Did Thomas Mather Predict His Own Murder?
The Deck
46,733 views
On the night of September 30, 1991, 24-year-old Dawn Mather appeared naked at a neighbor’s door in rural Springdale, Iowa, with a terrifying story: an armed stranger had entered her home and attacked her and her husband.
Police rushed to the nearby farmhouse. Inside, they found 32-year-old Thomas “Tom” Mather bound on the living room floor. His throat had been deeply cut, and an autopsy revealed something officers hadn’t initially realized: Tom had also been shot in the head with a .22-caliber firearm.
Dawn told investigators that a naked stranger with sandy blond hair had invaded their home, restrained Tom, attacked her, and threatened them both before she managed to escape and run to a neighbor for help.
But investigators soon began questioning whether everything happened the way she described.
More than 34 years later, Tom’s murder remains Cedar County, Iowa’s only unsolved homicide, and new forensic testing could finally provide answers.
In this episode of The Deck, Ashley Flowers examines the unsolved murder of Thomas Mather alongside the in former Cedar County Sheriff Keith Whitlatch and current Sheriff Warren Wethington, exploring a case that has divided investigators for decades.
You’ll hear about Dawn Mather’s account of what happened inside the farmhouse on September 30, 1991, the unidentified sandy-haired man she said entered their home armed with a gun, the rope used to bind Tom and the bloody knife recovered beside his body, the .22-caliber shell casing discovered behind the living room couch, the unidentified fingerprint recovered from the Mather home, witness reports of mysterious men and vehicles near the farmhouse that night, and why investigators eventually began questioning whether Dawn knew more about her husband’s death than she told them.
Approximately a week before Tom was killed, his newspaper deliveryman, Harry, later told investigators about a troubling conversation. According to Harry’s account, Tom said he believed his wife and someone else were trying to kill him.
Investigators also learned that Tom had recently changed the beneficiary on life insurance policies totaling more than $57,000, making Dawn the beneficiary.
Then police asked Dawn to take a polygraph. She agreed.
According to the investigative records, questions about whether she knew who shot Tom or had participated in planning his death registered as deceptive. After investigators confronted her with the results, Dawn left—and has not spoken with investigators since.
Dawn Mather has never been arrested or charged in connection with Thomas Mather’s murder.
And there is physical evidence that continues to complicate the theory that she was involved.
Witnesses reported seeing an unidentified man near the Mather property on September 30, including one man described as tall and slender who appeared to emerge from a cornfield carrying a cylindrical object.
Another neighbor reported that a light-haired man approached her home and tried her back door approximately an hour after Dawn came looking for help.
The investigation also examines Dave Beranek, Tom’s best friend and best man. When detectives began investigating rumors about Dawn’s relationships, Dave acknowledged that he and Dawn had previously joked about being together if something ever happened to their spouses.
Dave also owned or had access to several .22-caliber firearms. But none of the firearms he voluntarily provided to investigators matched the weapon used to kill Tom.
More than three decades later, investigators still haven’t identified the person responsible for Thomas Mather’s murder.
If you have any information about the murder of Thomas Mather on September 30, 1991 in Springdale, Iowa please contact the Iowa Attorney General’s Cold Case Unit at 800-242-5100.
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20 Comments
And that detective being like “people don’t just show up naked in someone’s house and kill” like dude people do WAY weirder and worse stuff than that. I once personally witnessed someone stop their car in the middle of the intersection, get out, strip down, and get up on the roof and start yelling and dancing. It’s not unbelievable at all that this dude, whoever he was, was naked.
Running in gravel… they seem to place a lot of importance on that now but not at the time. Do they think she ran in shoes and then took them off outside the Neighbors to make sell her story? That’s a little ridiculous.
Did they track the owner of the gun down? Did I miss that?
I’m not saying she didn’t do anything. But I think they got tunnel vision and didn’t look too hard at any other possibility.
I'm not sure what the emphasis on her feet means much. Are they implying she was driven to the neighbor's house? Or implying she had shoes then ditched them? You can certainly run 100 yard over gravel without injuries.
Physical evidence matched everything Dawn stated. So if she is an accomplice that's a perfectly planned and executed stage. It would be weird to not have any inconsistency. They wouldn't know beforehand that the 1st neighbor wouldn't open the door, so they would have to think on the spot to have the guy rattle the door to make it seem like he was after her would be such a convincing touch.
It sounds like the primary suspicion is that she didn't grief "correctly."
Did Thomas Mather Predict His Own Murder?
The Deck
46,733 views
On the night of September 30, 1991, 24-year-old Dawn Mather appeared naked at a neighbor’s door in rural Springdale, Iowa, with a terrifying story: an armed stranger had entered her home and attacked her and her husband.
Police rushed to the nearby farmhouse. Inside, they found 32-year-old Thomas “Tom” Mather bound on the living room floor. His throat had been deeply cut, and an autopsy revealed something officers hadn’t initially realized: Tom had also been shot in the head with a .22-caliber firearm.
Dawn told investigators that a naked stranger with sandy blond hair had invaded their home, restrained Tom, attacked her, and threatened them both before she managed to escape and run to a neighbor for help.
But investigators soon began questioning whether everything happened the way she described.
More than 34 years later, Tom’s murder remains Cedar County, Iowa’s only unsolved homicide, and new forensic testing could finally provide answers.
In this episode of The Deck, Ashley Flowers examines the unsolved murder of Thomas Mather alongside the in former Cedar County Sheriff Keith Whitlatch and current Sheriff Warren Wethington, exploring a case that has divided investigators for decades.
You’ll hear about Dawn Mather’s account of what happened inside the farmhouse on September 30, 1991, the unidentified sandy-haired man she said entered their home armed with a gun, the rope used to bind Tom and the bloody knife recovered beside his body, the .22-caliber shell casing discovered behind the living room couch, the unidentified fingerprint recovered from the Mather home, witness reports of mysterious men and vehicles near the farmhouse that night, and why investigators eventually began questioning whether Dawn knew more about her husband’s death than she told them.
Approximately a week before Tom was killed, his newspaper deliveryman, Harry, later told investigators about a troubling conversation. According to Harry’s account, Tom said he believed his wife and someone else were trying to kill him.
Investigators also learned that Tom had recently changed the beneficiary on life insurance policies totaling more than $57,000, making Dawn the beneficiary.
Then police asked Dawn to take a polygraph. She agreed.
According to the investigative records, questions about whether she knew who shot Tom or had participated in planning his death registered as deceptive. After investigators confronted her with the results, Dawn left—and has not spoken with investigators since.
Dawn Mather has never been arrested or charged in connection with Thomas Mather’s murder.
And there is physical evidence that continues to complicate the theory that she was involved.
Witnesses reported seeing an unidentified man near the Mather property on September 30, including one man described as tall and slender who appeared to emerge from a cornfield carrying a cylindrical object.
Another neighbor reported that a light-haired man approached her home and tried her back door approximately an hour after Dawn came looking for help.
The investigation also examines Dave Beranek, Tom’s best friend and best man. When detectives began investigating rumors about Dawn’s relationships, Dave acknowledged that he and Dawn had previously joked about being together if something ever happened to their spouses.
Dave also owned or had access to several .22-caliber firearms. But none of the firearms he voluntarily provided to investigators matched the weapon used to kill Tom.
More than three decades later, investigators still haven’t identified the person responsible for Thomas Mather’s murder.
If you have any information about the murder of Thomas Mather on September 30, 1991 in Springdale, Iowa please contact the Iowa Attorney General’s Cold Case Unit at 800-242-5100.
Check out these other great crime channels:
@annieelise Millions of Dollars, Escorts, Drugs & Murder: The Insane Tardio-Monson Case Millions of Dollars, Escorts, Drugs & Murd...
@kallmekris The Serial Killer That Should Have Been Caught Sooner The Serial Killer That Should Have Been Ca...
@bellafiori The Case of The De Gruchy Family The Case of The De Gruchy Family
@KendallRae The Fake NFL Player Who Scammed Women Out of $1.3 Million: Daejon Love EXPOSED The Fake NFL Player Who Scammed Women Out ...