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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy a mochi moment from Sadie, who writes, I'm not crying, you're crying. This is what I said during my first appointment with my physician at Mochi because I didn't have to convince him I needed a GLP one. He understood and I felt supported, not judged. I came for the weight loss and stayed for the empathy. Thanks, Sadie. I'm Mayra Amit, founder of Mochi Health. To find your mochi moment, visit joinmochi.com join Sadie is emoji member compensated for her story. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everybody and welcome back to the into the Dark podcast. I'm your host, Peyton Moreland. So glad you are here listening. I'm glad that you were able to turn this on today and hopefully fill a little bit of whatever this podcast gives you, curiosity, peace, whatever it may be. For my 10 seconds today, I wanted to talk about someone who actually, well, I guess it's a company, Nature well, they do a lot of lip products, basically all different kind of skin makeup products. Again, it's called Nature. Well, and I was checking them out and a girl who works there named Cam reached out and she actually listens to the podcast. And so I did basically like an order with Nature. Well, and when it got sent, Cam had written a note inside and. And it was just so heartfelt and sweet and honestly, like reading it made me tear up. She just talked about like how she'd been listening to the podcast Murder with my husband since 2021 and into the Dark and how it's just been like a safe space for her and a community throughout all these years. And I know that these years have been tough. I know that life is currently tough. I know that it's not always fun to exist right now, to be honest. But I think it is so cool that I get to be a part of something that like, lets us escape from that for just a little bit because I don't think anyone can be living in that full time. And it's good to have places where you can go where you don't have to live in that reality. And so I'm just so honored that I get to be a part of that with all of you and that I get to do that more often, honestly, than you guys do daily by being a part of these shows and working on them. And so thank you for making that possible for me. And I'm also so glad that you are here being a part of it. And I don't know, I'm just glad that we all have each other during times like this and that we all have these shows to kind of rely on and turn to and ground in. So thank you so much for listening. Cam. Thank you so much for your sweet note. I'm so excited to try the Nature well products. I will probably be using them whenever I get ready on my live over on Twitch. So if you want to check that out, links are everywhere. But yeah, that is my 10 seconds and that takes us right over to today's episode. Just a trigger warning before we get into the episode. It does include discussions of suicide, so please listen with care now Everyone needs a community what was I just talking about? Literally everybody, even those of us who aren't outgoing or who may not consider ourselves to be a people person. And while it's true that many of us are introverted, shy or otherwise prefer to keep to ourselves, it's still not good to be completely isolated. Even if it's just one or two good friends, or a significant other, or a family member, or a show, you need somebody in your life, and science backs this up. Loneliness is physically bad for your health. Socially isolated people are more likely to experience heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and mental health issues, including dementia. All of my case sources are linked. Plus, if you feel like you don't have other people in your life, you're much more likely to adopt unhealthy habits, including alcohol abuse, smoking. All of this to say it is good to have trusted family members, friends and acquaintances. That's one of the reasons why the coronavirus lockdown was so difficult for so many people. You're not allowed to leave your home, and if you live alone, it doesn't take long before you are starved for a human connection. Even if you have roommates or family members who are sheltering at home with you, it's not practical to expect one or two people to be your entire social circle. We need others. We need to leave the house, and without this, it's only a matter of time before issues start to pop up. The pandemic was really bad for people's physical and mental health worldwide, and the shelter at home period was especially difficult on children and teenagers. Young people who were still growing and learning. They were still figuring out who they were and how they wanted to relate to one another. That's a time in your life where it is crucial to have a strong support network. But for a lot of them, it wasn't enough to hop on the occasional zoom call or group text. They needed other ways to connect more deeply with their friends. And this was true for an 18 year old boy who lived in Flower Mound, Texas. His best way to meet people during this time was by playing online video games. This 18 year old is named Matthew Thain. He had a reputation for being very easygoing and friendly. Matthew was one of those people who tended to go along with the group no matter what his friends wanted to do. He was known around town as a younger brother type, meaning that in addition to Matthew's two actual sisters, a lot of people kind of saw him as sort of an honorary family member. He was sweet and innocent and a lot of locals took it upon themselves to watch over him. And for Matthew's part, he tried to repay their kindness and thoughtful acts with thoughtful acts of his own. His goal was for everyone around him to have a good time and feel welcomed. So he tried to accommodate lots of different kinds of personalities and different sorts of people. This was a good trait to have. He's kind of a chameleon. So Matthew played football in high school and he was exactly the sort of person that you would want on a team. He got along with everybody. He didn't have an ego or didn't tend to show it off. He was willing to do what it took for everyone's benefit. But obviously his football days were over in the summer of 2020, in part because in person, contact sports weren't considered safe due to the pandemic. But on top of that, Matthew had actually just graduated high school in 2020. During the pandemic, he'd finished it and he was still living with his family in Flower Mound, which was about a half hour north of Dallas. He was close to his parents and his two sisters and he was doing what the rest of us were doing. But like I mentioned before, Matthew loved video games, especially Call of Duty. And for those who don't know, this title lets you play as a soldier during different historical wars like World War II or Vietnam. But in Matthew's mind, Call of Duty wasn't just a game. It was a way for him to meet other players from around the world. Because you play with people online and when you're socially isolated and spending a lot of time at home, it can be valuable to get to meet other people. So by 2020 Matthew was a big part of the gamer community. He was the sort of person who knew just about everyone, and the users who didn't know Matthew personally knew who he was through his reputation and in his gaming circle. It helped that Matthew didn't just play, he also livestreamed his games on Twitch. Like me, it let him reach even more people and feel like he was part of a larger community. And even if Matthew never met his online fans and friends in real life, these people were meaningful to him. But I should note that as close as he felt to some people, Matthew was smart about online safety. He didn't use his real name when he was playing. He went by his username. It was JPN that he pronounced Japan. And I don't know how Matthew picked out that name or if it was significant to him. But the point was that even though Matthew loved the Call of Duty community and streaming, he was careful about his privacy. And that brings me back to my original point. 2020 was a rough year for everyone, including Matthew, but he was dealing as well as he could. He knew that once the world got back to normal, he had a bright future ahead of him. It was just a matter of getting through the lockdown and taking care of his mental health as much as he could. Except then on the morning of Tuesday, August 18, 2020, something very strange happened. It was just before 6am and Matthew was home in Texas with his family. Of course, even if they hadn't been under lockdown orders, they wouldn't have been awake or out that early on a summer morning. 6am but then a stranger pulled up to Matthew's yard. He was on the back of a motorcycle. It was impossible to say who he was because he had a helmet on. So this helmet covered his face entirely. And his clothes were unremarkable. Blue jeans, the sort of thing literally anyone would wear. So I'm not sure if Matthew was awake when this person showed up or if the newcomer did something like the noise of the motorcycle or whatever. Maybe he even rang the doorbell or knocked. I am not sure. But what I do know is that Somehow Matthew at 6am realized there was someone at his house acting strange and he didn't know who this person was. So Matthew decided to play it safe. He didn't want to go outside and see this person face to face. Well, once it became clear that Matthew wasn't going to come out and talk to this person, the motorcycle man actually then marched into Matthew's back yard and in their family backyard there was a propane tank and the stranger in the helmet just randomly lit it on fire. Now, propane is very flammable, and in seconds, a huge wall of flame and smoke was billowing across the backyard. Now, obviously, Matthew can't ignore this blaze. This is too much danger. It could spread to the house or even make its way to one of the neighbor's houses. Now, none of his neighbor's homes were very close, but he didn't want to take the risk. So Matthew realized, I gotta go out and see what's going on. I have to face this stranger who just lit our propane tank on fire. So he opens the door and steps into the yard. Perhaps he's planning to demand that the person identify themselves, explain what they're doing. Like, leave. What are you doing? Maybe he already had a suspicion of what was going on. It's hard to say exactly what Matthew was thinking, because the moment he did step outside his home, the intruder drew a gun and a sharp, deafening crack tore through the air as the helmeted man pulled the trigger and Matthew slumped down to the ground. He died. Okay, you guys, I'm getting into an ad, and if you want real protection without the sticker shock. Cove is an affordable DIY home security company designed to protect families for less than $1 a day. Instead of one size fits all, Kove helps you build a customizable security system through a quick online quiz so you only get what your home actually needs. We got Cove for our newlywed friends who just moved into a new home together. And it has honestly made the transition from apartment living to having their own home so much easier on them. It was easy for them to set up and they love knowing that they're protected. You guys. Setup is simple with an Average install time 30 minutes. 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Get delicious ready to eat meals delivered with Factor offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. Now I want to be clear. Matthew didn't argue with this man in the helmet before he was shot. It's not like he even got the chance. There was no fight, no escalation. Instead, the stranger shot Matthew literally the moment he stepped outside. It was like this is what he'd been wanting. And the second Matthew hit the ground, the killer turned and climbed back on his motorcycle. He kicked it into gear and then sped away from the scene. Thankfully, he didn't stick around to try and hurt any of Matthew's family members. But his relatives had also woken up. They had seen and heard what had happened. They call 911 immediately. They say Matthew's been shot. They weren't sure if he was okay or not. And by the time the police and ambulances arrived, it was all too clear that Matthew wasn't okay. He was gone and so was his killer. The officers suspected that the murderer, whoever he was, could still be in the area. But their initial searches didn't turn up any clues or any signs of where the man had gone. Even the fire by the propane tank had sputtered out by the time first responders made it to the scene. It was like all of the evidence of the crime had just kind of dissipated. Other than Matthew's remains And his parents witness testimony. So right away the investigators open a murder investigation. And right from the get go, they were baffled. He's 18, he just graduated high school. They don't know any obvious suspects, but the details of the crime made them think this was targeted. This doesn't feel random. Matthew's home was in a fairly rural area. There weren't, like I said, any houses close by. So his killer had presumably driven there intentionally. He had chosen to stop in this particular yard to light the fire so that Matthew would come out of the house and then murder him as soon as he did. None of this fits with a crime of passion or with a spontaneous killing spree. Unfortunately, the police couldn't come up with any reason for why the murderer would go after Matthew specifically. It's not like he was involved with crime. He didn't have any enemies. Again, he was just an 18 year old who had graduated from high school. The whole situation seemed so senseless and confusing. But in spite of that, the police actually identified a lead pretty early on. They came up with a theory, but it also felt senseless in a different way. See, somewhere along the way, the police had talked to someone who had known Matthew well. Not entirely clear who this witness is, if it was a friend or a family member, but the point is, is that this informant knew of one person who might want to hurt Matthew. This was the best police had heard so far. Weirdly enough, it was someone Matthew had never met. Not in the real world anyway. See, apparently while he had been playing Call of Duty, Matthew had gotten into a dispute with another player, which is rather normal. Not for me. It had gotten heated. Heated enough that Matthew had been talking to his real life friends and relatives about it. And I know it seemed highly unlikely that a complete stranger on the Internet might be driven to murder someone over Call of Duty, but it was the only possible suspect that witnesses could think of and that police had heard. So the police went through Matthew's gaming account and all of the information they could find about his online life. And sure enough, he had been fighting a lot with another user. It wasn't just one fight. So that person becomes the police's one and only suspect. He was a 23 year old man named Alexander Frank Barrow. And get this, not only had Alexander never met Matthew, he didn't even live in the area. He had grown up in Pleasanton, California, which was 1700 miles away from Matthew's home. And as near as anyone could tell, he seemed pretty normal. Just an ordinary young man. He was an athlete who had played soccer in elementary school. He was a cross country runner in high school. He graduated in 2015 and then stayed close to his family afterward. He had friends. He enjoyed playing video games, all of which are pretty normal activities for a young adult. He didn't come across as a killer. The problem was that at this point, Alexander was their only suspect, and he wasn't a very solid one, mainly because the police still didn't know what the motive was. It's hard to believe that anyone would kill a stranger over some arguments over a video game. There had to be more to the story. Still, the investigators didn't have any other leads, so they decided to look into Alexander. Unlikely as this theory must have felt, in a matter of hours, they had secured a warrant for his phone records. They told a shocking and saddening story because, of course, his mobile had tracked all of his movements over the past few days. It's gonna be pretty obvious. And the location data showed Alexander left his home in California early in the morning on the day before Matthew's murder. After that, he stayed on his motorcycle for the next 25 hours. He hadn't stopped for other than gas, restroom breaks and quick pauses. Other than that, he had gone straight to Matthew's house. Alexander's phone showed that he was there right at the time of the attack. And then immediately after the murder, he got back on his bike and drove directly back home to California. Again, his only stops had been very brief, quick visits to gas stations, rest stops. This is all to say that their number one suspect had driven roughly 50 hours and covered almost 3,000 miles in the course of about two and a half days. Roughly 72 hours had passed total between the time when Alexander left his home before the murder and then when he got back. Now, obviously, the good news at this point is that the police are on the right trail. Alexander's looking extremely suspicious now that they have this physical evidence. And the investigators didn't need to wonder where he'd fled because the phone showed him back in Pleasanton, California. So the Texas police connected with investigators in California who helped them secure a search warrant. And to be clear, at this point, they still weren't trying to arrest Alexander, even bringing him in for questioning. They just wanted to see where he was, locate him, look around his home, see if they could find any more evidence before moving forward, particularly anything that might speak to motive or trying to put the whole story together. And by 11pm on Wednesday, August 19, just a day and a half after Matthew's murder, a team of police officers had assembled outside of Alexander's house. They knocked on the door in California, but Alexander refused to answer. Same thing happened when they tried the doorbell. Now, in fairness, it was pretty late at night, but the police were confident that Alexander wasn't sleeping through their visit. They were being very loud. In fact, he did actually eventually come to the door, but not to open it. He said he was going to stay inside his house and he was not coming out under any circumstances. He didn't have demands. He wasn't willing to negotiate. He just kept repeating, I'm not coming outside. He also wouldn't let the police in to act on their search warrant, which they had. So that's when investigators asked for backup. They brought in negotiators to try and convince Alexander to cooperate, come out peacefully. Still, he refused. It was clear that he was afraid. He knew exactly why the police were there. Obviously this still isn't hard proof, but I mean, come on, when he still insisted on staying inside, Finally a SWAT team assembled. They were prepared to force their way through the door. All right you guys, it is that time of the podcast where I talk to you about Quints. One of my favorite places to shop my closet Staples. Quince has it all. $50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters made for everyday wear, denim that never goes out of style, silk tops and skirts that add polish and outerwear built to take on the season. Honestly, Quint's Italian wool coats are at the top of my list. The cut feels designer and the quality rivals high end brands, but without the high end markup. That is honestly my favorite part about Quint. Everything I have ever ordered from Quint is such high quality it lasts. It feels like it would cost way more than you're actually paying for it. 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So start your holiday shopping today and if you get a post purchase survey you can be sure to mention that you heard about Cozy Earth from Into the Dark. Wrap the ones you love in luxury with Cozy Earth now. First they issued more warnings telling Alexander that he's running out of time. Just do this peacefully. And that's when he made a choice. He still didn't come outside, but the police heard the distinctive sound of a gunshot coming from inside the home. Obviously officers rush inside, but it's too late. Alexander was lying on the ground bleeding from an injury that was clearly self inflicted. It was clear he couldn't be saved, so the police declared him dead on arrival by suicide. And obviously if you listen to a lot of true crime, you know this happens sometimes. Some people do take their own lives rather than face arrest a potential conviction. I've covered other cases before the end this exact way. The timing of Alexander's death mostly confirmed the investigators suspicions that he was the killer. After all, if he was innocent, he probably wouldn't have felt so hopeless and like he needed to do something so permanent. The problem was that the officers now really still don't know why he had killed Matthew. He hadn't left behind a note to explain and of course it's too late. To interrogate him. But the detectives were still able to investigate the scene and gather more evidence. And when they got into his game console, they learned more about Alexander's interactions with Matthew. And it was pretty clear that Alexander had been obsessed with him. In fact, their interactions had been a lot more hostile than police had initially suspected. It confirmed for them that this online feud was pretty intense, maybe even intense enough that Alexander was willing to kill over it. And I want to pause and unpack that, because everyone gets angry. Everyone gets into the occasional argument with a stranger. And sometimes people can get furious enough to become violent. But usually if you resist the impulse to lash out in that moment, the anger fades pretty quickly. A situation that feels outrageous in the morning might be easier to deal with in the afternoon or the evening. You go to bed angry at night, sometimes you wake up feeling better. But that wasn't the case for Alexander. And I don't know the exact details about this online feud with Matthew other than that it did involve the Call of Duty game. However, almost by definition, that means their argument was low stakes. If it's just about a game, it doesn't make a huge difference in the scheme of things. But Alexander was so enraged about their feud that he had obviously decided to kill Matthew. So he had started this process by finding Matthew's real name and address. Because, remember, Matthew goes by jpn. It's not like he was publicly advertising his identity. He was using a fake name. So to this day, the police haven't disclosed exactly how Alexander figured out the address and the name. It's not like they were friends and then feuded. At best, they were acquaintances before their fight. So it sounds unlikely to me that Matthew would have even told Alexander where he lived or his real name or how to find him. It's possible that maybe Alexander hacked Matthew's account to learn his information. Or maybe he pieced the truth together from casual comments Matthew had made. Sometimes we do accidentally reveal more about our private lives than we mean to. The point is, is that it couldn't have been easy to track Matthew down. But the whole time that Alexander was looking for information, he was still focused on his murderous goal. He didn't give up until he knew exactly who Matthew was and where he lived. And then, like I said, on the morning of August 17, he got onto his motorcycle, drove for an entire day, all night, and then through the next morning. And this whole time, it's not like he really calmed down. It doesn't seem like he was having second thoughts. It's hard to imagine Anyone being that angry over something really not that important. He was still mad enough that on 6am on August 18, he obviously marched into Matthew's backyard. I want to know. Alexander hasn't slept in a day, but he blinked away his fatigue long enough to set that fire, wait for Matthew to come out and then shoot him. And then, as the phone records show, he drove back home. He got to his house just a few hours before the police showed up, and then he died by suicide. Now, I'm not a trained psychologist and I'm really not in a position to speculate on Matthew's mental health, but I do think it's safe to say that the murder was not just over a game. There had to be other factors going on. Something else fueled those 72 hours of rage. Especially because this crime fits into a larger pattern. See, in the summer of 2020, the murder rate in the United States was the highest that it had been in decades. Evidence shows that people began committing way more homicides than usual starting around April of that year. The rate doesn't start going down until 2023. So based on the timing, some experts think that people overall were just more stressed more because of tension around Covid, the political climate and lockdowns. Like I mentioned before, community is important. Healthy relationships help people make good choices that can also help improve their mental health. When people, especially young men and teen boys, didn't have jobs or in person school to keep them busy, and when they didn't have friends to give them healthy outlets to deal with their stress, a small number of them came to act out in violent ways. Maybe that was true of Alexander. I don't know much about what his life was like before Matthew's murder. It's hard to say if you ever really had violent tendencies before 2020 or if this was something that bubbled to the surface very suddenly, like it seemed to do with a lot of people if you look at statistics. But it's safe to assume that the shelter at home orders were tough on him because they were pretty tough on everyone. And Alexander wasn't the only one whose life changed because of the pandemic. I mean, it put Matthew on a collision course with his killer. So I have to wonder, if Matthew hadn't been sheltering at home, would he have spent so much time playing Call of Duty and streaming? Is it possible he might not even have ever met Alexander and this whole crime would have been avoided? Or was Alexander already disturbed and violent? And if it hadn't been Matthew, would he have found a different target? To murder? It's difficult to say, but experts believe the nature of the Internet can make ordinary interactions a lot more dangerous than they would be in real life. When you're looking at a screen instead of someone's face, it's easy to forget that the person you're talking to online, in fact, is a real human being. After all, you don't know much about the individuals you meet on the web. You only know what they choose to share with you, assuming that everything they say is true. So if someone online offends you or makes you angry, it is easy to fly into a rage. You might treat Internet strangers a lot worse than you ever would anyone in real life. We've obviously seen comment threads and social media discussions that are full of verbal abuse and bad behavior, and that's bad enough. But most people don't escalate to physical violence or bring these disagreements into their offline life. Still, it does happen occasionally. Experts say that there is a clear link between social media usage and violent crime. Sometimes people find unsettling content on the web and try to recreate it. Other times, they'll connect with people who encourage their worst impulses and provoke them to do horrible things. I mean, it's not the Instagram, Tick Tock or Twitter or, you know, Reddit. All of these places turn people into killers. Obviously, murder existed before the Internet, and it would still exist even if the web completely disappeared tomorrow. But the hostility and divisiveness you encounter online does affect you. And if you're already stressed and angry due to other factors in your life, like 2020, this online toxicity can add more negativity to your life and it might be enough to push someone over the edge. And maybe that's what happened with Alexander. He could have been in a dark place that only became worse because of the situation he was in. Which is tragic because there are a lot of people who turn to the Internet for a feeling of community and support. We were literally just talking about this in my 10 seconds. Some folks struggle to connect with other people in real life, but online forums and social media groups provide an easy way for them to feel. Find like minded people who will accept them for who they are. And it's so sad and also ironic that the Internet can represent acceptance and love for so many people. It can be a good place and it can also be deadly for others. Turn them into the worst versions of themselves. Now, clearly this is a complicated discussion with a lot of shades of gray. It's worth covering. But as I do so, I want to Be clear, I am not sharing these statistics to try and excuse Alexander or to imply that he wasn't responsible for his own actions. He was. Instead, I'm commenting on the fact that human behavior is complicated. We make our own decisions, but we're also influenced by tons of factors that we're usually not consciously aware of. Childhood trauma, the people around us, the Internet, the media, we're taking in. That's true for killers and for their victims. I'm sure Matthew never imagined that his love of call of duty would maybe lead to his death. His family struggled to make sense of what had happened. It was so sudden and senseless. It's hard to wrap your mind around even in the best of circumstances, not to mention when you're grieving. In the midst of all the chaos, a friend organized a GoFundMe in Matthew's honor. And through it, they raised $26,000 to help cover the funeral costs. This was more than the fundraiser originally asked for. In fact, the person who had set up the page kept raising the target goal because of the outpouring of support they were receiving. On the site, you can see people writing kind comments about Matthew and the light he brought into their lives. These included people who had known him in real life and those who had actually connected with him online. And because his story made headlines across the United States, there were a lot of complete strangers visiting his page, too. They wrote about how sad they were that a young, gentle person who brought so much joy into people's lives who died so senselessly. Now, I can't ignore the irony here. GoFundMe and similar websites wouldn't exist without the Internet. A lot of people who commented were fans of his from the Internet. Just goes to show, online community isn't all good or all bad. It's not something we need to be afraid of, but we should still be careful. Try to navigate it in a safe way, because it doesn't matter whether you're talking to someone face to face or over a chat screen. People are people. Some are good, some are bad, some are dangerous. But we all need someone in our lives, even if our relationships always come with a bit of risk. Find your community online. Find the good, find the positive, but also question the media you're taking in. If you feel this massive amount of negativity around you, just check what you're doing online. It really does impact us more than we know. And that was the case for today's episode. Thank you so much for diving into the dark with me today online, and I will See you next time with another case. Goodbye. Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24. 7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch, you'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.