SEVEN

The Intruder

Starting on the night of November 9, 2010, and continuing for the next several days, there would be a marathon of ducking, hiding and weaving on Matthew Hoffman’s part. He began it all by parking his car at the Gap Trail parking lot, a few miles from Apple Valley, around midnight. From there he walked to a patch of woods across the street from Tina Herrmann’s house on King Beach Drive, arriving sometime around 1:00 AM on November 10. Hoffman already knew that house had problems with its garage door, which would not shut all the way down to the driveway.

Hoffman had some food, a water bottle and a sleeping bag with him. He crawled into his sleeping bag and soon fell asleep. He woke up in time to hear a vehicle pulling out of the driveway of the house very early in the morning, sometime after 3:00 AM. Greg Borders was leaving for work.

Hoffman settled back down in the sleeping bag and fell asleep again. He decided to wait until all the vehicles, and all the inhabitants, had left, and then he would enter the isolated house. It was something he enjoyed doing, and he looked forward to the coming day’s activities. Matt got a charge out of being in places that someone else owned, such as the condo in Steamboat Springs.

He also may have known that a pretty, blond thirteen-year-old girl lived in the house. Hoffman would later claim he didn’t know that fact, but by that point much of what he said could not be trusted. Whether he knew of Sarah Maynard or not, he was now determined to enter that house whenever he felt it was safe to do so.

* * *

November 10, 2010, was just another cool autumn day at Tina Herrmann’s home on King Beach Drive. The only unusual thing about it was the activity Tina had scheduled: apartment hunting. Although she was still living in the house with her children, she and Greg Borders were calling it quits as a couple. Tina was now in the process of looking for a new place to reside, and her friend Stephanie Sprang was helping her in the search. They had plans to go together to look at a rental apartment later that day. There was also some talk of looking at a rental house in the area.

The day had begun very early in the household, when Greg left at 3:40 AM for his job at the Target Distribution Center. Later that morning he spoke to Tina by cell phone while at work, and received a text that the family dog had been fed.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Kody ate breakfast, gathered their school supplies and caught the school bus to East Knox Middle School. Sarah noticed that Kody seemed distracted by something, but he did not tell her what it was. Sarah soon forgot about it and focused instead on the coming day at school.

After the kids left, Tina went grocery shopping at the Kroger supermarket in Mount Vernon, sometime after 9:30 AM. She also bought some gas at the pumps there, and may have even gone to a tanning salon for a while before returning home shortly after noon. She pulled into the driveway, parked the pickup truck she was using and entered her home.

As soon as Tina walked in the door, carrying bags of groceries to the kitchen, a man came tearing out of the hallway and grabbed her. Before she even had a chance to scream, he hauled her to the master bedroom. He was strong and he was in a rage. Against his large frame, 120-pound Tina didn’t stand a chance.

* * *

The only eyewitness to what happened next was Matthew Hoffman, though mute evidence would tell some of the story.

He may have pushed her down on the bed and hit her in the back of the head with a sap he’d brought along. Or he may have already been reaching for the sharp hunting knife he had with him. In fact, he may have even stabbed her once or twice before he realized another person was in the house. Whatever the circumstances, he was suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted by the appearance of Stephanie Sprang, who had walked into the unlocked house only to find Hoffman bent over Tina with a knife in his hand.

Stephanie’s relatives believed that under those circumstances, Stephanie would have immediately rushed the man with the knife to save her friend. This was the Stephanie they knew, someone who would fight anyone to help a friend. And events may have unfolded in just that way. Hoffman, however, would eventually tell a very different story, but regardless, blood evidence would later prove that whatever occurred between Hoffman and Stephanie did so in Sarah’s bedroom.

After coming upon Hoffman with Tina in the master bedroom, Stephanie either ran to Sarah’s bedroom or was dragged there by Hoffman. Hoffman knew he had to take care of this new woman before finishing off the first one, who lay either badly wounded or dead in the master bedroom.

Stephanie, like Tina, was no match for Hoffman, who overpowered her and stabbed her twice in the chest. The stab wounds were so savage and were dealt with such force that Stephanie died almost immediately. Hoffman didn’t stop there, however: he continued to stab Stephanie several more times to make sure she was dead. Her blood spattered the walls and pooled on the floor of Sarah’s bedroom.

Then he returned to Tina in the other bedroom and unleashed his full fury upon her. Hoffman stabbed her again and again, puncturing her lungs and other vital organs. He then savagely ripped her midsection with a long tearing thrust. He stabbed her many more times than was necessary to kill her.

After making sure both women were dead, Hoffman dragged Tina’s body to the bathroom. As far as he was concerned, his work had just begun. He deposited Tina’s body in the tub and, with only a hunting knife, began to dismember her body. This was no easy task, but Hoffman had some hunting skills and was strong. He knew that the knife would not cut through bone, so he disarticulated the woman’s body at the joints.

It was an incredibly bloody task, and soon the bathtub and much of the bathroom was covered in blood. Hoffman found some plastic trash bags in the house and deposited Tina’s body parts into these. They were not large garbage bags, however, and he had to use quite a few of them.

While he was at his grisly task, the dog in the house would not stop barking. Afraid that the barking might alert someone, Hoffman grabbed the dog, took it to the bathroom and killed it. He then dismembered its body as well and put the parts into garbage bags. Then he turned his attention to the other woman and began to “process” her as well, as he would later put it.

Once finished with the bodies, Hoffman had one more task to do around the house. He found some motor oil and poured it over the worst of the bloodstains and bloody drag marks. He planned to set the house on fire just as he had done to the condo in Colorado, and he figured the oil would burn hot enough to eradicate all the bloodstains and blood trails, even if the whole house did not burn down.

* * *

Unaware of the horror going on in their home, Sarah and Kody rode the school bus back to their street that afternoon and walked to the front door of their home on King Beach Drive. From the outside, everything looked normal at the house.

Once they entered, however, the two noticed something odd. They always took off their shoes just inside the front door, and as they stopped to do so now, they spotted what looked to be blood right at the door. It wasn’t a lot of blood, but there shouldn’t have been any there at all.

Sarah recalled later, “We had a love seat by the door, and Kody was going to take off his shoes there. I saw blood near the door, and Mom wasn’t in the house. She always greeted us when we came home.”

Concerned about this, they both called out, “Mom!”

Instead of hearing their mom’s reply, they were stunned to see a large man come rushing out of the hallway. Before they could even scream, he was on them.