The Cosplay Killer

November 18, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the chilling case of Matthew Trussler. When his girlfriend discovers his lifeless body outside and calls the police, a frantic investigation begins to uncover the truth. As detectives question Matthew’s girlfriend, a confession turns the case in an unexpected direction.

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast! This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Payton Morland, and I'm Garrett Morland.

He's the husband.

I'm the husband, and boy, oh boy, do we have news for you! Our merch is live for Black Friday. We've brought back a ton of our most requested designs. Yes, that means our Basics. Yes, that means "Strangey Dangey." Yes, that means "Into the Dark" merch. Honestly, we have it all. Links are going to be everywhere, so go check it out. Again, it's for Black Friday, so if you've missed something and wanted to get it, now is the time to do so. It's also all discounted, so go get your merch! Check it out; we love you and thank you for supporting us.

If you’re watching on YouTube—yes, I look different. Yes, I buzzed my head. Yes, I bleached it. (Well, Payton bleached it live on our Twitch account.) Honestly, it feels freeing to have a buzzcut. I've never buzzed my hair before. Is his hair down? Yeah, um, it feels good. It feels good to have short hair.

Payton and I are going on a trip for her birthday here soon, so we’ll be somewhere warm. I’m excited about that as well. Some prayers that we get all our recordings done in time—we will, 100%. I don’t know, feeling pretty good. Just got back from the gym, been playing some pickleball. I have a pimple on the tip of my nose. I woke up, and it was white this morning. Holy crap. Have you guys ever had to pop a white pimple on the tip of your nose? Pain. Straight pain. I got it, though; it's okay.

That’s kind of what we’ve got going on. We’ve just been working on some other projects that we’ll hopefully announce soon as well. I hate being that person, but yeah, I’m that person. We’re excited for them! I think one of them we’ll probably announce at the beginning of 2025. Recording episodes, going out to eat, spending way too much money that we don’t have—you know, just like everybody else in the world. No, I’m just kidding.

We love you all. Thank you for supporting us. If you don’t like my hair, I don’t want to hear it in the comments. I mean, freedom of speech—you can say whatever you want—but if I come at you for your appearance, all I’m saying is: freedom of speech. Love you all. Let’s hop into today’s episode.

Our sources for this episode are:

CBSNews.com

Kill or Be Killed on Peacock.com

TampaBay.com

LawandCrime.com

WFLA.com

TheSun.com

Oxygen.com

Sportskeeda.com

SandhillsExpress.com

I think it’s fair to say that we all go through rough patches in life. That’s why it’s so important to have someone you can really lean on and trust—a good support system. Whether it’s a partner, a parent, a sibling, a friend, even a therapist or a dog—we all need someone we can confide in. Someone who’s looking out for our best interests, especially when those struggles are mental health-related.

I know this sounds like a BetterHelp ad, but it’s not. The point I’m trying to make is that those lifelines are everything. When you trust someone with your deepest, darkest secrets, you hope that, at the bare minimum, they will never use those secrets against you.

This is why you have to be careful about who you open up to—who you trust in those dark times. In the wrong hands, our darkest moments could be weaponized against us. In the case of today’s story, those secrets could even be used to cover up murder.

So, let’s hop not that far back—to 2015. Actually, I just said that, but 2015 is nine years ago! That’s kind of far. No, it’s definitely kind of far. Most of our cases are from the ’90s or even the ’80s, so I guess it’s not that far. But still—2015 feels like three years ago, not almost ten years ago. Time is so crazy.

Twenty-two-year-old Matthew Trussler had just moved to Florida from Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Matthew’s parents, Margaret and David, gave him and his older brother, Shawn, a pretty great childhood in Massachusetts—at least, that’s what I’ve read. But like a lot of kids in their teens, Matthew sort of lost his way for a little while. He had battled substance abuse in his earlier years.

When Shawn, his older brother, mentioned that he would be moving to Florida to start his own construction business, Matthew saw it as a good opportunity for a fresh start. So, he packed up his things and followed Shawn 1,300 miles south to Tampa, where he became Shawn’s first employee at his new company.

That’s when Shawn noticed his little brother turn a corner. The sweet kid with a big heart resurfaced as Matt embraced this new life for himself. Matthew, now 22, even started thinking about settling down. He created a profile on Tinder, began swiping, and eventually came across one profile that caught his eye—a 24-year-old woman who loved animals, studied special effects and makeup, and seemed bubbly and kind. Her name was Melissa Turner.

The two met up, and Melissa said she was immediately taken with Matthew.

I don’t know why, but this sounds familiar.

Really? The name sounds familiar? You might’ve seen it in the news.

Oh, wait, no—I wasn’t in the U.S. when this happened.

Yeah, but it hit the news later.

Melissa said that Matthew “drew her in” and made her feel important. He was different from other guys she had dated in the past. One date turned into another, and then another, until, before long, the couple was fully committed to one another.

Matthew opened up to Melissa about his difficult past—his history with drinking and substance abuse. Melissa, in turn, told Matthew about her insecurities—how she had been overweight and bullied for much of her childhood. She explained how she worked hard to go from 250 pounds down to 150 pounds in her early 20s.

Melissa had found her confidence through her fitness journey and had really started to come into her own.

When Matthew met Melissa, she was dreaming of becoming an actress and was also very into cosplay. Cosplay is kind of cool, not going to lie. She would dress up like Elvira, Misty from Pokémon, or Velma from Scooby-Doo, and attend conventions—things like that. Matthew really seemed supportive of her interests.

By 2019, the couple was engaged and looking to buy a house together. They found a place in Riverview, a considerably safe residential suburb of Tampa. They were excited about starting their lives together, spending weekends picking out paint colors and furniture for their new place. Everyone who knew them as a couple thought, These two are going to go on and live a long, fruitful life together. That was until the fall of that year.

It’s now 2019. Matthew and Melissa have moved in together in Florida. On October 17, 2019, the day started out like any other for the couple. Matthew and Melissa ran errands together, going to Home Depot, then a grocery store. They had lunch near their Tampa home and spent the rest of the night in. Melissa later said they cooked dinner, had a few cocktails, and that around 11:00 p.m., she got tired and went to sleep. She passed out, actually—on a big, sofa-like chair in her office. She said Matthew stayed up late.

The following morning, at around 8:30 a.m. on October 18, 2019, Melissa woke up to find their house in complete disarray. The kitchen was trashed. There was blood everywhere. Melissa called out for Matthew, but she couldn’t find him. She ran upstairs, searching their bedroom and the bathroom, but there was no sign of him. All she found was their house in a bloody mess. That’s when she decided to check the backyard.

Lying on the patio by their pool was Matthew. He was unresponsive and covered in blood. Melissa called 911, and the operator instructed her to administer CPR. A frantic Melissa seemingly followed those instructions because, when EMTs arrived minutes later, she was also covered in blood. But it was already too late. It was clear to Melissa—and to first responders—that nothing could be done. Her fiancé, 24-year-old Matthew Trussler, was dead.

Melissa told police that she had no idea what had happened. She claimed she was home but had woken up to find the bloody scene. Police asked Melissa for permission to search the house, and she agreed, signing a consent form. They gave her latex gloves to wear—likely so she wouldn’t touch anything in what was now an active crime scene. Inside the house, investigators found a lot of broken glass, including one piece with a significant amount of blood on it. They also discovered a black switchblade knife. When flipped open, it revealed blood on the inside of the blade. The kitchen, in particular, was drenched in blood. One of the state prosecutors who later visited the scene described it as the bloodiest crime scene she had ever encountered in her career.

Is she not freaking out at this point?

Well, I mean, I don't know.

Interesting.

Detectives, however, think that because of the amount of blood inside the kitchen, Matthew likely bled out mostly inside the home before crawling out of a screen window and onto the patio. They're following the blood trail, and this is what they believe happened.

Yikes.

They also think this because the window appeared to be pushed open, which is obviously weird. Police begin wondering, Was he trying to get away from someone? Why crawl outside if no one else is in the house? Why not crawl to a phone? It definitely looked like he was trying to get outside.

The wounds on Matthew’s body only added to the confusion. He had multiple lacerations all over him, but the wound that appeared fatal was a deep cut to his right arm.

Oh, interesting.

At this point, Melissa agreed to come down to the police station for questioning. This is standard procedure, as she was present at the crime scene at the time of the crime. During questioning, Melissa remained adamant that she had absolutely no idea how this had all happened.

Flags were obviously starting to go up because of how bloody the scene was. Detectives thought, If he was stabbed so many times, there would have been screaming. There would have been so much noise. How could she not hear anything?

Granted—well, never mind, I won’t say it, because that’s too much information about our personal house and life—but still, there’s just no way she didn’t hear anything.

Melissa told police, "Listen, I had a few drinks last night. I passed out and genuinely woke up to find Matthew in that state in the backyard."

What I was going to say is that there might be a spot in a house where someone could scream and no one would hear it, but...I’m not going to elaborate. That sounds horrible. Just—whatever. Anyway, back to the case.

Police listened to her story, but what struck them as most suspicious was how gruesome the crime scene was. There were clear signs of a struggle in the kitchen—broken glass and everything. So how in the world did Melissa sleep through something like that?

No, yeah, there’s no way.

There’s no way.

And here’s what else is strange. During the interview, Melissa came in still wearing the latex gloves police had given her earlier at the crime scene.

Okay...but the crime scene was over. It was like, Hey, we’re no longer at the crime scene. You can take those gloves off now.

Melissa said, “Oh no, it’s fine. I’ll just leave them on, thanks.”

So detectives interviewed her while she wore the gloves. Eventually, though, they told her, We need to photograph you now, so you’ll have to remove the gloves.

Melissa reluctantly took them off.

I already know what you’re going to say.

Can I finish your sentence?

Sure.

There were cuts all over her hands.

Under the gloves, detectives noticed Melissa was hiding a deep gash on her palm.

Yep, like a gash deep enough that it needed stitches. It was bloody. It definitely needed stitches.

Detectives asked her, “Why didn’t you mention that? What is that?”

Melissa said, “Oh, that? Before I called 911, I went inside and accidentally grabbed one of the broken glasses.”

But then, as police are moving her around to take pictures of her, they discover that’s not her only injury. She also has a cut on her neck. At this point, police are having a hard time buying Melissa’s story. They’re like, “What the heck? You didn’t hear it? You felt nothing? You were asleep for the entire crime?”

But also, you have a huge gash on your hand and then also on your neck. So they decide, at this point, to press her a little further. They were like, “Hey, did you guys, as a couple, ever fight? Did things ever get physical between you?” And Melissa’s like, “No, absolutely not. Things between us were great.” But there was one thing Melissa said: Matthew always tried to hide from her when he was sad or depressed. But he had, on more than one occasion, talked about self-harm, according to Melissa.

So they ask her, “Were you guys ever physically violent?” She’s like, “No, but Matthew did hide this kind of violent-towards-himself side of him.” She said he always feared he was going to “die young.” So now police are considering this, and they’re like, “Okay, is she alluding that maybe this was suicide? No, there’s no way. Okay, I guess there’s always a way, but it’s not like he was stabbed. They were more like slashes.” And that wound on his arm wouldn’t have made this impossible. Like, you can definitely give yourself a fatal wound on your arm, right?

So when police run this scenario against other details found at the crime scene, though, they’re like, “Ah, it just doesn’t add up.” Because alongside some defensive-looking wounds on Matthew’s body, the medical examiner actually finds a stab wound in his back. Oh, so, sign, sealed, freaking delivered, man. The medical examiner is like, “We don’t think he could have stabbed himself in the back.” And the evidence that this was actually a homicide keeps growing from here in the investigation.

Remember that big sofa-like chair that Melissa slept on in her office that night? Well, when police are still combing the crime scene, they find blood drops leading to that chair. Okay, that could have gotten there after Melissa walked around the house that morning, sure. But detectives also find clues that say she actually wasn’t sound asleep all night, like she had initially told them. Because, for starters, police collect all the data from Matthew’s smartwatch and learn his exact time of death from his health app on there, because it’s obviously going to track when his heart stopped beating.

I think I need to start wearing an Apple Watch.

It registered that Matthew’s heart stopped beating sometime close to 5:00 a.m., which lines up with another really chilling piece of evidence that police had collected while canvassing the neighborhood from one of Melissa and Matthew’s neighbors.

It seems like there should be—maybe it’d get a little too tricky. Like, if your heart actually stops beating, if it recognizes it, it should call police. Besides, I mean, I get you can take off the watch and stuff, but if there’s a way to differentiate the two—oh, right. Um, and they can tell your heart actually stopped beating and, like, it’s still on you? Yeah, it should send a notification to, like, the non-emergency hotline or something like that.

I don’t know. I’m sure this has already been thought of, so don’t come at me. But it would be really interesting—it might actually exist—I bet there’s an app that automatically calls police or something.

They have Life Alert, you know. They do have Life Alert.

Is that what you want?

Yeah, okay, babe. I’ll get you one.

It turns out the people living across from Melissa and Matthew had a security camera that captured the couple’s backyard. The camera captures a piece of the backyard, but the fence around Melissa and Matthew’s property keeps you from seeing what’s happening out there. Police are thinking he crawled out to the backyard and was found dead there. They ask to see the footage.

Those cameras also capture sound. Police realize they can’t see anything, but when they turn up the sound, they discover that, around 4:00 a.m.—an hour before his heart stopped beating on the morning of October 18th—you can definitely hear banging on the neighbor’s security camera coming from inside Matthew and Melissa’s home.

It sounds like objects crashing inside the house, as if someone’s throwing things around. Over the next few minutes, voices start to appear on the security camera’s sound. By 4:37 a.m., there is screaming coming from Matthew and Melissa’s backyard.

It almost sounds demonic. A woman is shouting things like, “I hate you! You’re so effing arrogant! Go effing die!” That’s followed by more shouting and phrases like, “Get up! Get up now! I hate you!”

All of that screaming and crashing goes silent by 5:11 a.m., which lines up with the data collected from Matthew’s smartwatch. The question of suicide is clearly no longer on the table for detectives because the audio reveals a woman threatening Matthew.

Police can hear two distinct voices: a woman and a man. The question becomes whether a third party was yelling at Matthew while Melissa was asleep on the chair with blood drips to it—or if it was Melissa herself in the recording.

The footage is reviewed while Melissa is still in the interrogation room on the morning of the murder. Police are working quickly. They talk to the neighbors and ask for the footage immediately.

It’s reminiscent of the Chris Watts case, where, as soon as police responded, one officer went to the neighbor’s house to review security footage.

Imagine sitting there, not knowing the neighbors have security cameras actively catching you.

Detectives return to the interrogation room and say Melissa’s neighbor has security footage. They demand she explain what happened around 4:00 a.m. that morning.

Melissa deflects for a while. She says, “What happened at 4:00? I don’t know. I told you I was sleeping.” Detectives respond that the neighbor’s security camera picked up loud yelling and screaming coming from her home.

When asked what she had to say about that, Melissa insists, “No, I was asleep. I don’t remember.” Detectives press her further, saying, “Melissa, please.” Eventually, Melissa seems to recall some new details.

She says, “Well, we might have gotten into an argument actually, yeah, but we weren’t like screaming at each other. And if we were, it really wasn’t a big deal.”

By this point, Melissa has admitted that she was awake at 4:00 a.m. and arguing with Matthew. This means there was no one else in the house with them. If there had been, she likely would have said, “Oh no, that was someone else. I woke up, and there was someone else.” But instead, she confirms, “No, it was us. There was no one with us.”

When cornered, detectives tell her, “Melissa, you do understand that if he died at 5:00, and there was no third party in your home, and you were awake, who killed him?”

Melissa hesitates but then says, “Actually, as you’re saying this, more is coming to me.” She claims she remembers that Matthew was still up at 4:00 a.m., being super loud and waking her up, which led to a fight.

When asked why she was screaming at him to “get up, get up,” Melissa explains, “Oh, well, Matthew was clearly not sober that evening. Even though he had been battling with sobriety for years, when he got to that state of drunkenness, he would often fall down and have a hard time composing himself.”

Detectives note that this could be confirmed through an autopsy report.

Melissa had initially used Matthew’s mental health struggles to suggest the possibility of suicide. She had mentioned that he sometimes talked about self-harm or struggled emotionally, likely hoping police might see this as a suicide case.

But when that approach doesn’t work, Melissa shifts the narrative, now weaponizing Matthew’s addiction. She says, “Well, he would just get super drunk and wouldn’t be able to stand up.”

Detectives point out how, when asked questions, Melissa keeps trying to frame the situation as somehow Matthew’s fault. At this point, they’ve gotten her to reframe and change her story multiple times.

Finally, they ask, “How did you actually get that cut on your hand?”

Melissa gives in and admits, “Fine, I did murder Matthew—but it was in self-defense.”

So now she’s officially confessing. Does she have an attorney at this point? No, she doesn’t. It’s still day one, and she’s confessing to the murder of Matthew. But now, for the first time, she’s claiming it was self-defense. Her story has changed a thousand times, but this is how her confession goes:

Melissa says that when Matthew woke her up at 4:00 a.m. because he was being too loud, it turned into a pretty ugly argument. She claims that when Matthew got to this point of intoxication, he was also known to bring out knives. She circles back to her earlier claim, saying Matthew was known to turn the knives on himself when they were arguing.

She alleges that, during this fight, the two of them struggled over a knife—presumably the black switchblade found at the crime scene. Melissa says she tried to take it away from Matthew when he grabbed her by the neck and started strangling her. At that moment, she thought Matthew was going to kill her. She says she grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the back “gently.”

Yes, she actually says, “I gently stabbed him.” She explains that she stabbed him lightly in the back to get him off of her.

You can’t gently stab someone. That’s just not possible. Honestly, it sounds even more painful to be stabbed “gently.”

After this, she says Matthew slammed her head into the counter. Melissa recalls vaguely stumbling back to her office, where she collapsed in the chair because she now had a head injury. She claims she remained there until around 8:00 a.m. the next morning.

Melissa says that when she came to, she was certain Matthew was still alive because she didn’t think that “gentle” stab wound could be fatal. Notably, she doesn’t mention any of the other wounds covering Matthew’s body.

However, Melissa admits that this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence between them. She admits she lied earlier and that there was, in fact, a lot of physical abuse in their relationship. She says the couple fought often, especially about Matthew’s struggles with alcohol addiction.

But then Melissa doubles down on her story and adds something even more wild and disturbing. She says that not only was there physical abuse, but Matthew also “saw demons.” She claims that, sometimes, he would stare off into corners of the house and tell her that evil entities were watching them.

It’s hard to know what to think. Matthew is obviously dead and can’t defend himself, and Melissa just keeps making these claims. Maybe some of it could be true—other people have experienced things like this—but she’s just saying whatever she can to make herself look better.

It feels like she’s just throwing everything out there. Wake up in the morning, call 911, and say, “We got in a fight last night. He slammed my head on the counter. I ended up passing out, and now he’s dead. It was physical, I don’t know what happened—it was self-defense.”

You don’t call and say, “I don’t know what happened. I have no idea.”

Well, I don’t know—it’s just kind of frustrating.

She says that when all of this happened the night of his murder, Melissa claimed something had switched in Matthew. She said it didn’t even seem like she was fighting him during this physical altercation. As things escalated, according to Melissa, he started talking to her in a weird voice, saying, "What’s the matter, little girl? Are you scared because Matt’s not here anymore?" He had this little smile on his face and repeated, "What’s the matter, little girl? Are you scared because Matt’s not here anymore?"

Now, I know it might seem like days have passed at this point, but I’m trying to explain that all of these story changes, evidence, and new things she keeps bringing up happened literally within hours. What in the world is happening?

By 2:00 p.m. that day—remember, she wakes up at 8:00 a.m., and it’s now 2:00 p.m.—all of this has happened. At this point, Melissa says, "Shoot, I should ask for a lawyer." So, they let her leave for the night because she’s now asked for a lawyer, and they can’t keep interviewing her. They’re like, "We’ll let her leave, compile more evidence, and decide to speak with Matthew’s friends and family next."

This is normally what happens in an investigation. It’s just that they already have a confession. Also, it’s easy to see if her claims hold up. If none of Matthew’s friends or family have heard about the things she’s saying, the likelihood of her story being true is basically 1%. Right?

If someone is struggling with mental health to the degree of "seeing demons," usually someone else knows—family, a therapist, somebody. Not always, but usually. So, police start interviewing friends and family, asking, "Tell us everything you know about Melissa and Matthew." It becomes more and more clear to them that Melissa’s story is likely a bunch of nonsense.

Not only do police learn there’s no evidence Matthew ever considered or attempted self-harm, but when Matthew’s brother Shawn and his parents hear about his murder, they literally tell police, "Melissa killed him, and it wasn’t an accident—it was intentional."

That’s a major red flag. If the family’s first reaction is, "She killed him, and it was on purpose," that’s significant. They want Melissa held accountable. There’s no question in their minds. They even say, "Melissa took Maddie long before she took him forever."

Apparently, Matthew had cut off his family some time before his death, likely at her demand. Even Shawn, his boss and brother, said that six months prior to the murder, he had gotten into a fight with Melissa. From what I can tell, it had to do with how many hours Matthew was working for Shawn. She pressured him to quit his job, and Matthew and Shawn hadn’t been speaking much since.

So, she says he’s working too much, he quits the job with his brother, and the family believes she’s orchestrating everything.

She sounds diabolical.

But there was more to the story, according to Matthew's parents. Apparently, Matthew had gotten involved in Melissa’s business—one that caused him to slip into old habits and threatened his sobriety. Remember how I mentioned Melissa was really into cosplay? Well, what I didn’t tell you was that it was actually how she made a lot of her money. She would dress up as characters and film sexually explicit content as these characters.

Apparently, she got Matthew to star in these videos alongside her. Melissa had actually started this sexual cosplay blog years prior. It was supposed to be temporary—a way to pay the bills while she found her footing as either an actress or a special effects or makeup artist. Over time, though, Melissa developed a pretty hefty fan base—people who were willing to pay a lot of money to see their favorite fictional characters come to life and engage in sexual acts. This meant more people willing to pay for her content as well.

Now, I’m not sure if this was like an OnlyFans type of thing, but I know this cam girl job helped her buy the home they lived in in Tampa. Even long before she met Matthew and recruited him to participate in her videos, people who knew Melissa said she started to change. Before Matthew was even in the picture, those close to Melissa said they began to feel something was off.

An ex-boyfriend of Melissa said that once she started to see real growth and success from her cosplay business, she became, in his words, "unhinged." He described how Melissa became so obsessed with her business that it consumed every corner of her life. All she thought about was making more and more money, and she was willing to do anything to make that happen. It was almost like something switched inside of her—she became manic and unpredictable.

A former roommate of Matthew’s even came forward, acknowledging that Matthew did live with an alcohol addiction. However, according to the roommate, Matthew was never violent when he was drunk. Friends and family also came forward to corroborate this. They said they had lived with him, partied with him, and seen him intoxicated. He was not a violent drunk.

However, Melissa, according to multiple accounts, became very angry when Matthew got too intoxicated. In fact, several people stated they had seen her be the aggressor in their relationship—on more than one occasion.

Matthew’s family presented a different theory to the police. They thought that, at first, Matthew might have been into the idea of helping Melissa out with her cosplay business. The money he could make was probably enticing, and if he wasn’t working for his brother, he could work for her. But over time, the family speculated that Matthew may have grown uncomfortable with it or suggested he wanted out. They believed that this might have sparked the argument on October 18th.

They also wondered if Melissa had specifically sought out a partner for her business when she met Matthew on Tinder. Matthew was in shape, handsome, and fit the mold of a good-looking actor. It was possible, they thought, that Melissa had recruited him in a way to help her with her content.

Of course, this is just the family’s theory, but it does make sense. A family often knows the nuances of a relationship better than outsiders like us—people who are just researching this story or reporting on it.

When police hear all of this, they seem to think it kind of makes sense too. The family presents enough evidence to support their theory that investigators start to consider it seriously, particularly reflecting on one thing Melissa said in her interview—that Matthew claimed to be possessed by demons.

Now, Melissa is a cosplay model and actress, and much of her work revolves around horror and fantasy themes. So, they have to wonder: is this like a script for Melissa? Is she creating her own narrative here and giving the performance of her life while doing so? Possibly.

Not even a day later, on October 19, 2019, Melissa is arrested for second-degree murder with a weapon.

I’m just trying to figure out why. I know we’re talking through this, and maybe we don’t really need a "why" with domestic violence—because often there isn’t one. But in court, you do need a motive, especially if you’re aiming for a conviction of first-degree murder instead of second-degree. Where is the motive? Where are we on this journey of understanding the murder?

Either way, Melissa is arrested fairly quickly, and a judge sets her bond at half a million dollars. Melissa puts the home she shared with Matthew up as collateral.

Finally, on November 7, 2019, the autopsy report comes back with some interesting information. It reveals that the stab wounds on Matthew’s back were, in fact, superficial. This is tough for the prosecution because it suggests that maybe Melissa was telling the truth about trying to get Matthew off her—that the stab was "gentle," if you will.

They also discover that Matthew’s blood alcohol level was—according to some sources—"astronomical." His level was actually five times over the lethal limit for Florida. However, the police never checked Melissa’s blood alcohol level, so there’s no way to know if she was equally incapacitated during the fight.

Ultimately, the report finds that the cut to Matthew’s right bicep severed an artery, which led to his actual cause of death: blood loss. This means that if Melissa had called 911 at the time of the fight, they might have been able to stop the bleeding and save Matthew’s life.

Because of COVID, it takes two and a half years for Melissa to go to trial. Before that, there are several attempts by both the defense and the state to negotiate a plea deal. Melissa, however, maintains that it was self-defense.

When the state offers 25 years in a Florida state prison as part of a plea deal, Melissa’s attorneys counter with a plea for five years, but the state rejects it. So, on Valentine’s Day 2022, it’s finally time for a jury to decide whether Melissa acted in self-defense or not. It’s not a question of whether she killed Matthew—she did. The question is whether it was self-defense.

After hearing some of the evidence, I’m still skeptical. I don’t think it was self-defense, but I’m not sure how that can be definitively proven. Given what’s been presented so far, I think she might get off. Unless there’s more evidence during the trial, I just don’t see how she gets convicted.

Let me tell you a little bit about the trial. Here's what's interesting:

The judge did not allow any mention of Melissa's cosplay career to enter the courtroom. Why? According to them, it wasn't relevant to the case. I always find it interesting when a judge says something isn't relevant. It's like, everything is relevant, right?

Well, okay, I understand that the jury might look at her differently if they knew what she did for a living. I see what you're saying, but that's part of the case, right? Well, maybe not. Technically, it doesn't directly tie into the killing that night. The judge was probably worried about the preconceived ideas it might create.

The family, however, thinks it does matter. They believe Matthew was planning to leave her, and that this upset her. I think it could have been helpful for the jury to know that Melissa is technically an aspiring actress. She acts in these videos, so there's a chance she could lie or perform on demand.

Right away, she gives the jury her sob story about how she thought she was going to die that night and had no choice but to act in self-defense. She claimed she never intended to kill Matthew. And yes, she does take the stand during her own trial.

Frankly, the defense had a pretty good chance, like Garrett said, of getting these charges dismissed. They pointed out the superficial stab wounds and argued that Matthew’s extremely high blood alcohol content could have caused him to hallucinate and see demons, meaning her story could be true.

Melissa also painted Matthew as an abusive alcoholic with a history of unsettling behavior. That’s a hard case to fight.

Maybe the most interesting thing that helped her case was the security footage from the neighbor's home. I know you’d think it would work against her. This is the footage where you can hear Melissa screaming obscenities at Matthew and telling him to die.

But the defense brought in a former FBI audio expert who testified that sections of the audio were likely edited and the volume enhanced. This made Melissa sound louder, while Matthew was practically inaudible.

Now, I don’t know if this is true. Obviously, an FBI expert testified to it, but I can’t confirm if the audio was edited. What I do know is that it’s very clear in the audio that Melissa is telling Matthew to die.

You can’t edit that out—it’s the truth. And this also could reflect the reality of the situation. In the audio, Melissa is the aggressor. Matthew could have been trying to calm things down, or maybe he was already so injured that he couldn’t scream.

Ultimately, it was up to the jury to sift through this massive pile of fact and fiction. But one thing became clear pretty quickly: Melissa wasn’t that good of an actress after all.

“I explained my side and why I did what I did.”

"You're crying right now? Is that what's happening? Are you crying right now?

“Do you know what tears look like?"

Right through her tears, Melissa tried to cry on the stand. One minute, she would be really angry, and then, like flipping a switch, she’d be devastatingly sad. This behavior made the jurors feel very uncomfortable.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to proving Melissa's guilt. The prosecution brought up another questionable point in Melissa's story. Remember when she claimed Matthew hit her head on the counter, causing her to stumble and pass out?

When she was examined at the crime scene, a technician determined she had zero signs of a head injury. If that were true, why didn’t she report the incident to police right away?

The answer seemed to come with one final smoking gun: a piece of surveillance footage shown to the jury from inside the couple’s home on the night of the attack.

The footage, captured by an ADT surveillance camera pointed at the couple’s foyer, showed something telling. At 3:42 a.m., you see Matthew walking through the foyer calmly. His demeanor appears normal.

Trailing behind him is Melissa, hunched over, looking irate and disheveled. She is visibly intoxicated and almost creepily stalking Matthew into the kitchen. According to the timeline, their fight begins less than 20 minutes later.

At 4:08 a.m., Melissa returns into frame, standing in the foyer, staring at the wall for a moment. In that clip, you can see her right hand is covered in blood. Then she turns back and walks into the kitchen.

The prosecutors pointed out several red flags with these tapes, but one of the biggest was this: if Melissa were acting in self-defense and genuinely believed her life was in danger, why would she leave the kitchen, where the fight was happening, only to walk calmly back in?

Why would someone run toward their aggressor—the person allegedly trying to kill them?

It became increasingly clear that Melissa’s claim of being hit on the head and stumbling into her office wasn’t credible. She could have called 911 in that moment if her life was truly in danger. Instead, she either chose not to or was so drunk she couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

After less than a week of testimony, the jury came back on February 18, 2022, with a verdict.

Twenty-nine-year-old Melissa Turner was found guilty of second-degree murder.

She was later sentenced to 20 and a half years behind bars. However, the damage Melissa did to Matthew’s family and his memory is unrepairable.

Matthew’s mother pointed out how Melissa isolated him from his family in the final months of his life. She created a false narrative of abuse, tarnishing his name even after his death.

Melissa used Matthew’s greatest struggles—his battle with alcoholism and addiction—as tools to shield herself and cover up the fact that she willingly murdered him.

The state deemed this second-degree murder, but it seems clear that Melissa was the real threat all along.

Based on what everyone in their lives has said, Melissa’s behavior—isolating Matthew from his family, his job, and making him dependent on her—was classic predatory behavior.

That’s the tragic case of Matthew Trussler, and where it stands now.

All right, you guys, that wraps up this week’s episode. We’ll see you next time with another case.

I love it.

And I hate it.

Goodbye.

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