REMEMBERING MATTISYN

 

Mattisyn Jolene Blaz entered the world on June 25, 2013.

 

She was still a newborn, only seven weeks old, with an entire childhood that should have been ahead of her.

 

Mattisyn was a daughter, a little sister and a granddaughter. She had barely begun experiencing the world around her when her life was taken.

 

Her short life mattered, and she deserves to be remembered not simply for how she died, but as the baby girl she was and for all of the years she should have been given.

 

MATTISYN’S STORY

 

Violence was already present in Mattisyn's home almost immediately after she was born.

 

Approximately two weeks after her birth, her father, Matthew Blaz, came home intoxicated and attacked Mattisyn's mother, Jennifer Blaz, while Jennifer was holding their newborn daughter.

 

Matthew grabbed Jennifer by the hair and threw her to the kitchen floor. He then took Mattisyn from her arms and did not return the baby until Jennifer called police.

 

Matthew later pleaded guilty to assault. A judge ordered him to attend anger management classes and stay away from Jennifer.

 

He eventually returned to the home.

 

On August 16, 2013, Jennifer went to work, leaving seven week old Mattisyn and her older half sister in Matthew's care.

 

Sometime during that day, Mattisyn suffered catastrophic injuries.

 

Prosecutors later argued that Matthew violently threw his infant daughter, causing devastating trauma to her head.

 

Instead of immediately seeking medical care for Mattisyn, Matthew later drove the children across town while running errands. He picked up a repaired chainsaw, stopped for sandwiches and brought food to Jennifer at work without telling her that their baby had been gravely injured.

 

Matthew later claimed that a twelve year old neighborhood boy had dropped Mattisyn.

 

The boy denied dropping her, and a letter carrier who had been nearby testified that he did not hear the baby cry.

 

When Matthew eventually picked Jennifer up from work, he told her about a mark on Mattisyn.

 

Jennifer immediately realized something was terribly wrong.

 

Mattisyn's eyes had swollen shut. She was not breathing normally and her color had dramatically changed.

 

Emergency help was called, but Mattisyn could not be saved.

 

The medical examiner found bleeding in Mattisyn's brain, neck and eyes as well as at least two skull fractures. Her injuries were determined to have been forcefully and intentionally inflicted and were consistent with abusive head trauma.

 

Mattisyn died on August 16, 2013.

 

She was only seven weeks old.

 

SYSTEM FAILURES & WARNING SIGNS

 

The danger surrounding Mattisyn did not begin on the day she died.

 

Matthew Blaz already had a documented history of violence known to law enforcement and child protection authorities.

 

In 2011, a former girlfriend accused Matthew of assaulting her while she was holding their nine week old son.

 

Jennifer later reported violence within their own relationship. Matthew assaulted her on multiple occasions and, according to information later obtained from court records, she had told authorities that he regularly threatened to kill her.

 

The fear extended to another child in the household. Mattisyn's older half sister reportedly became so frightened of Matthew that she hid beneath a bed after he threatened her and began sleeping with a knife nearby because she was afraid of him.

 

Then, only about two weeks after Mattisyn was born, Matthew attacked Jennifer while she was holding the newborn.

 

Police became involved.

 

Matthew pleaded guilty to assault.

 

A protective order was issued that should have kept him away from the home, and he was ordered to attend anger management classes.

 

Jennifer later said a child protective services worker visited the day after the July assault, spoke with her briefly and left.

 

Matthew eventually returned to the household.

 

According to Jennifer, the family's next contact with Montana child protective services came more than six weeks later.

 

It was the day of Mattisyn's funeral.

 

Because Montana's child welfare records were largely shielded from public disclosure at the time, the full extent of the agency's actions in Mattisyn's case was not publicly available. The Associated Press later uncovered the family's child welfare history through records from Matthew's criminal trial.

 

Mattisyn's death became one of the cases highlighted in a national investigation examining children who died from abuse or neglect despite their families already being known to child protection authorities.

 

JUSTICE FOR MATTISYN

 

Matthew Blaz was prosecuted for his daughter's death.

 

At trial, he maintained that a neighborhood boy had dropped Mattisyn while he was caring for her.

 

The physical evidence did not support that explanation.

 

Medical testimony established that Mattisyn suffered severe and intentionally inflicted injuries, including multiple skull fractures and hemorrhaging involving her brain, neck and eyes.

 

In May 2014, a jury convicted Matthew of deliberate homicide.

 

He was later sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

 

Matthew Blaz

 

Relationship to Mattisyn: Father

 

Conviction(s): Deliberate homicide

 

Sentence: Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole

 

FOREVER REMEMBERED

 

Mattisyn Jolene Blaz had only seven weeks in this world.

 

She should have had first words, first steps, birthdays, school days and years of memories with the people who loved her.

 

Instead, her life ended before she was even old enough to experience those milestones.

 

The circumstances surrounding Mattisyn's death later became part of a much larger examination of how children can remain in dangerous homes even when violence surrounding them is already known.

 

But Mattisyn was more than a case within that investigation.

 

She was a baby girl whose life had only just begun.

 

Abuse Angels remembers Mattisyn Blaz.

 

Remembered. Honored. Never Forgotten.