The Short Life of Viktor Matthey

The Mattheys were arrested and initially charged Nov. 8, 2000, with endangering the welfare of a child and tampering with witnesses - Bob was picked up at work, Brenda at home. The Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office and the New Jersey State Police notified the state Division of Youth and Family Services so they could arrange for placement of the other children while the parents were in jail.

The four oldest children were questioned at length by investigators, interrogations the Mattheys' lawyers allege were conducted illegally. The children offered a chilling account of life inside the house in Union Township.

The Mattheys' oldest son, Robert, who was 16 at the time he was interviewed by police, said Viktor "was a handful" and was locked in the pump room in the basement when he would "throw severe fits," according to court documents.

Robert described the room as wet and muddy with no lights and no toilet. He told police Viktor would sometimes be locked in the room for about a half-hour, but occasionally he was left in there overnight.

"He (Robert) would hear Viktor screaming and banging on the door to get out," according to a legal brief filed by Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Solari. "He could also hear him through a monitor that was in the pump room with the receiver in the parents' room. He could hear Viktor calling out that he had to go to the bathroom and crying, sometimes through the night."

Robert said when Viktor would scream loudly, his parents put duct tape over his mouth to get him to quiet down, and "the tactic worked." He said all of the children, including Viktor, were disciplined by being "spanked or whacked" with a belt or with their hands. He said Viktor had been spanked five to 10 times in the month prior to his death.

Another Matthey son, Richard, 15 at the time he was interviewed, described the pump room as having "dirt all over the place, cobwebs and all kinds of bugs in there." He told police his parents put all three Russian boys in the room at different times as a means of punishment. If they were screaming, they would be put in the room to calm down. They were put in there during the day, or at bedtime and would stay through the night.

"They would never be wearing a coat, but depending on the weather, they would wear warmer pajamas," Solari wrote in the brief. "They were never provided with a blanket."

Other punishments included spankings, time-outs and running in place. The children told the investigator that sometimes they were punished with a cat-o'-nine-tails, a whip made of nine knotted cords attached to a handle. It was kept in Brenda's desk, they said.

Richard described a mixture of beans and barley that was used to punish Viktor: He was forced to eat the mixture before a buzzer went off - if he failed to finish, he would not be allowed to have a drink.

Raymond Matthey, who was 10 when interviewed, and Jonathan, who was 8, echoed much of what their older brothers had seen and heard, according to court papers. Jonathan said all the boys were hit with a whip. The three adopted boys were forced to march in place or run holding an aluminum bat over their heads, and if they stopped too soon, they got hit with the bat.

The boys' account appeared to be supported by what investigators found.

Police discovered blood on the inside of the pump room door, and DNA testing concluded it was Viktor's, according to pretrial court testimony.

Investigators who took temperature readings at the Matthey house found the temperature inside the pump room varied no more than a few degrees from the temperature outdoors.

And Viktor's autopsy determined his stomach contained "an excessive quantity of uncooked, dried beans without sufficient liquid," according to the Mattheys' indictment.

Investigators also talked to Bob Matthey's co-workers and friends from a Middlesex County church, the Abundant Life Christian Center Church, in Edison. The Mattheys joined the church in 1992, when they lived in Edison, and continued to attend when they moved to Somerset County.

The Mattheys belonged to a Bible study group with two other couples. The group met one night a week for about two hours, often at the Mattheys' home.

The two couples, Gary and Gina Starr and Connie and Robert Phillips, described an incident that occurred one winter night. Richard Matthey, then about 10, was sitting outside his house wearing a T-shirt and no coat. He was crying.

Both couples told investigators it was very cold, with snow on the ground. The Starrs described Richard as "whimpering" and making a "mournful-like, hopeless kind of cry" that could be heard through the closed windows. They told the Mattheys they thought the child had been outside long enough - 45 minutes to an hour - but Bob Matthey said that was Richard's punishment for his crime. The Phillipses said they believed the "crime" was a problem with schoolwork.

Both couples said they reported the incident that night to their pastor, the Rev. Scott Walsh, who called the Division of Youth and Family Services. After DYFS investigated, the Mattheys stopped attending the Bible study group and left the church. No charges were filed against the Mattheys in connection with the incident.

Gary Starr said he often tried to persuade Bob Matthey not to be so hard on the children, who were frequently in trouble. Bob said he "refused to lose." Starr said he told Bob he was not talking about a game to be won or lost.

The Starrs told investigators they knew the Mattheys beat their children with belts. Bob Matthey told Gary Starr he put a sock in his children's mouths because he didn't want the neighbors to hear them scream.

A co-worker of Bob's, Dave Rivera, said he was at the Mattheys' house in Edison when he saw Bob hit Robert with a belt several times because Robert wasn't doing his homework. Rivera and his wife, Kim, said the Mattheys admitted to them that when they moved to Raritan Borough, they put their children on the back porch in the winter, without a coat, as a form of punishment.

Regina Marchello, who met Brenda Matthey when her children were attending a youth class at the Flemington Assembly of God, said she was aware the Mattheys had adopted three children from Russia. During the 2000 New Year's Eve party at the Raritan Township church, Marchello saw Brenda in a corner of a room screaming at the Russian children, who had been in the United States less than two weeks. Brenda yelled so loudly and flailed her arms so wildly, Marchello thought she should mention it to the pastor's wife.

Marchello said Brenda Matthey later told her she had to hit her children hard because that was how they were treated in Russia.