Rose Matko and her daughter Jessica with a photo of Ryan taken a few months before he was killed.

As the one-year anniversary of Ryan Matko’s murder approaches, the Matko family is rallying the community to show that he is anything but forgotten. On Friday, August 22, at 8 p.m., the family will be holding a candlelight vigil at his mother’s restaurant, Wild Rose Café.

“People will be bringing balloons and candles, and we will be saying a prayer for Ryan,” says Rose Matko, Ryan’s mother.

As part of the vigil, regular Wild Rose patrons Rich Carroll and Becky Wright will be singing “The World Just Shed a Tear,” a song that they had written to commemorate Ryan.
“It is such an awesome song, but it still makes me very sad,” says Matko. “I can’t listen to it very often because it makes me so sad.”

Matko, then a rising junior at Thomas Dale, was last seen alive the night of August 21, 2007. When he didn’t show up for work at his mother’s café the next day, he was reported missing; police later found his abandoned car in the Shadow Creek subdivision, located near Cogbill Rd. His body was discovered about 100 yards away and he had been shot at least once. To date, the murder remains unsolved and no suspects have been named in the investigation, but the Matko family feels confident that the killer will be caught.

“It’s frustrating that no one has been caught yet, but I have the utmost confidence that the case will be solved and a conviction will be made,” says Matko. “I have heard from police that they are making progress. Detective Humphrey has been assigned to his case and the police department has made this his only one; I think that it is great that they are taking it so seriously. Detective Humphrey has said that they do have some leads, but they are taking the time to make sure that they get everything right. They know that they have only one chance to make this right.”

Donations to the Ryan Matko Memorial Fund can be made at Village Bank. Anyone with any information can call Crime Solvers at 748-0660; a $20,000 reward is offered to anyone that has information leading to an arrest in the case.

nderatto@villagepublishing.com | 751-0421

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