Family feud, fear of snitching leads to Lancaster County man's murder: police [update] (2024)

After Matthew Whisman went missing in April, the rumors began.

People who knew him said the 25-year-old with ties to the southern end of Lancaster County checked in to Water Street Rescue Mission in Lancaster. Or someone dropped him off at a rehab facility in Philadelphia. Or somebody jumped him and threw him off a cliff.

Pennsylvania State Police heard several versions of what happened to Whisman after they began investigating his disappearance on July 3, the day after his mother reported him missing.

The last version – being thrown off a cliff – was closest to the truth, based on an account police laid out in court documents before charging three men, including two of Whisman’s cousins, with playing roles in his death.

State police charged Alexander Wade Whisman, 17, of Lancaster; Alexander’s Whisman’s half brother, Jeremy Wayne Absher, 25, of South Carolina; and Steven Scott Gaddis, 27, of Chester County, with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and related offenses on Thursday following a monthslong investigation into Matthew Whisman’s disappearance.

In actuality, Whisman was thrown from a bridge, not a cliff, according to police, who said his lifeless body was tossed off a span over Conowingo Creek not far from the Maryland border on the night of April 3 or the early morning of April 4.

The remains of his body were not found until Aug. 8, about a mile or so south of the state line along the creek.

Almost immediately after Matthew Whisman’s mother reported him missing, police started piecing together the events that led up to his death, according to court documents. It began with a feud between Matthew Whisman’s brother and Alexander Whisman (Matthew’s cousin), Absher (Alexander’s half brother) and Gaddis dating back to at least early January.

Family feud

According to police, on Jan. 10, Matthew Whisman, Alexander Whisman (his cousin) and Gaddis drove to a house in Maryland where Matthew’s brother, Braxton Whisman, had been staying.

Gaddis and Alexander wanted to send a message following an assault on Alexander — apparently by Braxton, according to charging documents. Five shots were fired into the home.

Braxton was not home, according to Beth Gambill, who owns the house and had given Braxton a room.

Gambill said Friday that she didn’t even know the first floor of the house had been shot until she saw a hole in a window, a wall, fireplace and kitchen cabinet several days later.

Gambill said she asked Braxton to move soon after. She said he had been dating a friend of her daughter and needed a place to live because his adoptive parents made him leave when he turned 18. But given the shooting, she could not allow him to stay.

On Feb. 5, police visited Matthew Whisman to ask him about the shooting. He told the trooper that Jeremy Absher, another of his cousins, had recently threatened him and he feared for his life.

Absher and Alexander Whisman are half brothers.

In an undated screenshot of texts between Matthew Whisman and his mother that she showed to police, her son told her that Gaddis and Alexander Whisman had forced him to show them where his brother was living the night his house was shot.

One screenshot said Absher had told him “he would kill me if I ratted him out to the cops” — an apparent reference to a gun Absher had.

Matthew Whisman’s last hours

While it’s not clear from charging documents whether Matthew Whisman did cooperate in the house shooting investigation, what is clear from the police account is that on April 3, Gaddis and Absher got hold of Matthew’s phone and found a text thread between Matthew and his sister in which he told her he would cooperate with police.

Matthew Whisman, Gaddis and Absher, along with cousins and brothers Nicholas and Alexander Whisman, and Nicholas’ girlfriend, were hanging out at the home of the Whisman brothers on Lancaster Pike in Drumore Township.

According to accounts pieced together from interviews with those present, Matthew Whisman was beaten, then told to shower and clean up. Someone gave him a Taco Bell taco and Gaddis suggested it might be his last meal, according to police.

According to Absher and Alexander Whisman, Gaddis had loaded two needles with fentanyl and made all of them get into a car, which Absher drove.

Gaddis pistol whipped Matthew Whisman before shoving him in the back seat and engaging the door’s child lock, according to Alexander Whisman.

They drove toward Maryland and parked on a bridge.

Gaddis grabbed Matthew Whisman’s arm and injected the fentanyl, according to accounts given by Absher and Alexander Whisman. Then, after about five minutes, Matthew Whisman passed out. Alexander Whisman felt for a pulse and found none.

Gaddis then dragged Matthew Whisman from the car, and he and Absher threw his lifeless body from the bridge into the creek, charging documents say.

Absher, Gaddis and Alexander Whisman then briefly stopped at the home of one of Gaddis’ friends before returning to the home of the Whisman brothers. Along the way, according to Alexander Whisman’s account to police, Gaddis told him and Absher he would kill them and their family if they said anything.

Absher and Alexander Whisman are being held at Lancaster County Prison and Gaddis was being held at Chester County Prison on unrelated charges, all without bail. None have attorneys listed in online court documents.

Whisman and his younger brother, Joshua, 16, were charged earlier this month with shooting into a house in Lancaster in September.

Anyone with information on Matthew Whisman’s death is asked to call Trooper Amos Glick at 717-299-7650.

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Family feud, fear of snitching leads to Lancaster County man's murder: police [update] (2024)

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