MURDEROUS MINDS: The Killer Step-Brother Pt. 1

When Becky Watts vanished, her family begged the public for help. But no one expected her stepbrother could be the culprit. In Part 1, we uncover the disturbing psychology of Nathan Matthews—his fixation on control, violent fantasies, and the moment that obsession turned deadly. Killer Minds is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Don’t miss out on all things Killer Minds! Instagram: @killerminds https://www.instagram.com/killerminds/ | @Crimehouse https://www.instagram.com/crimehouse/ TikTok: @Crimehouse https://www.tiktok.com/@crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios https://www.facebook.com/crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia https://x.com/crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Vanessa Richardson?

  Hi, everyone. Before today's episode, there's another show I want to tell you about. It's called What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Plus, Connor's infectious energy that'll make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on earth. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  This is Crime House.

• 0:41Vanessa Richardson?

  Everyone's family dynamics are different. Some are supportive and warm, while others are distant. Some parents are hard on their kids, while some act more like best friends. But even in a family that fights all the time or makes mistakes, there's supposed to be a sense of innate love and understanding, even if it's really deep down. Unless you're Nathan Matthews. When Nathan was young, his mother remarried, and in doing so, thrust an entirely new family into his life. And to Nathan, this did not mean there was more love to go around. Instead, he believed there was now competition, and it must be eliminated.

• 1:38Vanessa Richardson?

  The human mind is powerful. It shapes how we think, feel, love, and hate. But sometimes it drives people to commit the unthinkable. This is Killer Minds, a Crime House original. I'm Vanessa Richardson.

• 1:53Tristin Engels?

  And I'm Dr. Tristin Engels. Every Monday and Thursday, we uncover the darkest minds in history, analyzing what makes a killer.

• 2:02Vanessa Richardson?

  Crime House is made possible by you. Please rate, review, and follow Killer Minds. To enhance your listening experience with ad-free, early access to each two-part series and bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. Before we get started, be advised, this episode contains descriptions of murder, kidnapping, and child sex abuse materials. Listener discretion is advised.

• 2:28Vanessa Richardson?

  Today, we begin our deep dive on Nathan Matthews, a former British Territorial Army veteran who struggled with complicated family dynamics from a young age. As an adult, his self-isolation and addiction to violent pornography distorted his reality to the point where he developed a terrifying hatred towards his teenage stepsister. It was a fixation that would ultimately end in tragedy.

• 2:54Tristin Engels?

  And as Vanessa goes through the story, I'll be talking about things like how abandonment by a parent can form the early foundation of a child's self-worth, the challenges kids face when adapting to a new family dynamic, and if an obsession with certain types of pornography can distort reality and lead to violence.

• 3:13Vanessa Richardson?

  And as always, we'll be asking the question, what makes a killer?

• 3:23Vanessa Richardson?

  When Nathan Matthews was born, his mother was the only person he had in the world. His mom, Angie Matthews, gave birth to him in 1987 without the support of a partner. We don't know who his father was, but he was not in Nathan's life. During his infancy, Nathan and Angie lived together in the Bristol area of the United Kingdom. But early on in Nathan's life, she got involved in an abusive, troubled relationship. In order to protect her young son, Angie made the difficult decision to send Nathan to live with her own mother, Margaret. Margaret and her husband Christopher lived in a small village just five miles away. Despite not living together,

• 4:05Vanessa Richardson?

  Angie continued to be an attentive presence in Nathan's life. Her house was close by, and she would take Nathan to and from school every day. At some point, she was able to get out of the abusive relationship that forced her to send Nathan away, but they continued to keep the same living situation. The setup was not ideal for Nathan, and his feelings about being apart from his mom were further complicated by his health. It's not clear when, but at some point during his early years, he was diagnosed with a chronic condition called fibromyalgia. The disorder causes the body to be hypersensitive to pain and tenderness and can result in fatigue and sleep issues. There is no cure, and the physical pain it caused Nathan

• 4:50Vanessa Richardson?

  led to anxiety and depression.

• 4:53Tristin Engels?

  This is pretty significant for a child. I mean, Nathan went to live with his grandparents under the belief that it would protect him from his mother's abusive relationship. Yet even after that relationship ended, he remained separated from her. That alone can cause confusions, feelings of inadequacy, low self-worth, even abandonment, particularly for someone who's already vulnerable. And if you layer onto that the challenges of chronic pain, and the psychological burden becomes even heavier. Conditions like fibromyalgia don't just affect the body. They can significantly disrupt a person's identity, emotional regulation, and overall quality of life. For someone Nathan's age, when identity is still developing, this can be especially destabilizing. It can interfere with critical

• 5:37Tristin Engels?

  social, emotional, and developmental milestones, which limit opportunities for connection as well as independence. This is precisely where coping strategies and support systems become critical. First and foremost, chronic pain must be validated. A lot of individuals with fibromyalgia are often misdiagnosed or dismissed, which can intensify feelings of shame or invisibility. Integrated care, both medical and psychological, is essential. Cognitive behavioral therapy, for example, can help individuals reframe how they experience their pain, how they view their capabilities, and how they construct a sense of meaning in their lives. And second, we must address the issue of control. Chronic illness often strips away a person's sense of agency. Identifying areas where they can

• 6:21Tristin Engels?

  exercise control in healthy ways through daily routines, relationships, creativity, or even setting achievable goals can help restore a sense of purpose and stability. So while chronic pain may have contributed to Nathan's emotional dysregulation or a sense of disconnection, it is not a direct cause of violence. But it is a critical part of the context that might lead us there.

• 6:44Vanessa Richardson?

  I know you explained how chronic pain doesn't cause violence, but is it possible that it can exacerbate violent tendencies or anger issues?

• 6:52Tristin Engels?

  Chronic pain or illness can significantly limit a person's capacity for patience and lower their frustration threshold, and understandably so for all the reasons I've already outlined. And that's actually a psychological theory that exists called the frustration-aggression hypothesis, which suggests that when someone's goal-directed behavior is repeatedly blocked... That mounting frustration can eventually erupt as aggression. And the reality is, chronic illness often does block an individual's personal goals because it restricts physical ability, independence, productivity, all the things our culture tends to equate with worth. And on top of that, chronic illness can heighten sensitivity to rejection, humiliation, or loss of control.

• 7:34Tristin Engels?

  All of that's very well documented precursors to violent behavior, particularly in individuals who already struggle with emotional regulation or feel chronically invalidated. But when it intersects with unresolved trauma, social isolation, and certain personality traits, that's when it can become a cause for concern.

• 7:56Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, Nathan either wasn't provided resources to deal with his mental health struggles or wasn't interested in using them. And as he got older, he started isolating himself more and more. He'd spent hours in his room at his grandmother's house, sitting at his computer. It was during this period of self-isolation that he was first introduced to the world of pornography, which quickly turned into an addiction. The lonely refuge he built for himself in his bedroom was all-consuming and changed the way Nathan saw the world. During this time, he was, in his own words, emotionally unstable, psychologically disturbed, a caveman. Complicating things even more, in 1998, when Nathan was 12 or so,

• 8:41Vanessa Richardson?

  he was thrust into yet another new family dynamic. That year, Angie began dating a man named Darren Galsworthy, who had two children of his own, a three-and-a-half-year-old named Danny, and Becky, who was six months old. The children had their mother's last name, Watts. The couple quickly became serious. Before long, Darren moved into Angie's house with Danny and Becky. But he only did so after everyone seemed to be getting along, including Nathan, who was still living at his grandmother's during the week. But he would spend weekends at Angie's with his new, expanded family. The dynamics weren't perfect, though. Nathan struggled to bond with little Becky. That's possibly because Angie doted on her,

• 9:25Vanessa Richardson?

  and he was frustrated by how much of her attention Becky soaked up. But it wasn't all bad news. Nathan enjoyed playing with his brother Danny, and Darren was a great father figure. Over the next two years, Darren really bonded with Nathan. He cheered on Nathan's love of all things computers, and even encouraged him to sign up for the Army Cadets when he was 14, which got Nathan involved in more social situations. But none of that changed the way Nathan felt about Becky. Over the next few years, he started to resent her even more. He didn't like how loud living with a young child was, and didn't like when Becky would grab Angie's hands or otherwise initiate physical connection.

• 10:08Vanessa Richardson?

  He didn't seem to understand that babies and toddlers need more care and attention. But really, it seemed like he was just angry that his mom was giving her the childhood he'd never had.

• 10:21Tristin Engels?

  Yeah, these circumstances were likely very confusing for Nathan. He was still living with his grandmother while his mother moved in with a new partner and his children, children who were not biologically hers. So for Nathan, who is already likely struggling with feelings of low self-worth, inadequacy, emotional instability, and social isolation, this could be perceived as a betrayal or rejection. And without emotional reassurance or communication to help Nathan understand these dynamics and to prevent him from personalizing or internalizing them, this can lead to compensatory behaviors like control-seeking, oppositional defiance, impulsivity, aggression, and certainly efforts to reassert significance or regain a sense of power in the family dynamics.

• 11:06Vanessa Richardson?

  Can you tell us some common struggles between new step siblings after they blend families?

• 11:11Tristin Engels?

  Yeah, one of the most common struggles is competition for attention, especially parental attention. Kids who've been through a divorce already feel emotionally displaced as they adjust to that destabilizing event. They need time to establish a new normal, and that can be complicated when parents introduce new partners and children into the mix. But for Nathan, he's not living with his mother, and she's now living with a new family, and that can limit the attention he gets even more, and it can build resentment fast. Another big one is role confusion. Siblings, especially in traditional family structures, tend to fall into clear roles, like the oldest, the baby, the golden child. These roles help shape identity and give children a sense of where they fit in the family.

• 11:55Tristin Engels?

  But when families blend, those dynamics shift abruptly. In Nathan's case, he was an only child entering a new household where Darren already had two biological children. Suddenly, Nathan is outnumbered, both emotionally and structurally. That can feel isolating, especially if he perceives the others as more bonded or aligned, which it seems like he might have. This can further blur his sense of role and belonging, leaving him confused about his place in the family and intensifying feelings of exclusion or resentment. And there's also loyalty conflicts. Some children feel guilty getting close to a step sibling or stepparent, like they're betraying their biological family. Others may try to sabotage the new family dynamic out of a sense of protection or grief.

• 12:39Tristin Engels?

  Now, can these relationships grow into something meaningful? Absolutely, and they often do, but it does require time, honesty, boundaries, and most importantly, empathy.

• 12:50Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, despite Nathan's frustrations, or maybe because of them, he was motivated to find a career and make something of himself. In 2004, after he graduated high school, he enrolled at City of Bristol College with the intention of becoming an electrician. To support himself and his studies, he took on food delivery gigs in the evening. Nathan also continued his involvement with the military during this time. Building off his experience with the army cadets, he enlisted in the Territorial Army, the UK's version of the Army Reserve. On the surface, it seemed like a good thing. Nathan was in a place that surrounded him with discipline and gave him important, useful skills like survival and defense tactics.

• 13:34Vanessa Richardson?

  But it also brought out a more aggressive side in Nathan, and people noticed. He was a bully to his fellow soldiers and made disturbing comments about having access to the morgue and being able to do whatever he wanted with the bodies there. It's not clear what Nathan was referring to with his mortuary access, but it was an odd thing to brag about. Other soldiers witnessed Nathan have terrifying mood swings and outbursts of anger. To them, it seemed like he would snap in an instant, like his latent emotional issues were just brewing beneath the surface, waiting to escape. In one instance, a soldier recalled being in an army vehicle during one of these outbursts.

• 14:14Vanessa Richardson?

  Without any warning, Nathan started driving erratically, weaving the massive truck all over the road. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but it was a dangerous sign of Nathan's growing instability. And about a year into his military service and life as a college student, his problematic behavior presented in other, even more alarming ways. In 2005, when he was 18 years old, Nathan was in a short relationship that did not end well. After the breakup, he became convinced that his ex owed him money and started lingering outside her house in his car until her family called the police. The situation didn't go beyond that, and Nathan eventually moved on.

• 14:59Vanessa Richardson?

  But over the next year, he started to develop a troubling fascination with underage girls. And at the time, Nathan only had one young girl in his life to fixate on: Becky. In 2006, when he was nearly 20 years old, Nathan seemed to become sexually interested in Becky, who was eight. He reportedly touched her inappropriately, and at one point, threatened to kill her. It's not clear if Angie and Darren were aware of this. It's possible they were not, given that Nathan was never punished. But Becky did tell a close friend that she was legitimately scared of Nathan.

• 15:38Tristin Engels?

  So let's talk about the psychology of adult men pursuing underage girls romantically or sexually. It's not just about poor boundaries or misguided affection. It's a fundamental distortion in how they view power, intimacy, and consent. And this behavior can fall under pedophilia disorder if the child is prepubescent, or hebophilia when the child is pubescent. Some men meet the diagnostic criteria for a true paraphilia disorder. Others don't meet the criteria, but they still exhibit predatory behavior, often opportunistic or exploitative. But they do have similar personality profiles. We tend to see a cluster of traits like poor self-worth, low empathy, poor impulse control,

• 16:23Tristin Engels?

  narcissism, and entitlement.

• 16:26Tristin Engels?

  They tend to feel chronically inadequate in adult relationships and so they seek out children or teenagers because they're more easily impressed, less confrontational, and less likely to reject them. In other words, they target those with less power, which, again, is about control. And before I continue, I want to be very precise here. Not all abused children go on to become abusers. That is a persistent and harmful myth. In fact, many individuals who experience abuse in childhood, especially sexual abuse, grow up to be deeply protective of others, particularly children. That said, research does show a correlation between a history of trauma, especially sexual abuse, and later abusive behavior in some individuals. This does not imply causation, but it can act as a risk

• 17:11Tristin Engels?

  factor within a broader context of unresolved trauma, poor coping mechanisms, conditioning, and other vulnerabilities. In my work as a forensic psychologist, I've also seen how some offenders construct really elaborate distortions, like they convince themselves the child was mature for their age, or that the child came on to them. These justifications allow the perpetrator to maintain the illusion that they're not the villain, they're just misunderstood, even victimized in the situation.

• 17:40Vanessa Richardson?

  Could it be possible that Nathan's deep resentment of Becky since he was little distorted itself into a fixation?

• 17:48Tristin Engels?

  Initially, his resentment likely stemmed from feelings of exclusion, envy, and emotional displacement, particularly tied to his strained relationship with his mother and the blended family dynamics. Becky, as the youngest and most emotionally connected to the family, became a symbol of everything Nathan felt denied, like love, attention, acceptance, and belonging. And when those feelings of inadequacy and abandonment go unprocessed, especially in someone with poor emotional regulation, limited social supports, and underlying personality structures, they can intensify over time. So in Nathan's case, the behavior escalated from emotional hostility to threats, sexual boundary violations, and psychological intimidation, which does suggest that it became a fixation over time.

• 18:35Vanessa Richardson?

  Nathan's interest in teenage girls seemed to intensify as time went on. In 2008, he was caught by his mom's boyfriend Darren, driving around with four girls around the age of 12. When Darren confronted Nathan, he didn't seem to understand what was wrong with it. And soon Nathan went from just hanging out with young girls to actually dating them. That same year, he met a 14-year-old named Shauna Hoare. Nathan was 21, but that didn't stop him from pursuing her. No one knew it yet, but it wasn't just the age difference that was alarming. Shauna and Nathan would prove to be a volatile, disastrous pair, and their relationship would have deadly consequences.

• 19:24Vanessa Richardson?

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• 20:45Speaker 01

  Ryan's style is really gunning it in gold.

• 20:48Vanessa Richardson?

  And in less than a minute, it slipped away. But he continued to chase the high.

• 20:54Speaker 03

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• 21:03Vanessa Richardson?

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• 21:57Vanessa Richardson?

  In 2010, after two years of dating, 23-year-old Nathan Matthews and his 16-year-old girlfriend, Shauna, moved in with Shauna's mother. Their age gap was problematic enough, but Nathan's secret obsessions made things even more troubling. At this point, he was consuming violent, sexually explicit porn every day, which influenced how he treated Shauna. Mainly, he did everything he could to control her.

• 22:26Tristin Engels?

  So firstly, not all pornography is harmful, but it can become problematic and harmful when it's compulsive or addictive, and it replaces real-life intimacy or healthy sexual development. And certainly, the content of that pornography can be harmful. So one of the biggest issues with pornography use, especially at younger ages, is it can establish unrealistic expectations. Because it often... Often presents a version of sex that's completely disconnected from reality because it's performative by design. There's often no emotional context, no negotiation, no mutual vulnerability. And if someone's primary exposure to sexuality comes only through that lens, it can seriously distort their understanding of consent, connection, and pleasure.

• 23:10Tristin Engels?

  But even more is the message about gender and power, especially with what Nathan is watching. Because let's be honest, a lot of popular porn, not all, but the majority, doesn't just depict sex, it depicts power over women. Women in mainstream porn are often presented as submissive or eager to please and constantly available. Viewers, especially young ones, tend to misinterpret that as realistic. And over time, that's teaching something very dangerous. And that's that women are not people with agency and preferences. They're objects to be used, controlled, or dominated for male gratification.

• 23:43Vanessa Richardson?

  So Nathan, at this point, had not been in a healthy relationship. How distorted was his perception of relationships by this point?

• 23:51Tristin Engels?

  Let's start with the basics. Real human connection requires vulnerability, empathy, and compromise. And Nathan didn't seem to have the opportunity to build those traits. Like you said, he reportedly had no history of healthy romantic or even close platonic relationships. He spent much of his adolescence and young adulthood physically limited and emotionally isolated. If your only exposure to intimacy is pornography, fantasy, and control, that becomes your framework. And that framework was never updated for Nathan. And in fact, it was reinforced, not just through the pornography he watched, but even with Shauna's family. Her mother allowed Nathan to move in with her and her underage daughter. And that sends another message, that Nathan's interest in minors is acceptable, because

• 24:35Tristin Engels?

  no one's enforcing rules for him and no one is showing him what healthy boundaries or relationship dynamics should look like, even under the roof of what should be a trusted adult.

• 24:48Vanessa Richardson?

  Beyond the troubling porn addiction, Nathan made sure that Shawna was at his beck and call. But if she needed anything from him, he required a sexual favor from her as repayment. Nathan also made it a point to separate Shawna from her loved ones by threatening Shawna's mother with intentional estrangement. And to be very clear, these are signs of intimate partner violence. This control tightened further in 2013 when the couple moved into their own apartment in Bristol, near Angie and Darren's house. The move was out of necessity because 19-year-old Shawna was pregnant. Nathan wasn't ready to take on the responsibilities of fatherhood, though, both emotionally and financially.

• 25:31Vanessa Richardson?

  That earlier drive to make something of himself was now nonexistent. He'd stopped working because his fibromyalgia was too painful and had to resign from the territorial army. He made plenty of excuses for his unemployment and survived on the charity of his mom and her boyfriend. He spent a lot of time at their house, getting free meals and asking for money. But the bigger problem was just how toxic Nathan and Shawna's relationship was becoming now that the two lived on their own. Nathan physically abused her, and in one case even strangled her for at least five seconds. But his torment was psychological, too. In some cases, he would critique Shawna's weight and body,

• 26:15Vanessa Richardson?

  and despite her being pregnant, she had to ask him for food if she wanted to eat. Nathan also forced her to drop out of school after he found out she was talking to other guys there. Wherever Shawna went, Nathan would follow, never letting her out of his sight. He imposed his interests on her, too, namely, his love of pornography. The couple eventually bonded over exchanging graphic messages that focused on teenage girls and fantasies about violent encounters.

• 26:46Tristin Engels?

  Nathan's behavior reflects a pattern of coercive control. He systematically created an environment in which Shauna's autonomy, her relationships, even basic bodily needs were tightly regulated by him. This is not a mutual partnership. This is a form of captivity. Shauna's dependence on Nathan, particularly while pregnant, significantly heightened her vulnerability to abuse. Statistically, pregnant individuals face an increased risk of intimate partner violence, as abusers often respond to that as a perceived loss of control, and they escalate their efforts to dominate, including attempts to control the pregnancy, future planning, or finances. In relationships marked by this level of coercion,

• 27:28Tristin Engels?

  victims often experience confusion, shame, and even emotional paralysis. Coercive control is intentionally disorienting. It chips away at a person's confidence and their own perceptions and choices. And over time, this can lead to learned helplessness, where attempts to resist are abandoned because resistance only leads to further punishment. Additionally, some victims develop trauma bonds, which are emotional attachments to their abuser. The abuser becomes the source of harm and the gatekeeper of relief or affection. And these dynamics can leave someone psychologically trapped in a cycle that's incredibly difficult to break, even when the behavior crosses ethical or criminal lines.

• 28:08Vanessa Richardson?

  Why did Shauna take on aspects of Nathan's personality and interests, like sharing those graphic messages involving teenage girls? Is this a survival technique when in an abusive relationship?

• 28:21Tristin Engels?

  Yeah, so Shauna's identifying with the aggressor, and that's a defense mechanism where the victim, often unconsciously, begins to adopt the worldview, the behaviors, and even moral framework of the person harming them. Why? Because it's safer. It feels safer. And in her mind, if she aligns herself with her abuser, if they echo their beliefs or participate in their actions, the hope is that they will see them as an ally, not a threat. It's not about true agreement. It's about actively reducing the risk. So for Shauna, adopting these behaviors might have been a way to avoid punishment, gain scraps of approval, or feel some sense of closeness in a situation where affection was often weaponized. Essentially, it's coerced survival.

• 29:04Tristin Engels?

  And we also have to remember, Shauna is still a child.

• 29:10Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, it seemed like Nathan had the upper hand in the relationship, but there were moments when Shauna pushed back. She sometimes teased Nathan or flirted with other guys in front of him. When she did this, Nathan responded with physical abuse, either towards Shauna or himself. In one instance, Shauna tried to break up with Nathan, and he responded by stabbing himself with a fork and clawing at his face with his hands.

• 29:36Tristin Engels?

  This is clinically significant behavior, and it's highly suggestive of features of a personality disorder. He's using violence to maintain control through fear, guilt, and unpredictability.

• 29:48Vanessa Richardson?

  The toxicity in their relationship seemed to manifest in their surroundings as well. Their house quickly filled up with trash and eventually became so unlivable that they spent most of their time in the bedroom, where they set up a toaster and kettle so they would never have to leave. Through it all, Nathan and Shauna stayed together. They were about to be parents, and amid all the chaos and tension, they still shared at least one common interest: sexual violence. Shauna's Facebook page and the couple's texts were filled with explicit messages. These started out as shared fantasies about sexual encounters, but they quickly got more extreme. Nathan began texting Shauna

• 30:31Vanessa Richardson?

  about wanting to kidnap a schoolgirl and keep her in the attic. Shauna would message back and cheer Nathan on. Despite the depth of their dysfunction at home, the couple was remarkably capable of hiding it. And when a family tragedy struck, they proved themselves not only helpful, but essential. At some point, Nathan's mother, Angie, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and Shauna went through training to be her caregiver. And when Angie and Darren finally got married in August 2013, Nathan and Danny shared best man duties for Darren. Even though Angie and Darren had been together for 15 years,

• 31:13Vanessa Richardson?

  their actual marriage was a significant moment for Nathan. It meant that Darren, Danny, and Becky were now officially family. And although Nathan had a close bond with Darren and Danny, that still did not extend to Becky. By this point, his earlier annoyance and fixation on his stepsister had turned into something closer to rage. Nathan saw Becky as a self-centered, manipulative teenager who was disrespectful to his mom. Whether this had grounds in reality or not is unclear. But his hatred for her was powerful enough that it affected Shauna, too. They both began to see Becky as a terrible person. For her part, Becky actually made an attempt

• 31:58Vanessa Richardson?

  to have a relationship with Shauna. Becky was 15 and Shauna was 19, so it was natural for Becky to look up to her. But Becky's efforts to connect with Shauna made Nathan's anger towards her even worse. Several months into Shauna's pregnancy, the whole family was hanging out at the house together. And Becky was talking to Angie about how excited she was to become an aunt. Nathan overheard and was furious. He threatened her, saying she would never be allowed around his baby. Becky was clearly hurt, and Darren and Angie were shocked. For Darren at least, this was the moment he realized that something was very wrong with his stepson.

• 32:41Tristin Engels?

  Nathan's outburst appears to really reflect compounded territorial rage, and it was clearly disproportionate, irrational, and deeply concerning. So why is Darren only now recognizing that something is wrong with Nathan? Was that truly surprising to him, this behavior? Or had earlier warning signs been ignored? Well, in many cases, and likely in this one, it's a combination of both. Individuals like Nathan can be remarkably skilled at masking dysfunction, especially when it serves their interests. His longstanding isolation from the family home made it even easier to keep his troubling behavior out of sight. Still, there were red flags that were either overlooked or minimized. There was his significant age gap with Shauna,

• 33:25Tristin Engels?

  his reported attraction to younger girls, and patterns of control-seeking behavior. These weren't unknown. They were simply just not addressed with the seriousness they clearly warranted. But this particular incident marked a turning point because it forced Darren to view Nathan's behavior not as an isolated or a stress-induced event, but as a part of a larger escalating pattern. At that point, the dysfunction could no longer really be rationalized or ignored. So now, the next question is, what do you do about it?

• 33:55Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, even if Darren had finally caught on to Nathan, he might not have known what to do about it. And in fact, he got a brief reprieve because by midsummer of 2013, Nathan and Shauna had welcomed their baby. Surprisingly, Nathan embraced his new role with gusto. He was a caring, attentive father. He doted on the baby and enjoyed all the new responsibilities that came with it, like feeding and playtime. But that didn't mean he'd really changed. Nathan's dark obsessions hadn't gone away, especially his fixation with hurting teenage girls. In late 2014, 27-year-old Nathan texted Shauna multiple times about having the urge to knock out a girl

• 34:40Vanessa Richardson?

  he'd seen at the store and bring her home. Shauna encouraged him each time. Nathan's dedication to these fantasies, Shauna's support, and his hatred for his stepsister Becky were all coalescing to create a recipe for tragedy. And by the time anyone realized just how bad things had gotten, it was too late.

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• 36:08Vanessa Richardson?

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• 37:58Vanessa Richardson?

  By 2015, 28-year-old Nathan Matthews was close to rock bottom. Even though he loved being a father to his now-two-year-old child, nothing else had really changed in his life, especially not his simmering hatred for his younger stepsister, Becky Watts. In Nathan's mind, Becky was manipulative and disrespectful, especially toward his mom, Angie. It's unclear if there was any truth to that, but it seems doubtful. Becky was a shy kid who had such a hard time socializing that Angie had once become an aide in her classroom to keep Becky company throughout the day. Making matters worse, kids at school teased Becky about her weight, which led to a battle with anorexia.

• 38:43Vanessa Richardson?

  But by 2015, Becky was 16 years old and finally thriving. She had a boyfriend, Luke, and a close group of friends, and through her anorexia treatment, she'd gained an interest in fashion and was developing her own creative voice through that. Nathan seemed to notice that Becky was coming out of her shell and constantly tried to prevent her from doing so. He took pleasure in physically terrifying Becky. Whenever he got the chance, Nathan would hide and jump out to scare her, grabbing Becky's shoulders and screaming in her face. The menace and hatred in his eyes when he did this was visible for everyone to see.

• 39:24Tristin Engels?

  So sibling relationships are often our first real peer relationships, and they can be incredibly complicated, especially when it involves a blended family, or they're layered with mental health challenges, trauma, or family dysfunction. In Nathan's case, we see indicators of chronic resentment, emotional displacement, and fixation. But it's important to highlight that Becky was never the true source of Nathan's rage. She just became the unfortunate target of it. His anger was deeply rooted in unresolved feelings of rejection and emotional deprivation stemming from his mother. But rather than direct his rage toward his mother, someone he still depended on for love, approval and connection, Nathan displaced those emotions onto Becky.

• 40:09Tristin Engels?

  She was younger, more emotionally connected to the family and represented everything that he felt denied, which we talked about earlier, belonging, love, attention and maternal closeness. Over time, Becky became a symbol of what he lacked. And because she was more vulnerable and accessible, she became the one he punished. Not for what she'd done, because she hasn't done anything, but for what she represented. This wasn't about Becky. It was about Nathan's need to express his pain and his inability to do it directly with the person who caused it initially.

• 40:43Vanessa Richardson?

  It wasn't long before just scaring Becky wasn't enough for Nathan anymore. He became convinced she needed to be taught a real lesson. Inspired by his obsession with child sex abuse materials, Nathan decided he would abduct his stepsister and terrify her so much that she would correct her allegedly terrible behavior. It's not clear if he discussed this with Shauna, but considering their mutual obsession with kidnapping and disdain for Becky, it's certainly possible. And before long, Nathan wanted to put his plan into action. At some point in February 2015, Nathan heard that his mother, Angie, had a medical appointment on the 19th of the month. He knew his stepfather, Darren, would also be out of the house,

• 41:28Vanessa Richardson?

  which meant Becky would be home alone. And Nathan had access to a spare key so he could come and go as he pleased. He decided that would be the day he'd strike. In the days leading up to it, Nathan assembled a kidnap kit, a red suitcase filled with a mask, handcuffs, a stun gun, tape and black trash bags. Then, on the morning of February 19th, Nathan and Shauna waited outside the house until they knew Becky was alone. At some point between 11:00 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., Nathan and Shauna quietly let themselves into the house with the spare key. When they got inside, Shauna wandered out to the garden and had a cigarette.

• 42:13Vanessa Richardson?

  Once she was outside, Nathan grabbed a mask from his kidnap kit and crept up the stairs. He headed for Becky's room, then knocked on the door. When she opened it, all she saw was a masked stranger standing in front of her. Nathan immediately taped her mouth shut and said, quote, "As long as you do as you're told, you are going to be fine."

• 42:38Tristin Engels?

  It's important to understand fantasy rehearsal is a key warning sign in forensic psychology. People like Nathan often live in their heads for a long time imagining control, power, or revenge. They mentally script the scenario over and over until it becomes not just familiar, but rewarding. But the problem is fantasy doesn't have limits. There's no empathy, no consequences, no interference, and no resistance in the fantasy. And the longer someone stays in that psychological loop, the more desensitized they become. Eventually, the fantasy isn't enough, and that's when they begin to plan. And planning is where fantasy turns to fixation. And he included Shawna in that planning. So when Nathan assembled that kit, he was actualizing the fantasy

• 43:23Tristin Engels?

  that he had been covertly rehearsing in his mind, one that was unrealistic. This was a turning point, and not just a crime of opportunity. It was a tragic culminating event.

• 43:34Vanessa Richardson?

  So Nathan has a lot of anger and clearly resentment. Would it be easier for someone like him to just lose control in this situation?

• 43:43Tristin Engels?

  Yes, absolutely. And as you've outlined, when his sense of control is threatened, he responds with intimidation, physical aggression, coercion, and even self-directed violence. Those were tactics he used to keep control over Shawna. He is intolerant to feeling powerless and will go to extreme, often dangerous lengths to reassert dominance. So while he's been able to establish obedience and compliance from Shawna, he wasn't able to do that with Becky or within his own family dynamic. That's intolerable to someone like Nathan. And individuals with his profile, they don't back down. They escalate. If control isn't given, they take it, often with increasingly violent means.

• 44:26Vanessa Richardson?

  Angie returned to the house at around 12:45 PM that afternoon to find Nathan and Shauna there watching TV. This wasn't unusual. The two of them often came over unannounced. Although Angie was a bit surprised that her stepdaughter wasn't home, but Becky was 16. It was common enough for her to go out without telling Angie that she wasn't concerned. However, a couple of hours later, Becky's boyfriend Luke showed up, hoping to see Becky. They'd been texting back and forth around 11 AM, but she suddenly stopped responding, which wasn't like her. So he'd come over to make sure everything was okay. When Luke knocked at the door, Shauna answered.

• 45:07Vanessa Richardson?

  He explained that he wanted to talk to Becky, but Shauna told him she wasn't home and had probably gone out. Luke didn't buy it and couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but he had no idea how devastating the truth really was. And he definitely didn't know that the answer to Becky's whereabouts was sitting just a few feet away from where he was standing, in the trunk of Nathan's car.

• 45:48Vanessa Richardson?

  Thanks so much for listening. Come back next time for the conclusion of our deep dive on Nathan Matthews.

• 45:55Tristin Engels?

  Killer Minds is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on Instagram at Killer Minds. And don't forget to rate, review, and follow Killer Minds wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference.

• 46:15Vanessa Richardson?

  And to enhance your listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode of Killer Minds ad-free, along with early access to each thrilling two-part series and exciting Crime House bonus content.

• 46:31Vanessa Richardson?

  Killer Minds is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson, and Dr. Tristin Engels, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Killer Minds team: Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Laurie Marinelli, Natalie Pritzowski, Sarah Camp, Kate Murdock, Seth Bloger, Lea Roche, and Carrie Murphy. Thank you for listening.

• 47:02Vanessa Richardson?

  If you're looking for your next podcast, check out What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.