FOUR

Young Matt

Even from an early age, Matthew John Hoffman liked being in trees. Like other boys his age, young Hoffman played baseball, but the subject with which he seemed almost obsessed was trees. He loved going out into the woods and climbing them. Perhaps he saw climbing a tree as an opportunity to get away from whatever was troubling him; perhaps he viewed the trees as a safe haven where he could forget the cares of the world, at least for a short time.

Matt Hoffman was the son of Robert and Patricia Hoffman, and grew up in the Warren area of northeastern Ohio. According to his mom, Patricia, he was a good boy, but high-strung. He was smart and had lots of energy, but he was also headstrong and rebellious. When he wanted his way, he tended to dig in his heels and not be swayed in the matter.

Bright and intelligent, he could also be alarming at times. The things he said to people were off-kilter and confusing. If someone said “Good morning” to him, Hoffman was apt to respond with “What’s so good about it?” More than one person would later recall how they would ask him a normal question and get “an off the wall” answer in return.

In 1997 Hoffman’s parents divorced, and Hoffman moved with his mother to the Mount Vernon area in Knox County. One neighbor, Alice Morelli, recalled Hoffman as a teenager, fourteen to sixteen years of age. She thought that he always seemed unhappy and acted strangely. Morelli said later, “He was really lost. He was on a bad path.”

Hoffman did get into trouble around that time, when he and some buddies climbed onto the roof of Lakeview High School. When caught by the police, his only explanation was that he just wanted to see if he could do it. Hoffman would also jump off his own roof onto a trampoline. There seemed to be something about heights that intrigued Hoffman.

Morelli’s dog hated the teen, constantly barking at him when he was in the yard. In response, Hoffman would merely stare, blank-eyed, at the dog. It really concerned Morrelli, who thought there was something wrong with the boy. His antics, she felt, went way beyond the usual childhood pranks.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hoffman did not take well to high school, though he did graduate in 1999, and went on to study industrial electrical engineering at Knox County Career Center. Afterward, he went through a long list of jobs in a very short period of time, never seeming to settle down to anything.

In 2000 Hoffman left Mount Vernon and moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where his grandmother lived. The town was about as different from Apple Valley, Ohio, as could be imagined. At an elevation of around five thousand feet, Steamboat Springs was an up-and-coming resort city, geared to outdoor activities, especially skiing. In fact, Steamboat Springs was one of the fastest-growing cities in Colorado. Not unlike Vail and Aspen, it had become a hot spot for both winter and summer sports.

Steamboat, as it was called by locals, had good restaurants, a thriving art scene and lots of new condominiums in town and on the surrounding mountains. Some of the most luxurious new homes in the area were starting to sell for five or six million dollars or even more. These homes were up on the ridge with commanding views of the whole area. People who owned these properties could fly their private jets into the local airport.

Not that Hoffman was living in one of those expensive houses. He was working as a plumber’s helper by this time, and his abode in Steamboat was the inexpensive D Bar K Motel. It was the kind of place where a lot of other low-income workers also lived, mainly construction workers, maids and other service-related individuals.

Hoffman was away from his motel room for several nights in September 2000, however, and his fellow residents at the D Bar K would have been surprised to know where he was spending his time. But it was not long before they found out—along with why he suddenly left the area without any warning. It happened right around the time an expensive condominium caught on fire, and the residents had to run for their lives from the burning set of buildings. Before the ashes settled, Matt Hoffman was long gone.