The season premiere of A&E’s Killer Investigations airs Thursday (Law&Crime).
Stephanie Pavlons was left in a Wisconsin woodland “as if she was roadkill.” For weeks, her disappearance remained a mystery to her family—until a bright pink water bottle helped investigators unravel her boyfriend’s account of what happened.
On Sept. 9, 2022, Waukesha County authorities were called after construction workers found human remains in a wooded area roughly 400 feet from an orthopedic hospital.
The remains were identified as those of 44-year-old Stephanie Pavlons. Her mother, Georgiann Pavlons, remembered the devastating moment: “I was just in total shock.”
Stephanie’s parents had not heard from her in several weeks. They told investigators that Matthew Pahl—her boyfriend and the father of her daughter—was probably the last person known to have seen her.
Detectives subsequently asked Pahl to come in for an interview.
During a tense, three-hour interrogation featured in the episode, Pahl portrayed Pavlons as depressed and suicidal. He told investigators she had texted him, “I feel so helpless, my family’s- nobody in my family gives a s— about me.” However, when detectives asked about their last meeting, Pahl insisted they had seen each other weeks earlier.
Investigators began piecing together the timeline through surveillance video and cellphone records. Footage showed Pavlons leaving Pahl’s apartment with her pink water bottle and black purse before Pahl picked her up moments later. A gas station camera captured the final known images of Pavlons alive, while cellphone data placed both of them inside Pahl’s truck.
Pahl later drove to the orthopedic hospital for an appointment.
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Detectives also discovered that Pahl had been pursuing romantic conversations with women he met online in the Philippines. More troublingly, surveillance footage showed him returning to his home with Pavlons’ purse and pink water bottle—but without Pavlons.
When investigators confronted him with the video, Pahl attempted to minimize the significance of the belongings, saying, “That purse and water bottle ain’t s—.”
Following a yearlong investigation, authorities arrested Pahl in September 2023. He was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse, charges to which he pleaded not guilty.
At trial, prosecutor Sue Opper recognized that Pavlons had faced mental health challenges but said her journals pointed to the reason behind her anguish. “The abuse that had been inflicted upon her by the defendant Matthew Pahl,” Opper argued, was central to Pavlons’ despair.
Defense attorney Peter Wolff maintained that the evidence did not establish how Pavlons died or determine the manner of her death. The jury deliberated for about an hour before finding Pahl guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse.
During sentencing, Pahl called prosecutors Sue Opper and Kristi Gordon “psychopaths in suits” and said, “I am the only victim here.” The court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“He killed her and he left her to rot in the woods as if she was roadkill,” Judge Ralph M. Ramirez said.
The premiere of Killer Investigations, titled “The Lady in the Woods,” airs tonight at 10/9c on A&E.
Killer Investigations, created by Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Brian Ross, explores high-profile homicide cases through interviews with investigators, forensic findings and courtroom testimony. Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz serve as executive producers for Law&Crime Productions, while Brad Abramson, Michael Gelman and Elaine Frontain-Bryant are executive producers for A&E.
The post Killer Investigations: The pink water bottle that exposed a killer’s web of lies first appeared on Law & Crime.
