Schaghticoke

When he left for the Navy three years ago at age 19, Anthony Repp's family said he was a quiet, almost timid teenager. He managed to dodge the troublemaking ways of his older sisters and looked forward to a long service career built on military discipline.

Discharged from the Navy this past May, Repp returned home a different person, his family said. He was still quiet, but his behavior was erratic. Sometimes he was angry. Or he seemed distant, emotionless, a blank stare pinned to his face. There were also occasional glimpses of the Anthony Repp they knew before his deployment, the kid who ran track at Hoosic Valley High School and was content playing video games at night.

Despite the drastic and troubling changes, Repp's family never imagined him being capable of the grisly, chilling crime police say he carried out on July 4: beating his mother and stepfather to death on the lawn of their Route 40 home.

"We're all in shock, very confused and still trying to wrap our heads around this," said Jamie Young, one of Repp's older sisters. "It's hard to close my eyes not knowing what my mother's last thoughts were. I just hope they're in heaven and the horrors of those last moments are washed away."

Repp's mother, Cynthia Matala, 58, and her husband, Michael Matala, 62, will be buried together Friday. They were close friends for more than two decades before they fell in love and married eight years ago on the same property where Michael Matala built his home, where police say the fatal beating took place.

Michael Matala was "a man's man," said Jeremy Matala, one of his four children. The thick, rugged Army veteran was nicknamed "Yukon" after the affable arctic prospector Yukon Cornelius from the children's classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." The stories of Michael Matala's travels read like tales of Paul Bunyan.

A mother of four herself, Cynthia Matala loved to garden and was known for her green thumb.

"She could take a plant that was almost gone and nurse it back to life," Young said.

Young said her family has no idea what could have triggered Repp to kill his mother and stepfather. Repp had been drinking the day of the killings, Young said. She said her brother had argued with their mother before recently, but that confrontations never turned physical.

After allegedly killing the Matalas, police say, Repp unsuccessfully tried to steal a car and then hopped a freight train to Massachusetts. Arraigned on trespassing and other charges there, Repp waived his extradition Monday. Rensselaer County District Attorney Richard McNally said his office is seeking a governor's letter to get Repp back across the state line, hopefully by the end of July. Repp will face second-degree murder charges once he re-enters New York, State Police said.

According to Navy records, Repp enlisted in November 2010 and spent most of his time as a hospitalman. Repp was trained in Illinois, Houston and Virginia and eventually was stationed at Naval Health Clinic in Charleston, S.C., where he worked from August 2012 until he was discharged on May 13. The Navy would not reveal the status of Repp's discharge or what prompted it.

When Repp returned home, Young said their mother found a journal of his filled with dark, disturbing notes and drawings, but nothing threatening violence. Young said she believes her brother was suicidal.

"Sometimes he was fine, like he used to be," Young said. "Then, all of a sudden, he would be loud. And sometimes he would just have this blank stare on his face."

After giving birth to three girls, Cynthia Matala wanted a fourth a child because she badly wanted a son, Young said. Cynthia Matala raised her three daughters in Troy before moving the family to Schaghticoke. She worked as a hairdresser and later as a home health aide, loved to decorate, tended to flowers each day and cooked for the whole family.

Cynthia Matala's children knew Michael Matala their whole lives. Before they married, Michael Matala worked with his father as a logger and drove trucks for a Troy-based sand and gravel mine company. Michael Matala taught his kids how to shoot, hunt and fish. He drove classic hot rods and raced friends, often while driving backwards, winning much more often than he lost.

Friends would tell Matala there was no way he could drag massive trees away with his truck, only to see him haul them off with ease.

Michael Matala was fearless. In one legendary family tale, he and a friend were about to go hunting when a bear crossed their paths. Matala began feeding it with bread and tossed some of it under his buddy's car. His pal panicked as the creature rocked his car back and forth.

"Throw me a gun!" Matala's friend screamed. Matala tossed him a pistol. It wasn't loaded. The bear eventually went away.

When he was fishing, Matala would often complain when the catch was too easy.

"He would say that he wish he used a smaller rod so it would have been somewhat of a challenge," John Matala, another of Michael Matala's sons, said.

One time when Michael Matala was invited to a steak roast, he called one of his friends and told him to bring a fishing pole.

"He's thinking, 'Why would I bring a fishing pole to a steak roast?'" John Matala recalled.

As they all made their way up the road, Matala and his buddy stayed back a bit. When everyone else took a right, Matala and his friend hooked a left. There was a fishing hole he wanted to go to instead. Matala and his friend stayed there the whole night casting lines of live bait for trout. They threw back every catch.

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