The Girl in the Leaves (14 page)

Kim P related that she had a friend who used to date Matthew Hoffman, and gave authorities
the name. She also said that a man nicknamed Opie used to hang around with Hoffman
a lot.

A man named Fred declared that he had passed a Toyota Yaris with a dent off of Harcourt
and Columbus Road on Thursday morning, November 11, between 7:00 and 7:30
AM
.

In the realm of intriguing but ultimately useless information, a man who would not
give his name declared that he worked at a barber shop in Mount Vernon and a customer
recently came in and wanted to give him a knife that he’d found in the Walmart parking
lot. This caller said there had possibly been blood on the knife and that he didn’t
want it. The caller didn’t know who the man was who wanted to give him the knife,
and had no idea of where that person or the knife might be now. All the investigators
inquiries about this alleged knife got nowhere, and most likely was not part of the
crime scene on King Beach Drive.

Greg V reported that near a small waterfall on Magers Road he’d found a bloody surgical
glove.

Patty K related that a man on High Street named Carl was friends with Matt Hoffman,
and that the two men had been up in trees on Carl’s place many times. Hoffman had
even created a pulley system in the tree so items could be hauled up into the branches.

Aaron P related that he used to party with Matt Hoffman. This had been on Caves Road
near some waterfalls. A K-9 team was sent to that area, but they found nothing related
to the crime.

On Wednesday, November 17, Debra Hawkins contacted Lieutenant Gary Rohler and said
that she worked in corrections. She had a theory that if Sarah hadn’t been sexually
assaulted (she had been, but that news had not been released to the media yet), that
perhaps the suspect had been holding her to be sold later into the sex-slave trade.
Debra related that if that was the case, “more people are involved.” She added, “Being
a mother, I know that I would have put up one hell of a fight to protect my children.”
Debra surmised that was why there had been so much blood in Tina’s residence.

Bryant G said that he had once lived next to Matt Hoffman on Columbus Road and that
they’d gone a lot of places together. One of those places was Wolf Run. “Matt was
just a very strange person,” Bryant said, mentioning that Hoffman had had a frequent
male visitor who drove “a Toyota 4Runner, gray or light blue in color.” It was “a
1990s model.” More important, Bryant said he had seen Tina’s Ford pickup truck near
Hoffman’s residence on Wednesday night, November 10, at around 11
PM
. It had been parked in the alley in back of Hoffman’s residence. Either Wednesday
or Thursday night, Bryant had seen Hoffman out in back of his house near a fire in
the backyard. Just why Bryant had seen all this activity, he didn’t say in his tip.

A call from another tipster, Brian F, seemed to corroborate Bryant’s claim that Tina’s
truck had been parked at Hoffman’s place. Brian told authorities that one of his coworkers
lived next to Hoffman, and this person had seen Tina’s pickup parked next to Hoffman’s
place on Wednesday, November 10. This made investigators wonder if Hoffman had taken
the truck there at some point after he’d entered Tina’s home and kidnapped Sarah.

Todd K related that he had seen Hoffman in Dutch’s Bar on Tuesday night, November
9. It had been late at night, and Todd had said, “What’s up?” Hoffman replied, “Not
much.” Hoffman stayed only five minutes or so. When he was leaving, Todd said to him,
“I’ll see you later,” to which Hoffman replied, “No, you won’t.” Todd added, “He was
a weird individual.” Todd also stated that he’d seen Hoffman’s silver Yaris with a
dent in an alley off of Pleasant Street, two times between 2:00 and 3:00
AM
on Wednesday, November 10. There had been a single occupant in the car wearing a
hoodie and a ball cap.

A woman who would give her name only as Melissa said that Tina always wore a sixteen-inch
diamond-cut chain with a dolphin attached. The dolphin was a yellow – and rose-gold
charm, and she never took it off.

Detective Sergeant Roger Brown and BCI&I Special Agent Gary Wilgus went to the East
Knox Middle School and examined Kody’s and Sarah’s lockers. They secured evidence
from both lockers for DNA purposes. They also spoke with the school’s information
technology manager about the school’s surveillance video for November 10, 2010.

Ron Metcalf, Stephanie’s boyfriend, said he had received a text from someone claiming
that Stephanie had been seen with Matt Hoffman buying plumbing products. The person
who texted him could not recall the date or time.

TWENTY-THREE

The Hunt for a Miracle

On-the-ground searches continued apace on Wednesday, November 17, 2010. One five-man
team consisted of volunteers who had skills in tracking and search and rescue. These
men came from Bucyrus, Delaware, and Marion, Ohio, towns far afield of Apple Valley.
One of the men, Jon Reed, said, “We did not come looking to find bodies. We just wanted
to help look for clues. Especially near water areas where someone could easily place
a person or a body. We searched around the bike path and the Brown Family Environmental
Center. We also went out to the quarry.”

They searched the area around Small’s Sand and Gravel near Gambier, because apparently
Matthew Hoffman had worked there at one time. Reed explained, “We found some trash
and a couple of old shoes—nothing fresh. You look for things like drag marks, tire
tracks or freshly moved dirt in wild settings. If I was in the same situation, I’d
want a million people out searching for my family.”

Despite the fact that Jon Reed said the volunteers weren’t searching for bodies, a
headline in the
Mount Vernon News
summed up the feeling of many on November 17:

HOPE FADES AS TIMES PASSES

The reporter noted that even Sheriff David Barber sounded more pessimistic than before,
and his Wednesday news conference lasted only ten minutes.

“A lot of sightings and information have been received by the sheriff’s office and
continue to be followed up by not only our investigators, but by BCI&I, the FBI and
other outside agencies. These tips and leads have yielded some information that is
helpful to the investigation. A lot of it has just been citizens being very conscientious
and trying to be helpful, which we appreciate, and we want them to continue giving
us information and leads.

“I told you yesterday that we were going to have photographs of the last known clothing
that Tina, Kody and Stephanie were wearing. Unfortunately when you look at the video—we
could tell what it was, but they didn’t reproduce well. So I’m just going to give
you what clothing descriptions we have. We know for sure what Tina Herrmann was wearing
last Wednesday. It was a white baseball cap, a tan hoodie, dark-colored sweatpants
and tennis shoes.

“As far as Kody Maynard goes, [he] was wearing black shoes, jeans, a gray T-shirt
and a blue zip-up hoodie. We’re still trying to find information about what Stephanie
was wearing.

“We did get some responses about the photos of the vehicles that were put out, which
will add a little more detail to our timeline. Other than that, the investigation
is progressing, and unfortunately the reality that these folks may not be alive is
becoming more and more prevalent, simply because there’s been no word from these folks.
There’s been no credit card activity, no cell phone activity [or] anything like that
since this event occurred.

“Evidence is being submitted to BCI&I for evaluation and analysis. We have been assured
that the submissions in this investigation are priorities for BCI&I. I will take just
a few questions since there are a lot of things going on.”

A reporter asked what Sarah had said about Matthew Hoffman and what his relationship
might have been with the missing people. Barber answered, “It’s inappropriate for
me to discuss anything Sarah has said to us.”

Another media person wanted to know if Hoffman had had a preset plan to kidnap or
attack any of these four people. Barber replied, “We follow the investigation where
it leads us, and that’s yet to be determined.”

Turning the focus from the victims to the investigators, one person queried, “What
has been the emotional toll on you and your staff as you go through this ordeal?”

Barber responded, “It’s been a challenge because we have been blessed in this county—we’ve
never had to respond to something this major and this involved. I cannot say enough
about the overwhelming support we’ve had with all our partners in this investigation.
As the sheriff of Knox County, I am not territorial, I don’t think that I’m so big
and know it all that I would ever try to handle an event and investigation this big
by myself. I’m proud to ask for help. All of this has definitely been a challenge
for us and our families.”

* * *

Another headline also captured the mood of the day:

CITIZENS GETTING FRUSTRATED AS THEY HUNT FOR A MIRACLE

The reporter had spoken to several search volunteers. One of these volunteers, Cindy
McBride, told the reporter, “It’s not that I don’t want to have hope. But it’s been
seven days now, and it’s scary.”

A woman named Debbie Henthorn was just one of many people spreading the word online
about the case and its impact on the region. She noted that she had moved to Mount
Vernon almost thirty years earlier, and enjoyed its small-town feeling. She described
it as the kind of place where you knew your neighbors and the person who bagged your
groceries at the local market.

Debbie said that she, like many in the community, had held her breath when there was
live coverage of a car being pulled out of a pond at Foundation Park. When it was
determined that the car was unconnected to the case, “a sigh of relief went up [in
my office] only to be deflated once again knowing that Tina, Kody and Stephanie were
still missing.”

Debbie also noted that in a recent football game, the Blue Devils of Danville were
going up against their rival, the East Knox Bulldogs. Both Sarah and Kody were students
in the East Knox School System. Despite the usually heated rivalry, even the Danville
players were wearing the color purple, to honor Sarah and Kody.

Debbie wrote, “This is how small towns react in the face of tragedy. They help in
any way they can. Strangers console one another. They pray alone or together. We give
each other hope, no matter how dark things seem. And I can’t imagine living in any
different type of community.”

* * *

Knox County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Brian Hess was doing all he
could to coordinate the search volunteers. He encouraged the volunteers to meet at
the parking lot of the Premiere Theatres in Mount Vernon. A Red Cross unit there would
then give the different teams instructions.

Volunteers had found two sweatshirts, one blue and one purple, that were being processed
by authorities. They were a boy’s size, and Kody had been seen wearing a blue sweatshirt
when he came home on the day he and Sarah were attacked.

Near the town of Gambier, volunteer Jim Fletcher wore an orange hunting vest and overalls,
and was bundled up against the chilly rain. For over six hours he scoured woods, fields
and fence lines astride his all-terrain vehicle. He said, “We’re looking everywhere
we can think of. We want to find them, but we’re running out of places to look.”

Volunteers were also using a Facebook page, “Pray for the Maynard Kids,” to coordinate
search efforts. Jennifer Kessler, who knew Tina, Kody and Sarah, was using the page
to coordinate efforts in the Apple Valley area. On the previous evening, the page
had seventy-seven hundred followers. Many of them had changed their own profile photo
to one that symbolized the missing three individuals—three lighted candles. One posting
stated, “Okay, Lord, we need a miracle now.”

More tipsters contacted investigators:

Beth B contacted KCSO saying that they might want to check out a hollow tree in the
woods off of Maplewood Avenue.

Carl P stated that he was a friend of Hoffman’s and knew that Hoffman would sometimes
go to the drainage ponds that were between Walmart and Staples.

Debbie M said she had been working at a residence across the street from Hoffman’s
place on Columbus Road in the previous week. She thought she saw him take a baby carrier
into his house.

Mike H said he’d been out around 6:45
AM
on Tuesday, November 9. He thought he’d seen a car like Hoffman’s silver Yaris parked
close to a lot near a business called Noff’s.

Charles W, meanwhile, was sure that on the previous Tuesday he’d seen Hoffman in a
Lowe’s parking lot with a woman who had long blond hair.

Another tipster, Nora G, related, “On November 3, I was at Kmart around 4:45
PM
and parked beside a small silver car with a dent. The car had trash bags piled up
in the backseat and a blue tarp. In the store, there was a male who looked like Matt
Hoffman. He was with another male about six-foot-one who had dark hair, and was of
medium build.”

Thomas C left a message that on Sunday or Monday, November 7 or 8, he’d seen a black
van drive by Tina Herrmann’s house very slowly. Someone knocked on the door, but when
Tina went to answer, the person ran into the woods. Around the same time, Thomas said,
“Stephanie heard footsteps in the garage of Tina’s house.” Supposedly Thomas knew
Stephanie and she had told him this. Whether it was true or not, the investigators
were not able to verify this. If it was true, it indicated that Hoffmann, or someone
else might have been casing Tina’s house before the crimes of November 10th.

Bobbi H contacted KCSO and related that “Stephanie had a tracking device on her phone,”
meaning that if Matt Hoffman had taken her phone and used it, the area where he used
it could be traced.

James B told KCSO, “Driving by the Kokosing Dam at two in the morning on Wednesday
[November 10], I saw a man leaving the woods with a dog. He was using a flashlight.”

And yet another man who would not give his name declared, “I just thought the coverage
of the Elizabeth Smart trial in Utah might set Hoffman off, and get him to talk.”
This trial concerned a deranged man and his accomplice kidnapping a young blond girl
in Utah. Elizabeth Smart, like Sarah, survived and eventually regained her freedom.

Louis R believed the bodies were “in an old barn somewhere.” The only problem with
that tip was, there were a lot of old barns in that part of Ohio.

* * *

Despite their weakening hope, volunteers were still pouring in. Between three hundred
and four hundred people congregated at the KCSO headquarters at the request of the
sheriff’s office, where EMA Director Brian Hess was in charge of coordinating the
various teams. Each team was assigned a specific location, with most of the teams
being sent out to the Apple Valley and Gambier portions of the county. All of this
activity occurred during November 17th.

Hess put into action a grid-pattern searching system, a much more effective search
method than the random one used in the earlier volunteer efforts. The search teams
would now search in a grid pattern, which would ensure they didn’t overlook some areas
or search the same areas twice. Hess told one reporter, “Today’s turnout is a great
testament of the people of Knox County.”

The miles of rivers, creeks and ponds in the Apple Valley area made the searches difficult
at best. A pair of kayakers volunteered to row down one of the rivers looking for
anything that might be pertinent to the case. Others thrashed through undergrowth
and brambles.

In an effort to provide a broader perspective on cases like the one unfolding in Apple
Valley, the
Mount Vernon News
contacted Jack Levin, codirector of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at
Northeastern University in Boston. Levin, an expert on such situations, said that
Sarah Maynard was “very, very lucky to be alive. When a stranger abducts a girl, the
kidnapper almost always acts alone.” He also said that while there were about 58,000
child abductions in the United States per year, almost all of those were by parents
or relatives of the children. There had been only 115 stranger kidnappings of children
in the previous year. “Sometimes a group will attack a family in a random act of violence,
but those cases are rare, and the situation in Knox County doesn’t seem to fit that
pattern.”

Levin also said that in most violent cases that involved families, the bodies were
generally left at the scene of the crime. He did note that in crimes where an individual
acted alone, the assailant was generally someone who had lost their job and broken
up in a relationship not long before the crime.

In Matthew Hoffman’s case, both were true.