Matt Daehler
Matthew Daehler
When Matt was 11, he visited his friend Isaac Lahey's house. However, Isaac's father John Lahey was throwing a party at the house for the BHH Swim Team, who he coached and who had revently won the State championships.
Some of the team, seriously intoxicated, thought it would be funny to throw Matt into the pool, despite him protesting that he could not swim. He was rescued and recussitated by John, using CPR, but as his heart had briefly stopped, Matt considered himself to have died there.
He suffered severe PTSD from the incident, including flashbacks, but because John had threatened him to keep silent, he never told anyone. His flashbacks and panic attacks were treated as asthma-related breathlessness, and he was given an inhaler.
Several years later, he was photographing Kate Argent's funeral for the local paper when he happened to see John Lahey, who worked at the Cemetary as a grave digger. Seeing him alive and well after the harm he had caused made Matt furious.
Jackson had borrowed a camera from Matt, intending to film his first transformation into a Werewolf. When Matt visited the Whittemore House, intruiged as to what Jackson needed the camera for, he encountered the Kanima and bonded with it. Through the bond, he saw that it was responsible for John Lahey's death, and came to believe that anyone he photographed who he believed deserved to die would be killed by the kanima. (In actual fact, Jackson had killed John Lahey for his own reasons, and it was Matt's intent, rather than camera, which directed the kanima's actions after he became it's master).
He used Jackson to kill three of those he blamed for his 'death': Tucker Cornish, Bennett, and Sean Long. However, the fourth person on his list was Jessica Bartlett, who was heavily pregnant. The kanima refused to kill her, because doing so would harm her unborn child, and kanima cannot harm the innocent. Matt therefore killed her himself, breaking into her hospital room and smothering her with a pillow.
Because he had done the work of a kanima, the magic of the bond began to turn him into a kanima. When he began to grow scales, he remembered the snippet of the Argent Beastiary he had seen on Allison Argent's phone, and came to believe it might contain the answers to curing him. He therefore held Scott McCall, Melissa McCall, and Noah Stilinski hostage in the Sheriff's Station to get her to bring it to him.
When the entire Argent Clan showed up response, he was forced to flee, but was eventually caught by Gerard Argent, who convinced him (in part through use of the hallucinagen Bikh to make him suggestible) that unless he killed Jackson, the bond would reverse - as he became a kanima, Jackson would become human, until Jackson had control over Matt as his Master.
Matt did as Gerard instructed, and drowned Jackson in the river, but this actually completed his transformation into a kanima, and Gerard was able to take control of him. Gerard then used Matt to kill Victoria Argent, and to attempt to kill Allison Argent, although she survived as a Werewolf.
Matt was killed by Lydia Martin, who, with the assistance of Peter Hale, cured Jackson, and then used his blood to poison Matt.
Although no trial could be held, due to Matt being dead, the Beacon Hills Sheriff's Department issued a statement blaming Matt for the Kanima Murders and the attack on the Station.
Current Location
Species
Previously Held Ranks & Titles
Life
1994 CE
2011 CE
17 years old
Circumstances of Death
Murdered by Lydia Martin
Birthplace
Place of Death
Children
Pronouns
He/Him
Gender
Cisman
Other Affiliations
Comments