Matthew Boynton went to have dinner with a colleague at Waffle House. He received a text from his wife Jessica that said “I can’t do this anymore. Take care of the children. Please tell them I love them everyday. I have been suffering for a while now and no one has noticed...
... I have not been able to recognize the person I see in the mirror. This is not the 1st time I've had suicide thoughts. I love you & the boys.”
Matthew called EMS & asked them to go to the house because he was afraid for what Jessica may have done to herself or their children
Matthew called EMS & asked them to go to the house because he was afraid for what Jessica may have done to herself or their children
When Matthew got back to the apartment he said he heard two gunshots as he approached. He quickly ran to the bedroom where his son typically slept, and when he didn't see him there he ran back outside. saying he wasn't sure if it was "active shooter" scenario.
When the police showed up, their older son was asleep in his bedroom and the baby was in his crib. The officers found Jessica in her bedroom closet, she'd suffered a gunshot wound to the head with Matthew's service weapon. (Did I mention he's a cop?)
When the police called Jessica's grandparents (who raised her) to inform them Jessica had committed suicide they couldn't believe it. It didn't make sense. They said whenever they'd go to the gun range Jessica would sit out, she never wanted anything to do with guns.
Jessica's sister showed up & asked Matthew if he'd killed her. He insisted he had not -- that Jessica shot herself. There's just one problem. Megan Browning & her husband - their neighbors, said they'd heard the shots at 11 PM, not at 1AM when Matthew reported the crime.
Another couple who lived nearby also told police they heard the shots around 11 PM. Megan Browning, who was actually friends with Jessica, wanted to tell the police more about what she knew. But they interviewed her for 8 minutes, left and never returned.
Jessica had no gunpowder on her hands. Her gunshot wound was at the top of her skull. How would she be able to position the gun to shoot herself from that angle? And one indendentation on the closet wall showed at least one bullet had been fired from an upward angle
When they went through Matthew's phone, it showed that after receiving Jessica's suicidal text -- he'd actually responded to a text from his mistress Courtney BEFORE calling the police!
Matthew responded to a joke from Courtney Callaway. “Haha I’m sorry I didn’t think about that lol,” he wrote. Then he called E.M.S. “Can you please dispatch a unit out to my location?” he said calmly. “In reference to my wife.” ????
There wasn't enough evidence to prove suicide but also not enough to prove Matthew killed her either. But in a twist of fate, despite the gruesome injuries Jessica suffered, it turns out she DID NOT DIE. The doctors put her in a medically induced coma & waited for her to wake up
Everyone was waiting with bated breath for Jessica to regain consciousness to confirm whether she'd attempted suicide or if her husband Matthew had actually shot her.
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation summary of an interview with Jessica's neurosurgeon, noted that he called the circumstances of her injury “suspicious,” but the agent who conducted the interview failed to record the conversation; he "hadn’t charged his audio recorder."🙄
King, her neurosurgeon said “You’d think it would have been simple enough to put bags on her hands and test them for gunshot residue. I was wondering why, but then it came to pass that her husband was a police officer and his granddaddy was the sheriff, so I understood.”
Three weeks after being put into a coma, Jessica finally woke up.
But...she didn't remember anything about the shooting. She could not tell the police definitively how she had been shot or who did it. She thought she'd been in a car accident.
But...she didn't remember anything about the shooting. She could not tell the police definitively how she had been shot or who did it. She thought she'd been in a car accident.
The G.B.I. agents asked if she had ever handled Matthew’s gun.
“No, I can’t even get it out of the case,” she said. She wasn’t sure how to unlock the safety lever on the holster.
“Have you ever had any thoughts about hurting yourself?” Coleman asked.
“No. Never,” she said.
“No, I can’t even get it out of the case,” she said. She wasn’t sure how to unlock the safety lever on the holster.
“Have you ever had any thoughts about hurting yourself?” Coleman asked.
“No. Never,” she said.
Her surgeon wrote that she was “a very positive person who is embracing the opportunities that a new lease on life afforded her by her recent recovery. She has a sense of humor and a gentle personality. She speaks lovingly of her children and the need to and desire to see them.”
A psychiatrist who assessed her for depression apparently saw no need to give her a diagnosis or refer her for treatment. A second psychiatrist thought she had “appropriate mood and affect; appropriate judgment and insight.”
Get this: When she finally recovered enough to leave the hospital JESSICA COULD NOT COME WITHIN 300 YARDS OF HER CHILDREN. Matthew had filed a protective order because "family violence occurred in the past and may recur in the future."
When the protective order expired he petitioned to have it extended for another year. Citing Jessica's grandparents not believing she'd shot herself so he didn't think they were of sound mind to take care of the children.
When Jessica's lawyers pointed out that the emergency room doctors disagreed with the manner in which Jessica was injured, Matthew responded by saying "I only care about the G.B.I. report"
Jessica's friend, Megan Browning, the one who heard the shots happening hours before Matthew claimed they did, wanted to testify at the hearing. She wanted to bear witness to the abuse she said Jessica had suffered.
But she wanted to speak to the judge privately in chambers because she was afraid of Matthew and repercussions from his law enforcement buddies. The judge refused. So no witnesses testified in the hearing.
In September, 2016, the G.B.I. closed its case, concluding that Jessica’s wounds were self-inflicted. Her DNA had been found on the gun, which was to be expected—she had been lying on it. Neither Matthew nor Jessica had been given a gunpowder-residue test.
They deferred to the medical examiner, who spent 1 hour on the case & never examined Jessica. He concluded that Jessica had shot herself -- though he indicated that his assessment would have been more definitive had there been a photo of Jessica’s wound before she’d had surgery.
But Jessica's aunt Kathy had in fact taken a picture of Jessica's bruise on her skull in the hospital. She gave it to the agents. "Somehow" the photo never ended up in the GBI's report.
They interviewed eight police officers, some of whom were Matthew's good friends; one told the agents that Matthew “was telling me how she kind of acts crazy sometimes when she don’t get her way.” The G.B.I. did not interview any of Jessica’s family or friends.
Matthew was never charged in connection with Jessica's shooting.
He was only later charged with lying to police about returning Jessica's belongings when an ex-girlfriend came forward and said she knew he still had a bag of her stuff.
He was only later charged with lying to police about returning Jessica's belongings when an ex-girlfriend came forward and said she knew he still had a bag of her stuff.
Matthew’s case was presented to a grand jury in July, 2018. Under Georgia law, police officers, unlike civilians, have the right to make a prepared statement at the end of a grand-jury hearing. There is no public record of the proceeding.
But the grand jury chose not to indict Matthew either for making false statements or for violating his oath. Four months later, he was hired as a reserve officer in Braswell, Georgia, a community of four hundred people.
Vault studios did an amazing podcast on this story that goes way deeper than this thread, called The Officer's Wife:
open.spotify.com
open.spotify.com
Let me say this: What father if they thought their children were in the house during an "active shooter situation" would leave & wait outside for the cops?!
The police easily found his kids in their beds when they got there.
He left them inside with a gunman?!
The police easily found his kids in their beds when they got there.
He left them inside with a gunman?!
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