thecrimeshop

No Child Should Grow Up in the Shadows of Her Mothers Unsolved Murder

November 16, 2000 Midwest City, Oklahoma

When police responded that cold November night in 2000, her 9 month old daughter was found unharmed in her crib.

Nancy Probst on the other hand, had been found beaten and shot in the back of the head. Nancy was only 32 at the time of her brutal murder.

Police and investigators always liked her husband for the murder in fact, on the night of the murder like any loving husband would, Matt Probst upon arriving home spotted his dead wife through a window and without venturing into the home turned around, got into his car which he had parked down the street from his home and waited for police to arrive. He parked 6 houses away from his home that night.

Matt was in fact charged with the murder of his wife, he even spent a year in jail awaiting trial for it, but alas the night prior to his preliminary hearing, the DA decided to drop the charges, the case and let the guy go.

No one else has ever been arrested for the murder.

Nancy’s brother Byron adopted his niece and she has had no contact with her biological father. Nancy’s daughter grew up without her mother, knowing that her mother was so brutally murdered, this young woman naturally has questions and deserves closure.

A brief History:

According to court documents, Matt told detective Jerry Kennedy that he called 911 at around 6:17 p.m. to report that “something was wrong” with his wife because he saw her face down through the bedroom window and he could hear his baby crying.

The document also goes on to say that investigators believed that the crime scene had been staged. “The VCR had been placed on the floor,” not dropped, and there was a “black coax cable draped across the victim.” Although Nancy was nude except for wearing a bra, she had not been sexually assaulted. Nothing of value was taken from the home, and the baby was not harmed. A cologne bottle, used in the assault, lay outside the open garage door.

A medical examiner’s report included in the document states that Nancy had been beaten before shot.

“The injuries included a bruised left eye, lip, and bruised lower abdomen. The impression left on the victim’s abdomen was caused by an assault where a ‘Black Suede’ cologne bottle was used as the weapon.”

Matt said he began calling his wife at 3pm and called several times the last one was placed 9 minutes before the call to 911.

In the document, detectives relate that Matt had many worries while driving home after work.

“I thought my wife was dead, that she had been killed.”  Matt explains that he parked some distance from home because he had learned this from his highway patrolman father who had once told him not to park in front of the house if something is wrong. Matt also stated that he was fearful the assailant was still in his home.

A neighbor commented that when looking at Nancy’s house the blinds and door were closed throughout the that day and that Nancy liked to let the light in. No one was seen entering or exiting the home that day.

To add fuel to the fire it was widely reported that Matt had several affairs with women, one of the women told police that she and Matt had sex in a customers van. Matt was a mechanic. She went on to state they had sex the day his wife had been murdered.

At the time Matt’s attorney felt that too much attention had been unfairly placed upon Matt. He stated that other things were going on in the neighborhood such as burglaries and Calvin Mosley had sexually assaulted women in the area and was convicted of the crimes after Nancy’s death. Police determined that Mosley’s modus operandi was not a match for Nancy’s murder.

While everything seems to point to Matt as Nancy’s killer and trust me that is an excellent working theory, I do not believe he actually pulled the trigger. He is more complacent than he is guilty of actually pulling the trigger. That does not mean that he had no prior knowledge.

Everything from his odd behavior to his lack of even caring for his own child leaves many to believe that he is guilty. Still a few things do not add up. If he wanted his wife gone because he wanted out and let’s just roll the dice here and say he didn’t want his daughter either, why then would he only murder his wife? I get the staged crime scene, but leaving the child alive makes no sense considering the fact that he clearly showed that he didn’t care for her from the very moment he refused to enter his own home at the sight of his wife lying face down on the bedroom floor.

If Matt like most murderous husbands or ex husbands do, actually had the sense or wherewith all to plan a murder, he would have been a lot cleaner than this one turned out. Most men who kill a wife do it because they don’t want to have to pay alimony, child support or, they don’t want the wife to have custody of any children the couple share. It’s an ownership thing, a carrot they dangle over the woman’s head.

Let’s face it, he really is not bright enough to have planned it out through the end. He would have made a lot more mistakes.  He didn’t seem concerned at all with the money aspect and while some might argue that is because he was going to murder his wife, it doesn’t answer the question of if that was the plan, what of the child. Matt is not smart enough to have guessed his brother in law would take the child in and raise her.

The neighbor noticing that the doors and blinds were closed all day that day is also disturbing. That means that either Matt let whomever did kill his wife into the home, go to work, have sex while at work and go back home knowing his wife had met her fatal end or…the woman who said she had sex with Matt that day was lying and knows more about the crime than she initially told police. She knows a lot more than she ever led on.

All of that said, in Matt’s eyes quite simply put, this all came out to be too good to be true. His ability to tell simple lies rather than elaborate ones says a lot.

The ability to apply the right amount of pressure to Matt and/or the woman who claims they had sex that day may just prove more fruitful than waiting around for something to fall from thin air that points indisputably to the killer of Nancy Probst.

This is a case where re-examining the crime scene, the evidence, the statements and perhaps conducting some follow up interviews may prove to shed more light than darkness and lead to an arrest finally.

Nancy Probst has a daughter who has grown up without her mother, she grew up not knowing her mother, rather she grew up in the shadow of her mothers unsolved murder. She deserves to have some closure, she deserves to know who murdered her mother. The why is never more important because it is always just an excuse for having done something one should not.

Cristal M Clark

@thecrimeshop

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