Search planned for missing man

By Michael Richter

mrichter@yourmvi.com

For nearly a year, Beth Roth has searched for her son, looking anywhere she thought he could possibly be, hanging missing person signs and talking to anybody who could provide helpful information.

“I was even going to locations that mediums were sending me to,” Roth said. “That’s how desperate I was because I didn’t know where else to look, but I couldn’t not look, and we just ran out of places.”

Matthew McDonald, 30, was last seen March 9, 2023, near Howe Church in Long Branch. McDonald’s family believes he was dropped off there by his girlfriend at the time. 

McDonald’s family will conduct a search party near the church at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. They believe it’s an area that police haven’t searched extensively. 

“I just don’t feel comfortable not having that area checked,” Roth said. “And I don’t want to keep dealing with the garbage that we’re dealing with if he is there.”

Roth and her family have searched for McDonald in countless other areas, including along the Monongahela River in California. 

Roth said every time she posts a missing person sign in the area, it gets removed.

“I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve hung signs in California — they all disappeared,” she said. “I couldn’t tell you how many times we’ve heard people say, ‘I’m just now hearing about this.’ And they’re from the area.”

Roth said she placed signs in Brownsville and Bentleyville as well.

“We hung them in different establishments, we put them on telephone poles and they all disappeared,” she said. 

Family members have received numerous messages and heard many stories in the last 10 months about what could have happened to McDonald.

In the “WHERE IS Matthew??” Facebook group, which was started by McDonald’s family with the hope his disappearance would garner more exposure, a woman made several posts that implied McDonald is dead. 

“We actually had to remove her from the group at one point, because she kept putting, like, different rest in peace things,” Roth said. “We don’t even have confirmation that Matthew has passed. There’s still that small chance that he’s out there somewhere.”

Roth and her family have received messages on social media from people who claim McDonald’s body was dumped in a river. 

“We have no idea if that’s just somebody giving us a line of (expletive) or if that really is the case,” Roth said. 

McDonald’s family was also told he was high on methamphetamines and acted paranoid the day he went missing.

“The reason we’re doing what we’re doing Saturday is because if he was in that state of mind, and he was left off at that church, and say he started walking and he was paranoid — he’s going to stay away from the road,” Roth said.

Shortly before his disappearance, there was a warrant out for McDonald’s arrest due to an alleged parole violation. 

Roth told McDonald to turn himself in or she wouldn’t allow him to see his son, Colton, whom she is raising. 

“I will not have him arrested, caught, whatever, around his son; that will not happen,” Roth said. “So he knew at that point that his fun was over and he was turning himself in.”

Roth doesn’t believe McDonald is on the run from the law, as she said he would have contacted her by now. 

Colton, 13, has experienced difficulties coping with the disappearance of his father.

“He has a hard time sleeping,” Roth said. “He has a hard time being alone because then he’s alone with his thoughts. School is hard — as long as he’s in his main classes, he’s OK. But any classes that give him downtime, you know, time to think — that’s when he has troubles.”

Anyone with information regarding McDonald’s whereabouts is asked to call or text 304-914-0220. 

California Borough police were contacted for the story, but police Chief Jim Smith was unavailable for comment.