A young woman’s death in Philadelphia has left her family searching for answers after she was found outdoors in freezing temperatures less than 24 hours after a night out at a nightclub.
According to ABC 6, Makea Matthews was discovered beneath an Interstate 95 overpass in the Fishtown area, more than a mile from the Delaware Avenue club she had visited the previous evening. While authorities are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death, relatives say they were initially told she died from exposure to the cold, but they believe there’s much more to the story.
Matthews’ family claimed she went out on January 23 with two female friends, and at some point during the night, club security reportedly removed her from the venue due to intoxication. The friends told the family they walked out with Matthews but briefly returned inside to retrieve something. When they came back outside, Matthews was no longer there. Her sister, Bayyinah Matthews, said that moment has haunted the family.
“If someone would have stayed with her, she wouldn’t have gone missing,” she said. “She would still be alive.”
The following afternoon, Matthews’ girlfriend contacted police to report her missing around 4:25 p.m. Within minutes, officers responding to a separate call located Matthews’ body under the highway. That night, Philadelphia was experiencing extreme cold and had issued a Code Blue alert due to dangerously low temperatures.
While hypothermia has been mentioned as a possible cause of death, the family says Matthews had visible injuries.
“She had bruising all over her body and trauma to the side of her face,” Bayyinah said. “That’s why we’re questioning everything.”
Loved ones are also struggling to understand how Matthews traveled such a long distance from the nightclub to where she was found, especially given the weather conditions and her reported condition when she left the club.
In hopes of bringing attention to the case, Bayyinah shared emotional videos on TikTok that quickly went viral, drawing over a million views and prompting strangers to offer support and potential tips.
“I felt like somebody out there had to know something,” she said. “I couldn’t just sit and wait.”
The family has since started retracing Matthews’ last known movements on their own, trying to piece together her final hours.
The case remains under active investigation by the Philadelphia Police Department along with the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office. Authorities have not yet released a final determination of how Matthews died, and police say efforts to contact the friends who were with her that night have so far been unsuccessful.