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Dave
This is an iHeart podcast.
Joseph Scott Morgan
Guaranteed Human
Dave
what happened to her on
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April 17, the year scariest movie arrives.
Dave
Let the mummification ritual begin.
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Audiences are calling Lee Cronin's the Mummy glorious. Edge of your seat horror terrifying from beginning to end.
Joseph Scott Morgan
I really miss being a part of
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the family and an insanely scary ride. Lee Cronin's The Mummy only in theaters April 17. Rated R under 17 uninmitted, without parent
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Joseph Scott Morgan
Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. When you're growing up and going into manhood, one of the things that at least I found myself doing through my, I don't know, maturation process feels weird saying that connecting the word mature with me is. It's a bit of a stretch. However, I would often ask myself, you know, just like Mr. Lebowski did
Dave
in
Joseph Scott Morgan
the Big Lebowski, sir, what is a man? And I've thought about that, thought about that a lot. You know, what defines you as a man? And I think a lot of us think that being a man means that you have a certain amount of masculine power that you can wield it at will and that you have the ability to not only build, but to destroy. But, you know, for me, it has always been the level of mercy and control I can give to others that I don't really know. Just think about that just for a second. If you have the ability to literally crush someone that has some kind of deficit when compared to yourself, the measure of the man is to show mercy, to show grace, and maybe even give them hope. Today we're going to discuss a case that might be one of the most sinister things I have come across in the news in some time. And as I always say, that's saying a lot. But today we're there. My friends, today I want to talk about a young man, a young man who has probably got some mental disabilities that was at the mercy of not just one male. Notice I didn't say men, but two that chose to do one of the most horrific things that I've read about in some time to this poor, defenseless kid. Hi, I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is body bags. Brother Dave. I was sickened by this when I read it. I use terms like plumbing the depths, you know, that we can't take the measure of House of Depravity has no Basement. I say those things all the time. They're rote. People get tired of hearing it. But I'm beginning to come up, or I'm beginning to fail at coming up with other descriptors here other than right now. I think the only, only word that really suffices is evil at this point in time.
Dave
Here is the nutshell gang, and this is what we're going to break down for you. Three males are charged with killing Matthew Wisman. Now, Matthew was a man of. He's 25, 24, rather, and he did graduate from high school in 2018. Matthew Wisman grew up to be a wonderful young man, very trusting. He trusted his cousins because they were his cousins. And even though they were mean to him, and when I say mean, I'm not just talking, Joe, about they played jokes on him and pranks on him. I'm talking about they were abusive towards him physically, verbally, in any other way they possibly could. These Cousins, Alexander Wisman, 18, and Jeremy Absher, 26. They're half brothers and first cousins of Matthew Wisman, the victim. The third man is a person named Stephen Gaddis. Stephen Gaddis is 28, and he is not related to any of the other three. But Matthew Wisman went missing in April, Joe, but was not reported missing until July. That's part of the problem right off the bat. The other part of the problem is that during that time between April and July, there were a lot of stories being told about where he was. You know, where did Matthew go? Well, you know, he checked into the Water Street Rescue Mission in Lancaster. We're up in Pennsylvania, by the way, along the Pennsylvania, Maryland border. A lot of the time, southern Pennsylvania. Someone dropped him off at a rehab facility in Philadelphia was another one. And then there was the third one. This third rumor that was circulating around was somebody jumped him and threw him off a cliff. Now, Joe, of all of the options here for rumors, option three was the closest. Believe it or not. But it wasn't just someone. It was his two cousins and Steve and Gaddis. What they did to Matthew Wisman is the stuff of nightmares and without reason. See, Matthew was aware of a drive by, house shooting that took place. He knew that Stephen Gaddis did it. And police got Matthew Wisman to work with them, you know, to tell the truth. Matthew. Now, Joe, I don't know the rules of law when it comes to this. I don't know if police can talk to somebody who is. I don't know the rules, I guess. But Matthew Wisman at 24 was working with police to solve this crime. You know, you shoot into a house, you shoot into an occupied dwelling, you can kill somebody. It happens.
Joseph Scott Morgan
Yeah, I don't think there's any, I don't think there's any legal proviso if someone is an emancipated adult and you know, that they've been deemed either by the state or, you know, some medical facility that they can live independently and there's nothing to say that he could not have lived independently. Yeah, he, you know, look in, in the public, there's nobody out there that is perfected, you know, that you're going to come across on the street. Everybody has got some type of deficit, okay. Even, even the seemingly most healthy among us. All right? It all depends on to what degree they are. Now. If the police were to take someone that they were, they'd have to be aware of it, that they could leverage because of some kind of mental incapacity. I could see that there would be problems with that. But no, I don't think that it would, it would, it would diminish, diminish their ability to cooperate and provide, you know, provide legitimate information to them. I mean, we're talking about shooting Dave.
Dave
Right.
Joseph Scott Morgan
You know, they're going to try to, they're going to try. You know, when you approach somebody on the street, if you're an investigator, it's not like there's been a battery of psychological testing that's been done before. You go in and say, maybe we have a conversation with you.
Dave
Right.
Joseph Scott Morgan
You know, and you never know where those conversations are going to lead. Well, yeah, somebody willfully gives up information, man, that's a, that's a nugget, dude.
Dave
And Matthew did. And on his phone, Joe, there were text messages between Matthew and I'm assuming, because they didn't say who, but I'm, I'm assuming it was the law enforcement investigators, you know, and in these text messages, Matthew is sharing information. And it was those messages, the idea that he was going to tell the truth, that led to his demise. And I really, you know, you pointed out the depth of depravity, you know, and how far we go down. You got a 24 year old man, Matthew Wisman, his cousins Alexander and Wisman and Jeremy Absher and, and Stephen Gattis, they're all together and they take Matthew's phone. Stephen Gattis looks on the phone, sees text messages that Matthew is telling cops what happened and that sets in action. Everything that we're going to tell you about now, it Begins with Matthew Wisman telling police the truth in text form. That's what led to.
Joseph Scott Morgan
Yeah, I'm sorry. So this goes back. This goes back all the way to. What is it? January 24, the shooting took place in Maryland. Is that accurate?
Dave
Yes.
Joseph Scott Morgan
And he knew at that moment in time that these are. This one individual is connected to it. So this is not something that, you know, that this is something that information he had held on to for some time. And you really wonder what's going on in the minds of individuals that, you know, is it festering in their brain the entire time? Because they're, you know, you've got a perpetrator that has shot, has fired a weapon that is involved in a shooting, and is it festering, you know, is it festering right beneath the surface? But isn't it curious how the target, you know, for this is somebody. It's not the most. It's not the strongest among us.
Dave
Right, right.
Joseph Scott Morgan
But it's the weakest. And they're probably seeing this young man as literally the weakest link. I really wonder how many other people were threatened along the way that may have had knowled of this, Dave.
Dave
Oh, wow. There's no telling. Based on what we know now, there's no telling. So you've got the shooting in January 2024. You've got investigators in doing their thing. And here we are, it's April, and they get. They being the two cousins and Gattis get Matthew alone, find out that he is telling police the truth. That happens the first week of April. Okay, Now, Joe, I think one of
Joseph Scott Morgan
the big questions here, Dave, is if this poor young man is communicating on his phone and there are text messages, how does one go about compelling said young man to open his phone and display what he has been talking about in confidence to the police? This is, in fact, where the story begins to take a very, very brutal turn. What happened to her?
Movie Trailer Voice
On April 17, the year's scariest movie arrives.
Dave
Let the mummification ritual begin.
Movie Trailer Voice
Audiences are calling Lee Cronin's the Mummy glorious. Edge of your seat horror, terrifying from begin to end.
Dave
I really miss being a part of the family.
Movie Trailer Voice
And an insanely scary ride. Lee Cronin's the Mummy only in theaters April 17th. Rated R. Under 17, unimited, without parent.
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for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI, it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com Disclosures Life
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Joseph Scott Morgan
You know, Dave, police investigators go to all kinds of lengths to take phones nowadays because they are, you know, as I've well stated, they're crime scenes that exist in our pockets. I like to refer to cell phones in that manner now because they, they tell everything that we're doing and they see everything, they hear everything, and they spend a lot of time, cops spend a lot of time, you know, getting warrants and those sorts of things to get phones opened. And how many of these cases have we covered over the years? Wow. You know, relative to, you know, crime stories, you know, that, that you and I both appear on where we're, you know, we, you know, it's almost like a race against the clock, you know, and they want to get to this data. But in this case, Dave, it would seem that no warrant was required because we're not talking about police that are trying to elicit information. We're talking about really nefarious people here that are trying to extract information from this, from this poor young man. Right.
Dave
Oh, yeah. Matthew Wisman, our victim, he was at the East. Is it Drewmore Township?
Joseph Scott Morgan
Drummore, yeah. Okay.
Dave
In Pennsylvania. It's about 65 miles out west of Philadelphia. That's where his cousins have been living. They're together on the night of April 3, 2024, about three months after the shooting. Into an occupied dwelling, Jeremy Absher and Stephen Gaddis get hold of Matthew's phone and they find a text message thread where Matthew Wisman indicates he's cooperating. Police that are investigating Gaddis and the shooting of a house. Now, Pam Wisman is Matthew's mom, and she pointed out that Matthew has learning disability. And even though he had been beaten mercilessly by his cousins in the past, he still trusted him. It's what my daughter Hannah calls goldfish. Just being a goldfish, meaning no matter what happens, blow it off, move on. If it's bad, just forget it and move on. That kind of thinking. And that's how Matthew went through life a lot. So on this night on April 3, 2024, Stephen Gattis and the two other men, who were 25 and 17 at the time, drag Matthew Wisman into a bathroom. And Joe, they beat him senseless and then force him to take a shower to wash away any evidence. Have you ever heard of that?
Joseph Scott Morgan
I've heard of victims being forced to take showers. Most of the time, though, it's in relation to sexual. Sexual assaults. And, you know, we could go down this road. Relative to individuals that sit there in very granular detail telling the victims what areas of the body to wash, how to go about it, these sorts of things taking their time to do it. However, in a standard beating,
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Joseph Scott Morgan
you going to do? Wash off contusions, wash off abrasions? You know, That serves no purpose at the end. I mean, I guess you could. If he's bleeding profusely, which now, and I gotta be honest with you, we will never know.
Dave
Right.
Joseph Scott Morgan
You know, we just won't. And we're gonna tell you why in just a second. But the lunacy of this. Unless. Unless there was some kind of other component involved here. And I go back to my earlier statement because the only time I've ever heard about someone being forced to clean themselves at the hands of their attacker or is in a sexual circumstance. Now, this gets really dark. Darker, if you can imagine. It gets, you know, that specter begins to raise its head. And I would think that that's a question investigators would ask. You know what? You know, why would you require this young man to wash himself?
Dave
Yeah.
Joseph Scott Morgan
Because certainly even you speaking to a suspect, even you understand that if you have bruises beneath your skin, it's not like you've written on your skin with a ballpoint pen, dear heart, it doesn't. It doesn't wash off. So what's your. What's your purpose in having him wash himself? I mean, are you thinking about becoming a DNA scientist? That's it? That's what you're doing? You're thinking contact DNA here, aren't you? Touch DNA. No, they're idiots. That's what they are. And so for whatever reason, they believe that by compelling this young man to wash himself, that they're going to get rid of any kind of evidence there. I have a lot more questions just about this little piece of it. Because I got to tell you, Dave, the cases I've covered, I've never heard of this. So it implies that there's something. There's more depth here or there's something else that's beneath the surface, if you will.
Dave
That's what I was wondering. I was hoping you had a Insight different than the only thing I'm thinking. But at any rate, they did this, and we know this because of the rest of the story. Gaddis, after he takes the bath, after he's been beaten senseless, they. Then they all three take Matthew downstairs and they sit him at a table. And Gaddis leans down and tells Matthew Wisman, how would you feel if it's your last supper? Sitting there looking at a meal in front of him. How would you feel if it's your last supper? Matthew Wisman knew in that moment what was going to happen because he started to weep.
Joseph Scott Morgan
Yeah. And excuse me, but just so that I understand, his own blood relatives are there.
Dave
Yep, his first.
Joseph Scott Morgan
They're bearing witness to this. Those that come from his own genetic pool are there. And let me. Here's one more, if you like that one. They've probably been around this kid their entire life.
Dave
Oh, yeah. Like brothers.
Joseph Scott Morgan
They know. They understand his limits, if you will, intellectually. But here you go. And here they are. You know, an absence of a bravery is glaring here. I think an absence of what it means to be a true man is here because, you know, anybody can go about killing those things that are defenseless, right. It really, really takes someone that has the will, the free will to say, no, not only am I not going to participate, I'm not going to allow it to happen, but yet here we are, and this monster standing over this young man telling him this. And then he begins to weep. And I think about that. We're taping this literally in the middle of Holy Week, and, you know, I get to thinking, you know, it makes me think about the Last Supper, you know, and this kid understood, you know, what he was looking at. Let me tell you what else he understood. He understood that he knew this guy was already involved in a shooting, right? He knows that this guy really has no boundaries. And, boy, did he ever find out that this is not the only degree to which he would go. It's not just a veil threat, is it, Dave?
Dave
Oh, Joe. After the Last Supper, Stephen Gaddis loads up two syringes with Fentanyl. And then the three men forced Whisman into a vehicle. Now, Joe, they inject him. I say they. But it's really Stephen Gaddis who injects Matthew Wisman with this lethal dose of Fentanyl. He's already been beaten senseless, remember? So he's got injuries, he's beaten to a pulp. He knows what's coming. He doesn't know how. But then he is injected they hold him down, you know, on Stephen Gaddis command, hold him down, pull up his shirt sleeve and jab needles into him and shoot him full of fentanyl and then drag his body. They wait until he dies. He's got no pulse left. And by the way, Joe, is that when you know somebody's dead, no pulse? I mean.
Joseph Scott Morgan
Yeah, yeah, it's. It's one of the seven cardinal signs of death. We've got seven of them, and that's at the top of the heap. Lack of. They're pulseless. Lack of respiration. I think I can go through the rest of them.
Dave
But if you don't have. Can you be brought back? Right? I mean, if you.
Joseph Scott Morgan
If you hear somebody that's just standing there with a crash cart to make, and I think. But however, with fentanyl on board, it's a lost cause. You know, you can see the nose of the ship proverbially dipping beneath the surface. There's, you know, check yourself here. All hope is lost at this point in time. There's no way you could actually bring them back from the edge. And here's. Here's the thing, Dave, when, you know, when. When it is stated, and the police have stated this, that it was two syringes loaded up with fentanyl, that's very nonspecific, right? We. We don't know what the dosage was, but as you and I know, just with fentanyl alone, and this is obviously, this has been put into some kind of liquid medium. Okay? We know that relative to lethal dosages of fentanyl, if you get, you know, if you just take seven, I think it's seven grains of salt. Is it seven or six? That represents very little. Each one of those little grains represents in total a lethal dosage of fentanyl. That's how strong the stuff is. And this guy's got two syringes. Now, we'll never actually know the actual dosage here, but, you know, this is. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they're rationalizing it in their brain that, yeah, well, we beat him up, so we're going to put him out of his misery. Oh, and by the way, we're going to solve this problem that we have of somebody that has a direct tie to the police. But out of all things you could do, this would seem to be one of the glaring red flags that would put the police onto you, even with a heavier hand, because now your primary. This is not like the movies, you know, where you think that well, if we get rid of this guy that has rolled over on us to the cops, all of our problems are going to disappear. No, you've just called down hell upon you at that point in time because now they're going to double their efforts because they know that this kid, that they've whatever format this quote unquote deal is, whatever it takes, they're going to now redouble what they were doing and they're going to put the pressure. So now, and it's not necessarily on the principal, this Gaddis character, they're going to go after the two cousins now. And that's how they. These, all these things work. We always hear, Dave, that one person can keep a secret. And that is a God's honest truth. All right? You get three people in a group, your chances are almost nil that you're going to be able to keep a secret like this. And particularly when it rises to the level of. Now, an individual is not just involved in a shooting in Maryland, okay? Now they have involved themselves in a sure enough homicide. And, brother, it's not any kind of homicide. This is a torture homicide. This is a kidnap homicide. This is a poison homicide that involves desecration of human remains and tampering with evidence. What happened to her?
Movie Trailer Voice
On April 17, the year scariest movie arrives.
Dave
Let the mummification ritual begin.
Movie Trailer Voice
Audiences are calling Lee Cronin's the Mummy glorious. Edge of your seat horror terrifying from beginning to end.
Dave
I really miss being a part of the family.
Movie Trailer Voice
And an insanely scary ride. Lee Cronin's the Mummy only in theaters April 17th. Rated R. Under 17. Unadmitted without parent.
Public Investing Ad Voice
This is the moment everyone in business has been waiting for. AI Is rewriting the rules.
Joseph Scott Morgan
And if you're not ahead, you're already behind.
Dean Graziosi
Here's the reality. AI Is moving fast. Really fast. Hey, it's Dean Graziosi. And a lot of people think they have years to figure AI Out. The truth is, you might only have months, maybe less. I've never seen technology move this quick before. Right now, AI Is helping people save hours every week. Automate work that slows them down and move faster than ever. But here's the challenge. Most people feel overwhelmed trying to figure out what makes sense for them.
Public Investing Ad Voice
The two biggest names in personal growth are stepping in right now to cut through the noise.
Dean Graziosi
That's exactly why Tony Robbins and I are hosting a free virtual AI Advantage Summit on April 23rd through the 25th. We're bringing together people who are actually using AI in the real world to show you what works. No complexity, no overwhelm, just a clear path to start using AI in your business, your career and your life. So join us April 23rd, the 24th, the 25th reserve your free seat at aisummit rsvp.com that's a I summit rsvp.com
Public Investing Ad Voice
support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures tired
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Joseph Scott Morgan
So after they inject this kid with what we believe were two boluses of fentanyl, remember they're saying that there were two syringes here. They inject this kid with this and, you know, he would have slipped off pretty quickly into this almost comatose state. They didn't take him out in a field and bury him and drop him on the hospital ramp. They subjected him to nature. They went to a bridge, Dave, and this bridge goes over a creek, and this is in like far southeast Maryland and Pennsylvania, and push this young man's mortal remains over the edge of the bridge, hoping, I guess, that no one would. Would ever find him, and deposited him there, and then just got back in their car and drove off, man.
Dave
But now you mentioned something right before the break, Joe, and I kind of need to go back to it because I get you with conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault. We've documented those. Kidnapping, obviously, intimidation of a witness, because that's what started all of this. But did you say abuse of a corpse? Did you say something along those lines?
Joseph Scott Morgan
I did. And I don't even know that those charges exist, however, in my mind, as an advocate for the dead, that you and I have taken this mantle on and we shall bear it for the length of the life of the show. These remains were desecrated. They were desecrated. They were abused. Because there are accepted things that we do that separate us from animals, the way we treat our dead. And this ain't one of them, brother. You take this young man and you toss him over a guardrail on a bridge out in the middle of nowhere, and he's subjected. He's got a mama back home. He's got a mama back home that loved him and had loved him since the moment he entered this world. And he had value. He had value. He had more value than three thugs that are just going to allow him to float his mortal remains, float down this creek, subjected to nature, to animals, to the blistering sun, and have him decomposing there. That's just not the way it's done. It's not the way it's done in acceptable society. And I think that this really goes to the extent, for me at least, death is a mirror. It's truly a mirror on our society. It shows the reflection of who we really are. And what I mean by that, the way we treat our dead, who are the least among us, okay, is a reflection of who we are as people. You know, they talk about that with prisoners and all that stuff, but when it gets down to it, and I know people will say off the cuff, well, the dead have no more problems. No, you're right. I guess they don't. We have A problem. We have a problem because we're incapable of honoring our dead or certain groups of us are. And those individuals, to me, those are some of the most. I don't know how to say it. They are some of the most rotten to the core individuals that you can possibly ever come across because they'll go to any links just to save their own hide. And that's what this comes down to, is the ultimate selfish behavior. And that's kind of an understatement, isn't it, Dave?
Dave
Well, they injected him with fentanyl, caused his death, and then throw his remains over the side of a bridge into the water and then go on like nothing happened. You know, that's.
Joseph Scott Morgan
He's.
Dave
So the thing is, Matthew Wisman goes missing, okay, Nobody knows where he is. Rumors start floating, as I mentioned earlier, you know, that he's been. He's at a rescue mission, he's in rehab, whatever. Just things are thrown out there. But finally his mother, she's had. She's had her fill of excuses and stories about where her adult son is. And, you know, when you're being told by cousins and relatives where he is, you know, I think he's over here or there, you kind of believe it because you want to. But then at a certain point, a mama knows this is not normal. Three months is too long, and she no longer listening to the stories that are being told, she goes to the police. So already he's gone three months. We know he's in the creek, but she doesn't. Police begin the investigation, and
Joseph Scott Morgan
it.
Dave
I think they're able to get a good idea of what happened early on. Joe, based on who's involved here, you know, who were Matthew's friends, who were the people he hung out with. So police break them down and they find out what happened. They find out from Stephen Gaddis. He ends up, over time, telling the truth. But when the body of Matthew is found, it's August 8th. He's tossed into this creek in April, April 3rd. Joe, what condition would a body be that had been injected with fentanyl? Having been, and I'm curious, does a beating before you're. Before you die, is that going to cause you to decompose differently than if you were not beaten to a pulp before you were?
Joseph Scott Morgan
Excellent question. Yeah. The way it causes rapid development of decomposition is if there are any open wounds. Okay, okay. That's like. It's like ringing the dinner bell, if you will, at a microbial level and also at. Just from local fauna. And what I'm Talking about is flies. Because if you have open areas, like if you, you know, and as we've talked about, I think we did a whole segment on. We did an entire episode on blunt force trauma. If I haven't, we're going to.
Dave
We did.
Joseph Scott Morgan
So blunt. Blunt force trauma creates laceration. So you're being beaten. That's more than likely the type of injury you're going to sustain. That leads to an open wound. And if that's the case, then all the little nasties get into that open wound. The body is no longer intact externally, and that can prompt early onset of decomposition, particularly in that specific area where the trauma took place. Now, I don't know necessarily how far out that would extend, but it's going to increase probability. Now you have a body that's been placed in an aquatic environment. And by the way, this body of water that he is placed into is actually called the Conawingo Creek. And interestingly enough, it's not a very long creek, and it rests entirely inside of Maryland. There's like a couple of state roads that cross it, but guess what? It dumps into. It dumps into this Susquehanna river, which is a major waterway. And obviously that's going to be their end game to get him into this major waterway. And that they would have been, you know, fully aware of, you know, relative to. Relative to, you know, having lived in that area. And of course, you know, the. The Susquehanna actually feeds in to the Chesapeake, you know, and so then you get into that area. So, you know, as crow flies, you're really not that far from Baltimore, you know, headed northbound.
Dave
Wow.
Joseph Scott Morgan
You know, toward where this creek is. Maybe that was their end game. But along the way, the body just in. Let's see, we're talking April, April, May, June, July. We're talking five months downrange. The body is going to be in such a state that one of the big questions would be, I think, could you still appreciate the injuries that were perpetrated against him in that house where he was beaten? Remember, he's made to take the shower, all that sort of stuff. Maybe. I would think it all depends on how over the top they were. Were there lacerations, which comes as a result of blunt force trauma. Potentially. But it's going to be very, very difficult. Now, if he sustained any kind of broken bones, like, did they kick him in the ribs, punch him in the ribs, did they break his jaw, did they knock a. Too. Any of that kind of thing? Do they stomp on him anywhere? Yeah, you could still appreciate those Breaks. Here's another thing, because, you know, the big. Obviously he did not die as a result of the bleed of the beating. Okay. Because what did they do? They said, well, after he was beaten, take a shower.
Dave
Yeah. Then the last.
Joseph Scott Morgan
Whatever else went on, you know, adjacent to that beating.
Dave
Yeah.
Joseph Scott Morgan
One of the things we look for with injections is something called npws. And nurses use this terminology all the time and it's an abbreviation. We abbreviate a lot of things in medicine. So that stands for needle puncture wound. So if you're jabbed with a needle, if it's fresh, we look. And particularly with drug addicts that are injecting into their arms, we look for NPWS by milking the arm. We start the very top up by the shoulder and run our hand down very tightly down the length of the arm and we look for little blood dots to appear. If there's a fresh npw, you're not going to have shot at that here. You're, you're not. And even, and even where we suspect these, most of the time we'll do an incision into the NBW to see how far.
Dave
No, I remember Thomas Noguchi talking about, you know, using that term, the terminology to find the, the needle puncture wound on John Belushi.
Joseph Scott Morgan
Yeah, he did. And he probably, if I remember correctly, I wonder if he did it with Marilyn Monroe as well, because he was, that was when he was young, you know. And one of the things that people have talked about, I still think she was probably killed with suppository. But one things you would look for also, you can do this with the ankles too, you know, just this, the same principle, you know, because people will inject in the ankles, drug abusers will, because you don't, you know, it's not like you're going to see them if their skin popping, I guess it'd be very hard to get a vein up, you know, but anyway, I'm digressing. It's just that's one of the things that we look for. And all this stuff is compromised now because we're five months down range.
Dave
Right.
Joseph Scott Morgan
And you've been subjected to summertime in an aquatic environment and it's very, very humid. And yes, Pennsylvania and Maryland get very, very hot in summertime. Okay. So all of this is going on and the body is also bouncing off of rocks and anything else that's in the water. So it's sustaining post mortem trauma. And so that's one of the things that's at issue, you know, in this case. So you're heavily reliant upon eyewitness testimony. And if anyone is willing to cop to this. And Dave, I think according to what you're saying, this individual did in fact roll over on this case, did he not?
Dave
Thankfully. You know, I didn't think it would happen, but it did. Investigators just did a great job. They were able to, you know, we mentioned early on who the suspects are. Okay. The suspects were two of Matthew Wisman's cousins. His first cousin, Alexander Wade Wisman, 18 years old. Jeremy Wayne Absher, another cousin at 26, Stephen Gaddis, not related. 28. He seems to be the ringleader. And once police, once they found his body, police, meaning they were able to sit down and start the interview process and building a timeline, you know, where was Matthew? They were able to determine by interviews with the suspects. Jeremy Absher admits to certain details of what took place during questioning of to what happened to Matthew. Alexander Wisman confirmed that there was a plan to kill Matthew. The plan included using fentanyl and body disposal. Once they got those commitments from the two first cousins, they knew Gaddis, the investigators knew Gattis was the key. They knew that without him, none of this would have happened. And they ended up Joe again. Go back to April 3rd. Matthew Wisman is given his last supper. Beaten and killed. Tossed like nothing. His body is. He's reported missing in July, body found in August. In October, they finally bring charges against all three suspects with murder, kidnapping, witness intimidation and some other crimes that go along to it. And we've just now, in the last days, gotten a guilty plea out of Stephen Gaddis. Joe, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit third degree murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and intimidation of a witness.
Joseph Scott Morgan
Well, I don't know. I, you know, you. In just these few minutes that we're talking about this young man's life, this is not sum total of his life. And I'm talking about the victim. I don't care about the perpetrators. Yeah. This is not the sum total of his life. Somewhere along the way he brought joy. Somewhere along the way he brought happiness. Those are two different things. By the way, right now I'm hoping that he is at peace as well as his mother. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is Body Bags. What happened to her?
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Joseph Scott Morgan
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Org.
Podcast: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
Episode Date: April 12, 2026
Guest/Host: Joseph Scott Morgan with Dave
Topic: The disturbing murder of Matthew Wisman—a vulnerable young man kidnapped, beaten, injected with fentanyl, and dumped off a bridge by his own relatives and their associate.
In this harrowing episode, Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave examine the brutal and tragic killing of 24-year-old Matthew Wisman. They trace the events that led to Matthew’s death and dissect the forensic, emotional, and moral dimensions of the case. The episode explores questions about masculinity, evil, betrayal—and the role that forensic investigation plays in uncovering the truth behind deeply heinous crimes.
On Evil and Mercy
“The only word that really suffices is evil at this point in time.”
— Joseph Scott Morgan (05:55)
On Family Betrayal
“They're bearing witness to this. Those that come from his own genetic pool are there...an absence of bravery is glaring here. I think an absence of what it means to be a true man is here.”
— Joseph Scott Morgan (24:15)
On the Final Meal and Imminent Death
“Gaddis leans down and tells Matthew Wisman, how would you feel if it’s your last supper? Sitting there looking at a meal in front of him … Matthew Wisman knew in that moment what was going to happen because he started to weep.”
— Dave (23:09)
On the Forensic Reality of Aquatic Decomposition
"All of this is going on and the body is also bouncing off of rocks and anything else that's in the water. So it's sustaining post mortem trauma. And so that's one of the things that's at issue, you know, in this case. So you're heavily reliant upon eyewitness testimony."
— Joseph Scott Morgan (45:48)
On Respect for the Dead and Society’s Reflection
“…these remains were desecrated. They were abused. Because there are accepted things that we do that separate us from animals, the way we treat our dead… Death is a mirror on our society.”
— Joseph Scott Morgan (35:54)