ISMAEL TRISTAN SANTISTEBAN - 4 yo (9/14) - Hudson, FL

Amber Alert issued for boy, 4, after multiple homicide victims discovered in Pasco

September 4, 2014

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HUDSON, FL (WFLA) -

Local, state and federal law enforcement are working non-stop to try and find a missing four-year old boy. Ismael Tristan Santisteban was last seen August 28th.

“If you’re Adam and you’re hearing this please, just let the sheriff’s office have Tristan,” said Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco.

Nocco was talking about Adam Matos who they believe has Tristan. An Amber Alert for Tristan was issued Thursday around 7:50 in the evening.

Tristan was discovered missing Thursday morning.

Pasco County deputies were called to 7719 Hatters Drive where Tristan was living for a welfare check.

Investigators would not say who made that call.

But once on scene, Sheriff Nocco said deputies found evidence that lead them to believe that something was wrong.

Minutes later, four bodies of people connected to the home were found in a field down the roadway, however Tristan was missing and so was Adam Matos who was living at the address.

Related story: 4 bodies found at end of dirt road in Hudson


Matos is a person of interest in the murders; however Sheriff Nocco is making it clear that Tristan is the concern right now.

“If you have him, call the Sheriff’s office immediately. Our biggest concern is that Tristan is okay,” said Nocco.

Matos is considered armed and dangerous. Nocco said just August 28th; they were called to the Hatteras address on a domestic call, by Tristan’s mother.

“She had mad allegations that Adam had put a knife up to her. When we arrived, we had deputies on scene; however we could not find Adam.”

At first Adam Matos was thought to be traveling in a 90s model F-150, but investigators later changed that theory.

“That F-150, we found it. It was towed from this area a couple of days ago. We are not sure if they are in a vehicle what their whereabouts are, we are looking for stolen vehicles.”

After the Amber Alert went out Thursday, several tips came in.

“There is also a very strong possibility that he left the boy with somebody else, we’ve heard from numerous people that Adam has been in the area recently.”

Investigators are also working with authorities in Pennsylvania.

Tristan’s family along with Matos just moved from the state to Florida this summer.

Neighbors in the area looked on as deputies and investigators worked Thursday. None of them knew the family.

“It being the kids, his immediate relatives: how could anyone do that,” said neighbor Ryan Simmons.

Anyone who might spot Matos or Tristan is asked to call 911.

Ismael Santisteban is described as a white/Hispanic male, 3’2″ tall, 35 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Santisteban was last seen at his home located at 7719 Hatteras Drive in Hudson on August 28th.

Matos is described as a white male, 6 feet tall, 175 pounds, brown hair and brown eyes. If you have any information on the whereabouts of this child please contact the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office at 727-847-5878 or 911.



http://www.operationlookout.org/Lookout_Magazine/2014/09/amber-alert-issued-for-boy-4-after-multiple-homicide-victims-discovered-in-pasco/

Suspect In 4 Slayings Caught, 4-Year-Old Boy Found Safe


   | By TAMARA LUSH and MICHAEL RUBINKAM  
Posted:  09/05/2014 7:57 am EDT    Updated:  5 hours ago  



HUDSON, Fla. (AP) — Greg and Margaret Brown, their daughter Megan and her young son moved from Pennsylvania to Florida a few months ago, looking for a fresh start after operating a farm that bred and boarded horses and dogs.

"We are in Hudson Florida for a while," a posting on the farm's Internet site said.

Trouble followed.

On Thursday, Pasco County sheriff's deputies checking on the family noticed a bad odor in the area, and followed it three-quarters of a mile down the street to a gruesome discovery: the bodies of two men and two women, piled atop each other in an open field. They had apparently lain unseen for several days.

The sheriff's office tentatively identified the victims Saturday as Megan Brown, 27; her parents, Margaret and Greg Brown, both 52; and another man, Nicholas Leonard.

The Brown family recently lived in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, as did Adam Matos, 28, whom police are calling the only suspect in the slayings. Matos has not been charged, and he denied any involvement in the killings to reporters shortly after authorities caught up with him and Megan Brown's 4-year-old son at a downtown Tampa hotel.

He appeared in Hillsborough County court Saturday on a warrant charge, then was transferred to Pasco County Jail.

Police said Matos — believed to be the boy's father — had been staying with the Browns in a rented home along a canal leading to the Gulf of Mexico in Hudson, located in Pasco County about an hour and a half northwest of downtown Tampa.

Both Matos and Megan Brown had gotten jobs at restaurants near the home.

Brown worked at a place called The Fisherman's Shack, a wooden building that isn't far from a canal.

"She was a wonderful person," employee Kristina Graham said Saturday. "I didn't know her very well. She did say she had problems with her ex-boyfriend."

Nick Leonard, the other victim in the home, hung out at that bar. He and Brown were friends, Graham said, and he didn't live at the home. Leonard was from Florida, she added.

Matos worked at a similar establishment. A man answering the phone at the Get Hooked Almost Waterfront Restaurant and Bar in Hudson said Saturday that Matos had worked there as a dishwasher, but didn't know any more about him.

Detectives released only a few details about the evidence tying Matos to the slayings. Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco did say Matos had been seen in the Hudson area recently and quickly became a suspect.

Court records in Pennsylvania show Matos had been arrested numerous times on allegations of harassment, theft, burglary, trespassing, assault and driving under the influence. He pleaded guilty to some of the charges, and others appear to have been dismissed.

He appeared in a Hillsborough County court Saturday on a warrant out of Pasco County, where he was wanted on an aggravated assault charge. That stemmed from an incident on Aug. 28, when Megan Brown called police and said Matos had threatened her with a knife and then fled, said Nocco. She told investigators she was scared of Matos, but authorities could not find him.

A week later, police found the bodies and discovered the boy was missing. They began a manhunt for Matos and the boy. They arrested Matos at a hotel in downtown Tampa on Friday morning after officials tricked him into leaving his room at the Floridan Palace Hotel, where he'd been staying with the boy.

The boy was unharmed and is in state custody. Officials are awaiting results of a DNA test that will determine whether Matos is the father of the boy.

Sam Azar, a friend and former neighbor of the Browns, said he occasionally saw Matos at the Browns' home in Pennsylvania. But Matos never made an impression.

"He was a little on the quiet side. He would say hi," Azar said Saturday. "It seemed like he was there a little while, he'd disappear for a while, then come back around."

Maggie Brown worked at a convenience store in Pennsylvania to supplement the family's kennel income, Azar said. Greg Brown also had a job outside the farm, Azar said, but he'd become unemployed and had back surgery right before they moved.

"He had a hard time standing. When they were loading up, he couldn't touch a pencil," Azar said.

The family seemed to be doing OK in Florida, said Tara Cellini of Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania, who owns the Florida waterfront home with her husband, Ben, and rented it to the Browns.

"When we talked to Maggie, what she said to us was they totally love it, they loved the house, they loved the location, they loved everything. She never said she was having problems," Tara Cellini said.

While the Browns were away, Pennsylvania inspectors who visited their kennel last month found they were employing a man who had once been convicted of animal cruelty at another kennel. The state revoked the kennel's license on Wednesday, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/05/4-slayings-boy-safe_n_5771252.html

Florida man who murdered ex-girlfriend and her family used victim’s debit card to buy a shovel: police

Police say Adam Matos killed his ex-girlfriend, her parents and her new boyfriend and then spent a week caring for his 4-year-old autistic son while the bodies decomposed nearby. He faces four counts of first-degree murder.

BY Meg Wagner
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, September 16, 2014, 7:51 AM


Adam Matos, who authorities call the main suspect in a quadruple murder in Pasco County, reveals more details during a Tampa Bay Times exclusive jailhouse interview. (September 10, 2014) DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times




More details from the Adam Matos jailhouse interview

Adam Matos, who authorities call the main suspect in a quadruple murder in Pasco County, reveals more details during a Tampa Bay Times exclusive jailhouse interview. (September 10, 2014) DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times

The Florida father accused of running off with his autistic son after killing his ex-girlfriend and her family shot and bludgeoned his victims to death — and then buried them with a shovel he bought with one of their debit cards, police say.

Pasco County officials charged Adam Matos with four counts of first-degree murder Monday, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Police discovered the bodies rotting earlier this month near the Hudson home where Matos lived with his son's mother and her parents — three of his four alleged victims.

Megan Brown, Matos' 27-year-old ex-girlfriend, died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to police documents.


Police believe Matos killed Megan Brown with and then cared for their son, Ismael 'Tristan' Santisteban, while her body rotted nearby.

Her dad, 52-year-old Gregory Brown, had also been shot. Her mother, 51-year-old Margaret Brown, was found with severe trauma to the head and a plastic bag over her face.
Pasco County Sheriff's Office Adam Matos, 28, faces four charges of first-degree murder.

And Megan Brown's new boyfriend, 37-year old Nicholas Leonard, was bludgeoned to death.

Between the killings and his arrest, Matos cared for his autistic son, Ismael "Tristan" Santisteban while covering up his crimes, police said. According to court documents, he told neighbors the family was on vacation and used Margaret Brown's debit card to pizza for the 4-year-old and a shovel for the burials.

Matos, 28, has been in police custody since Sept. 5, when a SWAT team cornered him in a downtown Tampa hotel. Ismael was with him, unharmed.

The arrest ended a frantic 12-hour Amber Alert search for the boy. Police began hunting for the father-son duo on Sept. 4 when they found the four bodies and no trace of Matos and Tristan.

Police believe Matos killed the four on Aug. 28 and then lived at the home with the bodies nearby for a week, the Tampa Tribune reported.

Police said Adam Matos bashed in Margaret Brown's head.

He then fatally shot Greg Brown, police said.

Police believe Matos killed Margaret and Greg Brown, his ex-girlfriend’s parents.


That day, Megan Brown called police during an alleged domestic altercation with Matos, but the 28-year-old fled before police arrived. He lived in the home with all three Browns since July, when the four moved from Pennsylvania to Florida, and stayed even after Megan Brown broke up with him.

But later that afternoon, neighbors spotted Matos back at the house. He was sweaty and out of breath, police records showed.

Matos spent the next few days at the house. When the Browns' next-door neighbors, Ryan McCann, asked where Megan and her parents were, Matos told him the three had taken a trip to West Virginia.
Pasco County Sheriff's Office Police issued an Ameber Alert for the tot earlier this month. They found him unharmed just 12 hours later.

Meanwhile, Matos sold six of the family's dogs through Craigslist.com listings. He earned $50 for each pup. He used Margret Brown's debit card to buy a shovel from Walmart — which he likely used to bury his victim's bodies near the house, police said.

On Sept. 1 and 2 he had Papa John's pizza delivered to the house and shared it with his 4-year-old. The first time, he again used Margret brown's debit card.

Police visited the house on Sept. 4 after a worried friend couldn't get in touch with any of the Browns. When officers saw birds circling the air, they discovered the maggot-covered, decomposing bodies.
NICK LEONARD VIA FACEBOOK Nick Leonard was murdered along with his girlfriend and her family, police say.

Matos and Tristan checked into the Floridan Palace Hotel early on Sept. 5 with plans to take a bus to the Florida Keys later that day. Police arrested Matos before he ever made it to the bus station.

Matos was originally held on $200,000 bail for the Aug, 28 domestic attack on Megan Brown. For the new murder charges, he's being held without bond.



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/florida-dad-charged-murder-article-1.1941033#ixzz3DU1dUyI0