For two months, Jackie Godbey has lived in what she calls “a nightmare” — waking up each morning with the weight of her son Ryan’s disappearance and now facing the reality that he may never come home.
Her 27-year-old son, Ryan, vanished in June. What began as a missing person’s case is now a homicide investigation, with his former partner, 33-year-old Daniel Mattay, charged with murder, felonious assault, strangulation, domestic violence, and other offenses. Authorities say evidence found in Ryan’s Canton apartment — blood stains in multiple rooms, a shattered table, and a neighbor’s account of hearing a man shout “he’s choking me” — made it clear the case was no longer a search for a missing man, but a pursuit of justice in a killing.
Despite the charges, Ryan’s body has not been found. Investigators with the Canton Police Department, assisted by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, continue to search. Some of Ryan’s personal belongings, including his credit cards and ID, were discovered discarded along I-77, but no sign of him has surfaced…