A New York mom is still searching for answers after her 29-year-old son was found dead in the chimney of a public school in June.
Sophia Wood was supposed to meet her son, Matthew Collado, on May 10 to celebrate Mother’s Day, but he never showed up.
‘I sent him a text, like: “Hello?” Which meant I was annoyed because why am I texting you on Mother’s Day? You’re supposed to be calling me first, right?’ she recalled to CBS.
‘I didn’t make a big deal about it. I figured just I’m gonna go home and I’m gonna trust that he’s fine.’
Wood said a search at her son’s Queens apartment turned up his wallet and phone but Collado himself was not there. The family filed a missing person’s report on May 13.
Surveillance footage obtained by CBS showed Collado leaving his apartment building just after 3am on May 9, the last time he was seen.
His mother keeps wondering: ‘Why are you leaving the house at that time? What are you doing? What’s going on?’
For weeks, there was no trace of Collado.
Matthew Collado, 29, was found dead in the chimney of a public school in Queens, New York, earlier this year
Collado’s mother, Sophia Wood, said she is still processing the shock and trying to make sense of the tragedy
A breakthrough in the case came in late June when police were called to PS 113 in Queens.
A pest control worker, hired to investigate a foul smell inside the public school, made a shocking discovery and found human remains inside the building’s chimney.
The New York Post reported that the exterminator opened the ash dump and found a shoe, which he then felt a foot inside.
It was unclear how long the body was inside the chimney before it was found – but students said a putrid smell had been in the air for weeks.
Tests then found three weeks later that the body in the chimney was in fact Wood’s missing son.
‘They said the dental records along with the pictures and the way I described him confirmed that it was Matthew that they found in the chimney,’ Wood told CBS, adding that she is still processing his death.
‘It was hard because, like, why? Like, how, you know? How could this be him?’ she said. ‘This is not the life I knew that my son lived.’
According to his mother, Collado was scared of heights and did not like smoke or fire
Collado’s family is now trying to make sense of the horror story.
‘It just all seems so uncharacteristic. It just all seems so strange,’ she said.
Police said the investigation is ‘ongoing,’ and the medical examiner’s office told CBS the cause and manner of Collado’s death are pending further study.
Collado’s mother is hoping someone who knows something comes forward.
‘I feel like I’m being bamboozled. I feel like it’s a freaking nightmare,’ she said. ‘It’s a bad trick.’
According to the mother, her son was an aspiring rapper whose stage name was AK Nash. She also said Collado was scared of heights and hated fire and smoke.
Collado, raised in East Elmhurst, had planned to begin a new job as a residential aide at a nonprofit organization, according to his mom.
The Daily Mail contacted the New York Police Department for further info.
