Man put zip tie around child’s neck, locked him in bedroom then got ‘sidetracked’ playing Xbox

Matthew Dirig

Matthew Dirig (Huntington County Sheriff’s Department).

A 34-year-old Indiana man will spend almost four decades behind bars for putting zip ties around an 8-year-old boy’s neck before locking him in a bedroom where he died.

Huntington County Circuit Court Judge Davin G. Smith sentenced Matthew Joseph Dirig on Tuesday to 40 years in prison with two years suspended and 26 days credit for time served. A jury found Dirig guilty of neglect of a dependent resulting in death on Nov. 25. The incident occurred on Nov. 22, 2022, when Dirig had to pick the boy up from the Boys & Girls Club because he was having a behavioral issue, according to court records obtained by Law&Crime.

Dirig claimed the boy was being “aggressive” after they returned home and locked him in his room from the outside. However, Ring camera video showed that the boy seemed calm as he entered the house. The boy’s mother said her son suffered from mental health issues and was prone to tantrums. She would put him in his room for 5 or 10 minutes when he misbehaved and check on him to see if he calmed down. But Dirig claimed he left the boy in his room for about two hours while he played his video game console, Xbox.

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“Um, I just — I got sidetracked with it,” Dirig told detectives, adding that he would “have to live with that.”

Dirig also failed to check on him when his girlfriend texted him and asked him how the boy was doing. About 45 minutes later, the mother returned home and checked on the boy. She found him unconscious with industrial-sized zip ties around his neck and called 911 while Dirig tried to remove the ties, the affidavit said. First responders rushed to the home but he was “beyond saving” and was pronounced dead.

Detectives arrived on scene and noted everyone seemed to be distraught except for Dirig who was “markedly non-emotional.” Investigators interviewed the mother who told them about her son’s behavioral issues, including displaying suicidal ideations. The boy once tried to tie a phone cord around his neck and had a weeklong stay at the hospital, she said. But she said the boy’s behavior had improved in the months leading up to his death after he was placed on new medication. She did not believe her boyfriend would have intentionally hurt the boy.

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