First Responder: The Killing of Melissa Lamesch

Melissa Lamesch was just days away from becoming a mother. The 27-year-old EMT from Mt. Morris, Illinois, was full-term and scheduled to be induced any day. On November 25, 2020—the day before Thanksgiving—her home went up in flames.
Firefighters forced their way inside and found Melissa dead on the kitchen floor. At first it looked like a tragic accident. Then the autopsy told a different story: no smoke in her lungs, normal carbon monoxide levels, and clear signs of strangulation. Someone had killed her before the fire ever started—and then tried to burn the evidence. 
The investigation zeroed in on Matthew Plote, a firefighter-EMT and the father of her unborn son. What began as a relationship full of promises ended in a calculated cover-up. DNA under Melissa’s fingernails, a web of lies, and a secret Plote was desperate to keep would eventually unravel everything.

Timestamps
02:38 Melissa’s Final Days
09:57 The Father Revealed
18:18 Racing to the Scene
29:57 Questions After the Fire
53:20 The Autopsy Changes Everything
1:12:36 Clues Start Adding Up
1:23:52 Charges and Conviction    

Speaker 1: Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast. Or I tell

stories of real crimes with real victims whose cases are

so shocking that many are left wondering, how is this

even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections,

and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator,

dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so

evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning Unspeakable as intended

for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm

not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey y'all, kJ

you're back with another episode of Unspeakable. How's your week

go in? What is what is happening in your life?

I've been getting messages of people that are just having

like these big life events and having babies and moving

into new houses, and then the next message is this

horrible story coming out of their hometown and all of that.

So a lot going on, but I'm here to help

you celebrate your wins. And then, if there are these

amazing cases that you think I need to look into,

please keep sending them to me. I want you to

know that I do read them. I may not always

get to respond. Sometimes I'm writing it down and I'm

researching it, but I'm never ignoring you. And I appreciate

that you think enough of me to send me these

these articles, are these stories because you think that I

would do a good job telling those stories. Keep sending

me this stuff, and I just really look forward to these,

these messages and these suggestions. So it got me thinking

though about how you know everyday life. Okay, how often

do we say this next line? I'm about to say,

it was just a normal day win, or it was

just a normal day until and all too often when

I'm watching true crime shows or you know, telling a

story or hearing someone tell a story, that's the way

they start, right before tragedy strikes. You know, it can

be just the beauty of a warm, sunny day in spring,

and it can instantly become one of the darkest days

in memory when you hear horrible news or you get

a phone call that something tragic has happened, and just

in an instant, your life can change. And I think

that's partly why so many people are drawn to true crime.

It's because you know, when these victims are in these

cases and they can no longer speak. If they could,

I guarantee you they would start out by saying, guys,

it was just a normal day until it wasn't. And

that fragility and that vulnerability that it could be any

of us makes everybody's story so real to me because

it was just a normal day. And that's gonna be

the case yet again in this week's episode. And this

one's gonna take us to Mount Morris, Illinois, and this

is where twenty seven year old Melissa Lamish lived in

November of twenty twenty. Now, just who was Melissa, Well,

I'm gonna start out, I'll tell you and you she

was actually a two for one human being at the

moment this story is going on because she was proudly

expecting her very first child. This was gonna be a

son who she would be holding in her arms in

less than forty eight hours. And if you have ever

been pregnant, I'm included, Okay, raise in my hand. You

know that those last forty eight hours are the most

measurable yet anxious two days of your life. Right, you're

just over it, but you're just wanting to meet this

baby that you have been so tied to and you're

drawn to and ready to meet for the last nine

months it's just been the excitement of your life. Well,

that's where Melissa was. She was waddling, and she was tired,

and she was so ready to get this little dude

out of her body. But at the same time, y'all

just beyond excited to see his little face for the

very first time. What would he look like, you know,

would he favor her brother Carl or would he have

his father's eyes? Who knew? Nobody knew, right, it was

just a weight and see. And it was almost time,

and it was November and the day before Thanksgiving. As

Melissa was hardcore nesting in her own home. And I'm

going to tell you something real quick. Nesting is real.

If you have ever had a child, you know what

I'm talking about, Like, all of a sudden at the

end of your pregnancy, you just feel this desire to

wash all of the clothes and everything's got to be

in order, and you want to make sure that the

curtains are hung. Or at least that's how it affected me.

But I was just like nestling in and getting ready

for this baby. Well I say it was her home,

let me just be clear, it was actually a home

that she shared with her daddy because it was his house,

but it was her home nonetheless, and Melissa was not

married to the baby's father, nor were they in a

formal relationship so to speak. So moving in with her

daddy felt like the best move at the moment for Melissa.

She was young, she was single, she was a brand

new mom to be very very soon, and so she

needed and she wanted that male figure to make her

feel safe and not alone. And who better than your

daddy to be that man to help you. Melissa's parents

were divorced, but both were overwhelmingly supportive of their daughter

and their grandson who would be changing all over their

lives in just two days, the longest but shortest two

days that ever existed at that moment. The baby bed

was bought, the clothes were washed, newborn outfit was ready

to go for little man's grand debut. And his room

y'all so special because he would be taking Melissa's own

childhood bedroom to be his room, and then she had

moved into what was her childhood brother's bedroom, and so

it was just like something new mixed with the sentiment

of days gone by, and Melissa just could not wait.

And you know, right as I'm recording this. I have

a very good friend whose daughter is expecting, and I

just looked at her baby shower photos, the huge smiles

as the gender was revealed, and the pure excitement, but

Loki probably just a little bit of fear in the

eyes of these young first time parents, you know. I

was looking at that and experiencing it literally as I'm

writing this episode, and I thought about the fact that

Melissa was single, you know, having this baby. But yet

she was prepared, y'all. She was prepared to do this alone.

And regardless of the fact that she knew going into

this she was going to be a single parent, there

would be no less love in the home. Her son

would be surrounded by cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents,

and there was more love to go around than you

could possibly ever imagine. It was going to be wonderful.

But here's the kicker. No one in the family knew

what the baby's name was going to be. Melissa and

her sister, Cassie, they had talked about possibly naming him

Emmett in some past conversations. That double letter in the

spelling of the name. It was just too cute. But

Melissa was going to surprise everyone with the official name

on the day that he was born, So just something

adding to that excitement, that mystery and what was to be.

But regardless of his chosen name, he would want for

nothing as far as this tight knit family was concerned. Melissa, y'all,

don't even play about her being worried, because you know

she had enough spunk for the both of them. Okay,

she was happy. She was a go getter in hell.

I mean she was prepared already to be a mommy

because putting on band aids and kissing booboos, that would

be nothing compared to her typical days that she spent

working as an EMT. That's right. She was in the

medical field and she had seen her share of pain

and suffering, so this would be a welcome labor of love.

And with every tear and every cry and every diaper change,

she was ready to be the very mama that her

baby needed. And while this would be Melissa's first human baby, Okay,

I would be remiss if I didn't mention her feline

son that she already had named Antonio. And Antonio was

a girl's best friend. He was all black and he

had those piercing green eyes. His purr was enough to

bring comfort to anyone whose lap he snuggled in, but

due to his own anxiety, he actually wasn't much of

a snuggler. He didn't even like to be around other people.

But Melissa he loved, and that was her baby. And

this was really rather comical, just so y'all know, because

she got the damn cat to help with her own anxiety.

But together they both had anxiety and it just became

this hot mess, but a great duo. Nonetheless, Melissa had

rescued him from this animal house shelter, which she was

a huge supporter of because they were a no kill shelter.

They had a no kill policy and that was something

that she just loved. So hopefully Antonio the cat would

take well to her new baby and give nothing short

of snuggles. But I'm gonna be real here for a second.

There'd probably be a few unwanted little bibity pats or

two on the baby's head with his little paws as

he was kind of showing that baby who was boss.

But it was all good. They were gonna all learn

to coexist, Melissa was sure of it. So who was

the baby's father. Though, I don't want to skip over this,

but when I say the next thing, I bet you

it's not going to be shocking to a lot of people.

But if you have ever worked around public safety before,

there is this strange pull, this phenomenon between certain groups

of responders. And I'm laughing because if you are a

first responder, if you have worked in the fire or

police or medical realm, you know what I'm about to say.

Because cops, Okay, for example, cops, for some reason, they

cannot resist a tatted up single mom who is a

nurse with a mild anger management problem. Okay, I know

that sounds oddly specific, but it's funny because it's true.

And you know who you are if you're listening to

this right now. This cop nurse dynamic is weird. Okay.

And firefighters you know who they love? Your wife. I'm

just kidding. I'm kidding. Don't come at me, fire don't

come at me. I'm just kidding. But there's just this thing,

you know, this joke that goes around that first responders

seemed to find companionship with either other first responders or

teachers or nurses. It's weird, but it's true. So whether

it's fire, police or medical, they tend to run in

the same circles, which probably has a lot to do

with it, and they have these same odd schedules, and

there's just this attraction or this draw between these people

that are experiencing something together over time. Well, in this case,

Melissa was an EMT and her baby's father was none

other than a firefighter. Now, his name was Matthew, and

he looked the part of your average firefighter. He was

six foot tall, he had blue eyes, but nothing necessarily

to write home about. I'm just trying to give you

the vibe here. They're just kind of like your average guy.

But what's kind of interesting or funny is that they

didn't actually first meet on the job. They met at

trivia night, and that is what would initially bring them together. Because,

as the story is folding, the two had known each

other for a long time. I believe it was like

twelve years total, but their connection when they got tight

again was more of a friendship. They reconnected in college,

but years back, when Melissa was hosting trivia night at

the local Applebee's, Matt had been a frequent attendee there

and that's whenever their friendship really had sparked back up.

But I want to be very clear, y'all. It was

just that. Okay, come on, we're all adults here, and

this relationship was one that they both knew was not

destined to be something long term. They weren't looking to

be an exclusive relationship with one another, but they just

appreciated each other's company from time to time at night

when things would turn romantic. All right, But then again,

neither one of them was looking for commitment with the other.

It just was what it was. Okay. I know her

mother would probably not like me to say friends with benefits,

but I don't say that in a derogatory way. I

say that in two consenting adults recognizing the enjoyment of

each other's company from time to time. How's that? Okay,

no shade at all. Okay. But when Melissa unexpectedly found

herself pregnant, it was like a huge oops, because that

is not what they were planning for. That oops, however,

was instantly something that she was in love with, and

it was what it was. She understood it, and they

were going to be having a baby together even though

they were not in a relationship. But Matt however, was

not so easygoing. Thrilled with the situation. When she broke

the news to him, his immediate thought was, okay, well,

what are you going to do about it? As in, like,

are you going to terminate the pregnancy? And Melissa was like,

absolutely not, that's not something that I want to do.

She made it very clear that she was gonna have

the baby, but also she made it crystal clear, I

expect nothing from you. Okay, it's fine, I will do

it all on my own. You can walk away. You

do not have to be a part of this baby's life.

And she genuinely didn't care, as I said, because this

had been not a relationship. It was just, you know,

just no strings attached situation. So since she made that

abundantly clear, Matt was relieved and he followed suit. No harm,

no foul, right. You know, they spoke periodically, but their

communication was very limited after the pregnancy was realized and

he just kind of went his way and she went hers.

But nine months had now passed and she was ready

to give birth. But there was another huge event taking

place at that very moment, and we all know about

this very well because it was that damn thing called COVID, right,

it justugh, it interrupted everything. I would say. We all

would agree it was just the worst time for you

to ever have anything great happen because the social distancing

and you know, it sucks that the very first time

you're ever going to have a baby, your child's birth

is going to happen during social distancing season and just

boo on all of it. You know, you couldn't be

around people. We didn't know exactly in the throes of it,

how COVID was going to affect different people, and it

just put a damper on the day. The meeting of

the baby would be limited. Everyone wouldn't be able to

storm the hospital in droves, as you know typically happens

when there's a new baby and everybody is excited. Plus,

her sister Cassie wasn't feeling too well herself right around

this time, and Melissa was worried. Look, girl, I think

you might have COVID. I wouldn't say worried, but she

was like, you might have COVID. You know, your symptoms

are kind of along those lines. And so that now

was also going to put a little little bit of

a damper on the Thanksgiving holiday, which was going to

be the following day, and so the tight knit family

wouldn't get to have the usual hustle and bustle of

this holiday with kids screaming and everyone stuff in their

bellies full of food and just the fun feast of

the holiday. Now this year was going to be a

little different. It's going to be a lot less, very

low key event because of everything I just explained. So

everyone was really going to do their own thing, but

all out of love for Melissa and the baby. There

was no reason to take unnecessary risks. And this year

for Thanksgiving, Melissa was just going to spend it with

her daddy because they lived together, and she was tired

and she was swollen. But Daddy, he was ready to

eat all right. He was going to make a meal.

And so the morning before Thanksgiving, Dad got up. He

did go to work for a few hours, hoping that

he could finish up some loose ends before heading to

the grocery store to get some fixings for the next

day's feast. Well, Melissa was up whenever Daddy left. She

was at home doing her thing when the phone rang,

and she was thrilled that it was her sister Cassie

on the other end, and so they chitchatted for a while,

and they were even discussing the fact that it was

their little sister's birthday that very day. There was a

lot going on in the next few days, including that

current day full of celebrations. Their little sister was turning

seventeen while they were talking on the phone, and then

they had Thanksgiving, and then the next day she was

going to be having that baby. So they had just

had that baby shower for her too in just previous weeks,

and it was amazing. Everyone that came brought beautiful gifts.

Melissa was well stocked, and she was, you know, looking

about the baby's room and kind of organizing some things

as she and Cassie chit chatted on the phone. One

of the most beautiful and meaningful gifts, however, was one

that her little niece had given her, which she smiled

at as she was talking on the phone and looking

It was a hand drawn picture of Melissa and her baby,

which she was too proud to display in his little room.

It was perfect, the perfect gift that costs nothing but

time and love from her little niece. What a beautiful

gift to receive. So as Dad was at the grocery

store and he was walking down the aisle. He was

looking for those last minute ingredients. He looked down because

his cell phone rang and the ID on his phone

showed it to be the local sheriff. But y'all, he

wasn't alarmed or anything, because the two were actually very

good friends. They saw each other every week. They would

meet up for a basketball game at the local gym.

And so Dad answered the phone, what's up man, as

it was ringing, But the answer on the other end

wasn't that playful banter between two men. Instead, he heard Gus,

where are you? And he said, I'm at the grocery store.

Why And he said, look, man, there is a fire

at your house. I need to know now is there

anybody inside? And mister Guss said, what, there's a fire?

He said, yes, your house was on fire. He need

to know is there anybody inside? And he said yes,

Oh my god, Melissa. Melissa is in the house. And

he said, okay, well where is her room? Where would

she be? Let me know, we're going to go in.

We got to try to get her. And so Daddy

Guss explained the home and kind of the layout to

the responders, who then jumped into action trying to locate

Melissa in the home, and really the big hope was

that maybe she wasn't inside as they were trying to

make entry. Now, the focus of the fire did seem

to be in one part of the home, but it

had spread quickly and it was burning extremely hot. There

was smoke and flames coming out of the roof, out

of the rafters, and so when the firefighters initially attempted

to make entry to the home, they found that a

little more difficult because not only were all of the

windows locked that they checked, but all of the doors

were locked. So in order them to even get in,

they had to force entry through the doorway, which they did,

and working through the home, they made their way into

the kitchen area and they were scanning for Melissa when

a firefighter caught glimpse of a foot on the ground

in front of the refrigerator, and as they approached, it

was determined that this was in fact a person, and

it was determined to be a female. She was lying

on the kitchen floor on her back. There was debris

on top of her, and she wasn't moving, but her

massive pregnant belly was an instant giveaway that this was

in fact Melissa, and the town where this home was

located was very small. Firefighters from multiple agencies had actually

responded to the fire, and this meant that a lot

of them actually knew who Melissa was. They knew her personally,

they knew mister Guss personally, and most people, I would argue,

don't consider that reality, but it happens. You know, seeing

the unconscious body of someone you know and feeling that

drive that everything depends on you is a stress like

no other when you know these people. So the firefighters worked,

I think there was three of them, and they worked

quickly to kind of get Melissa up, and they worked

to get her out of the home to remove her

into the front yard as they also were fighting to

put out the blaze. So they carried her out and

they placed her carefully on the ground and hopes that

they could get her revived and get her breathing. And so,

as Melissa was checked for signs of life, the somber

look on the faces very quickly told the truth long

before it was vocalized, and that was the reality that

Melissa was dead. She was already gone, so making her

death even more traumatic was that she had been in

the home deceased longer than just a few minutes, and

so that meant that her baby boy was all already gone.

Without the continuous oxygen and blood flow from his mama,

there's no way that he could have survived more than

you know, a minute or two at best, before he

too would have passed away. So in the moments that

all of this is happening, a crowd of onlookers had gathered,

and the firefighters immediately took issue with this, as you

can imagine, and so no one should be paraded onto

their front yard dead, where the onlookers or people that

are just passing by can slow down and just stand

and galk and look at you. So, in a moment

of pure humanity, and in an effort to maintain Melissa's dignity,

the firefighters created a circle around her with their own

bodies and shielded her from onlookers, who, may you know,

very insensitively tried to take a photo or a video

or anything of that nature. And about that time an

ambulance did arrive and Melissa was loaded onto a gurney

and placed inside of the ambulance, but it wouldn't take

off lights and sirens, you know, blazing down the road,

and it would actually remain on scene for a bit

because there was no reason for it to tear off.

The emergency, as far as Melissa was concerned, was already

gone because Melissa had passed away. So by this time

the fire was out, but another just as devastating event

was taking place near the road. And that's the fact

that Melissa's mother, Miss Deanna, had already been notified of

the fire, and so she came flying up to the scene.

So she actually had to park a few blocks. I

guess she would say away because of all the response

vehicles and fire trucks and everything, and the road was

cut off. So she just jumps out of her car

and she goes running up to the scene. You know,

where is my daughter? Where is she? Oh? My god,

where is she? But the news had to be broken

to her that Melissa was gone. Not only that that

you know she's in the ambulance, but you're not going

to be allowed to go inside of the ambulance right

now at this time. And she just begged. She wanted

she wanted to be with her baby. She wanted to

see her daughter and hold her hand. But they just

could not allow her to do that. The emotion, as

you can tell, was overwhelming. The wail of a mother

who has been told that her daughter and her grandson

were gone was almost too much. And so she ran

over to the ambulance, you know, and she's outside of it,

and she's wanting in, and they're like, I'm sorry, you can't,

you can't. You don't want to see her like this.

And so miss Deanna just remained outside of the ambulance,

you know, hands on it, just never leaving its side.

If she couldn't get in it, she was going to

remain right outside of it, always close to Melissa, never

her alone. She would remain right there, and y'all, she

continued to beg and beg, but again they said, look,

you know, you can't see her like this. You don't

want to see this. So when the ambulance finally left

the scene, her mama did the only thing she could

think to do, which was to pull out her cell

phone and hit record, and she filmed as the ambulance

drove away from her and got further and further down

the road, in just a mix of shock and this

feeling of goodbye. It was like she wanted to just

film until the ambulance was out of sight, and so

she sat there just taking in the gravity of what

is the house is burned down? You know. Melissa was like,

everything that's being told to her is just out of

the box, unreal. And it was moments later that she said,

my god, no, and she ran and she got in

her car because she was going to go find Melissa.

She didn't want to be at the house. There was

no reason to be at the house. That's things. Where

is my baby girl? And she was just now in

denial at this point that this was real and so

you know, maybe maybe she's alive, Maybe this isn't what's happening.

And so she's driving and she she made her way

to the fire station where she knew that the ambulance

had gone, and so she pulled up and she stopped

and she's just staring through her windshield and at this

point she's watching as they're using a hose to wash

off the ambulance, and that's when it was realized. She got,

you know, oh my gosh, Melissa's been transferred to another vehicle.

And that vehicle was now driving off and so as

it made its way to the hospital with her daughter inside.

Miss Deana was right behind it and she followed it

turn for turn until it made its way to the hospital.

And once that car parked, she sat in her own vehicle.

She put it in park and she just sat there

watching it, hoping, maybe, you know, maybe Melissa's alive. Maybe

it wasn't her. Maybe that's why we are at the hospital,

you know. And she got out of her car and

she walked up to the vehicle, and not knowing what

to do, she just started circling it, just walking around

the car, her hands on the vehicle, just wanting to

see Melissa, but she couldn't. But she knew that she

was in that car, so she made the decision. She refused.

She refused to even leave the parking lot. She stayed

right there until it was clear that Melissa was safely

inside of that building. She wasn't leaving. It didn't even

matter the condition of her daughter, she was not leaving

her alone until she was safely inside of that hospital.

Back at the house, as the firefighters were walking through

the remnants of the home, you know, they're ensuring that

no flames remained and that the fire was actually fully

put out. They had to notify the Marshal's office, the

Fire Marshal's office, that this had happened, and so they

could come and they could do a report, and they

could determine the cause of the fire. But when looking

at the structure, the home wasn't a total loss in

terms of the physical structure, but the smoke had destroyed

everything that hadn't burned, so it was a total loss,

but it wasn't because it burned completely to the ground.

So the Fire Marshal would come eventually, and that would

take some time for all of this to be done.

So as the day passed, Melissa's beloved cat hadn't been found.

So the family decided that they were going to return

back to the house the next day and they were

going to search the neighborhood for him. They were going

to go through the neighborhood call him, and even though

the cat had this high anxiety and wasn't really friendly

with them, maybe in this circumstance they would be able

to find him. Hopefully he was hiding out at a

neighbor's house. Maybe someone was feeding him, not realizing that

it was Melissa's cat, But no one had seen Antonio.

They couldn't find him, and so at the house remnants,

the family decided that they were just gonna go kind

of look through and see if there was anything that

could be salvaged. And it was in the baby's room

that another straight gut punch was delivered to the family

because while they were looking through and down and digging

and trying to figure out what, if anything could be saved,

that's whenever they located little Antonio's body curled up and

lying dead underneath the baby's bed. He had tried to

escape the smoke. He had tried to, you know, run

away from the flames, and he went and he succumbed

to the fire and too the smoke in the safest

place that he could find, and it was underneath that

baby's baby bed. So Melissa, her as well as her

beloved cat were now all gone in the blink of

the of an eye, and the family was left in

shocked but also puzzled because how could this have happened?

How did this happen? You know, it just it makes

no sense. Everyone's standing there just shaking their heads. Why

didn't Melissa just get out of the house. And it's

not like they're trying to blame her. They love her,

but she's gone. But like, why didn't she just go

out of the house. There were multiple doors that she

could have exited, but she ended up collapsed in the kitchen.

And like I said, the whole house wasn't a total

physical loss. The doors were still there. Why didn't she

just go out if the door was stuck? Why didn't

she try to go out of a window? And it

just seemed like a very survivable fire. So it's like,

was she overcome by the smoke? Did she try to

put out the fire herself after realizing that it had started,

but stayed too long and then passed out? Just it

just didn't make any sense. So the initial belief at

the very start, whenever everyone was looking over everything, the

initial belief was that she had to have died from

asphyxiation from the smoke inhalation, because she was laying on

the ground and her body did not have any obvious

forms of like burn trauma or you know, she hadn't

been burned up in this fire. She was actually relatively intact.

Considering what had happened. The flames had ended up basically

smoldering themselves, and the fire fizzled out before the home

could burn to the ground, so an autopsy would have

to be performed, of course, to confirm that she had

died from the smoke inhalation, and that was going to

take some time. As a matter of fact, this was

going to hurt even more because it was going to

take more than the average weight time because while it

was also an autopsy, it was also going to serve

as her baby's birth, but it was also during COVID,

so again the family would have to wait so until

that could be completed, her family was left to just

pick up the pieces and attempt to make sense of

how their lives had just been changed forever, just in

a moment. And the thing was this, The baby's father, Matt,

also had to be notified. Obviously he would want to

know this, but the family, no one in her family

was very close to him, None of them really knew

him that well at all. But Melissa's brother, her name was,

His name was Carl, excuse me. Carl was able to

get in touch with Matt that day, the very day

of the fire, and he asked him, listen, have you

seen Melissa today? And he said, yeah, I did. He said,

you saw her you spoke to her and he's like, no,

I saw her, and Carl said, well, then you are

the last one to see her before hanging up the phone.

So matt was somewhat confused, like, okay, you know what

was that about? Yeah, all right, whatever, and so he

just kind of went about his business. He thought it

was weird, but they were again, they weren't tight or anything,

and so, you know, he just went about about his way.

It was the police who would be the ones that

would actually break the news to him whenever Matthew was

contacted and asked to come down to the station because

obviously Carl realized, okay, he saw her alive. We think

he was the last one to see her alive, and

so he told police this. So they call him in

to ask about the last time whenever he saw her,

and that's whenever they had to break the news to him. Look,

Melissa's dead. Melissa died. So when they break the news

to him, he just kind of sits there for a

moment and just looks at them. You know, he's got

his mask on because of COVID and all that, and

he's just staring at them. Before after absorbing it for

a second, he goes okay, like he was not. You know,

it was kind of like out a left field, you

know that she's dead. So once the news is broken

and he kind of has a grasp of the fact

that she's gone, police went straight into questioning and they

wanted to ask him about, you know, what had happened

between the two of them before she had passed away.

And what I will tell you from the jump is

that two things were very odd to me in that

interrogation when I was watching it at the jump. Number one,

Matt never asked about his son. He never said, Okay,

Melissa's gone, what about my baby? You know, is the

baby okay? He never he never asked about his son

at all. And number two, he never then asked how

did Melissa die? What happened? Now, if you're a true

crime fan, you know that that's odd. You agree with me,

what the hell? Because the first thing everyone asks is

what happened? And then if your baby's about to be born,

you know, even if you don't care about Melissa and

it wasn't this relationship and you know I hadn't been speaking,

you still would want to know what happened. So, but

Matt did continue to answer the officers questions about what

they did that day before they went their separate ways.

Matt said, up front, look, I have not been involved

in this pregnancy at all. Okay, we agreed that, you know,

we're not in a relationship. I have not been involved

at all. But the closer that the birth deadline came,

he decided that he really wanted to be involved in

what was going on, and so he said he had

called into work that day because of a knee injury

that he had sustained while he was running, and so

he didn't really have much to do, so he had

made up an excuse that he had some work in

the area where Melissa lived. He said he was installing

hot tubs on the side. But he said he made

up that excuse use that he was in the area

so that he would have a reason, you know, really

to stop by to try and speak to Melissa. So

whenever he got there, he knocked on the door, he said,

Melissa let him in, and that's whenever they really kind

of just started talking. Look, the baby's going to be

born in two days, he said. We talked about money

and finances, what about you know, child support? What are

we going to do about this, and he said that

she was very clear, as was you know, her family,

that he didn't need to pay if he did not

want to be a part of this, they were going

to take care of it, and that he was not

obligated to pay or do or do anything. And so

he said they were having all of that discussion, but

then one thing ended up leading to another, and so

they ended up having sex together on the couch before

just kind of talking for a little bit more and

then he left the house. So they're like, okay, what

do you when you left? What happened? He was like, oh, well,

I mean, you know, she walked me to the door.

She said that she was about to make some lunch,

and she i walked out, and it was kind of

like bye, we'll talk whenever the baby's born whatever. So

obviously detectives were documenting all of this and taking their notes,

and then after he explained everything that he had done

for the day, he was left to go, you know,

release to go basically process it all and take it

in because he had not only lost his son but

now Melissa. So whenever detectives were checking in and wanting

to check up on the story, they obviously wanted to

go speak to neighbors in the neighborhood and see if

they hadn't known anything or seen anything. And one neighbor

was able to confirm that he had seen who was

believed to be Matt at the house, and this was

before the fire department arrived and the timeline and everything

was just as Matt had said. So the neighbor his

name was mister Clayton. He lived directly across the street

from the Lambishes, and he had noticed some time, he

said it was around that afternoon that there was a

white male. He said he was probably in his mid

twenties to his early thirties. He saw him walking down

the street and he said the man walked right up

the driveway. He knocked on the front door of the Lambishes,

at which point he did see Melissa open the door.

They talked and Melissa said or looked like she said,

you know, come on in, and then shut the door.

But it was around four thirty PM when a different

neighbor said she noticed smoke that was coming from the

Lambish's house. She could hear their fire alarm or a

fire detector going off, and she went and she looked, said,

oh my god, there's a fire, and she called nine

to one one. So the timeline basically that I'm telling you,

the timeline of events was fitting with everything that they

were being told so far. But whenever police then spoke

to Melissa's sister, Cassie, the vibe about Matt was like

different than what they had kind of gathered whenever they

spoke to him. So what do I mean by that,

Because I know vibe is kind of a funny word

or a weird word choice. But Cassie, Melissa's sister, she

lived almost two hours away, so she and her sister

when they would talk on the phone, they would talk

for extended periods of time whenever they connected. In the

morning of Melissa's death, Cassie said that she had called

Melissa around ten am and they stayed on the phone

for roughly two hours, so they had been talking, and

Cassie said that the reason they hung up the phone

was because Melissa told her, oh, Matt's here, he needs

to stop doing this. I'll call you back shortly and

I'll let you know what he says. And that's whenever

they hung up the phone. But what was off with

the vibe that I'm talking about is that Cassie said,

Melissa at this juncture, you know, in the pregnancy, was

pretty much disgusted by Matt. She was not disgusted with

him like as a as a guy. She was more

hurt by the lack of friendship that he had extended

her after she had gotten pregnant. You know, it was

okay that they weren't together, and I can't emphasize that enough.

This was not jealousy or anger, like you don't want

to be with me I'm having your kid. It wasn't

that at all. It's that Melissa was really hurt that

he seemed to have just ghosted her, even though she

said it was okay. She just thought more of him

just as a friend, that he would not just ghost her,

But she was disappointed for their son. You know what

kind of guy. I get it, you don't want to

be in his life, but my god, you're the dad.

You know, I want more for my baby. And so

why the police really latched onto that was because if

that was the case, and Melissa was so disgusted with

the way Matt just didn't want anything to do with

their son, then why would she have agreed to have

sex with him when he showed up. But let's be real,

crazier things have happened, so investigators, we're gonna have to

continue to ask questions and talk to people. But that

just sat weird with them that she would be so

disgusted and tell her sister how much she was frustrated

for her baby, but then would have sex with him

right after they hang up the phone. Well, in the meantime,

the family of Melissa had the heartbreaking task of planning

a funeral. But this funeral wouldn't just be for one.

It would have to be for two, and the baby

would need to be buried as well. So as incredibly

sad as this is, the baby's birth would be done

not under the joy of waiting, as you know, labor

intensifies and you know, someone dilates and you're getting an update,

you know, hour by hour. This just wouldn't be that

type of situation. It was done really in an unknown

fashion because the family didn't know exactly when the autopsy

would be done. And again it's during COVID, so everything

was moving much slower than usual. But finally the day,

the day came, but there would be no crowd anxiously

waiting to see him born, because they wouldn't get to

see him born. You know, he was really the mother

was laid on the table and he was removed from

her body in a very cold and just very very

cold medical way, and his body was taken out of Melissa,

and then his body was laid on a table while

they continued to examine Melissa. The joy in every aspect

had been robbed from this entire family, in every single way.

And something that just hit them was that, what is

what is our grandson's name? We didn't get to see

him be born, we didn't get to even meet him alive,

and we don't even know what his name is. How

must that have felt? Nobody knew? Well, thank God for

this family and thank God for the siblings of Melissa,

because while they were waiting to get the results of

the autopsy and for the baby to be born, Melissa's

brother jumped into action. He was on a mission, and

this mission was to find out what his nephew's name was.

And I know it's odd, but it gave this family

something in terms of hope, in terms of gaining something.

We're gonna learn what was his name? Supposed to be

and it took some time, but Carl was able to

get into Melissa's electronics like her tablet and her phone,

and looking through her search history, he was able to

locate searches that would break the name of their grandson

to the family. Now, Cassie and Melissa they had discussed

the name Emmett in the past because of the whole

double letter thing, if you remember, they thought that was cute,

but nothing had ever been confirmed. And when the name

was finally uncovered, everyone really smiled, this bittersweet smile because

Melissa had stuck with that double letter thing after all.

But it wasn't Emmett. Melissa's little man's name was revealed

to be Barrett, little Barrett Lamish. What was his nickname?

You know, what would it have been? Would they have

maybe called him bear or b Man? Yeah, I guess

we'll never know that. But these are the thoughts that,

you know, with such immense joy of knowing who this

baby was, this was Barrett was just instantly stripped away

because that's all it was a baby named Barrett. So

when the autopsy it was completed, the family was notified

that they could come and they could see him for

the very first time and when Melissa's mom would first

lay eyes on her grandson. This would happen at the

coroner's office and the moment. I want you to know,

the coroner worked very hard in this moment to try

to make it more than just seeing a dead body.

And whenever a Barrett was brought out, they had dressed

him for the occasion. The coroner had picked him out

a little, tiny outfit complete with matching booties. It was

a Disney themed little outfit, and so whenever she got

to see him, it was like seeing a new baby.

He was perfect. Now Grandma wasn't allowed to hold him,

she couldn't touch him, but just seeing him for the

first time filled and broke her heart simultaneously. There was

her little man. There was the guy that she should

have she should have met. He was perfect. Barrett was

seven pounds and a few little ounces. And she noticed

that his little fingers were long, and he he even

had tiny little fingernails that they were ready to be trimmed.

They would have needed to be filed, you know, right

after he was born, so he wouldn't have scratched his

little face. And most breathtaking was the fact that baby

Barrett had his mama's nose. Melissa's nose was something that

her mother just loved because it was cute, it was little,

and it had this slight little upturn at the end.

And as she was looking over a little baby Barrett,

he was a perfect match. He had his mama's nose. So,

after looking him over and just feeling the heartbreak again

of what would never be, Barrett was taken back to

the back and the family left with tear filled eyes

because again they met and then lost him all in

the same moment. And sadness just was not only overwhelming

in this moment, but it was quickly becoming replaced with

a lot of anger because from the jump, Melissa's siblings

started pointing the finger at Matt, especially Carl. He felt

like Matt had something to do with this. Now, was

it this thing where maybe you know it's Melissa's brother,

Maybe you know how brothers have that thing. You know,

this guy got my sister pregnant and then decided to

just up and leave. Was it that he was just

very angry and he was needing someone to blame, and

so that's why he was pointing the finger at Matt.

And then Cassie obviously didn't like him because again he

didn't want anything to do with this baby. And so

Cassie was like, he must have done it. You know,

he's a firefighter. After all, the damn house was on fire.

He must have done it. But Mom Deana wasn't convinced.

You know, y'all can't just be pointing fingers at people

we don't know when you know, we have to wait,

we have to see what happened. Well, the police would

really be they were going to work on this. They

weren't waiting, and so they were speaking to a lot

of people, and this included coworkers of Matt's. They wanted

to go talk to other firefighters and see what they knew,

if they knew anything about this situation. But when they

went to go speak with the coworkers, what they had

to say was somewhat surprising. They interviewed multiple people on

the twenty eighth, so this is just a couple of

days after Melissa and Barrett had died, and Matt had

worked up until he had worked on the twenty eighth.

But the thing was, every single person that they interviewed,

every fellow firefighter, was shocked and surprised to learn that

Matt was even having a baby. They didn't even know.

Matt had never mentioned it to any of them. But

here's the thing. Not everybody's just this open, you know,

open with their life. You're allowed to be private with

your life. And to that point, some of the firefighters

also agreed that, you know, I didn't share my private

life with him, and so he didn't really open up

and share it with me. And that's okay, But what

about death. Okay, so maybe he didn't want to talk

about his private life, but like, damn, his baby, mama

and his baby had died, you know, it was his son.

But Matt never told anybody. He never told his supervisors,

he never told his coworkers, and he had just continued

to go to work and never mentioned it to them.

That was odd. So police called Matt back in and

they wanted to interview him some more. And this time

the interview was going to last a whole lot longer,

like a total of seven hours, I believe, and the

detectives are really going to ask him things that got

straight up into the nitty gritty things, all the way

down to like what were you wearing the day that

you went to go visit her, and he said, I

was wearing jeans, a T shirt, you know, baseball cap. Okay,

where did you park? I parked in front of her house.

When directly asked, did you kill Melissa or did you

hurt her? Matt wholeheartedly denied it. He said things like,

you know, I never intended to hurt Melissa. I never

intended to hurt anybody. And when he was confronted with

these questions and he answered intended. The word intended again

that just was an odd word choice to the police.

And he also kept referring to speaking with Melissa and

that they needed to talk because of the upcoming deadline.

And deadline again was an odd word for the police

because most people don't say deadline. They would say the

baby's do date. So deadline just that term. You know,

you don't want to hang on everybody's word, but like deadline,

that seems like a countdown until something bad happened, you know,

pay the ransom. You have this deadline to get it

done or do your work, or you have this deadline

or your fire. Deadline just doesn't have it has a

negative connotation to it. So while Matt was known to

be a single guy. He would admit during the questioning

to police at this point that he had been seeing

a couple of women over the last nine months, but

it was nothing serious, and again that was fine. He

was a single guy, and Melissa didn't care because she

didn't want to be with him either. But Matt's work

schedule was one that they wanted to look into as well,

and when they did that, it looked like he had

worked a normal schedule, but he had taken off the

Monday and Tuesday of the week of the fire before

he then called in on Wednesday because of that knee injury,

which when they spoke to the supervisor, he confirmed that

was true. That was real. He had taken off Monday

and Tuesday, and then he did call in he did

have the knee injury. Then the supervisor confirmed that Matt

had been off for roughly ten days where he could

grieve and deal with the loss of Melissa and the

baby before returning. But this became somewhat controversial. It wasn't

controversial that Matt was off for those ten days. What

was controversial was that when they were speaking to another firefighter,

that firefighter mentioned that he had been diagnosed with COVID

in the days prior, and so the reason that a

lot of them were off of work for upwards of

ten days was because they were forced to take off

because they were being quarantined because of his COVID diagnosis

that included Matt and so detectives are going back and

they're looking. They're like, okay, hang on a second. So

he took off Monday, he took off Tuesday, he called

in Wednesday, which is when the fire occurred. But then

he came back to work and he worked on the

twenty eighth, after he already knew that Melissa and the

baby had died, but before being quarantined. So it was

looking more like the ten days that he took off

to grieve in retrospect, was more like a convenient excuse

of why he was off ten days because he was

forced to be because of that COVID diagnosis. Things that

make you go hmm. Well, when the results of the

autopsy came back, everyone did expect that she would have

died from smoke, you know, asphyxia or smoke inhalation, but

there was more found than was expected. Because when someone

dies from smoke inhalation, you a lot of us already

know this, but your lungs and your mouth, even off times,

your nose and the airway that will be covered in

soot because you've been breathing in this heavy, thick smoke,

and the soot will line wherever the air goes. But

the testing showed in the autopsy that Melissa had no

soot in her lungs, but the overall findings weren't really

definitive enough as to her cause of death. But the

lack of soot in her lungs meant one very clear

thing to the detectives when they were looking at this,

and that was that Melissa was not breathing at all

as this fire was raging, because there would have been soot.

That's like Captain Obvious type shit. There's no way that

she lay on the floor in that fire and didn't

inhale any smoke if she was alive. So the house, remember,

was a total loss, even the structure that didn't burn,

everything was covered in smoke. But somehow she mysteriously didn't

breathe any in no frickin' way that's not going to happen.

So while that autopsy report was leaning towards something more nefarious,

having happened. It wasn't very clear, and so the investigators

were not happy basically with the autopsy. And a lot

of people think, oh, well that's the doctor. If the

doctor said it, that's how it's going to go. Well,

these investigators are like, nah, I don't think I like

this because it looks like something very nefarious here has happened.

And any defense attorney worth their salt would argue in

court if we were able to get somebody for doing

something wrong that, well, how do we know that Melissa

didn't have a medical emergency and die right before the

fire sparked. I mean, she could have had a heart

attack or something, and then you know she's cooking and

the house caught on fire. And I say this because

remember Matt mentioned that Melissa was making lunch whenever he left,

so that argument would be, well, she had that medical

emergency and that's why the house caught on fire. So

as a result of all of this, the detectives were adamant.

We won a second autopsy from a different facility on

Melissa's body. So, as heartbreaking as this is, the families

wanted to have a funeral, they have to wait again

and they have to be told sorry, we need to

send your daughter's body for another autopsy. So that was done.

And while the second pathologists also found that there was

no soot in Melissa's lungs or her throat, her report

and her testing and all of her assessment seemed to

be much more in depth than the first autopsy. Part

of that was that this examiner really thoroughly washed Melissa's body,

cleaned her up really, really well. And when that was done,

it became apparent that around Melissa's face and her neck

there was bruising. Now, if you have soot all over you,

that might not be seen unless you're thoroughly cleaned off.

Not only was there bruising, but there was particul hemorrhaging

that was found. And this is a typical finding and

strangulation when those little microvessels are bursting and right, you

get the little blood speckling that comes to the surface.

But the bruising on her neck, combined with this particular hemorrhaging,

this aligned very much with what strangulation typically looks like.

Not to mention that the doctor noted the hemorrhaging on

Melissa's face was noted as the most particular hemorrhaging that

pathologist had ever seen in any case that she had

ever done. That's more than just a couple of broken

vessels here and there. There was no doubt in that

pathologist's mind that Melissa had been murdered by being physically strangled.

So this doctor also went a step further and did

a rape test kit on her, and the results of that,

though only confirmed what Matt had said because his semen

was present inside of Melissa. However, let's not forget a

few things about Melissa. She was nine months pregnant, she

was due any day. Let's also not forget that Melissa

was telling her everyone in her family that she was

disgusted by Matt because of his lack of friendship and

all of that. So with that in mind, Okay, and

I know everybody's different, but just listen to what I'm

saying here. And this is not a judgment, this is

an observation. Okay, her rape test kit would show that

she had not only been penetrated vaginally sexually, but she

also had been penetrated anally as well. Okay, there was

also DNA underneath her fingernails. Now, listen, anyone can do

anything you do you. I'm not hating. You can have

sex any way you want to, You have fun, wave

your freak flag, do whatever. But something that just as

a woman who been pregnant before multiple times, something that

I'm going to draw the line at in this autopsy

is that not only had she had sex vaginally and anally,

but she had trauma to her genitalia. There was bruising

and there was injury to her inner thighs as well

as the surrounding area. There was also contusions and abrasions

inside of Melissa's vaginal vault, and these injuries, according to

what this doctor was looking at, she felt these were

more consistent with like sexual assault slash rape, not consensual sex.

And so I'm thinking about the fact that when you're

nine months pregnant two days before giving birth, you're pretty miserable,

and it just seems out of character for someone to

be having anal sex, vaginal sex and being this rough

and tom right before you're about to give birth with

a man that you were disgusted by. And I think

a lot of people might might agree with that. Well,

whenever the pathologist went further and was looking at her scalp,

she would locate a few places on the scalp where

it looks like Melissa had suffered blows to her head.

So what happened to Melissa was very clear if you

read the full report in totality of circumstance of Melissa

and her situation, Melissa Lambish was brutally raped in multiple

ways and she fought her attacker as best she could

before she was struck in the head multiple times and

then strangled to death. And that is what this pathologist

believed had happened. Police believed that as well, and that

afterwards a fire was started, likely to conceal her murder

because she had been conclusively not breathing as the house

burned around, you know, burned down around her. So when

this news was broken to her family, they're obviously now

even more horrified, outraged, angry, heartbroken, all of the emotions

that you can possibly feel. And they now also have

to absorb all of that. But now it's time for

them to have a memorial service or a funeral for

Melissa and baby Barrett. And I want to tell you this.

I didn't plan on sharing it, but I'm going to

share it to you just to add to just the

horrors that this family went through. But do you know that,

because Barrett was born during the autopsy, the first place

that the family chose to have their funeral would not

allow them to bury the baby in the in the

casket with his mama. They refused to embalm the baby.

It was a religious thing. So now the family's being told, oh, look, sorry,

this happened, but we're not going to have your final

wishes and we're not going to let the mom have

the baby in her arms. That pissed me off when

I learned that, and I learned that directly from Melissa's mom.

That is not speculation. Her mother told me that with

her own mouth. How dare somebody do that to a

grieving family? So now they have to go, Okay, now

we have to go shop for another funeral home. That

is just beyond me. Either way, they did end up

finding a place that would let them honor Melissa and

her baby the way that they wanted to do so,

and they were able to have the funeral and Barrett,

his sweet little precious self. He was wrapped up in

a purple blanket and a hat that Melissa's aunt had

handmade for him and was actually given to her as

a gift at the baby shower just weeks prior, and

of course I'm not going to let this go either.

Of course, that had to be washed and thoroughly cleaned

before he could even be wrapped in it, because that

too had been covered in soot and smoke and all

of that. But that was made for him and it

was special and the family wanted that to happen. So

after they got that done though, and they got to

show up, and they got to see baby Barrett and

Melissa for the first time together. He looked like a

perfect angel, laying right there in his mother's arms. In

the same casket, Melissa was buried with her baby boy,

holding him like the chance that was stolen from her

in her lifetime. She got to have her baby in

her arms. And as everyone cried and they tried their

best to make it through the service, there was one

person who notably did not show and that was a

man by the name of Matt, the man who had

created this very baby that was dead, and the man

that knew that the baby's mother was also passed away.

He didn't show up to say goodbye or even hello

to his newborn son, nor to show the basic respect

for the woman who was the mother of his son

passing away. But some other people didn't show up either,

and that was Matt's parents. They were not at the funeral.

Now to that point, speaking with Matt's parents later on,

I'm talking about the police speaking with them, that would

be a pretty eye opening moment because they confirmed to

police that they had no idea Matt was even going

to be having a baby. That was until very recently

when Melissa had broken the news to them. Now, Melissa,

why did she go tell his parents, Well, it's because

she felt like they deserved to know that they had

a grandson coming into the world, and she wanted her

son to have grandparents. It was not about Matt, it

was about her son. So she told them. She broke

the news to them, and when they found out, they

were beyond excited. They were over the moon that they

were going to get a grandson. But at the same time,

they had been hurt that Matt had not even told

told them this and this was something that you know,

people look forward to, is knowing that they're going to

be a grandparent. But either way, I want you to

remember they were very supportive of Melissa. They were very

excited to meet the baby. They also had sent gifts

to the baby shower because Melissa had let them know

about it. Now they didn't go because of COVID, but

they did send gifts. Okay, they were very excited about this.

So whether they even knew that Melissa and the baby

were deceased before the service was even held isn't actually clear.

So I want to be very clear that from all accounts,

Matt's parents were good and very decent people, and I

am in no way throwing shade at them. They too,

in my opinion, at this point, seemed to be another

casualty by association in this unfolding tragedy. It's horrible. So

other part of victimization too that I want to bring

up that I think a lot of people who aren't

in this world miss is that, you know, the family

felt like Matt was responsible for what had happened. But

knowing it and being able, you know, to talk about

it and scream from the rooftops that you think that

this guy did something to your daughter that became an issue.

And I'm going to call it another facet of victimization.

Because Melissa's family was asked by the police to please

remain silent about the investigation, not in a hurtful way,

but because anything that this family may have said or

shouted to the media or posted online it could possibly

impact not only the investigation, but even worse long term,

if Matt was responsible for this, it could affect the

long term outcome, possibly in a courtroom, and it's just

not worth the risk for that to happen. So while

this family has already lost everything to this point, they

now have to be quiet. And that is something that

we just if you have not been in that probably

don't appreciate how horrible that is. And I don't care

how good of a person you are. Everyone has a limit,

and these people had been kicked in the teeth over

and over and over again. But I want to tell

you something about this family, this Lamish family, they fell

in line. They may have cussed and cried and mourned

behind closed doors, but they remained tight lipped in public.

They remained a united force for over a year. This family,

they tread water for over a year. Imagine that a

year came and went with no arrest for what had

happened to their daughter, after they already know the results

of the autopsy, there was no movement in the case publicly,

and life for everyone else just kept going, even for Matt,

Even for Matt, who this family wanted to shred to

pieces because they felt like he was responsible. Matt was

just living his life. But the wheels of justice, guys,

they may turn slow, and then you add in in COVID,

and it feels like it's come to a stop. And

maybe it felt like the wheels of justice might have

been rolling through quicksand, but they were still rolling. So

days after day after month after months, nothing was happening.

Matt just continued to work, and the town was so

small that Melissa's sister and brothers and her parents would

often see Matt out and about and there was nothing

they could do about it. They should have been celebrating

Barrett's first birthday by this point, but instead they're still

dying inside with their mouths shut. Melissa was dead, her

child never even got a birthday, her cat suffocated, their

home and all of its contents destroyed. Thanksgiving would never

be a holiday they would ever celebrate again. And to boot,

the day of Melissa and Barrett's death, well, that was

the little sister's seventeenth birthday. The suffering here is just

unreal that this family is going through. But even with that,

more just kept happening. One day, Melissa's mom went out

to get her mail, and as she went to go

open her mailbox, she looks up to see none other

than Matt driving down the road in an ambulance. Now

he was an EMT as well as a firefighter, just

so you understand here. And when he got close, he

looked at her and even waved as she stood there,

mail in hand, just staring at him, and all she

could do was just shake her head. No, he waved

at her. Imagine the restraint. I'm gonna say it right here,

right now. That's one hell of a woman, my friends,

that is one hell of a woman. And then they

would realize that he was coming by a lot, like

they would see him pass by a lot. Why why

was that? No clue? Still to this day, no clue.

But he was seen often and Miss Deana she lived

on a dead end type of road, which made it

even more concerning one time. And I'm sharing these with

you because I want you to understand victimization and what

it's like, because it's not just what happened it's what

else happened. One time, her son, Melissa's brother started to

have a medical emergency and so they had to call

nine to one one. So she calls for help, but

then Mama Deanna runs outside standing there, you know, just

all bowed up because she was terrified that the man

that she believed was her daughter's killer was going to

be the very person to respond to the house. So

as this is happening, she's freaking out. I hope he

doesn't show up. Her daughter, okay, was there. Another daughter

was there, and her daughter, Melissa's sister has pots syndrome.

If you know what that is, it's people that can

pass out and it can be triggered and all that. Well,

her daughter became so upset and stressed out by seeing

the fire trucks pull up because the daughter was afraid

it was going to be Matt pulling up as well,

that the daughter fell out pass smooth out right there.

They had to call another ambulance which came to help

the daughter. So tell me that this family was not

feeling terrorized. So there's Mama Deanna out front, there are

multiple fire trucks, there are multiple ambulances, and she has

multiple children down having medical episodes. It was so wild

that when the supervisor showed up and got out of

the car, he goes up to Miss Diana and says, look,

I'm really worried about all these people falling out. I

think I need to go check your house for carbon monoxide.

And she looks at him and has come here and

as a pull him off to the side and has

to explain, we don't have carbon monoxide. We have tragedies

happening here. My son is having a medical emergency and

my daughter is passing out from stress because we think

that one of your employees murdered my other daughter and

might show up. We are having a hard time right now.

And no shade on that supervisor, because who would have

thought that could happen. Who would have ever imagined that

you cannot make this shit up. The vicarious trauma that

these families go through after an event is undeniable, and

this is a perfect example of that. But the investigation

had installed, y'all. It was just moving slow, and they

were trying to secure a solid case, one that Matt

couldn't beat if he had done this, and the small

things would become the big things. The building blocks in

this case, because remember that neighbor that had been interviewed

said that, yeah, I saw Matt arrive that day, blah

blah blah, so I'm going in the house. But there

was a few things that the police caught after they

had the long interview with Matt. Number one, the neighbor

was very clear that there were no vehicles parked on

the street when he saw that person walk up to

the Lamish's house. When Matt was interviewed, he said that

he parked right in front of the house. That was

a lie. That was a confirmed lie by other people.

So why you have to ask yourself would you park

blocks away from the house that you're going to unless

you're up to no good and you didn't want your

vehicle seene. Secondly, that neighbor was also able to describe

what Matt was wearing to a tea. Remember Matt even

told them what he was wearing. The neighbor in Matt's

descriptions aligned except for one thing. The neighbor mentioned that

the man was wearing a backpack on his back, something

that Matt failed to mention. How did you forget that?

You don't remember having a book sack? And he was

like oh, no, no, And they say, okay, well what

would have been in that bag? And he just tells

the investigators, I don't know. Well, to me, you and

everybody else, sounds like you might have had some fire

starting tools in that bag. He also had been wearing

his hat and his sunglasses, which I'll let you know.

When the family was digging through the rubble and they

found the cat, they ended up finding his hat in

the house. So he remembered his bag. He remembered to

grab that, but you didn't remember to grab your hat

and your sunglasses. And then when you left the house,

you didn't realize, ooh, I don't have my sunglasses. Why

didn't you just turn around and go back and grab

your sunglasses and get them when you realize that you

didn't have them. So all of this is kind of

putting things in place. Well. During the fire investigation, it

was noticed that there was an echo dot or like

an Alexa style device on the countertop in the kitchen.

So police wondered, is it possible that that device may have,

you know, recorded their final conversation or if there was

an argument or something. So depending on the device that

you have real fast, I'll let you know, the audio

can either be stored to the device, it can go

to a cloud. It just depends on what type you have.

But they cut a warrant to Amazon to retrieve the

last recordings that were caught on that device, so it

took time for that to come back. Well, when they

got the report, unfortunately it was found it had voices

on it, but it was not a recording that helped

in any way, shape or form, and the recording the voices,

it wasn't even relevant to the day of the fire.

So that ended up being kind of a dead end.

But the report from the Fire Marshal's office would finally

be available and the results of this would be very

telling because this report said that they believed that the

fire started in the cabinets above the stove. So you're like, oh, well,

the stove caught on fire or a pot and then

burn the cabinets, right, will No, because they did this

thorough investigation and found that the stove itself was not

on even the location of the burners, the knobs they

were turned to off. So it's not like Melissa had

been cooking fell out like would have been argued. I

guarantee you and the fire started, and if the oven

had been the cause of the fire, there would have

been fire damage inside of the oven, but there was none.

It looked almost perfect on the inside. There was no

cooking that was going on at any time whenever this

fire started. Plus it was in the cabinet where it started,

which meant that there was some sort of combustible or

gas that was used, some sort of accelerant that started

the fire in the cabinet. But what was the motive? Okay,

sure you could, you know, prosecute somebody without a motive,

but but that really will talk to a jury. Okay,

if the motive was her having a baby, he could

have done something for nine months. So why did he

do it now? Why would he wait until now? Right whenever?

You know she's about to have the baby? And that's

when the word deadline was revisited from his interview. See,

Matt was found in this interview to have been dating

another woman and her name was Katie. Well guess what.

He had been dating Katie for over a year when

Melissa became pregnant. Now, Katie didn't obviously didn't know anything

about Melissa or her pregnancy. So Matt now was saying

no no, no, no, no, I was I had planned

to break up with Katie on the on the twenty fifth,

but he just didn't. He just didn't do it. He

didn't get around to it. So he was going to

break it up with her. So I mean, that wasn't

a big deal. But text messages in his cell phone

found that Matt had had sex with another woman. This

woman's name was Alissa on the night of November the

twenty fourth. But detectors are looking at this going, so,

wait a minute. You called into work on that day

because you were too injured to do anything because your

knee was so injured. But you weren't too injured for

a booty call with a woman who wasn't your girlfriend.

Kind of seems like a lot, huh. Now, some guys

right now are like, oh, yeah, I'll have a booty

call with a hurt knee. But come on, guys, you

know this is this is child's play. Whenever you put

it all together, this is what happened. Matt had a girlfriend,

he was a dog, and he was sleeping around. Melissa

had no idea about that, and she ended up getting

pregnant during a random rendezvous with someone that she considered

to be a friend, and when he found out, he panicked.

That's why he told her to get the abortion, and

she flat out said no, and that's why he ghosted

her so as to not get caught and din and

distance himself from her. And the great news is this.

Melissa was fine with that, but by I don't need you,

I don't want anything, she made that very clear. So

he continued to sleep with other women, even though it

looks like he was supposedly dating this katie chick, and

he planned to just go on with his life being

a deadbeat sperm doner. But that's when Melissa told his

parents about the baby, and when they found out, they

were shocked but thrilled. So when Matt found out about

this and then was basically confronted by his parents with

the information that he was going to have a baby

and why didn't he tell them, he got pissed with Melissa,

but he didn't plan to have anything to do with

Melissa or the baby right Well, that's until his parents

started basically telling him, come on, dude, you need to

man up. You need to take care of your son.

You need to do the right thing. We have a grandchild.

They wanted a part of that grandchild's life. And this

happened very close to the quote unquote deadline of the

baby being born, and so that's why he decided he

had to do something about it before this baby could

even enter in to his life. Turns out this wasn't

a one time thing gone wrong of him showing up

with Melissa, because even when police tried to give him

an out in questioning, you know maybe that you know,

this was an argument that maybe didn't get out of control,

or you know, something happened. I spoke to Melissa's sister

in real life me and she opened my eyes to

some things that I did not know. One night, Melissa,

right very close to her death, was on the phone

with her sister, Cassie, and they were just chit chatting

on the phone, and Melissa was playing on Snapchat on

her phone. Well we all know this if we use snapchat,

but it has that mapping thing where you can look

at it and you can see which friends of yours

are nearby. So she's playing around on the phone and

Melissa just opens up the map to see if any

of her friends or in the nearby area, and that's

when she vocalized that she realized that Matt was near

the house. This is who has not had any contact

with her this entire pregnancy. The thing about it that

was weird was that, you know, she lived in a

more rural area. It was a small town off the

beaten path, way out of the way of where Matt lived,

and certainly off the path where he worked. And so

she said something to Cassie about that, like why would

he be out there? You know, we haven't spoken in forever.

He didn't know anybody out here, Like why is he

out in this area? And so Melissa texted him in

that moment and was like, you know, why are you

near my house? Like what are you doing? But Matt

never answered her. He didn't answer her, but she continued

to look at the map, and then she saw that

his location moved away from her shortly after she texted him.

But then he went and he turned off all of

his location where she couldn't see where he was. It

was weird in the moment, they felt it was weird,

like in their gut, and now looking back on it,

it really was looking like he had been planning to

do her something for a few days based on all

of the timeline events. Matt took off of work to

kill Melissa, but it took him a couple of attempts

to make it happen. So after he started pushing those

couple of days of wanting to see her and being

around her, she really wasn't that interested in him. When

he showed up and he knocked on that door. It's

my belief that she emotionally caved because she wanted her

son to have a dad, and if he was willing

to make this effort to drive all the way out

there to talk to her, even if it was laid

in the pregnancy, she was going to let him in

so that they could talk about the baby. Matt arrived

at the home around one point thirty. He parked blocks

away so that he wouldn't be seen, but the neighbor

ended up seeing him walk anyway, and the lack of

the car told a story. He showed up unexpectedly, as

evidenced by her reaction while on the phone with her sister,

and then Melissa let him in before she was attacked.

At some point. If she wouldn't abort the baby, he

was going to abort both of them. He cracked nine

month pregnant Melissa over the head and he beat her.

Eventually she fell to the ground where he ripped off

of her clothes and brutally raped her both vaginally and

anally while she is nine months pregnant, fighting him off

and trying to get away from him, and once he

got on top, he started strangling her until she took

her last breath. Once she was dead, he got his

fire starting stuff out of his bag. He started the

fire in the cabinets. As the fire grew, he grabbed

his bag, but he forgot his baseball cap and his sunglasses,

possibly knocked off while they were fighting, and then he

went out of the house, locking the door behind him.

As his child was now actively dying in Melissa's womb.

He walked to his car and he drove away, feeling

as though he had just solved all of his problems

and just continued on with his life for a year

as if it was no big deal. It took time,

and it took a lot of effort, but nearly a

year and a half after Melissa and Barrett's death, this

case was brought before a grand jury who issued a

ten count indictment against Matt. Matt Plody was arrested and

charged and would go on trial in March of twenty

twenty four, and Melissa's mama was there for every day

of the trial, and she had a special photo in

her hand the entire time, because when the funeral had

been held a year and a half prior, she took

a photo of baby Barrett, the only one that she

would ever have of her grandson, and his little hand

was in Melissa's and that photo was with Miss Diana,

the grandmother in court every single day as a testament

to her devotion to not only her daughter Melissa, but

also to Barrett. Two lives gone but never to be forgotten.

And after five days of testimony and the attorneys for

Matthew Plody blaming everyone but Matt, including Melissa's own father,

the man that loved her more than life itself, the

jury came back with a guilty verdict and he was

sentenced to a total of seventy five years behind bars,

and considering he was in his late thirties at that point,

he was effectively given life. Matt put on a uniform,

counting on the public to see a firefighter, a protector,

someone people trusted with their lives, but uniforms don't create character,

they just reveal it when the heat is on. When

the woman carrying his child needed courage, honesty, and accountability,

he chose lies. When she deserved a future, he stole

it from her. And when that innocent baby was just

days away from entering the world, he made a choice

that no uniform, no title, and no excuse could ever erase.

Real firefighters run toward day to save lives when the

heat is on. Matthew Plody created life just to destroy it.

I would consider it appropriate that when you hear his

name from this point forward, you don't remember him for

the patches on his sleeve or the truck he climbed into,

because that wasn't real. Remember him for what he proved

he was when nobody was supposed to be looking. Because

at the end of the day, he was not a firefighter.

He was a wanna be wearing the uniform of a

real man, but someone who could never earn the title

of what it means to be a man, nor a father.

And since he is obviously in the business of playing

dress up, he needs to shoot for something a little

more realistic. My immediate suggestion would be exchanging that fireman's

uniform for something maybe a little more feminine, maybe like

a fur, because with the right lighting and sitting on

the floor, you matt or a dead ringer for nothing

more than a little bitch.