KATE MISHKIN-HELLO JOHN DOE

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Episode Transcript

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This is Later with Lee Matthews,The Lee Matthews Podcast more what you hear
weekday afternoons on the Drive. KateMichigan is a podcaster and a reporter.
Her printing reporting has appeared in theLa Times, pro Public of The Guardian.
Her podcast includes Smokescreen, Dagdly Cure, Very Scary People, The Amityville

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Murders and more, and her newattention falls on a podcast called Hello John
Doe. First of all, welcomeKate Michigan, and let's start with the
story of Todd Matthews. Thanks forhaving me. Todd Matthews was a amateur
sleuth from a very small town inTennessee. He got started because he got

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very interested in the case of awoman named ten Girl, and she was
a body without a name, andhe spent years hunting down her real identity
and that kind of launched his career. He worked for the DJ as a
working for a database that basically housesmissing folks and unidentified folks, as in
like if you you know, ifyou go missing and no one knows where

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you are, and unfortunately this isa morbid example, but there's a dead
body. He was able to matchthe two and so that led him to
the case of Steve Patterson. Wasit was a missing person's case. This
boy went missing in nineteen seventy fouras an infant. No one knew what
happened to him, and Todd beingTodd, sunk his teeth into it and

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just couldn't let it go, andthen and then kind of did let it
go. And then in twenty nineteenSteve called him and he was that missing
person. So did this guy haveany forensic experience at all or any medical
experience at all? No, that'sodd. He didn't. He worked at
a factory working on air conditioning arts. He just taught that drive and everything

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else I think was taught on thejob. And what in him interested him
so much about these cases? Imean, was he did he consider himself
an amateur sleuth? Was he readinga lot of Sherlock Holmes books? No,
I don't think he did. Ithink what really interested him in him?
What interested him about these kinds ofcases. I think Tom just had

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a huge heart and a real curiosity, and his real it came from within
and his drive to do this.He when he was a little kid.
Two of his siblings were born anddied within days, and I think that
really had an indelible mark on him. It made him think about death and

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and he felt like, at leastI know where they are, That's what
he said. At least I knowwhere these kids are, where they're buried.
Imagine missing someone and never finding themagain, or imagine being a John
Doe that that that person has noidentity. And I think that just kind
of you know, that that Ican imagine would have a different effect on
different people, And I think forhim it just kind of struck something in

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his soul. Plus, it soundslike he had a pretty regular job,
so maybe he had more time onhis hands to look into this when the
authorities didn't. That's true, Ithink he did. I think he worked
a lot of nate late nights doingthis. This was kind of the dawn
of the internet, so he wasthis was at a time where if you
were only on the internet and someonewas on the phone, that would,

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you know, bump you off thecomputer. Anyone frommers that. But he
would do it late at night,so no one would be calling the house,
and his kids would be sleeping andhis wife would be asleep, and
so he kind of stayed up allnight sleeping Kate Michigan is with us.
The podcast is called Hello John Dowit'sthe story of Todd Matthews. No relation

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to Lead Matthews. By the way. I'm not nearly this much of a
sleuth, but so now he hehas grown this now to the point where
even authorities across the country refer tohim when they're looking for somebody or something.
That's right. Yeah, he waspicked up by the DA and so
he did a ton of work there, and yeah, there were thousands of

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these cases. And you know,I even cross paths with him in twenty
seventeen as a cup reporter in VirginiaBeach and I was interested in cases of
John Joe's and missing people, andit led me to him. He was
a spokesman for the DJ And youknow that that southern twang really has an

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impact and it will stay with you. And what he was saying, I
mean, he just spoke with ina way that no other public information officer
ever did. He clearly cared sodeeply about this. He called these JAD
people his friends. He woke upevery day thinking about them and thinking about
reuniting them with their families, andand you know, I talked to other

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reporters who had the same feeling abouthim that he's stuck with them. He
has he has a friend from hissleuthing days in the nineties who he had
that same he picked up the phonein his news room and he had that
same right respon to Todd and soyeah, Todd for sure me that was
his uh reputation. Does are mostof his stories sad endings? Or does

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he have some happy endings? Youknow? I think inherent in the work
is sad endings. That I mean, it's sad in that you know they're
sad when they find him. It'sthere's a sad part about being missing.
There's a sad part of being aboutbeing already being a John Doe. But
I think there's a better sweet elementof being able to hand someone hand a
family the identity of their or sayI found I found your you know,

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your sibling or your parents or whatever. And I think for that he would
consider that a happy ending. Thisis a story with a happy ending,
of course, because it's this istotally you know, this never happens as
a missing person pulls you up,you know, So I would I would
say in the thousands of cases.I bet there are more like this.

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We just have to go tick aroundfor them. Kate Michigan. The pod
cast is Hello John Doe. It'sthe story of Todd Matthews, a self
declared hillbilly and self taught detective.Most of your material, though, is
investigative. It's not you yourself arenot a big sleuthor. I would say,
one of those are one in thesame sometimes, Yeah, yeah,

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that's true. That's true. Buta lot of the lot of the stuff
that you report upon is more investigativerather than a missing person or or is
it a little of both. No, I would say, you're right,
it's investigative. Yeah, Kate Michiganis with us, Hello John Doe.
The significance of the title is thatwhat Todd finds himself saying when he gets

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a new case. I think,so yeah, and that it's it's I
mean, it's it's kind of it'sa fun title. It's it's you know,
one the alliterations. But this isa it's kind of intriguing and I
think it would bring a listener inlike, what does that mean? Yeah,
Hello John Doe. That's you know, there obviously these John Doe cases
and this one so it's you know, there to say hello back. So

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I think that's the idea of thetitle. And where is Todd Matthews now,
I mean, is he still atit? Has he passed his craft
on to anybody else? Well,I'm sorry to say that Todd Matthews actually
passed away in January, so wefinished the story with him, but he

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was not around to see it inthe world. Hello. John Doe is
the podcast and Kate Michigan is theproducer and the investigator for the whole thing.
It's available everywhere you get podcasts,including the iHeartRadio app. Kate Michigan,
thank you for joining us, Thanksfor having me, Thanks for listening
to Later with Lee Matthews, theLee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen

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to The Drive Live weekday afternoons fromfive to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation