Today's story involves a case that seems to be ongoing, and it's something that's raised a lot of questions for myself and many others.
Before we begin, for any newcomers who haven't seen this before,
welcome to After Hours.
This is my series that dives into real world crime and events that may or may not be ongoing. In this series,
I present an open case or a mystery, and give my thoughts on the matter,
while allowing each of you to chime in and let me know what you think.
I previously covered the case of the Ken and Barbie killers on the pilot episode of the series, and today
I wanted to touch on a relatively new case, that being the story revolving around the pastor Matthew Phelps, who awoke to find his wife,
Lauren, dead and bloodied on the floor of their home. To begin, I'd like to walk you through the story and
developments so far. Note that these updates are ongoing, and updates seem to be happening daily.
If there's some aspect of the story that I've missed so far, then that means that there's since been a new revelation in the case.
With this being said, let's begin.
Matthew and Lauren Phelps seemed to live a happy life. The two got married last year, and were just beginning to build their lives together.
According to her relatives,
"She was all about her family, her four nephews were her entire world," and "Church was a priority for her."
"Lauren volunteered and loved the children and youth ministry."
"She also loved her dog Cooper like he was her child. She was a very special person to everyone who knew her."
So, it seems that Lauren worked as a sunday-school teacher, and her husband Matthew was apparently studying to become a pastor.
It truly seems like their lives were completely in order together, right?
Well, on the morning of September 5th, Matthew called 9-1-1 and informed the dispatcher that he may have killed his wife in his sleep.
He claimed that he didn't remember committing the murder, and that he had a dream about his bloody wife being on the floor.
A shocking portion of his call went as follows:
Nightmare Expo: After this, he informed the dispatcher that his wife is bloodied on the floor, and that he's afraid to go near her.
Upon the paramedics and police arriving at the residence, Matthew was then arrested, as he's the primary suspect, and was the only one there.
He was charged with murder, and was held at the Wake County Detention Center without bail, before being tried at the Wake County Courthouse.
He stayed silent during the court hearing, and didn't enter a plea.
His attorney, Joseph Cheshire,
informed the public that they shouldn't rush to
conclusions, and that,
Bayer, the manufacturer of Coricidin, also released a statement saying,
before claiming that,
Now, this story does raise a lot of questions.
Matthew claimed that he had a dream that he was doing this, and that he saw his dead wife on the floor.
Something major that sticks out to me is the fact that he, for one, got up out of bed in a dead sleep,
walked to the kitchen, or wherever the closest knife was,
grabbed it, and proceeded back to his wife to kill her, before going back to sleep.
Phelps must have taken an immense amount of Coricidin for him to be in a complete trance like this,
and it makes me personally question whether his story actually played out as he said it did.
Did he actually take too much of this drug, or was this some sort of sick and completely coherent murder that he committed?
If this was truly because of the drug,
keeping in mind that there is absolutely no excuse for an act as inhumane as murder, this raises some serious
questions regarding taking these drugs to merely feel good.
The evidence is stacked against him, though. For one,
after accusing himself during the phone call, and, for two, with Bayer claiming that there is no prior link to violent behavior in Coricidin.
The story is currently developing,
and I'm interested to see how it plays out. Is his excuse that it was caused by the drug actually true,
or did something truly more disturbing play out on this night of September 4th?
We'll have to wait and see.
Matthew and Lauren Phelps lived a seemingly perfect life.
They were active in church, and were working to build a marriage together before the tragic event that left Matthew murdering his own wife.
Lauren absolutely did not deserve this fate, and my deepest condolences go out to her family during this rough time.
To close, I wanted to thank you all for joining me in the second episode of After Hours
that served as sort of an encore for Nightmare Expo Weekend.
I hope you enjoyed it,
and I urge you to keep up with this story, and let me know your thoughts as it develops in the coming weeks.
I'll see all of you in the next one. I love you all, and once again,
Good Night.