187. Looks Like An Ambush At The ATM - Matthew Chase's Final Deposit

Matthew Chase was just like a lot of young artists who move to Los Angeles to seek out their creative development and success.  Back in 1988, then 22 year-old Matthew and his friends, brother-and-sister Steve and Teresa Dahl, were living together after all moving from their childhood homes near Medford Oregon.  And – again, like so many other young transplants to Southern California, Matthew, Steve and Teresa moved into one of the grittier parts of Los Angeles, in the heart of the big city, not fully aware of just how “gritty” gritty really meant.  As in:  At the time, Los Angeles was plagued by one of the worst gang wars ever to hit an American city.  And the area where Matthew Chase and his companions lived was one of that gang war’s hot spots.  It was nowhere to be out after dark.  And yet, as often happens, Matthew and the Dahl siblings’ youthful sense of invincibility left them largely unaware of the risks all around them.  So it was unsurprising that on June 8, 1988, at 11:45 pm, Matthew decided to deposit his paycheck at a local bank ATM.  Matthew was going to walk to the bank, but Teresa Dahl lent Matthew her car to run the errand – and to pick up some cat food on the way back.  Matt took the car keys, taking with him only his paycheck and his ATM card – leaving his wallet, with his driver’s license in it, behind.  After all, it was just a quick trip.  Right?  Except that was the last time Teresa or Steve Dahl or any of Matthew’s other friends ever saw him alive again.  And this is truly a story about the love of friends.  Because it was Matthew’s friends – with pretty much no help from the authorities – that finally brought their friend’s case to its uneasy conclusion.  As it happens, in 1988 the Los Angeles Police Department was buried under a wave that not only included the impossible task of battling the gangs – but also experiencing its first growing pangs of moving away from a nearly century-long history of abuse, racism and overall corruption.  Public attention was finally exposing the LAPD’s bad secrets to the light of day, but in 1988 many of those bad elements remained.  And one of those bad elements was the LAPD Rampart Division’s total disinterest in the disappearance of a young artist living in a “bad” part of town – one detective in particular, whose brazen, arrogant and homophobic ignorance prevented a missing person’s report to be filed.  It was only after more than a week following Matthew’s disappearance that Teresa Dahl was forced to file a report alleging that Matthew stole her car – which she knew he didn’t do – that finally got LAPD to do anything.  Shortly thereafter, Teresa’s abandoned car was found near the bank0 where Matthew had been headed.  Through the efforts of Matthew’s friends (not the LAPD), it was discovered that Matthew had attempted to make several large withdrawals at multiple ATMs the night of his disappearance.  One of those ATMs had a camera that caught extremely fuzzy footage of – it is believed - the person assumed to be Matthew’s abductor – a gang member who – coincidentally? – was executed by gang members on a Hollywood street corner just two days after Matthew Chase disappeared.  In the meantime, a body with two bullet holes in the back of the head, found in a ravine in nearby Pasadena three months after Matthew’s disappearance, sat in the County Morgue unidentified for another six months until dental records finally proved that it belonged to young Matthew Chase.  In this episode, Melissa unravels this tragic story with great detail – and in celebration of the love and commitments of friends who would not let their friend be forgotten – and as a question to anyone who was around at the time – was the gang member assumed to be Matthew’s abductor and executioner actually the one responsible for his death?  And were there others involved?  If anyone knows, call Melissa on the TIP-STER Hotline at (832) 847-7837 or send an email to [email protected].