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“The Family Plot”: Dateline NBC Reports on Matt Restelli Homicide September 26 2026

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Dateline NBC opens its 35th season with “The Family Plot,” a two-hour examination of the murder of Matthew “Matt” Restelli and a case that transformed from an apparent self-defence shooting into a prosecution of three members of the same family.

The episode, airing Friday, September 25, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on NBC, is reported by correspondent Josh Mankiewicz. It traces the breakdown of Matthew’s marriage to Kathryn “Kate” Restelli, her move from California to Utah with their two children, the plan that prosecutors said drew Matthew more than 600 miles from home, and the evidence investigators used to challenge the account given after he was shot seven times.

“The Family Plot” also examines what happened after the killing. Kathryn pleaded guilty and became a prosecution witness. Her brother, Kevin Ellis, went to trial and was convicted of murder, although jurors rejected the allegation that he was part of the charged murder conspiracy. Their mother, Tracey Grist, faced a separate trial in April 2026 and was convicted of murder, conspiracy, obstruction and domestic-violence charges. All three received prison sentences that could keep them incarcerated for much of, or all of, their lives.

A Marriage in Crisis and a Move From California to Utah

Matthew Restelli, 42, and Kathryn Restelli were living in Aguanga, California, when their marriage began to break down. Kathryn later testified that by early 2024 she was communicating with her mother about her unhappiness and considering the end of the marriage. Family tensions had developed around Matthew, while members of Kathryn’s family later described concerns about his drinking and behaviour. Those claims formed part of the background presented at the later trials, but they did not provide a legal justification for what prosecutors said happened in July 2024.

On June 20, Kathryn rented a Ford Expedition and drove from California to her mother’s home in American Fork, Utah, with the couple’s two children. She told Matthew she was visiting family. Before she left, Kathryn placed an Apple AirTag in Matthew’s truck, hidden in a storage compartment between the front seats. According to her later testimony, she shared access to the tracker with family members, including Grist, Ellis and one of her sisters. Messages recovered by investigators showed members of the family discussing Matthew’s movements.

Kathryn had considered divorce, but custody became a major concern. At trial, she testified that she feared she would lose the children or would be forced to return them to California because they had not established residency in Utah. On July 11, she consulted a California divorce attorney and recorded the conversation. According to her testimony, what she learned left her feeling that her legal options were limited.

The prosecution case was that instead of resolving the marriage through the courts, discussions within Kathryn’s family turned toward killing Matthew. Kathryn would later admit under oath that she took part in those discussions and helped create the circumstances that brought her husband to the American Fork house.

A Murder Plan That Kathryn Said Began as a Joke

During Tracey Grist’s 2026 trial, Kathryn testified that the first mention of killing Matthew came after she had spent about a week in Utah. She described a conversation in which Grist suggested that Matthew could be drawn to the house, killed and made to appear as though he had been shot in self-defence. Kathryn said the comment began as a joke but developed into a genuine plan.

Kathryn told jurors that she later had second thoughts. She testified that she told her mother she did not want to continue with the plan. According to Kathryn, Grist refused to abandon it. Grist denied that account when she took the stand in her own defence and said she never recruited Ellis or planned Matthew’s death.

Kathryn also testified that Grist brought Kevin Ellis into the discussions. Prosecutors portrayed Grist as the force directing the plan, while the defence at Grist’s trial argued that Kathryn was an unreliable witness who had received a plea agreement and had reason to shift responsibility toward her mother. Grist maintained that comments she made about harming Matthew had been jokes rather than evidence of a murder plan.

The evidence included more than testimony about family conversations. Investigators recovered messages, digital location information, internet searches and data connected to the AirTag. Prosecutors argued that the combined record showed preparation rather than an encounter that erupted without warning.

The Ruse That Brought Matthew Restelli to American Fork

The final stage of the plan centred on getting Matthew to travel from California to Utah. Kathryn testified that Matthew had provided money so she could rent a vehicle and drive back to California. Grist suggested that Kathryn claim she had injured her ankle. Kathryn then went to an Enterprise rental location while knowing that problems with her out-of-state licence and debit card would prevent the rental, according to her testimony.

Matthew then decided to make the drive himself. Kathryn stayed in contact with him and gave him reason to believe the family could reconcile. When she pleaded guilty in 2025, she admitted that she kept Matthew calm during the journey, led him to believe she intended to return to California and told him that the front door at the American Fork home would be unlocked when he arrived.

That detail became central to the prosecution theory. The plan, according to Kathryn’s plea statement, was for Matthew to enter the house without anyone opening the door for him. His entry could then be portrayed as unauthorized, supporting a claim that the people inside believed they were confronting an intruder.

At the same time, members of the family could follow Matthew’s progress through the AirTag hidden in his truck. Investigators recovered messages about the tracker, which was labelled “Truck,” and police found the device inside Matthew’s vehicle after his death. The location of the device led investigators to conclude that it had been concealed in a place that would have been difficult to discover without searching for it.

Preparations Inside the House

Kathryn’s testimony described changes made to the American Fork home before Matthew arrived. Toys were moved, cheap blankets were placed over furniture and a magnetic screen was removed from the doorway. Prosecutors said these acts helped prepare the area for the shooting and reduce the effect of blood on belongings in the room.

Kathryn also testified that several days before the killing, her mother showed her a knife wrapped in a glove and kept in a laundry-room basket. Kathryn said Grist told her the knife would be put in Matthew’s hand after the shooting so the death could be presented as self-defence. Grist denied participating in such a plan.

The children were upstairs on the night Matthew was due to arrive. Kathryn testified that she gave them melatonin before putting them to bed. She then went upstairs herself. In later court proceedings, the presence of children in the house became the basis for domestic-violence charges against Ellis and Grist.

Matthew had no reason to believe he was approaching an ambush, according to the prosecution. He believed he had been asked to make the trip to collect his wife and children. Kathryn had given him the gate information and told him he could enter. The family, meanwhile, had access to his location as he approached the house.

The Shooting of Matthew Restelli

Matthew reached the American Fork home on July 12, 2024. Evidence cited in the investigation placed his arrival at about 9 p.m. He entered the house, and within moments Kevin Ellis opened fire. Ellis would never dispute that he fired the shots. The question at his trial was why he did so and whether the shooting was self-defence or murder.

The medical examiner documented seven gunshot wounds. Three bullets passed through Matthew’s body, while four remained inside. The gunfire damaged both lungs, his heart, diaphragm, liver, stomach, spleen, kidney and ribs.

Kathryn testified that she was upstairs when the shooting began. She heard the gunfire and heard Matthew cry out in pain. She later said she heard Grist and Ellis discussing putting the knife into his hand, with Ellis warning that Matthew might still be alive. Kathryn said she remained upstairs until police instructed her to come down.

Police arriving at the house found Matthew face down. An officer testified that Ellis was near his body. Grist’s 911 call presented the shooting as the response to a knife threat, while Ellis maintained that Matthew had come toward him with a knife and that he fired to protect himself.

The Knife and the Collapse of the Self-Defence Account

The knife became one of the most important pieces of physical evidence. Investigators found it associated with Matthew’s hand, but several features raised questions. Matthew was left-handed, while the knife was positioned in his right hand. Police also regarded its orientation as inconsistent with normal use.

Forensic expert Patrick Zirpoli testified at Grist’s trial that the physical evidence indicated the knife had been placed in Matthew’s hand after his death. He said that, based on the position in which the knife was found and the mechanics of Matthew’s fall, the scene did not support the claim that Matthew had been holding it during the shooting.

DNA testing added another complication. A state forensic scientist testified that the knife did not contain DNA from Matthew, Kathryn, Ellis or Grist. Investigators also traced information concerning the knife’s manufacturer. Grist’s phone contained correspondence connected to the manufacturer, while police found no related information on Matthew’s phone.

Jurors at Grist’s trial were asked to decide whether the knife was part of a staged scene. Their verdict found Grist responsible for conduct connected to planting the knife and for false statements surrounding the 911 report. That conclusion helped turn an account of an armed intruder into evidence of obstruction and advance planning.

Digital Evidence Exposed the Family’s Preparations

The phones seized after Matthew’s death gave investigators access to weeks of conversations. Those records revealed the AirTag, discussions of Matthew’s location, exchanges among family members and evidence of the deterioration of the Restelli marriage.

Detectives found an AirTag in Matthew’s truck and messages indicating that members of Kathryn’s family had access to its location data. Kathryn testified that she had placed the device in the vehicle before leaving California. Her sister had sent messages about watching the tracker, and investigators found a map screenshot corresponding with the area around Matthew’s California home.

Prosecutors also presented Grist’s internet search history. Among the searches were references to the Adelson family and Katherine Magbanua, figures connected to the murder of Florida State University professor Dan Markel. That case involved a killing tied to a bitter family and custody dispute. Grist testified that she had searched the case because she followed true-crime stories, not because she was studying it as a model for murder.

The prosecution treated the search history as one piece of a larger circumstantial case rather than proof on its own. Combined with the AirTag, the knife evidence, the messages, Kathryn’s testimony and preparations at the house, prosecutors argued that it showed a chain of decisions leading toward Matthew’s death. Grist’s lawyers argued that the state was assembling innocent or unrelated actions into a false narrative.

Kathryn Restelli Pleads Guilty and Agrees to Testify

Kathryn did not take her case to trial. On July 16, 2025, she pleaded guilty to reduced counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, both second-degree felonies, and felony discharge of a firearm, a first-degree felony. Prosecutors dismissed obstruction of justice and two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child as part of the agreement.

Her admissions provided prosecutors with an insider account of the alleged plan. Kathryn acknowledged that she misled Matthew about reconciliation, kept him calm on his drive, instructed him to enter through the unlocked door and participated in a scheme intended to create the appearance that he had entered the house without permission.

Judge Roger Griffin sentenced Kathryn on September 9, 2025, to one-to-15-year terms for murder and conspiracy and five years to life for felony discharge of a firearm. The murder and firearm terms were ordered to run consecutively, while the conspiracy term runs concurrently. KSL reported that the structure produced a minimum prison term of at least six years, with the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole determining the length of confinement within the indeterminate sentences. Later reporting described her aggregate exposure as reaching life.

At sentencing, Kathryn apologised and acknowledged that her actions caused Matthew’s death. Griffin rejected her claim that she had made a meaningful effort to stop the killing. He pointed to the time she had before Matthew arrived and the communications she continued to have with him. The judge also issued a no-contact order concerning her children.

Kevin Ellis Goes to Trial for Firing the Seven Shots

Kevin Ellis chose a different course. At his January 2026 trial, he admitted that he had shot Matthew seven times but maintained that he acted in self-defence. His attorney argued that Ellis was not involved in a plan to kill Matthew and believed Matthew posed a threat when he entered the house.

Kathryn testified against her brother as part of her plea agreement. She told jurors that the killing had been planned and that Ellis knew why Matthew was coming to the house. Prosecutors used her testimony with the digital and physical evidence to argue that Ellis was waiting for Matthew rather than reacting to an unexpected attack.

The jury reached a split result. Ellis was convicted of murder, obstruction of justice and domestic violence in the presence of children, but the jury acquitted him of criminal conspiracy. The verdict meant jurors found that the shooting was murder but were not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that prosecutors had proved Ellis joined the charged conspiracy in the form alleged.

A jail telephone call made after the verdict became important at Ellis’s March 31 sentencing. In the call, Ellis said he had warned his mother that killing Matthew was a bad idea and that it would change many lives. He also expressed regret that he had not acted on his own warning and stopped the events.

Judge Griffin sentenced Ellis to 15 years to life for murder, one to 15 years for obstruction and two terms of up to five years for domestic violence in the presence of a child, with those sentences ordered to run consecutively. He also received penalties connected to the transfer or purchase of a dangerous weapon and possession of a controlled substance. The structure gave Ellis a minimum term of at least 20 years on the principal consecutive sentences before parole consideration.

Tracey Grist Faces the Final Murder Trial

Tracey Grist’s trial began in April 2026, bringing together much of the evidence developed since Matthew’s death. Prosecutors described her as the organiser of the plot. Her defence maintained that Ellis alone was responsible for the shooting and that the state had placed too much weight on Kathryn’s testimony.

Kathryn was the first major witness against her mother. She described the conversations about killing Matthew, the alleged plan to stage self-defence, the preparations inside the house and the claimed effort to plant a knife. She said Grist refused when Kathryn expressed doubt about proceeding with the murder.

Other evidence included body-camera footage, the autopsy findings, DNA results, AirTag records, messages between family members, Grist’s internet searches and expert testimony concerning the knife. Detective Joseph Nordin testified about the timeline of the calls to police and the evidence recovered from the phones and Matthew’s truck.

Grist took the stand and denied taking part in a murder plan. She said references to hurting Matthew had been jokes. She offered innocent explanations for her internet searches and for changes made inside the house. She said she wanted Ellis to remain home when Matthew arrived so someone else would be present while Kathryn and Matthew talked.

Tracey Grist Is Convicted on All Major Counts

On April 21, 2026, after more than four hours of deliberations, the jury found Grist guilty. Her convictions included murder, criminal conspiracy, obstruction of justice and domestic violence in the presence of a child.

The verdict represented acceptance of the prosecution’s central theory: Matthew had not died during a spontaneous act of self-defence. He had been brought to the house under a false premise, his journey had been tracked, preparations had been made before he arrived and the scene had been altered after he was shot.

Prosecutors Adam Pomeroy and James Watabe described Grist as the driving force behind the plan. Her attorney argued that Kathryn had incentives to tell prosecutors what they wanted to hear and that much of the evidence had innocent explanations. Jurors rejected the defence account and returned guilty verdicts on the charged offences.

The conviction also resolved one of the unusual features of the case. Ellis had been acquitted of conspiracy while Grist was convicted of it. The different verdicts reflected the evidence presented against each defendant and the requirement that jurors assess each charge against each person rather than treat the family as a single unit.

Maximum Sentences for the Woman Prosecutors Called the Mastermind

Grist returned to court for sentencing on June 10, 2026. Judge Griffin imposed the maximum penalty on each count and ordered the sentences to run consecutively: 15 years to life for murder, one to 15 years for conspiracy, one to 15 years for obstruction and up to five years on each domestic-violence count.

Griffin told Grist that he regarded the case as one of the most senseless crimes he had encountered during his legal career. He said her role as a grandmother should have led her to protect her grandchildren rather than participate in conduct that left them without their father and with their mother in prison.

The judge also placed his view on the record that Grist should never receive parole. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole retains authority over parole decisions, but Griffin said he expected that Grist would spend the rest of her life in prison.

By then, every defendant in the Restelli case had been sentenced. Kathryn had admitted her role and testified against members of her family. Ellis had been convicted of murdering Matthew but acquitted of conspiracy. Grist had been convicted of both murder and conspiracy and received consecutive maximum sentences.

A Family Left With the Consequences

Matthew’s relatives spoke at the sentencing hearings about the effects of his death on his children, parents and brothers. His mother, Diane Restelli, described losing the regular phone calls and contact she had shared with her son. His brother Mark spoke about Matthew’s loyalty to his family and the lasting consequences for his children.

The children became victims of more than the loss of their father. Their mother went to prison for helping arrange his death. Their uncle went to prison for shooting him. Their grandmother went to prison after a jury found that she helped orchestrate the killing. At Ellis’s sentencing, Matthew’s family said relatives had taken responsibility for raising the children after the murder fractured both sides of their family.

The case also became a study in how digital evidence can dismantle a planned narrative. The AirTag that tracked Matthew’s truck, phone messages, recordings, search histories and location records supplied investigators with a timeline that could be compared against the first accounts of what happened inside the house.

Physical evidence provided another layer. The placement of the knife, Matthew’s dominant hand, the absence of DNA on the weapon, the gunshot evidence and the forensic reconstruction all became part of a case that moved far beyond the original claim that Ellis had confronted an armed intruder.

What Dateline’s “The Family Plot” Covers

For its Season 35 premiere, Dateline returns to American Fork to reconstruct both the murder and the family relationships behind it. Josh Mankiewicz interviews Matthew’s mother Diane and his brothers Paul and Mark Restelli, giving his family a chance to describe the man at the centre of a case often dominated by testimony about those accused of killing him.

The programme also speaks with members of Kathryn’s family, including her sister Taralyn Fischer and her father, Stan Ellis, who is Grist’s former husband. Other interviewees include Kathryn’s former friend Stephanie Slocombe and Grist’s former best friend Teri Bishop.

The law-enforcement and court perspectives come from American Fork Police Detective Joseph Nordin, prosecutors James Watabe, Adam Pomeroy and David Brown, and Kevin Ellis’s defence attorney Scott Williams. Their accounts provide a view of the investigation from the first self-defence claim through the evidence gathering, plea agreement, two murder trials and three sentencing proceedings.

By the time Dateline tells the story, the criminal cases have reached their central outcomes. Kathryn Restelli, Kevin Ellis and Tracey Grist are all in prison. Matthew Restelli’s death, first presented as the result of a confrontation with a knife, has produced murder convictions, a conspiracy conviction, obstruction convictions and court findings that the fatal encounter was not what members of the family first claimed.

Dateline NBC: “The Family Plot” airs Friday, September 25, 2026, from 9–11 p.m. ET/8–10 p.m. CT on NBC. The Season 35 premiere is reported by Josh Mankiewicz.

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Ryan Gill

Ryan is a passionate follower of true crime television programs, reporting on and providing in-depth investigations on mysteries in the criminal world.

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