At eleven years old, Matt Antkowiak was sexually abused by a trusted family friend.
The abuse stole his innocence, shattered his sense of safety, and left questions that would haunt him for decades.
Why did this happen? Why didn't anyone stop it? Why did no one ask the right questions?
For years, those questions remained unanswered. But what followed was not the story anyone expected.
Matt spent the next forty years pursuing the very darkness that wounded him. He became a soldier, black belt, police officer, and eventually a police chief. An investigator of human trafficking, child exploitation, sexual predators, and institutional abuse. A leader in school safety, crisis management, and child protection reform, Matt has become a child protection advocate.
Again and again, Matt found himself standing between vulnerable children and the evil he knew all too well. Yet beneath every uniform, every badge, every accomplishment, and every victory remained the wounded boy who never received justice for his own abuse.