 For Lauren Phelps, life had really just begun when she married the love of her life, Matthew Phelps, in 2016. The two were deeply involved in their local Baptist church, with Lauren being a Sunday school teacher and Matthew being a church minister. But in the fall of 2017, their lives would forever be changed. In the middle of the night, a crime of unspeakable proportions took place in the Phelps household, a crime that Lauren, unfortunately, wouldn't survive. When Matthew phoned 911 to report the crime to investigators, the statements he gave were haunting, confusing, and unlike anything investigators would have expected. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where we don't have a lot of backstory. I'm not sure if the family of Lauren and Matthew wanted to maintain their privacy after the crime, or if it's simply that reporters didn't have too many interviews with the family. But the early lives of both Lauren and Matthew were largely a mystery. Oddly enough, most of the information I have been able to find about the couple comes from Instagram of all places. I was able to find out that Lauren was involved with a company known as Sensei. Sensei is a service pretty similar to Avon and countless other programs where you can sign up on their website to sell products in exchange for a small commission. Sensei in particular deals in fragrances such as wax warmers and candles, and they're not a sponsor, by the way. The best I can tell, Sensei seems like it may just be another pyramid scheme, but I don't know enough about the company to say that for sure. It's just the impression that they give. But anyway, Lauren teamed up with Sensei sometime in 2015 or 2016, and it seems as though she was doing quite well. She'd received a few awards during her time working for the company, and everything seemed to be working out great for her. As far as I can tell, the work that Lauren was able to do with Sensei, allowed her to maintain a stay-at-home lifestyle while her boyfriend and soon-to-be husband was attending schooling and training to become a pastor at the couple's Baptist Church. For those of you that may not know much about the Baptist Church, and I'll be the first to admit, I don't know much about the Baptist faith either, a pastor is someone who leads church services, gives sermons, and even counsels members from time to time. In a non-denominational church, which is what I'm more familiar with, a pastor is more akin to an elder or rather someone who makes decisions about the church's donations and outreach projects and the overall directions of the church. But in the Baptist faith, this isn't really the case, typically. It appears as though Lauren met Matthew sometime in mid-2014. The first mention of Matthew on law and social media was in the fall of that year, and the two seemed to have hit it off immediately, officially becoming a couple in November of 2014. Matthew and Lauren seemed to have been great for one another, and all of Lauren's family members agree, saying that the two seemed destined to be together, with Matthew being a very honest, clean-cut guy. It seemed that for Lauren, the stars were finally alighting, and she'd found the one that she'd been looking for for all this time. Matthew allowed Lauren to be herself, and he loved her forehead. We don't know if Lauren had any ambitions of college or a long-term career path, but we know that once she met Matthew, her life began to change for the better. She became even more deeply involved with her local church, and when Matthew announced that he wanted to begin studying to become a pastor, Lauren was more than happy to support it. After dating for just under two years, the two got engaged on Valentine's Day in 2016, and they would get married later on that year. According to social media, the two were beyond happy together. In fact, their lives seemed to be perfect. But you always have to remember, social media is only a slight glimpse into the lives that people are actually living. As it would turn out, no sooner than their marriage had begun, it had begun to fall apart. According to Lauren's family, despite how happy Lauren may have seemed, she was miserable, and most of this misery stemmed from her new husband, Matthew. As it would turn out, Matthew wasn't at all the man that he claimed to be. You would never guess it, but Lauren and Matthew were walking on very thin ice from the moment they got married. I'm sure most of us already know that when you marry someone, typically you can buy in finances. I know there are certain couples out there that don't do this, but more often than not, couples share everything with one another, including their money. This is where things began to cause trouble for the Phelps household, though. See, when they were single, everything was working out great between Matthew and Lauren. After all, they each had control over their own lives, and they were able to share only what they felt comfortable sharing with one another. But now that they were married, they more or less felt obligated to share every little detail with one another. And that's when Lauren began to make a few discoveries about Matthew that she never would have expected. After living together for a few short months, Lauren began to realize that Matthew had a serious problem with money. We don't know for sure just how deep the rabbit hole really goes, but according to Lauren's family and friends, Matthew was spending like he was a member of Congress. But in reality, his income was virtually nothing, at least it was nothing compared to the amount he was spending. It's pretty safe to assume that Matthew was likely in a lot of debt, but I haven't been able to confirm this for certain, so don't take that as fact. But according to Lauren's peers, Matthew was living a lifestyle that simply wasn't sustainable no matter how you looked at it. This naturally caused serious problems in the couple's relationship, and Lauren was at wits end no sooner than their marriage had begun. Lauren was known for being a very resourceful, honest, and caring person about how she lived her life. Matthew, on the other hand, was a bit more rambunctious and careless. Lauren had spoken with him time and time again about the sheer amount of money that he was spending, and Matthew seems to have made every attempt to cut down on his spending, but he just couldn't shake the habit. After all, for some people, buying things can be an addiction, even a way to hide their pain and discomfort in various aspects of their lives, and this certainly seems to have been true for Matthew. Matthew was unhappy with his life. On the surface, he had everything, a beautiful wife, a fulfilling job, a nice car, everything most people would ever aspire to have, but that just wasn't enough for him. Lauren grew so concerned about Matthew's spending habits that she began limiting access that he had to their bank accounts, but even this didn't seem to work as he'd always find ways around Lauren's safeguards. This led to one argument after another, and before they knew it, both Lauren and Matthew were at wits end with one another. Lauren seems to have been set on working out whatever flaws the couple had, but she can only take so much. In mid-2017, Lauren had been speaking with a few of her friends about Matthew, and she began to fear that their relationship wasn't going to work out. No matter what she did, she felt like Matthew wasn't willing to cut back on his spending, and if the couple were ever going to start a family together, big changes would need to be made, but Matthew wasn't willing to make these changes. To top this off, Lauren had begun to suspect that Matthew was being unfaithful, but she couldn't prove anything just yet. At this point, it was more of just a gut feeling than anything else. Lauren did her best to see past Matthew's flaws, but they were becoming too large to ignore, and it was causing their lives to spiral out of control. While Lauren was obsessed with things like her cute outfits, Star Wars, dogs, and children, Matthew's priorities were elsewhere. See, Matthew wasn't the man that he portrayed himself to be. Matthew had a dark side. Contrary to Lauren's more lighthearted interests and hobbies, Matthew seemed to have had an affinity for horror movies and the macabre, particularly the movie American Psycho. If you've never seen the movie, a quick rundown is that the main character, Patrick Bateman, is an investment banker who lives a double life as a serial killer. According to Matthew's friends, he was truly obsessed with the film to a concerning degree. He even dressed up as some of the characters from the film on holidays from time to time. But things got much darker and much more concerning when Matthew was casually talking with one of his friends over drinks one day. This friend says that seemingly unprovoked, Matthew brought up serial killers. But not only this, he confessed that he often wondered what it would be like to claim someone's life. I'm sure this is a thought that's crossed all of our minds at some point in our lives, but Matthew seemed strangely curious. This wasn't just a passing thought for him. The friend said that he could tell there was a strange energy that encompassed Matthew as he pondered the thought of this. It wasn't too long after this that tragedy struck. It was September 1, 2017. The Phelps couple were happily asleep in their apartment and it was, by all means, a night like any other. The two had turned in for the evening and went to bed as they always did. But at some point in the middle of the night, Matthew was haunted by twisted dreams that he couldn't seem to shake off. Matthew had actually revealed that he struggled to sleep most nights. This led him to go to various means to try to get some rest, oftentimes relying on over-the-counter medications to get to sleep. Though there are some rumors that he may have been involved in much harder substances as well. On this particular night, Matthew had taken a high dose of cough medicine, as he'd heard from a friend that it was the easiest way to turn in for the night. But one of the side effects of this medicine is that it can cause some rather wild dreams, and Matthew was experiencing this first hand. He never revealed specifically what these crazy dreams were about, but they were so disturbing that he eventually got out of bed to clear his mind for a bit trying to calm down. As he crept out of bed, he stumbled over to the bedroom doorway and turned on the light. But when he turned to face the room, he couldn't believe his eyes. At first, he thought he was still dreaming, but he quickly realized this was no dream, this was real life. When he turned around, Matthew found Lauren lying on the floor, the entire bedroom covered in red stains. On the bed, he noticed a knife, and when he looked down at his clothing, he noticed he was covered in red from head to toe. Unsure of what to do, Matthew did the only sensible thing and called the police. After dialing 911, Matthew made a truly disturbing revelation to the dispatcher. As he spoke with the 911 operator, he explained that he had a terrible dream, but when he turned the lights on, he found his wife on the floor. He followed this by saying, I think I killed my, and then he trailed off. The dispatcher began desperately asking how something like this could have happened, but all Matthew could do was describe the scene of the crime. He was very clearly in shock by what had taken place. All he was able to explain was that he had taken a large amount of cough syrup then woke up to the scene of a crime. As the call came to an end, Matthew began sobbing, saying that his wife didn't deserve this. But Matthew's shock wouldn't last for very long. As investigators later made their way to the scene of the crime to collect whatever evidence they could, they realized a particular aspect of the crime scene didn't make any sense. When they arrived to speak with Matthew, they realized that he was strangely clean. Even though he had told the dispatcher he was covered in red stains, they found he was in pretty good shape for someone who had just woken up to a crime scene. It didn't take detectives long at all to prove that Matthew had, in fact, cleaned up long before the 911 call. Now, I don't know about you, but if I woke to find my wife on the floor in a bedroom covered from floor to ceiling in evidence, I don't think taking a shower would be the first thing on my mind, and police picked up on this clue immediately. All throughout his interrogation and interviews with police, Matthew maintained his story. Each time he was asked, he'd say the same thing. He took a much larger dose of cough medicine than he should have, and then he went to bed and woke up to the scene of a crime. Police didn't have any evidence to prove otherwise, outside of the strange fact that he had cleaned up before calling 911, but this isn't a crime by any means, it's just weird. But while Matthew had initially maintained his innocence during the investigation, he would soon make a bizarre confession that took everyone by surprise. At this point, investigators were unsure of what to believe. The evidence told a clear story of what had taken place that evening, but the account that Matthew had given made an equal amount of sense, at least to a certain point. Matthew claimed he was under the influence of cough syrup when the crime occurred, and this appeared to have been true, but the manufacturer of the cough syrup in question explained that in their countless years of research, they found zero evidence that could link the medication to violence. Police were highly suspicious, but they weren't able to prove much of anything, at least not yet. As his trial was underway, Matthew was speaking with the judge who'd be overseeing his case. As he spoke with the judge, Matthew's demeanor began to change. Up to this point, Matthew had shown no signs of remorse. In fact, when investigators spoke with him at the scene of the crime, they noted that he showed no significant signs of emotion, claiming he didn't even shed real tears. But as he spoke with the judge, Matthew underwent a major shift and admitted to the crime. He told his side of the story, and he opened up about the possibility of being responsible for the crime. Then, just a few brief moments later, he more or less confessed the cough syrup probably had nothing to do with his actions that evening. The judge asked, are you admitting guilt? And Matthew agreed. Some prosecutors believe Matthew only did this as a way to avoid the death penalty, while others believe he really was beginning to show signs of remorse. It's difficult to say one way or the other, if I'm being honest, but this is nowhere near the end of the story, and things would only get worse for Matthew from here. As the case was still undergoing investigation and the trial was underway, detectives managed to track down multiple social media accounts that Matthew owned. He had two Instagram accounts, one titled Marty Radical and another titled Uncanny Matty. On his Marty Radical page, Matthew almost exclusively posted screenshots and quotes from the film American Psycho. This account has since been set to private, so I can't confirm any of the specific posts that Matthew made, but the profile image from this account is still visible, and it's an image of Christian Bale from the film covered in red spatter, so it's pretty safe to say that the allegations there are most likely true. As for Matthew's other account, well, let's just say that his bio didn't age well. The only part of this page that is still visible is the message in his bio that reads, I'm just a pitiful anonymous, drifting into the abstract. I can't seem to tell if I'm dreaming anymore. Police have made a few bold suggestions, claiming that Matthew was so fascinated with American Psycho and so frustrated with his wife for trying to control their finances and threatening divorce that he snapped. In a fit of rage, they claim that he enacted one of his favorite scenes from American Psycho, inflicting more than 120 individual wounds on his wife, then taking the time to clean himself up before ever calling the police. While Matthew has never admitted directly to all of these allegations, I don't think it would be much of a stretch to assume that investigators are probably correct in these assumptions. In the aftermath of the crime, Lauren's family has spoken out about the case, and Lauren's father has expressed regret over the last few weeks of Lauren's life. He mentioned that just a few weeks before his daughter lost her life, he noticed that her demeanor had changed. She seemed paranoid, afraid, and worried about something. He regrets that he didn't question her further about this, and he believes that this may allude to Matthew's crime having been premeditated, and Lauren may have felt that something bad was about to happen. To make matters even worse, Lauren also learned that Matthew had been cheating on her. Lauren's sister says that she spoke with Lauren just hours before the crime unfolded, and she discovered that Lauren and Matthew have been arguing about Matthew's alleged affair, after Lauren had witnessed her husband sneaking out of the house to be with another woman. Lauren's sister believes that the two were most likely revisiting this argument when Matthew lost his temper and began attacking Lauren, but this has never been proven, though it would certainly make sense. We may never know for sure, but Lauren's family has been beyond heartbroken by the entire situation, though I'm sure that really goes without saying at this point. Lauren's mother describes Matthew as a master manipulator, also believing the crime was premeditated for months before it took place, though in all honesty, I've found no reason to believe that this is true. According to Lauren's mother, police allegedly told her that most of Lauren's wounds had also come from behind, and they have reason to believe that he had knocked her to the ground, sat on top of her, and inflicted most of the wounds while she was defenseless against him. In response, Lauren's father said, I think about it every day, what I did wrong, what I missed. Till this day, I just regret not knowing or keeping my eyes open and watching. I took everything as it was. When asked about the possibility of forgiving Matthew one day, Lauren's father replied, No, I'll take it to my grave and I'll still hate it. In the end, Matthew was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. Now, I can already tell that a few select people watching this video are going to run to the comments and start ranting about how this Christian man killed his wife. Let me just tell you, Matthew was not a Christian man. Matthew was a fraud, a joke even. In fact, one of his social media accounts didn't even describe himself as being a pastor or even a pastor in training. He described him as an entrepreneur. Christianity is about living up to the example that Christ set for his people, helping those who are less fortunate, loving our neighbors, and being in the world, but not of the world, and following the very simple commands that God has given to his followers. Matthew was none of those things. Matthew was a hateful man who turned his back on religion a long time ago. He is not representative of any Christian I've ever met, and it pains me to have even mentioned him in the context of being a minister of God's word. He's nothing but a wolf in a sheep's den, and Matthew got exactly what he deserved. But in the real world of Christianity, as painful as it may be to hear at times, there's always a possibility of redemption, and I certainly hope that before his life is over, Matthew is able to truly turn his life around and realize the pain and the grief that he's inflicted on so many innocent people, and maybe even turn himself around before it's too late. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode of True Crime Stories. If you want to see more true crime documentaries like this, be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. If you'd like to help support the channel, the best way you can do that is simply by leaving a comment below, any comment at all. It helps out the channel a lot more than you may realize. If you want to help out financially, you can do that by clicking the blue join button below, or by picking up a True Crime Stories mug from Tynauts.com. But with that, my name is Tynauts, and I'll catch you guys in the next video.