Matthew Benton

Matthew Benton is a long time childhood friend of Emily Prentiss. He is deceased.

Childhood
Matthew was in Rome when he was 15. He met Emily Prentiss and John Cooley there. They were all very good friends. When Emily got pregnant she said Matthew was the only one who she could turn to. He said they should go to the priest. The priest told Emily that if she got an abortion that she would no longer be welcome in the congregation. Matthew found a doctor and brought Emily. When they got back to Rome Matthew took Emily to the church. He told her to hold her head up and walked her to the front pew. The priest stopped his sermon and stared at Matthew and Matthew stared back finally the priest continued. After this Matthew began to question the bible and do drugs, such as meth. He later moved to the US.

Demonology
In the episode Demonology, Matthew died of a heart attack induced by drugs. John told Emily.John also said that he thinks something else was going on; Matthew was talking crazy, but the fear was real. Matthew said to him "Johnny they are going to kill me, they already killed a man in Georgetown named Tommy V." Emily goes to Hotch and the team begins to investigate. The team's investigation leads them to think that the two deaths, and later the death of another man, are related. Scuff marks on the floor, combined with the fact that the family can't say their names, make the team believe that the men were killed during excorcisms. Rossi takes Emily to were the original case that inspired the movie The Excorcist began. She reveals what happened in Rome, and Rossi tells her that she needs to be ready for what they find because Matthew may have committed murder on a recent trip to Galicia, Spain. She believes that Matthew didn't do it and says she owed it to him to make sure he rested in peace. They discover that Father Paul Silvano committed the murders, but he is part of a special UN envoy and has diplomatic immunity. He says that he is not through and when he is released he begins to perform an exorcism on John Cooley until Emily and the team find him. Outside the house Emily is trying to make sure John is okay and he says "I'm sorry I wasn't there when I should have been" which implies that he was the father.