I Will Find You: Why Hayden Kidnaps Matthew Is Because of a Complete Misunderstanding

Netflix's I Will Find You confirmed that Hayden Payne (Milo Ventimiglia) is not a good person after the twist revealed he had kidnapped Matthew Burroughs. The new limited crime thriller miniseries is based on Harlan Coben's 2023 novel of the same name, chronicling the story of a devoted father named David Burroughs who was imprisoned for murdering his young son, Matthew. David has always maintained his innocence, claiming the crime happened while he was in a sleepwalking state. 

However, five years later, David's sister-in-law, Rachel (played by Severance star Britt Lower), uncovered a recent photo of what appears to be a living and well Matthew from an amusement park. This single photo reignited everything and kick-started I Will Find You's story, prompting him to risk everything by escaping from prison to find his son and prove his innocence. 

What Happened to Matthew In 'I Will Find You' - Is He Even Alive?

At the start of I Will Find You, three-year-old Matthew Burroughs appeared to have been brutally murdered after he was bludgeoned with a baseball bat. David was sent to prison after a witness claimed she saw him burying the murder weapon in the backyard. 

However, Episode 6 confirmed that David was innocent because Nicky Fisher (Clancy Brown) forced the witness to lie on the stand as an act of 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 bombshell cleared David of the murder in the eyes of key allies, but didn't explain everything. Nicky was deemed the prime suspect of kidnapping Matthew, but he later turned out to be a compelling red herring since he had no involvement in Matthew's actual disappearance while claiming he would never harm a child. Once Nicky verified David hadn't killed his own son, he essentially stepped aside and let the real hunt continue. 

I Will Find You eventually confirmed that Matthew Burroughs is still alive. He was never murdered; he was kidnapped and raised under a new identity for five years. The body in Matthew's room wasn't Matthew at all. Instead, the dead body was a random terminally ill kid named Martin Bischoff from an orphanage, taken by the real suspect. 

As it turned out, Hayden Payne was the real culprit, despite positioning himself as an ally of David and Rachel for much of I Will Find You. He orchestrated the kidnapping by substituting the body of Bischoff and smashed the substitute body's face to make identification difficult, and manipulated DNA evidence to frame it 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 with ties to his one true love, Rachel. Given that Matthew was only three years old when he was taken, he had limited memories of his early life, making the abduction easier for Hayden. 

Why Hayden Kidnaps Matthew, Explained

Hayden kidnapped Matthew in I Will Find You because of a toxic mix of obsession with Rachel Mills and a delusional mindset that the boy is actually his biological son. 

I Will Find You introduced Hayden as Rachel's wealthy and charming ex-boyfriend. Following their breakup, Hayden never moved on, harboring an unhealthy fixation on her. When he learned that a woman named "Rachel Mills" had visited one of his family's clinics (Berg Reproductive Clinic) for fertility treatment, this revelation prompted Hayden to act on his obsession for Rachel, seeing it as a twisted opportunity to start a family with her. 

Using his influence and money, Hayden discreetly arranged for his own sperm to be used in the procedure. Doing this would allow Hayden to have a permanent connection with Rachel and, possibly, win her back in his mind. 

However, the patient in question was not Rachel. It was her sister Cheryl, David's wife and Matthew's mother, who used Rachel's name to keep the treatments secret from David. Cheryl and David have been struggling to conceive, but discovered she was already pregnant with David after she went through with the initial consultation in the clinic. Unaware of these details, Hayden assumed the resulting child was his with Rachel. 

While Hayden admitted that he had moved on from Rachel after the clinic mix-up and misunderstanding, seeing Matthew up close at a Fourth of July family barbecue triggered something inside him. He imagined his child with Rachel and the what-ifs of starting a family, and he became convinced that Matthew was his biological son. This set him on a path to reclaim Matthew rather than let him be with David and Cheryl. 

I Will Find You Episode 8 dropped the bombshell that Hayden was not his son after his own mother, Gertrude (played by Mrs. Kersh actress Madeline Stowe from IT: Welcome to Derry), admitted she had known this from the start, based on a real test they had administered. She kept the secret from Hayden because what he did to Matthew and David was already irreversible. 

Hayden killed his mother after learning the truth and tried to flee with Matthew.  Hayden didn't see this as kidnapping, noting that he believed what he did was an "act" of rescuing Matthew from his fake parents. The final confrontation saw Hayden about to kill David, but FBI Agent Sarah Greer swooped in to save the day by finally killing the primary suspect.

The series ended with Matthew surviving, and David completely exonerated from his crimes after the revelations about Matthew's true fate and Hayden's abduction dismantled the case. With therapy and family support, Matthew slowly adjusted with his new normal and reconnected with David and Cheryl. 

Read more about another one of the shocking twists introduced in Harlan Coben's Run Away series.