March 12, 2026 • 27 mins
On June 9, 2009, Angela Stewart pounded on her neighbor, Mark's, door at around 12:40 AM in Mooresville, North Carolina. They lived in a quiet, suburban neighborhood so getting a panicked knock in the middle of the night was very out of the ordinary.
Mark was shocked when he opened the door and saw Angela and her one year old son covered in blood.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
from family and community members, their statements should not be
considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
(01:10):
inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
At around twelve forty am on June ninth, two thousand
and nine, Angela Stewart, who went by Angel, pounded on
the door of her neighbor Mark Lawson's house in Morrisville,
North Carolina. It's about thirty miles from Charlotte. They lived
in a quiet, suburban neighborhood called Gabriel Estates, so getting
a panic to knock on the door in the middle
(01:51):
of the night was very out of the ordinary. Mark
was shocked when he opened the door and saw Angel
and her one year old son covered in blood. Angel
lived next door with her husband, thirty one year old
Matt Stewart, and their three children. She told Mark that
she had woken up to find a gunman standing in
(02:12):
her bedroom door, that the intruder had opened fire on
her and Matt, and that Matt was fighting the gunman.
Angel had grabbed their one year old son, who was
in bed with them at the time, and ran for
her life. Mark let Angel and her son into the house,
and he called nine one one. According to the nine
to one one call logs, it was twelve forty five
(02:33):
am when Mark Lawson made that call. Four minutes later,
at twelve forty nine am, police and paramedics were rushing
to the scene. Mark Lawson later summarized the conversation he
had with Angel to a local news station, saying, quote,
she came to the door, said she'd been shot, called
nine one one, her husband Matt was struggling with the intruder.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Matt and Angel had an eleven year old daughter named Hannah,
a one year old son, and another three year old daughter.
Hannah was staying with a friend. It was the first
time she had ever spent the night at a friend's house.
Angel had her one year old son in her arms,
which ment her three year old daughter was still in
the house with the killer. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the
(03:23):
past eight years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone,
I've learned that there is no such thing as a
small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds
of messages from people all around the country asking for
help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
and their communities. If you have a cake she liked
me and my team to look into, you can reach
(03:45):
out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at
six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five,
or you can send us a message on Instagram at
Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Dispatcher's rushed
(04:49):
to Matt and Angel's house at one fifty eight Shepherd Drive,
but they did not immediately go inside. Apparently they thought
that this was some kind of a hostage situation and
that the killer could still be inside the home with
Matt and Angel's three year old daughter, so they called
this white team. Now it's unclear why they waited that
(05:09):
long with a house that was dead silent. But when
they finally went into that house at two thirty am,
so over an hour and a half later, they found
the three year old daughter safe and sound. She had
slept through the whole thing. But that was the end
of the good news. Police found Matt's body in the
upstairs bathroom. He had been brutally beaten, stabbed, and shot.
(05:33):
Matt had clearly fought to the death to protect his family,
and his killer or killers were still on the loose.
From the very beginning, it seemed like there were a
lot of things that were unusual about this crime scene.
A lot of the reasons why police made the decisions
that they did can't really be known now because this
(05:54):
is still technically an open investigation. But something prompted police
to contact the squat team. Why did they believe that
this was a hostage situation when there was no sign
of the gunman? And why did they wait so long
if there was literally zero sign of an active shooter.
Police have not said much publicly, but they did make
(06:17):
it clear there was no sign of a forced entry
into the home. Police believed that the killer had escaped
out the back door. The back door had reportedly been
left unlocked. If that's true, this would be very unusual
for the family, because even in a safe neighborhood, they
would normally lock their doors. This was a bizarre twist
(06:40):
in a life that up until then, by all accounts,
had been pretty straightforward. Everyone said Matt Stewart was a nice,
stable guy. Matthew Stewart was born on March fourteenth, nineteen
seventy eight.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
He lived in.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Mooresville for his entire life, which has a population of
just over fifty thousand people and is nicknamed Race City,
USA because it's a major hub for NASCAR. He graduated
from Mooresville High School. He went to Mitchell Community College,
where he earned his associate degree in nursing. He was
made for that kind of work. He loved helping people.
(07:17):
Friends and colleagues said he was kind, compassionate, and smart.
Matt's three children, two daughters and a son, were his
entire world. According to his obituary, Matt was very active
in his church in his twenties and his Christian faith
was very important to him. Friends told police that he
(07:38):
had been involved with drugs in high school and then
he completely cleaned up and changed it. Seemed like he
credited his Christianity with helping him keep his life on track.
Several years before the murder, Matt met Angel in church.
At the time, she was a twenty year old single mom.
Matt fell in love with Angel and wanted to marry
(08:00):
her and help raise her daughter, and so that's what
they did. Four months after they met, Matt and Angel
got married. Matt went on to adopt Angel's older daughter, Hannah,
and he and Angel went on to have their daughter
and then their son together. Matt and Angel both worked
as nurses. Matt was a nurse at Lake Norman Regional
Medical Center, where he was highly regarded for his work, ethic,
(08:23):
for his spirit. Everyone loved him and respected him. Angel
also worked in nursing. She was enrolled in a nursing
program at the time of the murder. She also worked
at Carolina's Medical Center. Besides their work and their kids,
Matt and Angel were both very passionate about and involved
with their church, Riverlife Fellowship, where Matt volunteered with youth ministries. Now,
(08:48):
everyone may have said that Matt adored his family and
got along with everybody, but anytime something like this happens,
it's natural to ask who someone's enemies were, and in
this case it was hard to figure out. In fact,
detectives were struggling to find a motive at all, and
the only witness they had was Angel. At first, police
(09:08):
thought this could have been a straight up home invasion,
a robbery gone wrong, but the evidence did not match
that theory because, first of all, nothing had been stolen
from the home. Secondly, despite this brutal battle to the death,
police were having difficulty tracing the killer's trail. Angel's mother,
Brenda Hare, made some early statements to reporters. She indicated
(09:31):
there was a lot of blood in the bedroom and
the bathroom. Matt had bled heavily. The fight was brutal
and prolonged, and yet there seemed to be no trace
of blood anywhere other than the master bedroom and the
bathroom through there were no drips of blood leading out
the door or anywhere else. While the police and SWAT
(09:51):
team were in this standoff waiting outside the home, paramedics
were tending to Angel and her one year old son.
Angel had been shot once in the arm, reportedly in
the wrist. One of her family members wrote a post
online stating that the bullet had gone clean through her arm.
After she was examined, both she and her child were
(10:12):
taken from her neighbor Mark's house to a local hospital,
where her wound was treated. A lot of people have
commented on this. On Angel leaving the scene with her
son and leaving her daughter behind in that house, Some
people find that strange. They say her maternal instinct should
have taken over, and even if she was afraid for
(10:32):
her life, they questioned why she would leave her second child.
But I can somewhat understand Angel may have been in
shock trying to help her son. What I can't understand
is that after that, Angel was taken to the hospital
for what seemed to be a superficial wound, rather than
staying at the scene while police waited to see if
there was an active shooter with her other child inside
(10:55):
her home. When police initially asked Angel about the intruder,
she said that she woke up and saw a shadowy
figure in the doorway. She said the assassin didn't say anything,
just started opening fire on them. Then, she said, Matt
jumped up out of the bed and fought him. She
grabbed her son and ran. Police canvassed the neighborhood, but
(11:19):
None of Matt and Angel's neighbors reported hearing anything unusual,
no loud sounds, no gunshots, nothing odd until they heard
the police cars. But at some point, and it's not
clear exactly when these details leaked out, Angel was able
to give police a description of the intruder. She said
she couldn't really see anything except that he was very tall.
(11:43):
A police started looking into similar crimes, and one name
came up pretty early in the investigation. Patrick Tracy Burris.
Patrick Tracy Burris was a spree killer who committed a
(12:04):
string of murders in Gaffney, South Carolina, in Cherokee County.
It started on June twenty seventh, two thousand and nine,
when he fatally shot a peach farmer named Clein Cash
in his home. Police found the next victims four days later,
Hazel Linder and her daughter Gina Linder Parker. Both of
them had been gunned down in their own homes. Then,
(12:26):
on July second, Patrick came into a furniture store. He
shot the owner, Stephen Tyler, and his daughter, Abbey, both
of them later died. Law enforcement in the area were
understandably panicked about a spree killer who was murdering and
robbing citizens seemingly at random, and so was the community.
They were wondering who is going to be next. On
(12:48):
July sixth, two thousand and nine, Patrick got into a
shootout with police and was fatally shot by an officer.
Police later matched Patrick's twenty five caliber gun to the
killings in Gaffney and found items from some of the
victim's homes in his possession. They realized that he had
been robbing people. Later, there was outrage when it was
(13:09):
discovered that Patrick had been released from a ten year
sentence early, which allowed him to commit these murders. There
did seem to be some circumstantial similarities in that the
crimes were seemingly totally random, but there were other differences.
For one thing, Patrick's murders all happened in a small,
confined area near Gaffney. Secondly, he didn't leave his victims alive,
(13:32):
at least not knowingly. He shot everyone he encountered, though
some of Patrick's victims died later in the hospital. And finally,
Patrick stole things from the houses he went into. The
police did take a hard look at him because he
was a spree killer, and also he was very tall.
The way Angel described Matt's killer. Patrick was over six
(13:53):
foot five. The Morrisville Chief of Police, Karl Robbins, later
addressed this, telling the media quote, we don't have anything
that links him to us right now, other than that
he's been in the general area end quote. The theory
about Patrick being the killer seemed to be put to
rest for good after law enforcement tested his guns. Patrick
(14:14):
used a twenty five caliber weapon in all of his
known kills, and that was the only firearm he was
believed to own. This firearm did not match the thirty
eight and forty caliber ammunition found at Matt's crime scene.
We're going to get back to that ammunition in a minute,
because that is another bizarre detail of this case that
has never been resolved.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
For now.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Let's put a pin in that. Law enforcement confirmed the
bizarre nature of Matt's case in two thousand and nine
when the police chief told WBTV, quote, this is a
very strange case, and detectives are putting all of their
resources into trying to find the killer. End quote. In
January of twenty ten, nearly six months after Matt was
(14:56):
brutally murdered, police released a composite sketch. The killer was
described as a tall, large framed man weighing around two
hundred and fifty pounds. Police also announced an eleven thousand
dollars reward for anyone with any information that could help
lead to Matt's killer. After the initial headlines, the case
(15:16):
kind of seemed to fade away. Matt and Angels families
didn't really speak publicly about the case, but without public
outreach by the police or Matt's family, no one in
the area heard about the home invasion murder. In twenty eleven,
according to the Morrisville Tribune, the police did make some
more information public. They stated that Matt's autopsy quote showed
(15:40):
several defensive stab wounds in addition to the gunshot WANs
that killed him end quote. But still they seemed to
have no suspects, and after that information dropped, nothing seemed
to happen until twenty eighteen, when Freddie Wilson released a
podcast called Unforgotten, the Unsolved Murder of Matt Stewart. Freddy
(16:01):
didn't know Matt personally, but we talked to him about
his connection to the case and to Matt's church.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
So I went to a very small private Christian school.
I was in sixth grade in two thousand and four,
I believe more so Christian Academy. It was affiliated with
a church called Riverlife Fellowship. My graduating class was of
thirteen and I think it was the largest graduating class
(16:29):
that ever went through the school. It shut down, I
think the year after I graduated, but it was a
very close knit maybe seventy five percent of the kids
that went to the school their families were members of
the church. And while I was attending in two thousand
and nine, over this summer there was someone that was
(16:51):
very prominent in the church and he was murdered.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
As the subject of.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
The podcast, I sent shot waves through the community and
particularly the folks that I was close with in the school,
some of my teachers who were also at the church,
some of them pastors. So I kind of grew up
hearing about the case and being there when people were
talking about it very emotionally.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Though this case is still an open investigation and we
can't get many documents via FOYA, as Freddie pointed out
in his podcast, some documents have been made public. They
include the medical Examiner's report, and the medical examiner's report
highlights another strange fact in this case, the fact that
Matt was shot numerous times with two different caliber bullets.
(17:36):
He was shot with both thirty eight and forty caliber bullets.
This could mean either there was more than one killer,
or that there was one killer who for some reason
had different types of ammunition, or that there was one
killer with two different guns. We know from what police
released in twenty eleven that after shooting Matt several times,
(17:58):
his killer began stabbing him in a frenzy. The medical
examiner's report states that Matt had multiple defensive wounds that
indicated he did try to fight while he was being attacked.
Matt was shot multiple times in the face, chest, arm,
and back. He was also stabbed several times in the face, neck,
and shoulder. In addition to shooting and stabbing him, Matt's
(18:21):
killer beat him with a heavy object. This caused blunt
force trauma wounds and defensive wounds on his hands. Police
said that the crime scene was covered in blood and
that it appeared as though the fight had traveled into
the bathroom. What can we learn from this? Matt fought
hard for his life. That's obvious. It's also striking. The
(18:43):
killer didn't just incapacitate Matt. They made a point to
finish him off. To police, this was appearing less and
less like a random shooting and more and more like
Matt had been specifically targeted. It seemed clear from police
statements there were several oddities at Matt Stewart's crime scene.
(19:05):
Matt was shot several times with two different types of ammunition,
but there were reportedly no shell casings found at the scene.
This appeared to be a bedroom ambush homicide, because otherwise
it would be very unusual for a robber to come
into a home late at night, not steal anything, and
then go straight to the bedroom and then to attack
(19:26):
one person with several different weapons. Most home invaders who
are targeting someone's stuff will just leave when they realize
there are people home. Angel didn't say anything about the killers,
telling them they wanted money or giving them any kind
of verbal demands. Whoever it was, came into the house
and just in her words, opened fire immediately. Then once
(19:49):
they brutally killed Matt, they let Angel escape. If the
killer or killers were so worried about having witnesses, they
made sure to eliminate Matt by using two or potentially
three different weapons. Why let Angel leave, of course, any
time that a spouse has murdered and there's no immediate motive.
The wife is always questioned and police did talk to Angel,
(20:11):
but it's unclear what happened during those interviews. In twenty eighteen,
before he released the Unforgotten podcast, Freddie did speak to
Matt's sister, but for the most part, Angel's family has
largely avoided speaking to any media outlet so far. In fact,
they made it clear to Freddy they did not appreciate
him making the podcast. But Angel has spoken out in
(20:34):
recent years, in an episode of Dave Ramsey's podcast and
also in a video posted on YouTube. She has also
talked to people at her church about the attack, and
when she spoke to the congregation, she said that she
had been questioned by police and given a lie detector test.
Angel has never been charged with any wrongdoing and there's
no suggestion she has ever been considered a suspect.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
She gave a public talk at a church. She mentioned
being polygraphed in that talk, so that would give some
further evidence that she was questioned.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
But from what I heard, yes, she was questioned, and
you know, there had always been an underlying presumption that
this was someone that.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Was close to Matt.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Not quoting police or any came, but from what I've gleaned,
you can hear in some of the episodes people talking
that it was if not a crime of passion, just
a crime of real emotions someone that knew and was
familiar with Matt.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
In the music video for a band called Big Daddy
Weave on YouTube, Angel talks about her faith and how
it got her through the dark days of her husband's murder.
She also gives more details about the night Matt was killed.
She said that they were together in bed and that
he went to ten to their son. Then she said
he brought their son into.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
The bed with them.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Angel made a comment about how she believed that he
was a better and more attentive parent than her, But
she said after Matt brought their son into the bedroom
that night that Matt said their son just needed as mommy.
Angel went on to say what a wonderful father Matt was.
In that video, there were a couple of details that
I had not heard publicly before. In the incident report,
(22:31):
Angel said that she woke up to a shadowy figure
who opened fire, But then in this YouTube video, she
said she heard a sound and woke up before seeing
the mysterious figure in the doorway. It's a tiny difference,
but who knows. There may be more details that could
help lead to the killer. Police have said they have
(22:51):
no usable physical evidence, which seems odd as well because
this was a pretty large crime scene. Maybe they collected
no DNA, or there's another possibility that police did collect DNA,
but that the foreign DNA if it wasn't either Matt's
or Angels, could have been someone who had a connection
with Matt or Angel. Maybe it was someone the couple knew,
(23:12):
someone close to them, maybe someone who would have a
reason for their DNA to be inside the home. Could
this have been a contract killing, and if so, who
would have wanted to hurt Matt. There were some very
early rumors of drug involvement, but there has been absolutely
no reason to believe that Matt was in any way
involved with drugs since high school. What we know for
(23:35):
sure is that once the killer got inside that house,
they seemed determined to finish the job. Whoever attacked Matt
brutally beat and shot and stabbed him. He was the target.
There have been other brutal home invasions, some that have
happened under bizarre circumstances and remain unsolved. We're going to
(23:56):
be covering another home invasion murder in an upcoming episode,
the killing of twenty five year old Josh Shulman on
outer Bridge Lane in South Carolina. His father, Larry Shulman,
was also pistol whipped and shot in the attack, but
Larry survived. Larry told reporters that the police considered him
a suspect due to the fact that Larry's mother was
(24:17):
dying and left some money to Josh, which brings up
a natural question in Matt's case. Is there any indication
that Angel or anyone else could have gained financially from
Matt's death. There have been rumors that Matt was having
financial problems. A former colleague of Matt posted on Facebook
that he remembered Matt Ann had worked with him at
(24:37):
the hospital where Matt was on the day shift. This
person said they were on the night shift. This person
claimed about a week before his death that Matt was
taking extra ships at the hospital due to what this
person had been told by a charge nurse was money issues.
But it's important to note this is only third hand information.
(24:57):
There's nothing available publicly that I've found that indicates that
Angel and Matt's debts were anything more than what any
normal young couple with a family was facing. Brenda told
reporters that Matt and Angel had just paid off their
student loans and that they both had good jobs. Angel
stated in the YouTube video that she had remarried. She
(25:18):
was introduced to her husband through a friend who thought
they should meet because they had both suffered tragedy. He
had also lost his wife. Reportedly, she died of cancer.
Angel said she credits her new husband and her Christian
faith with getting her through the darkest times after the murder.
I completely respect Matt and Angel's families desire to move
(25:40):
on with their lives, even though I have no desire
to retraumatize a family. It's terrifying to me that this
killer is probably still out there and they could do
this to someone else. We need to know why did
this killer target Matt? Why take the time to brutally
eliminate him using three different weapons? Could this be someone
(26:03):
close to Matt and if so, are they still living
in the community.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Understandably, the public is very interested in this. It's a
notable person and it's a horrible crime and they're not
telling the public everything. Of course they can and shouldn't,
but that kind of feedback and communication typically happens in
cases like this. Even if you're not getting a lot
of information, none of those things are happening.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
So it seems I think to many of the people
that I talk to in the community, especially people.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
That really cared about Matt, that they're not doing anything,
and fears start to set in.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Is there something that went wrong with the investigation.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
There's been some real political upheaval in Morrisville, particularly in
the last couple of years, and allegations of corruption has
played the department for.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
A long time.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
But I think most people have a lot of grace
and respect for what law enforcement do and that they
can't come and tell everybody everything all the time.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
But I think that trust kind of erodes year after.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Year, as especially as there's silence and what has happened
locally to people in the community getting not only the
cold shoulder, but feeling like they're doing something wrong.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen
Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans
and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine
Townsend and produced by Etily's Perez Special thanks to Amy
Tubbs for her research assistance and James Wheaton for legal review.
Noah camer mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song
(27:41):
is by Ben Sale, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
and L. C. Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad free
by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel on
Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing documents and
materials from the case, you can follow the show on
Instagram at Helen Gonepod. If you have a case you'd
(28:02):
like me and my team to look into, you can
reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line
at six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
School of Humans
School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
from family and community members, their statements should not be
considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
(01:10):
inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
At around twelve forty am on June ninth, two thousand
and nine, Angela Stewart, who went by Angel, pounded on
the door of her neighbor Mark Lawson's house in Morrisville,
North Carolina. It's about thirty miles from Charlotte. They lived
in a quiet, suburban neighborhood called Gabriel Estates, so getting
a panic to knock on the door in the middle
(01:51):
of the night was very out of the ordinary. Mark
was shocked when he opened the door and saw Angel
and her one year old son covered in blood. Angel
lived next door with her husband, thirty one year old
Matt Stewart, and their three children. She told Mark that
she had woken up to find a gunman standing in
(02:12):
her bedroom door, that the intruder had opened fire on
her and Matt, and that Matt was fighting the gunman.
Angel had grabbed their one year old son, who was
in bed with them at the time, and ran for
her life. Mark let Angel and her son into the house,
and he called nine one one. According to the nine
to one one call logs, it was twelve forty five
(02:33):
am when Mark Lawson made that call. Four minutes later,
at twelve forty nine am, police and paramedics were rushing
to the scene. Mark Lawson later summarized the conversation he
had with Angel to a local news station, saying, quote,
she came to the door, said she'd been shot, called
nine one one, her husband Matt was struggling with the intruder.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Matt and Angel had an eleven year old daughter named Hannah,
a one year old son, and another three year old daughter.
Hannah was staying with a friend. It was the first
time she had ever spent the night at a friend's house.
Angel had her one year old son in her arms,
which ment her three year old daughter was still in
the house with the killer. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the
(03:23):
past eight years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone,
I've learned that there is no such thing as a
small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds
of messages from people all around the country asking for
help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
and their communities. If you have a cake she liked
me and my team to look into, you can reach
(03:45):
out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at
six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five,
or you can send us a message on Instagram at
Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Dispatcher's rushed
(04:49):
to Matt and Angel's house at one fifty eight Shepherd Drive,
but they did not immediately go inside. Apparently they thought
that this was some kind of a hostage situation and
that the killer could still be inside the home with
Matt and Angel's three year old daughter, so they called
this white team. Now it's unclear why they waited that
(05:09):
long with a house that was dead silent. But when
they finally went into that house at two thirty am,
so over an hour and a half later, they found
the three year old daughter safe and sound. She had
slept through the whole thing. But that was the end
of the good news. Police found Matt's body in the
upstairs bathroom. He had been brutally beaten, stabbed, and shot.
(05:33):
Matt had clearly fought to the death to protect his family,
and his killer or killers were still on the loose.
From the very beginning, it seemed like there were a
lot of things that were unusual about this crime scene.
A lot of the reasons why police made the decisions
that they did can't really be known now because this
(05:54):
is still technically an open investigation. But something prompted police
to contact the squat team. Why did they believe that
this was a hostage situation when there was no sign
of the gunman? And why did they wait so long
if there was literally zero sign of an active shooter.
Police have not said much publicly, but they did make
(06:17):
it clear there was no sign of a forced entry
into the home. Police believed that the killer had escaped
out the back door. The back door had reportedly been
left unlocked. If that's true, this would be very unusual
for the family, because even in a safe neighborhood, they
would normally lock their doors. This was a bizarre twist
(06:40):
in a life that up until then, by all accounts,
had been pretty straightforward. Everyone said Matt Stewart was a nice,
stable guy. Matthew Stewart was born on March fourteenth, nineteen
seventy eight.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
He lived in.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Mooresville for his entire life, which has a population of
just over fifty thousand people and is nicknamed Race City,
USA because it's a major hub for NASCAR. He graduated
from Mooresville High School. He went to Mitchell Community College,
where he earned his associate degree in nursing. He was
made for that kind of work. He loved helping people.
(07:17):
Friends and colleagues said he was kind, compassionate, and smart.
Matt's three children, two daughters and a son, were his
entire world. According to his obituary, Matt was very active
in his church in his twenties and his Christian faith
was very important to him. Friends told police that he
(07:38):
had been involved with drugs in high school and then
he completely cleaned up and changed it. Seemed like he
credited his Christianity with helping him keep his life on track.
Several years before the murder, Matt met Angel in church.
At the time, she was a twenty year old single mom.
Matt fell in love with Angel and wanted to marry
(08:00):
her and help raise her daughter, and so that's what
they did. Four months after they met, Matt and Angel
got married. Matt went on to adopt Angel's older daughter, Hannah,
and he and Angel went on to have their daughter
and then their son together. Matt and Angel both worked
as nurses. Matt was a nurse at Lake Norman Regional
Medical Center, where he was highly regarded for his work, ethic,
(08:23):
for his spirit. Everyone loved him and respected him. Angel
also worked in nursing. She was enrolled in a nursing
program at the time of the murder. She also worked
at Carolina's Medical Center. Besides their work and their kids,
Matt and Angel were both very passionate about and involved
with their church, Riverlife Fellowship, where Matt volunteered with youth ministries. Now,
(08:48):
everyone may have said that Matt adored his family and
got along with everybody, but anytime something like this happens,
it's natural to ask who someone's enemies were, and in
this case it was hard to figure out. In fact,
detectives were struggling to find a motive at all, and
the only witness they had was Angel. At first, police
(09:08):
thought this could have been a straight up home invasion,
a robbery gone wrong, but the evidence did not match
that theory because, first of all, nothing had been stolen
from the home. Secondly, despite this brutal battle to the death,
police were having difficulty tracing the killer's trail. Angel's mother,
Brenda Hare, made some early statements to reporters. She indicated
(09:31):
there was a lot of blood in the bedroom and
the bathroom. Matt had bled heavily. The fight was brutal
and prolonged, and yet there seemed to be no trace
of blood anywhere other than the master bedroom and the
bathroom through there were no drips of blood leading out
the door or anywhere else. While the police and SWAT
(09:51):
team were in this standoff waiting outside the home, paramedics
were tending to Angel and her one year old son.
Angel had been shot once in the arm, reportedly in
the wrist. One of her family members wrote a post
online stating that the bullet had gone clean through her arm.
After she was examined, both she and her child were
(10:12):
taken from her neighbor Mark's house to a local hospital,
where her wound was treated. A lot of people have
commented on this. On Angel leaving the scene with her
son and leaving her daughter behind in that house, Some
people find that strange. They say her maternal instinct should
have taken over, and even if she was afraid for
(10:32):
her life, they questioned why she would leave her second child.
But I can somewhat understand Angel may have been in
shock trying to help her son. What I can't understand
is that after that, Angel was taken to the hospital
for what seemed to be a superficial wound, rather than
staying at the scene while police waited to see if
there was an active shooter with her other child inside
(10:55):
her home. When police initially asked Angel about the intruder,
she said that she woke up and saw a shadowy
figure in the doorway. She said the assassin didn't say anything,
just started opening fire on them. Then, she said, Matt
jumped up out of the bed and fought him. She
grabbed her son and ran. Police canvassed the neighborhood, but
(11:19):
None of Matt and Angel's neighbors reported hearing anything unusual,
no loud sounds, no gunshots, nothing odd until they heard
the police cars. But at some point, and it's not
clear exactly when these details leaked out, Angel was able
to give police a description of the intruder. She said
she couldn't really see anything except that he was very tall.
(11:43):
A police started looking into similar crimes, and one name
came up pretty early in the investigation. Patrick Tracy Burris.
Patrick Tracy Burris was a spree killer who committed a
(12:04):
string of murders in Gaffney, South Carolina, in Cherokee County.
It started on June twenty seventh, two thousand and nine,
when he fatally shot a peach farmer named Clein Cash
in his home. Police found the next victims four days later,
Hazel Linder and her daughter Gina Linder Parker. Both of
them had been gunned down in their own homes. Then,
(12:26):
on July second, Patrick came into a furniture store. He
shot the owner, Stephen Tyler, and his daughter, Abbey, both
of them later died. Law enforcement in the area were
understandably panicked about a spree killer who was murdering and
robbing citizens seemingly at random, and so was the community.
They were wondering who is going to be next. On
(12:48):
July sixth, two thousand and nine, Patrick got into a
shootout with police and was fatally shot by an officer.
Police later matched Patrick's twenty five caliber gun to the
killings in Gaffney and found items from some of the
victim's homes in his possession. They realized that he had
been robbing people. Later, there was outrage when it was
(13:09):
discovered that Patrick had been released from a ten year
sentence early, which allowed him to commit these murders. There
did seem to be some circumstantial similarities in that the
crimes were seemingly totally random, but there were other differences.
For one thing, Patrick's murders all happened in a small,
confined area near Gaffney. Secondly, he didn't leave his victims alive,
(13:32):
at least not knowingly. He shot everyone he encountered, though
some of Patrick's victims died later in the hospital. And finally,
Patrick stole things from the houses he went into. The
police did take a hard look at him because he
was a spree killer, and also he was very tall.
The way Angel described Matt's killer. Patrick was over six
(13:53):
foot five. The Morrisville Chief of Police, Karl Robbins, later
addressed this, telling the media quote, we don't have anything
that links him to us right now, other than that
he's been in the general area end quote. The theory
about Patrick being the killer seemed to be put to
rest for good after law enforcement tested his guns. Patrick
(14:14):
used a twenty five caliber weapon in all of his
known kills, and that was the only firearm he was
believed to own. This firearm did not match the thirty
eight and forty caliber ammunition found at Matt's crime scene.
We're going to get back to that ammunition in a minute,
because that is another bizarre detail of this case that
has never been resolved.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
For now.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Let's put a pin in that. Law enforcement confirmed the
bizarre nature of Matt's case in two thousand and nine
when the police chief told WBTV, quote, this is a
very strange case, and detectives are putting all of their
resources into trying to find the killer. End quote. In
January of twenty ten, nearly six months after Matt was
(14:56):
brutally murdered, police released a composite sketch. The killer was
described as a tall, large framed man weighing around two
hundred and fifty pounds. Police also announced an eleven thousand
dollars reward for anyone with any information that could help
lead to Matt's killer. After the initial headlines, the case
(15:16):
kind of seemed to fade away. Matt and Angels families
didn't really speak publicly about the case, but without public
outreach by the police or Matt's family, no one in
the area heard about the home invasion murder. In twenty eleven,
according to the Morrisville Tribune, the police did make some
more information public. They stated that Matt's autopsy quote showed
(15:40):
several defensive stab wounds in addition to the gunshot WANs
that killed him end quote. But still they seemed to
have no suspects, and after that information dropped, nothing seemed
to happen until twenty eighteen, when Freddie Wilson released a
podcast called Unforgotten, the Unsolved Murder of Matt Stewart. Freddy
(16:01):
didn't know Matt personally, but we talked to him about
his connection to the case and to Matt's church.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
So I went to a very small private Christian school.
I was in sixth grade in two thousand and four,
I believe more so Christian Academy. It was affiliated with
a church called Riverlife Fellowship. My graduating class was of
thirteen and I think it was the largest graduating class
(16:29):
that ever went through the school. It shut down, I
think the year after I graduated, but it was a
very close knit maybe seventy five percent of the kids
that went to the school their families were members of
the church. And while I was attending in two thousand
and nine, over this summer there was someone that was
(16:51):
very prominent in the church and he was murdered.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
As the subject of.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
The podcast, I sent shot waves through the community and
particularly the folks that I was close with in the school,
some of my teachers who were also at the church,
some of them pastors. So I kind of grew up
hearing about the case and being there when people were
talking about it very emotionally.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Though this case is still an open investigation and we
can't get many documents via FOYA, as Freddie pointed out
in his podcast, some documents have been made public. They
include the medical Examiner's report, and the medical examiner's report
highlights another strange fact in this case, the fact that
Matt was shot numerous times with two different caliber bullets.
(17:36):
He was shot with both thirty eight and forty caliber bullets.
This could mean either there was more than one killer,
or that there was one killer who for some reason
had different types of ammunition, or that there was one
killer with two different guns. We know from what police
released in twenty eleven that after shooting Matt several times,
(17:58):
his killer began stabbing him in a frenzy. The medical
examiner's report states that Matt had multiple defensive wounds that
indicated he did try to fight while he was being attacked.
Matt was shot multiple times in the face, chest, arm,
and back. He was also stabbed several times in the face, neck,
and shoulder. In addition to shooting and stabbing him, Matt's
(18:21):
killer beat him with a heavy object. This caused blunt
force trauma wounds and defensive wounds on his hands. Police
said that the crime scene was covered in blood and
that it appeared as though the fight had traveled into
the bathroom. What can we learn from this? Matt fought
hard for his life. That's obvious. It's also striking. The
(18:43):
killer didn't just incapacitate Matt. They made a point to
finish him off. To police, this was appearing less and
less like a random shooting and more and more like
Matt had been specifically targeted. It seemed clear from police
statements there were several oddities at Matt Stewart's crime scene.
(19:05):
Matt was shot several times with two different types of ammunition,
but there were reportedly no shell casings found at the scene.
This appeared to be a bedroom ambush homicide, because otherwise
it would be very unusual for a robber to come
into a home late at night, not steal anything, and
then go straight to the bedroom and then to attack
(19:26):
one person with several different weapons. Most home invaders who
are targeting someone's stuff will just leave when they realize
there are people home. Angel didn't say anything about the killers,
telling them they wanted money or giving them any kind
of verbal demands. Whoever it was, came into the house
and just in her words, opened fire immediately. Then once
(19:49):
they brutally killed Matt, they let Angel escape. If the
killer or killers were so worried about having witnesses, they
made sure to eliminate Matt by using two or potentially
three different weapons. Why let Angel leave, of course, any
time that a spouse has murdered and there's no immediate motive.
The wife is always questioned and police did talk to Angel,
(20:11):
but it's unclear what happened during those interviews. In twenty eighteen,
before he released the Unforgotten podcast, Freddie did speak to
Matt's sister, but for the most part, Angel's family has
largely avoided speaking to any media outlet so far. In fact,
they made it clear to Freddy they did not appreciate
him making the podcast. But Angel has spoken out in
(20:34):
recent years, in an episode of Dave Ramsey's podcast and
also in a video posted on YouTube. She has also
talked to people at her church about the attack, and
when she spoke to the congregation, she said that she
had been questioned by police and given a lie detector test.
Angel has never been charged with any wrongdoing and there's
no suggestion she has ever been considered a suspect.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
She gave a public talk at a church. She mentioned
being polygraphed in that talk, so that would give some
further evidence that she was questioned.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
But from what I heard, yes, she was questioned, and
you know, there had always been an underlying presumption that
this was someone that.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Was close to Matt.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Not quoting police or any came, but from what I've gleaned,
you can hear in some of the episodes people talking
that it was if not a crime of passion, just
a crime of real emotions someone that knew and was
familiar with Matt.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
In the music video for a band called Big Daddy
Weave on YouTube, Angel talks about her faith and how
it got her through the dark days of her husband's murder.
She also gives more details about the night Matt was killed.
She said that they were together in bed and that
he went to ten to their son. Then she said
he brought their son into.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
The bed with them.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Angel made a comment about how she believed that he
was a better and more attentive parent than her, But
she said after Matt brought their son into the bedroom
that night that Matt said their son just needed as mommy.
Angel went on to say what a wonderful father Matt was.
In that video, there were a couple of details that
I had not heard publicly before. In the incident report,
(22:31):
Angel said that she woke up to a shadowy figure
who opened fire, But then in this YouTube video, she
said she heard a sound and woke up before seeing
the mysterious figure in the doorway. It's a tiny difference,
but who knows. There may be more details that could
help lead to the killer. Police have said they have
(22:51):
no usable physical evidence, which seems odd as well because
this was a pretty large crime scene. Maybe they collected
no DNA, or there's another possibility that police did collect DNA,
but that the foreign DNA if it wasn't either Matt's
or Angels, could have been someone who had a connection
with Matt or Angel. Maybe it was someone the couple knew,
(23:12):
someone close to them, maybe someone who would have a
reason for their DNA to be inside the home. Could
this have been a contract killing, and if so, who
would have wanted to hurt Matt. There were some very
early rumors of drug involvement, but there has been absolutely
no reason to believe that Matt was in any way
involved with drugs since high school. What we know for
(23:35):
sure is that once the killer got inside that house,
they seemed determined to finish the job. Whoever attacked Matt
brutally beat and shot and stabbed him. He was the target.
There have been other brutal home invasions, some that have
happened under bizarre circumstances and remain unsolved. We're going to
(23:56):
be covering another home invasion murder in an upcoming episode,
the killing of twenty five year old Josh Shulman on
outer Bridge Lane in South Carolina. His father, Larry Shulman,
was also pistol whipped and shot in the attack, but
Larry survived. Larry told reporters that the police considered him
a suspect due to the fact that Larry's mother was
(24:17):
dying and left some money to Josh, which brings up
a natural question in Matt's case. Is there any indication
that Angel or anyone else could have gained financially from
Matt's death. There have been rumors that Matt was having
financial problems. A former colleague of Matt posted on Facebook
that he remembered Matt Ann had worked with him at
(24:37):
the hospital where Matt was on the day shift. This
person said they were on the night shift. This person
claimed about a week before his death that Matt was
taking extra ships at the hospital due to what this
person had been told by a charge nurse was money issues.
But it's important to note this is only third hand information.
(24:57):
There's nothing available publicly that I've found that indicates that
Angel and Matt's debts were anything more than what any
normal young couple with a family was facing. Brenda told
reporters that Matt and Angel had just paid off their
student loans and that they both had good jobs. Angel
stated in the YouTube video that she had remarried. She
(25:18):
was introduced to her husband through a friend who thought
they should meet because they had both suffered tragedy. He
had also lost his wife. Reportedly, she died of cancer.
Angel said she credits her new husband and her Christian
faith with getting her through the darkest times after the murder.
I completely respect Matt and Angel's families desire to move
(25:40):
on with their lives, even though I have no desire
to retraumatize a family. It's terrifying to me that this
killer is probably still out there and they could do
this to someone else. We need to know why did
this killer target Matt? Why take the time to brutally
eliminate him using three different weapons? Could this be someone
(26:03):
close to Matt and if so, are they still living
in the community.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Understandably, the public is very interested in this. It's a
notable person and it's a horrible crime and they're not
telling the public everything. Of course they can and shouldn't,
but that kind of feedback and communication typically happens in
cases like this. Even if you're not getting a lot
of information, none of those things are happening.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
So it seems I think to many of the people
that I talk to in the community, especially people.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
That really cared about Matt, that they're not doing anything,
and fears start to set in.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Is there something that went wrong with the investigation.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
There's been some real political upheaval in Morrisville, particularly in
the last couple of years, and allegations of corruption has
played the department for.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
A long time.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
But I think most people have a lot of grace
and respect for what law enforcement do and that they
can't come and tell everybody everything all the time.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
But I think that trust kind of erodes year after.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Year, as especially as there's silence and what has happened
locally to people in the community getting not only the
cold shoulder, but feeling like they're doing something wrong.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen
Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans
and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine
Townsend and produced by Etily's Perez Special thanks to Amy
Tubbs for her research assistance and James Wheaton for legal review.
Noah camer mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song
(27:41):
is by Ben Sale, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
and L. C. Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad free
by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel on
Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing documents and
materials from the case, you can follow the show on
Instagram at Helen Gonepod. If you have a case you'd
(28:02):
like me and my team to look into, you can
reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line
at six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
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