A rotting corpse found stuffed in the chimney of a Queens public school has been identified as an aspiring rapper who went missing, to the bafflement of his family, more than seven weeks before the decomposed remains were found.
It was another month after the gruesome discovery before Matthew Collado‘s desperate mother learned the body found in the chimney in the school in Glendale in June was her missing son. But that was far from the end to the mystery.
“There’s a void in my gut,” Collado’s mother, Sophia Wood, told The News in an exclusive interview. “I walk around in a daze. I still haven’t believed it yet.”
Even with her 29-year-old son’s body finally identified, Wood still has no idea how her son died or ended up there. The city Medical Examiner’s office is still studying the case three months later and has not determined a cause or manner of death for Collado, a spokeswoman for the agency confirmed Wednesday.
“The cause of death is undetermined. The date of death is undetermined. The manner of death is undetermined,” Collado’s anguished mother said. “I have no idea how he ended up there.”
Collado was last seen on surveillance video leaving his apartment in Jamaica at 3:22 a.m. May 9, according to Wood, who said her son texted her one day earlier saying he would meet her at the nursing home where his grandmother lives two days later to celebrate Mother’s Day. He never showed up.
She was shocked he would miss Mother’s Day.
“He’s an amazing son,” she said. “He’s mommy’s little boy. He’s always, ‘Hi mom. I love you mom’ … He used to go visit my mom all the time in the nursing home.”
About a week after he went missing, he was due to start a new job as a residential aide at a Breaking Ground shelter, she said.
“It’s so out of character for my son to be roaming this earth and not be in touch with me or his sister,” she said. “We talk all the time.”
She grew worried and went to his apartment, where she found the door propped open by the deadbolt.
“He left his phone, his wallet,” she said. “The door was propped open and I was afraid to push it. I was afraid of what I was going to see when I pushed it open.”
She filed a missing person report with cops and then took matters into her own hands, handing out fliers and spreading the word online.
“We were putting up fliers all over Jamaica and anywhere anybody could tell me where they saw him. Nothing panned out,” she said.
“Everybody that I talk to in his neighborhood, everyone said, ‘Oh, he’s such a cool guy. I liked this guy. He’s wonderful. He’s so nice. He always has a bright smile.’”
“He’s Mr. Brightside,” she added. “He always sees the bright side of things. He’ll take a lick and get back up. He’s resilient.”
Then nearly two months after her son went missing, an exterminator investigating a foul odor at at PS/IS 113, the Anthony Pranzo School, discovered a rotting corpse in a the chimney just before 9 a.m. June 30. The school was closed for the summer and under renovation.
“They were looking for the source of the odor,” Wood said. “They found a shoe and then they continued reaching up the chimney and felt a foot.”
The bizarre discovery made headlines and Wood saw them. She immediately contacted cops investigating her son’s disappearance, even though he has no connection she knows of to the school.
She was initially told the body in the chimney was not believed to be Collado — only for police to knock on her door weeks later, Wood said.
“On July 21, the missing person detective and the homicide detectives came to get my DNA to do a familial test,” Wood said.
It was the afternoon of July 29 when the city Medical Examiner’s office contacted Wood saying that dental records proved it was her son who ended up in the Queens chimney, she said.
“I told the detective from the missing person’s case, I said, ‘I asked you if that was my son,’ and all he could do was apologize,” said Wood. “It was me, my daughter and my son. We were the power of three and now we’re missing one. It hurts us.”
Now she’s left with nothing but questions about how her 6-foot son ended up dead inside the chimney.
“The cops have nothing. There’s no cameras. There’s no videos. No footage of how he ended up there, how he got into the school,” she said. “There’s nothing.”
Her son was an aspiring rapper who enjoyed creating beats and performed under the name A.K. Nash. He grew up in East Elmhurst
“He worked on his music a lot and he does have some songs on Soundcloud,” Wood said. “That’s how I hear his voice now.”
Wood now plans to hire a private investigator and says she will not rest until she knows exactly how her son died.
“My son was afraid of heights so him climbing up there? That is not my son,” said Wood. “He hates fire. He hates smoke. A chimney? It doesn’t jive with my son and who he was.”
“I don’t want to speculate and I don’t want to point fingers,” she added. “I want facts and accuracy.”
With Rocco Parascandola
