Former Lehigh Valley Resident, Victim In Quadruple Homicide Was Suspect's Ex-Girlfriend

A 28-year-old man appeared in court Sunday after he was identified as the suspect in the gruesome murder of three former Brick, N.J. and Lehigh Valley, Pa. residents - including his ex-girlfriend who was his son’s mother - and a Florida man.

Adam Matos, 28, of Florida was identified as the suspect in the quadruple murder after he attempted to flee with his 4-year-old son. He was held in the Pasco County Jail on $200,000 bail.

Pasco County, Fla. sheriff’s deputies found the bodies Thursday of two men and two women: Megan Brown, 27; her parents, Margaret and Greg Brown, both 52; and another man, Nicholas Leonard.

Brown was Matos’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his 4-year-old son, Ismael “Tristan” Santisteban, Leonard was Brown’s new boyfriend, according to WFTS in the Tampa Bay area.

Matos has not yet been charged in the murder; he was instead jailed on an aggravated assault charge in a separate case in which he allegedly held a knife to Megan Brown’s throat on Aug. 28.

Matos was apprehended Friday at a hotel in downtown Tampa in a SWAT operation that rescued his 4-year-old son, according to The Morning Call. An AMBER Alert had been issued for the 4-year-old boy after he was last seen on Aug. 28.

The Brown family lived in Brick before moving to Pennsylvania approximately 14 years ago, according to former neighbors of the Browns on Jefferson Court in Herbertsville, as reported by the Asbury Park Press.

In July, the Browns moved with Matos, a Pennsylvania native, to Hudson, Fla., about 45 miles north of Tampa. Megan Brown, however, ultimately broke up with Matos and started dating Leonard, according to media reports.

Megan’s mother, Margaret Brown, was once the operator of the Hidden Hill Farm dog kennel in Heidelberg Township, Pa. Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture revoked the license of Hidden Hill Farm, whose license was held by Margaret Brown, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Police in Florida said Matos once stayed with the Browns in a rented home in Pasco County about an hour and a half northwest of downtown Tampa. Both Matos and Megan Brown had gotten jobs at restaurants near the home. Brown worked at The Fisherman’s Shack; Leonard, the other victim, hung out at that bar, and he and Brown were friends, according to WTFS.

The Brown family had told Pennsylvania officials this summer that they were moving to Florida, according to The Morning Call, after being told that animal cruelty was being reported at the Pennsylvania kennel. The Browns also had been operating a kennel there and held a license since 2006, unaware that zoning approval was needed, according to The Morning Call.

Photo: Megan Brown, a former Brick, N.J. and Lehigh Valley resident and one of the four victims in the quadruple murder in Florida.