This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast more what you hear
weekday afternoons on the Drive. Kate Michigan is a podcaster and a reporter.
Her printing reporting has appeared in the La Times, pro Public of The Guardian.
Her podcast includes Smokescreen, Dagdly Cure, Very Scary People, The Amityville
Murders and more, and her new attention falls on a podcast called Hello John
Doe. First of all, welcome Kate Michigan, and let's start with the
story of Todd Matthews. Thanks for having me. Todd Matthews was a amateur
sleuth from a very small town in Tennessee. He got started because he got
very interested in the case of a woman named ten Girl, and she was
a body without a name, and he spent years hunting down her real identity
and that kind of launched his career. He worked for the DJ as a
working for a database that basically houses missing folks and unidentified folks, as in
like if you you know, if you go missing and no one knows where
you are, and unfortunately this is a morbid example, but there's a dead
body. He was able to match the two and so that led him to
the case of Steve Patterson. Was it was a missing person's case. This
boy went missing in nineteen seventy four as an infant. No one knew what
happened to him, and Todd being Todd, sunk his teeth into it and
just couldn't let it go, and then and then kind of did let it
go. And then in twenty nineteen Steve called him and he was that missing
person. So did this guy have any forensic experience at all or any medical
experience at all? No, that's odd. He didn't. He worked at
a factory working on air conditioning arts. He just taught that drive and everything
else I think was taught on the job. And what in him interested him
so much about these cases? I mean, was he did he consider himself
an amateur sleuth? Was he reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes books? No,
I don't think he did. I think what really interested him in him?
What interested him about these kinds of cases. I think Tom just had
a huge heart and a real curiosity, and his real it came from within
and his drive to do this. He when he was a little kid.
Two of his siblings were born and died within days, and I think that
really had an indelible mark on him. It made him think about death and
and he felt like, at least I know where they are, That's what
he said. At least I know where these kids are, where they're buried.
Imagine missing someone and never finding them again, or imagine being a John
Doe that that that person has no identity. And I think that just kind
of you know, that that I can imagine would have a different effect on
different people, And I think for him it just kind of struck something in
his soul. Plus, it sounds like he had a pretty regular job,
so maybe he had more time on his hands to look into this when the
authorities didn't. That's true, I think he did. I think he worked
a lot of nate late nights doing this. This was kind of the dawn
of the internet, so he was this was at a time where if you
were only on the internet and someone was on the phone, that would,
you know, bump you off the computer. Anyone frommers that. But he
would do it late at night, so no one would be calling the house,
and his kids would be sleeping and his wife would be asleep, and
so he kind of stayed up all night sleeping Kate Michigan is with us.
The podcast is called Hello John Dowit's the story of Todd Matthews. No relation
to Lead Matthews. By the way. I'm not nearly this much of a
sleuth, but so now he he has grown this now to the point where
even authorities across the country refer to him when they're looking for somebody or something.
That's right. Yeah, he was picked up by the DA and so
he did a ton of work there, and yeah, there were thousands of
these cases. And you know, I even cross paths with him in twenty
seventeen as a cup reporter in Virginia Beach and I was interested in cases of
John Joe's and missing people, and it led me to him. He was
a spokesman for the DJ And you know that that southern twang really has an
impact and it will stay with you. And what he was saying, I
mean, he just spoke with in a way that no other public information officer
ever did. He clearly cared so deeply about this. He called these JAD
people his friends. He woke up every day thinking about them and thinking about
reuniting them with their families, and and you know, I talked to other
reporters who had the same feeling about him that he's stuck with them. He
has he has a friend from his sleuthing days in the nineties who he had
that same he picked up the phone in his news room and he had that
same right respon to Todd and so yeah, Todd for sure me that was
his uh reputation. Does are most of his stories sad endings? Or does
he have some happy endings? You know? I think inherent in the work
is sad endings. That I mean, it's sad in that you know they're
sad when they find him. It's there's a sad part about being missing.
There's a sad part of being about being already being a John Doe. But
I think there's a better sweet element of being able to hand someone hand a
family the identity of their or say I found I found your you know,
your sibling or your parents or whatever. And I think for that he would
consider that a happy ending. This is a story with a happy ending,
of course, because it's this is totally you know, this never happens as
a missing person pulls you up, you know, So I would I would
say in the thousands of cases. I bet there are more like this.
We just have to go tick around for them. Kate Michigan. The pod
cast is Hello John Doe. It's the story of Todd Matthews, a self
declared hillbilly and self taught detective. Most of your material, though, is
investigative. It's not you yourself are not a big sleuthor. I would say,
one of those are one in the same sometimes, Yeah, yeah,
that's true. That's true. But a lot of the lot of the stuff
that you report upon is more investigative rather than a missing person or or is
it a little of both. No, I would say, you're right,
it's investigative. Yeah, Kate Michigan is with us, Hello John Doe.
The significance of the title is that what Todd finds himself saying when he gets
a new case. I think, so yeah, and that it's it's I
mean, it's it's kind of it's a fun title. It's it's you know,
one the alliterations. But this is a it's kind of intriguing and I
think it would bring a listener in like, what does that mean? Yeah,
Hello John Doe. That's you know, there obviously these John Doe cases
and this one so it's you know, there to say hello back. So
I think that's the idea of the title. And where is Todd Matthews now,
I mean, is he still at it? Has he passed his craft
on to anybody else? Well, I'm sorry to say that Todd Matthews actually
passed away in January, so we finished the story with him, but he
was not around to see it in the world. Hello. John Doe is
the podcast and Kate Michigan is the producer and the investigator for the whole thing.
It's available everywhere you get podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app. Kate Michigan,
thank you for joining us, Thanks for having me, Thanks for listening
to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen
to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation