MATTHEW WILSON 20yrs old, Houston TX - missing since 12/14/07(Found Safe)

[Tamikosmom]

May 10!!!

Logic dictates that a check of the license plate number should have been done on that day.  Obviously ... the report of a abandoned vehicle implies that vehicle did not just materialize that day.

 

Janet

[snoopy]

May 10!!!

Logic dictates that a check of the license plate number should have been done on that day.  Obviously ... the report of a abandoned vehicle implies that vehicle did not just materialize that day.

 

Janet

Unbelievable!!  Cop 101.  Good grief!

Prayers for Matthew and his family.

[Kermit]

Bringing Matthew's Candles forward:

Light a candle for Matthew...
  Special thanks to Marlee for helping me!   



http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=MattW

I am praying for this young man, his mother and family.

I'll continue to find you - - -

Bringing the candles forward.

Thank you Bearlyhere.

[klaasend]

Over on the family forum, they are talking about this being an intentional act by Matthew, driving to California and leaving his car.  I don't know Matt but this doesn't make sense to me.  Then why also would Matt abandon his vehicle with personal items still in it?  I'm at a loss because none of it makes sense to me but the family (at the forum) seem to be accepting this?

http://findmatthewwilson.proboards83.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=2

[Bearlyhere]

Over on the family forum, they are talking about this being an intentional act by Matthew, driving to California and leaving his car.  I don't know Matt but this doesn't make sense to me.  Then why also would Matt abandon his vehicle with personal items still in it?  I'm at a loss because none of it makes sense to me but the family (at the forum) seem to be accepting this?

http://findmatthewwilson.proboards83.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=2

Even if it was an intentional act to leave, that doesn't make him okay.  The fact is, he is still missing.

[pdh3]

Over on the family forum, they are talking about this being an intentional act by Matthew, driving to California and leaving his car.  I don't know Matt but this doesn't make sense to me.  Then why also would Matt abandon his vehicle with personal items still in it?  I'm at a loss because none of it makes sense to me but the family (at the forum) seem to be accepting this?

http://findmatthewwilson.proboards83.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=2

Even if it was an intentional act to leave, that doesn't make him okay.  The fact is, he is still missing.

I agree. I still think there's a strong possibility that he ran into trouble.

[Bearlyhere]

I am not certain that Matthew is safe or well; I spoke to the Detective in charge of the investigation in Berkeley today, and he said there have been reported sightings of Matthew, or it could be a man that looks like Matthew. The Detective seems to believe Matthew is in the area, I do not know why exactly, though. He is still working on the investigation. There are still lots of unanswered questions that we, the family have and we will continue to ask people to search for Matthew as something must have gone wrong for him to leave Rice U in the first place. This is way out of character for Matthew. I will indeed keep posters updated as I hear news.
Cathy, Matthew's Mom

http://findmatthewwilson.proboards83.com/?board=general&action=display&thread=2&page=9

[MuffyBee]

I'm the mother of a college aged student and he is living away from home.  What is going on with Matthew Wilson would be an absolute nightmare to me if it were my son.  I cannot begin to think of such a thing if it were my son , instead of Matthew missing.  I don't know if Matthew left on his own device or not, but it just doesn't feel right.  Even if he left on his own accord, what was the reason?  Students like Matthew just don't walk away from finals, imo.  Until Matthew is found, he should be considered to be in danger.   Because his car has been found with his belongings doesn't mean he drove out there and walked away and everything is fine.  Far from it.  My prayers are with his family.  Too many young people go missing every day.  I hope Matthew will be found and can come back into his family, friends and school. 

[Bearlyhere]

I'm the mother of a college aged student and he is living away from home.  What is going on with Matthew Wilson would be an absolute nightmare to me if it were my son.  I cannot begin to think of such a thing if it were my son , instead of Matthew missing.  I don't know if Matthew left on his own device or not, but it just doesn't feel right.  Even if he left on his own accord, what was the reason?  Students like Matthew just don't walk away from finals, imo.  Until Matthew is found, he should be considered to be in danger.   Because his car has been found with his belongings doesn't mean he drove out there and walked away and everything is fine.  Far from it.  My prayers are with his family.  Too many young people go missing every day.  I hope Matthew will be found and can come back into his family, friends and school. 

I agree with you, Muffy.   I am bringing Matthew's candles forward.

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=MattW

[bleachedblack]

Tips for getting new ID linked to missing Rice student
California police say his prints were on books and notes found in his abandoned car

July 2, 2008, 12:44AM
California police found books and notes on how to assume a new identity when they searched the abandoned car of a Rice University student who went missing in December.

The material was discovered recently in a silver Dodge Neon that was left on a residential street in Berkeley, Calif., and registered to Matthew Wilson, the 21-year-old computer science major from Oklahoma.

"There was literature in the vehicle which discusses how somebody would go about pursuing a new identification or persona," said officer Andrew Frankel, spokesman for Berkeley police. "His prints were on everything."

It was unclear why the contents of the car, which was discovered in mid-June and kept at a police impound lot, hadn't been made public earlier or shared with Rice officials, but the vehicle was recently rechecked by Berkeley detectives.

Other items in the car included a book on how to live cheaply in nearby San Francisco as well as a can of beans, rice and instant noodle soup.

"It would be a safe assumption it was lived in," Frankel said of the car.

Frankel said he wasn't going to speculate on what the literature would mean to the case, but Wilson's car is no longer considered evidence.

'I would love to get a call'
Wilson 's grandmother, Mary Wilson, said Tuesday that she hadn't heard about the contents of the car, but was making arrangements for the vehicle's return.

"I'm glad to hear it," she said. "I wanted them to say he's out there finishing up his college education."

Mary Wilson said her grandson ending up in the Berkeley area doesn't seem coincidental, as he'd applied to attend school there before Rice accepted him with a full scholarship.

"It is just mind-boggling," she said of his disappearance.

She suspects he pushed himself so hard to be perfect that he burned out and needed a break.

"Matt has done this from the day he started school — push, push push," she said. "He drives himself and has never gotten anything less than an A in his entire life."

If she could get a message to him, Mary Wilson said she would like him to know that he is missed.

"I would love to get a call from him, and we could get all this straightened out," she continued. "I really want to just help him. I want to tell him we love him."

Robin Forman, Rice's dean of undergraduates, welcomed the latest development on the straight-A student.

"We've been waiting for months for some signs that he is well, so we'd like to view this news as positively as possible," he said. "It remains a difficult time for his family, so our thoughts and prayers remain with Matthew and his family."

Among the lingering questions: Why did Wilson walk away from his life?

His friends and family have been debating the matter on an Internet bulletin board.

Although he pre-registered for the spring semester at Rice, Wilson did not turn in his final fall exams, due in December.

Wilson withdrew $500 from his checking account and bought charcoal and matches, a car cover and window shade before his disappearance, police have said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5866896.html

[Tamikosmom]

Thanks bb.

I believe that the outcome is very positive when you consider the alternative.

Matthew's mother can now look forward to the time when the phone will ring and ... a voice will say "Hi Mom ... it's me".  There will be issues that will require addressing but ... love and foregiveness will prevail.

Kermit ... how are you doing?

Janet 

[Bearlyhere]

Has anyone seen Matthew?  The answer is still the same, I presume.  I hope Matthew calls someone soon to say he is all right.

[sharon]

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=MattW

[Blonde]

Just a thought, I do hope  Matthew is safe, but I'm not sure if he's well.
I'm saying this because something similar happend to my cousin.
She was ice skating with her hubby on a pond at the edge of their properly line he went back into the house.
She stayed after an hour he finally checked on her to find her unconscious on the ice, she had falling and hit her head.
 After that she displayed very strange behavior.He divorced her.
She was a wonderful person, and now after 10 years of craziness she is back to herself.
He is now saddened that he didn't seek her help.
She is married to someone else.
Maybe Matthew fell hit his head or something bad happend to him and he is not himself.
JMO

[bleachedblack]

Mom comes to Bay Area to look for missing son

Sunday, July 13, 2008
When Matthew Wilson disappeared seven months ago, what bothered his mother most was what he left behind; his laptop, the one thing he would never live without, was still in his bedroom in Houston.

For a long time she believed that Matthew, 21, had been kidnapped or worse. He'd gone missing right before Christmas, after all, and before finishing his finals, something that Matthew, a diligent student at Rice University, would never do. But then clues started suggesting otherwise: he'd withdrawn $500 from an ATM right before he vanished. Last month, his car was found in Berkeley, along with his clothes, his digital clock and a book on identity theft.

And over the past two days, at least four people have reported seeing someone who looked just like him - slight build, pale skin, a full head of curly red hair and a shaggy red beard - walking on a mile-long stretch of Ygnacio Valley Road in Walnut Creek.

"It's the most unlikely thing in the world that he would disappear like this. He always went to school, he was never in trouble," said Cathy Wilson, 52, who flew to the Bay Area this weekend to search for her son. "But when we couldn't find him and I went to his apartment and his computer was there, that was when I thought something must have gone terribly wrong. Maybe it (life) all just got to be too much for him."

After the car was found on June 10, dirty and abandoned, on Allston Way in central Berkeley, a Pleasanton group that helps families search for missing loved ones got involved. The organization, called Trinity Search & Recovery, created a Web site with photos of Matthew and set up a telephone number for tips. A $25,000 reward is being offered by his mother, Rice University and Crime Stoppers of Houston.

Police in Berkeley and at Rice University have said they do not suspect foul play in Matthew's disappearance. The book on identity theft suggests that Matthew may have considered changing his name, his mother said, but if that's the case, it seems unlikely he would keep his flaming red hair and beard.

Still, Cathy Wilson admits that it seems likely that her son ran away - perhaps he was under too much pressure at school, she said, or something happened that made him leave.

If he wants to disappear and start over, she'll accept that decision, Cathy Wilson said. But first she wants to know that he's OK.

"Maybe he needed time to get away. But it's been seven months now. It's tormented our family," Cathy Wilson said. "All he's got to do is call and say, Mom, I'm OK. That would be such a relief. I could let him go for a little while."

Matthew Wilson was raised in Haworth, a small town of just 350 people in southeast Oklahoma. He was always a bright child, said his mother, who is a preschool teacher. He was valedictorian of his high school graduating class, and he led an academic quiz team to the state finals, she said.

>>>>the complete article
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/12/BAVK11OE18.DTL

[MuffyBee]

Houston's missing: Did some just walk away?
By DANE SCHILLER Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 2, 2008, 10:34PM
An over-achieving Rice University computer student; a pastor's wife who lived in a shotgun shack; a hard-partying father with ties to crime.

People of all ilk vanish from Houston each year, leaving friends and family to grow old wondering what happened.

Faces stare from handbills taped to windows and are posted on Web sites begging clues.

Family and friends get on with their lives while also waiting for the phone call or e-mail that almost never comes.

"All he has to do is call me and say he is all right, and we wouldn't have to hound him like a fugitive," Cathy Wilson said of her son, Matthew Wilson, who authorities believe bailed out on his life as a Rice student last December.

They huddle with police, private investigators and support groups as they hope to learn the fate of the missing.

It is impossible to know how many of them met with foul play or just walked away and never looked back.

Houston police Sgt. Tina Peacock of the Missing Persons Unit said there were 914 cases of missing adults resolved in 2007.

The majority were solved within days and chalked up to brief family or relationship disputes, she said.

Instances of someone intentionally disappearing and never again contacting family are extremely rare, she said.

Cases that don't go away tend to tug at the unit's eight investigators.

"I'll go home and redo it in my head, re-create it, think about the family members," Peacock said. "You definitely carry it home with you to make sure you're not missing anything."

Dawn Workman, area director for the Doe Network, an alliance for finding missing persons, said mysteries can drag on for years.

"There are so many cases where the circumstances leave you scratching your head," Workman said. "One thing I've noticed with what we do is you don't want to box yourself in."

In one case, a man missing for decades was found on a West Texas ranch where he'd gone to live his cowboy dream.

In another instance, a woman had left her family in the South to take a new life and work at Wal-Mart in the North.

"It seems like most of them are men, and they just want to be with a different family or have a completely different lifestyle," Workman said.

Wilson, the Rice student, appears to have driven his silver Dodge Neon to a residential neighborhood in Berkeley, Calif., and abandoned the car, leaving inside a scattering of clothing, canned food and books on assuming a new identity.

"Matthew, as smart as he is, if he doesn't want to be found, it'll take a genius to find him," said his mother, who vows she won't give up.

She got his car back from police and said when she opened the door, his scent was everywhere, making her feel closer to him than ever.

Armed with fresh tips on his whereabouts, Wilson's mother is in California searching for him.

The idea of walking away has been fodder for songs, books and movies, including Into the Wild, which was released as a film last year.

The story — right down to a college-educated kid heading West with just a few hundred dollars and leaving behind family money — is chillingly similar to Wilson's so far.

"Like in the movie, the guy left and didn't tell his parents or anybody what he was doing, and they were just beside themselves," said Capt. John Martin of the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

"Law enforcement is really limited as to what we can actually do," he said of missing-persons cases. "There is nothing to keep you from walking away from your home and meeting new friends and starting a new career."

Sheriff's deputies have solved a handful of walking-away cases in the past few years, including a man they tracked to the East Coast, Martin said. The man said they could tell his family he was fine but wanted to be left alone.

In May, a deputy near Yale and Loop 610 questioned a panhander. A background check showed his wife reported him missing eight months earlier.

When confronted, he told the deputy he preferred the freedom of panhandling to the stresses of his previous life.

"You can't order the guy to go home," Martin said.

Mike Wahnon, who lives on the city's west side, said he doesn't care how many years pass; he's waiting for the chance to again see his childhood friend, Melvin "Pud" Butler II, who went missing in March 2002. Wahnon said he has become an uncle figure to Butler's children in his absence.

The last time Butler was seen, he was supposedly on his way to buy a used Harley-Davidson. Instead, his pickup was found parked not far from Wahnon's house. He left his Texas driver's license inside and apparently took his dog, Lucky.

"He's either in witness protection or down (in Mexico) on the beach soaking up rays and drinking margaritas," Wahnon said.

Court documents from Butler's divorce, which was granted in his absence, indicate he'd been arrested numerous times on weapons and guns charges.

Joyce McAdams, who mysteriously left her pastor husband of 40 years and an Acres Homes house behind on a summer night in 1998, is listed among 11 missing persons posted on the Houston police Web site.

"I ain't lost. I'm doing fine," a smiling McAdams, 70, told the Chronicle last week at an assisted-living center.

McAdams ended up at Turning Point Center, which specializes in helping Houston's homeless. Records show she checked in using a different last name and an incorrect Social Security number.

The center's director, George Gomez, said he spent years trying to learn the true identity of McAdams, who he described as a friendly woman who has helped out in the center's kitchen.

Thanks to help from state and federal agencies, he pieced her life together last year. McAdams, who had no children, spent her younger years cleaning homes in River Oaks.

"It is hard not to care for her; she's been such a delightful person," Gomez said.

She has memory and perception problems, so it will likely remain a mystery why she left.

"She was probably not feeling well, confused," Gomez said. "She got here and was comfortable, and adopted a new way of life."

Lillian McGee, McAdams' niece, said McAdams had been missing about eight years before Gomez solved the mystery that tore at her uncle.

"He went loco for a while," she said. "He started getting sick. He never did get back up after she left."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5921321.html

Despite reading this article, I am still very concerned about Matthew Wilson.  I fear he has encountered someone or something dangerous.  Just my feelings. 

[Bearlyhere]

I would love for him to contact his Mom and tell her he is okay (if he is).  He was in a high pressure situation at college, like most over achievers.  He may decided to leave, but he may also have wanted to come back and couldn't.  How can you tell the difference? 

Unless there is something preventing him from calling, it is pretty darn selfish to think only of yourself and leave you family and friends in turmoil.  It's just plain cruel. 

MW, CALL HOME!!!

[Nut44x4]

Excellent comment in the last paragraph Bearly.....I have felt this way all along. IF he is alive, and knows who he is---then what he is doing is beyond cruel.

[MuffyBee]

I can see why it may seem if Matthew left on his own and is safe, but not calling home could be considered cruel or selfish.  I also see that until Matthew is either found or comes forward, we have no idea what the problem might be.  I know some people that are considered overachievers and life can be very difficult for them.  Their perception is much different than yours or mine.  Even good things happening can be stressful.  Until Matthew is found or comes forward, I reserve judgement on him.  How do we know he didn't leave home on his own accord, but then something went wrong and he can't get back?  My heart goes out to Matthew and his family.  I can see by some of his mother's comments that she is going from being afraid to getting edgier with her comment ""All he has to do is call me and say he is all right, and we wouldn't have to hound him like a fugitive."  She may be grieving for her son, who is now lost.  Anger is one of the stages of grief.   I hope that if his mother Cathy or his other family or friends read here they see the concern for him and not criticism.  This is only my opinion.

[Bearlyhere]

I can see why it may seem if Matthew left on his own and is safe, but not calling home could be considered cruel or selfish.  I also see that until Matthew is either found or comes forward, we have no idea what the problem might be.  I know some people that are considered overachievers and life can be very difficult for them.  Their perception is much different than yours or mine.  Even good things happening can be stressful.  Until Matthew is found or comes forward, I reserve judgement on him.  How do we know he didn't leave home on his own accord, but then something went wrong and he can't get back?  My heart goes out to Matthew and his family.  I can see by some of his mother's comments that she is going from being afraid to getting edgier with her comment ""All he has to do is call me and say he is all right, and we wouldn't have to hound him like a fugitive."  She may be grieving for her son, who is now lost.  Anger is one of the stages of grief.   I hope that if his mother Cathy or his other family or friends read here they see the concern for him and not criticism.  This is only my opinion.

I come from a family of overachievers.  So I feel for his family.

I hope you do not consider my post as being judgmental.  I see there are words from my post taken out of context  and added to yours, and I hope my comment was not perceived in any way as not being sympathetic to his family or him.

I have supported Matthew and his family without waiver.  I light a candle for Matthew in a room where sometimesmy lit candle is the only one there.

I hope Matthew is well and is happy.  I think this family has been through a very trying time.  They have done all they felt they could to try to find Matthew.  Not knowing is the worst, I believe I have echoed a statement of Tim Miller from TE.  I feel terribly for this family and my heart goes out to them. 

There is one positive thing that can be done at this moment for this family, if at all possible, and that is for Matthew to provide some indication that he is alive.

If he is alive, his family does not know.  If he can provide the answer (I maintained in my post that there might be something stopping him from doing it (I meant physically, mentally, or emotionally)) to his family, it would be such a blessing.  It is hurting his family, this not knowing.  I think that his family has to be aware that their needs are important, and that their feelings count.  I was merely trying to validate feelings the family might have.  I think it would be unsympathetic of me to merely support only Matthew and to leave a family with a hole in it alone, acting as if their feelings, emotions, and needs are not important.