Police responded to a medical call the morning of Nov. 28, 2018 at a residence in the 400 block of South Gladstone Boulevard. Police reports state officers found a female subject at the back door of the residence, in a hysterical state, yelling for someone to help her husband, Matthew Tillery, 35, who was unresponsive, lying in a front bedroom.

Upon entering the house, officers located Tillery lying motionless on the bed. Fire Department personnel began treating Tillery and transported him to a hospital via ambulance where he was pronounced dead.

No confirmations on cause of death have been made at this time, but drug use is highly suspected. The wife of the victim indicated the last time she spoke with him was around 4am that morning.

Tillery was the subject of a pair of stories The Northeast News published last June when a meth lab exploded in the basement of the home. A man neighbors said was Tillery sustained injuries in the explosion and fled the scene on foot prior to the arrival of police. Police believed Tillery to be “actively cooking” at the time the explosion occurred.

Tillery has a variety of convictions ranging from passing bad checks to Burglary and was classified by Baxter County Sheriff’s officials as a “habitual offender.” Court records show Tillery was paroled from an Arkansas maximum security facility June 30, 2017.

He was serving two sentences of 120 and 144 months for meth/cocaine delivery and Theft of Property respectively. In 2013, Tillery was also arrested on felony charges for forging a bad check to bond his then girlfriend out of jail.

Read more on those stories here and here.