Murder victim found Christmas morning ‘good kid,’ aunt says
A Hot Springs teen reportedly found shot to death on the side of the road Christmas morning was “a really good kid” who had “never been in any trouble,” his aunt and former guardian said Wednesday.
The body of Ethan Mathis, 18, was found shortly after 8 a.m. Christmas Day in the 1400 block of Bald Mountain Road after the Garland County Communications Center received a phone call about a possible deceased
person, the Garland County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Monday.
Deputies found Mathis unresponsive lying next to the road in a driveway and noted he “appeared to have suffered from multiple gunshot wounds,” the release said.
“This incident is under investigation,” Deputy Courtney Kizer, the sheriff’s public information officer, said in the release. “No suspects are in custody at this time.”
“We’re still waiting to hear on everything,” Misty Ely, Mathis’ aunt, who had been his legal guardian until he turned
18 last month, said. “I had been his guardian since 2018, but he just turned
18 on Nov. 21 so I wasn’t technically his guardian anymore.”
Ely said Mathis had lived in Hot Springs previously and then moved to Florida to be with his father. He returned to Hot Springs at the beginning of August this year “to be with his girlfriend” and had been living with his grandfather at Home Harbor apartments, 501 Malvern Ave.
She said Mathis wasn’t enrolled in school but was pursuing his GED while working a construction job. She said Mathis was “super friendly” but also “super trusting” and almost gullible sometimes.
“I worry he had started hanging out with some of the wrong people,” she said.
Ely said Mathis’ grandfather died last month, and he had an issue earlier in December where someone had stolen his television, Xbox and other items.
“So he’s been kind of having a hard time and wanted to go back to Florida,” she said.
Ely last physically saw Mathis on Dec. 4, but had talked to him on the phone on Christmas Eve, she said, noting, “He was getting ready to move back. His grandmother was coming over the next day to help him pack.”
She said Mathis had gone to a friend’s house on Christmas Eve but left around 11 p.m. She said it was unknown what happened to him between then and being found Christmas morning.
Ely said she wasn’t aware of any connection Mathis had to the area where he was found on Bald Mountain Road and speculated he may have just been dumped there.
Ely said she was hoping maybe there were witnesses to what happened who might come forward or someone who may have seen Mathis earlier that could help solve the case.
“If anyone has any information regarding this incident, you are urged to call the Garland County Sheriff’s Office at 501-622-3660 or the Garland County Investigations Division at 501622-3690,” the release said.