MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — An Ohio man who killed two women and a boy during a home burglary and dropped their dismembered bodies into a hollow tree has confessed that the house was a random target, picked because no neighbors were nearby and the garage door was open.
The Columbus Dispatch newspaper obtained Matthew Hoffman’s confession through a public-records request.
Hoffman, 30, pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison. Prosecutors told him they wouldn’t seek the death penalty if he revealed where the bodies were and explained what happened.
The newspaper said most of the confession focused on four days Hoffman spent at his Mount Vernon home with a teenage girl he kidnapped. He described cooking her hamburgers and sleeping with his arm around her.
He also pleaded guilty to raping her.
The Associated Press
