Missing In Waukesha: The Disturbing Case of Stephanie Pavlons
51m 48s
A decomposed female body was discovered in a wooded area near Orthopedic Associates of Wisconsin, sparking a missing persons investigation. Investigators identified the victim as Stephanie Pavlon, a woman with a documented history of abuse, mental health issues, and suicide attempts. Key evidence, including her tattoos, digital communications, and phone records, linked her to Matthew Paul, her long-term partner. Surveillance footage and digital evidence showed Stephanie leaving her apartment on August 23, 2022, with Matthew, and later disappearing. After her absence, Matthew conducted searches for her name, monitored police reports, and made plans to leave the country, eventually arriving in the Philippines in March 2023. His actions, including disposing of her belongings in his truck and hiding her body in the woods, were supported by circumstantial evidence. A crucial turning point came when prosecutors presented a theory that Stephanie’s note in the truck was a breakup note—not a suicide note—suggesting she had planned to leave. Matthew was arrested, tried, and found guilty of first-degree murder and hiding a corpse after a one-hour jury deliberation. The prosecution argued that he strangled her with her own purse strap, which he used to kill her after she attempted to leave. Despite the lack of a definitive cause of death, the jury concluded Matthew intentionally murdered her. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the murder and 12.5 years for hiding the body. The case became a landmark in using digital evidence and victim testimony to achieve justice in a complex, circumstantial homicide. Stephanie’s parents and daughter delivered emotional statements, emphasizing the abuse she endured and the lasting trauma on her family. The case ultimately affirmed that even without a medical cause of death, the intent behind the act of violence—abuse, control, and murder—was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
911. What's the address of the emergency? It's the orthopedic hospital of Wisconsin on Gulf Road. Yeah, it's behind it. It's in a vacant lot next to it. We found a dead body in the woods when we were putting up fakes for no trust, but I think dying. Where exactly are you in relation to the orthopedic associate? Like between the golf court and that. There are so many questions here. What happened to this person? How did the body get here? And most importantly, who is this? It wasn't as if we had a missing person case that we could, you know, try and link up right away. There's nothing in my hand, huh? We're not even accusing you of having anything in your truck. The thought that somebody could just disappear from the world and no one seems to notice was just so heartbreaking. Okay, and you're from a construction company? Yeah, we were putting up science and we smelled something and then saw there's that guy back there. He's for a long time. So I don't know if he's a high end community that I don't know that I've covered a murder in. It's a very wealthy area. This is not the area that somebody goes missing in and nobody says anything. That's not this area. Are you able to keep everybody away from it? Yep, I got everybody out there. Okay, all right, so I'll have a couple officers that meet with you, okay? Our captain called to hate patrols out at a field east of orthopedics and associates of Wisconsin. They have what appears to be the mummified remains of a human. Can you guys start making your way out there? We were directed down through the thick brush area and walked into the tree line and I could see the sea's human being lying on their back, probably 20 years so feet into the tree line. It was a badly decomposed body, so it was difficult to determine what gender the body was. There was nothing around the body in regards to identification, no purses, no wallets that we could find. Obviously we had to call the medical examiner. We had determined during the autopsy that it was a female. Between the ages of 20 and 50. She was in so far advanced state of decomposition that making a manner and cause of death determination by the medical examiner would be almost if not entirely impossible. It could have been an accident. It could have been, I don't know, she ran in the woods and hit her head on a rock. She had an epileptic seizure. She wore or the other thing that everybody pointed to with suicide. While the autopsy doesn't determine how this woman died, it does offer some clues as to who she was. She had a pin in one of her wrists from a surgery and then some tattoos. She had like a tribal and a rose tattoo on her arm and a tattoo of a J on one of her ankles. Those are all things in medical examiner's. We're going to try and use to try and figure out who this person's identity is. One of our detectives accessed our Wisconsin Department of Corrections database and with that information, he came down to a short list of possibilities. When he checked the name Stephanie Pavlon, we felt that we had enough potential identification to find out who the victims parents are and see if they were able to help positively identify her. And then we went out to Delafield and met with Stephanie's parents. I'm Stephanie Pavlon. We're doing some follow-up on a case and we just wanted to touch face with you and you live here with your wife and how about a Stephanie? No, she's not right here right now. You guys only have contact with her ever? We don't, but we don't know where she's at. Okay. She won't answer any of our phone calls. Okay. When was the last time you thought to her? We asked people three weeks ago. Okay. And where was she staying then? She was here. Then Stephanie's mom comes to the door. You're looking for Steph? Well, we work in investigation and we believe Stephanie is a part of the investigation. Friday, a person was. Imagine setting your makeup then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Mavily. Flying deceased in the town of Bellfield. Our thought is that it might be Stephanie. We found out from two Walker Shaw County detectives that asked us questions about Steph. She had a tattoo on her left arm that was still visible when the body was found. Then it came to terms that, you know, that was our daughter. It took a while to really sink in. You couldn't say goodbye to your child. It's a suffering that is hard to relieve to get out of your system and it's so hard yet. I don't know, I gotta stop. With our granddaughter's father and he lives in Walker Shaw. Do you know what his name is? Matt Paul. Matt Paul. P-A-H-L. Okay. Stephanie's parents were able to tell us that she spent time between their house and a long-term boyfriend and the father of her daughter in the city of Walker Shaw. So as police talk to Stephanie's parents and they're learning more about Stephanie's life, they're also learning more about her relationship with Matt Paul. But she was a very caring, loving person. She was an understanding person and she was a helpful person and she loved doing things for you. In 1999 she met Maths. She met him at a bowling alley in Walker Shaw and moved in with him. She really loved him a lot. I think she was about 10 years younger than he is. He's mid 50s, she was mid 40s. So it was an on-again, off-again relationship, very rocky relationship. But they were together a long time. Stephanie had a daughter in 2003 and that kind of changed everything for all of us. Layla Pavlon's was in her late teens. She was living with both of her parents at the time of her mother's disappearance. What strikes police's odd is that it seems she was surrounded by people who loved her. So why wasn't she reported missing? Mom and dad had not called anyone. We knew Mr. Paul had not reported her missing because we didn't have any missing reports associated with her name. So you were staying in Detroit for approximately three weeks ago? I think she stayed at night. And then the next day she got dressed up and Math was going to pick her up and they were going to go to the Y, they were going to go to the Y. And I thought she'd be home later but no, she had to be in the show. And no contact with her since? No. She'd be gone for weeks on end and then come home for a couple of days. So Stephanie's parents figured that she would come back at some point, but this time she never did. Stephanie's mom provided us with the address of where Matthew lived. We wanted to talk to Matthew and get a timeline from him. When did you see her last? What was she doing? How was your relationship that type of thing? And I walked up to introduce myself and the first thing he says to me is whatever you guys are here for, I didn't do it. Okay, we told him hey, you're going to come back to the sheriff's department and we're going to talk to you about some things. He ends up having an interview with Detective Brian Fredericks and Detective Ross Sites. This is not a good situation, coming over like you did. I mean, I don't know what's going on, but you could have just called. Well, actually, I called you a little while ago, but nobody answered.
He was very, it seemed to us very intent on trying to control the interview with direction it went. I think he thought that he was smarter than law enforcement and he was smarter than everybody else. So the detectives decide they're going to outsmart Matthew Paul by playing dumb. We don't want him to know what we know at this point. We never told him she was deceased, we just stated that she was missing. Can we, let's talk about Stephanie. What is she to you? Oh my god, Stephanie is the mother of my daughter and you guys already know that. Yeah. I just guess that's a firm relationship. We've always had some type of relationship with Helvin, Helvin each other. She helped me recently when I broke my ankle, she helped me out quite a bit and I was quite thankful for that. It's well documented with the suicide attempts that she's made in numerous places. And back in April, she took a whole bottle of pills by her parents' house and I tried and tried and tried to get her to stop the medications to get help. What did she take when she over those to put her parents? What was she thinking? She was taking one of the doctors who was prescribing her online medication. Almost from the get-go, he wanted to talk about Stephanie's mental health problems and addiction problems she had regarding medications that she was taking. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Maybe it's Mavilyne. There were times that she talks suicide, but she would always call me and she never did do anything. Because I have a bad feeling, you guys know something you're telling me. Why? Let's all try to find out, we don't know, we're too missing, so we're trying to figure out who stole her last. I tried the best I could with her, but these last couple of years she was just going off the deep end, and the actors would listen, they just kept prescribing more and more drugs. We tried to pin him down on timeline with regards to when he last saw her. He would then say, boy, I'm starting to get a sick feeling. What do you guys know? What are you guys not telling me? And then he'd go off again into the, you know, she was on heavy duty medications, none of which, in our mind, was really relative to what we were talking about with him. When was the last time you remember seeing Stephanie? Like, because you said, you said if you think it's been a couple of weeks since you last saw her, do you go back? It's been about the last time you saw her, it's been over a couple of weeks, and I remember at the end great. At times when we would press him for more details on his timeline, he would get nervous and I think that's when he would blow his nose and cover his mouth and sort of get his thoughts together before changing the subject. Detectives keep pushing him. What happened on the day that he last saw Stephanie? And exactly what day was it? You said you went with her to an appointment at Orthopedic? Yeah, we went to, I was going to Orthopedic Associates. Matthew, earlier in the year, had heard his ankle or his foot and was getting physical therapy treatment at Orthopedic Associates. Close by, I'm where the victim was found. You said you had a morning appointment, and you guys went out there together, you said when you got out there, you went into your appointment, so the last time you would have seen her, it sounds like, okay? Did she come in the building with you, do you remember? No, she stayed in the truck, yeah, she got in the truck. You finished your appointments, come out of your truck and then what? She's gone. She's not in the truck anymore? She's gone, yeah. Did she have the keys or not? Do you remember? Oh no, no, I had the keys. I had the keys, did she give you any indications she was going to go in there or like where she would be going? When you got back out to your truck, Matthew, she wasn't there. What happened next? So, like I've done before, I drove up and down, looking for her. I was thinking that maybe she took a walk up the street, but maybe she called her mom, maybe she was just venting because she's in a habit of this in the past to run onto the woods, call her mom, do this stuff again. One of the things that jumped out at us is we talked about how she's very well known to run off into the woods and try to kill herself, which we thought was an interesting thing to say considering that she was found deceased in the woods. She asked for a lot of things she'd sing her. Do you remember when you got back to the apartment when she there? Oh no. Her, when I really got worried and didn't understand what was going on is I went to the car wash about a week ago and I took out my car man's and I started cleaning everything and going to hole and see her purse and then that's when I was like thinking, well this is strange. Like, and a week goes by or two weeks goes by and then all of a sudden you find that we said you were thinking that out. And Paul claims that he found something even more shocking when he was cleaning out his truck. There was a no underneath the kind of man or that sort of thing. It wasn't, it wasn't anything that I haven't already heard before to email, to texting. I'm tired of everybody, I hate everybody, I hate you, I hate my parents, you know, that type of language. Do you think she left that note that left any sort? Possibly. I can't say for sure, but yeah, I just, that's, I have to go through. I think Matt was relying on that note to make it a suicide note. I think that was his, his way of covering him for himself and putting the blame on Stephanie by saying she's got this history, I found this note and then you guys found her dead. Mr. Paul is clearly our suspect in this matter. He's somehow either involved or knows what happened to Stephanie. Okay, I have to get into turning it. We're done, we'll be in touch in that couple of weeks that I can promise you. We didn't have enough information or evidence to say that he killed her. We don't have enough to arrest, so he's going to have to be released. For now, Matthew Paul has nothing more to say to police, but it turns out his apartment building has a lot more to tell them. We figured out where Mr. Paul resided. It was an apartment building in the city of Walker Shaw. We found out that all the exits at this facility at this apartment complex had cameras, and we wanted to get video. We ended up obtaining a search warrant for Matthew's apartment. Stephanie also often resided as well, and so they had seven cameras. The interior of the complex, and so we had literally a team of deputies and detectives that would take a chunk of footage or a camera and look at 24 hour footage to see.
- When is Stephanie here? When is she leaving? August 23rd, 2022. Stephanie's scene coming down the steps and exiting out the apartment doors on the north side of the complex. She's wearing the same clothing that she was wearing when she was discovered. She's got a black purse over her shoulder that's got like metal chains on the strap and a very large pink water bottle. And she's seeing it like 839 in the morning, exiting that door. Matthew exits out of a different door. - As we understood it, is that Mr. Paul did not want to be seen leaving the apartment with Stephanie because he was not allowed to have another roommate basically. It was a one-tenant apartment. Thanks to a dashcam that Paul has in his truck that sees by detective Fredrick's, investigators are able to track the couple's movements that morning. They're heading for his orthopedic appointment, but they make a stop after they leave the apartment. - She's seen a few minutes later at the quick trip, which is between Matthew's apartment and orthopedic associates at Wisconsin. - Stephanie goes into the store and you can see her in the store and makes a minor purchase I think of some breakfast food and goes back out to the truck. They sit there for a few minutes, eating the breakfast and then she gets out and makes a deposit into the trash can, gets back into the truck and within a minute or two, they leave together in the truck from the gas station and head west on Gulf Road, which is the direction of his doctor's office. That is the last time she is known to be alive that we can document. - Unfortunately, the cameras at orthopedic associates are on a five day loop, so they record five days and then it writes over itself. So by the time we were able to identify who Stephanie was, we were well beyond the retention period for that. - But the surveillance video at the apartment, that keeps going. - And continuing to watch that video, we do see Matthew come back later that day, early afternoon and Stephanie does not. He also does walk into the building with the pink water bottle and he later comes in with a plastic grocery bag, like a shopping bag. And inside that bag, you can see what is to be a purse. You can see the strap, but Stephanie doesn't return. During their search, they located Stephanie's water bottle. They located her purse. They located her phone, they grabbed his phone, they grabbed an iPad, I think a laptop. And we got phone records back. Location data associated with those phones, Stephanie's and Matthew's. We watched the phones leave. They end up going to the area of where Stephanie's found, which is at OAW, at orthopedic associates. However, both phones end up coming back to the apartment, but Stephanie never does. - As police continue to comb through Matthew Paul's phones, they come across something very curious. - So when we were going through his phone downloads, we started seeing some conversations between two ladies in the Philippines that Matthew was in regular contact with. They were sexual in nature, the conversations. They were daily conversations. They were in an online relationship. - We had learned that Matthew's intent, at some point was in fact, to move to the Philippines. With one of those females that he was chatting with. One of the women was, I want to say, was a nurse. The other one was a schoolteacher. Norma Jean Desierto and Sherlyn Valente, were the two females that Matthew was in regular contact with. - As far as I can remember, it was late '21 and then we used to track or send some suggestions like for the year '22. - Did anything happen between all your conversations that seemed strange or anything in regards to anything that we're talking about with Matthew? - He told me that there was someone missing there. He wants to be, but he always told me that he's worried about that. - Did he ever say the name or anything? - No, he never. - Norma Jean, the nurse, she remembered some things. Matthew had told her about, you know, he was worried about someone in a circle. It's just that those communications occurred before Stephanie's body had even been found, which obviously also caused more concern than he was involved. - As detectives talk to these women, these zero in on the day that Stephanie's body was found in the woods. - September 9th was the day that I kind of talked to you about. To September 9th of 2022, he has a check, or he has a texting you on Skype. And it says, "You're sorry, I can't explain this, but I'm going to have to delete your contacts." And then you have a great back, it says, "There's a little link to the matter, you've been worried." - I think he told me that there was a whole idea and anticipation happened at times. So he kept talking to me, that there's someone who will reach out to me, ask me about anything that I know about the related, like incident. - These are what you have to do with somebody. They can't check you. - Yeah, he told me that I would just answer, I don't know, anything. - Neither of those females told us that Matt admitted to any type of causing harm to Stephanie whatsoever. - But Matthew Paul does tell them something else that investigators find, very interesting. - Okay. - And I think Matthew was looking for a way out of not only his relationship with Stephanie, but out of the country. We found out that he did leave the country, he went to the Philippines, leave it was March 14th, he left of 2023. He's making plans with one of the Filipino women that he's coming back there on a one way ticket and he's gonna live out there and live happily ever after. So I think very much in his mind, he was on the impression that they've got nothing on me, they can't prove anything and I'm home free here. - He's back June 14th of 2023. There's an urgency, but we're still waiting on some things. We're still trying to put things together. We had no physical evidence, we had no confession, we had no eyewitnesses and so it was absolutely 100% circumstantial. - It takes another three months before detectives feel confident enough in the evidence to finally make their move and arrest Matthew Paul. - We had been surveilling his apartment complex for several days. On one particular day, I think it was day four of us being out there. He came out of the apartment complex and we pulled up on him, jumped out, put him in handcuffs, and brought him back to the apartment. - Were you doing simply the parts on that way? Were you doing it from out? - Start putting the parking lot in there kind of time. - Oh, I don't know, could I just come out? I just came out, it just came out. - Yeah. - You got lucky. (laughing) - Got lucky. - Got lucky, you got unlucky. - I was just telling you, I'm just telling you. - I don't know what I don't know what I've been arrested for. - What could I possibly arrest before I didn't do anything? - Matthew Paul was ultimately charged with murder in the first degree, along with hiding the corpse. - We were working very closely with District Attorney's office and what we wanted was to be able to present the most solid case possible that Matthew not only killed Stephanie, but also concealed her body in the woods. - The weaknesses were still the condition of the body and the lack of a ability to determine cause and manner of death that was the biggest concern that I had. And without a murder weapon, without a medical examiner, a medical doctor coming in and saying she was strangled, she was shot. Whatever is a jury going to accept this. - It took three years to get to trial. All those years of waiting for them to get all the evidence together and have a good strong case. - We were certainly concerned that the jury might find, hey, I don't know for certain how she died. I'm not exactly sure how she died or that this was a homicide versus a suicide. So we really wanted to button up as many of those holes as we could prior to trial. - In October of 2025, Matthew Paul's trial finally begins. - And this is Stephanie Pavlanse. She is the person who is the subject of this homicide trial. She's a person you will not hear from directly in this case. This is Stephanie as she was enjoying life one day. How did she end up dead in the woods in the town of Delosville in 2022? There's one thing.
We won't be able to present to you. And that's the cause of death. I wanted them to know right from the outset, hey, you're going to hear all this stuff, but you're not going to hear how she died, but that's OK. So that was the gist of the opening statement of-- we got a lot of evidence, but the one thing you're going to want to know I probably can't answer. And you may say, how in the world are you going to prove a murk case when you don't know how she died? The burden of proof on the state of Wisconsin is not to prove how she died. You will not be asked that at the end of the case. You will be asked, did Matthew Paul intentionally kill Stephanie Pavlon's? Is he guilty of that allegation by the state or not guilty? The only reasonable conclusion you can reach is that he's guilty of killing Stephanie Pavlon's in an intentional act. The defense had several strategies that they went into this case with first of all, and most significantly. We don't know how she died, let alone who, if anyone, was responsible for her death. No witnesses will be able to testify with any certainty how Stephanie Pavlon's life came to an end. In a homicide case, the government always relies upon the testimony of one critical witness that being the medical examiner. In this case, the Waksha County Medical Examiner will testify that despite exhaustive testing and investigation, they can sum up the conclusion about the manner and cause of Stephanie's death in one word, undetermined. I believe the government will not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Matthew Paul committed the offenses for which he has charged. So the prosecution sets out to show the jury that, while they don't know how Stephanie was killed, there's only one person who could have killed her. So we really had to put the pieces together for the jury with all of the other evidence that we had, not scientific evidence, but in this case, a lot of digital evidence, a lot of statements from the defendant messages from him to other people that indicated that he was the one that caused Stephanie's death. Now, among the digital evidence are computer searches that were done by Matthew Paul alongside his father, Marvin, that are pretty incriminating. Once Matthew Paul is at Mr. Marvin Paul's residence, what did you observe in Mr. Marvin Paul's computer? These are web searches missing a woman found dead. September 9, 2022, video clips, Waksha Police Scanner, body found in Waksha Field, missing a woman found dead. Did anyone in law enforcement know who it was that was found in the woods near OEW? Not to my knowledge. Did anyone know in law enforcement that Stephanie Pavlon's had been missing since August 23? At this point, no. Because at this point, we didn't release any information about who was found simply because we didn't know. Based on these searches, maybe this person knows. He almost immediately, after the 23rd of August, 2022, he starts looking up obituary for Stephanie Pavlon. He's looking up funeral homes. He starts looking at his police scanner app throughout that time frame as well. Another strong witness for the prosecution was Andrew Willis, alongside his cadaver dog, Raven. Now, Raven was taken to the facility where Matthew Paul's truck was being held to see if she could sniff out any evidence that human detectives may have missed. So now you get Raven out and you put her vest on and you take her up to the service door there, correct? Correct, yes. So she keeps going through the garage and then comes back over to the area of the target vehicle. Yes. And tell us about when she approaches the target vehicle, please. She approaches the target vehicle from the passenger side coming off the west side of the pole line and then crosses the rear bumper in the direction towards where the search had started. But then does a 180 with increased respiration. So again, now I'm seeing a change of behavior again. And as she comes back towards the passenger side rear corner, she puts her nose to it and gives a trained formal work of a sit. The dog got to the back of Matthew's truck on the passenger side and just did a hard sit. The canine handler said that's a positive alert right there. Matthew ends up throwing that water bottle and that purse in the back of that truck, right? Like, that scent doesn't mean that there was necessarily a body in that truck. It just means that something close to or in contact with a dead body was in that truck. Some of the strongest evidence that the prosecution ends up presenting is Stephanie's journal. And it is heartbreaking. So beginning on page one, you said the first entry is July 10th of 2020. That's correct. Please read that entry to the best of your ability. Had a good day at work until I came home and he thought there was smoke left there, wasn't. Gave me a good, hard slap to my face, which stung and gave me a migraine. Good day, bad night. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This is why I want to die sometimes. Again, blame for something I didn't do. I think Stephanie did have the foresight to know that something tragic may happen to her at some point and so she was creating a record of the abuse she was suffering. It's basically the words from the grave. Without that journal, we wouldn't have gotten to the place of understanding what her life was like every day. At 10, 7, 20, a lot has happened since my last writing. My left ear drum got blown out again. I received another black and blue eye. Had a spinal bruise for about three weeks straight and more emotional abuse than King Count. July 6th, my heart, soul, and mental state have been broken time and time again. I feel trapped. Then it's time for closing arguments. This isn't a case where we had an eyewitness. This isn't a case where we had the homicide on video. We had to do hard work to prove this case. Each piece of evidence builds on one another. No single piece of evidence is determinative in this case. But each piece shows you the kind of person that Mr. Matthew Paul was, shows you the relationship that Stephanie Pavlon's had with Mr. Paul, and ultimately, that Stephanie Pavlon's met her demise on August 23rd because of the actions of the defendant. Matthew is fighting for his freedom. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you sit today, in this case, as 12 judges, 12 individuals who control the destiny of Matthew Paul. You sit here today as the ultimate law enforcement officers. There is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Given the evidence and testimony, the state certainly has not satisfied their burden of proof with respect to the crimes charged. I am confident you will render verdicts that will be consistent with good common sense and logic and find Matthew Paul not guilty. We're saying, I think he's going to get off. It's all circumstantial evidence. We kept saying like, I just don't-- I don't see how 12 people can convict. Somebody's going to have a reasonable doubt. Every little piece of evidence didn't seem like enough. There was nothing overwhelming. There was no smoking gun. Well, there may not be a smoking gun, but prosecutor Christy Gordon does have a secret weapon in her holster. And I like to save a little something for my rebuttal. In this case, it was our theory. We had talked the whole time that this trial was ongoing, even in our trial prep about what is our theory going to be. And we came up with one that we just all felt fit the evidence. And Christy got up there. The prosecution got up there. And when she started to put it together, we all gasped. That was it. He goes into his appointment. And while he's in there, Stephanie is just stewing. She's like, I am sick of this. I'm done. I'm done with the violence. I'm done with the abuse. I don't want this anymore. So she writes that note that's found in the car. That's not a suicide note. That's a breakup note. She leaves it on the driver's seat. She has to find a way out. So she gets out of the car, and she starts to walk away. She decides to walk towards that wooded area. She's probably thinking, I just got to get out of sight. He can't see me leaving. Mr. Paul comes out of the appointment. She's run out of time. He sees that she's not in the truck. She sees the note. Doesn't take very long to read this note. He reads it, and oh boy, he's mad. He's furious. He gets in his truck. He drives, and he sees Stephanie. And then what happens? - Mr. Paul, perhaps a purse.
And ladies and gentlemen, this is the murder weapon. He wraps this around her neck, he strangles her for just a minute or two. That's all it takes. She goes unconscious, and she's dead. He uses the strap of her own purse to kill her. See, Mr. Paul, he couldn't let Miss Pavlon's have the control. He couldn't let her walk away. He couldn't let her leave him. This is how she died. This is what everybody's been waiting for. She took the bridecrumbs and she put them together and she gave the jury a meal and the case is done. The jury deliberated for one hour. Done a lot of murder trials in my career, never had a one hour verdict on a murder case. I've never heard of a one hour verdict on a murder case, to be honest. The verdicts read as follows. We the jury find the defendant Matthew E. Paul guilty of first degree intentional homicide as charged in count one of the information. The second verdict reads, we the jury find the defendant Matthew E. Paul guilty of hiding a corpse as charged in count two of the information. I was very excited and I think I had a double check and make sure that it was really guilty because they came back so fast and just so grateful for the juries that they went by the evidence. Before Matthew Paul is officially sentenced, prosecutor Christy Gordon reads a statement from Leila, this is Matthew and Stephanie's daughter and it is directed straight to her father. I do not know why she would tolerate your abuse and I might never know why. What kind of sick monster would do that to an innocent woman that spent her life with you, cared for you and was there for you when she could be? You have no soul. You killed the one person that made me happy and was there for me at times I needed her. We took an innocent woman's life and hurt so many people. I hope you rot in jail. It's going to haunt her for the rest of her life. It's going to be hard for her to explain, talk about it because it brings up so many different kinds of memories that she had with her mother and some of her memories that she had with her father. Matthew Paul also speaks his mind to the judge and he doesn't hold back. And I just want to make a statement about this case and I think this was definitely a sham child called making a murder here in Wakasha. I am the only victim here. I'm the one being murdered by the new Gestapo. This is just a pattern of abuse of power in the DA's office. He certainly did not help himself at his sentencing during his statement. I think he highly offended the judge. The jury told me loud and clear in less than an hour and your statements and your behavior and your attitude tells me loud and clear as we sit here today what is the appropriate thing for me to do. And so here's what I perceive. My purpose in imposing a sentence in this case is to incapacitate Matthew Paul to prevent him from taking advantage of somebody like Stephanie Pavlon's in the future of hurting her, mentally, emotionally, physically and in light of that as to count number one, I'll impose a sentence of life imprisonment without any eligibility for release to extended supervision. As to count two, I'm going to impose a term of imprisonment of 12 and a half years with seven and a half years initial confinement and five years of extended supervision consecutive to the term of life. And I thought it was very fair and I fully expected Judge Ramirez would give him a life sentence and he did. This is one of those cases that will be a top case by the end of my career. We were able to get the correct verdict and justice for her. It was the most challenging case I've ever worked and also the most rewarding case. I think ultimately finding of guilty is the most justice that Stephanie can get because it shows that she was living a hard life and that life was at the hands of Matthew and he was the one that took her life and took her life much too soon. This is a tragic story of a woman who was robbed not only of her dignity but ultimately her life, but the most enduring losses for her family. So I want to leave you with her mom and her dad who should have the last work. The reason I'm doing this today is to help anybody who's in that kind of a situation that it will help them give them the courage to leave the person that's abusing them. Just go out and get help. It's to reach out to somebody to get help. Even if it's hard to try to do it to get yourself a piece of mind.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
A female body was found in a vacant lot near Orthopedic Associates of Wisconsin, severely decomposed and without identification, leading to a missing persons investigation.
Stephanie Pavlon, a woman with a history of abuse and mental health struggles, was identified through tattoos, medical records, and her connection to Matthew Paul, a long-term partner.
Extensive digital evidence, including Matthew Paul’s phone records, searches, and communications with women in the Philippines, revealed his intent to flee the country and hide from authorities after Stephanie’s disappearance.
Summary:
A decomposed female body was discovered in a wooded area near Orthopedic Associates of Wisconsin, sparking a missing persons investigation. Investigators identified the victim as Stephanie Pavlon, a woman with a documented history of abuse, mental health issues, and suicide attempts. Key evidence, including her tattoos, digital communications, and phone records, linked her to Matthew Paul, her long-term partner.
Surveillance footage and digital evidence showed Stephanie leaving her apartment on August 23, 2022, with Matthew, and later disappearing. After her absence, Matthew conducted searches for her name, monitored police reports, and made plans to leave the country, eventually arriving in the Philippines in March 2023. His actions, including disposing of her belongings in his truck and hiding her body in the woods, were supported by circumstantial evidence.
A crucial turning point came when prosecutors presented a theory that Stephanie’s note in the truck was a breakup note—not a suicide note—suggesting she had planned to leave. Matthew was arrested, tried, and found guilty of first-degree murder and hiding a corpse after a one-hour jury deliberation. The prosecution argued that he strangled her with her own purse strap, which he used to kill her after she attempted to leave.
Despite the lack of a definitive cause of death, the jury concluded Matthew intentionally murdered her. 5 years for hiding the body. The case became a landmark in using digital evidence and victim testimony to achieve justice in a complex, circumstantial homicide.
Stephanie’s parents and daughter delivered emotional statements, emphasizing the abuse she endured and the lasting trauma on her family. The case ultimately affirmed that even without a medical cause of death, the intent behind the act of violence—abuse, control, and murder—was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
FAQs
The body was found in a vacant lot next to the Orthopedic Associates of Wisconsin on Gulf Road, in a wooded area behind the hospital.
The deceased woman was identified as Stephanie Pavlon, a woman in her 40s with a history of mental health struggles and a known tattoo of a 'J' on her ankle.
Her missing person status, a journal detailing abuse and emotional pain, a tattoo, and phone records showing her movements leading to the wooded area were key pieces of evidence.
Matthew Paul had a history of abusive relationships with Stephanie, failed to report her missing, and digital evidence showed he was searching for her name and police scanner footage after she disappeared.
A cadaver dog detected a strong scent near Matthew Paul’s truck, indicating the presence of a body or items in contact with a corpse, which supported the prosecution's theory of concealment.
Yes, a note was found in the truck, but the prosecution argued it was a breakup note, not a suicide note, indicating Stephanie had decided to leave Matthew and walk into the woods.
Chat with AI
Loading...
Pro features
Go deeper with this episode
Unlock creator-grade tools that turn any transcript into show notes and subtitle files.