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Today's episode was originally a premium only release, meaning it was only available for our paying subscribers. Given that we never intended to keep Premium episodes behind a permanent paywall, these remaining episodes are now being released to all listeners as part of our Casefile Archives series to mark our 10 year anniversary. If you're interested in supporting the show, you can still find our subscriber channels on Patreon, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. However, please note that moving forward, we will no longer be producing premium only episodes. Paid subscribers will continue to receive new casefile episodes one week early and ad free, as well as episodes of behind the Files where the casefile team answers your questions and discusses the recent cases we have covered. As always, I'd like to offer a huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has listened and supported the show over the years, especially our Patreon and Premium subscribers. We appreciate each and every one of you. Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre for suggested phone numbers, for confidential support, and for a more detailed list of content warnings. Please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Valerie Haythorn managed a Dairy Queen fast food restaurant in the small city of Mount Vernon, Ohio. One of her employees was 32 year old Tina Herman, a good friend and one of the most reliable people Valerie knew. Tina loved her job and her colleagues, and she had never missed a shift or abandoned her responsibilities. So when she failed to show up for work on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 10, 2010, Valerie noticed immediately. She tried calling Tina, but there was no answer. Growing uneasy, Valerie drove to the house that Tina shared with her boyfriend, Greg Borders and her two children from a previous relationship 13 year old Sarah and 11 year old Cody Maynard. Although Tina worked in Mount Vernon, she lived about nine miles outside town in the planned community of Apple Valley. Something of a resort area, Apple valley surrounds a 511 acre reservoir named Apple Valley Lake. With rolling hills, tree dotted landscapes and lakefront homes, it seemed like an idyllic place to raise a family. Tina's house sat on a somewhat isolated stretch of a street called King Beach Drive with a large wooded area across the road. When Valerie arrived, the inside lights were on and Tina's blue 2000 Ford pickup truck was parked in the driveway. But no one answered the door. She left a note before leaving. Later that evening, still having heard nothing from Tina, Valerie called the county Sheriff's office to request a welfare check. A deputy arrived at Tina's house at around 8pm but by then the scene had changed. The lights were now off and Tina's truck was gone. The deputy rang the doorbell but no one answered. With nothing appearing out of place and the missing truck possibly indicating the occupants were simply out for the evening, the deputy left, returning a few hours later at 11:15pm this time the lights were on and Tina's truck was back in the driveway, suggesting the family had returned home. The following day of Thursday, November 11, Tina again failed to show up for work. Valerie Haythorn called the sheriff's office immediately. Deputies contacted Tina's children's school and discovered that although Sarah and Cody had attended classes the previous day, they'd been absent on Thursday without explanation. The school had called the family home to check on them but received no answer. This was a possibly concerning development. Not only was Tina unaccounted for, but her two children were as well. Meanwhile, just a few doors down from Tina's home, another disappearance was beginning to unfold. 41 year old Stephanie Sprang was one of Tina Herman's best friends. The two women lived on the same street, just a few houses apart. They did almost everything together, often helping each other out by babysitting for one another. When Tina failed to show up for work, her manager and friend Valerie Haythorn called Stephanie's house. She was sure that if anyone knew Tina's whereabouts, Stephanie would. But to Valerie's shock, Stephanie's family informed her that they had no idea where she was, bringing the total number of missing persons to four. Stephanie and Tina had made plans to go house hunting together on Wednesday afternoon before tina's shift. At 12:46pm that day, Stephanie had called her partner, Ron. They spoke for nearly four and a half minutes and that was the Last time Ron heard from her, Stephanie was usually home by 4pm to greet her two younger children after school, but she never returned. None of her three children, aged 20, 17 and nine, had heard from her. Ron texted Stephanie asking what's up? And assumed her phone's battery had died when he received no reply. When Stephanie still hadn't returned by Thursday morning, her loved ones grew worried. Their concern deepened when they learnt that Tina Herman was also missing. A sheriff's deputy had since driven by Tina's house again noting that her truck was once more gone. By that afternoon, Valerie Haythorn's worry had grown too great to wait any longer. She and Ron arranged to meet at Tina's house. The front door was locked, so Valerie walked around to the back, removed a flyscreen, opened a window and climbed inside. The kitchen was silent and still, but otherwise appeared normal. The curtains were drawn, a few cups and water bottles sat on the dining table. Bags of groceries lay on the floor and one of the cabinet doors was open. Valerie moved through the kitchen towards the living area and was immediately confronted by a shocking sight. The living room carpet was covered in blood. Upon arriving at the scene, authorities quickly sealed off the home and conducted a room by room search. Large amounts of blood were spread throughout. The streaks from the major stain in the living room led down the hallway and into the bathroom as if a wounded person had been moved and dragged along the floor. A second large stain found in Tina Herman's bedroom suggests that another victim had been attacked there with the drag marks indicating they too had been pulled into the bathroom. In 13 year old Sarah's bedroom, investigators found another large stain and drag marks along with blood swipes on walls and doorways consist with someone wearing gloves. The bathroom contained the heaviest concentration of blood smeared across the bathtub, shower walls and toilet with diluted pools in the tub. Scattered nearby were garbage bags, Clorox, bathroom cleaner and other cleaning supplies. The bathtub's rim was covered in bloody prints matching the gloved smears found throughout the home. A pair of sure grip gardening gloves lay in the sink. Another set of gloves was discovered in the living room. A gallon jug of motor oil was discovered in the hallway with a trail leading to a bedroom. Motor oil had also been deliberately poured over many of the bloodstains on the home's carpets. It appeared the oil had been used in an attempt to conceal blood evidence and maybe as a possible accelerant as well as footprints of blood and motor oil were found throughout the home belonging to two separate pairs of shoes. One set was believed to be the perpetrators. While the smaller prints matching a size 7.5 air warp shoe, likely belonged to one of Tina's children. These prints were found on the linoleum leading to the garage and inside the garage itself. Also in the garage, investigators discovered a Jeep Cherokee belonging to Tina's neighbour and friend, Stephanie Sprang. Friends and family said it wasn't strange for her car to be there as she sometimes parked it in Tina's garage when she visited. As for Stephanie, Tina, Sarah and Cody, none of them were anywhere to be found. Investigators now had to grapple with four missing individuals and a gruesome crime scene that suggested at least one, if not more murder. Whatever had happened to Tina, Stephanie, Sarah and Kodi was estimated to have occurred in the mid afternoon on Wednesday, November 10th. That morning Sarah and Cody had caught the school bus as usual and after seeing her children off, Tina had gone grocery shopping and filled her car with petrol before driving back home. The bags of groceries she purchased were the ones found on the kitchen floor and a receipt inside one of the bags was timestamped around 12pm it seemed likely that Tina had been attacked shortly after returning home as no one had heard from her since. Stephanie Sprang had then driven to her friend's house, planning to take them both to see an apartment Tina was interested in. Investigators believed that when Stephanie arrived, she too was attacked. The assailant remained in their house for several hours until mid afternoon when school ended and Sarah and Cody returned home. Then they were confronted too. From the outset, investigators had a possible suspect. When Valerie Haythorn first raised the alarm about Tina Herman's disappearance, she'd explained that she was concerned because Tina had said she was planning to break up with her live in boyfriend, Greg Borders. The couple had been experiencing some issues and Tina had started searching for a place to move out alone with her kids. As the investigation at King Beach Drive continued, Greg Borders arrived at the scene. He explained that he had been away for the past couple of days and hadn't seen Tina since going to bed on the night of Tuesday, November 10, the day before she went missing. Because he worked early shifts and had a long commute, he'd left the house at 3:40am on Wednesday. Greg worked roughly 60 miles away at a retail corporation's distribution centre and had spent the entire day there. He said that instead of returning home that night, he had stayed at a friend's house. Because Greg had Thursday off, he and his friend had planned to play golf. As the friend lived near the golf course, it was easier to stay there instead of making the long drive home. Greg had last spoken to Tina on Wednesday morning over the phone. Their final communication was a text she sent shortly afterwards letting him know she had fed their dog, a miniature pinscher named Tanner, who was also missing from the property. Greg admitted that he and Tina had decided to break up. Living together hadn't been very comfortable, though it hadn't been hostile either. He explained that his cellphone had been switched off earlier that day and that he'd only learned about the law enforcement presence at his house after a relative contacted him. Upon receiving that news, he rushed home immediately. Greg gave investigators permission to search the house and agreed to be examined for injuries. They found no scratches or other wounds on his hands, arms or torso. Although Greg had initially appeared to be a possible suspect, his alibis for the past two days checked out. Investigators also interviewed Ron, Stephanie's partner, as well as Stephanie's ex husband and Tina's ex husband. All were cleared of any involvement in the events on King Beach Drive. Scent dogs and watercraft were dispatched to search Apple Valley Lake for any trace of the missing four, but nothing was found. Investigators checked bank accounts, credit cards and cell phones for signs of activity, but there were none. Tips from the public about suspicious individuals or potential evidence in the surrounding woods were investigated, but nothing proved relevant to the case. As night fell on the first day of the crime scene investigation, a county sheriff's deputy was on a routine patrol in Mount Vernon at 6:55pm while driving past the parking lot for a recreational area known as the Kerkosing Gap Trail, he spotted a blue 2004 Ford pickup truck. It was Tina Herman's. The vehicle was located about a 20 minute drive southwest of Tina's home in Apple Valley. Investigators quickly arrived and searched the surrounding area but found no sign of Tina or the others. This would be the second biggest clue investigators had so far. The first was found in Tina's garage and had been noticed for looking out of place. A Walmart plastic bag containing two 6x8 foot tarpaulins, an opened pack of 55 heavy duty garbage bags and a receipt. The receipt showed that the tarpaulins and garbage bags had been purchased at a Walmart store in Mount Vernon in the early hours of Thursday, November 11, along with a turkey sandwich and a T shirt. This was significant because the attack was believed to have occurred about 12 hours earlier, meaning the bag could not have been left there by Tina or her children. It seemed likely that after assaulting his victims, the perpetrator had gone to buy supplies to cover up the crime then returned to the King Beach Drive address. The perpetrator revisiting the house after the attack would also explain why it had appeared occupied at certain times, with lights on inside and Tina's pickup truck in the driveway. The perpetrator must have moved Tina Herman's truck to the Kerkosing Gap Trail parking lot for some reason, since motor oil had been poured on various surfaces throughout the home. Investigators considered whether the perpetrator had planned to return once more to set the house ablaze, only to be thwarted by Valerie Hathorn discovering the crime scene first, detectives contacted the Mount Vernon Walmart and learned that the perpetrator had paid with cash, so no credit card information was available. However, they were able to review the store's security footage from the time of the purchase to try and identify the customer. Detectives quickly honed in on one individual seen in the footage, a white male appearing to be between 25 and 40 years old, who left the store at 12:09am carrying a shopping bag containing garbage bags and tarpaulins. He was tall, around 6 foot 1, with brown hair and a partially receding hairline. He wore a camouflage print shirt and glasses. Tracking him across the security cameras, detectives saw him walk to the parking lot, get into a silver Toyota Yaris with a visible dent on its rear passenger side and drive away. Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's Sponsors. This episode of Casefile is sponsored by gab. The youth mental health crisis is everywhere and social media is a major driver. Teens spend an average of 9 hours a day on screens outside of school. That's basically a full time job just scrolling. Nearly half of girls and a third of boys feel overwhelmed by social media, and one in four say it makes them feel worse about their lives. Even more alarming, teens on their phones more than five hours a day are twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts. That's why Gab created a smarter solution. Their Tech in Steps approach offers age appropriate phones and watches that grow with your child. From GPS watches for little kids to feature limited phones for teens. 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She can enjoy all her usual meals while boosting her intake simply by swapping in Herobred. It tastes great and supports her macro goals without sacrificing flavour. Get the soft, fluffy texture you know and love. Whether you're packing wraps for lunch or toasting a 19 gram protein breakfast bagel with Herobread, all of your favourite recipes are covered. No compromises, just flavour. This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Herobred is offering 10% off your order. Go to Hero Co and use code Casefile at checkout. That's casefilehero Co. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. Armed with this new lead, investigators obtained records for all silver Toyota Yarises registered to male drivers in the Knox county area. It didn't take long to find a Yaris owner who looked remarkably like the man in the security footage, Matthew hoffman was a 30 year old who had renewed his driver's license just two weeks earlier. His new licence photo showed a man with short brown hair with a receding hairline. He wasn't wearing glasses like the suspect was, but license photos from earlier years did show him with glasses on. Most remarkably of all, in the new photo, he was wearing a camouflage T shirt that looked identical to the one worn by their suspect. Investigators had two possible addresses for Matthew Hoffman on file. One was his mother's home in Apple Valley on Apple Valley Drive. This address was just half a mile from Tina Herman's home. The other address was about 10 miles away in Mount Vernon. It was a run down house that Hoffman had purchased cheaply the previous year. Records showed that Matthew Hoffman had a checkered past. Although he'd grown up in Ohio, he relocated to Colorado as a young adult in the year 2000. His grandmother lived in the resort city of Steamboat Springs and Hoffman joined her there. He found work as a plumber's assistant, but began committing crimes in his spare time. Hoffman stole several large wooden and metal signs that stood on the outskirts of Steamboat Springs welcoming visitors to the town. He also burgled a condo that his plumbing company had performed some repairs in storing the burgled items in the condo owner's car. Before driving away in the car and leaving it somewhere for safekeeping. Hoffman knew that he'd left his fingerprints all over the condo and believed he had to cover his crime. He returned to the residence and used 10 gallons of gasoline that he'd purchased at a Walmart to set it ablaze. The fire spread across the entire condominium and the 16 individuals who lived there had to run for their lives. Luckily, all survived and were unharmed. But eight units within the condominium were burnt and the damage was estimated at $2 million. It didn't take long for investigators to realise where the fire had started. When they found the car that Hoffman had stolen, filled with items from the burnt out condo and his fingerprints, they questioned him and obtained a full confession. Hoffman pleaded guilty to a range of charges including breaking and entering, property theft, motor vehicle theft and reckless endangerment of lives. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. While incarcerated, Hoffman became known as a model prisoner. He completed some studies as well as a victim awareness program. Hoffman was granted parole six years into his sentence and was permitted to return to his home state of Ohio for his parole period. He was back in Knox county by 2007, three years before the attack at Tina Herman's home. He found work as a tree trimmer, purchased a house and got a girlfriend. That relationship had recently ended and his girlfriend had moved out about three weeks earlier. On Sunday, October 24, she had returned to Hoffman's home to collect some of her belongings and the two got into an argument. Hoffman's girlfriend would later file a police report stating that when she tried to leave, Hoffman pushed her over a chair, knocked her to the ground and began to choke her. She struggled to fight him off for about two minutes, after which point he let go. She left and reported the incident to the police, though she later declined to press charges. Investigators looking into Hoffman reviewed a report from a past domestic violence incident as well as another record of a more recent run in with the law. Sheriff's Deputy Aaron Phillips was the officer who had discovered Tina Herman's Ford pickup truck abandoned at the Caucosing Gap Trail parking lot. At the time, Deputy Phillips noticed just one other vehicle nearby, a silver Toyota yaris parked about 200 yards away. A man was visible in the driver's seat and the car had a noticeable dent on the rear passenger side. Deputy Phillips approached the man, finding his presence unusual. The lot was technically closed at that hour and the deputy wasn't sure why he was there. He asked to see the man's licence which identified him as Matthew Hoffman. Hoffman was cooperative, answering questions politely. When Deputy Phillips saw Hoffman's licence listed his mother's address in the Apple Valley area, he asked if it was near King Beach Drive. Hoffman explained it was his mother's address and that he actually lived in Mount Vernon. When asked why he was sitting in the car, Hoffman replied that he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish her shift at a nearby hotel. Deputy Phillips informed Hoffman that the parking lot was closed and that he would need to leave. Hoffman complied and drove away. The interaction was recorded in Deputy Phillips notes, which became available to other investigators when they ran Matthew Hoffman's name a few days later. One detail that had seemed insignificant to Phillips immediately alarmed the investigators working the King Beach Drive case. Hoffman had said he had only just started dating his girlfriend and didn't know her surname. But her first name, he said, was Sarah. The evidence against Matthew Hoffman was mounting and his troubling reference to Tina's 13 year old daughter Sarah Maynard made locating him urgent. Investigators were granted a search warrant for Hoffman's house. A team of investigators, joined by members of the county Sheriff's office and the Mount Vernon Police Department's SWAT team arrived at the residence. Given the possibility that four missing people were being held inside, they opted for a no knock entry using a battering ram. After the front door was forced open, one of the investigators tossed in a flash grenade as a distraction. Then the team swarmed in. Matthew Hoffman was discovered asleep on a couch in the living room. He was told to show them his hands, but he failed to do so, either because he was groggy upon being woken or as a deliberate act of defiance. What's going on? Hoffman asked. You tell me, one of the officers replied. Investigators approached and forced Hoffman down on the floor before arresting him and removing him from the property. With their suspect secured, the team turned their attention back to his house. There was something bizarre about it that was immediately noticeable. The floor of the room that sat to the right of the front door had a tarp spread out across it, and the tarp was almost entirely covered by dead leaves. Piles and piles of them had been strewn across the floor and almost up to the window sills. They were about 3ft tall at their highest point. Some plastic bags were scattered about as well. The rest of the house was equally odd and in a general state of disarray. A large trampoline had been pushed up against a wall. There was disused exercise equipment piled up in a corner of another room. There wasn't much in the way of furniture, and various belongings were scattered messily throughout the house. One bedroom upstairs looked to have been set up as a cannabis growing operation, though it was inactive. Inside a freezer, officers found two dead squirrels stacked alongside some popsicles. Strange drawings were painted on some of the walls and other surfaces. One showed a middle aged man with a tap emerging from his mouth. Another depicted a tree trimming truck. There was a giant peace sign on the door as well as stars and random names scribbled on the walls in marker. The investigators used sticks to poke at the leaf pile near the front door to make sure nothing untoward was hid beneath. There was nothing but leaves inside. That wasn't the only room featuring a bizarre tableau. In the bathroom, more than 110 plastic bags stuffed with dead leaves had been stacked on top of one another. They lined every wall of the room surrounding the toilet, covering the mirror and reaching up to the ceiling. Another room also had a wall covered in similar bags. The leaves seemed to be the home's consistent decorating theme. Throughout the house. There were bags full of them and loose ones lying on the floor. Investigators searched every room and the attic, but found no trace of Tina, Sarah, Cody, or Stephanie. Then one patrol officer noticed a basement door hidden behind a cabinet. He shoved the cabinet out of the way and another investigator slowly proceeded down the basement stairs. To the immediate left of the stairs was another room. It had a large, wide hole in its block wall that was big enough for a person to step through. There was enough light in the space for the investigator to make out another enormous pile of leaves in the small room. Several blankets had been placed on top of the pile and on top of those was a person lying down. The investigator shone a torch on the person and shouted for them to show their hands. The small figure sat up but couldn't show her hands. They were wearing black work gloves and had been duct taped together, then bound even tighter with yellow bungee cords. Cords had been wrapped around her ankles as well. The investigator recognised the individual as 13 year old Sarah Maynard. Wednesday, November 10, 2010 had started out like an ordinary day for Sarah. She had breakfast with her brother Cody and then they both caught the bus to school. They rode the bus home together as well, and as they headed up to their house's front door, everything looked normal. When they entered, however, they could immediately sense something was wrong. The children always removed their shoes after returning home, but as they went to do so, they noticed blood by the front door. The house was also strangely quiet. Their mother, Tina typically greeted them when they came home. Sarah and Cody both called out to their mother. There was no reply. Instead, a large man suddenly appeared from the hallway and barrelled towards them. It was Matthew Hoffman. Stunned and terrified, Cody turned and went to run out the front door. Sarah managed to slip past Hoffman and raced to her bedroom, slamming shut its door. She scrambled to find her cell phone and was about to call 911 when Hoffman burst in and grabbed her. He was holding a large knife. Sarah struggled and the knife cut one of her fingers. Hoffman then cut the electrical wire from a nearby fan, then used it to bind Sarah's hands together. He threatened to kill her if she made any noise. Hoffman gagged Sarah with a piece of fabric and carried her down to the basement. There he found more rope to tie her legs together and a pillowcase that he threw over her head. Finally finished with tying and blindfolding her, he carried her back upstairs and put her on the kitchen floor. The pillowcase slipped off, but Sarah couldn't see what Hoffman was doing. He was no longer in her line of sight. She could hear him rummaging about and coming and going. He moved between the kitchen and the bathroom. Sarah could hear water running in the bathroom and the toilet being flushed repeatedly. Sometimes there were banging noises. As the hours stretched on, the house became Dark, and Hoffman switched on some lights. Whenever he returned to the kitchen to get more supplies, he sounded out of breath. Finally, Hoffman approached Sarah, warning her again not to make any noise. He blindfolded her again and carried her out to Stephanie Sprang's Jeep in the garage, placing her in the backseat and covering her with blankets. Hoffman then backed the Jeep out of the garage and drove for a little while. He left the car, warning Sarah to stay where she was and not move. She eventually sat up and the blindfold fell slightly, allowing her to see that he'd parked the car at a nearby baseball field. Next to her were some large garbage bags. Hoffman was gone for over an hour. When he eventually returned, he moved Sarah from Stephanie's Jeep into a smaller car parked nearby. He'd seemingly left Sarah to retrieve his own car. He then drove her to a house and carried her inside to the bathroom. It was late at night now, close to 12am Hoffman made sure Sarah was tightly tied up. Then he left the house, leaving her lying on the bathroom floor. Sarah was terrified. She drifted in and out of sleep over the following hours, though she was plagued by nightmares. By the time Hoffman returned, it was morning. When he came to check on Sarah, she tried to chat to him as a way of hopefully making him sympathise with her. She asked about the drawings on the wall, and he explained that they were of various characters. When Hoffman took Sarah out of the bathroom, she saw all the bags of leaves and asked about them. Hoffman replied that they were for insulation. Sarah then tried to ask about what had happened at her house. She asked Hoffman if he'd broken in and if he'd murdered her mother and brother. His answer to both was no. Sarah queried what he'd done with her dog Tanner. As she'd noticed, Tanner hadn't barked the entire time she'd been there. Hoffman said he'd let the dog out of the house. He gave her some cereal to eat, but the milk was off and made Sarah feel sick. That was the only food Hoffman ever provided her with. At some point, Hoffman blindfolded and gagged her again and put her in a closet. Sometimes he would go out, leaving Sarah in the house alone, but she was so tightly restrained that there was no possibility of escape. Eventually, Hoffman created a makeshift bed for Sarah in the basement. Using dead leaves, he layered four or five blankets on top and placed Sarah on them. He removed her blindfold, but it was so dark down there that she couldn't see much. Sarah spent hours and hours in the basement by herself. Sometimes, though, Hoffman would come down to visit her. He would just stand there staring at her and not saying a word. Then he'd head back upstairs. Whenever he went out, he warned Sarah that someone else would be watching her and she wasn't to make a sound. Sarah did as Hoffman said. The basement was cold despite the blankets and she was stuck there without food or a toilet. She spent the next two days down there all alone, except for the brief occasions when Hoffman would come down to look at her. It was difficult to tell how much time was passing due to the dark state of the basement. On Saturday, November 13, several days after the attack, Hoffman spent more time at home, during which time he sexually assaulted Sarah. During one visit to Sarah, Hoffman gave her a dictionary and made her look up the word ransom. He explained that was what he planned to hold her for and he might release her by Christmas. Sarah's ordeal was finally interrupted early on the morning of Sunday, November 14, when a police officer descended the stairs into the basement and shone a torch in her eyes. The officers immediately recognised the young girl with long blond hair as Sarah. She was still wearing the same jeans, grey hooded sweatshirt and UGG boots that she'd worn to school several days earlier. On Wednesday, November 10, the officers took photographs of Sarah in the basement as evidence of how they had found her while speaking reassuringly to the young girl. Then they carefully untied Sarah and helped her stand. Sarah told the officers that she didn't know where any of the other missing people were. She seemed dazed and disoriented, telling the police that she had to get to school. Sarah was taken to a hospital for medical care and told the police about everything that had happened up until that moment. When asked if she knew who Hoffman was or had ever seen him before the day of the attack, she said no. She had no idea why he would want to hurt her family. Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors.