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Murder charges for man in gruesome Florida quadruple killing

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[September 16, 2014]  By Letitia Stein
 
 TAMPA Fla. (Reuters) - Florida police charged a man with murder on Monday in a quadruple killing, after finding the victims' bodies earlier this month decomposing by the side of the road.

Adam Matos, 28, faces four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend, her parents, and her new boyfriend, according to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Matos has been jailed since Sept. 5 on charges of aggravated assault, following his arrest when police swarmed a hotel in downtown Tampa police to rescue a 4-year-old boy with him.

The child, his son, has been safely returned to relatives.

On Monday, sheriff's officials detailed a gruesome crime scene in an affidavit detailing the charges against Matos, who had recently moved to Florida with the family from Pennsylvania.

Police went to check on a family living in a two-story house in Hudson, Florida, about 45 miles north of Tampa, after relatives had been unable to reach them for several days.

Upon arrival, they found what looked like a bullet lying in the driveway and smelled a stench coming from the garage, where several carpets and rugs appeared to be soaked in blood.

About a mile from the house, they found four decomposing bodies covered in maggots. Authorities later identified the victims as Megan Brown, 27; her parents, Margaret and Gregory Brown, both 52; and boyfriend Nicholas Leonard, 37.

An autopsy found Megan Brown and her father died of gunshot wounds, authorities said. Blunt trauma to the head killed Leonard and Margaret Brown, who may also have been asphyxiated.

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Matos came to the attention of Pasco County deputies on Aug. 28 when Megan Brown called to report that he had held a knife to her throat at her home, where Matos was also living.

Authorities said Matos placed some 200 calls to Megan and Margaret Brown's cell phones later that day.

He subsequently told a neighbor the family had fled to another state. Matos appears to have stayed in the home for several days, placing online ads to sell the Brown family's dogs, authorities said in an affidavit.

In a videotaped interview last week, Matos told the Tampa Bay Times that he was innocent but no one would believe him.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

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