My name is Matthew Chester Himebaugh. I am 30 years old. I am employed as a part-time dock worker at the Sandrolite Plastics manufacturing plant in Kansas City, MO. I am currently homeless, and live in my van in the back parking lot at work. I am investigating what I now believe was the murder of my childhood best friend. I am posting this blog to spread awareness and to see if anyone reading this may have any further information.
I am not crazy. I am not suicidal. I have no intention of giving up my investigation or accepting any deal from anyone who may be responsible from Connor's death. If anything should happen to me, or if I should suddenly go silent or disappear, please continue to investigate the Cult of Chernobog.
On the night of April 30th, 2020 my best friend Connor Hartman went missing. His car was found on Interstate 29, just South of Council Bluffs, IA. It was out of gas, and there was no trace of Connor. Iowa State Patrol believe that he either walked or hitchhiked to the I-80 bridge leading into Omaha and jumped. He had a long history of depression and had made at least one attempt on his life before. Also, he had just broken up with his long-time girlfriend a few weeks prior.
This year, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of his death, I attempted to reach out to someone who had helped him through a rough period of his life. Connor also lived in KC, but every year for Thanksgiving he would visit family in Gate City, NE. He told me that the last year he went he had met with a nun who he said had really helped him out. Her name was Sister Cecilia. He had been going through some shit and was sitting alone in the park when she walked up and sat next to him. She could tell that he was depressed and she stayed and talked with him all afternoon. He said that she wasn't preachy or judgmental, she just listened to his problems and offered some encouragement and advice. He also said that she had helped him figure something out, but wouldn't say what. Only that it was important.
That was in November of 2018. A couple weeks later his dad kicked him out of the house, and he started couch-surfing with me and my Grandma for a while. He never returned to Gate City, but he said he planned to go back and visit Sr. Cecilia when he got his head on straight. Since it was the anniversary of when he died, I thought I could get a hold of her and thank her for trying to help him. Maybe send her a few dollars to light a candle for him, I know Catholics light candles for things like that.
I tried searching online for convents in Gate City. I eventually found them, the Sisters of Our Lady of Czestochowa. They were mentioned in an unrelated thread about a series of local murders. Those murders are why I'm writing this blog.
I'm going to go ahead and put a Content Warning for Gore and SA here. Seems like the courteous thing to do, given what's coming.
The forum post was about a teenage girl, Makayla Fontenelle. She was a cheerleader at Olivia High School who went missing after a party to mark the beginning of Christmas break. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled and left in a drainage ditch. She was killed in December, but they didn't find her until the spring thaw. By then, there was no evidence left. Nobody was ever arrested or charged for her death. She was only 16.
The next murder was of Langston Martin, 26. He was the son of an executive at the Michael's Chicken processing plant in Gate City. He was a known in town to be a real creep, always going after high-school girls, getting rough with them sometimes. He was even arrested for drugging a girl's drink at a party and trying to drive off with her, but he was found not guilty by reason of Daddy's Money. He was the main suspect in the Fontenelle murder, but without any evidence nobody was able to prove it.
Two weeks after the body of Makayla Fontenelle was discovered, Langston Martin was found hanging in his garage by his ankles. He had been blinded by a knife or other sharp object, flayed alive and set on fire. His girlfriend was the one who discovered his body, she said he was still screaming when she found him. He didn't live much longer after that.
The commenters in the thread all expressed disappointment with the sheriff, Wade Weber. Him and his deputies had failed to make any arrests in either case. On top of that, he had been behaving erratically for some time. He claimed that Martin was killed by a secret group of Satanists. Which, yeah, fair enough. That seems like something devil worshippers would do. But when he couldn't find proof of that, he tried to tell everyone that Martin committed suicide. That sounds somewhat less plausible.
There was also some incident where the Sheriff lead a SWAT team to raid the convent, but nobody knows why. The whole sheriff's office all just pretended like it never happened. Since this post was made, Weber has lost his re-election and was replaced with a new sheriff, Jack Ida.
Everyone on the forum post was mostly on the same page; Langston Martin killed Makayla Fontenelle, then her family or friends or someone else gave him what he had coming. But there was one guy there who was arguing with everyone. He said that Langston Martin and Makayla Fontenelle were killed by the same person. And then he said that whoever did it also killed Connor.
The poster (I_Like_1ce) said that he saw Connor in town a week after he was supposed to have vanished. Everybody wrote him off as a crank, and I would have doone the same. But, he described what Connor was wearing when he saw him. Specifically, he described his t-shirt. It was a limited edition shirt for some old movie Connor loved. We didn't even know what he was wearing when he went missing, but it has to be him. Nobody else would own that shirt.
I_Like_1ce went on to say that he was in the sheriff's office after Martin's body was found. He said that he overheard the deputies talking about evidence they found that they couldn't explain. Specifically, they had found a book lying on the ground in the garage where he died. The Book of Chernobog. It apparently detailed the beliefs and practices of a cult dedicated to the worship of being named Chernobog. While this has never been publically acknowledged, it does match Sheriff Weber's earlier statements regarding supposed occult activity relating to these murders. This leads me to believe that, while I_Like_1ce may not be the most stable or trustworthy individual, he is in fact correct regarding the existance of the Cult of Chernobog and their involvement in the Gate City murder cases.
I know that this is an incredible story. You may have reason to believe that I am exaggerating or lying. You might think I am grasping at straws trying to solve a mystery that isn't there out of some sort of survivor's guilt. You could be right about that.
Nonetheless, I believe that I am correct. That there exists a clandestine occult movement knows as the Cult of Chernobog, that they are responsible for at least one and possibly more murders in and around Gate City, NE, and that one of those murders was of my friend Connor Hartman.
I will continue to investigate on my own. I will do what I can to prove whether or not I am correct, and if I am, I will see to it that those responsible are punished for their crimes. And most of all, I will do anything in my power to find Connor and lay him to rest. He deserves closure, justice and a proper burial.
I'll bring you home Connor. I'm coming for you, bud.
Matthew Chester Hartman
Kansas City, MO.
August 10, 2025
PS: I'm sorry for the drab website, I'm new to this.