‘Dad, why do you have the knife?’: Youth pastor who called himself a ‘monster’ stabbed wife and 5 kids because of looming eviction, financial troubles, affidavit says

Youth Pastor Matt Richards arrested

Police in Shawnee, Kansas, arrested Matthew Richards, 41-year-old youth pastor, inset, after he allegedly set his house on fire and then stabbed his wife and five children. (Richards mug shot via the Johnson County Jail; Scene photo from KMBC/YouTube)

Describing himself as a “monster,” a Kansas youth pastor stabbed his wife and five children because he feared they would be evicted from their house and “thought that it would be better if they all died rather than for his kids to have to deal with the trauma,” investigators wrote in an arrest affidavit.

Matthew Lee Richards, 41, is facing five counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated arson with risk of bodily harm.

Several 911 calls came in shortly before 4 a.m. Sept. 16 for a house fire and a stabbing at a home in Shawnee, a suburb of Kansas City.

“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,” the affidavit said. “An additional caller stated she had been stabbed.”

Officers arrived at the home and found three stab wound victims outside. Smoke was billowing from the home and an explosion occurred, which blew out the garage doors, investigators said. Detectives determined Richards’ wife, four sons, one of whom is 19 while the others are minors, and daughter were all stabbed. His wife was suffering from multiple stab wounds and was last listed in critical condition at a hospital, the affidavit said. Two of the children also suffered serious stab wounds.

One of the children told officers “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. Officers took Richards out of the home and to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Once he was cleared, he told investigators “I stabbed my family” in an interview.

“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,” detectives wrote. “They had not packed anything and no one in the family knew they were being evicted.”

So Richards formulated a plan to burn down the house. He set the fire first and then grabbed a knife.

The next thing he remembered was his wife “on the ground and he was on top of her and struggling with her over the knife and she was screaming his name,” the affidavit said. She yelled for someone to call 911. He said he then recalled one of his children saying “dad has a knife” and followed the child until he escaped out the back.