Matthew Benton was a longtime childhood friend of Emily Prentiss. He appeared in Demonology as the second victim of Father Paul Silvano.
Background
Matthew was born to Tom and Andrea Benton, who were both religious. When he was fifteen years old, he met and befriended Emily Prentiss and John Cooley in Rome, Italy. His parents came to dislike Emily because she was an atheist. When Emily became pregnant with a child whose father was unknown, she said that Matthew was the only one who she could turn to. Being religious himself, he suggested that they should go to the priest for help. The priest told Emily that if she got an abortion, she would no longer be welcome in the congregation. Matthew found an abortion doctor for Emily, taking her there and staying with her the entire time. When they got back to Rome, Matthew and Emily returned to the church, with him telling her to hold her head up and walked her to the front pew. The priest stopped his sermon, and he and Mathew stared each other down until the priest eventually returned to his sermon. After this, Matthew began to question the Bible and do drugs, such as methamphetamine and cocaine. He later moved to the U.S.
Demonology
On March 8-9, 2009, Matthew died of a heart attack induced by drugs. However, John later stated that he thinks something else was going on; Matthew was rambling, but the fear was real, having told John, "Johnny, they are going to kill me, they already killed a man in Georgetown named Tommy V." Emily goes to Hotch and the BAU investigates his suspicious death, as well as those of two others. Eventually, Matthew's killer, Father Paul Silvano, is identified and extradited for his crimes.