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Get 20% off your first order by going to nativedo.com slash husband or use promo code husband at checkout. That's nativedo.com slash husband or use promo code husband at checkout for 20% off your first order. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. All right, everyone.
Listen up here. Okay, our live show is this Sunday, February 20th at 6 p.m. PT. There's six days until our live show. So if you have not got your tickets, you need to get tickets right now at momenthouse.com slash murderwithmyhusband. There'll be links all over the place. We're super excited. So if you can make it...
Please come. We sure are really excited. We're nervous, but we're excited. Yes, it's going to be an online live show. So you can log on to your computer using your ticket. Get in. We will be iPhone, phone, Android, whatever it is. We will be doing our regular show live. So Garrett's 10 seconds live, everything live. There will be a comment feed that is live. So I'm kind of excited for that aspect of it.
And then there's also going to be a live Q&A, some games, some hanging out. Honestly, I'm so pumped. We've been preparing for this for a really long time and I think it's going to be great. And again, if you want to get tickets, we're going to have links in the episode notes. If you're listening on podcasts and YouTube, it'll be in the description. And then we're also going to put it on our Instagram, Facebook, all of our social medias.
I'm really excited to be celebrating our 100th episode live with all of you guys. So please, if you can, come join. It's going to be a blast. And there will also be just a regular, you know, our regular content episode that week. But this 100th episode live,
live is actually going to be exclusive to the live. We won't be releasing it. So that is the only time you will be able to hear the story that we're going to be telling live. Okay. We can stop talking about this live. I'm just so excited. So what's your 10 seconds for this week's episode? Well, go Bengals. Super Bowl's coming up. Oh my gosh. I forgot. I know. So go Bengals. So Bengals put pains like who are the Bengals? I still don't know the other team. The Rams. LA Rams. Oh, the LA Rams. LA Rams. I don't know anything about them.
But Garrett's going for the Bengals, so I'm going for the Rams. Just kidding. And then also, well, I mean, Peyton's family's coming into town this weekend. Oh, yep. But there's a UFC fight on Saturday. If you're a UFC fan, you know which fight I'm talking about. Mm-hmm. Pay-per-view event. We'll probably watch that as well. That's our Super Bowl. We do like watching any UFC fights in general. Yeah. We like watching that.
So we'll be doing that. Peyton the other day posted a picture of me washing my car. Well, it was on my personal Instagram. I shared it to mine as well. Yeah. So, you know, washed my car this week, hung out. Everyone loved that you were wearing your muck boots. I was wearing my muck boots while washing my car. It is freezing outside. It's not really that cold. It was like 40 degrees, but...
That's cold to me. But I do like getting outside to wash the car. Normally, I just get my little camping chair. I unfold it. I put it in the driveway and I just sit there and watch Garrett wash the car. Other than that, hanging out, getting ready for the Super Bowl, getting ready for UFC fights and working. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that watches and supports us. We've really felt the love over the last couple of weeks. We always feel the love.
But it's just been crazy to see just everything grow. Yeah. It really is so crazy. I was actually just talking to someone today about how surreal this is that I feel like we just have this community of people who like meet with us every single week to enjoy true crime. And I just like still can't even believe that you guys have given us this opportunity to do this and given us this family. So, yeah, thank you guys so much. Especially when people come up to us. It's so fun. We love it. So if you ever see us, please stop us. Right.
Yeah, we actually just had a wife and her husband who is an officer stop us and say hi. And it was pretty crazy because he was like, I've listened to your podcast while doing paperwork on duty and stuff. And it's like law enforcement is even listening to this. It's just really cool. Okay, let's get into this. Our case sources this week are cinemaholic.com.
dot com, heavy.com, oxygen, star chasm, and Dateline secrets by the bay. And I do just want to give a shout out real quick to all of the reporters and journalists who go and cover these cases like in real time in these cities.
that we then can use the sources. So thank you to our sources who are out there, you know, actually able to do this so that we can then learn everything. Okay, so our case this week begins with a beautiful, vibrant 20-year-old woman named Elizabeth Sullivan and her best friend, Calandra Duckett.
Elizabeth and Calandra actually grew up in Virginia, and once they met, they became inseparable. Elizabeth was caring, wild, and colorful. She could draw the attention of anyone, which was how her and Calandra actually became so close in the first place.
Elizabeth loved an adventure and was always on to the next thing. She was a dancer, then a musician, then the next thing and the next thing. She's super passionate and hardworking at everything she gets into and had been that way since she was a little girl. By her early 20s, Elizabeth, who goes by Liz, was living in Norfolk, Virginia with Calandra. And Norfolk actually houses the biggest naval station in the world. Mm-hmm.
You knew that? Yeah. Man, I learn these things about these places every single time I do research. Okay, I lied. I didn't know that, but I knew it was big. It was the biggest. But we can pretend like I knew it.
Just lying on camera. No one will ever know. And it was while living there that Liz actually met a man named Matthew Sullivan, and he goes on to become her next big passion. Matthew, who goes by Matt, was a Minnesotan kid who had joined the Navy and was now stationed at that big naval base we talked about. And Liz was infatuated with Matt almost instantly. She was passionate, like I said, about most things, and Matt was no different.
Friends say that Liz described Matt as her knight in shining armor. He promised, you know, permanence and stability for Liz. And one of those stable and loving relationships was what she was really looking for, like the long haul. It was something she was really wanting.
So Liz and Matt began dating and forming a life together. But then very early into their relationship, Matt got the news that he was being reassigned across the country to San Diego, California. This news was devastating for both Matt and Liz, who, although only knowing each other for a few months at this point, had quite literally fallen head over heels in love.
It was fast, chaotic, and passionate, just like everything else in Liz's life. And because of the positive and hopeful attitude that Liz always had, she handled this situation differently than most would. Liz and Matt did not want to be separated, so they decided to get married.
Three months after meeting, Matt got down on one knee and proposes to Liz, and of course she says yes. After the quick wedding, Liz and Matt are running around preparing for the move as husband and wife to San Diego. She has now taken on the role of a true military wife, getting ready to pack up and leave everything she knows to have this life with Matt. And it was in the middle of this chaos that Liz called Calandra, her friend, to tell her something. Something
Something had happened and it was the worst timing. It was going to change her whole life. She was almost positive that she was pregnant with Matt's baby. So on top of marriage, a new town, a new husband, Liz was also expecting a new baby. And although overwhelmed, Liz wasn't going to let this stop her dreams. Together, the newlyweds finally moved to San Diego to start their life.
But it was basically as soon as they unpacked that Matt then got another call. He was getting deployed overseas Wow, okay. Yeah, so at this point Liz is still pregnant with his child now in a new town all by herself Yeah, shout out to all those who served by the way, right? But time goes on Matt deploys Liz has their baby and begins life as a military mom and
Matt begins coming home for short periods of time to see Liz and his new baby girl. And it was during one of these times that Liz discovers that she is pregnant again with baby number two. Wow.
And after delivering the second baby, Liz is now like full on mom mode. She's raising her two babies in San Diego still, but the marriage and the move to a new state was not all it had promised to be to Liz. A few years had gone by and hopeful Liz had begun to feel isolated with the reality sinking in. She was lonely. Yeah. With Matt always gone and really no solid friends yet because of all of her time, like that she'd been spending momming basically. Yeah.
Liz decides that she needs to try and establish a life in San Diego after talking to her friends and family back home. So she tries to get out and meet people. One day, Liz, out with her kids in the stroller, wanders into an eyewear store where she meets a man named Nathan Character. And although Nathan was working when he met her, he was completely drawn to Liz like most people were.
She had a huge personality that made anyone comfortable. Very naturally, they began talking and honestly became good friends, the exact friend that she'd been looking for in San Diego. And on the other end, Liz made Nathan feel accepted and loved, so their friendship really just worked. So I need to clarify here, there is no romantic feelings going on. This is just purely a platonic friendship, but I mean, it's a good friendship. Okay.
Nathan eventually becomes Liz's best friend in San Diego. She spent a whole lot of time with him and they begin to become intricate parts of each other's lives. They confide in each other. And Nathan was the person that Liz could go to, to talk about anything.
what she ended up doing when it turns out that her life with Matt wasn't as perfect as it seemed. So Matt had just come home again and together him and Liz moved to Liberty Station in San Diego. Now Liberty Station is Navy housing in San Diego. And
Liz told Nathan after Matt came home that her marriage wasn't going well. He was staying long-term this time. And the problem was Liz felt like before Matt came back, she and the kids had just finally become really comfortable with their routine and
She was like a single mother. Their life was running really smoothly. But when Matt came home, all of that got disrupted. And to make matters worse, Liz felt like Matt barely knew his own kids and that she kind of barely knew him as well as the kids knowing him. Which is rough because it's not...
I mean, it's not his fault, right? Right. He's been gone. He's been gone. He got deployed. Do you know how long he was gone for? I don't know how long he's gone for, but I'm pretty sure it's only like two or three years since they moved to San Diego. Okay. And he had been deployed, then came home, and then got...
So he was kind of coming back for short periods, but now he's back for long term. Okay. And like you were saying, it's not his fault. But what is his fault and was what making matters worse, he wasn't taking the time to get to know them like she had hoped. It was almost like he didn't care that he was a stranger in their life. Yeah.
Matt also did not have a driver's license and didn't care to get one, so it was Liz's job to continue her kids' life being mom, but also to cart Matt around as well. - That'd be hard, especially 'cause, I mean, he never drives. - No, never. Friends say that the wham-bam relationship that Matt and Liz had started their marriage off as had quickly fallen apart because of real life and responsibilities. It was hard for Liz to be the fun-loving wife now, and in return, that was hard for Matt to understand.
Liz felt awful about all of this, but was confiding in her friend Nathan about it. But she also told Nathan that she wanted things to be better. She hadn't given up on her marriage. She saw this as an opportunity for their family to really start over and succeed. She remained hopeful and positive, just like always. So Liz, who is now 32 years old, went to Matt to tell him how she felt since he had come home.
She needed to tell him that although things had not been going smoothly, she really believes that they could spend time as a family and work on things. Their marriage still had hope. Nothing seems...
like suspicious yet to me. Right. Like I'm not, yeah, nothing yet. It's really kind of jumping or grabbing out at me. And I agree. And we'll get to that a little later on, but devastating to Liz, Matt shut this conversation down. He didn't want to work on anything. He was fine with the way their marriage was. He, he was fine just going to work and coming home and kind of living separate lives. He didn't want to put in the effort and find where he fit into the picture. She had been living in for the last couple of years, uh,
Liz had dreamed of this life and was ready to build it, but Matt didn't want it. And on top of this, Matt ended the conversation by informing Liz that his parents and sister need to move into the house with them. He had told them yes already without even talking to her, and they were moving in that exact week. So kind of like what you were saying before, I know a lot of this seems kind of like
textbook marriage problems, right? Like not, not nothing suspicious. Like you were saying, nothing drastic, but it doesn't always have to be extreme things that can cause major issues in marriages. Liz immediately calls her confident Nathan after having this conversation with Matt about his parents moving home and him not wanting to change his behavior.
Matt's parents had never liked Liz and she was worried about them being around the kids so much like they're moving into her life. So we're getting somewhere now. Right. How would Matt and Liz work on their relationship with in-laws around? She's stressed out and honestly freaking out. Did they have room in their house for his family? Yes. Yes, they did. But I mean, I think in
I don't think anyone would be freaking out. And like, this is a decision that shouldn't have just been made by one person. Like if you're moving people into the house and there's an, you have a partner living there, they should probably, you know, you should probably at least talk to them about it before you're just like, yeah, they're coming this week. So while on the phone with Nathan, 'cause Liz is talking to him, she says, you know what? I'm coming over. I'm coming over. She couldn't be at home anymore. Not after the fight her and Matt had just gotten and the bomb drop about the in-laws moving in.
Liz actually ends up spending the night at Nathan's house that night in hopes of cooling off and getting clarity on the situation. She informs Nathan that she had already actually contacted a divorce attorney in case that Matt didn't want to work on things. And now she is sure like he doesn't want to work on it and I want out.
She's not fine living how they are, even though he says he is. So Liz falls asleep, and when morning comes, she heads home to face reality. Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work. You still aren't sleeping, you still hurt, and you're stressed out.
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Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash husband. A worried Nathan calls his friend Liz once she gets home to check in. Did she have the kids with her when she went to Nathan's? No. Or were the kids still at home with Matt? The kids were still at home with Matt.
Okay, so she left the kids at home with Matt, went over to Nathan's. Freaked out, said he's not wanting to change. Talked to him, slept over. Yes. Okay. So now Nathan calls Liz once she's home the next morning, just needs to check in. He's worried. He had never seen Liz as upset as she was the night before. But when Liz answers the phone call, she's almost whispering like hushed.
She tells Nathan she can't talk and that she'll have to call him back tomorrow, which would be Monday. And he's like, okay. And she's like, okay, bye. Was his family there at this point or not yet? Not yet. But Monday, October 13th, 2014 comes and goes with no word from Liz.
Nathan is worried, but she's an adult and she's also trying to figure out everything at home. Like life is not good at home. So he would try again later and he does, but Liz still never answers her phone. So by Tuesday, October 14th, an anxious Nathan decides to call Matt Sullivan, her husband to check on Liz. Yeah.
He knew that Matt's family was supposed to be landing that day to move in and he needed to make sure that Liz was okay and that everything was going okay. Oh man, this is getting crazy already. The phone is ringing and finally Matt picks up. Nathan asks Matt if he can talk to Liz. Matt and Nathan actually knew each other by this point. Like Nathan had even had Matt and Liz over for Thanksgiving. So they're kind of like family friends.
But Matt tells Nathan on the phone that Liz isn't there. Nathan's like, okay, well, I haven't heard from her since Monday and she promised she would call. He's like, I just need to make sure she's okay. I just need to check in. And this is when Matt drops a bomb on Nathan. He tells him that he too hadn't seen or heard from his wife since Monday. And Nathan is like,
- What? Matt quickly explains how his family flew in this morning to move in with them and Liz was unhappy about it. So he figured she was just somewhere cooling off, trying to put off having to come back and deal with them. And I mean, Liz was impulsive. Both Nathan and Matt knew this.
But Nathan hangs up the phone unsure. He feels like something is not right, that even if Liz ran away, she wouldn't leave her kids. She was a consistent mother. She wouldn't have left her kids behind, right? So sitting there, thinking through everything, Nathan decides to make one more phone call, this time to the police.
He embarrassingly tells them that he knows he's just a friend in this situation, but he really feels like something might be wrong. He asks them if they could just look into it. But Liz is an adult and she can leave if she wants. That's the law. Like the police's hands are tied. But they reassure him that although they can't do much right now, they would keep an eye on it in case she doesn't turn up soon.
But another day and then another day goes by without any word to anyone from Liz. How was Matt at this point? Like, had Nathan talked to Matt again? Not again, but he's at home with their daughters. With the kids. Yes, and then his parents and sister. And they're all moving in, living fine at this point. Okay. So Nathan... It just...
It seems like if she was still missing, the family would be like, hey, where's your wife? Matt would be like, hey, where's my wife? Right. But it seems like Nathan's the only one right now that cares. Exactly. So Nathan, like you said, is sitting at work right now waiting by the phone for a call, whether that's from the police or from Liz, he doesn't know. And Liz's friends and family from home are eager to hear an update from anyone, but it never comes.
Three days after Nathan had originally called the San Diego police, they decide to file Elizabeth Michelle Sullivan as an official missing person in San Diego.
investigators from the missing persons unit make their way to Liberty Station to stop by Liz and Matt's home. They talk to everyone. They do a quick search of the home, looking for any evidence. They see no signs of foul play, but Liz hadn't taken her car, which was still parked in the garage. And doesn't it work different, though, because he's in the military, not the military police?
get involved and so on and so forth. And he's also going to be tried different as well. So the military police do not get involved in this case. And I'm not sure how that all works either. So if you know anything about that, go ahead and leave a comment. What I do know is that they do not get involved in this case. Because remember the case we did where she went missing? Mm-hmm.
That was in Hawaii, right? Correct. And he was in the military. She didn't go missing. She was murdered. Correct. Yes. In her home. And yes, the military handled it. Yeah. But in this case, it's the local police. So I think. So that case was actually on like.
base, like on a base. Oh, they're not on a base. They're just in housing. Yeah. So maybe that's the difference. I'm not sure. Okay. Again, if anyone knows anything about that, let us know. Cause I don't, I don't know enough about that. So anyways, police are like, it's a little weird that she's missing and her car is still here parked in the garage. It was kind of next to a broken mirror and a freezer, like just your typical garage. Um,
Police searched the house, the closets, even the freezer in the garage, but found nothing. Liz's bedroom was slightly messy, but nothing that stood out to investigators. And I say Liz's bedroom because Liz and Matt slept in separate bedrooms. Matt tells police that one of their suitcases is missing along with Liz's computer and phone, which is what led him to believe that she had just left on her own accord in the first place.
Matt adds that Liz had transferred all of the money in their joint account over to her account before she disappeared. Matt also handed over all of Liz's journals to police because they're like, maybe we can find out where she left if she did willingly leave.
Police immediately call the bank and check Liz's accounts only to discover that there had been credit card activity on her account in the days after she was missing. Everyone in Liz's life takes a sigh of relief when they hear this, though. Maybe she really had just run away. Either way, they still wanted to find her. I read flags for just...
shooting up in the air. I don't know why. Yeah, probably because we're sitting here doing a case and if everything was all right, we probably wouldn't be. That is true. So the missing person posters are hung up all around the area and the media reports on the story. Within a week, an off-duty sheriff's deputy reports that he actually spotted Liz in the days after her disappearance at a soccer field near her home. Okay. He says that he even talked to her and she seemed disoriented and told him that she had slept in the park the night before.
Another spotting comes in near the San Diego airport, but after that, it's quiet. Matt Sullivan tells the media that he doesn't know where else to look. He really thought that his wife had just taken a few days to cool down, but now it's obvious that's not what happened. He reiterates that Liz had left before, but that was just like for one night or overnight. Nothing like this. Nothing long term.
Liz's dad, who had flown in from Virginia at this point, pleads with the public for help. He believes that she could be in trouble and needing help. Nathan is brought in for questioning in the disappearance and is asked to take a polygraph, which he refuses.
They obviously also question Matt and San Diego police search his house multiple times. He passes the polygraph that he's given and DNA is collected from the house in case they need to identify a body. But by this point, no more reports had come in and quickly a month goes by with no sign or word from Liz Sullivan. But police haven't stopped the investigation, even with some clear-cut signs that maybe she had run away.
During their time looking into Liz, police had discovered quite a bit more about her. Liz was eccentric. She was wild and free and adventurous.
And she had also been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. According to Wikipedia, borderline personality disorder is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of unstable interpersonal relationships, distorted sense of self, and strong emotional reactions. And although that definition can sound intense,
Borderline personality disorder isn't as big of a deal as we have made it out to be. Millions of people are diagnosed with this and function every day with it. And Liz was one of those people who had been living with this, but many of her friends and family who loved her said the diagnosis could be complicated sometimes.
that although she was spunky and had a huge love for life, she had been battling tortured thoughts for years. Now, trigger warning here, we are going to discuss drug use and self-harm, so I'm just going to put that out there.
Friends also informed investigators that Liz, like many others, took prescribed and recreational drugs. She had opened up to her friends that sometimes she self-medicated. Liz had been under the care of psychiatrists for a while, and one way she found to cope with things was to self-harm, which is common for BPD patients.
Liz was having to jump through more hurdles than most people do when it comes to mental health, which is really discouraging. She had to fight 10 times harder. But her friends and family confirmed that she was strong-willed and understood her challenges.
And one of the ways that Liz worked through things was by writing them down. And she had actually been working on a novel that is clear to see mirrored her own life pretty well. The main character in the novel was saved by a knight in shining armor who moved her to California and together they had a daughter. But in the novel that Liz was writing before she disappeared, this is where things went wrong.
Eventually, the main character leaves her knight and daughter behind for good, running away, unable to handle things. Weird. I am confused right now because I think all of my thoughts are pointing towards Matt, but now I have no idea. You and the police. No idea. This book is obviously telling in Liz's case because if she followed the timeline of the main character she was writing about, she would have willingly run away. That's what the main character did.
Police had also discovered that in the months before Liz went missing, she had downloaded Tinder. Friends explained to police that Liz used Tinder as an escape from her real life. That maybe when you are struggling with your own self-esteem, it can feel good to hear from others how amazing you are. But investigators have to confront the reality that if Liz met someone on Tinder, she could have run away with them. It just...
I think what's keeping me held back right now that she hasn't run away is because her kids are with
Matt. Right. And I feel like, I mean, I don't know a ton about her right now, but when you told me, I feel like she loves her kids and probably would not leave them. And even her friends said that. Yeah. They're like, despite what's in that book, she loved her kids. Yeah. And police are also like, if she met someone on Tinder, she could be in trouble, right? Like it could be Tinder gone wrong. So this just adds a whole new layer to the case and they definitely needed to look into it.
It had been about two months since Liz had gone missing at this point when police discovered a man named Steven Sutton, who it appears Liz had met on Tinder and had a relationship with before she went missing. Liz had even confided in Nathan about Steve, telling him that Steve was her boyfriend. She was having an affair. She told Nathan that Steve was educated and always wanted to better himself. And to her, he was everything that Matt wasn't in the moment.
And Nathan loved Liz, but didn't know what to say. I mean, she's an adult after all. You can't just say stop, right? Detectives obviously want to talk to Steve, but Steve was super uncooperative from the start. He immediately got an attorney and made it hard for police to talk to him. So police had to work the story on their own. And this is when they discovered that about a month before Liz went missing, her secret relationship with Steve exploded.
During their relationship, Liz actually spent a lot of time at Steve's house that he shared with his roommate. And although she got along well with Steve's roommate, it was the roommate's girlfriend that didn't so much like Liz, even though she didn't know that much about her.
One day while Liz was over, Steve's roommate's girlfriend noticed that Liz had car seats in her car. And although, like I said, she didn't know much about Liz, she drew the conclusion that Liz had left her kids home alone, abandoned to come over. And so she called CPS on Liz. Oh, geez. Calandra, Liz's friend, says something really good here.
She notes that she doesn't actually condemn the woman who called CPS because sometimes that really does save kids' lives. But she does admit, like, this woman knew nothing about Liz or the situation, and so that's kind of where it's tricky. Anyways, Liz was at home with her girls after this when she got a knock at the door, and it was from CPS. Okay.
They did a small investigation, checked things out and Liz explained what had happened. They understood, but told Liz that they would need to call Matt, the children's dad and inform him either way. And when they leave, Liz freaks out and calls Nathan. She's about to be caught in this relationship. CPS was going to tell Matt what had happened and things were already really bad with Matt. And so she was worried and,
That night when Matt came home, Liz told him everything so that CPS wouldn't catch him off guard. Matt tells police that it didn't really bother him much when he found out because him and Liz had already been living pretty separate lives up to this point. Sleeping in separate bedrooms, not really a functioning marriage. So the news about her infidelity wasn't really a big deal to him. But according to Nathan, Liz was really upset when all of this happened.
she kind of started to spiral, resulting to self-harm in the following weeks. And this is just about a month before she went missing. And although Matt had told police that he didn't care all that much, they still kind of looked into this time frame on cell phone records to see what was going on. And according to Matt's phone records, he maybe did care a little bit more than he was leading on. Since Matt had found out about the relationship, he had actually been badgering or harassing Steve with texts.
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Although Steve is still not talking to police at this point, he releases a statement to the public in light of the relationship and pleas from Liz's family for answers. He says that about a month after Liz had disappeared, he actually received an email from an unknown account named BadlyDrawnGirl at Hotmail.com.
The email claimed to be from Liz, but Steve was unsure. So he sent back a question that only Liz would know the answer to to confirm that it really was her. I mean, she had been missing for a month.
The question was, what had Liz got him for his birthday? The sender emailed back the correct answer of a keychain. Steve assumes it was from Liz and confirms that he believes she is still alive and just hiding out. So the detectives asked Steve to turn over the email to them, but he informed them via attorney that he had deleted it. And that was unfortunate because all of the other leads up to this point that police thought they had, had...
I mean, you can get a deleted email, though. I think so, yeah. But all of the leads really hadn't gone anywhere. In fact, the officer who claimed that he saw Liz at that soccer field came forward later and corrected that it had been before she disappeared. He had mixed his days up. And the money that Liz had supposedly transferred into her account after she went missing...
was untouched at this point. It hadn't been used. And those transactions that happened after she went missing, those were actually before she went missing, but didn't show up on records until later. Got it. So it's now been months since Liz went missing and police don't know where they stand. Did she leave? Is she in danger? Is she hurt? No one really knows. Either way, details are still emerging at this point from Liz's life before she disappeared.
And these new details begin to shine a light on the catastrophe that was her marriage to Matt. It was a little worse than everyone knew. Police discover a 911 call that had been placed the same day Liz went missing. It came from Matt Sullivan himself, but it wasn't about his missing wife. On the 911 call... Question, this took a couple months after?
To like realize the 911 call? Well, all of this is kind of coming out. I mean, I know there's a lot of work that goes into it. I'm just curious. I don't think it was necessarily a couple months after. This is just the timeline that I'm telling it. This is all just after she went missing. All of this is coming out. Got it. But she, I mean, she has been missing for quite a while. So on the 911 call, Matt tells the operator that he is worried his wife is trying to take his kids away from him. That she had taken his personal credit card and used it to hire a lawyer against him.
He says that he hasn't been served with papers yet, but he thinks that she's trying to ruin his life. All right. This is where things are starting to get a little suspicious. And you called 911 for that? Yeah.
Hey, 911 operator who I'm sure you have a lot more things going on that my wife's trying to ruin my life by taking my kids. Exactly. So about an hour later, he calls them again. He tells them that his wife had actually moved money over in the accounts. And he says that she's not home right now. He hasn't seen her. He hasn't heard from her. And so the operator tells him, well,
well, hey, sir, there's really nothing we can do. Like, what do you want us to do? They're like, just call us back when she gets home and maybe we can send someone out. You guys can try to work this out. Matt never calls back.
Oh.
Okay. She had a plan to get a restraining order, file for divorce, and leave. It had to be clear cut for her safety. So she was scared. Yes. So in the story, this is coming out publicly to the media. So that's why I think it's a little later in the timeline. And when this comes out publicly, Matt deletes all images and any trace of Liz from his social media.
He unfriends all of her friends and family and cuts off her cell phone, despite the fact that he says she took it and is missing. He's like, oh, done paying that bill. So he basically just took away her lifeline if she is out there. And then he moves another woman into the home less than three months after Liz went missing. He told people she was there to watch the kids, but then changed his relationship status on Facebook to in a relationship. Okay.
Police begin looking more heavily into Matt at this point, and they discover the day Nathan reported Liz missing, Matt had bought carpet cleaner from Ace Hardware.
When police confront him with this information, he tells them that he was cleaning the carpets because his parents are moving in. You know, like he needs to get the carpets cleaned. Oh, yeah. I don't even know how to say it. What husband has ever said, oh, my in-laws are coming over. I need to get carpet cleaner and clean the freaking carpet. Not you. Not me. Not you. If someone else out there has, send me a DM, but I promise you I'm going to get zero DMs. Pics or it didn't happen. Yeah, pics or it didn't happen.
And then a month later, more carpet cleaner and a large industrial roll of plastic wrap is purchased from Matt. He tells police that he was moving some things into storage and that's why he needed it. And despite the suspicion, they had nothing to charge him with and no clue where Liz was. And pretty soon, the case goes cold. Ooh, cold. I was thinking it would have...
sparked everything up again because this is suspicious. Yeah, yeah. No, they have nothing to charge. Yeah, that's true. So Liz becomes another missing person on a long list of missing people in America. Two years go by. Matt has another child with his new girlfriend and they live together in Liz's old home.
Two years of unanswered questions, absolutely no word or sign of Liz. Two years of heartache for her friends and family. This is a stagnant investigation until one day in 2016 when an off-duty marshal is taking a walk around a walking path against the San Diego Bay around the Liberty Station shore. Real quick.
I guess I'm still confused though because people said they saw her after she went missing. So that's where my mind's a little confused, but keep going. We'll see. Well, the one guy who said he saw her said, oh, never mind. I mixed up my dates. Oh, okay. Yes. I forgot about that. And then the other person was kind of just someone who was like, I saw the missing person poster. I think I saw her here. So it wasn't confirmed. So it wasn't confirmed. Got it. So this Marshall is walking along this path and it's kind of a rocky path.
and the marshal's dog starts climbing down the rocks towards the shoreline. When the marshal notices that his dog is sniffing at something, he moves closer and is horrified at what he sees, a human body laying dead on the shore. Oh my gosh. San Diego police respond, and immediately all of Liz's family is petrified.
Okay. Okay.
And he's like, yeah, I mean, we were happy to, you know, have found her body and receive some closure. But when that closure came, it cut off any hope we had that she was still alive. And is that any better? Yeah.
And that's awful. The double-edged sword. The autopsy showed that Liz had her prescribed medication in her system at the time of death. They also noted multiple stab wounds that went deep enough to hit her bones. Oh, man. You know, I just have to say as well, Nathan is a good friend. Yes. Really good friend. But the biggest mystery of all, if Liz had been underwater for the last two years and just washed up,
murdered and dumped the day she went missing back in 2014. She would not be in one piece when her body was found, but her body was found in good shape decomp-wise.
The official autopsy estimated that Liz had only been killed one to two months before her body was found. No way. Where had she been? And what happened? It's safe to say that the investigation was reopened and urgent. Holy crap. I wasn't expecting that. So three days after Liz's body was found, Matt Sullivan moved from his home in Liberty Station to Maryland.
He had started packing up the truck with movers the day that her body was found. So he just went almost as far as he possibly could away. Police decide to research the Sullivan's home now that he's out from top to bottom.
And based on evidence from Calandra, they decided to search Liz's bathroom first with luminol. And it lit up like a Christmas tree. Oh, man. It led out the door onto the carpet where there was a large blood stain. It had actually leaked through the carpet and into the padding. They pulled the carpet up and matched the DNA evidence to Liz. She had bled a large amount on their bedroom carpet and bathroom floor.
But that was all they found. And when police took the evidence to the DA, they decided it wasn't enough to charge because where had she been for the last two years? This blood was old. Yeah.
Which is hard. I get it. Obviously, something went wrong, but it's like, what? What are we supposed to charge with? You can't prove this. Right. Yet. So police tried interviewing Matt for any more, anything else they could get, but it didn't help. And soon enough, another year went by in the case without any charges being brought. Honestly, you put him in court and you tell everyone that he bought carpet cleaner to clean his carpet before his family came, he'd be guilty.
And this is why you are not on a jury. This is why I'm not on a jury, correct. A year later, police decide to try and search the home once more. They notice some slats in the attic were broke. So they begin pulling up all of the insulation. They're like, someone's been up here. Let's just keep searching. And that's when they discover...
a military knife hidden behind one of the slats in the attic. Liz's blood was found on the blade. Liz and Matt's DNA was found on the handle. This had to be enough to charge. They just found a knife hidden. Matt Sullivan was arrested for the murder. And five years after Liz Sullivan disappeared, Matt Sullivan went to trial.
Okay. Where was she? I just want to know where she was. Yeah. You and everyone else up to this point, no one knows. And police are deciding they have enough. So Liz's best friends all testified about the domestic violence that Liz had been experiencing at the hands of Matt. So she had told people about this. Liz had called police six months prior to her disappearance to report domestic violence.
Calandra testified about a phone call in the middle of the night that she had had with Liz right before she disappeared. And on that phone call, Liz explained to her that she had just gotten into a really bad fight with Matt. She hung up in the middle of the call and that was the last time she ever talked to her. The prosecution's case resting on the fact that Matt attacked and killed her in the bedroom and bathroom right after Liz hung up. So they're like, Liz was on the phone with Calandra. Liz hung up and he killed her.
In 2014. So they're saying that he killed her that night or whatever. In 2014. That she was on the phone with her. And then got off the phone and he killed her. But then the autopsy says that she was only been there for two months. Correct? Correct. This is what's happening at trial. I don't understand. Yeah. No one does.
So what about the time of death from the forensic pathologist? If Matt didn't kill Liz that night, like where was she for two years? And if the prosecution is saying that he did kill her that night, then the autopsy's wrong? Yeah. So the prosecution has an answer. They're like, everyone, Garrett, calm down. We will tell you what happened.
They say that Matt bought the industrial plastic and hid her up in the attic with the knife originally. Dead. Dead. Oh my gosh. Police came and searched the main area of the home after Nathan had reported her missing and found nothing because she was up in the attic.
They then say that he moved her body into the garage and into the standalone freezer where she sat for two years. Oh, my gosh. And that he pretended to be her, moving money, emailing her ex. And experts testified that there is something that can delay the decomposition process. Freezing. And that's freezing a body. Yep.
It could have made it look like she had only been killed just recently, since decomposition is what we use to determine how long someone has been dead.
But if freezing delays that, then it would be only one to two months. He had to have been planning this. Like, he had to have been... I mean, I know he bought the supplies right before she died. Right. But I feel like maybe he wasn't planning it. I guess I'm trying to decide in his mind how far ahead he was planning this. Right. So he didn't buy carpet cleaner until after she went missing. Got it. But, I mean...
You don't just kill someone. I mean, people do. People do, but it's just a little weird. You know what I mean? He bought it, was like, okay, I'm going to put her in the freezer, and then was like, X amount of time goes by, and then dumps the body. And then moved his parents in, raised his kids in that house, and moved his next girl in, and had another baby with her in the freezer. So messed up. This is what prosecution's saying. Okay. So Matt, the defense, obviously denies it all.
They state that none of this makes sense, that the bloodstain in the bedroom was from a bad self-harm attempt that Liz had had, that her blood's on the knife because that's what she used, that she really did just run away and then someone else that was bad got to her two years later and killed her. The jury goes out for deliberation and comes back with a verdict within an hour. Wow.
They found Matt Sullivan not guilty of first degree murder, but guilty of second degree murder. 36 year old Matt Sullivan was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison. What? How? How? I mean, I guess good. He was found guilty of second degree murder, but bad that he wasn't found guilty of first degree murder. Because they don't think it was planned. They think that they got into a fight and he just killed her.
Right there. That it wasn't premeditated. I just don't even know how that... It happens.
yeah i guess i don't know maybe it's another conversation it is another conversation but i guess it's just crazy it's the justice system i guess it's the fact that okay say second degree murder um they got into a fight and he killed her but he then went and bottled these supplies right he then went and put her body in a freezer hit it it would have been one thing if he called the police and then said hey this happened we got in a fight and i killed her then it's like okay well there's
Pretty substantial evidence that, okay, it was second degree murder. But now that all this stuff happened after? Yes. Bull crap. You feel like hiding it then should make it first degree. Correct. According to Oxygen.com, Matt was discharged from the Navy in 2016. Okay.
Would she had ever been found if Matt didn't move with his new girl? No. The day he begins packing up with others, her body washes ashore looking as if it hadn't even been submerged. Like it was just dumped there. Matt says he can't explain the coincidences. And I guess it's not ours to judge. Only the jury who found him guilty gets to do that.
Liz had the force of life in her. She is described as someone who smiles and laughs more than anyone else. She was who everyone wanted to be around. And I'm sure that every single person listening can imagine someone like this in their life.
Yeah.
She is worth more than that. She is all of the kind things that everyone says about her. And today, I want us to remember her for that and think of those who ache for her loss, including her children. Elizabeth Sullivan was murdered. And that is the story of her case. Oh, I feel like it just ended so abruptly. Right. Like, you know what I'm saying? They found her body. And with the trial and the trial, I mean, I guess that's a good thing. But there's just not...
There's not like something for me to grasp. He just denied everything and said, oh, I didn't kill her. And that's something I've noticed with these cases. The more we cover, the more I'm like, you know, I don't know if you're not guilty, then I guess you're not guilty. But for these people, and I'm not saying that this, you know, is his case, but in a lot of these cases, it's like,
open and shut case right like there's no denying what happened and they still deny it and to me that's the last dig and the last hurtful thing you could do to victimize everyone in the case i guess i'm confused how they fought against the fact that there was blood everywhere right like how do you even argue that everywhere which i mean i guess
is why the jury found him guilty of murder. It might not have been first-degree murder, but it still was murder, second-degree murder. And who hides a knife in their attic? Like, who hides a knife behind a roll of insulation in their attic? I can't believe, like, he had his family come over and they were just living there, and then a new girl... His kids...
Poor kids. Yeah. That is horrible too. And that's why I mentioned them at the end. Yeah. Once again, like we always see with these cases, there's always more than one victim. Yeah. Okay, you guys, we love you. And that was the case for today. And we will see you guys next week with another episode and live episode. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye.
