Esther Matusevitch
Vital Statistics
First Appearance: Relativity (Part Two) (February 16, 2003)
Full Name: Esther Matusevitch (maiden name)
Known Aliases: Esther Glowerhausen, Elsbeth Diederich, Eszter Lakatos, "the Key Master", and perhaps dozens more
Status: Alive
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Height: 5' 7" (170.18 cm)
Weight: 130 lb (58.97 kg)
Hair: Silver
Distinguishing Characteristics: Looks very similar to her daughter, Trudy, only with shorter silver hair
Marital Status: Divorced from Victor Glowerhausen
Character Description
An evil streak appears to run through Trudy's family. Not only is she the distant cousin of Gwynn from Sluggy Freelance, but her parents are even more bizarre. It's easy to tell where Trudy gets it from, however, as her mother is a sophisticated criminal mastermind with tendrils in dozens if not hundreds of schemes and corporations.
Esther Matusevitch met Victor Glowerhausen as "hippies" during an anti-war rally in the late 1960's and the two promptly married. Esther soon inherited a small fortune and, during the process of becoming a ruthless corporate magnate, became estranged from her marijuana-addicted husband and their young daughter, Trudy. This eventually led to a bitter, lengthy divorce. Esther retained much of the pair's belongings and fortune, but was forced to pay Glowerhausen enough alimony to build him a mansion in Beverly Hills.
Matusevitch was deeply involved in numerous illegal activities from simple accounting mishandling to arms and drug smuggling. Trudy mentioned her "second business" in Columbia she never paid taxes on when we first met her. She had been known to infiltrate existing corporations and manipulate them from within for her own personal gain, such as her work at Diederich Pharmaceuticals and Lakatos Pharmaceuticals. In the process, she often took numerous aliases to hide her illicit activities. In the case of both Diederich and Lakatos, she assumed the identity of a descendant of the original founder, although it is highly unlikely that she was actually related to either. According to Trudy, she does not trust men and tends to surround herself with trusted, highly loyal young women. "Anna" was one of her chief lieutenants and had posed as her (or her aliases) at times to throw investigators off track.
Matusevitch accidentally revealed that Trudy has a sister who was given up for adoption without anyone else's knowledge. Trudy later discovered that this sister was really Sharon Murphy, the girlfriend of her coworker Jason "Fooker" Barker. For a long time, Matusevitch did not know that this meeting had taken place and that her daughters had rediscovered each other. However, it didn't take long before it became a safe assumption that the two had reunited. Sharon has since met her biological mother, although we have yet to see the repercussions of this meeting.
During Nick and Ki's honeymoon, the pair accidentally ran into Moldfinger, the criminal mastermind and former founding member of C.R.U.D.E., now retired. Moldfinger warned them to "beware the Colonel and the Key Master", a suggestion that remained a mystery for several years. Eventually, Nick and Trudy deduced that Matusevitch might be "the Key Master" based on a series of clues. The exact nature of her relationship with "the Colonel" is complicated at best. Colonel Lionel Barker, Fooker and Justin's father, blackmailed Matusevitch into using her vast illicit corporate empire to distribute the his "inventory" across the globe. It has been heavily implied that the two may have had a brief romantic entanglement. By the time Matusevitch learned what his "inventory" was, however, she was in too deep to pull out. Once she had outlived her usefulness, Barker disposed of her in the belly of one of the Physaric "star beasts" to prevent her from revealing his plans to double-cross the aliens. Following the climax of Scylla and Charybdis, Matusevitch was taken into human custody aboard the Grey research vessel.
Selected Milestones
- Esther makes her first appearance
- This isn't the "Elsbeth Diederich" you were looking for...
- Esther's "true" name is revealed, as are her daughters
- The daughters compare notes
- At long last, the Colonel and the Key Master
- Scylla and Charybdis:
- Sharon finally meets her biological mother
Relationships
- Trudy Trueheart, daughter
- Sharon Murphy, daughter, given up for adoption
- Victor Glowerhausen, ex-husband, now divorced
Group Affiliations
- Loosely allied with the Physarics through her alliance with Colonel Lionel Barker