Matthew Lee Richards, a former children’s pastor, is pleading guilty to all charges after unsuccessfully attempting to kill his wife and five children and burn down his house. Richards pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder, and sentencing is scheduled for March. Police were alerted on Sept. 16, 2023, to a disturbance and house fire in Shawnee, Kansas
“One of the callers said their dad [was] chasing them with a knife, and the dispatcher could hear a fire alarm sounding in the background,” court documents said. “An additional caller stated she had been stabbed.” Police found smoke billowing out from an explosion at the home. They found that the pastor, his wife, and five children had all been stabbed.
One of his children reported, “They were all in bed when dad came around stabbing everyone, and they all ran outside. He stated his dad stabbed him.” the affidavit said. After he was taken to the hospital, Richards told investigators, “I stabbed my family.” “The defendant said 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,” officers explained. “They had not packed anything, and no one in the family knew they were being evicted.”
According to his confession, he formulated a plan to kill his family rather than break the news. Apparently, he blacked out, and the last thing he remembered was being “on the ground, and he was on top of her and struggling with her over the knife, and she was screaming his name.” The disgraced pastor remembers hearing, “Dad has a knife.”
“The defendant denied remembering stabbing the children,” the affidavit read. “He did admit that his [redacted]-year-old son, [redacted] said ‘dad why do you have the knife?’ when he was upstairs with the kids.” The pastor called himself a “monster” and reiterated, “I stabbed my kids, detective. I stabbed my wife.” Despite injuries including “significant laceration across his abdomen [where] internal organs were exposed,” all the victims are expected to survive.“
According to a neighbor, they heard banging on their front door and opened the door and saw the children,” the document concluded. “The children said their dad had gone from room to room throughout the house and stabbed them.” In response, Crossroads Christian Church released a statement and appealed to the community to help the Richards family.
“The Crossroads Christian Church family is shocked, sickened, and saddened by the events involving our former children’s pastor. This is a tragedy beyond what any of us could have imagined,” they said. “We give our full cooperation and support to the Shawnee Police Department and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department as they conduct their investigation.”
“Over the last few days there have been several inquiries around ways to donate funds to the Richards Family for expenses for medical treatment, food, clothing, etc., for Stephanie and the kids. We have set up a specific account for them here at Crossroads that you can donate to directly if you feel so moved,” they posted to Facebook.” You can make checks out to Crossroads Christian Church and put “Richards Family Fund” in the memo portion of the check. You can also take an offering envelope from the lobby or office and mark the outside of the envelope “Richards Family Fund.”