Boy, 17, arrested in 2007 slaying of Chesterfield teenager
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| Ryan Matko |
Chesterfield County police have made an arrest in the August 2007 shooting death of Ryan Matko, son of a Richmond homicide detective.
A 17-year-old male has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in a felony. Because the suspect is a juvenile, police would not release his name.
He was being held without bond in the Chesterfield Juvenile Detention Home awaiting a hearing today in the county's Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
Police said last year that it appeared Matko had been killed during a robbery. But yesterday, Chesterfield police Capt. Robert Skowron was not able to confirm that theory.
He said only that the arrest and murder charge had resulted from an extensive investigation in which the department developed witnesses and forensic evidence.
Matko disappeared Aug. 22, 2007. The next day, his car was found on a dead-end street near Cogbill Road.
When police dogs tracked his scent, they went to an isolated wooded area about 100 yards away, where his body was found with gunshot wounds to the head and back.
Matko's mother, Rose Matko, said his car was parked outside their home when she left that morning to work at her Chester restaurant, the Wild Rose Café. Matko, who was 16 and a student at Thomas Dale High School in Chester, worked at his mother's restaurant as a cook, but that day he didn't show up for his 1 p.m. shift.
He had been interested in studying culinary arts after high school and was interested in a career as a chef, his family and friends said.
His father, Max Matko, is head of the Richmond Police Department's cold-case homicide squad. He and Ryan Matko's mother are divorced. Neither parent was available for comment yesterday.
At the restaurant last night, patrons said the crowd at the bar got very quiet during a television news report saying a suspect had been arrested in Matko's death. After they heard the report, many people clapped.
"It's excellent news as far as we're concerned," said Pam Tuggle of Prince George County. She said she didn't know Matko but has been coming to the restaurant for a long time and knows his mother.
Menus at the Wild Rose Café feature a small photo of Matko on the cover with the words "R.I.P. Ryan Matko. A life short of nothing but time." A black jersey on the wall is labeled "Matko 15" and printed with the words "Forever a champion" and the dates of his birth and death.
Amanda Moore, 18, who remembered Matko yesterday as one of her best friends, said the arrest "made me feel a lot better about it.
"The person . . . can't harm anyone else and will be punished for taking away a person who meant so much to so many people," she said. "I pray every day for Ryan and his family because it's pretty messed up."
Last summer, on the anniversary of Matko's death, Rose Matko requested a meeting with Chesterfield police for a progress report.
In an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, she said: "Basically, the way they explained it to us was that they only get one chance to get it right. And they don't want to proceed until everything is exactly where it needs to be."
Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or
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Reader Reactions
thou shalt not judge…how true that saying is yet some people still have the nerve to pass judgement!! i am not saying that wat he did was right but we dont even know if he is really one to hold accountable for this action! many times in life the mind of a teenager becomes troubled when they dont have anyone there to tell them on a regular basis, “i love you” or “i care about you” or “your special to me”...these things cause henderance in the mind and heart! so maybe it was the lack of love shown to him that caused him to (if he is guilty) kill someone! instead of people putting down children and asking for the worse penalty ever you should try and help a troubled child and show them the right path to travel! it may be too late for him but for CHRIST’S SAKE, you gotta have a heart one person’s mistake could be another person’s way of getting out of a bad situation!!! sorry so long
I see no reason to stop. I didn’t say anyone was guilty. I don’t even know who is charged. All I said is that as a test of logic, readers shouldn’t dismiss full accountability simply because one is seventeen and, what the U.S. Constituition says relating to trials.
all yall need to stop. how do any of yall even know he did it. police get facts wrong all the time and have people in jail for many years for crimes they did not commit. the after years of a innocent life gets waisted away in jail they say oh im sorry we made a mistake. and people of jury also convict of the wrong things also just to get back home with their family. dont pass judgement against anyone if you dont know the truth
Please forgive me for my wording. Yes, you are right, he has the right to a trial by an imppartial jury. To your second point that some people are just horribly evil - at 15, at 17, at 35, at 50 - and
we all must no more before declaring someone insane or unaccountable
because of his age, I would say we should also know more before executing a child
Gavaklla, nothing in the U. S. Constitution says anything about the right to a trial by a jury of “peers”. What the Constitution does state, to be precise, is that a right exists to be tried by an impartial jury. I submit there can be a substantial difference between the two. My second thought is that some people are just horribly evil - at 15, at 17, at 35, at 50 - and we all must no more before declaring someone insane or unaccountable because of his age.
Tammy: How he got a gun is tertiary to his actions of taking another life. At the age of 15, he should damn well know it’s not okay to kill people. If he had stabbed the Matko boy to death with a screw driver, would you be asking how a 15 year-old got his hands on a screw driver? I doubt it. Please leave the hyperbole behind.
watchman49-My sincerest sympathies to anyone in this forum who has suffered such a terrible loss.
It should never happen to any family.
But I do believe that the callous sentiments expressed by some posters shows how cheaply they regard human life.
There is or used to be a people who lived at the top of the world, Nepal or Tibet who used to turn a murderer over to the victim’s family. Needless to say they had an almost zero murder rate.
I have often wondered if that was a sound solutution…
I use to feel the same way…was rather repulsed by “blood thirsty” comments and could not understand why people felt that way until mine was so violently taken away. The only way to understand is for one of yours to be taken in a like manner…I do not wish that up anyone - period.
Innocent until proven guilty. And indeed how sad for both families.
And odd that the blood thirsty sentiments expressed by some posters should reflect the lack of concern for human life that likely caused young Ryan Matko his.
Maybe before any executions take place we should allow this person to be tried by a jury of his peers. I know it seems like a waste of the taxpayers’ money, but before even suggesting a 17 year old’s life be taken, I feel his guilt should be established in a court of law.
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