Case 279: Zebb Quinn

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For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. 18-year-old Zeb Quinn started working part-time at the Hendersonville Road Walmart store in Asheville, North Carolina, as a means to make money during high school.
He enjoyed the job so much that he ended up staying on after graduation. Zeb had a learning disorder which had caused some difficulties in school and he'd always struggled to fit in.
But at Walmart, his friendly nature, strong work ethic, and dependability ensured he was well-liked by his co-workers. Zeb had earned a reputation as a valued member of the electronics department team.
On days where he wasn't rostered on, he often stopped by the store just to drop breakfast off to his colleagues. Zeb's mum joked that he spent more time at Walmart than he did at home.
In the two and a half years Zeb had been working there, he'd never once called in sick. Zeb's supervisor, Paddy Andrick, was particularly fond of the 18-year-old.
Despite their age difference, the two got along well. Every morning, Zeb called Paddy at work just to chat and make sure he'd done everything Paddy needed him to do.
Paddy was therefore puzzled when she received a phone call from Zeb's mother, Denise, on Monday January 3, 2000, asking if she knew where Zeb could be. Denise said that her son hadn't returned home after his shift the previous night and she was getting worried.
Patty hadn't seen or heard from Zeb since he clocked off around 9pm. She told Denise she'd contact her right away if she heard anything.
The following day of Tuesday January 4, Zeb was rostered to work the afternoon shift at Walmart. His family hoped he'd show up safe and well with a worthwhile explanation for his brief disappearance.
At around 2pm, Patty Andrick was manning the electronics desk when the phone rang. Hi, this is Zeb, the caller said.
I won't be in today.

Patty knew Zeb's voice well.

She didn't know who the caller was, but she was certain of one thing.

It wasn't Zeb, whom she affectionately described as a mama's boy. After finishing high school, he willingly chose to remain living at home with his mother, just the two of them.
Zeb's parents had divorced when he was a toddler, and his older sister had recently gotten married and moved in with her husband. Zeb didn't have many close friends his own age to talk to, but he never hesitated to confide in his mother.
So when Zeb failed to return home from work on the night of Sunday January 2, 2000, Denise sensed something was wrong. He usually came straight home, and if he didn't, he always contacted his mother to let her know where he was and what he was doing.
Denise told herself that Zeb had probably just stopped off somewhere to play pool, a newfound hobby of his. His father, who owned a bar across town, had recently given him his own pool cue and Zeb was eager to use it.
Zeb didn't have a mobile phone, but he took his pager with him everywhere. A popular telecommunications device at the time, a call to a pager would leave a digital message for that person, typically in the form of a phone number.
This would alert the user that someone was trying to reach them. Over the following hours, Denise paged Zeb several times.
He didn't respond. After a night of broken sleep, Denise spent all of Monday calling Zeb's friends and relatives.
No one had heard from him or had any idea where he could be. When he still hadn't gotten in touch that evening, Denise called the police to report her son missing.

As Zeb was 18 years old, he was free to come and go as he pleased.

They reassured Denise he was likely just out, doing what teenage boys do, and would show up soon.

When Zeb's work supervisor, Patty Andrick, received a call on Tuesday afternoon from an unfamiliar male claiming to be Zeb, she sprung into action. Patty began asking the caller work-related questions that only Zeb would know the answers to.
The caller stumbled to respond before abruptly ending the call. Patty immediately dialed star 69.
In the United States, this call return feature automatically redials the last number that called through to a phone line. A woman answered,

Volvo construction equipment, she said. How may I help you?

Zeb Quinn had no connection to the Volvo plant, but one of his Walmart co-workers did. 22-year-old Robert Owens, who went by his middle name of Jason, worked part-time at both businesses.
Colleagues had seen Zeb and Jason talking to one another just before Zeb clocked off on the night he disappeared. Zeb was in the market to buy a new car.
Jason said he knew of one for sale that Zeb might be interested in. After learning about the call made to Patty Andrick, police officers went to speak to Jason Owens.
He told them that after Zeb finished work on Sunday night, the pair met in the Walmart parking lot.

The car Jason thought Zeb might like was a Mitsubishi Eclipse.

It was parked out on Leicester Highway, roughly 15 miles north.

Jason had offered to drive out to show Zeb where it was.

Zeb agreed.

He got into his light blue Mazda Protégé and tailed Jason's Ford pickup truck. The two made a quick stop at a gas station on Hendersonville Road to grab a drink before hitting the road.
According to Jason, a few minutes later, Zeb started flashing his headlights. Taking this as a sign to pull over, Jason stopped on Long Shoals Road, just around the corner from a high school.
Zeb pulled up behind him and said he'd just received a page and had to make a call. He asked Jason if he had a cell phone he could use.
Jason didn't. Zeb said he was going to find a payphone and would be back shortly.
Jason told the police that he waited for 10 minutes before Zeb's Mazda reappeared. By this point, it was around 9.30pm.
As Zeb pulled up behind Jason's truck, he bumped into the back of it. According to Jason, Zeb was frantic.
In an obvious rush, he apologised and offered to pay for any damage, but said he needed to cancel their plans. He'd just received another page and had to leave right away.
With that, Jason watched as Zeb's Mazda disappeared from view. According to Jason, he had no idea that Zeb never returned home after that.
Outside of work, the pair occasionally played pool and went fishing together, but they weren't close friends. Jason said he therefore thought nothing of it when Zeb called him on Tuesday morning, asking if he'd do him a favour by calling in sick on his behalf.
Police obtained the CCTV footage from the gas station on Hendersonville Road. At 9.14pm on Sunday January 2, the footage captured Jason Owens entering the store.
Ten seconds later, Zeb Quinn entered behind him.

The two young men purchased soft drinks before leaving via the same door. Two minutes later, both of their vehicles could be seen heading in the direction of Long Shoals Road, just like Jason Owens had described.
For the police, Jason's story added weight to their belief that Zeb had likely left on his own accord and would show up again soon. His mother Denise wanted to believe this too, but she wasn't so sure.
Not only would it be completely out of character for Zeb to take off unannounced, he hadn't taken anything with him that indicated an intention to be gone for any amount of time. When he'd left Walmart, he was still dressed in his work uniform and didn't have a coat or any other change of clothes, despite the January weather in North Carolina getting bitterly cold.
Zeb also wore contact lenses, but had left his contact solution at home. Denise knew there was no way Zeb would have run away for good or considered suicide.
He was a happy young man who enjoyed his life and expressed excitement about the future. He'd recently purchased a new DVD player and satellite television system and was looking forward to setting them up.
Zeb was also taking classes at the local community college and was enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps. While he loved his job at Walmart, his dream was to one day join the armed forces as a commissioned officer.
Jason Owens told police that Zeb didn't mention who had been

paging him so urgently. But those who knew Zeb well had their suspicions.

Denise Quinn's boyfriend, Costa, ran a diner-style restaurant in Asheville called Costa's Kitchen.

Zeb had a close relationship with Costa and often stopped by the restaurant to order his favourite menu item, the chicken tenders. In December 1999, just weeks before he disappeared, Zeb was at Costa's Kitchen when he struck up a conversation with a young woman named Misty Taylor.
Misty's mother worked at the restaurant alongside Zeb's aunt. Misty and Zeb hit it off and became fast friends.
But to those close to Zeb, it was obvious that his feelings went beyond just friendship. Zeb became infatuated with 19-year-old Misty, talking about her non-stop to anyone who would listen.

The two began spending more and more time together, playing pool and hanging out at the mall.

The problem was, Misty was already in a long-term relationship with a man named Wesley Smith.

The two had a baby together.

Zeb's family and friends urged him to cut ties with Misty, but Zeb didn't listen. Misty had apparently confided in him that Wesley had a jealous streak and was abusive towards her, and Zeb was determined to help her escape the relationship.
By late December, some of Zeb's co-workers noted that he seemed nervous. Wesley had found out about the pair's newfound friendship and he wasn't happy.
Word allegedly got out that Wesley and his friends warned Zeb to stay away. Zeb and Misty stayed in contact regardless, but Wesley soon found out about that too.
According to one of Zeb's co-workers, on the day he went missing, he mentioned that someone had threatened his life. When Zeb had first failed to return home, Misty Taylor was one of the first people his mother called.
Misty said she hadn't heard from Zeb and had no idea where he could be.

According to Misty, on the night Zeb disappeared, she and her boyfriend Wesley had been having

dinner at her mother's house, an alibi that checked out. For Zeb's loved ones, this raised

the question, if Misty didn't send Zeb the urgent page, then who did?

As the days continued to pass with no word from Zeb, local newspapers started appealing for anyone with information to come forward. Citizens were urged to be on the lookout for the 18-year-old, who was described as 5 foot 10 and approximately 165 pounds, with grey-blue eyes and short brown hair.
He was driving a light blue 1990 model Mazda Protégé sedan. While police maintained that Zeb's disappearance wasn't being treated as suspicious, Denise Quinn grew more and more concerned.
At the very least, her son was out there without a coat and she worried about how cold he could be. Denise told the Asheville Citizen Times, I just want to know my son is okay.
It's just very weird. It's too weird.
Adding to the strangeness of the case, police looked into Jason Owens and discovered that on the morning of Monday January 3, he called his supervisor at the Volvo plant to say he couldn't make it into work. He claimed he'd been in a car accident and was receiving treatment at the urgent care centre on Hendersonville Road.
Records confirmed that Jason Owens had checked himself into the centre at 9.40am, just over 12 hours after Zeb Quinn was last seen alive. He was treated for a head wound and fractured ribs, injuries that weren't consistent with Zeb Quinn rear-ending his car.
When speaking to police, Jason claimed that this was a separate incident entirely. He said that several hours after his final encounter with Zeb, he was driving past the Waffle House restaurant on Long Shoals Road in the pre-dawn light when he collided with another vehicle.
Police checked their records. No accident reports had been filed for the early morning hours of Monday January 3 anywhere in the county.
The injuries Jason Owens had been treated for also raised some questions, as they weren't typical for a car accident. After giving his initial statement to the police, Jason Owens refused to cooperate any further.
Although his behaviour raised suspicions, there was nothing to tie him to Zeb's disappearance. In fact, there was still nothing to confirm that Zeb had met with foul play at all.
His absence continued to be felt wholeheartedly by his loved ones. Denise Quinn couldn't ignore Zeb's favourite lounge chair, which he typically kicked back on with his dog, Sam.
The chair now sat empty, Sam's whimpers a constant reminder of the fact that Zeb was gone. Then, on January 16, 2000, exactly two weeks to the day since Zeb was last seen, Denise Quinn received a phone call.
Denise worked at the Mission Hospital on McDowell Street in downtown Asheville.

A younger co-worker of hers had attended the same high school as Zeb and was following the news about his disappearance.

She'd just passed by the Little Pigs BBQ restaurant, which was adjacent to the hospital's parking lot, and noticed a light blue Mazda parked there.

She called Denise to let her know that it might be Zeb's. Denise rushed to the little pig's parking lot.
Sure enough,

it was Zeb's Mazda. Zeb himself was nowhere to be seen, but one look at the vehicle told Denise

that something was wrong.

The headlights were on and the windows were slightly ajar.

On the rear windshield, someone had used what appeared to be pink lipstick to draw a large set of lips with an exclamation mark on either side.

When police arrived, they opened the car doors to find something completely unexpected inside. A black Labrador Cross puppy.
The dog appeared to be approximately three months old and was completely unharmed, but nothing about her presence made sense. Zeb didn't own the puppy, nor had he mentioned wanting to get one.
Also inside the car were several drink bottles, a plastic hotel keycard, and a men's jacket, which Denise confirmed didn't belong to her son. None of these items held any obvious significance or indicated where Zeb could be.
His family wondered whether he had intentionally left these clues behind to send some kind of message. Zeb's grandmother theorised that the drawing of the lips could be his way of sending kisses, and maybe he'd left the puppy there to signify that he was alive and well.
One person even suggested that the puppy was a sign of guilt from whoever had dumped the car. Perhaps they felt so bad about what happened to Zeb that they left the dog to console his family.
Others thought the puppy had been planted there to ensure the car didn't go unnoticed. If the abandoned vehicle hadn't sparked attention, a yapping puppy surely would.
The location also raised some questions. Zeb's sister Brandy also worked at the Mission Hospital.
The two siblings were incredibly close. Zeb often called Brandy at the home she shared with her husband and young daughter just to tell her that he loved her.
Some wondered if Zeb had intentionally left the car at the Little Pigs restaurant because there was a higher chance that his family would find it. But Denise Quinn didn't think so.
Zeb knew that his mother and sister typically used the entrance at the other side of the hospital. If he wanted them to find his car, Denise felt there were better places he could have left it.
When police examined the vehicle, they realised that the driver's seat had been pulled close to the steering wheel. Zeb was 5 foot 10 and he typically kept the seat pushed further back.
With the seat positioned the way it was, there was no way he could have comfortably driven the car. Whoever it was that had driven the vehicle to the parking lot, it wasn't Zeb Quinn.
The discovery of Zeb's Mazda was a major breakthrough, but the clues left inside only raised more questions. The hotel keycard was just a blank white card with no information on it.
It didn't include the hotel's name, a logo, or guest room number. Police made inquiries with various accommodation providers but couldn't determine where the keycard originated from.
No one could figure out where the puppy had come from either. Police couldn't even be sure what had been used to draw the lips and exclamation marks on the rear windshield.
It appeared to be lipstick, but one detective told ABC 13 News that it could have also been paint, crayon, or magic marker.

Staff at the Little Pigs restaurant recalled that the Mazda hadn't been parked there the evening before it was found. This, along with the well-being of the puppy, meant it had only been abandoned hours before it was discovered.
There wasn't a single piece of evidence to indicate fair play, nor was there anything to suggest that Zeb had voluntarily run away. The Asheville police captain told reporters that they couldn't decide whether the car turning up was a good or bad sign.
Speaking to the Asheville Citizen Times, he commented, It's hard to say what this indicates. If anybody saw that car anywhere, they should let me know.
The next day, a couple came forward to report that a few days prior to the car being found, they'd seen a woman driving it around downtown Asheville. The woman appeared to be around 25 to 30 years old with wavy light brown hair.
The couple agreed to help put together a composite sketch of the driver. When police saw it, they couldn't deny the similarities it bore to Misty Taylor.
Misty was questioned, but she denied having driven Zeb's car and maintained that she had no idea where he was or what happened to him. With a solid alibi and no concrete evidence to suggest she knew otherwise, police hit a dead end.
Zeb's family hired a private detective, but he too remained baffled by the presence of Zeb's vehicle, telling Spin Magazine, It goes against all reason of criminality for the car to be here. It's just common sense.
You don't just go riding around in a car that a thousand police officers and 70,000 people are looking for. The mysterious reappearance of Zeb's car led to an increase in media attention, and tips continued to come in.
Police explored each one, but nothing substantial emerged. Zeb's co-workers at Walmart rallied behind the Quinn family by pinning yellow ribbons to their work uniforms, a symbol of hope for Zeb's safe return.
A poster with Zeb's picture detailing his last known movements was displayed at the front of the store, urging customers to come forward if they had any information that could help with the investigation. investigation.
Walmart staff even opened a fundraising account to help Denise pay for her independent search efforts and encouraged customers to donate to the fund. Zeb's father, Jerry Quinn, refused to give up hope that his son was still alive.
The two hadn't spent much time together during Zeb's childhood, but they'd recently rekindled their relationship. Jerry was certain Zeb would contact him on his birthday.
Jerry spent the entire day by the phone, but the date passed with no word from Zeb. The longer Zeb remained missing, the more the rumour mill swung into overdrive.
Locals began considering all kinds of outlandish theories, none of which held any merit. The private investigator hired by the Quinn family told journalist Brett Forrest for Spin magazine, I have checked everything I can possibly think of.
Gangs, witchcraft, drugs, deviant sexual behaviour – and I can't come up with an explanation for the lips on the back of the car. It took a while before police were able to access the records for Zeb's pager.
Looking through the data from the night he disappeared, it seemed that Jason Owens had been telling the truth. Zeb had indeed received a page just a few minutes after the two of them left the gas station.
The number was traced to the apartment of Ina Rustich, Zeb's paternal aunt. Police went to speak with Ina.
She vehemently denied having ever paged Zeb and said she wasn't even home on the night in question. She'd been eating dinner at her friend Tamara Taylor's house.
The two women worked together at Costa's Kitchen, the restaurant owned by Denise Quinn's boyfriend. Coincidentally,

the police already knew about this dinner. Tamara Taylor was Misty Taylor's mother.
It was this dinner that both Misty and her boyfriend Wesley Smith had attended on the night Zeb went missing, thus giving them both airtight alibis. The problem was, Ina Rustic lived alone and she said no one else had a key to her apartment.
So how could Zeb have received a page from her phone? According to Ina, when she returned home after Tamara's dinner, it seemed that someone had broken into her apartment. Nothing appeared to be missing, but various items were out of place and the phone had been moved to a different part of the house.
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Police checked Ina Ustich's phone records and discovered that three minutes after Zeb Quinn received the page from Ina's number, someone called her apartment. The number was traced to the home of Ina's brother, Jerry Quinn, Zeb's father.
But Jerry strongly denied making the call to Ina's apartment on the night that Zeb disappeared. Like Ina, he claimed he wasn't even home at the time.
Jerry owned a bar in Asheville's Biltmore Village area and he'd been working on the night in question. He told the Asheville Citizen Times, I didn't make no call.
I don't know who could have done that. Police considered whether Zeb could have made the call to Wina's house from his father's apartment.
But Jerry lived roughly seven miles north from the location on Long Shoals Road where Jason Owens claimed Zeb left him to return the urgent page. The call to Wina's apartment was placed just three minutes after Zeb received the page.
That wouldn't have given him enough time to drive to Jerry's place and make the call. It also wouldn't make sense for him to do so given there were plenty of payphones in the area.
Ina Ustitch's phone records also revealed that in the days following Zeb's disappearance, several other calls had been made from her apartment at times when she wasn't at home.

On one of those days, she claimed she returned home to find a picture had fallen off the wall and broken.

Ina was subject to a polygraph test, which she passed.

Outside of the unexplained page to Zeb, there was nothing to connect her with the case. Regardless, some continued to suspect she knew more about Zeb's whereabouts than she was letting on.
Unfounded rumours swelled that she could have been helping to hide her nephew. Jerry Quinn told Spin Magazine that he'd threatened his sister, warning, if I find you're hiding something, I swear to God I will cripple you for life.
Every time you get up and hobble, you'll think about me. You're my family, but here's my baby.
Ina was distraught by this and swore she didn't know anything. Nevertheless, Jerry told Spin, Something makes me feel pretty weird about her.
Unable to handle the scrutiny, Ina moved interstate. She told the Asheville Citizen Times she had no idea what happened to Zeb, stating, I could never do anything to harm a hair on that boy's head.
I love him. I'm just like everyone else.
I want to know what happened. By the time Zeb Quinn had been missing for seven months, police had followed up on approximately 150 leads.
They'd even taken seriously two separate reports from local women who claimed to have psychic visions in which Zeb was dead and buried. One of the women claimed that the murder weapon had been thrown into Lake Julian near Long Shoals Road and took police out on a fruitless search for it.
Denise Quinn continued to do all she could to find her son, handing out missing person flyers, speaking to reporters, and searching for his face among crowds. Locals were reminded of Denise's heartache every time they drove by a billboard in town she'd paid for, which read Zeb, lots of people love you and miss you Honey, where are you? I miss you so much Love, Mum With no confirmed sightings and Zeb's bank account and social security number remaining untouched, investigators came to the conclusion that Zeb had most likely been the victim of a homicide.
If so, they believed that the killer didn't act alone. One police spokesperson said, Just the mechanics of killing someone and disposing of the body would lead us to believe more than one person had to be involved.
While they remained open to the possibility that Zeb could still be alive, they'd uncovered no reason to suggest that he left voluntarily. The Quinn family considered whether Zeb could have gotten into a scuffle with someone that had gotten out of hand.
He could be naive and it was possible that he was placed in a difficult situation that he didn't know how to get out of. Denise Quinn told the Asheville Citizen Times, I'm angry at the people here who know something but who won't say anything.
I just need to know whether he's dead or alive.

I just need to know whether I should grieve or wish him well. If someone would just drop us an

anonymous note or tell us where he's buried, I just want to be able to find some peace.

One detective told the Hickory Daily Record,

It's very frustrating. You feel for the $15,000 reward for information going unclaimed.
Zeb had missed Christmas, his favourite holiday, and the birth of his second niece, further adding to the belief that he was no longer alive. Denise Quinn had since gotten engaged to her boyfriend, Costa, and it broke her heart that Zeb wouldn't be there to walk her down the aisle.
Denise had no doubt that someone in town knew something they refused to disclose. She told the Asheville Citizen Times, Somebody had his car and if nothing else, they know where they got it.
Even if they found it abandoned, they know where it was and it could be the one thing that would help.

Zeb's father, Jerry, blamed police incompetence for the lack of progress in his son's case.

The Asheville Police Department was only small and officers lacked the experience and resources required for a case of this magnitude.

Jerry was convinced that Misty Taylor's boyfriend, Wesley Smith, had something to do with Zeb's disappearance. While local suspicion remained against Misty and Wesley, many believed there was a more obvious culprit, Jason Owens.
Not only was he the last person seen with Zeb, the fact that he'd called Walmart pretending to be Zeb was a detail many couldn't get past.

Jason continued to not cooperate with the police and spoke publicly about the case only once, telling Spin Magazine,

I was totally in the wrong place at the wrong time. If just one thing different would have happened, I wouldn't be in the middle of it.
But I'm in the middle of it. Stuck here until something's figured out.
Locals weren't the only ones suspicious of Jason Owens. Police also couldn't shake the feeling that he was involved in Zeb's disappearance in some way.
During the course of their investigation, intriguing information had emerged. As detailed in the documentary A Good Kid, police records revealed that on the morning Zeb went missing, Jason Owens' mother had called the county sheriff's department.
The call, placed at 7am, was to report that her own son was missing. She'd become worried that Jason had failed to return home after going out the night before.
With all this information combined, police felt they had enough evidence to establish probable cause. In February 2001, 13 months after Zeb's disappearance, a judge issued a warrant for officers to draw hair, blood and saliva samples from Jason Owens.
While they didn't necessarily have any samples to compare them against, at least they now had them on file. But by late October 2002, almost three years had passed.
There hadn't been a single breakthrough in the Zeb Quinn case. In the early hours of Tuesday October 29, Asheville police officer Diana Loveland was driving along Interstate 240 on her way back to the station when she saw a pickup truck hurtling down the highway.
Suspecting the driver was intoxicated, Officer Loveland flashed her lights and signalled for them to pull over. Instead, the driver picked up speed.
With Officer Loveland giving chase and calling for backup, the pickup truck eventually exited onto Long Shoals Road. Maintaining speeds of over 80 miles per hour, the driver suddenly raised a gun and began shooting out the window.
Then, after speeding through an intersection, the vehicle hit a mailbox and flipped. The driver was none other than 24-year-old Jason Owens.
Jason was treated in hospital for several days before being arrested on nine charges related to the high-speed chase, including a looting arrest and assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm.

He ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight months in prison. Police refused to say whether Jason Owens was questioned further about Zeb Quinn as part of the car chase investigation, but a healthcare professional recommended he seek treatment for alcohol abuse.
Two months later, in December 2002, cadets from the Reserve Officers Training Corps unit that Zeb had been part of surprised his family with a memorial service in Zeb's honour. With the three-year anniversary of his disappearance approaching, they wanted Zeb's loved ones to know that his case hadn't been forgotten.
Denise held back tears as she was presented with a photo of her son in a memory book the cadets had put together. The ambiguous loss no easier to live with despite the years that had passed.
As time wore on, officers spoke to criminal profilers, searched various areas with cadaver dogs, and followed up on all reported sightings, to no impact. 2007 marked the seventh year of the investigation.
That year, in April, new evidence emerged that allowed police to get a search warrant for Jason Owens' property. He lived with his wife on Owens Cove Road, a remote dead-end stretch in Leicester, roughly 14 miles from downtown Asheville.
Over the years, Jason continued to rack up criminal convictions, receiving charges for distributing prescription drugs and being in possession of stolen goods. Police wouldn't tell the media what the new evidence was, simply commenting, we hope we can further the investigation.
We are leaving no stone unturned. Officers also sought help from NecroSearch, a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping law enforcement uncover clandestine graves and other evidence They used aerial photography and ground penetrating radar to search Jason's expansive wooded property Nothing of interest was found In the two years that followed, police started reinvestigating Zeb's disappearance from

scratch. They obtained DNA from Misty Taylor and Wesley Smith, who had collectively been questioned

nine times since January 2000. Police made it clear that neither Misty nor Wesley were being

treated as suspects and that collection of their DNA was simply part of their comprehensive efforts. No new discoveries emerged and by the 10-year anniversary of Zeb's disappearance in 2010, his case remained one of 23 on the Asheville Police Department's cold case list.
Officers once again appealed for information in the hopes that loyalties might have changed over time. A tearful Denise Quinn told the Asheville Citizen Times, basically all of us are, to a point, stuck on that day when Zeb disappeared.
With no sense of what happened to him or where his remains were, Denise said, just not having anything is torture. It doesn't go away.
She wrote an open letter to the people of Asheville, saying, for now, until someone realises it has been way too long and calls in some information to help us, all we can do is wait, day by day, to hear that the police have finally gotten the break they need to answer our prayers. By the start of 2015, 15 years had passed with no answers for Zeb's loved ones, despite the case receiving national coverage

when it was featured on an episode of Investigation Discovery's Disappeared program. Zeb's disappearance had become somewhat of an urban legend.
It continued to be talked about from time to time and locals held onto their theories, but it had mostly faded from the public consciousness. Police Sergeant

Chuck Sams was one of few reminded of the case every day. He'd been on duty on the day Zeb's

car was found. Chuck adopted the puppy found inside, giving her the name Katie.
Katie had

gone on to live a long and happy life, but she was a living reminder of the ongoing mystery. For engaged couple Christy Schoen and JT Codd, the mountainous area surrounding Asheville, North Carolina seemed like the perfect place to settle down.
Having both spent many years working long hours in the entertainment industry, they were excited to slow down and start a family. The two had met behind the scenes on a television show.
JT, whose real name was Joseph, worked as a key grip responsible for all non-electrical support gear on set. Christy worked as a professional caterer, leaning into skills she'd developed having grown up in Louisiana cooking Cajun cuisine with her father.
She was also an aspiring actor who did occasional work as a stunt double. In 2012, Christy combined to these two passions by appearing as a contestant on the reality television show Food Network Star.
Although she was eliminated in the first round, her passion for food only grew stronger. When Christy and JT decided to leave Los Angeles for North Carolina and purchase a 36-acre property on Hooker's Gap Road in Leicester, they had a shared vision.
They'd used the property to grow their own food, which they'd then used to start a farm-to-table cafe. With a variety of established fruit trees on the land already, the property suited them well.
A close friend of JT's told People magazine that while the property wasn't exactly remarkable, quote, JT was making it remarkable because that's what he did with everything. JT and Christy quickly found their place in their new community and got married at a community centre outside of Asheville.
A few months later, they shared the news with their loved ones that Christy was pregnant.

When they found out they were having a girl, they decided on the name Skylar.

For the newlyweds, everything was falling into place.

Then, on Sunday March 15, 2015, one of their neighbours, Cecilia Owens, received a phone call.

It's not possible. Then, on Sunday March 15, 2015, one of their neighbours, Cecilia Owens, received a phone call.
It was Christy's father calling from his home in Mississippi. He'd become concerned after Christy, who was five months pregnant, had failed to show up for a planned visit without any explanation.
He hadn't been able to get in touch with her since. Cecilia Owens had house sat for the couple in the past and had a key to their home.
Christy's father asked Cecilia if she could go over and check on them. As soon as Cecilia arrived on the property, she could tell something was wrong.
The couple's cars were parked in the driveway, but when she knocked on the door, nobody answered. Cecilia let herself in.
Christy and JT's two pet dogs were inside, but it was clear they hadn't been tended to in a while. Christy typically kept her house in immaculate condition, but the place now stunk.
The dogs had defecated and urinated throughout. Cecilia knew Christy would never leave her dogs unattended as she treated them like her babies.
Christy's father called the county sheriff's department and deputies arrived at the couple's home to conduct a welfare check. A cursory search of the home turned up no sign of the couple, but there was evidence of a break-in.
Several items appeared to be missing, but Christy and JT's wallets were present, sparking immediate concerns for their well-being. More officers arrived to assist with the search, but with the 36 acre property encompassing valleys and mountainous woodland, searching it all would be no easy task.
Word quickly spread that 45 year old JT and 38 year old Kristy were missing, and locals were advised to contact the police with any information pertaining to their whereabouts. At 8.30pm, a call came through from a member of the public who wanted to report something suspicious.
On a dead-end street roughly six miles from the Shulon Cobb home, they'd seen a man throwing some items into a private residential dumpster. Investigators went to the address and retrieved several garbage bags from the dumpster.
Inside were numerous items, including a bedspread, handgun, ammunition, and jewellery. There was little doubt as to who they belonged to.

Not only were these items missing from the Schoenkob household, among the belongings was Christie's ID. But the biggest breakthrough was that the witness recognised the man they saw

dumping the items, 36-year-old Robert Jason Owens.

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At 1.30am on Monday, March 16, 2015, police arrived at Jason Owens' home on Owens Cove Road.

He lived just one mile from Christy and JT's property and was known to the couple.

Jason had been one of the first people JT and Christy had met when they moved to the area.

Unemployed at the time, he'd accepted JT's offer to help out with some handyman jobs on their property. Extending a hand to those in need

was part of JT's nature. As a close friend of his told People magazine,

JT was an advocate for every underdog. He really took everybody under his wing who other people weren't willing to give a second look to.
Jason Owens got to work clearing trees, building a wellhouse and other such tasks. The ever-trusting JT eventually gave him a key to their storage shed and loaned him $7,000 so he could start his own contracting business.
While his generosity had been admired in Los Angeles, it was exploited in North Carolina. A friend of the couple told People magazine that JT's willingness to help those down on their luck led to people showing up on their doorstep asking for work or money.
He described JT as the ATM of the mountains, a reputation that had started to worry Christy. The police placed Jason Owens under arrest for theft and took him to the station for questioning.
As reported in the documentary A Good Kid, they had intentionally transported the dumpster to the station and left it in full view for Jason to see upon arrival. When he laid eyes on it, his physical reaction indicated he knew that the jig was up.
Jason Owens immediately began talking. He told the interviewing detectives that he'd arrived at the Shawan Cod household on Thursday March 12 to help them move JT's vehicle after it had become stuck in a nearby creek.
Jason claimed that he got behind the wheel of the Dodge Ram truck and accidentally slammed his foot onto the accelerator. The vehicle sped forward, hitting both JT and Christy who were standing in front

of it. According to Jason, he carried the badly injured Christy into the house and placed her in the living room.
He tried to administer first aid, but it was no use and she soon passed away. He then went back outside, only to find that JT was already dead.
Given that Jason was driving on a suspended licence and was taking medication that left him heavily impaired, he said he panicked at the prospect of facing more jail time. He took JT's body back to his property, where he'd burned it in a wood stove.
The next day, he returned to the couple's home and dismembered Christy's body in the shower. He then used garbage bags to transport the pieces back to his place and burned those too.
Jason claimed he tried to cover the accident up as a robbery gone wrong. He stole some of the couple's belongings and sold them at local flea markets and porn stores, using the money to take his wife out for dinner.
Jason also admitted to using Christy's cell phone to send text messages to some of her friends to make it look like she was still alive. The friends who received these messages had been immediately suspicious, as the texts didn't sound like Christy at all.
Jason Owens reiterated that he didn't mean to hurt JT or Christy, insisting to the detectives, I'm not a bad guy. They were two of my best friends.
They were. I loved them cause they loved me.
JT and Christy didn't have friends, they had family, and just like that, I was part of their family." It was true that the couple had treated Jason with nothing but kindness. He'd even attended their wedding, where he stood out to the other guests like a sore thumb.
One guest later told People magazine,

There was a gut feeling when I looked at this guy and I avoided him.

This was one person I definitely did not want to meet.

A search of Jason Owen's property turned up enough evidence for police to charge him with

two counts of first degree murder and one count of murder of an unborn child. If convicted, he faced the death penalty.
Jason was denied bail as the investigation continued. Then, in the early morning hours of Friday March 20, four days after Jason Owens was taken into custody, panicked calls started coming through to 911.
One caller told the dispatcher to send fire and law enforcement to Owens Cove Road immediately, exclaiming, somebody's setting fires to everything up here on this mountain. Hurry.
First responders arrived at Jason Owen's property to find a mobile home that sat roughly 50 yards from his primary place of residence up in flames. By the time the blaze was extinguished, the entire trailer had been burned to the ground.
Arson investigators confirmed that the fire was suspicious, but they wouldn't say what had caused it. Investigators on the Schoen-Cod case declined to confirm whether the wood oven stove Jason used to cremate his victim's remains had been located inside the mobile home.
Jason Owens was behind bars at the time of the blaze, which raised the question, who started the fire and why?

Theories began to circulate that Jason could have had an accomplice within his family who was trying to destroy evidence.

But there was a more pressing question on everyone's lips.

With Jason Owens now charged with murder,

what did this mean for the Zeb Quinn investigation? If he was capable of committing one brutal crime, did this also mean he'd committed the other? The Asheville Police Department confirmed that Jason's arrest was a significant event for their investigation into Zeb's disappearance. In a statement, Zeb's mother Denise asked the public not to overshadow Christy Schoen and JT Codd's heartbreaking deaths with statements, posts and questions about her son.
Quote, We acknowledge and appreciate the abundant support we have always received from our friends and community, and trust you will all that while she viewed the Schoen-Cobb murders as totally separate from Zeb's case, quote, I'm hopeful with what Jason Owens is facing, eventually whatever information he may have been holding back,

he may be able to ahead and let it go. But if Jason Owens intended to reveal anything about Zeb's disappearance, someone else beat him to it.
Ten days after Jason's arrest, his uncle Gene Owens contacted the police on his own volition.

Having heard how his nephew had disposed of JT and Christy's bodies, Gene told the police,

Maybe that's what happened to Zeb.

Gene told the police that back in 1999 there was an area on Jason Owen's property that Jason had dug out to burn things in, something Gene claimed Jason loved to do.

The pit was approximately 8 feet long and 8 feet wide

Sometime after January 2000, the month that Zeb Quinn went missing

Jason allegedly filled the area with concrete

Explaining that he was going to turn it into a fish pond instead. He then abandoned the project and covered the concrete with dirt instead.
With that, a warrant was granted for police to search the property for Zeb's remains. Several areas were excavated and the police managed to

find fabric, leather materials, unknown hard fragments, and several plastic bags filled

with white powder. Samples were tested, but they revealed no indication of bone fragments

or human remains. Meanwhile, Jason Owens came forward with a story of his own.
Jason claimed that his uncle, Gene, was responsible for Zeb's murder and was throwing him under the bus to deflect attention from himself. After 15 years of silence, he was finally ready to tell the truth about what happened.
According to Jason, on the afternoon of Sunday January 2, 2000, Gene had asked him for a favour. Zeb's crush, Misty Taylor, apparently wanted to meet with Zeb without her jealous boyfriend Wesley Smith finding out.

Jean asked Jason if he could take Zeb out to Bent Creek, a forest roughly 10 miles from downtown Asheville, where Misty would be camping overnight. Jason did as he was told.
After Zeb finished his shift at Walmart, the two headed out in their separate cars. According to Jason, when they got to Bent Creek, they found his uncle Gene parked on the side of the road.
They all got out and Zeb asked Gene where Misty was. He responded that she'd be there any minute.
Zeb turned to keep an eye out, at which point Jason claimed that Gene reached into his truck, took out a .22 caliber rifle and shot Zeb in the back of the head. In shock and fearing that he could be next, Jason jumped back into his truck.
But in his haste to speed off, he crashed into Zeb's car and his head slammed into the steering wheel. Gene ran over and assured Jason he wasn't going to hurt him.
Jason asked why he shot Zeb. Gene allegedly responded that Zeb had been putting his nose somewhere he shouldn't be and that someone needed to teach him a lesson.
Gene warned Jason not to say a word to anyone, otherwise he'd go down as an accomplice to the murder. Terrified, Jason fled the scene, only to return later that night after he couldn't get to sleep.
A few hundred yards from the site of the shooting, he claimed he saw a campfire burning. His uncle Gene was tending to it, and Zeb's feet were sticking out of the flames.

Gene forced Jason to stay with him overnight, where he continued to feed Zeb's dismembered

limbs to the fire.

Once his remains were cremated, Gene put out the fire with water from the creek and scattered

the ashes in the surrounding forest.

Jason was supposed to start work at the Volvo plant at 6am. Their employee policy stated that if a worker didn't show up without calling in beforehand, they'd lose their job.
Gene therefore told Jason to go to urgent care for the injuries he sustained when crashing into Zeb's car, as this would give him a valid reason for not showing up at work. Too scared to speak out about what happened, Jason claimed he kept this to himself for 15 years, all the while wishing he could tell Zeb's family the truth about what happened.
As for Zeb's Mazda reappearing at the Little Pigs BBQ restaurant, Jason claimed this was as much of a mystery to him as anyone else. While Jason Owens gave this account to police, his uncle Gene Owens was interviewed in another room.
Gene had admitted to owning several firearms, most of which were .22 caliber rifles, but he claimed to know nothing about what happened to Zeb Quinn. Sensing his nephew might have implicated him, Gene told the detectives that anything Jason Owens said was a lie.
Investigators weren't willing to take any chances. They headed out to Bent Creek, a densely vegetated area in Pisgah National Forest known for its network of hiking trails, taking Jason Owens with them.
Nothing of interest was found. If Jason's version of events was to be believed, this wasn't surprising given the amount of time that had passed.
Investigators remained sceptical. Firstly, the way Jason claimed his uncle had disposed of Zeb's remains bore remarkable similarities to the way he himself had disposed of JT and Christy's bodies.
He'd also admitted to posing as Christy in text to her friends, just like he'd been caught doing in the phone call to Walmart just days after Zeb's disappearance. In addition, investigators found inconsistencies in Jason Owen's story that cast doubt on its credibility.
They therefore declined to speak with him any further about the matter. But at the same time, some were perplexed by his admission.
Jason hadn't asked for anything in exchange for his story, such as leniency of any kind in the Schoen Cobb murders or immunity in Zeb Quinn's case. So if his version of events wasn't true, why make it up? Jason Owens' defence team investigated their client's claims.
Jason agreed to undergo a polygraph test in which he stuck to his story that he watched his uncle Gene Owens

shoot Zeb Quinn and burn his remains. The test showed no signs of deception.
According to documents released by the defence, the police declined to disclose what alleged inconsistencies they found in Jason's story, nor did they give him a chance to address these inconsistencies.

The defence team looked into Gene Owens' background and found that he'd hovered suspiciously close to the Zeb Quinn disappearance. According to their findings, when Jason Owens was arrested for the high-speed chase back in 2002, Gene appeared at his hospital bedside and cautioned the police not to ask his nephew anything about the Quinn matter.
The defence also highlighted the questionable timing in which Gene Owens came forward with details about the fish pond on the Owens property. Their findings revealed that the so-called fish pond had actually been dug up and turned into a retaining wall

years before Zeb's disappearance, information that Gene was well aware of.

As far as the defence were concerned, with the Jason Owens arrested for the Show and Cobb murders,

Gene was likely nervous that his nephew would finally be forthcoming with the truth about what

happened to Zeb. He therefore crafted the fishpond story to misdirect the investigation and to further discredit Jason.
There was also the lingering question of who set the fire to the trailer on the Owens property. Jason and Jean had lived on the same property for many years.

Did someone other than Jason know something and feel compelled to destroy evidence? Jason's lawyers defended his decision to remain silent for so long, citing a combination of fear of his uncle and the fear that his story wouldn't be believed, a concern they found valid. According to court documents, a former detective for the Asheville Police Department had confided in one of the defence lawyers, saying, Asheville Police had tunnel vision about the Zeb Quinn matter.
They wanted to believe that Jason Owens killed Zeb and they did not want to consider any other possibility. The district attorney allegedly told the defence team that they were prioritising the investigation into JT and Christy's murders and would address the Quinn matter once the other case was closed.
Their main roadblock with the Schoen-Cod case was that Jason Owens had done such a thorough job of cremating their remains that investigators couldn't determine how the couple and their unborn child were killed. While they didn't believe a word of Jason's story about the car accident, with no contradicting evidence to suggest otherwise, they felt the version of events he'd given was the closest they'd ever get to knowing what really happened.
In April 2017, just over two years after JT, Christy and baby Skylar were killed, Jason Owens accepted a deal. Maintaining the deaths had been an accident, he pleaded guilty to three counts of second degree murder and two counts of dismembering human remains.
In exchange, the death penalty was taken off the table and he was sentenced to a minimum of 59 years and a maximum of 74, without the possibility of parole. A statement released by the district attorney said, Because there are no surviving witnesses and Jason Owens had exclusive control of the crime scene for several days and he had nearly completed the gruesome project of cremating his victim's remains, we will never know many of the facts surrounding the deaths.
JT and Christy's loved ones had mixed feelings about the plea deal. While they were relieved that Jason Owens had been held accountable and would be removed from society, they felt there was no punishment that fit his crime.
In a statement, Christy's family said, we can only hope that he suffers for the remainder of his life on earth and again as he rots in hell. Less than two and a half months later, 66-year-old Gene Owens passed away from natural causes.
He maintained his innocence in Zeb Quinn's disappearance until the bitter end. Two days later, and allegedly with no warning given to his lawyers, Jason Owens was formally charged with the first degree murder of Zeb Quinn.
He maintained that his uncle Gene was the real killer, but with Gene now gone and 17 years passing since Zeb's disappearance, it was Jason's word against a dead man. One key element remained unclear.
Gene Owens had no known link to Zeb Quinn, his crush Misty Taylor, or her boyfriend Wesley Smith. As such, Gene had no reason to lure Zeb out to the forest under the guise of having a rendezvous with Misty just to murder him.
As revealed in the documentary A Good Kid, Jason claimed to know the missing piece of the puzzle, and that missing piece was a man named Adam Wright. According to Jason, it was Adam Wright who introduced his uncle Gene to Wesley Smith.
While Jason didn't know the circumstances of their relationship, he assumed that Wesley had told Gene about Zeb's unwanted affection towards Misty. Gene had agreed to remove Zeb from the picture.
In a prison interview, Jason told the producers of A Good Kid that the motive had to be money.

He said,

This story raised one more problem.

Adam Wright had passed away from a drug overdose in 2010.

There was no one left to vouch for Jason Owen's version of events. Law enforcement remained unconvinced by Jason's assertions, but there was no physical evidence to confirm otherwise.
Without something to present to a jury, they knew that securing a murder conviction would be a challenge. Eventually, in July 2022, prosecutors and Zeb's family agreed to a plea deal.
Jason Owens pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact of first-degree murder in exchange for an additional 13 years in prison. The district attorney acknowledged that while many unanswered questions remained, at least the plea brought some form of closure to the Quinn family after over two decades of not knowing for sure if Zeb was alive or dead.
In a statement, the district attorney said, While we may never know the full truth these many years after Zeb's disappearance, my sympathies are with the family and all who have suffered as a result. Although Misty Taylor and Wesley Smith were questioned by investigators several times over the years, they have never been formally considered persons of interest in Zeb Quinn's disappearance.
The mysterious page Zeb received from his aunt's house on the night of his murder has never been explained. Some believe that the police were too focused on Jason Owens from the get-go and that a more resourceful police department could have done a better job of exploring other leads, especially given the many clues left behind in Zeb's abandoned vehicle.
Who left the car there and why is a question that will likely never be answered. Jason Owens' lawyer told the documentary A Good Kid, quote, Gene Owens was the killer.
We don't doubt that. Gene Owens was the killer and he's dead.
And whatever the arrangements were for Gene to kill Zeb Quinn, those people have never been charged. Others believe that Jason Owens is a compulsive liar who acted alone

Whatever the truth, it's a commonly held belief that if Jason hadn't been caught for the

murders of JT, Christy and their unborn child, Zeb Quinn's case would likely still be unsolved.

Some have criticised the courts for accepting Jason Owen's plea deals in both cases.

Given that prosecutors didn't fully believe his version of events,

it raises the question of whether or not justice has truly been served for his victims. Christie's family are convinced that Jason didn't act alone in JT and Christie's deaths either.
In their statement after his plea deal was accepted, they said, Although we know deep down that others in his family hold responsibility for these heinous murders,

there is not much we can do in terms of justice for them. We will attempt to heal and let go of some of the anger that we still have.
We also have to say that we are so lucky to have met some of the most wonderful people through this tragedy. Those people are the family of Zeb Quinn.
This family deserves just as much healing, peace and closure as we do, and we can only hope they get a little bit of that. The Quinn family asked for privacy in the wake of Jason Owen's plea deal, but at his hearing, Zeb's mother Denise spoke about her son's belief that you should always try to see the best in people.
She reflected on a time when Zeb was in high school and she wasn't happy about some of the people he chose to hang around with. Denise warned her son that he would be judged by the company he kept.
She told the court, quote, Zeb looked back at me and said, They have done nothing wrong to me and have done nothing wrong around me, and I will continue to be their friend. This is the young man that was taken from his family, friends, community, and the world.

This is a young man that never would have seen his end coming.

This is the young man who trusted his friend, Jason. Thank you.
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