Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mom Stabbed 31 Times in Ritualistic Murder

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

Zachary Hughes, a classically trained pianist, is going on trial for the murder of Christina Parcell in Greenville, South Carolina. Parcell's fiancé found her stabbed 31 times in her home in October 2021. Hughes' only apparent connection to Parcell was through the father of her daughter, a fellow musician. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy details what we know about the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/lctakeover to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Bridgette Williams https://www.instagram.com/lawyerbridgette/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. That's Zachary Hughes. He's a classically trained pianist, and now he's accused of murdering a woman in South Carolina. I'm laying out everything that you need to know about the case dubbed the Rose Petal murder and the death of Christina Parcell as Hughes's trial is set to begin. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Antoinette Levy. I want to start by telling you this case has tons of twists and turns. It's sad and really disturbing. So I'm going to do my best to kind of weave you through

all of this. The victim in this case is Christina Parcell. She had a nine-year-old daughter. On October 13th, 2021, Parcell was found murdered in her home in Greenville County, South Carolina. Investigators rushed to the scene and discovered the victim had been brutally stabbed multiple times, resulting in her death. The solicitor, that's the prosecutor, would later say that Christina Parcell was stabbed 31 times in the head and neck. And there was something about Parcell's murder that seemed ritualistic. Investigators said they found Parcell's body surrounded by rose petals. It's something that seems oddly personal. Why would someone commit a murder and then drop rose petals around the body? Parcell worked as a veterinary technician, and by all accounts, she was well-liked.

And the crime shocked the community. The Carolina Hound Rescue posted on Facebook a day after the murder, Christina was not only one of the most epic vet techs to our dogs, but she was a friend with a personality the size of a high-rise and always trying to make everyone else feel better. I can't tell you how many times she walked me to my car after an appointment and had me crying from laughing so hard. The dogs loved her and she did such an incredible job with them. When you are at the clinic, as much as we are, you form friendships with some of the people that work on your dogs. It is hard not to.

Christina was one of them. Now, days after Parcell's murder, detectives took her fiancé into custody, but he was not charged with murdering Christina Parcell. Bradley Post was charged with several counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. The charges stemmed from evidence detectives said they found at the crime scene. After Parcell's murder, investigators said they found thousands of images of child sex abuse materials on Post's electronic devices. A couple of days after that, another man was charged with a crime. But again, the charge was not for Parcell's murder. John Mello is the father of Christina Parcell's daughter. He was charged with custodial

interference for taking the girl to Italy in the fall of 2020. Then less than two weeks later, Greenville County Sheriff said they made an arrest in Parcell's murder. This man, Zachary Hughes, was charged with murdering Christina Parcell, but why? Hughes was a former Marine and a classically trained pianist who studied at the Juilliard School in New York. He'd later moved to South Carolina. The solicitor said that neighbors' ring cameras captured Hughes entering and leaving Parcell's home, and he also said during a hearing that Hughes's DNA was found under Parcell's fingernails. But what was the connection, if any, between Hughes and Parcell? Well, it's John Mello.

Investigators have said that Hughes cleaned Mello's home. And when Mello was arrested for custodial interference, he listed Hughes as someone he could communicate with in the jail. And detectives have said the two talked on WhatsApp a lot. And one of those conversations took place on the day of Christina Parcell's murder. Both men have been accused of harassing Parcell prior to her murder. Hughes has pleaded not guilty and jury selection in his trial will begin on January 13th. I want to take just a moment to tell you about Upside, the sponsor of today's Law & Crime YouTube takeover. Upside is a great free app that gets you cash back on things

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code LCTakeOver to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's promo code LCTakeOver for extra cash back. So as I told you earlier, this case is really convoluted with a lot of players in it. So I want to bring in somebody who can clear up the confusion and really boil this down to what it is and he is will folks he is the founder and executive editor of fitz news in south carolina and he knows everything that goes down on in the news in south carolina and he's been covering this case from the very beginning so will what exactly is the connection between zachary h and Christina Parcell. We know that he is accused of murdering her. Well, that's right.

And prior to Zach Hughes arrest in early November of twenty twenty one, there was no known connection between him and the victim in this case, Christina Parcell. So it came as a huge shock to folks when when his arrest was announced, because up until that point, there was absolutely no connection between the two of them. Now, as this story has unfolded over the past few years, we have learned that Hughes has a friendship with an individual named John Mello. And Mello is a self-styled music producer who is a former boyfriend of the victim who had a child with

the victim, Christina Parcell. Uh, and so apparently those two have been connected. Uh, in fact, they've been charged together actually with harassment. Uh, this took place, uh, in September of 2023, prosecutors in Greenville County charged the two of them with harassment related to some obscene pictures that were mailed, uh, to neighbors of Christina Parcells, part of an effort to harass her. But again, this arrest came out of the blue because when this incident took place in October, mid-October of 2021, for several weeks, everyone just assumed that the person who would

be arrested would be the individual who found her body, her boyfriend at the time, who's a gentleman by the name of Bradley Post. However, again, that didn't happen. It went in a completely different direction. And what's even crazier about this story is that the individual arrested, Zach Hughes, not only was there no known connection, but this is like the least likely profile of a ritualistic killer. I mean, this is a guy classically trained pianist, someone whose background would seem to lend itself to playing recitals, not stabbing someone 31 times in the head and neck area with a knife. And the solicitor down there in Greenville County has said that in previous hearings or in court documents that this is their guy, Zachary Hughes.

And the musical connection, you know, that makes sense. But why this guy, Zachary Hughes, would actually carry out a homicide and then put rose petals around Christina Parcells' body, that's just confounding to me. But the solicitor said that Zachary Hughes's DNA was under Christina Parcell's nails. There's apparently video of him with a hoodie on entering the house. So they seem to think they have a really strong case. Yeah, the forensic case here is very strong. In addition to the DNA evidence that you referenced in the camera evidence, they found the bike that he was allegedly traveling on as he left that neighborhood in Greer, South Carolina, which is a suburb of Greenville, South Carolina, the big

population center in the upstate. But yeah, the case against him is very strong. Now, what's also interesting, Anjanette, police are pouring through WhatsApp messages that were allegedly exchanged between Zach Hughes and this John Mello individual, where they go back and forth trading cryptic messages. And there's one really interesting exchange that took place the day of the murder. In that exchange, Hughes is asked how the music lessons went. He responds to Mello, good, I'll tell you. And so police and prosecutors believe that this may have been code for carrying out this just, again, as you mentioned, graphically ritualistic execution. In addition to the multiple sharp force injuries that the victim

sustained, as you mentioned, her body dragged across this home, was posed with deadhead roses or rose petals, depending on who you talk to, sprinkled around her body. So again, whoever, again, was behind this wanted to send a clear message. And folks are still scratching their heads at how that could be Zach Hughes. It just doesn't seem to fit the profile. So if prosecutors think they were speaking in code, you know, they must not have enough evidence then to charge John Mello, unless John Mello might be cooperating. I mean, I just don't know. I mean, he's out walking the streets as far as I know. And he had been charged with, there was some kind of custodial interference case because he was the father of Christina Parcell's child. He had taken the child overseas.

And then there's this whole other aspect of this case involving Bradley Post, Christina Parcell's boyfriend. And there was apparently some sexual exploitation of a minor material found on his phone. So he was taken into custody. And now Zachary Hughes's attorneys, they want to access that because they believe that could somehow help them with their defense. Right. I think it absolutely would help. I mean, here's the thing we've got to remember about this case. We've got just this horrific crime, but the victim was accused of doing some pretty horrific things as well. Right. There's some bestiality allegations. She worked at a vet's office, right? Yeah, there are some bad allegations. And in fact, Bradley Post, her

boyfriend at the time of her murder, the individual who found her body, he's been criminally charged by the office of South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson with numerous charges including bestiality, including criminal exploitation of a minor, first-degree charges, and these are charges that carry lengthy prison sentences. So it's serious. Apparently more than 50,000 images and videos of child porn or child sex abuse material, as it's termed now, were located at the scene during the search. And so it's just a mess all around. And so the argument by Zach Hughes' attorneys is, you know, the victim had it coming, I guess is the basic argument. Wow. The victim had it coming, though.

I mean, that's not a defense to murder. I mean, I just I mean, I I can't see it. I mean, if there were some allegations that she was engaging in activities with a minor that she shouldn't have been involving sex. I mean. You call law enforcement. That isn't, you know, you do a murder. So I don't know. Only one juror, Anjanette, and that's the problem. That's true.

You get one of the 12 to buy into that theory that this was a somehow justifiable slaying, then that's all you need. And I'm 100% with you. You know, this United Healthcare thing, as I've seen the reaction to that play out, it's kind of horrible to think we live in a culture that people believe they have the right to take matters in their own hands like that. Hopefully this case won't come down to that. But again, if I'm his attorneys, I want that discussion front and center. I want that jury thinking along the lines of what a terrible, terrible situation was befalling this poor young girl that was in the custody of Christina Parcell. And I want them transferring that to try to think of Zach Hughes as someone who, again, in this horrific way, delivered her from that. That's what I want if

I'm a defense attorney. Yeah, maybe they're looking for one juror or possibly jury nullification, we don't know. Is there any way that Zachary Hughes takes the stand in this trial? You know, that's an interesting question. We have seen very little out of the defense as far as strategy or what they might attempt to

do. All we've seen so far is efforts by the prosecution, which is led by an incredibly capable solicitor, Walt Wilkins, up in the 13th Circuit. He's a very good attorney. He's been up there for a while, knows the courtroom inside and out. He's going to be a very formidable prosecutor, him and his team. But the attorneys representing Zach Hughes, also very adept. So I fully expect this to be maybe not Murdoch level in terms of the back and forth between the attorneys, but very close to that because these are some incredibly skilled lawyers. And again, the prosecutors want to keep this child porn stuff out. They want to

keep it away from the jury. They don't want that to be any part of their thinking. But the problem is Bradley Post, the guy who's been charged with all these horrific child porn charges, he's their witness establishing the discovery of the body. I mean, they literally have to call him. So I don't know how you get out of that. It's a real double-edged sword for the state as they try to prosecute this case. Yeah, yeah, that would be difficult. I don't know how they do that either.

It would take a lot of tiptoeing, some very talented lawyering. Well, we will be keeping an eye on it and we appreciate you coming on to talk to us about it and to try to untangle some of this. We will be watching. Well, folks, thank you so much. Thank you, Anjanette. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix.

I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.