The Girl in the Leaves

by Robert Scott

  At one point, the man gave her a dictionary and told her to look up the word “ransom.” She did so and found out what it meant. Then he told her he might let her go by Christmas. He never explained exactly what he meant, but she didn’t believe him in this regard anyway.

  Sarah said later, “Even after he told me about the ransom, sometimes I thought he would kill me anyway, just so that it would be over with. It was scary.”

  He also told her now and again that he had someone watching the house. She was pretty sure he said “someone” as in one more person, rather than persons.

  * * *

  Things just kept getting better for the detectives. Lieutenant Rohler stated later, “As we were gathering additional information on Mr. Hoffman, we spoke with Deputy Aaron Phillips. Deputy Phillips was the officer who had located Tina Herrmann’s F-150 pickup truck at the bike path in Gambier. Deputy Phillips indicated that he had confronted a white male sitting in a silver vehicle near the bike path at the same time that the F-150 truck was located. Deputy Phillips approached the white male and requested identification. Deputy Phillips ran the information through LEADS [Law Enforcement Agencies Data System] and the information returned to Matthew Hoffman.”

  Detective Sergeant Roger Brown looked up Matthew Hoffman in the KCSO computer system. The records showed that on Thursday, November 11 at around 6:55 PM, Deputy Aaron Phillips had made contact with Hoffman at the river access parking lot on Laymon Road, and that Hoffman had been sitting in a silver Yaris. Phillips was in the area because minutes earlier he’d noticed Tina Herrmann’s Ford F-150 pickup parked at the Kokosing Gap Trail lot. The two parking lots were only two hundred yards apart.

  And for the first time, Detective Sergeant Brown learned that Matthew Hoffman had told Phillips the reason he was sitting in his car was that he was waiting for his girlfriend, Sarah, to get off work at the Kenyon Inn. Brown also learned that Hoffman said he did not know Sarah’s last name because they had just started dating. Phillips had told Hoffman the parking lot was closed after dark, and he had moved on.

  Now Special Agent Dietz also discovered that Matthew Hoffman had been involved in a domestic violence issue with his then live-in girlfriend only a few weeks earlier, on October 24, 2010. This had occurred at the 49 Columbus Road location.

  * * *

  Because of all the information coming in, KCSO decided it was time to request a search warrant on Matthew Hoffman’s residence at 49 Columbus Road. In the request, Detective David Light stated all the early facts about the search and seizure of items at King Beach Drive. He detailed how the record of the trash-bag purchase at Walmart had lead back to a video of a man exiting the store with a tarp and trash bags and getting into a silver Toyota Yaris in the store parking lot. Light stated that not only did the man in the video resemble the photo on Matthew Hoffman’s driver’s license, but he was also wearing the same kind of camouflage shirt as pictured in the driver’s license photo.

  Detective Light included the description of Deputy Aaron Phillips’s interaction with a man in a silver Yaris parked near Tina Herrmann’s pickup truck at the closed lot. During the encounter, Deputy Phillips had observed that the Yaris had a noticeable dent in it; so did the Yaris that had been videotaped leaving the Walmart parking lot.

  Deputy Phillips would later say of these hectic minutes, “When the detectives got that information [about Matthew Hoffman], it was like [Ohio State University] just scored the winning touchdown. Guys were yelling and jumping up and down. Grabbing gear and sprinting out the door.”

  For all of these reasons, Detective Light wrote, “Your affiant has probable cause to believe that Matthew J. Hoffman purchased the trash bags and tarps at Wal-Mart, on November 11, 2010, and that he was in Tina Herrmann’s residence where he left the trash bags and tarps and during the time of the criminal offenses alleged herein. Affiant has good cause to believe that Matthew J. Hoffman is dangerous and presents a risk of serious physical harm to law enforcement officers who will execute the search warrant.”

  Now Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher became involved. He was contacted even though it was in the early morning hours of Sunday, November 14. Thatcher agreed there was enough probable cause for a warrant to be issued. He quickly set things in motion, despite the early hour. He said later, “I knew this was it. We had to go. I was already up and decided to come into the office instead of turning around and going back to bed until later that morning.”

  Thatcher said later that he knew time was of the essence. At least one of the missing people had walked in the garage area of the house on King Beach Road and might yet be alive. In fact, there was still a possibility that all four were still alive. Getting a search warrant as soon as possible was of grave importance.

  Thatcher contacted Judge Paul Spurgeon, who read the request for the search warrant and signed it at 6:00 AM, November 14, 2010.

  SIXTEEN

  “A Dynamic Entry”

  Very early on Sunday morning, November 14, 2010, Lieutenant Gary Rohler and Detective Sergeant Roger Brown began surveillance of Matthew Hoffman’s residence at 49 Columbus Road. At that time, they discerned no activity in the residence or vehicles coming to or leaving the house.

  Also early on November 14, Detective Craig Feeney of the Mount Vernon Police Department (MVPD) was contacted by Captain David Shaffer of KCSO. Shaffer told Feeney that KCSO wanted a Mount Vernon Police SWAT team to assist their office. Feeney passed this message on to Captain George Hartz of the MVPD, and a short time later Hartz told Feeney to start activating the SWAT team.

  As the team was being put together, Feeney told all the members to congregate at the Mount Vernon Police Department headquarters. One of these members was Sergeant Troy Glazier. As Glazier said later, “All available team members met at the police department and prepared our gear . . . Information at that time was that KCSO had developed leads to a possible suspect in the case of four missing persons. We geared up and went to the KCSO office for a briefing on the case. During the briefing, two locations were discussed where the suspect might be . . . We staged at Richert Trucking on Columbus Road until it could be determined the whereabouts of the suspect.”

  Around that same time, Detective Sergeant Roger Brown, Special Agent Joe Dietz, MVPD Captain George Hartz and KCSO Sergeant Jeff Jacobs went to the residence where Matt Hoffman’s recent ex-girlfriend now lived. After brief questioning, she confirmed that Hoffman was living at the house on Columbus Road and not at his mother’s home in Apple Valley. According to Detective Sergeant Brown, she also told them that Hoffman “normally did not park his vehicle at the residence due to the fear of it being repossessed.”

  Detective Feeney recalled, “Captain Shaffer went with our team and updated us on all current information coming in. Just prior to executing the warrant, Captain Shaffer received information that it was likely the suspect we were looking for was in the residence.”

  Glazier related, “With fresh information just developed that the suspect was most likely at the Columbus Road location, we headed that way. A marked KCSO unit was given a head start to get to the rear of the residence. The MVPD ESU van then proceeded to go do a ‘dynamic’ entry of the residence.” A dynamic entry was one where a battering ram had to be used to break down a door.

  “The ESU van pulled up to the front of the house, and we exited and stacked up at the front door. We were executing a no-knock search warrant, so we did not immediately announce our presence. Patrolman DeChant used a door ram to force entry, and I deployed a flashbang distraction device inside the residence in the middle of the living room area. As soon as the distraction devices activated, the team entered the residence.” “Entered” was hardly the right word—they stormed in like a hurricane.

  “Patrolman Weiser and Detective Feeney encountered a male asleep on the couch in the living room. They began to give him verbal commands to show his
hands, and he was not immediately compliant.” (Whether Hoffman was being deliberately uncooperative or was merely groggy from lack of sleep was unclear).

  Feeney stated, “We secured the male on the floor and identified him as the suspect. I escorted the male outside and re-entered the residence.”

  Glazier added, “Patrolman DeChant and I began to clear the area and located a stairway to the upper half of the house. Once we were comfortable that the downstairs area was cleared, we proceeded upstairs.

  “The first door I came to upstairs was locked and I kicked the door in but did not locate any other persons upstairs. But we did locate what appeared to be a marijuana growing operation in one bedroom that was not active. We gave the all-clear upstairs and I had that team do a slowed-down secondary search of the upstairs. Patrolman DeChant and I located a hole that had been cut through the ceiling of a bedroom closet to gain access to the attic.” The officers wanted to make sure no one was in the attic.

  Glazier continued, “Patrolman [Tim] Arnold [of the Mount Vernon Police Department] located a door to the basement that was blocked by some kind of cabinet.” Patrolman Arnold moved the obstruction from the door, and Glazier was the first one to go down the stairs into the basement. At the bottom of the basement stairs there was a doorway to the right; Glazier looked that way and suddenly observed a person lying on a sleeping bag on top of a pile of leaves. He pointed his weapon and flashlight at the person and yelled at them to show their hands. A young female sat up, and Glazier saw that she was bound in various places with duct tape and her hands and feet were bound with yellow rope. She sat up and looked directly at Glazier.

  The female that Glazier had just yelled at was thirteen-year-old kidnap victim Sarah Maynard.

  SEVENTEEN

  The Girl on the Bed of Leaves

  After what seemed an eternity of being locked in almost total darkness, Sarah Maynard realized she was being rescued. It was a moment she would never forget. She recalled later, “I heard someone come into the house, and they yelled, ‘Get down, get down!’ Then they came downstairs, and I think they kept saying, ‘I think she’s here!’ And then a whole bunch of guys came down, and at first I thought they were bad guys. But then I saw the helmets on them, and I knew they were saving me!”

  When the shock of seeing Sarah bound and lying on a bed of leaves wore off, both Sergeant Troy Glazier and Detective Craig Feeney proceeded to assist her. Glazier recalled, “Once it was apparent she was not in any immediate danger, I slowed everything down and had an officer go upstairs to get a camera before we released her from her bonds. A minute later Feeney took photos of Sarah and how she was bound before we released her. Other officers cleared the rest of the basement and I moved two large black trash bags that felt like they had leaves in them from the doorway to the right of where the female was.”

  Glazier debated getting onto a ledge that seemed to lead to a crawl space but decided against it because “there were some scuff marks in the fine dirt that appeared to have been made by a shoe.” In other words he did not want to disturb the shoe prints in case they were important.

  “Feeney and I released the female from the rope that she was bound with,” Glazier recounted. “I untied the knots of the yellow rope that held her hands. Feeney cut the rope to her ankles to preserve the knots. Once she was free, we helped her stand up. She had [on] a white plastic bag that had holes cut out for her legs, so that she was wearing like a makeshift diaper. It appeared that she had urinated in her jeans because they were wet from her waist to halfway down to her knees.”

  For his part, Feeney remembered, “The girl had brown jersey gloves on her hands and they were duct-taped. Her hands were tied up with yellow rope and so were her ankles. I identified who we were and asked if she was okay. The girl advised that she was okay.”

  Sarah’s first words to the officers took them completely by surprise. She said, “I have to get to school.” Despite everything that had happened, Sarah was afraid that she would be in trouble for missing so many days of school.

  Detective Feeney assured her that she didn’t need to go to school right away. Then, he reported, “after the photographs were taken, the girl asked if the suspect was secured so he couldn’t hurt her. They assured her that he was. Then she said, ‘He cut my finger with a knife, usually had me gagged, and he was going to release me before Christmas.’”

  Feeney asked her if she knew where anyone else was—meaning Tina, Kody or Stephanie—and Sarah said that she didn’t know, but she thought that the man who had held her captive had killed her dog.

  Feeney helped Sarah get up, and she was of course still disoriented from having been in the dark for so long. Sergeant Glazier recalled, “We told her again that she was safe and that the Sheriff’s Office was handling the investigation and they would be speaking with her shortly about what happened. We asked her if there had been anyone else at the residence besides her and the suspect that she knew about. She said no, and believed it had just been the two of them there.” Although she was not as certain if her captor had someone outside the house helping him.

  Glazier continued, “The suspect was taken from the residence area and secured in a KCSO cruiser. We called for a medic unit to respond to check on Sarah and transport her to Knox County Hospital (KCH). We helped her upstairs and stayed with her in the living room until the medics came in with a stretcher. Sarah was briefly checked by the medics and placed on the stretcher and covered with a blanket. She was taken out and transported to KCH for treatment and evaluation. The suspect was transported to KCSO.”

  * * *

  Special Agent Joe Dietz arrived at Matthew Hoffman’s house just as Sarah was being led up the stairs from the basement. Dietz accompanied her to Knox County Hospital; as they rode together to the hospital in the back of the ambulance, he monitored her treatment and asked her some questions about her abduction and captivity.

  Sarah remembered later how strange it felt to her to actually be speaking to someone other than the man who had abducted her. She said, “I was glad they were helping me, but it was kind of freaky talking to anyone at the time.” As yet she didn’t even know Hoffman’s name. She was sure she had never seen him before and couldn’t imagine why her family had been targeted. She was also having a hard time adjusting to all the light. She had been in almost total darkness for so long that daylight seemed dazzling to her eyes.

  Sarah told Dietz that she and her brother had been attacked after entering their home on Wednesday when they got home from school. “I told the investigators that me and Kody saw the blood on the tile and there was nobody in there. We were like, ‘Oh my gosh’—and then he came and snatched us.” Sarah told Dietz that the man had tried to grab her, but she broke free and ran to her bedroom. She hadn’t actually seen him kill Kody, but she was worried that Kody had not survived.

  Sarah said that the man came to her bedroom, grabbed her and carried her down to the basement where he used some available rope to tie her up. He then took her to the kitchen floor and left her there for a long time before taking her to Stephanie Sprang’s Jeep and placing her inside of it.

  After a while, Sarah told them, he drove her to the Pipesville Road ball field parking lot, which she recognized, and she was left in the backseat of the Jeep, covered with blankets, for another long period of time. Later, the man came back, placed her in a different car and drove her to the house where she was later found.

  Sarah told Dietz that she had been tied up most of the time and had spent some time in a bathroom and some in a closet before being transferred to the small dark area in the basement. She was vague about when these movements occurred because her sense of time had been eroded by this point. Sarah did say that the man would not tell her what had happened to her mother, brother or Stephanie, but she suspected that he had killed all of them.

  In the hospital, BCI&I Special Agent Mark
Kollar photographed the work gloves and duct tape that Hoffman had used on Sarah. Then Kollar took possession of several pieces of evidence, including a binding from Sarah’s right wrist, a binding from her left wrist, a bag containing socks and boots, another bag containing her clothing, and a kit connected to sexual molestation collected during the nurse’s examination of Sarah.

  Special Agent Dietz stayed with Sarah until Carrie Huffman, a caseworker from Ohio’s Child and Family Services, and Tom Bumpus, the KCSO detective in charge of crimes against children, arrived, followed shortly by Diana Oswalt, the victim advocate from the Knox County Prosecutor’s Office.

  Diana Oswalt had been with many victims in Knox County, but had never been involved with anything like this. She’d come into her job by an unusual route; although she had always wanted to help people in need. Until the late 1990s, Oswalt had worked at banks in various capacities. She’d moved from one position to another, then finally told her husband it was time for a new start. He agreed with her, and Oswalt put in an application to become a victim’s advocate in Knox County.

  Oswalt’s immediate concern for Sarah was to assure her that she was now safe and that the suspect could no longer hurt her. He was in jail and would not be getting back out. Sarah had some concerns that Matthew Hoffman had an accomplice, and Oswalt assured Sarah that even if that was true, she would be well protected now and nobody could hurt her.

  * * *

  Messages were flying all over the place by early Sunday afternoon. Greg Borders was contacted about Sarah’s safe recovery by KCSO. He phoned Captain Shaffer wanting to know if he should go to the hospital. Sarah was told by authorities that her uncles, Tina’s brothers, had arrived at the hospital and wanted to see her, but Sarah kept saying that she wanted her father, Larry Maynard. The only person she asked to see was her dad.