WEBVTT - CHAPTER ELEVEN: This One’s for Todd 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:05.440 By the end of December twenty twenty three, our team 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:08.639 had wrapped up production on Hello John Dale. Todd and 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:10.879 I talked a little bit about what we'd both do next, 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:14.280 how excited we were about the show coming out, what 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:16.640 kind of other unbelievable stories he'd come across that might 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:21.799 warrant a second season. On January third of this year, 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.000 I got a call from my editor Catherine. 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:26.320 Todd had passed away that morning. 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:37.520 He was only fifty three. I'm still not exactly sure 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.239 how to process this. None of us are, but our 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.600 team did what we knew we had to. We flew 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:47.440 to Tennessee, paid our respects, and dedicated an episode to 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.120 Todd Matthew's remarkable life. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:52.040 We do have a very full flight this morning, so 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:53.800 if we do have a larger roller release, but it. 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:54.400 Is Wales first. 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:57.400 We couldn't let Todd go to the other side of 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:04.280 the veil without a proper goodbye, and we wanted to 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.160 finish what Todd started. Reached back out to Steve one 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:12.240 last time to see what it all meant to him. 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.520 My name is Kate Michigan and this is Hello John Doe. 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.400 A sleuth, a family and a serial killer. The story 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.000 of a family torn apart by tragedy and Todd's quest 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:27.520 to break them back together. This is Chapter eleven, the 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:29.160 first of three bonus episodes. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:31.959 This one's for Todd. 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.119 Todd'stown, Livingston, Tennessee, is about an hour and a half 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.919 outside of Nashville, a little sleepy and tucked away between 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.920 mountains and trees. It was just a few days after 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:47.480 the New year. The trees were barren gray. Todd's visitation 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:49.680 was at a funeral home right next to the clothing 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:51.080 boutique his wife, Florrie ran. 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:54.760 And so today we gather to honor and to celebrate 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:57.200 the remarkable life of Todd Matthews. 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.200 There was so many people there, a lot of people. 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:03.360 They were weaving us back and forth in the pews, 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.320 and all I could do was watch that little TV 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:08.080 thing showed dollar pictures. 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.919 You know, that's Rosemary Westbrook. You might remember her from 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.240 our first episode. She's the sister of Tent Girl, the 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.639 very first woman Todd helped identify, the one that basically 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.080 changed his life and obviously changed hers. 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:24.920 It was a lot of thoughts running through your head 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:26.440 of many years past. 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.000 Rosemary and her family drove up from Arkansas to say goodbye. 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.600 They were among the hundreds. There were people from the 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:39.800 dough Network family. 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.800 Seed helped reunite his own family, his wife, their two kids, 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:48.040 and his grandkids. People from Hutchinson, the factory where he 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.400 started his career. Tina Hall, his cousin who grew up 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.720 with him, was surprised by the wide range of people 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:54.400 who showed up. 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.760 I knew he had done a lot, but even after 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.840 his passing now, it's just amazing how many people came 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.919 out to the funeral home and the stories about how 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:06.919 he touched their lives. We were so proud of me. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:09.720 There were so many people in the receiving line that 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.000 Todd's wife, Flor, stood by the casket for more than 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:13.120 four hours. 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.440 You know how you kind of listen in on stories 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.560 as you're passing through this weaving motion, and most of 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:22.840 them were stories of Todd being a prankster. You know 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:24.920 how he played a trick on this one, played trick 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.520 on that one, and tell somebody to go do something 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:32.359 and watch them come out the building and laugh at him. 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.680 I overheard that same thing. I knew this firsthand. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.080 But Todd didn't change his persona if he was at 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.440 the factory or the doughnut work or the Department of Justice, 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:47.440 or in his living room. He was the same guy, tenderhearted, 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.880 with a propensity for tricks. We paid our respects and 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.680 then came back the next day for the funeral. That's 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.040 when we met John Brett, an old friend of Todd's. 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.880 I first met Todd in an unconventional way. I was 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:06.240 working as an investigative reporter at WLAXTV in Lexington, Kentucky. 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.760 I was sitting at my desk one afternoon in the newsroom. 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.800 In the phone rang and I picked it up and 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:18.640 fat voice he started the conversation with You're gonna think 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.000 I'm crazy, but please don't hang up until you hear 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:25.520 my story. And that call was about the tent girl case. 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.000 John was taken with Todd. Who was this guy? 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.440 Todd ended up doing his first TV interview with John 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.440 back in nineteen ninety eight. This was a milestone for 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.080 him and the beginning of a lifelong friendship between two men. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:44.799 He was a son, a husband, a father, a poppy, 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.320 and to many of us here a friend and a mentor. 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:54.479 His humor, as we've heard his legendary as his investigative skills. 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.560 Todd was famous in Livingstone, not just because of his 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.880 national profile. He was an original, hard to miss. 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.320 He was a man who found joy in life's simplest moments, 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.680 whether it was nurturing his garden or cooking the meal 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.480 for his family. His passing leaves a void that can 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:17.200 never be filled, but his legacy is immortal. It lives 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.400 on in the lives that he touched, the mysteries that 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.640 he solved, the love he spread. 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:28.520 If you've been listening to this podcast, you know Todd 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.160 had a pretty unique relationship to death. Like he said himself, 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.000 he confronted it early on when he lost his two siblings, 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:37.320 and it was a huge part of how he made 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.400 his living reuniting dead and missing people with their families. 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.719 Todd talked a lot about death before his passing, not 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:45.560 in a morbid way. 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:47.400 He was just a matter of fact about it. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.279 I'm not squeamish. Acada Cereal, Elbadrasco. 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.479 A few years ago, some documentary filmmakers from Morgan Freeman's 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.280 production company filmed Todd when they were thinking about making 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.560 a movie about him. After he died, we listened back 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.719 to those recordings. I was stunned by how poignant his 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.800 words were and his passing, the gained meaning became even 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:10.839 more profound. 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:14.360 Death is part of life, It is a real chapter 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.200 of life. You have to accept that as you've done enough, 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.719 you've done everything that you can do, accept the things 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.760 you can't change, and embrace the things that you can. 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.000 So that's what I had to do to make myself 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.679 be okay, because I feel like I'm somebody that wants 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:33.880 to see you want it all, but sometimes you have enough. 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.400 As we were making Hello John Doe, when he thought 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.719 we were capturing the story of Steve Patterson, we didn't 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:43.680 realize we were documenting the last years of Todd's life too. 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.880 You've heard Todd talk about losing his brother and sister. 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.880 I was two years old, but I still remember fragments 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:52.680 of the emotion. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.360 What he hadn't told you yet was that he had 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:58.880 open heart surgery when he was just eight years old. 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.120 There was a period of time I wasn't expected to live, 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.720 so growing up, I really never expected to be here today. 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.400 So I feel like almost my entire adult life, I 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:11.720 felt like I was living on barred time. I wasn't 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.600 planning on being a grandfather, but yet I'm here. So 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.880 it gives you a different point of view. I don't 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:20.720 feel like life was owed to me. I felt like 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.160 I was granted life that was beyond what I expected. 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.240 I always wondered what was driving Todd? 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:35.960 So you do have to appreciate it, and I do. 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.520 I do appreciate it. It's like, so what do you 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:39.120 do with it? 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:42.200 I guess this was that he was compelled to do 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:44.800 something with the time he was given. He didn't just 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.040 help one family, he helped dozens, hundreds. 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.520 And it was a strange niche with missing and unidentified. 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:55.320 You don't just choose that, it chooses you. And maybe 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:56.800 that's what's kept me here for so long. 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:59.560 It just feels like Todd was born to do this 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.720 kind of to nestle into people's lives at their darkest points. 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:06.200 I do make friends really quickly with people, and that's 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.760 just my nature. Some of my best friends are dead, 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.160 but it's okay. They were dead when I met him, 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.120 and it's like, why is that weird? And I don't 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.680 think that's inappropriate, not at all. 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:17.600 I don't. 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.320 I think it's absolutely necessary and matters of life and death, 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:25.320 it's absolutely necessary that somebody truly knows that you're going 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.040 to do everything you can to resolve it for them. 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.920 Just because somebody's unclaim doesn't mean they're unwanting. 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.920 All this to say, when Todd died, I hope he'd 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:36.120 already meet peace with it. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.640 I think death is such a stigma because people it's 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:41.680 something you don't want to do. You know, It's like 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.920 nobody wants to die. You heard the saying everybody wants 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.360 to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. It's 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:48.200 just like it's easy to just like, let's just forget 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:49.959 about that. Let's push it away. That's going to be 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:51.839 a long time from now. I don't want to deal 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.040 with it. It's only sad, it's only bad. Let's not 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:55.920 think about it. But it's just like it is a 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:56.680 part of life. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.600 In this video, Todd was in the car showing the 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.720 producers around Livingstone. He was wearing a basel cop and 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:07.120 he had a look on his face. I came to 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.080 know fairly well, it's kind of a lopsided grinnin like 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:12.960 he's already thinking five steps ahead of you. You've pulled 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.360 up to the cemetery where his brother and sister were buried. 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.640 I think if you can prepare for it and accept it, 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.840 because you're not going to change it. I would love 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:23.640 to change it if I could. But I realized that 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.400 instead of avoiding it and pushing it off, evading it, 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:29.400 you got to think about what do I need to 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.520 do before I'm here? What do I need to do 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.440 to finish up some things in life before I lay 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.199 down here and go to sleep myself. I don't want 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:42.080 to have that damnation of wishing I had of So 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.600 that's why I want to do now while I have time, 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.080 because I know the day is coming I lay down here, 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.520 so I want to do it with a clean slate. 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:54.640 If I could say that, I'd like to do it 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:56.640 when I think you know what you don't know all 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.160 you can do, be proud of it, be happy so 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:01.000 you laid it when the work is done. 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.240 In that interview, Todd talked about how he felt about dying, 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.960 but he didn't talk about everyone he'd leave behind, and 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.360 he didn't give us instructions on what we're supposed to 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.680 do without him. Lately, Todd's family's been wondering how to 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.959 live in a world without him. His son, Devin, who's 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.480 twenty two, saw his dad's work up close. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.040 He went to Kentucky one time I was with him 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.320 when he exhoomed a grave. I was there for a 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.439 part of that, and that was really really cool. He 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:32.600 was just in his element. 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:35.800 Todd never shielded his kids from what he did for 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:36.199 a living. 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.199 From a pretty young age, I knew exactly what it 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.120 was because I I had to know. I was always 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:47.320 nosy and it was never like a traumatizing thing. It 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.920 was always just like, oh wow, Okay, that's fascinating. 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.480 Which meant that when the time came, Devin felt better 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:55.520 equipped to deal with grief than most. 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.280 I mean, if there's anybody that's helped me realize that 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.360 it happens to everyone and all different kinds of ways, 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.439 it's him, and I don't know, I feel like it's 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:06.760 given me a better outlook on it. 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.120 Not shielding his kids from dath meant Devin and his 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.000 brother Dylan grew up with a pretty unique understanding of it. 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:17.160 They had to roll with Todd's morbid sense of humor. 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.560 I remember specifically, growing up, we had this head in 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.559 the house. It was a skull and it was facially reconstructed. 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:28.839 That's Todd's older son, Dylan, So. 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.360 It looked like a woman's head. It had the eyes 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.120 and everything, and we had a small chihuahua and we 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.000 didn't want the dog getting into that and messing with it, 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.200 so at night that that head would have to be 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.920 in my room. He'd get up at like four o'clock 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:45.800 in the morning to go to work when he worked 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:47.360 at Hutchinson, the. 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.800 Factory down the street where Todd helped make air conditioning parts. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.000 Every night when I went to bed, I turned that 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.720 head away from me because it was creepy. And every 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:57.680 morning when I woke up, it was facing me. And 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.240 he never admitted to it. I was like nine years 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:07.880 old allways, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, he never admitted 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.640 to it his whole life. But I mean I had 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:12.800 not Marrius about that thing. 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.840 He was always causing trouble. He loved pranking people. 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:19.920 Todd and his cousin Tina were like brother and sister, 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.160 only seventeen months apart. Once, when they were adults, they 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:26.199 went to the grocery store while both of their kids 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.480 were at karate practice. They opened Todd's trunk in the 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:30.080 parking lot. 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.800 Todd said, watch out for her and be careful with her, 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:37.280 and I'm like who. He points to a box and 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.360 it was a box of bones. And he was taken somewhere, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.200 you know, And this wasn't uncommon for Todd to have 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:43.079 something like this in his car. 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.000 Then later in the night, Tina opened the trunk again, 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:47.760 something fell. 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.120 Out, and I was terrified to looke. I just covered 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:51.679 my eyes. I said, please tell me it wasn't her. 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:53.840 Please tell me it wasn't her. It was my twelve 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.439 packag of popes. But still I was terrified. 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:58.679 He was always up to something. 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:01.839 When Todd and I drove across North Carolina to meet 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:05.320 Steve's family over Memorial Day weekend in twenty twenty three, 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:07.960 he took every opportunity to tell me about his many 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:11.640 irons in the fire. Todd's ambitions went way beyond the 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.760 Department of Justice. He had ideas for at least two 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.120 other podcasts. There was his screenplay about the Bounty Hunter. 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.520 He officiated weddings, He dabbled in the wine business, and 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.160 he had a prolific side career in background acting, including 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.640 in a twenty twenty two movie called Santa boot Camp 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:33.160 starring Rita Moreno. Even with all of his projects, Todd 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.199 found the time to teach special needs classes at a 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.760 middle school. He taught at Livingston Academy, the very same 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:40.840 place he'd gone to school four decades ago. 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.720 I think he left a legacy at the school too, 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:47.280 because a lot of those students with his special needs class, 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.640 he really changed their lives and impacted their families. And 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:53.720 I think that he'll be talked about for a long 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.120 time around there, especially with the sudden loss, like they 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.720 really were prepared to have him in the coming years. 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:02.160 So were we. 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.080 In the final months of production on this podcast, I 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:07.960 told Todd that some of my friends and co workers 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:09.800 had encouraged me to take some time off after the 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.640 show was released. I could rest a little recharge think 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.880 about the next project. Todd scoffed told me to keep going. 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.560 There were too many stories to tell. Honestly, I liked 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.160 hearing that from him. He had a motor he'd rest. Later, 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.080 his sons told me Todd was feeling really good about 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.840 his life, including this podcast coming out. He was looking 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:34.800 forward to the end of winter break, to getting back 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.120 to teaching the kids. 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.920 And he said that he had a really good like 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.960 end of the year, and he just he hadn't been 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.120 this happy in a long time. He was about to 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.520 go back to work Wednesday would have been his first 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:48.960 day back. He was so excited. 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:51.680 You'd think work was his life. 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:53.800 But if you were here, he'd tell you the most 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:57.720 important things happened at home. He haspecially loved his grandkids, 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.400 Connor and River. He talked about them all they time. 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:02.720 He loved my kids. He said, if we could just 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:04.760 have skipped the kids and went straight to the grandkids, 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.080 that he could not have been naster to my kids. 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:12.680 If that was the only thing he ever accomplished, was 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.880 making those two kids, those two grandkids possible, then that 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:17.200 would have been enough for him. 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.960 Todd and his family all basically lived on one block. 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.200 Todd and his wife, Flri were in one house. Dylan 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.560 and his family were within eyesight. Todd's parents were there too, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.800 even Todd's brother for the Matthews family taught us everywhere. 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.160 When I walk out the door, I could almost see 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.560 him walking down the driveway to his house. I can't 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:37.880 look out the door without seeing some plant he's planted, 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:39.000 some tree planted. 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.520 When Todd passed away, his family took on a unique 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:46.480 assignment writing letters to him. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:49.480 Then they buried them with him. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.360 My mother's letters in his left breast pocket, my letters 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.840 in his right breast pocket. My kid's letters are in 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.360 his hands. He would have loved those letters. Things we 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:03.200 all should have said to him every day, but you 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:05.920 don't get a chance until it's too late. Sometimes. If 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:10.640 he was miraculously able to come back and get possession 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:12.840 of those, that would be his most cherished things he 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.600 could possibly have in his life if. 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:16.360 He did come back. 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:18.840 A few of his relatives kind of joked about Todd's 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.640 return from the beyond. Family member Brent Right even made 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:24.000 a joke about it at the funeral. 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:26.600 I'm still in somewhat of disbelief. 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.520 I still think this might be one of Todd's pranks. 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:30.120 Now. 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.000 I'm just waiting for him to pop out in the 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:33.880 corner somewhere and say a. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:34.560 Hi, I got you. 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:38.800 This was a part of Todd too. 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.280 There was something about him that was a little supernatural, 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.280 like he had a direct line to the dead. When 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.640 Todd started telling me about this and I brushed it off, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.200 but there was something about the way he said it, 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.960 I kind of just began believing it. Here's his son, Dylan. 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:56.480 Off the record, of course, but I made a joke 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:58.160 to a lot of the family members. I think you 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.920 better stay away from Uija board for a while because 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.119 your house will be possessed with the spirit of Todd. Well, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.320 you can't. I don't mind. He would enjoy that joke. 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.160 I think Todd had a sense of humor about death 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:11.240 and the afterlife. 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.040 My mom even said she's like, I'll know if it's 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.600 possible to come back, because she said, if anybody's coming back, 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.639 he's coming back. He always said he would too. He's like, 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:25.119 I'll haunt her. But you're just joking, you know, But 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:28.119 just joking. 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:30.879 He's not really talking about a ghost hiding under a 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:34.560 white sheet. Todd's beliefs I think were really more spiritual. 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:37.280 He talked about being on one side of the veil 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:41.040 that separated life and death. The way Todd talked about it, 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.520 that veil was more sure for him than for most. 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.000 I can kind of feel his presence sometimes, Like when 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.240 I'm thinking about him, I'm just like, like, this is weird. 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:51.920 Like I can feel that you're here, but I can't 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.600 see that you're here. It's just crazy. 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:56.840 I like to think he's right. 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:58.639 I hope he had a way to see the hundreds 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:00.480 of people who showed up for him in his funeral. 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:02.320 I think he'd be proud of the way his son 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:04.720 summoned the courage to be interviewed on maybe the hardest 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.520 day of their lives. I think he'd be thrilled to 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.520 see the release of this podcast, a project he'd been 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:15.040 ostensibly working on for twenty years. But it really all 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.840 started with Tent Girl. This is Rosemary Westbrook again, Tent 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:19.480 Girl's sister. 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.240 There is nothing. I don't think that anybody could ever 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.960 match what he has done. And if it wasn't for 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:33.520 Tod being so damn persistent, we'd still not know where 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.199 she was. So what is Todd mean to us? 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:37.960 Everything? 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.480 And who's to say that he might leave a little 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:46.320 tidbit of information here, little clues you don't know that 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:48.320 you know. Do I believe in God? 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:48.600 Yes? 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:49.680 I do. 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:51.119 Do I believe in Todd? Yes? I do. 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.280 Hey Steve, it's Kate, Hey Kate. How are you? 0:18:58.200 --> 0:18:58.680 I'm good? 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:00.000 How about you? 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.439 The last we'd heard from Steve, he'd been surprised by 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.480 his biological mom, Sandy, at a hotel room in North Carolina. 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:08.760 Todd wanted Steve to find peace, and he thought that 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:09.280 meeting his. 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:10.480 Birth mom would help that along. 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:13.720 But after that day, Todd came to realize that Steve 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.040 deserved a head's up. He should have had the chance 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.480 to decide whether it was time to meet his biological 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.760 mom or not. The surprise reunion caused a bit of 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.760 a break in Steven Todd's relationship. I suspected Steve had 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.120 some complicated feelings about Todd. The last time he saw 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.840 Todd was in that hotel room last August. He was 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.960 shocked by Todd's death just five months later in early January. 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:38.639 It was a lot of a mixed emotions because I 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.520 don't know, I didn't get to tell him marry Christmas, 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.840 because we it was kind of weird between us, just 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.320 because we had met. And he brought my mom there. 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:48.960 You know. 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.119 I feel bad about that, I really do, because he 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.720 didn't tell me that he was bringing my mom at 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:55.480 the motel room. 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:57.320 He sprang it all on him. 0:19:58.160 --> 0:19:59.680 That's Steve's girlfriend, Janette. 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:04.080 He brung it on Steve and that was just not 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:09.439 what he wanted and how it was all handled was wrong, 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.000