The Girl in the Leaves (18 page)

At this point, Hoffman wrote, he decided he had to go back to the woods near the house
on King Beach Drive where he’d left his backpack and sleeping bag, before they were
discovered. He drove to a parking lot at Millwood and then rode his bike to the hill
behind the spillway of Apple Valley Lake. From there he slowly made his way on foot
to the woods to retrieve the pocketknife and ball cap from his backpack and sleeping
bag. He wrote nothing of the other things he left behind. By then it was almost daylight
on the morning of Friday, November 12. He also saw a lot of police activity at the
house on King Beach Drive. Apparently he was not spotted, and Hoffman made his way
back to his bike, and then to his car in Millwood. He thought the time by then was
9:00
AM
.

Hoffman again related things that Sarah would adamantly deny, for example claiming
that when he returned home, he made breakfast for the two of them and had her do the
dishes. He then said the word “ransom” to her and had her look it up in the dictionary.
Hoffman added that he would be keeping her for a while, and declared that he had accomplices
in all of this and they were already in negotiations with her family.

He said that he did not want to gag her, so she might hear his accomplices at times
outside the house. By contrast, Sarah said she was gagged whenever he left the house.
Hoffman related, “I told her all those things so that if she heard voices outside
the house, she would not scream for help. I told her that she would not be harmed
in any way if she complied with everything. I told her she would most likely be home
by Christmas.”

That same day, Hoffman said he put Sarah in a closet that he could lock from the outside.
He wrote that she could read
Treasure Island
or get some sleep in there. By this means, he said he was able to sleep for a few
hours on Friday afternoon. Sarah denied that she’d been given anything to read.

Eventually he woke up and, he wrote, he once again let Sarah shower, and on Friday
night they had hamburgers for dinner (Sarah said this, too, did not happen). Hoffman
added that she wanted to go to bed early, so he let her get back into her clothes
since she had been wearing some of his clothing. Again he related that he tied her
back up and she went to sleep on the bed of leaves in the basement.

Hoffman declared that Friday night was the first night he was able to get a good night’s
rest. Once again he claimed that when he got up, he let Sarah shower and he did laundry.
Then he wrote that after her shower they talked and he let her play Wii. Sarah said
none of that ever happened.

He also related that he showed Sarah sexual videos on the computer and that they had
consensual oral sex, all of which Sarah adamantly denied. After that, Hoffman wrote,
they just hung out together.

All of Hoffman’s statement up to this point had been typed, but Hoffman later added
a handwritten line alleging that this was the day Sarah first complained about the
problem of wetting herself. Hoffman said he was going to get her some pull-up diapers
the next day, but for the time being he just made her some out of plastic trash bags.

Later that night, he tied her once again on her bed of leaves in the basement and
went to sleep as well. Then in a terse addition, he added, “The police came on Sunday
morning, and I was glad that she was able to leave to be reunited with her family.
I would not have hurt her. I could not hurt her.”

Hoffman claimed his intention all along had been to give Sarah more and more freedom
until she could eventually run away. Then, Hoffman said, he planned to go on the run
himself. He declared that he had not planned far enough in advance as to where he
would run.

Hoffman swore in writing that he had not entered the house on King Beach Drive planning
to kill anyone. “I did not know a single one of them. I did not know their names and
I did not know who all lived at that house.” This was, of course, counter to statements
by others that Stephanie Sprang did know Matthew Hoffman and she may have even done
work at his residence. There were some people who believed that he might have met
Tina before.

Hoffman wrote that he’d picked that particular house because there were no nearby
neighbors, and because he had also noticed before the events of November 10 that the
garage door to the house was ajar. He asserted that “I did not want to kill anyone,
and I tried to just knock the first woman out so that I would be able to escape. This
was not working, a second woman showed up, and things quickly spiraled out of control.
They kept escalating and I was panicking. I only chose to process the bodies to make
their disposal easier.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

Questions

The authorities did not believe much of what Matthew Hoffman had told his attorneys
to write in the statement, and had numerous questions to which he had to give written
answers. Detective David Light noted, “Investigators were able to review the confession
and submit questions. After Hoffman answered the questions, his attorneys wrote his
answers and he initialed the answers and signed each page.”

The questions were as follows:

1. “Where exactly are the sleeping bag/backpack hidden in the field across from the house?”
   Hoffman wrote, “See photo.” Apparently he had marked on a photo of the woods where
   they could be located.
   
2. “You said you went to look for money, jewelry, yet you left jewelry in a purse at
   the house. Explain.” Hoffman’s reply was, “As the result of being discovered, and
   the ensuing deaths, jewelry was no longer an issue.”
   
3. “Where were you in the house when you first heard Tina in the driveway? Did she enter
   the house through garage or front door? Why were you unable to exit through the back
   door when you first heard her in the driveway?” Hoffman: “I didn’t hear her enter.
   Assume front door.”
   
4. “What was said between you and Tina during the initial confrontation?” Hoffman: “No
   conversation. I brandished knife to intimidate her.”
   
5. “Why not tie Tina up to make your escape instead of knocking her out?” Hoffman: “If
   I had time, I would have. Was interrupted by second woman.”
   
6. “Did you strike woman #2 [Stephanie] or the boy [Kody] with the blackjack?” Hoffman:
   “No.”
   
7. “How could you tell both women were dead?” Hoffman: “It was evident.”
   
8. “Where was the dog when you killed it?” Hoffman: “Bathtub.”
   
9. “How did you know how to ‘process’ the bodies using only a knife? How did you cut
   around bone joints, etc?” Hoffman: “It’s general knowledge that you can’t cut through
   bone with a knife.”
   
10. “When you opened the garage door, did you use the automatic opener or do it by hand?”
    Hoffman: “Never used the opener.”
    
11. “Where did you find the Jeep keys?” Hoffman: “They were in the ignition.”
    
12. “You saw evidence of children in the house, why did you not get out of there before
    the end of school time when they would have been expected home?” Hoffman: “Assumed
    school went later than it did.”
    
13. “What happened to the pillowcase you put over Sarah’s head? Where did you last leave
    it?” Hoffman: “Fell off in transit from garage to kitchen.” [Sarah said it fell off
    from the basement to the kitchen].
    
14. “Where did you find rope in the basement?” Here Hoffman crossed out “basement” and
    wrote “garage” in its place. The rest of the answer was “from a sled.” [Sarah said
    it was from the basement].
    
15. “How did you learn Sarah’s name including her middle name, when you first asked if
    she was Sarah Marie Maynard?” Hoffman: “Never asked if she was SMM.” Sarah didn’t
    know if this was true or not. She was uncertain if he may have seen her someplace
    in the area before November 10th.
    
16. “How did you get Sarah into your house? Where did you park the Yaris when you did
    this?” Answer for the first part: “Carried her.” For the second part: “My backyard.”
    
17. “Says you set the alarm for midnight Wednesday, got up and drove to wildlife area
    to drop gear and check it out. Then went to Wal-Mart on return. But you were at Wal-Mart
    at midnight (12:08
    AM
    ). Is this correct? Is the time off?” Hoffman: “Believe chronology of events accurate.
    Could Wal-Mart clocks be off?”
    
18. “The video at Wal-Mart showed your car arriving from the east and leaving toward the
    east. What route did you take from the tree to Wal-Mart? Explain this?” Hoffman: “Skirted
    city to avoid traffic.”
    
19. “How many of the newly purchased Wal-Mart large garbage bags did you use? Why did
    you leave them in the garage if the bags with the bodies were already in the Jeep
    at the ball field?” Hoffman: “They were left there when I returned the Jeep.”
    
20. “Why did you buy the orange and black Halloween shirt at Wal-Mart?” Hoffman: “Because
    it was only one dollar. It was right by the only open checkout counter. It was an
    impulse purchase.”
    
21. “What did you do with the clothing you were wearing? Did you clean or destroy any
    of it?” Hoffman circled the word “clean,” and wrote, “Washed them.”
    
22. “There was no evidence of burnt shoes in the fire remnants in the backyard. Where
    did you put them after you burned them? Two pairs of shoes, athletic and boots, were
    found in house matching prints at the scene. Did you put them through the washing
    machine? Do you have more than one pair of the same shoes?” Hoffman: “Burned in back
    yard. Did not move ashes. Yes, only pair worn at AV [Apple Valley] house were shoes
    that I burned. Matching shoes were identical to burned shoes, purchased several months
    after initial purchase.”
    
23. “Why was it so important to retrieve pocket knife and ball cap?” Hoffman: “Incriminating
    evidence.” This did not make a whole lot of sense, since he left so much other incriminating
    evidence behind there. Why the baseball cap and pocket knife were more incriminating
    in his mind than the other items, he did not say.
    
24. “Did you watch the house when you went back to the backpack, sleeping bag? What did
    you see?” Hoffman: “Yes. Deputies stationed at both ends of King Beach Drive house.
    Illuminated by spotlights and police emergency lights.”
    

Questions 25 to 28 dealt with the specifics of the sexual assault on Sarah, a minor.
Hoffman’s replies corroborated what Sarah said he had done. She adamantly denied,
however, that anything he and she did was consensual. She noted that it was all under
duress and she complied because she was afraid he would kill her if she didn’t.

1. “After you returned to your house on Friday morning, did you ever leave again before
   police arrived on Sunday?” Hoffman: “Yes. Retrieved climbing gear. Had been left away
   from tree, but still in wildlife area. After retrieving gear went straight home. Had
   groceries in house.”
   
2. “Did you ever join a search party or show up at a meeting of searchers during the
   event?” Hoffman: “No.”
   
3. “What were you doing for money before and during the last weeks?” Hoffman: “Unemployment
   compensation.”
   
4. “Did you see the children leave for school? Get on the bus?” Hoffman: “No.”
   
5. “Did you wipe down the truck for prints, evidence?” Hoffman: “No, wore gloves.”
   
6. “Where did you put the blankets you had wrapped Sarah with in the Jeep?” Hoffman:
   “Used for bed at Columbus Road.”
   
7. “How many pair of gloves did you take into the house? Did you use other gloves from
   the house or from other sources over the course of the event?” Hoffman answered that
   he took only one pair of gloves into the King Beach Drive residence, and that he used
   two pairs of gloves during the whole four-day episode. This was counter to the evidence
   that two pairs of gloves were used in the house.
   

After the questions were answered, Detective David Light and Special Agent Joe Dietz
signed the bottom of the agreement between Hoffman and his attorneys and Prosecutor
John Thatcher.

That same day Detective Doug Turpen and Lieutenant Gary Rohler received information
from Matthew Hoffman via his attorneys indicating where he had left clothing and other
items in the woods across the street from the King Beach Drive address. The officers
went there and found two empty water bottles, a backpack and a camouflage jacket stuffed
under some weeds.

Quite a few additional items were seized from the woods. These included a gray pullover
top, camouflage sweatpants, a pair of boot socks and a green headlamp. A blue lighter
and matches were found, as well as a tube of camouflage makeup, one apple and assorted
candy and peanut wrappers. Why Hoffman left these items and came back only for the
ball cap and pocketknife remained a mystery.

* * *

As mentioned earlier, many people did not believe the particulars of Matt Hoffman’s
statement or his answers to the investigators’ follow-up questions, considering Hoffman’s
recollections to be a combination of half truths and outright lies. Larry Maynard
was definitely in that group. He did not believe Hoffman’s claim that he had picked
Tina’s residence at random. Larry speculated that perhaps Hoffman knew or had previously
met Tina or Stephanie, or maybe he’d seen Sarah at the house. Whatever the reason,
Larry firmly believed that Hoffman had purposefully targeted the house, and not just
to rob it.

“What kind of burglar spends all that time in a house, not knowing when a person will
come back home?” Larry questioned. A thief, he reasoned, would “want to get in and
out of there as soon as possible. And with many valuable items in the house, why didn’t
he take them after he had killed Tina and Stephanie? He had plenty of time to leave
before Sarah and Kody got home. His first action should have been to get out of the
house as soon as possible. From just looking around the house, he had to know that
a boy and girl lived there.” Larry was particularly disturbed that Hoffman had left
Tina’s purse behind. “I could never figure out why Hoffman left Tina’s purse in the
garage. It contained two rings and the gold necklace with the dolphin on it. These
were expensive items. If he had been there to rob the place, then that should have
been the first things he carried out with him when he went with Sarah in Stephanie’s
Jeep to the baseball-field parking lot. Why leave that purse in the garage? That’s
where the detectives found it.

“In my heart I don’t believe Matthew Hoffman went there to just rob the place. I mean,
why did he stay around all that time before Tina ever got home? And then he spent
all the extra time in the house until the kids got home from school? He knew how much
more risky that made his situation. He said he’d seen Greg drive off in his vehicle
that morning. How did he know that Greg wasn’t coming home [later]?” Larry felt the
entire scenario had been preplanned. “I believe he was just marking time until the
kids got home so that he could kill Kody and snatch Sarah. He even said that he saw
her photo on the refrigerator in the house. So he knew she lived there, and wasn’t
surprised at all when they came home from school.

“And I don’t believe anything he said about treating Sarah well when he had her at
his house. He claimed he let her shower, fed her well and watched DVD movies with
her. Sarah told me none of those things happened. He just wrote all that stuff to
make himself look better. I believe that most of the stuff he said, other than his
timeline of moving vehicles and things like that, was all a lie. He just wanted to
make people think things had spun out of control. I believe that as soon as he stepped
foot inside that house, he planned to kill. Otherwise, why bring the blackjack and
the knife? He said it was just to threaten, but he was big enough to threaten Tina,
Stephanie, Kody or Sarah without a knife.”

Ultimately, Larry said, “There were a lot of other items in that house that Hoffman
didn’t take. Why not, if it was just a burglary? None of that made any sense. He had
to have other reasons for going in there and doing what he did. More than anything
else, those reasons drive me crazy thinking about them. I can’t believe it was just
a random act—that he picked that house out of all the houses in the area. There had
to be a reason—but I don’t know what it is. And very little of what he said in his
confession can be taken as the truth.”