The Matt Landry Murder Case: A Tragic Kidnapping and Killing

Matt Landry murder, the 21-year-old pizza delivery driver with a deep love for heavy metal, had been a devoted and affectionate boyfriend to his girlfriend, family, and band members.

Matt Landry, Detroit resident, however, his sudden and unexplained disappearance on a Sunday afternoon left them all bewildered and searching for answers.

It was August of 2009 when Matt had lovingly prepared a warm bath for his sick girlfriend, Francesca Bommarito, served her tea and even provided her with a thermometer before offering to fetch her some fast food.

And yet, despite his caring actions, he vanished without a trace, leaving everyone who knew him stunned and confused.

Despite sharing Matt’s passion for music, Bommarito declined his offer and opted to take a brief nap while he headed out to handle his errands.

However, Matt’s loving and attentive demeanor never returned, leaving Bommarito and others confused.

It wasn’t until a series of seemingly unrelated crimes occurred in the days that followed that investigators could piece together the talented musician’s tragic fate.

Those who knew Matt described him as a gentle and humorous person who was always eager to put a smile on the faces of those around him. As the youngest of five siblings, he was still residing with his parents, Doreen and Bob Landry, in their Chesterfield, Michigan, residence when he vanished.

Bob Landry reminisced about how creating music brought his son immense joy as he spent countless hours practicing with his bandmates.

Shortly before his disappearance, Matt’s interests had expanded to include his new girlfriend.

Everyone, from Bommarito to his parents and bandmates, was in agreement that it was completely out of character for the 21-year-old to vanish without any explanation.

As Sunday night approached, Bommarito began contacting nearby hospitals and police stations, desperate for any information about Matt’s whereabouts.

She stated, “I just wanted to find out if maybe he got into a car accident, or if his car broke down, or if he was stuck somewhere.”

Meanwhile, Matt’s mother, who had a background in banking, took matters into her own hands and logged into her son’s bank account.

What she discovered was deeply concerning, the last few transactions on Matt’s account were three $100 withdrawals from an ATM located in the infamous 7 Mile area of Detroit, which is well-known for its high crime rates and gang activity.

Why would Matt withdraw all his money from his account and go to 7 Mile in Detroit?” she questioned, her mind reeling with possibilities.

Although she desperately hoped that her son had made those transactions, deep down, it didn’t seem like something he would do.

The following day, Matt’s parents contacted the Chesterfield Police to report their son as missing. Meanwhile, in another Detroit suburb, 19-year-old Sarah Maynard was having a terrifying experience of her own.

On the day following Matt’s disappearance, Sarah went to the bank to cash her first paycheck from a dog kennel where she worked. As she entered the Harrison Township bank, she noticed a man wearing sunglasses who seemed to be watching her.

Despite her efforts to ignore him, the man followed her inside as she approached the teller’s window.

“I handed my check over to the teller, and the moment it hit the counter, I felt a gun pressed to the back of my head,” Maynard recounted to ‘Dateline’ correspondent Dennis Murphy.

“He told the teller, ‘Give me $50,000, or I’ll kill her.” The teller quickly handed over what money she could, but the gunman wasn’t satisfied and demanded that Maynard leaves with him, threatening to kill her if she refused.

In a bold move that investigators later hailed as a lifesaving decision, Maynard refused to budge and sat down firmly on the bank’s floor instead.

Frustrated, the man eventually fled the scene, leaving her unharmed. Meanwhile, Chesterfield Police had made a troubling discovery, the individual caught on camera withdrawing funds from Matt’s account at a Detroit gas station was not the missing 21-year-old.

Determined to locate her vanished boyfriend, Bommarito resorted to desperate measures, including sifting through dumpsters in search of clues.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this right now. Searching through dumpsters for my boyfriend. I didn’t know what to do,” she lamented, struggling to hold back tears.

Upon arriving in Detroit, she encountered a group of police cars and drove up to find that authorities had just uncovered Matt’s green Honda abandoned on the street.

By Tuesday, August 11th, 2009, Roseville Police Lt. Ray Blarek had just become aware of another bold crime committed in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart.

The owner of a red Honda Civic reported to the police that he was accosted by an armed man while sitting in his car, demanding that he get out of the vehicle.

However, the attempted carjacking was foiled when the gunman realized that the car was a manual and he was unable to operate it.

During a foot pursuit, a man wearing a large wig was spotted by a nearby officer and immediately took off running upon seeing the police.

While being chased, the suspect threw away a gun and clip before being apprehended with a Taser.

Roseville Police Lt. Ray Blarek immediately recognized the now-captured suspect as the same individual who was caught on surveillance footage robbing a bank in Harrison Township the day before.

Blarek began to speculate whether the same suspect, identified as Ihab ‘IHOP’ Masalmani by authorities, could have been involved in Matt’s disappearance.

This theory was later confirmed when investigators discovered a map in Matt’s abandoned car with an ‘x’ marking the targeted bank.

Despite the surveillance footage from the gas station matching the suspect now in custody, authorities were uncertain about the whereabouts of the missing 21-year-old, Matt.

However, a 911 call surfaced from a witness who reported a carjacking outside a Quiznos Sub shop in Eastpointe on the same day Matt disappeared.

The concerned caller said that the kidnapper had the victim by the neck and was possibly putting him in the trunk.

The last place Matt used his debit card was Quiznos, and the salesperson remembered him asking for the best sandwich for his sick girlfriend.

Despite the family’s hope of finding Matt alive, the heartbreaking truth was revealed on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009, when Blarek and his partner discovered Matt’s body in a burned and abandoned house in Detroit. He had been fatally shot in the head.

Doreen recalled the moment when the chief of police came to her front door, and she could tell by the expression on his face that he had devastating news to share.

Investigators discovered that Robert ‘Fat Daddy’ Taylor, who was only 16 years old at the time, was also involved in Matt Landry’s murder and kidnapping, in addition to Masalmani.

Taylor is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for his role in the crime. The issue of sentencing juveniles for murder has been brought up, and the Supreme Court heard arguments in 2020 regarding whether a life sentence for Taylor was appropriate given his age at the time of the crime.

The court upheld Masalmani’s life sentence, but three justices, including Chief Justice Bridget McCormack, were in favor of a new sentencing hearing for Taylor.