<p>Student Has Been Missing For 8 Months
POSTED: 12:19 am CDT August 14, 2008
UPDATED: 12:30 am CDT August 14, 2008</p>
<p>BERKELEY, Calif. -- A University of California, Berkeley officer has located Matthew J. Wilson, the 21-year-old Rice University student who was reported missing in December, the City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD) homicide detectives confirmed Wednesday.
Wilson was found in Dwinelle Hall on the UC Campus Wednesday evening and was detained as a possible theft suspect. Wilson then identified himself as the missing Rice student.
Wilson, originally from Haworth, Okla., was a junior seeking a computer science major at Rice University before he went missing on Dec. 15, 2007, from his off-campus Houston apartment. </p>
<p>On June 10, BPD found Wilsons 2004 silver Dodge Neon in the 1200 block of Allston Way in West Berkeley.</p>
<p>BPD Homicide detectives had been assisting the Rice University Police Department with the Wilson case.
Wilsons disappearance had garnered national attention and was the subject of several searches, extensive outreach programs by non-profit groups and highlighted on a variety of Web sites devoted to missing person cases.
Several entities, including the Wilson family and Rice University were offering a total of $25,000 in reward money for information regarding Wilsons disappearance.
A BPD detective who has been working on the case is interviewing Wilson with hopes of learning the what Wilson has been doing over the last eight months.
UCPD is conducting the ongoing theft investigation. No further details will be available pending the completion of interviews.</p>
<p>Maybe he was a spoiled brat who didn't appreciate the opportunity he had in going to Rice... so he decided it would be a wise idea to fake his disappearance, go to California, steal a laptop and break into UCBerkley so he could screw around with the brand new projectors in the classrooms. Nevermind that thousands of dollars and manhours were wasted by nationwide law enforcement officials, not to mention the grief endured by his family. </p>
<p>From what I read about him, if memory serves me correctly, his father died several years ago. He and his sister were raised by their mom, and he was on a scholarship to Rice. I don't think "spoiled brat" appropriately describes this sad, troubled young man. Lighten up.</p>
<p>S2 walked away from Jr year college when he decided that it had no meaning for him and was too high pressure. I am soooo thankful he did not try to walk away from his life, too. He came home and faced the music. 5 years later he is going back to school, different state, different goals. I cannot imagine what his mother has gone through but am so glad there is an answer now.</p>
<p>He had been an almost perfect student, which at Rice in Comp Sci is incredibly hard and stressful. He had to get top grades to keep his scholarship. He had been an almost perfect son for years and he might not have been able to keep up the pace. He may have "cracked" under the pressure. I only feel sorry for both him and his poor family.</p>
<p>Yes, laura, that was my understanding. His roommate was apparently a very nice guy, so there probably wasn't too much stress from that point. Academics and the stress to meet expectations can be very strong. Beef's post is, IMO, rather insensitive. I hope that opinion is an isolated one.</p>
<p>I remember reading somewhere. when he first went missing. about the scholarship rules. Also, I know just how hard the computer science major is!</p>
<p>I think if Rice had enough on campus housing so that students didn't have the added stress of being forced off campus situations like this could be minimized. </p>
<p>If the housing/college arrangement is so wonderful at Rice then why don't they at least have goal of getting more on campus housing to make the experience available all 4 years?</p>
<p>One thing you will be hard pressed to find in Rice marketing material is the shortage of housing. Students should not overlook how this may impact their undergraduate experience when choosing Rice.</p>
<p>Elrod-
Rice is building 2 new residential colleges, and has been buying up houses just off campus to provide increased housing options. Many, if not most schools do not guarantee on campus housing all four years. Living on campus is very desirable at Rice, unlike many other schools, where many upper classmen prefer to live off campus, which contributes to the housing crunch. We don't know if Matt chose to live off campus or was jacked off in the housing lottery ) I forget what year he was in soph? junior?) Most Hanszen students that are jacked off campus (my s was one) are off campus soph yr. </p>
<p>There many more schools with much less available housing on campus than Rice. Take for instance College of Charleston. See how much you find in their material about the limited housing, and they don't even guarantee housing freshman year!!</p>
<p>I wan't happy that s was jacked off campus soph yr, but it turned out to be a good experience for him. I doubt that was Mat's reason for disappearing. He was apparently someone who kept a very low profile and even when he was on campus living in the res. college, didnt interact too much.</p>
<p>Living off campus at Rice is also pretty desirable. There are a LOT of good options. My daughter lived off junior and senior years (by choice) and was very happy. She still was involved in her residential college but really liked the flexibility of living off-campus as far as preparing food, entertaining, having a pet etc. Her apartment was REALLY inexpensive and was in a gated community with covered parking.</p>
<p>researcher44, maybe the reason that no mainstream media has picked up on this is because there's no experimental evidence that even proves that this syndrome exists</p>