The coroner’s phone call came the day after Pharaoh’s body was found. Rick picked up, and the voice on the other end delivered the news that would crack his world wide open: his two-year-old son had been beaten to death. Pharaoh Lance Van Vector was born on July 24th, 2011, in Lancaster, California. His mother Adriana chose his name deliberately.
She knew from day one that he would be her little king. He lived up to it. He had strong opinions, even about how he played with other kids. But mostly, people remembered his smile.
His grandmother Carol Roberson said, “Just that smile would win you over. ” He waved at strangers, said hi to everyone he passed, and if he saw someone who looked sad or hurt, he would walk right over and put his arm around them. He had a big heart for such a little guy. He never needed to be asked twice to help, especially in the kitchen.
Music was his thing—any kind of music—and he would dance and sing to all of it. He loved eating, drinking juice, going to amusement parks, swimming, and trips to Chuck E. Cheese. Bath time was a highlight, and apparently brushing his teeth was a genuine passion.
He liked playing hide and seek, patty cake, and peekaboo. Story time was a big one too; he never turned down a book from his mom or his dad. At the time of the events, Pharaoh was only two years old. At some point, Rick and Adriana separated and shared custody of their only child together.
Rick, 41 at the time, lived in the Los Angeles area and worked as a shuttle bus driver. Adriana was 22 and lived in California City, a flat, dusty, and isolated desert town in Kern County, about 110 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The city had been planned in the 1950s to become a major metropolitan center, with wide streets laid out across the Mojave Desert in a grid pattern. Most of the streets just trailed off into sand.
The population was only around 14,000 people. Around that time, Adriana was dating a 26-year-old man named Matthew Kenneth Berry. They had been together for about five months. Rick met Matthew twice in person and they spoke on the phone a few times.
One of those calls was about Matthew’s relationship with Adriana. Rick said their relationship was kind of volatile—they argued all the time—but Matthew never mentioned anything physical. Adriana held off on introducing Matthew to Pharaoh for the first couple of months, and when she finally did, Matthew was eager to win the boy over. Pharaoh wasn’t always warm to him.
Adriana figured it was because her son was missing Rick. Rick and Pharaoh were close. Matthew even acknowledged their bond, telling Rick, “I can see how much you guys love each other. I would never do anything to come between us.
” He called Pharaoh a daddy’s boy. But things weren’t all sunshine and roses. Matthew apparently had a temper. Adriana described it as, “He could get very mad and would punch things like walls.
” But she was clear that he had never been physically violent to her or to Pharaoh. She said, “He seemed like a really nice guy. ” People close to Matthew said he had been in the military and had since become a drug user. His sister said he was suffering from PTSD.
No one suspected what Matthew was capable of. On Sunday morning, November 17th, 2013, Adriana and Matthew drove to Rick’s Los Angeles area home to pick up Pharaoh. Rick handed his son over at 4:30 a. m.
That was the last time Rick ever saw his little boy alive. Two days later, on November 19th, Matthew, Adriana, and Pharaoh were running errands together. Matthew said he needed to make a run out to the Home Depot in Mojave for some tools. Adriana asked to be dropped off at their home in California City first, and he agreed.
Then he asked if he could take Pharaoh with him, and she said yes. They headed out at 2:30 that afternoon. The plan was to be home before dark. But an hour after Matthew left, Adriana started texting him.
She wanted Pharaoh brought home. Matthew texted back claiming they were already in Mojave, even though California City to Mojave was only a 15-mile drive. Adriana asked him to meet her so she could take Pharaoh to Lancaster to visit her mother, but Matthew never showed up. Her sister also texted Matthew.
He told her he couldn’t get the tools he needed, so he had to go to Rosamond instead. Then he stopped responding entirely. Adriana got scared. She rushed to her sister’s house and called Matthew over and over, but there was no answer.
She didn’t want to fear the worst, but she started calling the hospitals. On Wednesday morning, she went to the sheriff’s office and reported Pharaoh missing. At 1:00 p. m.
on Wednesday, November 20th, detectives sat down with Adriana and told her that her son was dead. Matthew never went to the Home Depot. He took Pharaoh off-roading in the Mojave Desert outside of California City. There, his truck became stuck in the sand.
Investigators found it and used a tractor to pull it out. Matthew was the only adult present, and Pharaoh could no longer tell anyone what happened to him. That morning, a bus driver spotted Matthew and a small child lying beside a road outside California City. The driver pulled over and asked if they needed help or a ride into town.
Matthew carried Pharaoh onto the bus, where he told the driver the boy wasn’t breathing. The driver called his dispatch and arranged for medical aid while he drove toward the city center. During that bus ride, a dispatcher pleaded with Matthew to perform CPR on Pharaoh, but Matthew refused. He also refused to let anyone near Pharaoh.
It wasn’t until Matthew spotted police waiting at a California City intersection that he began to perform CPR, but by then it was far too late. California City police, firefighters, and paramedics met the bus at the intersection of Naralea Road and California City Boulevard. Pharaoh was pronounced dead at the scene, and Matthew was arrested immediately. Rick got the news the following day by phone.
He said, “The coroner called me today and told me my son was beaten to death. ” He still had a voicemail on his phone from Matthew. In the message, Matthew had said, “He’s safe with me, bro. I promise you that.
I won’t let nothing happen to your boy, man. ”
The Kern County Coroner’s Office determined that Pharaoh died of blunt force trauma. His death was ruled a homicide. Court documents detailed the full extent of Pharaoh’s injuries.
His face, the top and back of his head, and the area around his spine were all bruised. More marks ran across his arms, legs, and inner thighs. Head to toe, his body was covered. The official autopsy confirmed blunt force trauma to the head and abdomen with bleeding on the brain.
Investigators also told Matthew there was tearing to the child’s anus. According to reports, Matthew chuckled when he heard that. The coroner confirmed these injuries were recent. When investigators confronted Matthew with these findings, his story started to shift.
He had initially claimed that Pharaoh flew out of his car seat and hit the dashboard during their off-roading trip, and that he performed CPR afterward. He later tried to suggest that the CPR itself caused the bruising. A pathologist who reviewed the case knocked that down. After Matthew’s first court appearance, Pharaoh’s maternal grandmother Carol Roberson was in the courthouse lobby.
She said, “I just want to know why. I want to ask this guy why. ” She had had a bad feeling about Matthew from the very beginning because he couldn’t maintain eye contact with her, but she had never voiced those concerns. She said, “What he did was despicable.
A 2-year-old baby, he’s defenseless. What can he do? ”
Rick said he could not accept any punishment less than the death penalty. He said, “Anything less than that would be him getting off too easy.
”
For the funeral, family members were allowed to view Pharaoh’s body. Rick said he could only see his son’s head and arms. Matthew was charged with first-degree murder and assault on a child under the age of eight resulting in death. He was held without bail in the Kern County Jail.
He pled not guilty. The case moved slowly. His arraignment was pushed back, and the proceedings stretched across nearly five years. Matthew never went to trial.
In October of 2018, Matthew changed his plea. He pled no contest to first-degree murder. On December 19th, 2018, he was sentenced in Kern County Superior Court. He received 25 years to life in prison.
Former Deputy DA Nick Lackey addressed the court. He said, “Matthew Kenneth Berry took Pharaoh, his girlfriend’s toddler, out to the desert and beat him brutally. After the defendant killed the victim, he took his body onto a bus. A lot of people noticed he had a dead child with him and notified the police.
” He added, “There’s nothing we can do to bring back the victim. Nothing we can do can make the family whole again, but that’s an appropriate sentence. He deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. ”
Matthew remains incarcerated.
He is now 38 years old. His parole eligibility date is listed as May of 2031. Rick started posting videos of Pharaoh on YouTube one month after his son’s death. Many of those videos are still available.
His later videos are mainly workout content, travel, and lifestyle stuff, but Pharaoh is still there in the background. Photos of him on the mantel, a framed painting or drawing. If you watch Rick’s 2019 workout video, you can see the framed photo of Pharaoh behind him. Years went by and Rick built a life.
He married again and had more children. By late 2025, he had five kids, three grown from previous relationships and two young sons aged two and six. His oldest is 29. In an interview, Rick said, “I love being a dad.
It brings joy to my heart and I consider it a blessing. ”
In late 2025, Rick was cast on season 8 of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days on TLC. TLC described him as a jack-of-all-trades and a divorced single dad who believed he had finally found the right woman to complete his family. Rick traveled to Madagascar to meet his girlfriend Trish Stylie, a 25-year-old midwife.
The show didn’t lead with Pharaoh. The storyline was Rick and Trish’s long-distance relationship, a five-day ghosting incident, and significant trust issues that came out over the course of the season. Rick’s appearance stirred up emotions, especially in a tense exchange at the tell-all where he defended himself as a father. Although Rick has been in the spotlight recently, he hasn’t made any extended public statements about Pharaoh’s death beyond the interviews he gave in November of 2013.
Pharaoh’s funeral was held on Wednesday, November 27th, 2013, one week after his body was found. Eternal Valley Memorial Park and Mortuary in Newhall, California handled the arrangements. Those who came to say goodbye remembered him as a happy kid who loved to dance and was always willing to help. His obituary was written by the people who loved him.
It ends like this: “We love you, Pharaoh. Live like the king you are. ”
