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

[MuffyBee]

Monkey hugs to you, Bearly ~ (((hugs))).  We are on the same page. Thank you for explaining your post and I am sorry if I took your words out of context.  I'm very sensitive about some of the issues we are discussing here, from past personal experience with a family member.  Sometimes what would seem so simple  or obvious to you and I isn't to the person in question.  You are a good, kind and caring monkey, Bearly. 

[A's Fever]

Matthew Wilson found alive in Berkeley!  Wow, what a strange twist this story has.  Funny thing is, on Wednesday I took the kids over to Cal to buy some Cal gear and wander around the campus.  We did wander through Dwinelle Hall as well as some halls where I once took classes; we could have crossed this young man's path.



BLOCKED WEBSITE

[Bearlyhere]

Monkey hugs to you, Bearly ~ (((hugs))).  We are on the same page. Thank you for explaining your post and I am sorry if I took your words out of context.  I'm very sensitive about some of the issues we are discussing here, from past personal experience with a family member.  Sometimes what would seem so simple  or obvious to you and I isn't to the person in question.  You are a good, kind and caring monkey, Bearly. 

Thanks, Muffy.  Sometimes it is difficult to get your intent across in cyberspace.  I can't tell you how many times I have come across a fight only to realize both sides are saying the same thing, if only they would listen to each other.

I am glad you cleared that up.  I would never want Matthew's family to think I don't support them.
       

[Bearlyhere]

Matthew Wilson found alive in Berkeley!  Wow, what a strange twist this story has.  Funny thing is, on Wednesday I took the kids over to Cal to buy some Cal gear and wander around the campus.  We did wander through Dwinelle Hall as well as some halls where I once took classes; we could have crossed this young man's path.




BLOCKED WEBSITE

I can't wait to see how this plays out.  I wonder if his Mom will ever get back all the years of life she lost worrying over this guy.  I also hope that Matthew is well.

[Bearlyhere]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/14/BAM612AU56.DTL

Student missing since before Christmas is found

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, August 14, 2008

A Rice University student missing since before Christmas was found at UC Berkeley Wednesday night after campus police detained him as a theft suspect, authorities said.

 Matthew Wilson, 21, whose car was found parked on a West Berkeley street in June, was found with a stolen laptop in Dwinelle Hall on campus at around 7 p.m., said UC Berkeley Assistant Police Chief Mitch Celaya.

Campus police Officer Sean Aranas was walking through the building when he saw Wilson in a classroom by himself with the laptop connected to a projector, Celaya said. Wilson gave the officer a different name and acknowledged that he wasn't a student at Cal, Celaya said. He eventually identified himself by his true name, police said.

Investigators are interviewing Wilson to confirm his whereabouts over the past eight months, said Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.

"It's definitely good news," said Bridget Melson, 38, of Pleasanton, who helped look for Wilson in Berkeley. "I heard that he was doing well and he's healthy. We're just interested in what the charges are."

Wilson, who is from Haworth, Okla., was last seen before Christmas at Rice in Houston, where he was a junior majoring in computer science. But instead of taking his final exams, he withdrew $500 from an ATM and disappeared.

Family and friends couldn't make sense of it all. The mystery deepened when Wilson's silver 2004 Dodge Neon was found June 10 parked on the 1200 block of Allston Way in West Berkeley. Inside were his clothes, his digital clock and a book on identity theft.

Wilson's mother, Cathy Wilson, and friends surmised that Wilson had willingly left Houston and didn't want to be found. They were intrigued by numerous reported sightings of someone who looked like him - slight build, pale skin, a full head of curly red hair and a shaggy red beard - at People's Park in Berkeley and Ygnacio Valley Road in Walnut Creek.

His family last saw Wilson at Thanksgiving. He last talked to his mother Dec. 7, when they discussed plans for the holidays. He was last seen by his roommate on Dec. 14.

When he was found Wednesday night, Wilson was dressed in a black T-shirt, black jeans and black athletic shoes. His hair was short, he had no beard and he was wearing wire-frame glasses, Kusmiss said.

[Bearlyhere]

http://www.click2houston.com/news/17186694/detail.html

Missing Rice Student Found Alive
Student Has Been Missing For 8 Months

POSTED: 12:19 am CDT August 14, 2008
UPDATED: 12:30 am CDT August 14, 2008



BERKELEY, Calif. -- A University of California, Berkeley officer has located Matthew J. Wilson, the 21-year-old Rice University student who was reported missing in December, the City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD) homicide detectives confirmed Wednesday.

Wilson was found in Dwinelle Hall on the UC Campus Wednesday evening and was detained as a possible theft suspect. Wilson then identified himself as the missing Rice student.

Wilson, originally from Haworth, Okla., was a junior seeking a computer science major at Rice University before he went missing on Dec. 15, 2007, from his off-campus Houston apartment.

On June 10, BPD found Wilson’s 2004 silver Dodge Neon in the 1200 block of Allston Way in West Berkeley.

BPD Homicide detectives had been assisting the Rice University Police Department with the Wilson case.

Wilson’s disappearance had garnered national attention and was the subject of several searches, extensive outreach programs by non-profit groups and highlighted on a variety of Web sites devoted to missing person cases.

Several entities, including the Wilson family and Rice University were offering a total of $25,000 in reward money for information regarding Wilson’s disappearance.

A BPD detective who has been working on the case is interviewing Wilson with hopes of learning the what Wilson has been doing over the last eight months.

UCPD is conducting the ongoing theft investigation. No further details will be available pending the completion of interviews.

[Bearlyhere]

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

[MuffyBee]

Missing Rice student found at UC-Berkeley campus
By HENRY K. LEE
Copyright 2008 San Francisco Chronicle
Aug. 14, 2008, 5:58AM

A Rice University student missing since before Christmas was found at UC Berkeley Wednesday night after campus police detained him as a theft suspect, authorities said.

Matthew Wilson, 21, whose car was found parked on a West Berkeley street in June, was found with a stolen laptop in Dwinelle Hall on campus about 9 p.m. CDT, said UC Berkeley Assistant Police Chief Mitch Celaya.

Campus police Officer Sean Aranas was walking through the building when he saw Wilson in a classroom by himself with the laptop connected to a projector, Celaya said.

Wilson gave the officer a different name and acknowledged that he wasn’t a student, Celaya said. He eventually identified himself by his true name, police said.

Investigators are interviewing Wilson to confirm his whereabouts over the past eight months, said Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.

"It’s definitely good news," said Bridget Melson, 38, of Pleasanton, who helped look for Wilson in Berkeley. "I heard that he was doing well and he’s healthy. We’re just interested in what the charges are."

Wilson, who is from Haworth, Okla., was last seen before Christmas at Rice University, where he was a junior majoring in computer science. But instead of taking his final exams, he withdrew $500 from an ATM and disappeared.

Family and friends couldn’t make sense of it all. The mystery deepened when Wilson’s silver 2004 Dodge Neon was found June 10 parked on the 1200 block of Allston Way in West Berkeley. Inside were his clothes, his digital clock and a book on identity theft.

Wilson’s mother, Cathy Wilson, and friends surmised that he had willingly left Houston and didn’t want to be found. They were intrigued by numerous reported sightings of someone who looked like him — slight build, pale skin, a full head of curly red hair and a shaggy red beard — at People’s Park in Berkeley and as far away as Ygnacio Valley Road in Walnut Creek.

His family last saw Wilson at Thanksgiving. He last talked to his mom on Dec. 7, when they discussed plans for the holidays. He was last seen by his roommate on Dec. 14.

When he was found Wednesday night, Wilson was dressed in a black T-shirt, black jeans and black athletic shoes. His hair was short, he had no beard and he was wearing wire-framed glasses, Kusmiss said.

At www.findmattwilson.com, a Web site set up by Wilson's family, the comment board featured messages of relief and disbelief.

A comment posted by "curiouswhon" mixed both. "I guess I'm both Happy and, frankly, quite disappointed at the same time. Perhaps I don't have the right to feel this way but one thing is for sure... 'someone has a lot of explaining to do.' "
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5942772.html

I'm grateful Matthew Wilson has been found safe.  I don't know why he left like he did, but I hope he gets it straightened out.  I can't help but think of his mother, who  searched for him for so long...

[klaasend]

Thank god he's been found!  At least now the family can find out WHY and life can get back to normal.

[2NJSons_Mom]

Good news that Matt has been found.  I agree that hopefully his actions will be discussed and all will work it's self out for the family.

Note:  article above reference to www.findmattwilson.com should be www.findmattwilson.org

[Kermit]

Thank you Monkeys for all your love and support - Matthew has been found.
Matt is a distant relative of mine and I appreciate all the support from Scared Monkeys
(Ms. Klassend, Red, Dana Pretzer) and all the posts that were helpful in supporting Cathy
and her children as well as helping us find Matthew. And Thank you Tim Miller!
kermit
 

[bleachedblack]

WoW!!!!

[klaasend]

Thank you Monkeys for all your love and support - Matthew has been found.
Matt is a distant relative of mine and I appreciate all the support from Scared Monkeys
(Ms. Klassend, Red, Dana Pretzer) and all the posts that were helpful in supporting Cathy
and her children as well as helping us find Matthew. And Thank you Tim Miller!
kermit
 

Kermit - I'm just so happy things turned out this way.  Seems rare they are "found safe", glad Matt was one of them 

[MumInOhio]

Great news ...

Bringing the candle link that BH posted forward

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

[Kermit]

Thank you Monkeys for all your love and support - Matthew has been found.
Matt is a distant relative of mine and I appreciate all the support from Scared Monkeys
(Ms. Klassend, Red, Dana Pretzer) and all the posts that were helpful in supporting Cathy
and her children as well as helping us find Matthew. And Thank you Tim Miller!
kermit
 

Kermit - I'm just so happy things turned out this way.  Seems rare they are "found safe", glad Matt was one of them 

Thank you.

Hopefully soon we'll be able to bring Natalee home and expose the truth of what has really been going on behind everyone's back. Not even the FBI know everything!

[MuffyBee]

BERKELEY: POLICE SAY MISSING TEXAS STUDENT CAME WEST TO 'DISAPPEAR'

BERKELEY (BCN)

A missing Texas university student who was found in Berkeley Wednesday night after disappearing in December told police he had spent most of the past eight months on the University of California, Berkeley campus, police said.

Matthew Wilson, 21, told a Berkeley police detective he sometimes slept alongside campus buildings, Berkeley police spokeswoman Mary Kusmiss said today.

Wilson, who disappeared from Rice University just before the holidays, was found by a UC Berkeley police officer in Dwinelle Hall shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to university police Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya.

The officer, who was conducting a security check of the building, found Wilson in a classroom by himself using audio-visual equipment that was connected to a laptop with scraped-off serial numbers.

Police believe the laptop was stolen and arrested Wilson, Celaya said.

Celaya said Wilson appeared to be in good physical shape.

"He seemed to be in fairly good health,'' Celaya said. "Physically, he did not seem to be in distress.''

Celaya said Wilson initially gave the officer a fake name before providing his true identity and that police later learned he was the Rice University student who had been reported missing.

He was arrested on charges of possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools and lying to a peace officer about his identity, Celaya said.

Wilson spent the night at a local medical facility where he remained this afternoon, and will be taken into UC police custody upon release, Celaya said.

According to the Berkeley Police Department, Wilson told a Berkeley police detective who had been working closely with Rice University that he had been "living on the streets'' in recent months.

He shared with the detective "that he had decided to come west and disappear,'' Berkeley police spokeswoman Mary Kusmiss said.

"Our assessment is that Matthew Wilson is facing some challenges in his life and some of them are complex,'' she said.

Wilson is a resident of Haworth, Okla., and went missing Dec. 15, 2007 from his apartment in Houston, Texas, where Wilson was a junior at Rice University.

Berkeley police became involved after Wilson's 2004 silver Dodge Neon was found on June 10 in the 1200 block of Allston Way in Berkeley.

In addition to police, the local volunteer group Trinity Search and Recovery investigated his whereabouts, combing Bay Area streets on multiple occasions. In July, Cathy Wilson, Matt's mom, flew to the Bay Area and helped search.

Bridget Melson, co-founder of the group, said today, "I think it's awesome that he's been found alive and well. Many of these cases end in a bad way.''

She said Cathy Wilson is coming to the Bay Area Friday and is excited but concerned.

Melson said notes written by Wilson, who studied computer science at Rice University, indicated that he may have engaged himself in online games and possibly an online culture that promoted anarchy.

In a prepared statement, Rice University Police Chief Bill Taylor said, "We're very happy and relieved to hear that Matthew is alive.''
http://cbs5.com/localwire/22.0.html?type=bcn&item=MATT-WILSON-bagm-

Kermit ~ I hope things work out for Matthew and  for his family.  I'm not certain how much of this article  is true or how much might be rumor.  There are so many "why"s and maybe the answers won't be simple.  Matthew seems to be in a safe place now and that's a start. 

[MuffyBee]

Rice student called streets home
Wilson to face criminal charges after evaluation, authorities say
By DANE SCHILLER Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 15, 2008, 3:07PM
A Rice University computer science student whose disappearance eight months ago made national news was discovered not begging in the streets or roughing it in the wilderness, but using a laptop at the University of California, Berkeley.

Matthew Wilson, 21, was arrested late Wednesday and held for psychological evaluation after campus police came across him in a classroom after hours.

Some of those involved in the search suspect Wilson got involved with a group that rejects society, instead choosing to live on the streets.

The bespectacled Wilson was dressed in black, had shaved off his bushy red beard and told police he'd been living in the streets.

Asked for his name, Wilson said he was "Colin Lynch," then gave his real name when pressed. He will face criminal charges upon his release from a hospital, said Mitch Celaya, an assistant police chief for the university.

"When he is cleared we will take custody of him and process him," Celaya said.

The specifics of Wilson's evaluation were confidential.

Among the potential charges are lying to a peace officer about his identity, possession of stolen property and trespassing, Celaya said.

The serial number was scratched off the Sony laptop Wilson was using and he also had someone else's checkbook, Celaya said.

Investigators want to know if Wilson has any connection to a campus crime wave that involved stealing laptops and other items from students' backpacks.

Living on the streets
Later, while he was being questioned at the Berkeley police station, Wilson told a detective he'd been living on the streets for a few months.

"He shared with the detective that he had decided in December to come West and disappear and he felt that going West was a good place to disappear," said Sgt. Mary Kusmiss of the Berkeley Police Department, which has been working with Rice police and the University of California, Berkeley.

"(Wilson) also told the detectives that the student community is a good source of food, so he spent most of his days moving among the university student population," Kusmiss said. "It is the kind of culture and environment where somebody can blend in and disappear."

She said Wilson was aware people were looking for him and that he hadn't made any friends since coming to Berkeley.

Wilson's mother said she knows her son is going through rough times, but is thankful he is alive. "You don't know how good I feel about this. It is better than anything in the world," Cathy Wilson said from her home in Oklahoma as she prepared to head to California.

Wilson hadn't been seen by friends or family since withdrawing $500 from his bank account and mysteriously leaving Houston in December.

He failed to turn in his final exams at Rice and didn't say goodbye.

Wilson had applied to four universities, including UC Berkeley, but enrolled at Rice because he received a full scholarship there, his mother said.

His disappearance touched off widespread speculation on what could have pushed him to abandon what many saw as a life of opportunity.

Wilson's silver Dodge Neon was found in June parked on a residential street in Berkeley.

When the car was towed away for impound, he essentially lost the only home he had, police said. He then slept on campus, nestled between the outside walls of lecture halls and shrubbery, Kusmiss said.

His family said he hadn't touched his bank account or used his credit cards.

Bridget Melson, a psychotherapist and co-founder of Trinity Search and Recovery, which had been looking for Wilson at the request of his family, said he had apparently befriended a loose-knit alliance of societal rebels that encouraged people to reject society and live off the urban landscape.

"It is like, 'congratulations' if you can live the longest without getting a paycheck," she said. "Their goal is to kind of outsmart society. He did it for a little bit."

Working with some of the notes on anarchy left in Wilson's car, as well as some information gathered online, Melson's group created a profile of what he'd be doing.

He was fascinated with intense online computer games, such as World of Warcraft, and in January had registered to meet with a computer group in Berkeley. "He is very smart, and that is the typical MO for these kiddos," Melson said of his behavior.

No pressure
Cathy Wilson said she won't pepper him with questions about why he left or what he's been doing.

"I'm not going to say, 'Woe is me, Matthew, look what you've put me through,' " she said. "I want him to be all right. If he is living a good life, fine. If he is living on the streets, I'm not going to have that."

She suspects that the stress of trying to be excellent at school finally got to him.

As recently as two weeks ago, Cathy Wilson was on the Berkeley campus and the surrounding area to put up handbills about his disappearance.

B.J. Almond, a spokesman for the Rice University Police Department, said investigators are still gathering information about how Wilson was discovered. "We're real grateful to hear he's alive, but we're still trying to get all the facts straight," he said.

Wilson's family, along with Rice, had offered up to $25,000 for information on his whereabouts.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5945117.html

[texasmom]

Thank you Monkeys for all your love and support - Matthew has been found.
Matt is a distant relative of mine and I appreciate all the support from Scared Monkeys
(Ms. Klassend, Red, Dana Pretzer) and all the posts that were helpful in supporting Cathy
and her children as well as helping us find Matthew. And Thank you Tim Miller!
kermit

Kermit - I'm just so happy things turned out this way.  Seems rare they are "found safe", glad Matt was one of them 

Thank you.

Hopefully soon we'll be able to bring Natalee home and expose the truth of what has really been going on behind everyone's back. Not even the FBI know everything!

So glad that Matt has been found, Kermit!  I hope you're right about Natalee....I'm sooooo ready for that day!

[Bearlyhere]

http://www.findmattwilson.org/

Find Matthew Wilson

 As most of you know by now, Matthew was found in Berkeley on August 13th. Since the entire purpose of the site was to aid in the search for Matthew and he had been found, we thought it would be best to delete the site.  In our haste, however, we inadvertently overlooked the fact that we should have made a statement as to why we were closing the site to those that might not have heard the good news.  We want to apologize for leaving everyone in the dark in this way. Also, we want to personally thank each and every visitor for their caring, concern and prayers which helped the family in so many ways.

As for Matthew,  he is doing well and we believe he is truly happy that this ordeal is over. It is such a dream come true to have the happy ending that we have been given and we do hope that this experience will bring our family closer together.  God truly answered our prayers and the prayers of all the visitors of the site.

Thank you so much for all of the support that everyone has given to us during this time. We hope that by Matthew being found this will give other parents and families hope that their loved ones will be found as well. There is always hope, our family knows this.

Sincerely,

Cathy, Kymberlee and Kelly

[Nut44x4]

The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK)
 
August 16, 2008 Saturday
 
Once-missing man's story hasn't ended;
Mother says she's concerned about trek's effect on her son.
 

HAWORTH - For the family of missing Rice University student Matt Wilson, news that he was alive and well at Berkeley, Calif., was the happy ending they had hoped for.

But Bridget Melson, a psychotherapist who has been working on Wilson's case, is concerned that the southeast Oklahoman is not doing well at all - that this isn't the end of the story.

"He wanted to be away and he wanted to be missing," the co-founder of Trinity Search and Recovery said. "And now that he has been found he is extremely depressed, and that's why he is on suicide watch."

When Wilson's car was found in Berkeley in June, Melson said searchers knew he was living in it.

All the clues were present, Melson said. There was food and clothing, as well as notes and writings that indicated that the former Haworth resident wanted to simply disappear.

"We told his mother a week ago, that looking at the notes, it appears he wants to be gone." Melson said.

When Wilson was found on Wednesday, he had been sleeping behind shrubbery planted outside the brick lecture hall walls of the university - only about 50 feet from where Trinity Search and Recovery ended its search.

An assumed identity

When Matthew Wilson was caught by campus security at Berkeley with what they said appeared to be stolen items, he gave them a false name - Colin Lynch.

Neither family members nor Melson are sure where the fake name came from, but what's clear is that for some time there may have been two Matthew Wilsons.

There was the Matthew Wilson who put on a happy face at the family Thanksgiving dinner. And there was Matthew Wilson the anarchist, who dropped off the grid for eight months and immersed himself in literature and propaganda calling for revolt against capitalism and mass-consumerism.

There was Matthew Wilson the 21-year-old scholar, who told his family school just became too much for him. And there was the loner that did his homework well enough to know how well homeless are treated at Berkeley.

There was Matthew Wilson the computer science major who told his mother he never saw the online reports pleading for him to pick up the phone. And there was the industrious Matthew Wilson, who was using a university projector after a laptop computer screen quit working.

Escape from capitalism

When Matt Wilson took $500 out of a Houston ATM and bought some camping supplies before vanishing, Melson said, he was not preparing to embark on a Christopher McCandless-type journey into the wild, but rather an adventure free from democracy and capitalism.

While McCandless destroyed identification documents and gave away his college money to live away from society and people, Wilson actually depended on society, Melson said.

"If you are going to try to survive eight months on the streets, Berkeley is the place to go," said Melson, whose organization is based in nearby Pleasanton, Calif.

Much of the notes Melson found from Wilson's belongings were notes on a book called "Days of War, Nights of Love," by CrimethInc.com, an anarchist group that advocates personal freedom, alternate choices and lifestyles.

While there is at least one anarchist group at Berkeley, Melson said, she does not believe Wilson was part of that group, but rather a loner trying to live by a new set of rules.

What will happen now?

Cathy Wilson, Matt Wilson's mother, plans to be in California by Sunday, and she said she has no doubts everything is going to be fine now.

"It's like waking up from a nightmare," she said.

After speaking with her son over the phone, she said she doesn't have all the answers, but it appears that he was just overwhelmed with school and felt alone in the world.

Matt's grandmother, Mary Wilson, said when someone has standards of perfection like her grandson, taking 19 hours at a university like Rice was just too much.

Cathy Wilson said she never had any doubts about her son's resourcefulness and she knew that he always chose to live a meager existence. But because he didn't talk much, no one noticed that he was having emotional or psychological problems.

Cathy Wilson said she is somewhat worried about what living on the streets has done to her son.

"He didn't do anything wrong except leave his mama without telling her," Cathy Wilson said. "But I'm not mad. It's made me stronger."

His mother said he will definitely continue his education, but he probably won't go back to Rice.

Matthew Wilson should be getting out of a 72-hour psychological evaluation either late today or early Sunday, said Melson, who is trying to make plans to talk to the student so she can evaluate him.

"Honestly, I'm not sure what will happen," Melson said.

"This is not over, yet. And we have to be really careful now, because I don't want to be reporting a suicide."
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:838420708&start=17