On May 10, 2012 at about 7:15 I woke up to find that my husband had not returned home after our phone call the night before at 11:30. He said I'll be home soon just waiting for his friend to punch out. I woke up and immidiately called his cell phone to it being off. I started to worry and began calling police stations. At about 7:30 two black unmarked cars pulled in my driveway and two detectives from the Macomb County Sheriffs Department were at my doorway. They had asked if they could come in, and then asked me a few personal questions, and I had stated that I was his wife. They had then asked me to remove my child (2 years old) and she wouln't leave my side,I was also 6 months pregnant with our second child, I began getting frustrated because they hadnt told me why they were here. They then asked me to sit down and I told them I was okay. They preceeded to tell me that my husband was involved in an accident at 3:00 a.m a block away from my house. I instantly lost it and starting crying as hard as i could, they had asked me to identify his body, I couldnt do it..I called my mom imediately and told her that Matt was hit and killed. My mom got there about 15 mins later and identified the photo to be my husband Matthew John Thompson. They began telling me that he was hit by a drunk driver, and he had hit my husband and then ran into a culvert, he then left the vehicle and walked up to one of the witnesses and asked if he could get a ride to his buddies house, when the witness asked him what he hit, he replied "I dont know but I took it out good" After the witness told him no to giving him a ride he began to walk towards where I lived. Another witness drove up to scene and found my husband in a pool of blood, She called 911 along with the other witness. Police showed up at about 3:30 a.m with the police dog to track down the drunk driver. They found him at about5:00 a.m underneith a car two streets away from our home, saying you have the wrong guy, I saw him in the front of the park. When taken to the hospital it was shown he had only a blood alcohol level of .08 just the legal limit, He was booked and held until arraignment. On May 12, 2012 I saw my husband for the first time since the day he was killed. I couldn't believe it was really him, I told everyone this is not him, this looks nothing like him, he had so much makeup on to cover his bruises and he had a mesh finger because it had been broken, I had a hard time dealing with it, My mom was right by my side and there the whole time. She told me its gonna be okay. During my husbands funeral I recieved a phone call from the victims rights unit through Macomb County, she had told me that the charges have been filed and were as follows 1 count Operating under the influence causing a death. 1 count Failure to stop at the scene of accident with serious-personal injury. 1 count Operating while Intoxicated/impaired with presence of controlled substances 3rd offense and 1 count driving while license suspended. 3 felonys and 1 misdemeanor. I thought my husbands going to get justice. During the arraignment we found out he was on probation for a drunk driving in April 2011. We stayed in district court for 3 moths because he had warrents and all kinds of issues with his probation violation, finally the preliminary exam was done August 9, 2012 the next day I had my daughter. We finally had it bound over and went through a year of pre-trials and motions, and him firing his lawyer. His attorney tried everything, finally in December 2013 Judge Peter Macaroni worked out a deal with him. He got 18 moths time served, 5 years probation and 1 year zero tolerance probation and 1 year with a drug and alcohol teether. I was beside myself and so upset, a mans life worth only 18 months time served. When his sister and I went up at sentencing I took every picture I had even the pictures of his daughter he never had the oportunity to meet. I told him that he took a father away, two children will never get to have the walk down the isle because of your selfishness, two days later he walked out of jail, recently he violated his probation in September of 2014 and he is still not been sentenced for his violation. I'll never take for granted what I had and what i have now, I lost half my heart, my children lost their daddy. He gets to spend holidays with his family, he gets to spend time with his loved ones, we are left to mourn for the rest of our lives. This has effected my whole world I never thought I'd be a widow at the age of 25, a single mom of two, or even be spending the rest of my life wondering what it would have been like to still have him here with me.
Wife of Matthew Thompson
Wife of Matthew Thompson