KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Shawnee youth pastor who confessed to stabbing his family, including his wife and the couple’s five children, before setting the house during the early-morning hours Sept. 16 on fire told police that a pending eviction prompted his violent outburst.
Matthew L. Richards, 41, told investigators “that he had not been honest with his wife regarding their financial situation and the fact that they were supposed to be evicted that very day,” according to a Shawnee police affidavit obtained by KSHB 41 News.
Richards, a former children’s pastor at Crossroads Christian Church, had not told anyone in his family that they were going to lose the house and the family had yet to begin packing up personal possessions, so “he formulated the plan to burn the house down earlier in the evening,” according to the affidavit.
Richards was charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated arson with risk of bodily harm, began stabbing his family around 3:45 a.m. as they slept.
The Shawnee police and fire departments responded to the Richards’ home in the 6600 block of Goode Drive after receiving “several 911 calls about a house fire and someone chasing them with a knife,” the police affidavit said.
Responding officers heard a small explosion that bowed the garage doors out before fire crews quickly extinguished a fire in the basement.
Richards allegedly set fire to wood and clothing in an attempt to burn down the house, according to the affidavit.
Some of the children who had been stabbed escaped the house and fled to a neighbor’s house, while three other victims were located in the front yard by arriving emergency crews.
After being advised of his rights, Richards admitted that he “stabbed my family” during an interview with Shawnee police, according to the affidavit.
Richards also told investigators he was a monster: “I stabbed my kids, detective. I stabbed my wife,” he said according to the affidavit.
Richards said he thought “it would be better if they all died rather than for his kids to have to deal with the trauma of the [sic] finding out the truth and for his wife to find out the truth.”
Richards was treated for smoke inhalation at the hospital before being released to police custody.
The couple’s 19-year-old adult child and two of the juveniles were treated and released from the hospital the day of the stabbings and fire.
Richards’ wife and two other juveniles required a longer hospital stay.
Crossroads Church released a statement after RIchards’ arrest that it was “shocked, sickened, and saddened” by the allegations against him and called it “a tragedy beyond what any of us could have imagined.”
Richards remained jailed on a $5 million bond at the New Century Adult Detention Center. He has been assigned a public defender and is due in court Friday for a preliminary hearing.
A bank started foreclosure proceedings for nonpayment of the Richards’ mortgage in November 2022 and a court agreed to an order of sale in April 2023.
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