A year after her body was found, a Waukesha man is charged with murdering his girlfriend
About a year after a construction crew found a dead body in the town of Delafield, a Waukesha man has been charged with the murder of his longtime girlfriend.
On Sept. 9, 2022, Findorff Construction employees called 911 after they found a dead woman in a wooded area east of N15W28300 Golf Road, according to the criminal complaint filed on Sept. 18 in Waukesha County.
The suspect is the victim's longtime boyfriend, 55-year-old Matthew Pahl, the complaint said. He was taken into custody for questioning on Sept. 17, 2022, and later released.
As of Sept. 19 of this year, he is in custody, facing two felony charges: first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse.
If convicted, the first-degree intentional homicide charge carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 29 in Waukesha County Court.
According to the criminal complaint:
From the victim's cellphone and daily planner, Waukesha County detectives found that Pahl, whom she lived with, had been physically and emotionally abusing her.
When police viewed surveillance footage from the Waukesha apartment complex, they saw Pahl and the victim, described as a middle-aged woman, leaving their home together the morning of Aug. 23, 2022, the last day she was seen.
About three hours later, surveillance footage shows that only Pahl returned, holding the victim's purse and water bottle that she was seen leaving the apartment with.
The Waukesha County medical examiner determined that is the same day the victim died.
Cellphone records revealed that her voicemails had been checked days after, as well as on Sept. 9, 2022, the day she was found. Cellphone records also show Pahl began searching for the victim's obituary on Aug. 26, 2022.
During police questioning Sept. 17, 2022, Pahl told police that the victim had "taken off" and he hadn't seen her since. He said he found a suicide note she'd written and left in his car before she ran away. He never reported her missing.
Police never found this note.
Skype records show that Pahl had an ongoing relationship with two women in the Philippines. The day the victim's body was found, both of these Skype contacts sent him addresses in the Philippines.
Pahl is in custody and his cash bond is set for $2 million. If the bond is paid, he would be released only during business hours and monitored with a GPS tracking system, according to court records, and would have to turn in his passport to the police.
Quinn Clark can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Quinn_A_Clark.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Waukesha man charged with murdering, hiding body of his girlfriend
