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He was in my room. Right there. Why am I alive? Why me?
Matt to the BAU after Kyle's attack

Matthew "Matt" Doherty is a bully-turned-familicide survivor who appeared in the Season Twelve episode of Criminal Minds, "The Anti-Terrorism Squad".

Background[]

Matt was raised in a happy household in Winona, Minnesota, which consisted of his father, his mother Grace, and his younger sister Diane, and was also a popular student at Pillsbury High School. However, he was also known as a bully, having several harassment complaints against him filed to the school administration, though they were never properly addressed. One night, he and several other bullies, led by a jock named Austin Settergren, somehow managed to lure one of their victims, Kyle Ecklund, to the basketball courts. There, they tied him up to a basketball pole and marked his face as a target, after which Austin began throwing a basketball in his face repeatedly while being cheered on by Matt and the others. Austin threw the basketball in his face so many times that Kyle's glasses broke and were eventually knocked off. Afterwards, he and the bullies left him strapped to the pole, and Kyle was not found until the next day.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad[]

In the episode, Matt is woken up by his mother's scream in the middle of the night. Wandering out of the bedroom, he finds his sister being shot to death by Kyle. Horrified, Matt runs back inside, hides in the closet, and calls 911, but is unable to speak much. As he does, he sees Kyle entering the room and urinates in his pants out of fear. Kyle finds Matt in the closet after spotting the urine on the floor but lets him live. Matt is later found by Alvez and is taken to the sheriff's department while in a state of shock. During his interrogation, Matt is initially unresponsive from the shock, but soon recovers and recounts the familicide to JJ. He then breaks down in tears, asking why he is alive. Afterwards, Matt was presumably taken in by some other family members that he has.

Appearances[]

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