About Matthew
Mathew David Pendergrast was born on January 4th, 1977 to his parents Jeff and Mary Ellen. Matthew grew up in Atlanta, Georgia where his father was a cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon. His parents and friends described him as “unselfish, kind and caring”. The motivated and intelligent young man moved to Memphis Tennessee to attend college at Rhodes College.
Two weeks away from graduating, Matthew was known to be a great student. He was very involved throughout his years at college, joining a fraternity, partaking in sports like soccer and track and field, and being dedicated to his studies.
His parents also shared that he had a big interest in mission work and had spent two summers volunteering at an orphanage located in the Dominican Republic. He had also planned after graduating, to dedicate his life to non profit work similar to this.
A close friend of Matthew’s at the time, Jason Woods, now shares that he can recall that Matthew had such a huge passion for life and had so much creativity inside him. Woods shares, "We spent many nights in intellectual discussions that ranged from existential philosophy to literature to quantum physics.”
His big brother in their fraternity explains, “Matt never took himself too seriously. He was a good balance between an introvert and an extrovert.”
The Morning of his Disappearance
On the morning of Friday, December 1, 2000, Matthew was scheduled to attend his Spanish class at 9am. The woman who he rented his room from claimed to have heard him moving around his room and she said he eventually left in his navy 1998 Toyota 4Runner around 7:30 and 8am.
It is reported that Matthew never made it to his Spanish class that morning.
The night before, Matthew was in a play at school and friends came forward saying that when seeing him, they thought his behavior was “very upbeat”.
As hour after hour passed with no sign of Matthew, his friends became increasingly worried about him. Knowing that this wasn’t like him, a few friends began calling him. Over and over, the calls went unanswered.
Matthew was never seen or heard from again.
Some sources state that it was later that day and some state that it was the following day, but Matthew’s SUV had been discovered by hunters around 2pm off of a private dirt road in Lonoke Country, Arkansas, about 120 miles from Memphis, Tennessee. The car was unlocked with the keys still in the ignition and his backpack left behind.
The Search
Authorities quickly decided to search the surrounding area and ended up finding a neatly folded stack of Matthew’s clothes including blue jeans, a T-shirt and shoes and socks. Placed near the clothes was his journal. In addition to this, they found his wallet containing his driver’s license, $46 in cash, a credit card belonging to him and family photos.
Some accounts differ in the question of whether or not his shoes were wet or dry, but many accounts state that his jeans were wet from the knees down. Investigators also made it a point to mention that despite the colder weather that day, there were no jackets or sweaters found on the scene.
Over the course of the following days, there were multiple searches conducted that included the use of K-9 teams that specialize in scent tracking, helicopters with night vision and divers equipped with sonar. Despite these extensive searches led by investigators, there were no other signs of Matthew. No scent, no signs of a struggle, no footprints, weapons or DNA was found.
Suspicious Remnants
Now, going back to the journal that was found at the scene, reports state that, “This journal was full of bits of poetry, philosophical musings on the nature of life and death, talk of a desire for immortality, "walking into water and becoming one with nature again", as well as references to “the silver elves”.
To sum up, “the silver elves” is a group that describes themselves as a family of elves who advocate for the spiritual path to self-discovery and immortality.
Matthew’s family firmly believe that he wouldn’t have taken his own life and there was no evidence recovered that would suggest that he was involved in or partook in any kind of drugs or illegal activity.
From the beginning of their investigation, the Memphis Police Department considered this case a missing persons case and didn’t necessarily believe that there was any foul play involved. Eventually, the case was handed off to the Arkansas State Police who still consider it open and are still taking leads to this day.
Theories
While the case is still open, there are some prevailing theories among investigators and armchair detectives alike.
The main theory that we found to be fairly popular is that Matthew decided to surrender himself to the bayou as part of a mysterious ritual. Matthew’s family and close friends admittedly deny this idea stating that they don’t believe he had any reason to kill himself.
Other theories suggest that Matthew left his family and friends to start a new life or that of a drug deal gone bad.
I think that it is important to note that Matthew’s mother was skeptical that he would have placed his clothes neatly folded and stacked. She states, “our son was not the neatest soul in the world” It was also stated that he left his room in disarray before his disappearance. This information confirms for Mary Ellen that he did not do this by his own volition.
According to a private investigator hired by the family, he thinks that the way the clothes were left just didn’t add up. He states that the jeans, “were wet up to the knees, yet the drainage ditch between where this vehicle was found and where his clothes were laid was filled with water that would have come up much higher on Matt than his knees, probably up over his head. I think it was all staged.”
To provide or request additional information regarding Matthew’s case, please contact the Arkansas State Police at (800) 553-3820.
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, call the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988. It’s never too late to get help. To find programs, toolkits, fact sheets, and other resources to help you take effective action, you can visit the links in either the show notes or the description of this video.
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