The Netflix series I Will Find You confirmed that Hayden Payne (Milo Ventimiglia) is a bad man after a surprising plot twist revealed that he kidnapped Matthew Burrows. The new crime thriller miniseries is based on Harlan Coben's 2023 novel of the same name, which follows a devoted father named David Burrows, who was imprisoned for the murder of his young son, Matthew. David has always maintained his innocence, claiming he committed the crime in his sleep.
However, five years later, David's daughter-in-law, Rachel (played by Breakup star Britt Lower), discovered a recent photograph apparently showing Matthew alive and well from the amusement park. This single photograph reignited the flames and sparked the "I Will Find You" story, prompting him to risk everything by escaping prison to find his son and prove his innocence.
What happened to Matthew in I Will Find You? Is he even alive?
At the beginning of I Will Find You, three-year-old Matthew Burroughs is apparently brutally murdered with a baseball bat. David is sent to prison after a witness claims to have seen him bury the murder weapon in the backyard.
However, in episode 6, David's innocence was confirmed as Nicky Fisher (Clancy Brown) forced a witness to lie in court as revenge against David's father and his partner for arresting his son in the past, which led to his son's death in prison.
This sensational news exonerated David in the eyes of his key allies, clearing him of murder charges, but it didn't explain the whole story. Nikki was considered the prime suspect in Matthew's kidnapping, but it was later revealed that he was merely a red herring, having had nothing to do with Matthew's actual disappearance, while claiming he would never harm a child. After Nikki was convinced that David hadn't killed his own son, he essentially stepped aside and allowed the real hunt to continue.
As a result, in in the film "I Will Find You"« Matthew Burrows was confirmed to be still alive. He wasn't murdered; he was kidnapped and raised under a new name for five years. The body in Matthew's room wasn't Matthew at all. Instead, the body found there was that of a terminally ill child named Martin Bischoff from an orphanage, who had been kidnapped by the real suspect.
As it turns out, the real culprit was Hayden Payne, despite posing as David and Rachel's ally for much of I Will Find You. He orchestrated the kidnapping, swapping Bischoff's body and disfiguring the fake body's face to make identification difficult, and falsifying DNA evidence to pass it off as Matthew's.
Hayden raised the real Matthew as «"Theo"» for five years, treating him as his own in a twisted attempt to create a family connected to his one true love, Rachel. Given that Matthew was only three years old when he was kidnapped, he had limited memories of his early life, making the abduction easier for Hayden.
Why Hayden Kidnapped Matthew: Explained
In the film «"I will find you"» Hayden kidnapped Matthew due to a pernicious combination of an obsession with Rachel Mills and a delusional belief that the boy is in fact his biological son.
In the film "I Will Find You," Hayden is introduced as Rachel's wealthy and charming ex-boyfriend. After their breakup, Hayden never recovered from the breakup, harboring an unhealthy obsession with her. When he learned that a woman named «Rachel Mills» When she visited one of his family's clinics (Berg Reproductive Clinic) for fertility treatment, this revelation pushed Hayden to act on his obsession with Rachel, seeing it as a perverse opportunity to start a family with her.
Using his influence and money, Hayden quietly arranged for his own sperm to be used in the procedure. This would allow Hayden to establish a strong bond with Rachel and perhaps win her back.
However, the patient wasn't Rachel. It was her sister, Cheryl, David's wife and Matthew's mother, who used Rachel's name to conceal the treatment from David. Cheryl and David had been trying to conceive for a long time, but after their first consultation at the clinic, she discovered she was already pregnant with David's child. Unaware of these details, Hayden assumed the child he had fathered was Rachel's.
Although Hayden admitted that after the confusion and misunderstanding at the clinic, he had already forgotten about Rachel, meeting Matthew at a family barbecue on Independence Day changed something in him. He imagined his child with Rachel and contemplated what it would be like if they started a family, and became convinced that Matthew was his biological son. This pushed him to take Matthew back rather than let him be with David and Cheryl.
In Episode 8 of "I Will Find You," the shocking news broke that Hayden wasn't his son after his own mother, Gertrude (played by Madeleine Stowe, known for her role as Mrs. Kersh in "It: Welcome to Derry"), admitted she knew all along, based on a real-life test they conducted. She kept it from Hayden because what he did to Matthew and David was already irreversible.
After learning the truth, Hayden killed his mother and attempted to escape with Matthew. Hayden didn't consider it a kidnapping, noting that he believed he had committed «"act"» rescuing Matthew from his supposed parents. In the final confrontation, Hayden was about to kill David, but FBI agent Sarah Greer intervened and saved the day, finally killing the prime suspect.
The series ended with Matthew surviving and David fully exonerated after revelations about Matthew's true fate and Hayden's abduction solved the case. Thanks to therapy and family support, Matthew gradually adapted to his new life and reconnected with David and Cheryl.
Learn more about one of the shocking plot twists featured in Harlan Coben's Runaway series.