On November 25, 2020, the day before Thanksgiving, emergency responders rushed to a house fire in Mount Morris, Illinois. They discovered 27-year-old Melissa Lamesch inside, dead on the floor near the oven in the kitchen.
Initially, investigators were unsure whether the fire was intentional or accidental. But after taking a closer look, they believed there was foul play and the fire was arson. They found no electrical problems in the house and discovered that the oven and stove burners were all turned off. Lamesch’s autopsy revealed no soot in her lungs and normal carbon monoxide levels, but there were signs of strangulation. Investigators concluded that Lamesch was murdered before the fire started. But why would anyone want to kill Melissa Lamesch?
“48 Hours” contributor Nikki Battiste reports on the case in “The Firefighter’s Secret,” airing Saturday, Nov. 30 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Melissa Lamesch / Credit: Photography by Angel Studio
When the fire broke out, Lamesch was just two days away from giving birth to a baby boy. She was a dedicated EMT and was excited about becoming a parent. However, investigators discovered there was someone who wasn’t so enthusiastic: the baby’s expectant father, 33-year-old Matthew Plote, who was a firefighter-paramedic.
When Lamesch informed Plote she was carrying his baby, she was surprised by his reaction, said Lamesch’s sister, Cassie Baal. “Melissa thought he wanted something to do with the baby. Up until that point, she thought he was a nice guy,” Baal told “48 Hours.” “She saw a different side of him and that really upset her.”
Investigators discovered that Plote kept the fact that he would become a father a secret, including from his parents and colleagues. Rob Schultz, fire chief at the Carol Stream Fire District where Plote worked, explained to Battiste how unusual it was for someone in the firehouse not to talk about a major life event. “We’re here 24 hours a day,” Schultz said. “It’s a normal, um, way of being a firefighter … that you talk about your family, your personal life and what’s going on, good, bad or indifferent.”
Matthew Plot/Credit: Carol Stream Fire District
Although Plote seemed uninterested in becoming a father, Lamesch had kept in sporadic contact with him and even sent him ultrasound scans. “Sometimes he would react a little bit, but she didn’t really know where exactly he was standing,” Baal said.
However, Lamesch was willing to care for the baby on her own, with the help of her family. Although Lamesch did not ask Plote for any kind of support, researchers believe that as her due date approached, Plote became increasingly concerned that having a child would change his lifestyle, which is why he had kept the baby a secret.
“He was hiding a secret: the fact that he was fathering a baby in the hopes that the child would not be born,” Ogle County Assistant State’s Attorney Allison Huntley told Battiste.
The state began building a case against Plote. He was arrested on March 9, 2022, on charges including murder, intentional murder of an unborn child and arson.
There was evidence that Plote had been at Lamesch’s home on the day of the fire — something Plote admitted when he spoke to investigators. “He told them everything … about his being there, he didn’t hide any of it,” attorney John Kopp told “48 Hours.” He says his client went there to discuss plans to be involved in the baby’s life. “They discussed their finances,” Kopp said. “And then Matt left while she was preparing lunch.”
Prosecutors suspected that Plote lied about Lamesch being alive when he left and that he set fire to the house to cover his tracks. “I believe from the very beginning he was trying to set up a story that there had been an accidental house fire, that she was cooking something,” said Ogle County Assistant State’s Attorney Heather Kruse. “That would explain why her body was found in the kitchen.”
To Chief Schultz, the thought of a firefighter causing harm was unthinkable. “It doesn’t reflect what a firefighter is,” he told “48 Hours.” “We put out fires. We don’t start fires. We help people. We don’t hurt people.”
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