Buried Secrets: The Killer Who Hid His Victims Inside a Tree
The investigator’s dog didn’t pick up a scent—the tree’s massive trunk kept its horrifying secrets well hidden. But on November 18, 2010, the police and Ohio Bureau of Investigation were led to an unthinkable discovery deep within the woods of Kokosing Wildlife Preserve: inside a hollowed-out tree lay the dismembered remains of two women and an 11-year-old boy, stuffed into garbage bags.
This grotesque crime was the work of Matthew Hoffman, an unemployed tree trimmer with an obsession for leaves and a darkness that defied logic. His reign of terror was exposed when police rescued 13-year-old Sarah Maynard from his basement—alive but traumatized—bound atop a pile of leaves in a home as bizarre as its owner. The walls were covered in plastic shopping bags filled with leaves, a chilling testament to Hoffman’s unsettling mind.
A Killer’s Confession
With the death penalty off the table, Hoffman penned a chilling 10-page confession detailing his rampage. He admitted that on November 10, 2010, he broke into the home of Tina Hermann to rob it, expecting an empty house. But fate intervened. Hermann returned sooner than expected, and moments later, her close friend Stephanie Sprang walked in—right into a bloodbath. In a sudden frenzy, Hoffman brutally stabbed both women to death.
Then came the unimaginable. Hermann’s children, 11-year-old Kody Maynard and 13-year-old Sarah, arrived home from school, stepping directly into their worst nightmare. Hoffman attacked them immediately. Kody didn’t survive. But for reasons known only to the killer, Sarah did. Perhaps, in his twisted mind, he believed she could be controlled.
A Forest of Horrors
After slaughtering his victims, Hoffman meticulously “processed” their bodies, stuffing them into garbage bags and concealing them inside the tree. It was an almost primal act, as forensic psychologist Dr. N.G. Berrill later observed, akin to how animals hide their kills.
But the state of his home revealed something even more disturbing—a psychotic obsession with nature. Leaves weren’t just part of Hoffman’s crime scene; they were an eerie signature. He hoarded them in bags, piled them inside his house, even used them as bedding. Experts speculated his behavior pointed to schizophrenia, though an official diagnosis was never confirmed.
The Break in the Case
Hoffman’s undoing came from a simple shopping bag. Police found a receipt for tarps in Hermann’s garage, leading them to store surveillance footage that captured Hoffman making the purchase. A unique compact car seen in the footage led authorities directly to him. When they pulled his driver’s license photo, the evidence was undeniable—he was wearing the same shirt as in the video.
Once in custody, Hoffman tried a weak defense. He initially claimed he had simply “found” Sarah Maynard in his home and had no memory of what had happened. But the evidence was overwhelming. Sarah later revealed the nightmare of her four-day captivity—how she was blindfolded and transported in the very car that had carried her murdered family, unknowingly placed atop their bodies. Hoffman repeatedly assaulted her and starved her, offering only cereal with rotten milk.
Survival and Strength
Despite enduring unimaginable trauma, Sarah Maynard found the strength to rebuild her life. She spoke candidly about her experience, sharing her story with other survivors, including Jayme Closs, a girl who was similarly abducted after her parents were murdered.
“The moment I was saved, I was forever relieved,” Maynard recalled in a 2019 interview. But the road to healing wasn’t easy. “It was hard for me to connect with society. It was hard for me to go to school. It was hard for me to make friends.”
Her journey is detailed in The Girl in the Leaves, a book co-authored with her father, Larry Maynard, and true crime writer Robert Scott. At Hoffman’s trial, Sarah delivered a powerful impact statement, painting a portrait of the loved ones she lost—her mother, who adored dolphins and sunflowers, and her little brother, a talented baseball pitcher who had dreamed of becoming a helicopter pilot.
“They didn’t just die,” she declared. “Their lives were brutally taken.”
Justice Served
On January 6, 2011, Matthew Hoffman pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including aggravated murder, kidnapping, and rape. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now confined to the Toledo Correctional Institution, he will never walk free again.
But for those who lost their loved ones, and for Sarah Maynard, the scars remain. Yet, in the face of horror, she emerged not just as a survivor—but as a voice of resilience, refusing to let her past define her future.
