A young woman is found dead in her burning home. She’d been involved with a firefighter– could he have set a fire to cover her murder? Nikki Battiste reports. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened on November 25, 2020?
You're proud.
Yes. It was her job, and she took it seriously.
As her due date neared, Melissa had to stop working. To make things easier, she moved into her childhood home with her dad. Her parents had divorced several years earlier. Melissa grew increasingly excited about becoming a mom, even though she and Matthew had little contact.
Melissa would continue to send him like sonograms or when things would happen, because sometimes he would respond a little bit. But she didn't know really where he stood exactly, but Melissa wanted her baby to have the option of having the mother and the father. So she kept the communication with him. He often shut down.
Matthew wasn't just shutting out Melissa. He kept the fact he was going to be a father a secret, including from his co-workers and Chief Rob Schultz at the Carroll Stream Fire District, several counties away from Melissa's home.
We're here 24 hours a day, and it's just a normal course of being a firefighter in that you talk about your family, your personal life, and what's going on, good, bad, or indifferent. I knew Matt as a single guy that didn't have any kids.
Even Matthew's own parents did not know about the pregnancy until Melissa told them.
Melissa wanted them to have the opportunity to be part of their grandchild's life.
How did Melissa say his parents responded to the news of a grandson?
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Chapter 3: What evidence linked Matthew Plody to the crime?
We lost Melissa in the prime of her life. Melissa and Barrett should still be alive and enjoying life with their loving family.
I shouldn't have spent Thanksgiving that year feeling like there was nothing to be thankful for. This shouldn't be real, but it is real. It is all real because one man decided to make the decision that Barrett and Melissa weren't needed or wanted. None of this had to happen. All he had to do was walk away.
Matthew Plody also addressed the court with this brief statement.
Do you believe him?
Oh, no, definitely not.
For him to say, I, too, have pain and loss from Wilson Barrett, like, what a joke. The judge imposed the maximum sentence.
Mr. Plote, you are sentenced to natural life imprisonment.
Life behind bars. Matthew Politi will likely die in prison. Does that give you any sort of peace? No.
I know it's the justice system, and we received our justice, but nothing about this is just.
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