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Roommate recalls bizarre times, said he knew 'it was Matthew'

By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 11, 2007 at 2:21 p.m.
Updated December 11, 2007 at 2:37 p.m.

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Matthew Murray plays the keyboards during a 2002 Christmas celebration performance of dark rock songs that alarmed some classmates at an Arvada missionary program. Five days later he agreed to leave the program.

Photo by Courtesy photo: Richard Werner

Matthew Murray plays the keyboards during a 2002 Christmas celebration performance of dark rock songs that alarmed some classmates at an Arvada missionary program. Five days later he agreed to leave the program.

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When Richard Werner saw TV reports about a gunman's deadly rampage at the Arvada missionary school he attended in 2002, he flashed-back to the odd, teenage bunkmate who used to growl and talk to himself in strange voices in the middle of the night.

"I told my wife immediately, 'I know who did it: It was Matthew,'" Werner recounted today from his home in the southern Brazil resort town of Balneario Camboriu.

"It was the guy that used to sleep right next to me."

Police soon confirmed Werner's gut instinct.

Authorities said Matthew Murray, 24, who apparently held a festering bitterness after being urged to leave the Youth With A Mission program five years ago, was the gunman who returned to the center early Sunday and killed two staff members and wounded two others.

Murray then went south and assaulted a Colorado Springs megachurch, killing two teenage sisters and wounding three other church members before a security guard stopped the slaughter.

Today, Werner was still grappling with the realization that he bunked next to a future killer.

"You think like, you spent four months, sleeping right next to a guy that does something like that," said the 34-year-old missionary who now is married with a 2-year-old daughter.

At the time, Murray struck Werner as a painfully shy 19-year-old who, after being sheltered by a lifetime of home-schooling, had trouble socially adapting to other young people at the Y-WAM center.

"In the beginning he was just a nice quiet normal kid," Werner said.

Then Murray began to display extreme "mood swings" — from biting sarcasm to angering other guys in the 18-man dorm by spreading rumors of homosexual behavior in the shower and violating rules against smoking or romantic relationships during the program.

There were other troubling signs.

Murray would toss and turn in his bunk at night, growling and making slow swallowing sounds, Murray said. He also would talk to himself in the halting, high-pitched speech of "Smeagol," the Hobbit-like character in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy popular at the time.

One night Werner was awakened by Murray's chattering and complained: "Hey, Matt can you just stop that. What are you doing?

"He just turned and said, 'Dude, I'm just talking to my voices,'" Werner recalled.

"Richard ... you don't have to worry," Murray reassured him. "You're a nice guy. The voices like you."

Like other students concerned about the teen's behavior, Werner said: "We didn't know if he was being serious about it or he was just messing with everybody's head."

For a young man from a devoutly Christian family, Murray often seemed at war with his own faith.

Unaccustomed to routine ribbing by other teens in the program, Murray would say: "I don't like the way Christians treat me."

Werner also recalled Murray asking: "Don't you think that Christianity is the reason for a lot of the problems in the world? Like war?"

Werner asked Murray why he was training to be a Christian missionary if he had such doubts.

"I'm here because I want to find out the answers. I want to see if this is true or not," Werner said he replied.

The final straw was a 2002 Christmas celebration where Murray stunned some classmates — and frightened others — by performing dark rock songs by Linkin Park and Marilyn Manson.

The Linkin Park song was "One Step Closer," which includes the lyrics "Cuz I'm one step closer to the edge and I'm about to break!"

While the gathering was light-hearted — with others engaged in comedy skits and mock heavy-metal song covers — Werner said something about the performance by the normally introverted teen rattled or turned off classmates.

"This is kind of scary," some students said.

Five days later, a Y-WAM school leader called a meeting with Murray and his parents and they agreed the troubled young man should not proceed to the final two-month missionary outreach training in war-ravaged Bosnia, Werner said.

On Monday, Y-WAM issued a statement saying Murray left the Discipleship Training School because "program directors felt that issues with his health made it inappropriate for him" to complete the course.

As Murray walked out of the program five years ago, he approached a classmate with a strange farewell to the group.

"I have a message for everybody. Just tell them that now you will see your star," Werner recounted.

The other students interpreted the riddle-like comment to mean: "I'm going to be a star some day," Werner said.

Comments

  • December 11, 2007

    5:17 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Hedz writes:

    Wow that's scary..........

  • December 11, 2007

    7:09 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    snowbelly writes:

    and jesus still has mecy on him

  • December 11, 2007

    9:47 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    RainyDay writes:

    Homeschooling is not what made him have problems, as this story implies. He obviously had a serious mental illness that drove him to this.

  • December 12, 2007

    9:27 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    chris_waipa writes:

    Romans 1:28-32, 2:5
    "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death." "But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God."

  • December 12, 2007

    11:20 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Stephen781 writes:

    I think instead of posting scripture to condemn someone, we should think more about who they really are and what they may have been going thru. I know Matthew was doing his best to please Jesus when
    he was 17, but he felt he failed somehow.....NO ONE is perfect,
    if only Matthew could have seen that, this tradgedy could have
    been prevented.

    I am NOT saying what he did was right, NO WAY would I ever agree
    with what he did. BUT, I feel sorry for him since it appears he
    was ridiculed and put down alot, perhaps in ways many people do
    not even know about.

    I can only hope that JESUS will forgive him anyway, although that
    is not my call on that, so i do NOT know for sure.

    All I know is that HE TRIED when he was 17, and tried hard.
    there is truth in that.......believe it or not.....

    Stephen in HAWAII

  • December 13, 2007

    11:34 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    chris_waipa writes:

    My heart in writing this is to encourage you to stand upon the Word of God and don’t be afraid to call black black and white white. We are commanded to do so as Christians. Not hoping for any man’s judgment, but for repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. For this is the heart of God. Here are some Scriptures that will encourage all believers to speak the truth in love. I wish that Matthew would have turned and let Christ heal him. Jesus had only Heaven in mind for Matthew, but he left Matthew with a choice as He does for all of us.

    Ephesians 5:11
    “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
    Galatians 2:16
    “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” To try hard to be good is to insult the Holiness of God. There is only one who is the measure of Righteousness, Jesus Christ. We don’t try, we believe and Christ is formed in us, perfecting us in Himself.
    Colossians 1:27
    “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you.” Jesus Christ in a person does not pick up guns and murder people with vicious hatred. However, Judas did and he hung around plenty of Christians. Yes, Jesus wanted to heal Matthew. But Matthew chose to refuse God’s love and turned to lawlessness instead. God is very clear in his Word that He does not welcome lawlessness into His presence.
    Matthew 7:23
    “And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
    Amos 5:7
    “You who turn justice to wormwood, And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!"
    The most foolish catch phrase of this generation is, “Don’t Judge.” These are those who “lay righteousness to rest in the earth.” Who excuse any kind of accountability on this earth and pawn it off on God alone. God always has and always will have his vessels on this earth who proclaim Truth and Righteousness. This generation has formed this phrase because, “They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks uprightly.” Amos 5:10

    cw