The Twisted Story of Matthew Hoffman: The Leaf Killer of Mount Vernon, Ohio

Trigger warning: mentions of violence and SA.

When Matthew Hoffman was finally captured, the police discovered that rooms of his house were lined wall-to-wall with leaves.

The floors of other rooms were likewise covered completely in leaves, all of which were believed to have been collected within a matter of days.

For the most part, he seemed to have been a fairly normal-seeming person up until the few months before the crimes.

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He was a quiet kid who sometimes came across as strange to others, but no one really believed he was dangerous.

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Previous to the crimes that he committed in 2010, Hoffman was arrested in 2001 for first-degree arson, burglary, and theft after setting a condominium ablaze in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

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After he was released from prison, things started to get even weirder. Hoffman’s neighbors reported that he would spend hours up in a tree in his backyard, watching them from his perch.

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