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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves

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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Re: Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves

Post by Nama Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:22 pm

The confession of a Mount Vernon man who pleaded guilty last month to the slayings of three people and kidnapping a teenage girl was made public on Monday.
Matthew Hoffman promised to tell authorities every detail about how and he why committed the crimes, 10TV News reported.

Prosecutors told Hoffman that they would not seek the death penalty if he led them to the bodies of Tina Herrmann, 32; her son, Kody Maynard, 11; and family friend, Stephanie Sprang, 41.

The slayings occurred on Nov. 10 at Herrmann's King Beach Drive home.

Hoffman discussed how he broke inside Herrmann's King Beach Drive home on Nov. 10 and killed Herrmann and Sprang. Hoffman said that he killed them in a panic, as well as Maynard, when he came home from school.

"At this time, I was in a total state of shock," Hoffman said. "I wandered around (the) house, slowly coming to realization of what I had done and how bad it was. "During this time, I killed (Herrmann's) dog because it would not stop barking."

The three bodies were found on Nov. 18 inside a hollow tree at the Kokosing Nature Preserve near Fredericktown in rural Knox County.

Shortly after the slayings, Hoffman said that he drove to nearby Gambier, where he went to collect gas cans from his vehicle and use them to burn down Herrmann's house.

According to Hoffman, a sheriff's deputy almost immediately pulled up and asked for his driver's license and reason for being there. At that point, Hoffman said that he could not burn down Herrmann's house and returned to his home where he built a campfire outside his house, drank a bottle of wine and burned his shoes.

The bulk of the confession detailed the four days he spent with the 13-year-old girl who he kidnapped. It explained how he let her play Wii video games, how they watched Iron Man movies together, how he cooked her hamburgers and promised her that she would be home by Christmas.

When investigators broke down his door, they found the girl bound on a bed made of tree leaves and blankets in a corner of the home's basement. Hoffman went into great detail about how he chose the girl's home at random to burglarize.

"I did not enter the house to kill those people," Hoffman said. "I did not know a single one of them. I did not know their names and I did not know who all lived at the house. I chose the house to break into because there (were) not any close neighbors and I noticed the garage door was ajar."

On Jan. 6, Hoffman pleaded guilty to all charges against him on Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

He faced a total of 10 counts, including aggravated murder, gross abuse of a corpse, burglary, kidnapping and raping the teenage girl.

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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Re: Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves

Post by Guest Tue Feb 08, 2011 1:42 am

It must be finally sinking in what he has done, and that he will never be a free man again! He is quite nice-looking... I wonder what caused him to do such terrible things? I wonder if he has any remorse for what he has done? So many questions... over reaction
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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Re: Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves

Post by CritterFan1 Tue Feb 08, 2011 1:48 am

I agree, he is good looking, he looks so normal, whatever normal is. Obviously he is a monster to do such a thing. I will never believe that he did not know who was in the house. I feel it was planned, that he knew a young girl was in the house.
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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Hoffman’s confession includes details of murder

Post by Nama Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:18 pm

Matthew Hoffman parked his Toyota Yaris at the Kokosing Gap Trail in Howard and walked to King Beach Drive where he slept in a sleeping bag in a wooded area across the street from Tina Herrmann’s home, a house he planned to rob the next day.

“I chose the house to break into because there was not any close neighbors, and I noticed the garage door was ajar. I chose the house the day before,” Hoffman said in his confession to his attorneys on Nov. 18, 2010.

It was just after midnight on Wednesday, Nov. 10, he said, when he settled in for the night. He woke around daylight and noticed one of the two vehicles in the driveway was gone. He went back to sleep until about 9 a.m. and watched for the pickup truck to leave.

When the coast was clear, Hoffman tried to enter through the front door, but it was locked. He then slid under the partially opened garage door and forced his way through the interior entrance to the home.

“I looked around the house to make sure that no one was there,” Hoffman said. “Even if I did not take anything, there was a certain amount of excitement in being in someone else’s home without them being there.”

He searched the house for about an hour, according to the statement transcribed by the Knox County Public Defenders Office, but found very little he thought was “of any real value.” When he was prepared to leave the home, Herrmann returned. At this point, Hoffman said he felt trapped but was prepared to use a knife he took with him for intimidation purposes in case he needed to escape.

When the woman found her way back to her bedroom, Hoffman confronted her and forced her to lie face down on her bed. He said his first instinct was to hit her with his blackjack. With her unconscious, he would be able to leave, he said.

“It (the blackjack) was not doing the job, and I started panicking,” he said.

At this point, Stephanie Sprang appeared and shouted at Hoffman.

“There were now two to deal with and I didn’t know what to do,” Hoffman said.

What comes next in his confession are the details of how Hoffman stabbed the two women and how the reality of what he had just done started to run through his mind.

“At this time I was in a total state of shock,” Hoffman said. “I wandered around [the house] slowly coming to the realization of what I had done and how bad it was. During this time I killed the dog because it wouldn’t stop barking.”

In trying to determine what to do, Hoffman said he contemplated putting Herrmann and Sprang in a vehicle and driving it into a Foundation Park lake. He decided against that plan as he was uncertain if he would be able to swim to safety in the cold water.

He then turned his focus on “processing” the bodies and trying to clean up or cover up the blood. Details in the case file released on Monday explain Hoffman used bleach to try to clean blood from the carpet. When that didn’t work, he poured motor oil on some areas to conceal the presence of blood. A one-gallon milk jug with oil was found in the home.

It was while Hoffman was moving trash bags from the house to the garage where he had parked Sprang’s Jeep, that Herrman’s children came home and found Hoffman in the hallway. Herrmann’s daughter ran to her bedroom; her son’s life was immediately taken by Hoffman.

“I saw the girl was not on the phone (calling for help), and I could not bring myself to kill her,” Hoffman said. “… She was suspicious about the spots of blood that were in the bedroom, but I had already put motor oil on the blood.”

Hoffman said he tied up his captive until he was ready to move her, and the bodies. He drove the Jeep to the baseball fields on Pipesville Road, just outside of Howard, and walked to the bike path to retrieve his Yaris about an hour before sundown.

“I waited until dark to transfer Sarah from the Jeep to my car,” he said.

He then drove Sarah to his Columbus Road home, picked up McDonald’s and ate with her.

“I tried to comfort her, and told her everything would be fine,” he said. “… I made her a bed out of leaves, covered it with blankets, and placed her onto the bed. She liked that bed, it was extremely comfy, and I wanted to sleep on it.”

Hoffman then slept from somewhere between 9 and 10 p.m. until his alarm went off at midnight. He drove his Yaris to the Kokosing Reservoir Nature Preserve to “scout out the area” and to drop off his climbing gear.

“I took my climbing gear up first to ensure that if I were to be pulled over, I would not have the bodies and the climbing gear in the same vehicle,” Hoffman said.

On his way back to Howard to take the Jeep to the nature preserve, Hoffman stopped at Walmart where he purchased two tarps, a box of trash bags, a sandwich and T-shirt. In his statement, Hoffman said he purchased the trash bags because the bags he found in Herrmann’s home were small and thin.

According to the receipt acquired through Walmart, Hoffman made the purchase at 12:08 a.m. When confronted about the discrepancy in his timeline, Hoffman said he believed his chronology was correct and questioned whether or not the clocks in the store were accurate.

He then left his Yaris at the canoe access on Pipesville Road and walked back to the ball fields where he left the Jeep. It was nearly 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 11, when he returned to the nature preserve. By the time he finished placing the bags inside the tree, it was nearly daylight.

Hoffman returned the Jeep to Herrmann’s house and parked it in the garage. It was at this time that Hoffman left the Walmart bag with tarps and trash bags in the garage. He took gas cans from the garage and put them in Herrman’s truck before leaving in it.

“I was planning on filling the gas cans, and returning to the house,” Hoffman said. “I would place the truck into the garage and burn everything down. The truck would not drive right, as it would not stay in gear, and would not run effectively.”

He decided to leave the truck on Laymon Road and walk back to Howard on the Kokosing Gap Trail.

“I did not realize the distance, and this took quite some time to walk back to my vehicle. I got back to my vehicle about 9 or 10 a.m., and drove home,” he said.

Thursday evening, Hoffman drove back to Gambier to retrieve the gas cans from Herrmann’s truck and proceed with his plan to burn down the house and cover up the evidence of the murders. As soon as he entered a parking lot about 200 yards from Herrmann’s truck, Hoffman was approached by a Knox County Sheriff’s Deputy.

“The deputy indicated certain information to me that caused me to believe that the house had already been discovered. I realized that I could not burn the house down,” he said.

That night at his home, he built a campfire, burnt his shoes and drank wine.

On the morning of Friday, Nov. 12, Hoffman returned to the wooded area where he watched the Herrmann house on Tuesday night, to retrieve his sleeping bag and backpack before they were discovered by investigators. He parked his car in Millwood and rode his bike to Howard then north on Magers Road, passed Sprang’s home, and back to his belongings.

“I did not get to the backpack until almost daylight as it had taken me a long time Friday morning to not get caught due to all of the activity at the house,” he said.

At some point between Friday morning and Sunday morning, Nov. 14, Hoffman returned to the nature preserve to retrieve his climbing gear but there are no specifics for the timing. He did say he left his car at the AMVETS building and returned home.

Hoffman details the events of Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12 and 13, in his home and said there were times when he allowed Sarah to move freely in the home where they watched movies and played video games. In his confession, he said that he told Sarah she was being held for ransom and that he expected her to be home by Christmas.

“On Saturday, when I actually had time to think, I planned on giving her more and more freedom until she ran away,” Hoffman said. “Once she ran away I was going to take off. I did not plan or think too much about what I was going to do once I ran.”

However, a collaborative effort between the Mount Vernon Police Department and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office early Sunday morning, Nov. 14, saw MVPD’s Emergency Services Unit storm into Hoffman’s Columbus Road home, arrest Hoffman and release the kidnapped teenager from Hoffman’s control.

Hoffman’s confession is four pages of more than 2,500 pages of documents that were released into public record on Monday. Those convicted of crimes have 30 days to appeal. If no appeal is made, most documents from the investigation become public record.

Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher said medical records are excluded from public record. He plans to request that sealed documents from the case, including search warrants, be unsealed and released as public record.

Hoffman remains at the Correctional Reception Center at Orient. It is unknown where he will be transferred once the intake process is complete. In January, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole.

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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Re: Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves

Post by Guest Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:21 am

Wow - that is quite a confession! I wonder how much of it is really true? The only comfort I found in reading it, was to know that he killed the two women BEFORE the children came home. They didn't have to witness the gruesome attacks. However, the poor girl must have been traumatized hearing her brother being killed, and having to spend so much time with the killer (not to mention being raped)!! 🇳🇴
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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Murderer who killed three in botched burglary and raped girl, 13, covered his house with leaves in bizarre obsession

Post by Nama Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:10 am

A murderer who killed two women and an 11-year-old boy before kidnapping and raping a girl,13, after a botched burglary attempt, has been found to have a bizarre obsession with leaves.
Authorities have released images of Matthew Hoffman's house and they reveal that the 30-year-old stuffed his living room with leaves and lined his bathroom with more than 100 bags of leaves.
In addition, the unemployed tree-surgeon's bed - where the teenager was raped - was made from leaves and his freezer contained dead squirrels.
Hoffman, who stabbed his victims to death on November 9, is currently serving a life sentence for the three murders in Ohio County - he had hidden the bodies high in hollow trees but told the police where he had hidden them in a bid to escape Death Row.
And two police officers from Mount Vernon, Ohio, who were investigating the whereabouts of the missing trio, first entered Hoffman's home in November last year to discover the mounds of leaves.
By that stage Hoffman had murdered and dismembered Tina Hermann, her son Kody and Mrs Hermann's neighbour Stephanie Sprang, and the piles were so high that the officers feared that corpses might have been buried underneath them.
Detective Craig Feeney told the Columbus Dispatch: 'So much runs through your mind: "What if someone is hiding under that pile?" Or in this case, I thought, "Is that where he's hiding the bodies?'''
Mrs Hermann's 13-year-old daughter was discovered in Hoffman's basement, with her hands and feet bound - she had been confined to a makeshift bed of leaves.

During police questioning Hoffman confessed to investigators that he had made the bed of leaves and covered it with blankets and that the rape victim 'liked that bed, it was extremely comfy and I wanted to sleep on it'.
Forensic psychologists have suggested that the obsession with leaves and trees showed that Hoffman was unhinged and mentally disturbed.
'If trees gave him comfort at all and were familiar at all, that would explain why he would put the bodies in the tree,' said Dr James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, who has written five books about serial killers, told ABC News.

A neighbour, Henderson Butcher, said that there were signs that Hoffman was attracted to trees and leaves.
'He used to play around the trees around there a lot, throw ropes in trees and had like a hammock on there,' Butcher was quotes as saying in ABC News.
Another neighbour, Kara Fowler, said: 'He would actually kill the squirrels and eat them - he was killing the squirrels because he doesn't grocery shop

ohn Thatcher, the Knox County Prosecutor, said he believed that the hundreds of bags of leaves found in Hoffman's house were unconnected to the murders.
Earlier this week Hoffman made a chilling confession detailing how a planned break-in turned into every American family’s nightmare.
He said he randomly targetted the isolated Know County split level house where Mrs Herrmann lived with her two children and spent the night in a sleeping bag in the woods across the street.

At about 9am on November 9 last year, he slipped into the house through an open garage door after watching Mrs Herrmann drive off in her car.
He insisted he never planned to hurt anyone when he sneaked into a suburban home at breakfast time looking for valuables to steal.
But before the day was over, the ex-convict had brutally murdered a 32-year-old mother, her eleven-year-old son and a 41-year-old woman neighbour at the house in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
After the bloodbath he hid the bodies – as well as the family’s pet dog that he also stabbed – in a hollowed out tree in a nearby park.

Obsessed: Pictures of the 30-year-old unemployed tree surgeon's house showed piles of leaves - psychologists say that it shows that Hoffman was mentally disturbed

Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Picturesofthe30-year-oldunemployedtreesurgeonshouseshowedpilesofleaves-psychologistssaythatitshowsthatHoffmanwasmentallydisturbed

Mentally deluded: Hoffman's bed, was made with leaves

Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Hoffmansbedwasmadewithleaves

Bizarre: Hoffman's bathroom - shown here - is lined with more than 100 bags of leaves, and he has a freezer that contained two dead squirrels

Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Hoffmansbathroom-shownhere-islinedwithmorethan100bagsofleavesandhehasafreezerthatcontainedtwodeadsquirrels

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Post by raine1953 Mon Feb 21, 2011 3:26 am

Thanks for posting this BJ, he sure was 'mentally off'. I wonder if anyone else had seen his house of leaves. Strange.
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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Re: Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves

Post by CritterFan1 Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:03 am

I agree. I have seen hoarders, usually they hoard normal things, things that they think they could not do without. Hoarding leaves is so weird I can't comprehend it.
Lies IMO that he picked the house at random. He knew there was a young girl living there. I would bet the farm on that.
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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Re: Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves

Post by Wrapitup Mon Feb 21, 2011 5:16 am

Critter, the latest in bathroom styles..our leaf collection. omg affraid
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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Re: Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves

Post by Guest Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:28 am

That is so bizarre... now I've heard of everything! It would really be interesting to hear from his former girlfriend (I think I remember hearing that he had been in a prior relationship). Maybe she couldn't handle his weirdness (I don't blame her!), and got tired of eating squirrels for dinner! Sarcasm
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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Hoffman transferred to Toledo Correctional Institution

Post by Nama Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:07 pm

Matthew Hoffman, 30, was moved to the Toledo Correctional Institution on Monday, 10TV News reported. Prior to Monday he had been held at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient.

Hoffman will be in protective custody at Toledo, meaning he is kept away from the general prison population and will have a single cell.

The decision to keep him away from other inmates was made because of the notoriety of his case.

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Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves - Page 4 Empty Re: Hoffman pleads guilty to all charges in lieu of the DP in murders of Tina Herrmann, her 10-year-old son, Kody (daughter Sarah found alive), & her 41-year-old friend Stephanie Sprang/ Hoffman covered his house in leaves

Post by Praying For Faith Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:22 am

Protecting him from the other prisoners, I say let them at him. JMOO!

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