 00:28:21,000
"I need someone
to go over to this hotel

511
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,000
and just to get an idea
as to how this occurred."

512
00:28:24,793 --> 00:28:27,068
Unfortunately,
everything at that point

513
00:28:27,068 --> 00:28:30,413
needed to flow through
a certain bureaucratic
red tape.

514
00:28:32,655 --> 00:28:34,827
That was a slow process.

515
00:28:36,655 --> 00:28:38,517
A couple of months,

516
00:28:38,586 --> 00:28:39,931
I still didn't hear anything.

517
00:28:42,793 --> 00:28:44,758
Things were thrown
across the office

518
00:28:44,758 --> 00:28:48,862
because I knew
what this meant to Christine

519
00:28:48,862 --> 00:28:53,172
and I had a bad feeling
about the Matusiewicz family.

520
00:28:56,103 --> 00:28:58,724
It was over a year
since this kidnapping

521
00:28:58,793 --> 00:29:03,310
before I finally
got confirmation
they were in Panama.

522
00:29:05,275 --> 00:29:07,724
David had purchased a house

523
00:29:07,793 --> 00:29:11,310
in a community where
a lot of North Americans
had settled.

524
00:29:13,275 --> 00:29:15,931
But my gut tells me
the wrong person
was interviewed

525
00:29:17,241 --> 00:29:20,758
that either was untruthful
with the investigator

526
00:29:20,758 --> 00:29:23,793
or David had
a stronger relationship

527
00:29:23,793 --> 00:29:25,724
with that person
that was interviewed.

528
00:29:25,793 --> 00:29:28,275
But whatever it was,
David was tipped off

529
00:29:28,275 --> 00:29:31,827
that we knew
they were in Panama,

530
00:29:32,689 --> 00:29:34,724
and they ended up
fleeing out of Panama.

531
00:29:35,344 --> 00:29:36,793
He still had the RV,

532
00:29:36,793 --> 00:29:40,068
had it packed
and ready to go
at a moment's notice,

533
00:29:40,068 --> 00:29:42,137
so he threw everybody
into the RV,

534
00:29:43,172 --> 00:29:44,620
and the chase was on again.

535
00:29:46,034 --> 00:29:48,000
David and Lenore
get away,

536
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,931
but investigators
are closing in
on where they are

537
00:29:52,379 --> 00:29:54,344
and who's been helping them.

538
00:29:54,344 --> 00:29:56,586
One of the things
that we were able to do

539
00:29:56,586 --> 00:29:58,310
is target an email address

540
00:29:58,379 --> 00:30:00,517
that we knew was being used
by Amy Gonzalez.

541
00:30:01,862 --> 00:30:06,000
Amy is reaching out
to the Bank of Montreal...

542
00:30:07,275 --> 00:30:10,827
...to facilitate
a wire transfer
down to Nicaragua.

543
00:30:11,586 --> 00:30:15,724
I find a RE/MAX realtor
being contacted.

544
00:30:17,137 --> 00:30:18,758
Now I'm pretty confident

545
00:30:18,758 --> 00:30:21,413
that Amy is facilitating
another purchase.

546
00:30:24,275 --> 00:30:26,241
Now I'm at a point where,

547
00:30:26,241 --> 00:30:29,896
do I go through the same thing
that I just went through

548
00:30:30,241 --> 00:30:32,517
for 16, 17 months?

549
00:30:34,172 --> 00:30:37,206
No. I can't let these girls
continue to go through that.

550
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,000
So I take a trip
to my headquarters,

551
00:30:40,068 --> 00:30:43,448
and it was a very
spirited conversation I had
with my international branch.

552
00:30:43,448 --> 00:30:46,758
I don't know what was said
to the foreign investigators,

553
00:30:46,758 --> 00:30:51,000
but the foreign investigator
that was in Nicaragua
did a fantastic job.

554
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:52,551
I couldn't have done
a better job myself.

555
00:30:52,551 --> 00:30:54,000
That investigator went out,

556
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,310
conducted the interview
with a RE/MAX agent,

557
00:30:57,137 --> 00:31:00,310
got the piece of property
that David had purchased,

558
00:31:00,379 --> 00:31:01,896
went there,

559
00:31:01,896 --> 00:31:03,793
put eyes on David...

560
00:31:03,793 --> 00:31:05,931
...put eyes on Lenore...

561
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,275
...and, more importantly,
put eyes on all three girls.

562
00:31:08,275 --> 00:31:10,586
About 11:30 pm,

563
00:31:10,586 --> 00:31:14,068
a US Marshals
and a New Castle County
police detective

564
00:31:14,068 --> 00:31:16,068
came to my door...

565
00:31:16,068 --> 00:31:19,068
...knocking on the door,
very excited. "We found them."

566
00:31:19,068 --> 00:31:23,000
And when they told me
they were in Nicaragua,
I was quite surprised.

567
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:24,448
When we went out
to Christine's house

568
00:31:24,448 --> 00:31:27,379
and told her we had
a location of children,

569
00:31:27,379 --> 00:31:30,724
she hugged me
and she was ecstatic.

570
00:31:32,862 --> 00:31:36,310
She needed to immediately
make flight arrangements
to get down there.

571
00:31:40,482 --> 00:31:42,724
Christine heads
to Nicaragua

572
00:31:42,793 --> 00:31:46,000
for what she hopes is
a reunion with her children.

573
00:31:46,068 --> 00:31:47,965
Meanwhile, local police
make sure

574
00:31:47,965 --> 00:31:51,103
David and Lenore
can't slip away again.

575
00:32:02,965 --> 00:32:05,448
They watched David leave
with the oldest daughter,

576
00:32:05,448 --> 00:32:06,724
taking her to school.

577
00:32:10,896 --> 00:32:12,482
They end up
stopping the truck,

578
00:32:14,862 --> 00:32:17,517
arresting him,
recovering the one child.

579
00:32:21,482 --> 00:32:24,413
They then have a team
that goes back to the RV.

580
00:32:24,689 --> 00:32:25,931
They arrest Lenore

581
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:27,275
and recover
the other two children.

582
00:32:27,275 --> 00:32:29,172
The three girls
were found safe

583
00:32:29,172 --> 00:32:31,034
and reunited
with their mother,

584
00:32:31,034 --> 00:32:34,137
something a New Castle County
Missing Persons detective

585
00:32:34,137 --> 00:32:36,137
had promised what happened.

586
00:32:36,137 --> 00:32:38,862
I told the mother
that I'm not gonna give up,

587
00:32:38,862 --> 00:32:40,379
so that's what we did.

588
00:32:40,379 --> 00:32:42,344
After 19 months,

589
00:32:42,344 --> 00:32:45,586
I finally have the kids
back with their mother.

590
00:32:45,586 --> 00:32:47,275
We met our objective.

591
00:32:55,172 --> 00:32:58,413
When the girls came back,
Christine was ecstatic.

592
00:32:58,482 --> 00:33:01,137
She was just
happy, happy, happy.

593
00:33:09,448 --> 00:33:11,310
The girls
were unfortunately told

594
00:33:11,379 --> 00:33:15,000
that Christine not only died

595
00:33:15,068 --> 00:33:16,827
and was no longer there,

596
00:33:16,896 --> 00:33:18,482
but that she
committed suicide.

597
00:33:20,068 --> 00:33:22,724
The girls had nothing
to run away back to,

598
00:33:22,793 --> 00:33:25,068
and there was no one
around them

599
00:33:25,068 --> 00:33:27,241
that spoke their language,

600
00:33:27,241 --> 00:33:29,000
that they could
go to for help.

601
00:33:29,068 --> 00:33:31,068
They probably fell in line
pretty easily

602
00:33:31,068 --> 00:33:32,724
just because
they felt trapped.

603
00:33:35,103 --> 00:33:38,068
When my mom did
finally bring my sisters home,

604
00:33:38,068 --> 00:33:40,000
they didn't
look like my sisters.

605
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:41,724
They were skinny.

606
00:33:42,482 --> 00:33:44,965
They looked dirty.

607
00:33:44,965 --> 00:33:47,137
They had haircuts
that Lenore had given them,

608
00:33:47,137 --> 00:33:48,620
so they all had a mullet.

609
00:33:49,655 --> 00:33:51,551
And then
the little one,

610
00:33:51,551 --> 00:33:53,965
she had the worst case
of pinkeye

611
00:33:53,965 --> 00:33:57,103
I think that I have ever seen.

612
00:33:57,103 --> 00:33:59,000
I don't know why
you would take the girls

613
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:02,000
and not want to actually
take care of them,

614
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,275
you know, mentally,
emotionally, physically.

615
00:34:05,896 --> 00:34:07,862
This gets back
to David's idea

616
00:34:07,862 --> 00:34:10,241
that these girls
are his property,

617
00:34:10,241 --> 00:34:14,448
and if he and Lenore
want them to be neglected,
then that's fine.

618
00:34:14,448 --> 00:34:17,517
He's their father. He dictates
what happens to them.

619
00:34:18,379 --> 00:34:20,896
He loves them,
but it's a very empty love.

620
00:34:23,137 --> 00:34:27,482
I visited Christine within
a week after their return.

621
00:34:27,482 --> 00:34:30,000
They all seemed happy
to be around her.

622
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,413
Literally, they were
crawling all over her,

623
00:34:32,482 --> 00:34:33,965
the house was happy,

624
00:34:33,965 --> 00:34:36,206
filled with three
laughing children,

625
00:34:36,551 --> 00:34:38,931
and it just seemed like,

626
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:44,965
"Wow, this awful story
is gonna have a happy ending,"

627
00:34:44,965 --> 00:34:48,965
and that's when, really,
the reign of terror started.

628
00:35:10,793 --> 00:35:12,724
There are
certain types of criminals

629
00:35:13,172 --> 00:35:17,413
who really are committed

630
00:35:18,034 --> 00:35:19,620
to their criminal objectives.

631
00:35:22,551 --> 00:35:26,275
The Matusiewicz family
was fueled by grievance,

632
00:35:27,482 --> 00:35:29,137
grievance at the system,

633
00:35:29,137 --> 00:35:30,517
grievance at the government,

634
00:35:30,586 --> 00:35:32,517
and grievance
at Christine Belford.

635
00:35:33,068 --> 00:35:35,413
The law is not
going to stop them.

636
00:35:35,482 --> 00:35:38,000
It may slow them down
for a while,

637
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,103
but unless they
are incapacitated...

638
00:35:40,103 --> 00:35:42,620
...it will not stop them.

639
00:35:49,379 --> 00:35:52,448
Lenore was charged
in state court

640
00:35:52,448 --> 00:35:54,448
for endangering the kids,

641
00:35:54,448 --> 00:35:57,620
and David was being
charged federally,

642
00:35:57,689 --> 00:36:00,724
with kidnapping
and with bank fraud,

643
00:36:02,137 --> 00:36:03,448
but the news of the hearing

644
00:36:03,448 --> 00:36:06,310
was the fact
that David's lawyer,

645
00:36:06,379 --> 00:36:09,793
suggested that the reason
he had fled with the children

646
00:36:09,793 --> 00:36:12,724
was that Christine
was sexually abusing them.

647
00:36:15,137 --> 00:36:18,103
Supposedly,
this make-believe abuse

648
00:36:18,103 --> 00:36:20,517
had been going on
for a long time.

649
00:36:20,586 --> 00:36:25,206
Never once had he
ever said anything about that.

650
00:36:26,758 --> 00:36:30,241
If you can make
an accusation like that
and make it stick,

651
00:36:30,586 --> 00:36:32,724
you win the case.

652
00:36:32,793 --> 00:36:35,448
I'd spoken to Thomas
and it never came up.

653
00:36:35,448 --> 00:36:39,413
I spoke to Amy in person,
and that never came up.

654
00:36:40,068 --> 00:36:41,586
As the lead investigator
on the case,

655
00:36:41,586 --> 00:36:43,172
you'd think somebody
in this family

656
00:36:43,172 --> 00:36:46,241
might wanna give me a clue
why David might be running.

657
00:36:46,241 --> 00:36:48,172
If he's using that excuse,

658
00:36:48,862 --> 00:36:50,724
why wouldn't they
get in touch with me?

659
00:36:50,793 --> 00:36:52,620
It was something
that I believe

660
00:36:52,689 --> 00:36:55,724
that Lenore cooked up
as a backup plan

661
00:36:55,793 --> 00:36:58,482
to somehow try
to justify his actions.

662
00:37:13,689 --> 00:37:15,172
Lenore telling these stories

663
00:37:15,172 --> 00:37:17,344
is a way of her
expressing the abuse

664
00:37:17,344 --> 00:37:20,034
that she suffered as a child.

665
00:37:20,034 --> 00:37:24,310
The worst type of abuse
that can happen to a child
is sexual abuse.

666
00:37:24,379 --> 00:37:27,551
Lenore never dealt
with that trauma,

667
00:37:27,551 --> 00:37:30,931
and this was her way
of trying to deal with it,

668
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:33,517
even though she would
never admit to that.

669
00:37:34,482 --> 00:37:38,586
I think Lenore, when she first
made this claim to David,

670
00:37:39,482 --> 00:37:41,689
David didn't believe it.

671
00:37:41,689 --> 00:37:44,655
However, he also
agreed with Lenore that,

672
00:37:44,655 --> 00:37:48,379
if you could convince the jury
that this happened
to the girls,

673
00:37:48,379 --> 00:37:50,758
there was no way
that they were gonna
give those back to Christine,

674
00:37:50,758 --> 00:37:52,620
and then Lenore
and David would win.

675
00:37:54,034 --> 00:37:56,758
You would think
that one would learn
their lesson that,

676
00:37:56,758 --> 00:37:59,689
"You did wrong.
You've kidnapped
these children,

677
00:37:59,689 --> 00:38:02,931
and you paid the price for
kidnapping these children,"

678
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:06,137
but Lenore, obviously,
she had no limits.

679
00:38:07,379 --> 00:38:08,758
We have
an institution

680
00:38:08,758 --> 00:38:11,482
where children at risk
in Delaware

681
00:38:11,482 --> 00:38:14,000
are interviewed
by psychologists

682
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,931
to try to ferret out
any evidence from the child

683
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:20,000
on whether they've
been abused or not.

684
00:38:20,068 --> 00:38:23,275
The girls went through
that kind of process,

685
00:38:23,275 --> 00:38:26,103
and, of course, there was no
corroborating evidence.

686
00:38:27,275 --> 00:38:29,310
These false narratives,

687
00:38:29,379 --> 00:38:33,275
it's one thing to say them
out loud in public,

688
00:38:33,275 --> 00:38:36,827
it's quite another thing
to try to prove them
in a courtroom.

689
00:38:37,689 --> 00:38:40,655
The judge took pains
to point out that,

690
00:38:40,655 --> 00:38:42,896
you know, "I find
none of this credible."

691
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,000
Both David and his mother
pleaded guilty.

692
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:48,517
They didn't want a trial.

693
00:38:48,586 --> 00:38:51,103
Lenore got 18 months
in state prison

694
00:38:51,103 --> 00:38:54,448
and David got four years
in federal prison

695
00:38:54,448 --> 00:38:59,551
on charges of parental
kidnapping and bank fraud.

696
00:38:59,551 --> 00:39:02,689
I remember my mom telling me
that they had been sentenced

697
00:39:02,689 --> 00:39:04,827
and that they were gonna
be away for a little while.

698
00:39:05,551 --> 00:39:08,517
It wasn't forever,
but it was like a...

699
00:39:08,586 --> 00:39:12,000
We could just sit and breathe
because they were gone.

700
00:39:15,586 --> 00:39:17,724
After David and Lenore
were sentenced,

701
00:39:19,172 --> 00:39:22,482
I just felt that the case
was never gonna go away.

702
00:39:23,379 --> 00:39:24,827
It was just a gut feeling.

703
00:39:25,758 --> 00:39:27,965
This is a psychotic family

704
00:39:27,965 --> 00:39:32,000
that'll do whatever they want
to meet their objective.

705
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:35,827
This was about retribution.

706
00:39:35,896 --> 00:39:37,896
This was about vengeance.

707
00:39:37,896 --> 00:39:41,620
This was about annihilating
Christine Belford

708
00:39:42,448 --> 00:39:45,965
for what she did,
in their minds,

709
00:39:45,965 --> 00:39:48,620
not just to David
but to their entire family.

710
00:39:58,758 --> 00:40:00,724
I knew my mom
was scared of them.

711
00:40:00,793 --> 00:40:02,931
She didn't have to say it.
I just knew.

712
00:40:10,241 --> 00:40:12,517
Years after David
was sentenced,

713
00:40:12,586 --> 00:40:14,655
I'm on my way into work

714
00:40:14,655 --> 00:40:17,034
and I hear across
the police radio

715
00:40:17,034 --> 00:40:20,517
that there was a shooting
in the courthouse.

716
00:40:23,758 --> 00:40:25,862
I'm in the courthouse,
in the Wilmington courthouse.

717
00:40:25,862 --> 00:40:27,758
We got shots fired here.

718
00:40:27,758 --> 00:40:30,448
I got two hit in the lobby.
Two hit in the lobby.

719
00:40:30,448 --> 00:40:32,137
I immediately
reached out to my team...

720
00:40:34,034 --> 00:40:35,448
...and asked if any of them

721
00:40:35,448 --> 00:40:37,379
could respond
down to the courthouse.

722
00:40:38,965 --> 00:40:40,793
I'm heading in that direction.

723
00:40:40,793 --> 00:40:45,827
Get there and immediately
I find Detective Shriner,

724
00:40:45,896 --> 00:40:47,724
who had been reassigned

725
00:40:47,793 --> 00:40:52,068
as the New Castle
County police liaison officer
for the courthouse.

726
00:40:52,068 --> 00:40:54,827
Detective Shriner said to me,

727
00:40:54,896 --> 00:40:57,413
"Christine's in this building
for a custody hearing."

728
00:41:00,965 --> 00:41:03,379
Even with David and Lenore
behind bars,

729
00:41:03,379 --> 00:41:07,310
the Matusiewicz family
is still dangerous,
unpredictable,

730
00:41:07,379 --> 00:41:10,000
and laser focused
on Christine and her children.

731
00:41:10,068 --> 00:41:11,482
They wanna get revenge

732
00:41:11,482 --> 00:41:13,965
by making Christine's life
a living hell,

733
00:41:13,965 --> 00:41:16,724
and take away
everything she's ever loved.

734
00:41:16,793 --> 00:41:19,000
They'll do anything
to get her out of the way,

735
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:22,000
including taking
the three girls from her
permanently.

736
00:41:36,068 --> 00:41:38,689
Lenore is in prison,
David is in prison,

737
00:41:38,689 --> 00:41:40,689
but Amy and Tom
are not in prison.

738
00:41:40,689 --> 00:41:43,551
So they still had
two people on the outside.

739
00:41:43,551 --> 00:41:46,275
The Matusiewiczes
believed that the court system

740
00:41:46,275 --> 00:41:47,310
had wronged them.

741
00:41:47,551 --> 00:41:49,068
At the same time,

742
00:41:49,068 --> 00:41:50,793
those beliefs
were being fueled

743
00:41:50,793 --> 00:41:53,517
by some of the groups
they were getting involved in.

744
00:41:54,965 --> 00:41:58,103
Tom,
from an early age,

745
00:41:58,103 --> 00:42:01,000
felt like the world did
not give him what he deserved,

746
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:03,448
and so he went seeking
answers elsewhere.

747
00:42:03,448 --> 00:42:04,379
And that's when he found

748
00:42:04,379 --> 00:42:06,275
the sovereign
citizenship movement.

749
00:42:08,068 --> 00:42:10,482
This is an
anti-government group.

750
00:42:12,862 --> 00:42:16,724
It does not recognize the
authority of the government

751
00:42:16,793 --> 00:42:18,310
to govern its citizens.

752
00:42:18,379 --> 00:42:20,793
So they don't believe
that they have to follow

753
00:42:20,793 --> 00:42:24,275
the same laws
that citizens would follow.

754
00:42:24,275 --> 00:42:26,758
They feel like the best thing
that they could possibly do

755
00:42:26,758 --> 00:42:28,931
is take matters
into their own hands.

756
00:42:30,482 --> 00:42:33,000
Lenore doesn't let
prison bars stop her

757
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,620
from escalating her vicious
campaign against Christine.

758
00:42:38,103 --> 00:42:41,689
She began
writing the false narrative

759
00:42:42,482 --> 00:42:45,758
that would become the story
that they would tell

760
00:42:45,758 --> 00:42:49,827
over and over
and over again for years

761
00:42:49,896 --> 00:42:51,758
in an effort
to destroy Christine

762
00:42:51,758 --> 00:42:54,689
and repossess the girls.

763
00:42:54,689 --> 00:42:57,551
When you tell a lie
so many times,

764
00:42:57,551 --> 00:43:00,586
the lie becomes
a reality in your brain.

765
00:43:01,068 --> 00:43:02,344
She started that

766
00:43:02,344 --> 00:43:05,620
as a way to save
her grandchildren, right?

767
00:43:05,689 --> 00:43:07,000
Because I think
she really did feel

768
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:08,793
like she was a better mother
than Christine

769
00:43:08,793 --> 00:43:11,310
and her and David knew
what was best for the girls.

770
00:43:12,689 --> 00:43:16,448
David's got access to email,
and he emails Amy

771
00:43:16,448 --> 00:43:19,724
and says, "Hey,
no more Mr. Nice Guy.

772
00:43:21,482 --> 00:43:24,931
I want you to do whatever
you can to spread the word

773
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,517
that she had sexually abused
these children."

774
00:43:29,586 --> 00:43:33,310
Amy Gonzalez
was the dutiful sister,

775
00:43:33,379 --> 00:43:35,172
daughter and communicator.

776
00:43:35,172 --> 00:43:37,827
She really functioned
within the conspiracy

777
00:43:38,896 --> 00:43:41,551
as sort of
the communications hub,

778
00:43:41,551 --> 00:43:44,379
the person who connected
different people online,

779
00:43:45,482 --> 00:43:48,793
the person who
moved different tactics

780
00:43:48,793 --> 00:43:51,931
or conduct they
were engaging in forward.

781
00:43:53,137 --> 00:43:56,000
In Amy's mind,
her mother has always been

782
00:43:56,068 --> 00:43:59,000
somebody that she's wanted
and needed affection from.

783
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:01,689
So when Lenore goes to Amy
and asks Amy,

784
00:44:01,689 --> 00:44:04,103
"Hey, can you set up a website

785
00:44:04,103 --> 00:44:06,655
that explains
all of these different things

786
00:44:06,655 --> 00:44:08,310
that I think
happened to the girls?"

787
00:44:09,689 --> 00:44:13,413
So Amy views her as
almost a god, in some ways.

788
00:44:13,482 --> 00:44:15,344
She's going to do what
her mother asks her to do

789
00:44:15,344 --> 00:44:16,620
to get that praise.

790
00:44:18,103 --> 00:44:19,689
The next thing that happened

791
00:44:20,275 --> 00:44:22,482
is they created this website

792
00:44:22,482 --> 00:44:25,793
called Grandmother's
Impossible Choice.

793
00:44:25,793 --> 00:44:27,896
The impossible choice being

794
00:44:27,896 --> 00:44:31,379
"Do I take my grandchildren
away from their mother

795
00:44:31,379 --> 00:44:34,724
and leave my family behind
and flee the country

796
00:44:34,793 --> 00:44:37,137
to save them
from sexual abuse or not?"

797
00:44:37,137 --> 00:44:39,310
Some of the allegations
on the website

798
00:44:39,379 --> 00:44:42,724
talked about
Christine telling Lenore

799
00:44:43,068 --> 00:44:45,482
that she can get $50,000

800
00:44:45,482 --> 00:44:47,827
for each one of David's
little blonde girls,

801
00:44:47,896 --> 00:44:49,896
and she's going to be
happy to do it,

802
00:44:49,896 --> 00:44:53,000
and that they found the
rap sheet of a child predator

803
00:44:53,068 --> 00:44:54,344
under her bed.

804
00:44:54,344 --> 00:44:56,931
It's all these
crazy allegations.

805
00:44:57,689 --> 00:44:59,172
It doesn't
take a leap of logic

806
00:44:59,172 --> 00:45:01,241
to think this
was the plan all along

807
00:45:01,241 --> 00:45:02,586
to get custody.

808
00:45:03,241 --> 00:45:05,655
Lenore would embellish,

809
00:45:05,655 --> 00:45:08,862
and then other family members
would add to the embellishment

810
00:45:08,862 --> 00:45:10,517
with their own embellishment,

811
00:45:10,586 --> 00:45:14,000
and the story
became more outlandish

812
00:45:14,068 --> 00:45:15,620
in terms of the allegations.

813
00:45:15,689 --> 00:45:18,137
And some of those allegations
included things like

814
00:45:18,137 --> 00:45:19,482
"We knew something was wrong

815
00:45:19,482 --> 00:45:21,000
when the oldest daughter said

816
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:23,000
Mommy told her about
the G-spot.

817
00:45:24,655 --> 00:45:26,241
And she had
to do things to Mommy

818
00:45:26,241 --> 00:45:27,827
to make Mommy feel good."

819
00:45:29,379 --> 00:45:31,482
I would rather someone
call me a murderer

820
00:45:31,482 --> 00:45:33,724
than call me
a sexual predator.

821
00:45:34,793 --> 00:45:37,620
I mean, they know
that that's the worst thing

822
00:45:37,689 --> 00:45:38,793
that you can say.

823
00:45:40,137 --> 00:45:42,413
In September 2010,

824
00:45:42,482 --> 00:45:44,862
Lenore is released from
prison early

825
00:45:44,862 --> 00:45:47,517
after serving only 12 months.

826
00:45:48,689 --> 00:45:50,827
Days after she gets out,

827
00:45:50,896 --> 00:45:53,724
the attacks against Christine
escalate.

828
00:45:55,965 --> 00:46:00,103
The family had really launched
this coordinated campaign

829
00:46:00,103 --> 00:46:02,413
to tar and feather Christine.

830
00:46:04,137 --> 00:46:06,931
Lots of people had been
getting handwritten letters.

831
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:08,620
They papered the town
with them.

832
00:46:09,241 --> 00:46:10,655
Her neighbors got them.

833
00:46:10,655 --> 00:46:11,931
The schools got them.

834
00:46:12,379 --> 00:46:14,620
The doctors' offices got them.

835
00:46:14,689 --> 00:46:16,482
Christine said,
"It's not true,

836
00:46:16,482 --> 00:46:18,482
and I can't do
anything about it."

837
00:46:29,965 --> 00:46:33,137
Christine just seemed
almost numb to it.

838
00:46:34,793 --> 00:46:39,344
This idea of
harassing Christine

839
00:46:39,344 --> 00:46:41,551
was designed
to get her to give up,

840
00:46:41,551 --> 00:46:43,827
to remove herself
from the situation,

841
00:46:43,896 --> 00:46:45,862
maybe by suicide.

842
00:46:45,862 --> 00:46:48,931
Maybe just to give them
custody of the children.

843
00:47:02,241 --> 00:47:03,103
They were watching her.

844
00:47:03,103 --> 00:47:04,000
They knew where she was

845
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:06,000
and they were
predicting her moves

846
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:07,034
and they were just...

847
00:47:07,034 --> 00:47:09,517
just making her life
very, very difficult.

848
00:47:10,689 --> 00:47:12,068
My mom wasn't in contact

849
00:47:12,068 --> 00:47:15,310
with anybody
from the Matusiewicz family,

850
00:47:15,379 --> 00:47:18,551
but we would actually
get cards in the mail from Amy

851
00:47:18,551 --> 00:47:21,896
for all holidays
and the girls' birthdays.

852
00:47:21,896 --> 00:47:24,793
It was scary because it meant
she knew where we were.

853
00:47:28,379 --> 00:47:30,689
I have relatives
that send me greeting cards

854
00:47:30,689 --> 00:47:31,862
for holidays and stuff,

855
00:47:31,862 --> 00:47:35,827
but nowhere near to the volume
that Amy was sending

856
00:47:35,896 --> 00:47:38,413
communication
to these children.

857
00:47:38,482 --> 00:47:41,689
They sent my boyfriend a card
when our daughter was born,

858
00:47:41,689 --> 00:47:44,689
saying that every baby's birth
deserves to be celebrated,

859
00:47:45,068 --> 00:47:47,034
with a $5 check.

860
00:47:47,034 --> 00:47:50,724
I don't know how they knew
that I was even pregnant.

861
00:47:50,793 --> 00:47:52,413
They're always
around every corner.

862
00:47:52,482 --> 00:47:53,896
They know what you're doing.

863
00:47:55,344 --> 00:47:57,000
What makes them so scary

864
00:47:57,000 --> 00:47:59,586
is just knowing that
they're not going to stop.

865
00:47:59,586 --> 00:48:02,034
Christine had made
serious efforts to stop it.

866
00:48:02,034 --> 00:48:04,000
We found a copy of a letter

867
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:08,379
that she had sent
to Amy and her parents,

868
00:48:08,379 --> 00:48:11,896
requesting that they stop
sending the cards

869
00:48:11,896 --> 00:48:13,827
and the letters.

870
00:48:13,896 --> 00:48:16,137
It didn't work.
They continued to come.

871
00:48:16,137 --> 00:48:17,724
Christine even went so far

872
00:48:17,793 --> 00:48:20,482
as to speak
to the victim's advocate

873
00:48:20,482 --> 00:48:23,000
at the US Attorney's Office
here in Wilmington

874
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:25,517
and expressed her concerns
about what had happened.

875
00:48:45,103 --> 00:48:47,482
So my mom
still tried to update David

876
00:48:47,482 --> 00:48:48,551
about the girls

877
00:48:48,551 --> 00:48:51,137
and let them know things
that they were doing.

878
00:48:51,137 --> 00:48:53,517
She was trying
to meet him halfway.

879
00:48:54,862 --> 00:48:58,724
But eventually she wanted
to cut off all contact

880
00:48:58,793 --> 00:49:01,413
between David
and the children.

881
00:49:02,862 --> 00:49:07,275
So we filed a petition for
termination of parole rights.

882
00:49:07,275 --> 00:49:11,172
Once the parental connection
is severed by the law,

883
00:49:11,172 --> 00:49:14,655
then the grandparents
and the aunt,

884
00:49:14,655 --> 00:49:17,172
they're no longer legally
array to the children.

885
00:49:19,896 --> 00:49:22,137
Once she fought back

886
00:49:22,137 --> 00:49:24,000
and terminated
their parental rights

887
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:25,827
in a family court proceeding,

888
00:49:26,793 --> 00:49:30,620
they escalated
beyond harassment.

889
00:49:49,551 --> 00:49:53,206
As the Matusiewiczes
build out their scheme,

890
00:49:54,068 --> 00:49:56,482
they clearly understood
that they were going to need

891
00:49:56,482 --> 00:49:57,620
to involve other people.

892
00:49:59,137 --> 00:50:02,655
So they were finding people
who were sympathetic

893
00:50:02,655 --> 00:50:04,344
because they believed...

894
00:50:05,448 --> 00:50:06,379
they were going to be part

895
00:50:06,379 --> 00:50:09,275
of helping
protect these children.

896
00:50:09,275 --> 00:50:15,689
I'm not really sure
how a family that was so crazy

897
00:50:15,689 --> 00:50:19,793
was able to lure all of these
people into their scheme.

898
00:50:21,379 --> 00:50:22,586
High-school sweethearts,

899
00:50:22,586 --> 00:50:25,448
people who were school
teachers from their childhood.

900
00:50:25,448 --> 00:50:29,586
They included past friends
of the family,

901
00:50:29,586 --> 00:50:32,551
as well as perfect strangers
who got to know them,

902
00:50:32,551 --> 00:50:34,068
in one way or another,

903
00:50:34,068 --> 00:50:36,000
and just
thought they were helping

904
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:38,724
do something good to
protect children.

905
00:50:38,724 --> 00:50:42,137
One of the characters
who emerged was Cindy Bender.

906
00:50:42,137 --> 00:50:45,862
Cindy had befriended
Christine online,

907
00:50:45,862 --> 00:50:47,413
and expressed sympathy for her

908
00:50:47,413 --> 00:50:49,517
and explained
that she had grown up

909
00:50:49,517 --> 00:50:53,000
in the same town
with the Matusiewiczes.

910
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:55,862
She just wanted to make sure
my mom was okay

911
00:50:55,862 --> 00:50:56,965
and check in on the girls.

912
00:50:56,965 --> 00:50:59,275
And my mom thought
she was just being friendly.

913
00:50:59,275 --> 00:51:01,965
And they would send emails
back and forth and pictures.

914
00:51:01,965 --> 00:51:07,000
What Christine didn't realize
is that David had email access

915
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:08,586
while he was in federal prison

916
00:51:08,586 --> 00:51:11,241
and had been communicating
with Cindy Bender.

917
00:51:12,482 --> 00:51:15,517
David Matusiewicz was
a high-school
sweetheart of hers.

918
00:51:16,172 --> 00:51:20,206
What Cindy did
is she acted as a spy.

919
00:51:21,655 --> 00:51:25,034
She would feed David
information she was getting

920
00:51:25,034 --> 00:51:27,896
from Christine's
private Facebook account,

921
00:51:27,896 --> 00:51:30,344
pictures of the girls,
things they were doing,

922
00:51:31,206 --> 00:51:34,275
what was going on
in Christine's personal life,

923
00:51:34,275 --> 00:51:37,620
that he could use in
their stalking campaign.

924
00:51:39,517 --> 00:51:43,103
I would describe Cindy Bender
as a double agent.

925
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:48,517
Christine was
hyper-vigilant, I would say,

926
00:51:48,517 --> 00:51:51,000
very aware of what was
going on around her.

927
00:51:51,068 --> 00:51:53,275
She wanted to know
where her kids were.

928
00:51:53,275 --> 00:51:54,827
If they went outside to play,

929
00:51:54,827 --> 00:51:56,793
they had to have an adult
with them all the time.

930
00:51:56,793 --> 00:52:00,068
We actually got cameras
on the outside of her house

931
00:52:00,137 --> 00:52:01,965
and the monitor was
in her bedroom,

932
00:52:01,965 --> 00:52:04,000
and it just ran
and you could watch them.

933
00:52:04,655 --> 00:52:06,551
We also got
three German shepherds.

934
00:52:07,482 --> 00:52:09,413
This house was fortified.

935
00:52:09,413 --> 00:52:12,000
There was a baseball bat
beside her bed.

936
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:14,172
There was a knife
on the bedstand.

937
00:52:14,172 --> 00:52:18,000
There was a ladder
that could be deployed

938
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,103
out of an upstairs window.

939
00:52:20,103 --> 00:52:21,482
My mom had always said

940
00:52:21,482 --> 00:52:24,275
if the Matusiewiczes were to
ever come to the house

941
00:52:24,275 --> 00:52:25,793
while we were there,

942
00:52:25,793 --> 00:52:28,448
that she would try
and hold them off downstairs
as long as possible,

943
00:52:28,448 --> 00:52:29,551
and I was supposed
to help the girls

944
00:52:29,551 --> 00:52:32,551
get out of
the second story window

945
00:52:32,551 --> 00:52:34,551
then go next door
to our neighbor's house.

946
00:52:34,551 --> 00:52:36,344
He was a state trooper.

947
00:52:37,172 --> 00:52:38,344
Yeah.

948
00:52:38,344 --> 00:52:40,517
What's really heartbreaking
about the escape plan

949
00:52:40,517 --> 00:52:44,896
is that it involved Christine
sacrificing herself.

950
00:52:45,896 --> 00:52:48,551
It's a plan
that is put into action

951
00:52:48,551 --> 00:52:50,517
on one fateful afternoon.

952
00:52:53,586 --> 00:52:57,068
So while David
is still incarcerated

953
00:52:57,068 --> 00:53:00,068
and Lenore has been released,

954
00:53:00,068 --> 00:53:04,172
Lenore and Tom drove to
Delaware from Texas,

955
00:53:04,172 --> 00:53:06,517
they contacted
a private investigator,

956
00:53:06,517 --> 00:53:11,275
and asked him to escort them
to Christine's house

957
00:53:11,275 --> 00:53:14,793
under the guise
of returning a afghan

958
00:53:14,793 --> 00:53:17,517
that supposedly would have
sentimental value

959
00:53:17,517 --> 00:53:18,862
to the children.

960
00:53:18,862 --> 00:53:21,137
I was coming home
from school one day...

961
00:53:25,827 --> 00:53:28,275
and I recognized their car.

962
00:53:28,275 --> 00:53:30,275
It was the same car they had
when they had lived

963
00:53:30,275 --> 00:53:32,620
in Middletown with us
when I was younger.

964
00:53:33,482 --> 00:53:35,413
But the audacity that,

965
00:53:35,413 --> 00:53:37,586
after kidnapping
these children,

966
00:53:37,586 --> 00:53:40,620
after going to prison,

967
00:53:40,620 --> 00:53:45,241
after having
parental rights terminated,

968
00:53:45,241 --> 00:53:48,586
that they would actually go
to her front door

969
00:53:48,586 --> 00:53:50,689
is mind-boggling.

970
00:53:50,689 --> 00:53:52,896
There was no court order
that was going to keep them

971
00:53:52,896 --> 00:53:55,000
from continuing
on their mission

972
00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:56,551
to take her kids away.

973
00:53:59,413 --> 00:54:01,620
When I saw Tom, I knew
we had to get to the house

974
00:54:01,620 --> 00:54:05,034
and get the girls
and make sure they were safe.

975
00:54:05,034 --> 00:54:08,172
I was with my mom's boyfriend
and my mom was not home.

976
00:54:08,172 --> 00:54:09,551
So we locked the door

977
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:11,241
and here they came,

978
00:54:11,862 --> 00:54:14,137
Tom knocking on the door,

979
00:54:14,137 --> 00:54:17,344
saying he was just
dropping off some blankets

980
00:54:17,344 --> 00:54:20,000
that were knitted for
my sisters.

981
00:54:20,068 --> 00:54:21,551
I didn't tell my sisters
they were there.

982
00:54:24,896 --> 00:54:28,275
When Tom went
to the house that day,
he was armed.

983
00:54:30,241 --> 00:54:35,000
We can tell from Christine's
own home video surveillance

984
00:54:35,068 --> 00:54:37,620
that there was a gun
underneath his shirt.

985
00:54:37,620 --> 00:54:39,758
I personally believe
that they came

986
00:54:39,758 --> 00:54:43,000
to murder Christine Belford
that day.

987
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:45,137
I was
concerned for the girls.

988
00:54:45,137 --> 00:54:48,862
I felt like when David
got out of prison,

989
00:54:48,862 --> 00:54:51,068
that he might make
a random appearance.

990
00:54:51,068 --> 00:54:54,655
I remember my mom
talking about him
getting out of jail soon.

991
00:54:55,206 --> 00:54:56,241
She was worried.

992
00:55:02,517 --> 00:55:04,862
David gets released
from prison,

993
00:55:04,862 --> 00:55:07,000
he goes and joins his parents

994
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:09,586
at their little ranch house
in Texas,

995
00:55:10,137 --> 00:55:11,655
where Amy is living nearby.

996
00:55:11,655 --> 00:55:13,172
She's got a young child.

997
00:55:16,034 --> 00:55:17,482
And sends her an email
and says,

998
00:55:17,482 --> 00:55:21,758
"Prepare yourself to have four
children under your care."

999
00:55:21,758 --> 00:55:24,379
Does he think that he's
miraculously going to convince

1000
00:55:24,379 --> 00:55:26,482
the Delaware courts
to give him custody?

1001
00:55:27,862 --> 00:55:29,103
What does he know?

1002
00:55:30,137 --> 00:55:33,000
David was imprisoned
for two and a half years,

1003
00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:34,137
and he spent every minute

1004
00:55:34,137 --> 00:55:36,551
seething with hatred
for Christine,

1005
00:55:36,551 --> 00:55:39,517
a hatred fueled
by his mother's delusions.

1006
00:55:39,517 --> 00:55:42,896
But no matter what
the Matusiewicz family
says or does,

1007
00:55:42,896 --> 00:55:44,965
Christine never breaks.

1008
00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:46,862
Now, with David out of prison,

1009
00:55:46,862 --> 00:55:49,827
this twisted family has
an even more horrifying plan,

1010
00:55:49,827 --> 00:55:51,896
to get rid of Christine

1011
00:55:51,896 --> 00:55:55,137
and get custody of the girls
once and for all.

1012
00:56:09,241 --> 00:56:12,000
After David's
release from prison,

1013
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:14,724
he has to report to
the US probation office.

1014
00:56:14,724 --> 00:56:17,482
And the first thing
he asks for

1015
00:56:17,482 --> 00:56:19,620
is permission to travel
from Texas,

1016
00:56:19,620 --> 00:56:22,655
where he was released,
to New Jersey,

1017
00:56:22,655 --> 00:56:25,655
which happens to be
right next to Delaware.

1018
00:56:25,655 --> 00:56:28,827
He wanted to get
back here immediately.

1019
00:56:29,551 --> 00:56:32,896
But David is denied
permission to travel

1020
00:56:32,896 --> 00:56:34,862
because the probation office
had a policy

1021
00:56:34,862 --> 00:56:37,241
that nobody who was released
can leave the state

1022
00:56:37,241 --> 00:56:39,206
for at least 60 days.

1023
00:56:39,206 --> 00:56:41,689
With every tactic
that David tried

1024
00:56:41,689 --> 00:56:44,172
and was met
with either resistance

1025
00:56:44,172 --> 00:56:45,448
or was met with failure,

1026
00:56:45,448 --> 00:56:48,000
he was going to escalate it
to the next level.

1027
00:56:50,137 --> 00:56:53,551
In the fall of 2012,

1028
00:56:53,551 --> 00:56:56,379
there was a mediation
in Family Court

1029
00:56:56,379 --> 00:56:59,448
to deal with the issue
of child support.

1030
00:57:01,413 --> 00:57:04,689
He owes support
payments to Christine,

1031
00:57:04,689 --> 00:57:08,000
and he can't pay them
because he's not working.

1032
00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:11,275
There's a mediation where
he participates in by phone.

1033
00:57:11,275 --> 00:57:12,275
The mediator says,

1034
00:57:12,275 --> 00:57:15,034
"Just tell us what
you can pay per week,

1035
00:57:15,689 --> 00:57:17,724
and we can make arrangements."

1036
00:57:17,724 --> 00:57:19,758
He said he couldn't
pay any child support at all

1037
00:57:19,758 --> 00:57:21,034
because he's disabled.

1038
00:57:21,034 --> 00:57:23,103
He never said
what his disability was.

1039
00:57:25,896 --> 00:57:28,655
He understands that if
he doesn't agree to something,

1040
00:57:29,551 --> 00:57:32,000
there will have to be
a hearing before a judge.

1041
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:36,413
He wanted to have a reason
to come to Delaware.

1042
00:57:36,413 --> 00:57:39,586
Better yet, now he had
a reason to make Christine

1043
00:57:39,586 --> 00:57:42,655
come to a particular place
as well.

1044
00:57:44,172 --> 00:57:46,586
What he did not
tell the probation office

1045
00:57:46,586 --> 00:57:48,827
is that he's not coming alone.

1046
00:57:52,758 --> 00:57:55,241
Christine said,
"David wants this thing

1047
00:57:55,241 --> 00:57:56,655
and, you know,
I'm just going to go,

1048
00:57:56,655 --> 00:57:58,000
and it's going to be done,

1049
00:57:58,000 --> 00:57:59,655
and we're just going
to move on."

1050
00:58:00,931 --> 00:58:03,000
There's also
a lot of security.

1051
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:05,310
It's all keycard access.

1052
00:58:05,827 --> 00:58:07,586
So the building was safe.

1053
00:58:08,379 --> 00:58:11,482
Beth Mulford was
a family friend,

1054
00:58:11,482 --> 00:58:14,620
and she came to the court
to provide some moral support.

1055
00:58:18,034 --> 00:58:21,241
The night before court,
I remember I came downstairs

1056
00:58:21,241 --> 00:58:24,344
and, um, she was just up
and watching TV and laughing.

1057
00:58:24,724 --> 00:58:25,620
She wasn't sleeping.

1058
00:58:25,620 --> 00:58:26,517
And I asked her
what was wrong,

1059
00:58:26,517 --> 00:58:28,275
and she just
said she wasn't tired.

1060
00:58:28,620 --> 00:58:30,551
So she never let us know

1061
00:58:31,206 --> 00:58:32,551
how scared she was.

1062
00:58:33,931 --> 00:58:35,137
And I said, "How do you feel
about Monday?"

1063
00:58:35,137 --> 00:58:36,448
And she said,
"I'm scared to death,

1064
00:58:36,448 --> 00:58:38,068
but I'm going."

1065
00:58:49,034 --> 00:58:50,965
David and Tom Matusiewicz

1066
00:58:50,965 --> 00:58:53,482
had driven into Wilmington
that morning.

1067
00:58:54,448 --> 00:58:57,241
They parked in a parking
garage across the street.

1068
00:58:58,068 --> 00:58:59,793
Something unusual
about that is

1069
00:58:59,793 --> 00:59:02,413
there's a parking garage
attached to the courthouse.

1070
00:59:03,103 --> 00:59:05,103
They did not use
that parking garage.

1071
00:59:08,793 --> 00:59:11,724
They walked across the street
and went into the courthouse.

1072
00:59:17,655 --> 00:59:21,137
David got in line
for going through security.

1073
00:59:23,862 --> 00:59:25,034
Tom did not get in line.

1074
00:59:25,034 --> 00:59:28,034
He stayed outside in
the public area of the lobby.

1075
00:59:34,620 --> 00:59:35,724
According to a witness.

1076
00:59:35,724 --> 00:59:37,448
at one point, he came
back over to David,

1077
00:59:37,448 --> 00:59:38,586
they embraced.

1078
00:59:38,586 --> 00:59:41,482
Tom said, "Everything's
going to be all right."

1079
00:59:42,068 --> 00:59:43,758
However, he doesn't leave.

1080
00:59:44,793 --> 00:59:47,448
He stays in the lobby
for quite some time...

1081
01:00:02,793 --> 01:00:06,000
...until Christine Belford
and Beth Mulford arrive.

1082
01:00:13,827 --> 01:00:16,551
Both women dropped
right where they were.

1083
01:00:18,206 --> 01:00:20,206
I got two hit in the lobby.
Two hit the lobby.

1084
01:00:22,827 --> 01:00:24,827
I'm in the courthouse,
in the Wilmington Courthouse.

1085
01:00:24,827 --> 01:00:26,344
We've got shots fired here.

1086
01:00:39,965 --> 01:00:42,034
It comes across the
police radio about a shooting

1087
01:00:42,034 --> 01:00:43,896
in the New Castle County
courthouse.

1088
01:00:43,896 --> 01:00:45,137
I was only a mile away,

1089
01:00:45,137 --> 01:00:46,275
so of course I came.

1090
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:49,620
There was mass chaos.

1091
01:00:49,620 --> 01:00:51,206
There were police cars
everywhere.

1092
01:01:00,689 --> 01:01:02,344
When the shooting occurred...

1093
01:01:04,896 --> 01:01:08,000
...armed law enforcement
inside the lobby
of the courthouse

1094
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:10,586
started to return fire
on Thomas.

1095
01:01:13,275 --> 01:01:15,586
Thomas, in turn,
started to shoot at them.

1096
01:01:16,931 --> 01:01:20,103
He struck at least one of them
in their bulletproof vest.

1097
01:01:20,655 --> 01:01:22,931
But Thomas was also struck.

1098
01:01:22,931 --> 01:01:24,689
As he's trying
to make his escape

1099
01:01:24,689 --> 01:01:26,620
out the side revolving door,

1100
01:01:26,620 --> 01:01:28,620
the building
goes into lockdown.

1101
01:01:29,620 --> 01:01:31,275
And that door locks.

1102
01:01:31,275 --> 01:01:33,344
He's now stuck
in that revolving door.

1103
01:01:34,379 --> 01:01:36,172
And as a result of that,

1104
01:01:37,206 --> 01:01:39,103
he ends up
taking his own life.

1105
01:01:43,551 --> 01:01:44,931
I went inside the courthouse.

1106
01:01:44,931 --> 01:01:47,517
The first thing that hit me
was the smell of gun smoke.

1107
01:01:47,517 --> 01:01:49,586
There were two victims
on the floor.

1108
01:01:49,586 --> 01:01:51,758
One of my captains
walked up to me,

1109
01:01:52,586 --> 01:01:54,931
and he said,
"That's Christine Belford."

1110
01:01:54,931 --> 01:01:56,275
And my heart just sank.

1111
01:01:57,137 --> 01:01:59,034
It hit home real quick.

1112
01:01:59,034 --> 01:02:01,000
And at that point, I went
into policeman mode.

1113
01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:02,068
Where's David?

1114
01:02:04,172 --> 01:02:05,793
By the time
the shootout occurs,

1115
01:02:05,793 --> 01:02:08,448
David has gone
through security

1116
01:02:08,448 --> 01:02:11,034
and been cleared
to enter the courthouse.

1117
01:02:13,068 --> 01:02:15,068
I got to know some of
the family court judges

1118
01:02:15,068 --> 01:02:17,344
who worked on their
parental rights termination

1119
01:02:17,344 --> 01:02:18,517
and the divorce.

1120
01:02:18,517 --> 01:02:20,793
And I was in fear that David
was in the courthouse,

1121
01:02:20,793 --> 01:02:22,655
was going to
go looking for them.

1122
01:02:24,000 --> 01:02:25,965
Once the shooting began,

1123
01:02:28,241 --> 01:02:31,068
court personnel began
herding people into courtrooms

1124
01:02:31,068 --> 01:02:33,448
and David did end up
in that room.

1125
01:02:35,172 --> 01:02:38,137
As luck would have it,
there was a court bailiff

1126
01:02:38,137 --> 01:02:39,379
taking people's names

1127
01:02:39,379 --> 01:02:40,965
because they were all
potential witnesses

1128
01:02:40,965 --> 01:02:42,379
that may be needed later.

1129
01:02:43,206 --> 01:02:46,034
I said, "Is there
a David Matusiewicz?"

1130
01:02:47,931 --> 01:02:50,000
And he said,
"Yeah, I just had him.

1131
01:02:50,000 --> 01:02:51,586
And they just released him."

1132
01:02:53,965 --> 01:02:56,000
So we run over the elevators

1133
01:02:56,000 --> 01:02:58,344
and there's David Matusiewicz
at the base of the elevators,

1134
01:02:58,344 --> 01:03:00,896
getting ready to go out the
back door of the courthouse.

1135
01:03:00,896 --> 01:03:03,103
We yelled to him,
"David, get up here."

1136
01:03:03,103 --> 01:03:04,517
And he turned.
He turned right around

1137
01:03:04,517 --> 01:03:07,034
and walked through the crowd,
came right back upstairs.

1138
01:03:07,034 --> 01:03:09,172
He was calm,
cool and collected.

1139
01:03:09,172 --> 01:03:11,137
I told the sergeant of
our SWAT team,

1140
01:03:11,137 --> 01:03:12,689
I said,
"Put him in handcuffs."

1141
01:03:15,482 --> 01:03:19,000
The focus turned
to three Matusiewicz girls.

1142
01:03:19,000 --> 01:03:21,344
Where are they?
And are they safe?

1143
01:03:21,344 --> 01:03:24,000
The Delaware State Police
identified all three schools

1144
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:24,862
where the children were,

1145
01:03:24,862 --> 01:03:26,724
had confirmed
that they were there

1146
01:03:26,724 --> 01:03:28,724
and we had school
resource officers en route

1147
01:03:28,724 --> 01:03:31,758
to pick the kids up.

1148
01:03:31,758 --> 01:03:35,275
Investigators detain David
in an empty courtroom

1149
01:03:35,275 --> 01:03:37,206
and begin
processing the scene.

1150
01:03:38,068 --> 01:03:39,793
At the same time,

1151
01:03:39,793 --> 01:03:43,758
details about the crime
make their way to the public.

1152
01:03:43,758 --> 01:03:46,034
I remember I was
sitting there watching TV...

1153
01:03:46,034 --> 01:03:48,586
Two women were shot to death
when a gunman opened fire

1154
01:03:48,586 --> 01:03:51,000
at the New Castle County
courthouse this morning.

1155
01:03:51,000 --> 01:03:52,517
At this time,
the shooter is dead

1156
01:03:52,517 --> 01:03:55,000
and two capitol police
officers were wounded.

1157
01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:56,793
It said shooting at
the Wilmington courthouse.

1158
01:03:56,793 --> 01:04:00,206
And I said,
"Well, that's that."

1159
01:04:03,241 --> 01:04:05,413
No, no. But I just knew.

1160
01:04:08,344 --> 01:04:10,068
I knew that they
weren't going to stop.

1161
01:04:10,068 --> 01:04:11,896
And I knew that
David was there that day,

1162
01:04:11,896 --> 01:04:13,758
and my mom was there.

1163
01:04:14,275 --> 01:04:16,000
It just wasn't a coincidence.

1164
01:04:18,758 --> 01:04:21,172
I wanted to go get my sisters.

1165
01:04:21,172 --> 01:04:22,344
I wasn't allowed to get them.

1166
01:04:22,344 --> 01:04:25,034
They had already been taken
into the police station.

1167
01:04:26,275 --> 01:04:28,137
Yeah.

1168
01:04:28,137 --> 01:04:32,103
Preliminarily, this was the
result of a custody dispute

1169
01:04:32,103 --> 01:04:34,517
that has lasted
in our court system

1170
01:04:34,827 --> 01:04:36,793
for several years.

1171
01:04:39,793 --> 01:04:42,586
When I found out
that Christine was a victim,

1172
01:04:42,586 --> 01:04:44,413
it felt unbelievable to me.

1173
01:04:45,448 --> 01:04:48,103
But, at the same time,
it wasn't a surprise at all.

1174
01:04:49,793 --> 01:04:52,172
Because it was
all coming to a head.

1175
01:04:52,172 --> 01:04:55,827
After I found out that Tom had
been the one to shoot her...

1176
01:04:58,482 --> 01:05:03,206
I remembered one of the things
that Christine had said to me.

1177
01:05:03,206 --> 01:05:05,172
She said,
"Tom is an excellent shot.

1178
01:05:06,620 --> 01:05:08,586
If he wanted to kill me,
he could."

1179
01:05:13,241 --> 01:05:15,724
Christine Belford
and Beth Mulford

1180
01:05:15,724 --> 01:05:18,275
were murdered in the lobby
of the courthouse.

1181
01:05:18,275 --> 01:05:21,448
And you want to bring the
person responsible for that
to justice.

1182
01:05:21,448 --> 01:05:25,000
Well, on the surface,
that was Thomas Matusiewicz.

1183
01:05:25,000 --> 01:05:26,827
You could say,
"This is a murder-suicide.

1184
01:05:26,827 --> 01:05:29,931
We'll document it
and we walk away from it."

1185
01:05:30,413 --> 01:05:31,758
We couldn't do that.

1186
01:05:31,758 --> 01:05:33,103
Tom pulled the trigger,

1187
01:05:34,482 --> 01:05:37,620
but these women were killed
by the Matusiewicz family.

1188
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:47,689
Tom is the violent force
that runs through the family,

1189
01:05:47,689 --> 01:05:51,482
but he is very much
someone who is doing

1190
01:05:52,724 --> 01:05:57,344
what Lenore and David
have provoked him into doing.

1191
01:05:57,344 --> 01:06:02,000
We need to find Amy Gonzalez
and Lenore Matusiewicz

1192
01:06:02,000 --> 01:06:03,551
as fast as possible.

1193
01:06:16,034 --> 01:06:18,448
Now the real work starts

1194
01:06:18,448 --> 01:06:21,448
of trying to piece
all of this together.

1195
01:06:22,172 --> 01:06:24,344
I immediately start asking...

1196
01:06:24,793 --> 01:06:26,172
"Where's Lenore?"

1197
01:06:28,413 --> 01:06:31,620
I felt it was imperative
to quickly try to get

1198
01:06:31,620 --> 01:06:34,000
some type of
interview with David.

1199
01:06:34,000 --> 01:06:36,620
He eventually did invoke
his Miranda rights

1200
01:06:36,620 --> 01:06:39,000
and requested an attorney.

1201
01:06:39,000 --> 01:06:40,068
But by that time,

1202
01:06:40,068 --> 01:06:42,206
he was able to tell us
where his mother was.

1203
01:06:43,551 --> 01:06:44,896
She was in Elkton, Maryland,

1204
01:06:44,896 --> 01:06:48,586
at the residence of
David and Peggy Mitchell.

1205
01:06:48,586 --> 01:06:53,172
Mr. Mitchell was a former
employee of David Matusiewicz.

1206
01:06:53,172 --> 01:06:56,103
They had actually spent the
night before the court hearing

1207
01:06:56,103 --> 01:06:57,793
in Elkton with the Mitchells.

1208
01:06:58,586 --> 01:07:01,827
One team focuses on Lenore,

1209
01:07:01,827 --> 01:07:03,896
while the second
searches for the car

1210
01:07:03,896 --> 01:07:06,310
that David and Tom
took to the courthouse.

1211
01:07:08,793 --> 01:07:10,655
When detectives
located the car,

1212
01:07:10,655 --> 01:07:14,862
they could tell there was
a lot of items inside the car.

1213
01:07:15,275 --> 01:07:16,931
So much so that you really

1214
01:07:16,931 --> 01:07:20,896
couldn't see well
into the car.

1215
01:07:20,896 --> 01:07:25,689
So there was a concern that,
is there a bomb in this car?

1216
01:07:27,206 --> 01:07:31,000
They used a robot
to open the vehicle

1217
01:07:31,000 --> 01:07:32,896
and remove all the contents

1218
01:07:32,896 --> 01:07:35,379
before we were able
to thoroughly go through it

1219
01:07:35,724 --> 01:07:37,413
for evidentiary value.

1220
01:07:39,000 --> 01:07:43,448
What we find is
evidence that makes clear

1221
01:07:43,448 --> 01:07:44,862
that this was
not a random act,

1222
01:07:44,862 --> 01:07:45,827
that this was planned.

1223
01:07:45,827 --> 01:07:47,793
It was premeditated.

1224
01:07:47,793 --> 01:07:50,931
Bulletproof vests, handcuffs,

1225
01:07:50,931 --> 01:07:54,344
three handcuffs
in successively smaller sizes

1226
01:07:54,344 --> 01:07:55,931
down to tiny handcuffs

1227
01:07:55,931 --> 01:07:57,655
that could be put on
a small child.

1228
01:07:58,379 --> 01:08:02,379
A cattle prod
and lots of ammunition.

1229
01:08:04,827 --> 01:08:06,620
From the parking garage,

1230
01:08:06,620 --> 01:08:10,137
The investigation moves to
the house in Maryland

1231
01:08:10,137 --> 01:08:12,275
of David Matusiewicz's friend,

1232
01:08:12,275 --> 01:08:16,413
where the Matusiewiczes stayed
the night before the shooting.

1233
01:08:16,413 --> 01:08:18,551
The marshal's task force
confirmed that Lenore

1234
01:08:18,551 --> 01:08:19,862
was at the residence

1235
01:08:19,862 --> 01:08:22,896
and she willingly
came back to Delaware.

1236
01:08:22,896 --> 01:08:25,724
He asked those friends
specifically,

1237
01:08:25,724 --> 01:08:28,586
"How did Lenore react

1238
01:08:28,586 --> 01:08:30,172
to the news that
there had been a shooting

1239
01:08:30,172 --> 01:08:31,827
at the courthouse?"

1240
01:08:31,827 --> 01:08:35,034
And the answer we got

1241
01:08:35,034 --> 01:08:37,448
was not "Oh, my God,
my husband's dead.

1242
01:08:37,448 --> 01:08:39,931
Or maybe David's dead."

1243
01:08:39,931 --> 01:08:41,931
It was "We have
to get the girls now.

1244
01:08:41,931 --> 01:08:43,862
We have to go get the girls
right now."

1245
01:08:45,724 --> 01:08:47,862
They end up seeing
a car in the driveway

1246
01:08:47,862 --> 01:08:49,620
that has Texas plates on it.

1247
01:08:49,620 --> 01:08:51,034
They ask whose that is,

1248
01:08:51,034 --> 01:08:52,586
and Lenore indicates that
that's the vehicle

1249
01:08:52,586 --> 01:08:54,551
that she brought from Texas.

1250
01:08:54,551 --> 01:08:57,793
David, Lenore and Tom
drove in two cars.

1251
01:08:57,793 --> 01:09:02,241
And that other car
was full of weapons.

1252
01:09:02,241 --> 01:09:05,896
Assault rifles, handguns,
tons of ammunition,

1253
01:09:06,206 --> 01:09:08,931
gas cans, shovels.

1254
01:09:08,931 --> 01:09:12,482
Lots of stuff
that could have been used

1255
01:09:12,482 --> 01:09:15,862
for a variety of things.

1256
01:09:15,862 --> 01:09:18,931
The Matusiewiczes
likely had multiple plans

1257
01:09:18,931 --> 01:09:22,482
for how they were going
to deal with Christine Belford

1258
01:09:22,482 --> 01:09:24,000
and the girls.

1259
01:09:25,000 --> 01:09:29,896
We found a note that
Tom left for Amy.

1260
01:09:29,896 --> 01:09:32,172
It included instructions like,

1261
01:09:32,172 --> 01:09:36,103
"Amy, take my guns.
Keep them."

1262
01:09:36,931 --> 01:09:40,000
It also included
funeral instructions

1263
01:09:40,000 --> 01:09:42,034
through the VA Cemetery.

1264
01:09:42,482 --> 01:09:44,034
And he wrote,

1265
01:09:44,034 --> 01:09:46,931
"When your government
takes your granddaughters
away from you,

1266
01:09:46,931 --> 01:09:49,103
it ceases
to be your government."

1267
01:09:52,068 --> 01:09:55,931
Amy was contacted at
work in a hospital in Texas,

1268
01:09:56,137 --> 01:09:57,896
and she...

1269
01:09:57,896 --> 01:10:00,000
played like she knew
nothing about this.

1270
01:10:09,068 --> 01:10:12,379
Eventually, we executed a
search warrant at Amy's house.

1271
01:10:12,379 --> 01:10:14,172
And she had communications

1272
01:10:14,172 --> 01:10:16,482
from private investigators
in Delaware.

1273
01:10:16,482 --> 01:10:21,000
She had documents related
to the custody battle

1274
01:10:21,000 --> 01:10:23,413
for the children.

1275
01:10:23,413 --> 01:10:27,379
However, it's not enough
for authorities to charge Amy.

1276
01:10:27,827 --> 01:10:29,068
Back in Delaware,

1277
01:10:29,068 --> 01:10:31,620
investigators continue
combing through the evidence

1278
01:10:31,620 --> 01:10:33,758
from David and Tom's car.

1279
01:10:33,758 --> 01:10:37,517
They find something
that chills them to the bone.

1280
01:10:39,172 --> 01:10:41,448
Found in the vehicle
was a red notebook

1281
01:10:41,448 --> 01:10:44,724
that had all kinds of notes
that we later found out

1282
01:10:44,724 --> 01:10:46,931
was largely written by
Tom Matusiewicz.

1283
01:10:48,206 --> 01:10:51,724
I would refer to
the red notebook as an index.

1284
01:10:51,724 --> 01:10:55,793
It documented
years' worth of stalking

1285
01:10:56,586 --> 01:10:58,000
and cyberstalking.

1286
01:10:58,724 --> 01:11:01,206
A handwritten document was
located in that notebook.

1287
01:11:01,206 --> 01:11:04,758
Had the letters "HL"
at the top

1288
01:11:04,758 --> 01:11:07,000
and a list of last names.

1289
01:11:07,655 --> 01:11:09,965
Ultimately, we determined
that that "HL"

1290
01:11:09,965 --> 01:11:11,034
stood for "hit list."

1291
01:11:11,965 --> 01:11:13,655
The hit list that we found

1292
01:11:13,655 --> 01:11:16,413
included the names
of various judges

1293
01:11:16,413 --> 01:11:21,241
and lawyers and witnesses
and doctors

1294
01:11:21,241 --> 01:11:24,413
who had been involved
in the prior criminal cases

1295
01:11:24,413 --> 01:11:26,551
and in the family court
proceedings.

1296
01:11:26,551 --> 01:11:29,034
It was just a who's who
of who they felt

1297
01:11:29,034 --> 01:11:32,586
was responsible
for them losing the rights

1298
01:11:32,586 --> 01:11:35,896
to have anything to do
with the Matusiewicz girls.

1299
01:11:35,896 --> 01:11:38,517
Christine Belford's name
was on there.

1300
01:11:38,517 --> 01:11:40,758
Timothy Hitchings' name
was on there.

1301
01:11:41,965 --> 01:11:43,965
I will never forget
hearing that

1302
01:11:43,965 --> 01:11:45,517
on the phone
from the police

1303
01:11:45,517 --> 01:11:49,758
that... confirming that I was
an intended victim as well.

1304
01:11:49,758 --> 01:11:52,862
I assume they probably thought
I'd be at the courthouse.

1305
01:11:53,310 --> 01:11:56,172
You know, it's kind of spooky.

1306
01:11:56,172 --> 01:11:58,724
You know,
you think about grief

1307
01:11:58,724 --> 01:12:00,620
and you think about fear.

1308
01:12:01,275 --> 01:12:03,379
I had both of them
at the same time.

1309
01:12:03,827 --> 01:12:05,000
And I was worried.

1310
01:12:05,000 --> 01:12:07,862
I was more worried for my kids
that could be found

1311
01:12:07,862 --> 01:12:09,862
and harmed in some way.

1312
01:12:09,862 --> 01:12:12,310
And, um, that's pretty scary.

1313
01:12:15,172 --> 01:12:19,206
A conspiracy to murder
would require the state

1314
01:12:19,206 --> 01:12:26,068
to prove that Amy, David,
Lenore, and Tom agreed

1315
01:12:26,068 --> 01:12:29,034
that they were going
to kill Christine.

1316
01:12:29,896 --> 01:12:31,724
We knew it, but
we didn't have the evidence

1317
01:12:31,724 --> 01:12:33,068
to bring a murder charge.

1318
01:12:35,793 --> 01:12:40,068
Lenore, Amy,
did not simply stand down.

1319
01:12:41,068 --> 01:12:45,586
The day after the shooting,
Amy Gonzalez from Texas

1320
01:12:45,586 --> 01:12:49,275
filed a petition to assume
custody of the three girls.

1321
01:12:50,758 --> 01:12:52,068
This campaign would continue

1322
01:12:52,068 --> 01:12:54,862
regardless of
where these children were.

1323
01:12:54,862 --> 01:12:59,068
Whoever's custody they were in
was in imminent danger.

1324
01:12:59,068 --> 01:13:01,241
We can't just let
these people go free.

1325
01:13:17,137 --> 01:13:19,137
David was in custody

1326
01:13:19,137 --> 01:13:21,448
for violating
his federal probation.

1327
01:13:21,448 --> 01:13:22,862
His probation authorized him

1328
01:13:22,862 --> 01:13:25,896
to travel straight to Delaware
for his hearing

1329
01:13:25,896 --> 01:13:27,310
and straight back to Texas.

1330
01:13:27,310 --> 01:13:31,482
The fact that he had
traveled with someone

1331
01:13:31,482 --> 01:13:33,655
and the fact that he had
spent the night

1332
01:13:33,655 --> 01:13:35,344
somewhere other than Delaware,

1333
01:13:35,344 --> 01:13:38,551
that was enough
for him to be held.

1334
01:13:39,413 --> 01:13:42,000
He had been sentenced
to six months,

1335
01:13:42,000 --> 01:13:44,517
and it was in
that six-month window

1336
01:13:44,517 --> 01:13:46,620
where we had to pull

1337
01:13:46,620 --> 01:13:49,758
all of the investigative
threads together

1338
01:13:49,758 --> 01:13:51,896
and knit that into a case

1339
01:13:51,896 --> 01:13:54,413
before he would
be out on the street

1340
01:13:54,413 --> 01:13:56,103
and released.

1341
01:13:56,103 --> 01:13:58,344
Lenore and Amy, in particular,

1342
01:13:58,344 --> 01:14:00,689
continued to use the Internet

1343
01:14:00,689 --> 01:14:04,827
to propagate their false
and defamatory lies

1344
01:14:04,827 --> 01:14:07,068
about Christine Belford.

1345
01:14:07,068 --> 01:14:09,482
And they did it in a way
to try to justify

1346
01:14:09,482 --> 01:14:11,275
what had happened.

1347
01:14:11,275 --> 01:14:13,344
They didn't talk
so much about Tom,

1348
01:14:13,344 --> 01:14:14,827
other than to say,

1349
01:14:14,827 --> 01:14:15,896
"Tom had a brain tumor,

1350
01:14:15,896 --> 01:14:17,724
and that must have
caused him to do this."

1351
01:14:30,034 --> 01:14:31,275
"And he was acting alone."

1352
01:14:31,275 --> 01:14:32,965
They made that clear, right?

1353
01:14:32,965 --> 01:14:34,586
They wanted to
get that out there.

1354
01:14:44,275 --> 01:14:45,344
At that point,

1355
01:14:45,344 --> 01:14:46,931
it's clear we're not
going to get

1356
01:14:46,931 --> 01:14:48,310
to charge these people
with murder.

1357
01:14:48,310 --> 01:14:50,068
We just don't have
the evidence

1358
01:14:50,068 --> 01:14:51,931
to prove the conspiracy.

1359
01:14:51,931 --> 01:14:55,068
And with regard to Amy,
in particular,

1360
01:14:55,068 --> 01:14:57,034
she was behind a keyboard.

1361
01:14:58,172 --> 01:15:00,655
She was in Texas
when this murder occurred.

1362
01:15:00,655 --> 01:15:02,034
She wasn't even here.

1363
01:15:02,586 --> 01:15:05,103
How do you prosecute people

1364
01:15:05,103 --> 01:15:10,000
for using the Internet
to foment violence?

1365
01:15:13,482 --> 01:15:16,206
There is a statute on the
books at the federal level,

1366
01:15:16,206 --> 01:15:18,620
cyberstalking
resulting in death.

1367
01:15:18,620 --> 01:15:20,551
And it carries a possibility,

1368
01:15:20,551 --> 01:15:23,034
a possible sentence
of life without parole.

1369
01:15:24,310 --> 01:15:27,862
The holdup was
it had never been prosecuted.

1370
01:15:27,862 --> 01:15:30,137
Nobody had ever
gone to court with this.

1371
01:15:30,137 --> 01:15:32,482
It looked like it would be
a tall challenge.

1372
01:15:33,206 --> 01:15:34,758
But we have to try it.

1373
01:15:36,620 --> 01:15:39,793
The facts set forth
in the indictment
alleged that beginning

1374
01:15:39,793 --> 01:15:41,689
in December of 2009,

1375
01:15:41,689 --> 01:15:45,172
David Matusiewicz with
the assistance of his mother,

1376
01:15:45,172 --> 01:15:46,965
father, and sister,

1377
01:15:46,965 --> 01:15:49,000
orchestrated
a three-year campaign

1378
01:15:49,000 --> 01:15:52,551
designed to defame,
harass, intimidate,

1379
01:15:52,551 --> 01:15:54,758
and frighten Christine Belford
and her children.

1380
01:15:56,793 --> 01:16:00,551
The cyberstalking trial
began in June 2015.

1381
01:16:01,551 --> 01:16:03,689
I testified
on behalf of my mom

1382
01:16:03,689 --> 01:16:05,620
and how scared she was.

1383
01:16:05,620 --> 01:16:07,827
When I saw David
in the courtroom,

1384
01:16:09,413 --> 01:16:11,172
I actually started to cry.

1385
01:16:11,172 --> 01:16:13,310
It had been a long time
since I had seen him,

1386
01:16:13,310 --> 01:16:15,862
since before the girls
were actually kidnapped.

1387
01:16:17,689 --> 01:16:19,275
I tried not to look at him.

1388
01:16:19,275 --> 01:16:20,965
After I saw him
and started crying,

1389
01:16:20,965 --> 01:16:22,827
I knew that I had to
get it together.

1390
01:16:22,827 --> 01:16:25,310
And the way to do that
was not to look at David.

1391
01:16:28,379 --> 01:16:30,517
We started with
the shooting itself.

1392
01:16:31,103 --> 01:16:33,689
And then we walked
the jury through

1393
01:16:33,689 --> 01:16:35,689
everything that we found.

1394
01:16:36,310 --> 01:16:39,034
And a critical
component of that

1395
01:16:39,034 --> 01:16:42,655
was the Grandmother's
Impossible Choice website.

1396
01:16:43,689 --> 01:16:48,068
That really sort of brings
into focus their tactics

1397
01:16:48,068 --> 01:16:51,896
in using the Internet
to destroy Christine.

1398
01:16:54,931 --> 01:16:58,000
But of the more than
70 witnesses

1399
01:16:58,000 --> 01:16:59,965
who testified at the trial,

1400
01:16:59,965 --> 01:17:02,000
none were more important

1401
01:17:02,000 --> 01:17:03,965
than the oldest of
the three girls.

1402
01:17:04,724 --> 01:17:06,862
Christine's
8-year-old daughter

1403
01:17:06,862 --> 01:17:10,827
bravely takes the stand
and sets the record straight.

1404
01:17:11,310 --> 01:17:12,655
She got up there

1405
01:17:12,655 --> 01:17:15,551
and said,
"It's all a bunch of lies.

1406
01:17:15,551 --> 01:17:17,241
My mother never hurt me.

1407
01:17:17,241 --> 01:17:19,172
My mother never hurt
any of us."

1408
01:17:20,724 --> 01:17:23,793
This was the moment of truth
for the Matusiewiczes

1409
01:17:23,793 --> 01:17:27,965
as the person they were so
committed to saving

1410
01:17:27,965 --> 01:17:32,241
dismantled their falsehoods
in front of a jury.

1411
01:17:32,241 --> 01:17:35,689
This child was not going
along with the plan,

1412
01:17:35,689 --> 01:17:40,965
and they probably felt like
this was a sign of Christine,

1413
01:17:40,965 --> 01:17:42,931
one of Christine's traits
coming through

1414
01:17:42,931 --> 01:17:44,379
on this particular child.

1415
01:17:45,793 --> 01:17:47,413
In closing,

1416
01:17:47,413 --> 01:17:50,448
one of the lines
that we used for the jury

1417
01:17:50,448 --> 01:17:52,137
was to make clear

1418
01:17:52,137 --> 01:17:56,068
that they killed the person
they hated the most

1419
01:17:56,068 --> 01:17:58,137
in the place
they hated the most.

1420
01:18:01,172 --> 01:18:03,206
When Tom decided
that he was going to do

1421
01:18:03,206 --> 01:18:04,172
the courthouse shooting,

1422
01:18:04,172 --> 01:18:06,241
it was symbolic
in a couple of ways.

1423
01:18:06,241 --> 01:18:08,034
He was not only going
to take care of Christine

1424
01:18:08,034 --> 01:18:11,000
and make sure that she was not
going to get those girls,

1425
01:18:11,758 --> 01:18:13,275
but he was also going
to make his stand

1426
01:18:13,275 --> 01:18:15,862
against the government
in a government building.

1427
01:18:16,965 --> 01:18:19,413
All they needed to find
was all the hate

1428
01:18:19,413 --> 01:18:21,379
that had been built up
over the years

1429
01:18:21,379 --> 01:18:24,517
between the Matusiewicz family
against Christine Belford

1430
01:18:24,517 --> 01:18:26,551
that this was the natural
and probable outcome

1431
01:18:26,551 --> 01:18:28,000
of their actions.

1432
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:30,517
The Matusiewiczes
were each found guilty

1433
01:18:30,517 --> 01:18:32,965
of cyberstalking
resulting in death.

1434
01:18:32,965 --> 01:18:37,551
And in February 2016,
three years after the killing,

1435
01:18:38,137 --> 01:18:40,586
Amy, David, and Lenore

1436
01:18:40,586 --> 01:18:42,517
were all sentenced
to life in prison

1437
01:18:42,517 --> 01:18:44,758
without the possibility
of parole.

1438
01:18:48,344 --> 01:18:51,724
David had no reaction
to his sentence.

1439
01:18:51,724 --> 01:18:55,241
There was a real question of
whether David felt the things

1440
01:18:55,241 --> 01:18:57,034
and how he felt things.

1441
01:18:57,931 --> 01:18:59,586
Lenore Matusiewicz

1442
01:19:00,241 --> 01:19:03,137
after the trial became ill.

1443
01:19:04,793 --> 01:19:07,413
She had terminal cancer.

1444
01:19:07,413 --> 01:19:10,310
The defense wanted to
put off the sentencing,

1445
01:19:10,310 --> 01:19:13,448
and the judge said "No.
I'm going to the hospital.

1446
01:19:13,448 --> 01:19:16,000
She's going to hear her
sentence before she dies..."

1447
01:19:17,310 --> 01:19:20,517
...and sentenced her
to life imprisonment

1448
01:19:20,517 --> 01:19:22,655
on her deathbed.

1449
01:19:24,103 --> 01:19:26,413
This family has destroyed
a lot of lives.

1450
01:19:29,620 --> 01:19:33,448
Katie was like
a second mother to the girls.

1451
01:19:33,862 --> 01:19:35,275
They lost her.

1452
01:19:36,551 --> 01:19:38,206
The day of the shooting,

1453
01:19:38,206 --> 01:19:40,586
I was actually able
to go into the police station

1454
01:19:40,586 --> 01:19:43,000
and meet with my sisters
in a room.

1455
01:19:43,344 --> 01:19:44,517
My sisters were little,

1456
01:19:44,517 --> 01:19:48,620
and I don't know if they
even knew what happened yet.

1457
01:19:50,413 --> 01:19:51,862
I didn't know
it was gonna be the last time

1458
01:19:51,862 --> 01:19:53,344
that I would see them.

1459
01:19:54,620 --> 01:19:58,344
By that afternoon, those kids
were in protective custody.

1460
01:19:58,344 --> 01:20:01,931
Unfortunately, those kids will
have to be forever hidden.

1461
01:20:02,344 --> 01:20:04,103
Even into adulthood.

1462
01:20:05,103 --> 01:20:07,137
Everybody saw
how far the reach was

1463
01:20:07,137 --> 01:20:09,482
from Texas to Delaware.

1464
01:20:09,482 --> 01:20:13,827
So you don't know what kind
of contacts these people have.

1465
01:20:15,689 --> 01:20:17,448
There's always
the constant wondering.

1466
01:20:17,448 --> 01:20:18,758
Are they okay?

1467
01:20:18,758 --> 01:20:19,965
Are they together?

1468
01:20:20,379 --> 01:20:21,827
Where are they?

1469
01:20:21,827 --> 01:20:23,413
What they're doing
at that point in their life,

1470
01:20:23,413 --> 01:20:25,862
and you don't know, and...

1471
01:20:26,103 --> 01:20:27,172
It's hard.

1472
01:20:27,172 --> 01:20:30,241
My daughter
doesn't know my sisters.

1473
01:20:30,241 --> 01:20:31,586
She doesn't know
anything about

1474
01:20:31,586 --> 01:20:33,827
my mom's side of the family.

1475
01:20:34,000 --> 01:20:35,758
So...

1476
01:20:37,862 --> 01:20:40,586
It's a hard life,
living anonymously,

1477
01:20:40,586 --> 01:20:43,482
but it keeps them protected
from the twisted evils

1478
01:20:43,482 --> 01:20:47,551
this family could still
concoct from behind bars.

1479
01:20:47,551 --> 01:20:50,965
As a family, they feed
into each other's delusions.

1480
01:20:50,965 --> 01:20:53,206
They manipulate one another
to get what they want.

1481
01:20:53,206 --> 01:20:56,689
When their goals align,
such as with the girls,

1482
01:20:56,689 --> 01:20:58,793
they can do
some really scary things.

1483
01:21:00,413 --> 01:21:03,344
They moved along
a pathway of violence,

1484
01:21:03,827 --> 01:21:05,517
and they did it together.

1485
01:21:05,517 --> 01:21:07,344
They supported one another.

1486
01:21:07,344 --> 01:21:08,586
They were like-minded.

1487
01:21:11,379 --> 01:21:15,586
It took a long time before
I could go to the courthouse

1488
01:21:15,586 --> 01:21:17,448
without thinking about it.

1489
01:21:17,448 --> 01:21:20,793
Every once in a while, I get
a glimpse of somebody in the--

1490
01:21:20,793 --> 01:21:22,068
you know,
out of the corner of my eye

1491
01:21:22,068 --> 01:21:23,758
who looked--
who looked like Christine,

1492
01:21:23,758 --> 01:21:25,310
and I do a double take.

1493
01:21:26,965 --> 01:21:30,896
This case was supposed to end
on that lot in Nicaragua.

1494
01:21:30,896 --> 01:21:32,551
It wasn't supposed to end

1495
01:21:32,551 --> 01:21:34,931
with her laying
in a pool of blood

1496
01:21:34,931 --> 01:21:37,620
in the lobby
of the courthouse.

1497
01:21:37,620 --> 01:21:40,724
And it's something
I'll take to my grave

1498
01:21:40,724 --> 01:21:44,724
and just be angry about
and hurt about, and...

1499
01:21:45,310 --> 01:21:46,413
pissed off about

1500
01:21:46,413 --> 01:21:48,793
that this was not
supposed to happen.

1501
01:21:49,620 --> 01:21:51,655
I don't even want to say sick.
It's not an illness.

1502
01:21:51,655 --> 01:21:52,896
They're-- they are...

1503
01:21:54,793 --> 01:21:58,448
crazy, twisted, evil people.

1504
01:22:00,068 --> 01:22:02,068
What makes the
Matusiewicz family so scary

1505
01:22:02,068 --> 01:22:05,206
is that they are hiding
in plain sight.

1506
01:22:06,689 --> 01:22:09,482
You could fall in love
with somebody
that you don't really know

1507
01:22:09,482 --> 01:22:10,689
and...

1508
01:22:12,000 --> 01:22:14,000
end up in a situation where...

1509
01:22:21,689 --> 01:22:24,827
you cross the family
and you end up dead.

1510
01:22:27,379 --> 01:22:30,413
Christine's children are free
from David and his family,

1511
01:22:30,413 --> 01:22:32,965
but that doesn't mean
they're out of danger.

1512
01:22:32,965 --> 01:22:34,206
As they've shown,

1513
01:22:34,206 --> 01:22:37,275
the Matusiewicz family have
people all over the country

1514
01:22:37,275 --> 01:22:40,172
willing to help them
in their bizarre quest.

1515
01:22:40,172 --> 01:22:42,758
The family's terror
knows no bounds.

1516
01:22:42,758 --> 01:22:46,379
They are driven by vengeance,
obsessed with control.

1517
01:22:46,379 --> 01:22:49,517
That is why, even today,
the Matusiewiczes remain

1518
01:22:49,517 --> 01:22:51,448
a family to fear.

1519
01:22:51,758 --> 01:22:53,000
I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

1520
01:22:53,000 --> 01:22:54,310
Thanks for watching.

1521
01:22:54,310 --> 01:22:55,448
Good night.

1522
01:22:56,172 --> 01:22:58,413
Next time on
Very Scary People...

1523
01:22:58,413 --> 01:23:01,793
When you first meet Marjorie
Diehl-Armstrong

1524
01:23:01,793 --> 01:23:03,413
you remember it.

1525
01:23:03,413 --> 01:23:06,206
I'm not going to go quietly,

1526
01:23:06,206 --> 01:23:08,793
and I will make mincemeat
out of their lives.

1527
01:23:08,793 --> 01:23:12,965
I thought I had seen a lot,
but I had never seen that.