A&E's Taking the Stand: Who are the alleged victims of Adam Matos?

A Florida father named Adam Matos was convicted in the August 2014 killings of his former girlfriend, Megan Brown, her parents, Greg and Margaret Brown, and her new boyfriend, Nick Leonard. He then claimed that self-defense and paranoia drove him to commit the slayings. Adam reportedly shared a four-year-old son with Megan and previously lived with the Brown family in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.

On September 4, the decomposing bodies of the four victims were found in an open field piled up on top of one another. Moreover, the former couple's young, autistic son went missing from the family's Hudson home, leading to authorities issuing an amber alert. This subsequently followed Matos' arrest a day after the bodies were found.

A&E's Taking the Stand is scheduled to revisit the gruesome killings committed by Adam Matos and the spectacular trial that followed. The upcoming episode is scheduled to air on Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 10:01 pm ET.

The synopsis states:

"When an entire family is found in a decaying pile of bodies by the side of a Florida road, the hunt is on to find what police fear might be two more victims; a man and his son are found alive, launching a bizarre investigation."

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Adam Matos was convicted in the killings of ex-girlfriend Megan Brown, her parents, and her new-boyfriend

In the summer of 2014, after more than a decade of residing in Heidelberg Township, the Brown family, along with Adam Matos, relocated to the Tampa region from Lehigh County, Florida, and were living in a rented house at the time. Megan Brown and Matos had only broken up two weeks before the murders, but the latter continued residing with the family even after the break up.

Reports claim that Matos killed four individuals, including the mother of his four-year-old son, Megan, her parents, Greg and Margaret Brown, and her new boyfriend, Nick Leonard, on August 28. He then stayed at the house next door for a week. The 28-year-old allegedly got into an argument with Megan the same day, after which she called the police, but Matos left before they could arrive.

Megan, 27, and her father, Gregory, 52, died from gunshot wounds to the torso. Margaret, also 52, died from asphyxiation and blunt force trauma to the head. Police claimed she was discovered with a plastic bag covering her head. Nicholas Leonard, 37, Megan's new boyfriend, was killed by a blow to the head.

In the days that followed the killings, Adam Matos reportedly told neighbors that the Browns' were on a trip to West Virginia, sold the family's belongings, even their pet dogs on Craigslist listings, and used one of the victim's credit cards to buy a shovel, which he allegedly used to bury their bodies. He even cared for his autistic son Ismael "Tristan" Santisteban while trying to cover up his crimes.

On September 4, at the request of a concerned friend, authorities went to the Hudson residence of the Brown family to conduct a welfare check. There, they discovered a significant amount of blood in the garage and found the house empty.

The decomposing bodies of the four victims were discovered stacked on top of one another by deputies on the same day in a field about a mile from the house, where they had been stashed for several days.

Although Tristan was present in the house the entire time, he was unharmed. Moreover, a 12-hour amber alert search for the boy ultimately led to the arrest of Adam Matos on September 5, when he was cornered by a SWAT team in a downtown Tampa hotel. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

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Learn more about Adam Matos' case on Taking a Stand on A&E this Thursday, January 19.