Going West: True Crime - Zebb Quinn // 174

Episode Date: February 12, 2022

In early January of 2000, an 18 year old boy living in Asheville, North Carolina, disappeared one night after his work shift. Weeks later, his car was discovered in parking lot and the contents inside only left police more confused. Between suspicious phone calls, a jealous boyfriend, and strange clues, this case proves to be one of the most bizarre we have covered. This is the story of Zebb Quinn.  BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.newspapers.com/image/197782873/?terms=Zebb%20quinn&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/197782873/?terms=Zebb%20quinn&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/194665575/?terms=Zebb%20Quinn&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/197822311/?terms=Zebb%20Quinn&match=1 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-admits-killing-ex-food-network-contestant-and-husband-burning-bodies-in-wood-stove/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/200606011/?terms=Zebb%20Quinn&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/199280148/?terms=Zebb%20Quinn&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/197805493/?terms=Zebb%20quinn&match=1 https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/crime/2015/06/15/warrant-details-zebb-quinn-related-search-leicester-property/71262232/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/119090171/?terms=Zebb%20Quinn&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/194665647/?terms=Zebb%20Quinn&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/200648063/?terms=Zebb%20Quinn&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/200606011/?terms=Zebb%20Quinn&match=1 https://www.hulu.com/watch/8e8fbb11-ea48-4971-a4fa-6d29982300a4 https://www.newspapers.com/image/200635616/?terms=Zebb%20quinn&match=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in today. We are a little tired but we're gonna get through this because this case is freaking insane. It is insane and it needs a lot of attention because right now, the trial has been like withheld for many many years. Many years. I mean, I'm shocked by that I know COVID has a lot to do with these trials being delayed, but this one has been delayed far too long. Yes, it absolutely has. Very excited to get into this story today.

I know a lot of you guys have heard about this story, but for those of you who haven't, I wanted to cover it because, you know, we wanted to give you guys our take. Yes, and I mean buckle up. I didn't know the details before Heath brought this to my attention recently. This is one of those cases that I had heard about. I know the name, I know the basic details, but as we have been diving in, it's just so much crazier than I thought. Yeah, it honestly could be one of the most bizarre cases that we've covered thus far. Alright guys, this is episode 174 of Going West, so let's get into it. In early January of 2000, an 18-year-old man living in Asheville, North Carolina disappeared

one night after his work shift. Weeks later, his car was discovered in a parking lot, and the contents inside only left police and us more confused. Between suspicious phone calls, a jealous boyfriend and strange clues, this case proves to be one of the most bizarre we've covered. This is the story of Zeb Quinn. Zeb Wayne Quinn was born on May 12, 1981 to father Jerry Quinn and mother Denise Vlahakis in Asheville, North Carolina, which for those who don't know is located on the western side of the state in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Asheville is home to just under 100,000 residents, and this is where Zeb grew up with his sister

Brandi, who he was very close with. But when Zeb was just two years old, his father Jerry, who was a bartender, and his mother Denise, who worked as a pediatric intensive care nurse, decided to split up, and Zeb and his sister Brandy ended up living with their mother. Zeb was described as a very gentle child who was just extremely sweet and positive, but he did have some learning disabilities like reading comprehension that set him back from the rest of the kids in his grade. But no matter what life threw at him, Zeb always made the best of every situation, and

one thing he loved to do that brought him some much-needed solitude was go fishing and shoot some pool. Zeb's mother Denise said that he was somewhat of a shy child, and that although he did have some friends, he didn't have many close friends. So when Zeb started attending Robertson High School in Asheville, he joined the ROTC program with the hopes that you know he would make some new friends and new connections. He loved Tommy Hilfiger clothing, high school football, and his master's named Sam. Zeb was known as a good kid who steered clear of trouble

and most described him as a mama's boy who loved his family deeply and would always snuggle up on the couch with his mom who shared the same bluish gray eyes that he had. During high school, Zeb took a part-time after school job in the electronics department of his local Walmart store, located on Hendersonville Road in Asheville. After graduating in 1999,

he kept his job at Walmart, but also decided to enroll at Asheville Bunkham, which is the county, Technical Community College, where he started taking some preparatory classes. But he also told his family that he was looking into getting involved with some management training classes through Walmart so that he could move up in the company. Things seem to be going pretty well for Zeb.

He was saving up money to buy a new car and his supervisor, a woman named Patty King, said this. He's the kind of guy I'd want my daughter to marry. Zeb was very responsible in all the older women that he worked with at Walmart just adored him. In fact, Zeb would even bring one of his co-workers an iced tea that she loved whenever they worked together. That's very sweet. Yeah, and he was just like this all around good guy with a genuine heart.

But in early January, just a few days after ringing in the 2000 New Year, something unthinkable would happen. So on January 2nd, 2000, Zeb was working his usual shift at Walmart and he was scheduled to get off work that night at 9pm. But this day was a little different, because Zeb had made plans for after work. He had been saving up money for months, as Heath just said, to buy a new car, and he planned to do so that night. 18-year-old Zeb had spoken to a coworker of his, 21-year-old Robert Jason Owens, who

went by Jason, whom he played pool with on occasion as well, about his interest in purchasing a new vehicle. So Jason worked part-time at Walmart and he was a night shift stalker. And he'd informed Zeb that he knew of a used Mitsubishi eclipse that he could check out and even told him that he would be willing to drive with him to the car lot to show it to him. So, you know, helping him out a little bit here.

That night, just after 9 p.m., Zeb clocked out of work and met Jason in the parking lot outside. The two spoke for a minute before Zeb got into his light blue 2000 Mazda Pro de J, still wearing his work vest, and Jason got into his Ford pickup truck. Zeb then followed Jason out of the parking lot, and the pair headed down the road, but they first stopped at an Ebblin sit-go gas station convenience store located on the corner of Hendersonville and Longsholes Road to Grab a Quick Soda. Zeb is seen on camera entering the store, and 10 seconds later Jason follows.

Minutes later, the tour scene leaving the store at approximately 9.14 pm, and the video shows Jason's truck passing by the gas pumps with Zebs Mazda right behind him. They're seen heading in the direction of the town of Leicester, which is where Jason told Zeb the Mitsubishi eclipse was located, and then they leave the view of the security camera. At 9.34 pm, Zeb's mother Denise had just finished her shift at the hospital, and she made her first attempt to contact Zeb via his pager. Remember, this is the year 2000, so although cell phones are getting more popular, not everybody has them and pagers are still a good form of contact for most.

Denise was trying to reach Zeb to ask if he would be interested in joining her for kind of like a late dinner, since they were both getting off work at roughly around the same time. Zeb didn't answer this page, but Denise wasn't all that worried because she just figured that he was working a longer shift as he would do sometimes and then he would get a hold of her shortly. And by the way, Denise didn't know about Zeb's plan to go look at this car. So she waited around for a while, but eventually she decided to eat dinner with her boyfriend and just hope that Zeb would contact her soon.

But as the night went on, it got later and later, and Zeb never called, and he never came home. Denise sent five pages to Zeb's beeper that night, but sadly none of them were answered, and this really wasn't like Zeb. He was responsible and always called if he was going to be late. That's just the type of person he was, And in fact, he even got mad at his mom on a few occasions for being late without calling him. Denise called the Walmart that Zeb worked at and they confirmed that he did indeed leave work shortly after 9pm. So

that entire first night, Denise could hardly sleep but two hours at a time, waking up periodically to page Zeb, but to no avail. And we got to remember here, like all those Zeb is 18 years old. He can do whatever he wants technically. He is super close with his mom. So for any of you guys out there who are really close with at least one of your parents, like you, you understand that you wouldn't just go all this time without telling them where you're at, especially when you're only 18 years old.

And just like Heath just said about how, you know, if Denise didn't answer his pages or something, he would get upset because you start to worry. So he would never put his mom in the position where, where she would worry about him. Yeah, right. I mean, and he's just such a good kid that like, this just speaks volumes to his character. Like, he really cares for his mom and his family. And, you know, he's responsible. Like you said, he he would never ever do something like this it's just not Zeb. Exactly so obviously this was extremely alarming for his mom. So the next morning came and still there was no sign of Zeb.

So Denise decided to drive down to the Asheville police department to officially report him missing at 3 p.m. So obviously it's now the afternoon of January 3rd and about 12 hours since anyone had heard from Zeb. But as they do, police believe that he may just be off with friends, but that he would likely turn up. But you know, and I think you said this last week in a case like as many parents of, or pretty

much every parent of every missing young person that we discuss on the show, they did not believe that that was true, they felt like something was very wrong. So Denise and Zeb's sister Brandy were in this very position, they did not think he was just off with friends. And like I mentioned as well, they knew that Zeb would never make them worry like that, and he would definitely have called them by then. The first 48 hours were excruciating for the family, but on the morning of January 4th,

so two days after anyone had seen Zeb, something very strange happened that made the whole situation even more puzzling. So that day which again was January 4th, Zeb's supervisor at Walmart who again is Patti King received a phone call in the electronics department. When she answered the phone, a voice on the other end stated, this is Zeb Quinn and I'm calling to let you know that I won't be into work today.

I'm sick. Paddy replied, who is this? The voice then responded, this is Zeb Quinn I will not be into work today. And this was highly unusual because Zeb had never missed a shift in the two and a half years that Paddy was a supervisor. Patty knew right away that the person on the other end of the phone was not Zeb. This is such an eerie moment because also, you know, of course he has worked for Walmart for a long time.

They know each other well. She's not only going to know his voice, but I'm sure he would have had a more casual approach like, hey, Patty, I'm so sorry. I'm feeling really sick today. Like, I don't, I'm so sorry. I'm feeling really sick today. Like, I don't think I can come in. Exactly. But to be like, this is Zeb Quinn. I will not be in the world.

You know, it's like, it seems to be more flat, more robotic. There's no connection between this Zeb and Patty at all, which is very eerie. Right. And she knows this. So she kept the caller on the phone and asked, what department is it that you work in? And the caller responded, electronics. So then patty asked, well what time is your shift today? And the person on the other line hesitated and they eventually hung up. Creepy. But patty was really smart here. She knew that from the electronics department

she couldn't call out from that phone. But the cord on the phone she was using was extremely long, which allowed her to make her way to the jewelry department in order to trace the call. She used the other phones Star 6-9 feature, which for those of you who don't know is basically, you know, a way to get a call back number in the days before cell phones. And when Patty did this, Star 6.9 indicated that the phone call had been made from Volvo Construction Company. Patty was extremely confused and wondered who could have made that call. But after doing some digging and talking to other employees at Walmart, she realized

that there was only one employee who could have possibly made that call. And that person was Jason Owens. Not only did Jason work part-time for Walmart, but he also worked part-time for Volvo construction. And when Patty found out this information, she went straight to police. Asheville PD knew right away that they needed to get in contact with Jason to understand what had happened on the night of January 2nd. They finally caught up with him at the Volvo business he worked at, and Jason didn't deny making the call to Walmart at all.

In fact, he said that Zeb had asked him to call in for him on January 4th and explain that he was just doing a favor for a friend. But what had happened the night that Zeb went missing? Well, Jason had a story for that too. Now this is according to Jason Owens. He said that just after they left the gas station convenience store, they headed to look at the car for sale. And while Zeb was following closely behind,

Zeb began flashing his headlights, which indicated to Jason that he needed to pull over. So the two vehicles stopped and Zeb got out of his car, approaching Jason's truck, saying that he had gotten an important page that he had gotten an important page that he needed to answer. Zeb allegedly didn't explain who the page had come from, but said that he needed to go to a pay phone and that he would be back shortly, and for Jason to just wait for him.

Now we can also assume that this is prior to 9.30 pm because we know that Zeb's mom Denise had tried to page him at 9.34 pm, but never received an answer. So Jason then went on to explain that he waited in his truck on the side of the road for Zeb to return. And when he did, Jason explained to police that Zeb was frantic. So much so that he accidentally slammed into the back of Jason's truck. Jason said that Zeb told him he needed to cancel their plan to go look at this car and that he needed to leave right away, but he would pay for any damages to Jason's truck

and he appeared to be visibly upset. So with that, Zeb got into his own car and left the scene without explanation. And after that, Zeb crashed into the back of his truck, he left the scene upset and that was the last time that he had seen Zeb in person. But the story of course doesn't end here. Police were trying to figure out if Zeb had disappeared on his own free will, or if there was something more suspicious at play, so they looked at all the facts. They knew that Jason and Zeb had left the Walmart together, based on the surveillance video

from the Ebblin's sit-go gas station. They also discovered that Zeb hadn't taken any spare clothes, and that he had also left his contact solution at home, something that he absolutely needed for his vision. I just want to say too, it doesn't, this is so not a clear sign of left on his own free will anyway, because if he was erratic, something was wrong, apparently this is according to Jason's story, he hit the back of Jason's truck allegedly, and then drove off after receiving a page like this doesn't say, oh I'm gonna leave forever, this says something's wrong, I'm going to my house or whatever. Like this doesn't lead your mind to

he started a new life or whatever anyway. Right, and we just have to keep in mind that this is just Jason's story of the events. We don't know if it's true. So multiple family members had tried to page Zeb and the days after he went missing, but nobody got an answer. And on top of this, Zeb's bank account wasn't touched, and he also hadn't enrolled in his next semester's classes at his technical college, something that Zeb was very excited about. So it was clear to everybody that this wasn't just a situation in which, you know,

a person of legal age willingly left on their own, but a very suspicious and heartbreaking case that seemed to have all the elements of foul play. The morning after Zeb went missing, and before she contacted the police, Zeb's mother Denise first called around to different family members and friends to see if anyone knew where Zeb was. And one of the people that she thought of was a teenage girl who Zeb had recently been interested in, named Misty Taylor, whom he had met at a Christmas party. Denise knew that Zeb and Misty had spent some time together and that her son was interested in Misty, so she gave her a call.

But Misty said that she hadn't heard from or spoken to Zeb at all recently. Denise then decided to hire a private investigator to help search for her son. And Zeb's supervisor Patty and other Walmart employees set up a fun through Bank of America to help finance the search efforts, which is amazing. And a yellow ribbon was wrapped around a tree outside of Zebs home with the hope that he would be found safe or return. Yeah, and I just, you know, I can't say enough about these Walmart employees because it really feels like they were almost his family as well because they did everything they

could to help in this search Oh, yeah, and I think you know a lot of us can relate as well just to you our teenage jobs and jobs that you work for many years Like those people really do become In you know essentially your family. So yeah, I mean every job that I've ever worked I've become friends with my co-workers. So it's like, it makes sense that they're out there trying to help find Zeb. Yeah, and I mean, it really is nice because even with the call from Jason that Patty got,

the fact that she went to police and was like something isn't right here, this isn't Zeb, and the fact that they're putting together this fun, like these are great people. Yeah, she didn't just blow off the situation and say like, okay, maybe this isn't Zeb, but who cares? She's like, she wins this. She wins this extra mile.

Yeah, this is suspicious. And props to Patti, like, she is a badass bitch. Like, love Patti. Love Patti. But here's where things get really strange. So looking into the phone records, investigators were able to find out that the page that Zeb had received

on the night of January 2nd that made him so frantic actually came from the home phone of his paternal aunt and his father's sister, Aina Ustich. You may be asking, well, why is this so suspicious? Well when police asks Zeb's aunt Aina about the page from her phone, she denied ever making that call, claiming that she wasn't even home. Ugh, that's creepy. But she did explain that she had been with some friends that night, which included a

woman named Tamra Taylor, her daughter's boyfriend a man named Wesley Smith, and you guessed it, Misty Taylor, the girl Zeb had been interested in before he disappeared. Zeb's aunt Aina and Miss D's mother were planning to start a business together opening a restaurant, so all four of them were apparently at Miss D and Tamla's house on the night of January 2nd, at least that's what they say. But here's the thing, Miss D's boyfriend Wesley was pretty abusive, and he had actually threatened Zeb to not speak to his girlfriend, and Zeb had even mentioned to a few co-workers that Wesley Smith had

threatened his life. When investigators spoke to Misty about Xi and Zeb's relationship, she just kind of played it off, almost in a way of like minimizing it, but family, friends, and co-workers said that it was much deeper than that. Misty and Zeb would talk on the phone for hours, and the two became very close before Misty admitted to Zeb that she had a boyfriend and a child. But despite there being another man in the picture with Misty, Zeb continued to pursue her, even at the advice of his family and friends who felt that Misty was not a good match for him. On New Year's of 2000, Misty and Zeb spent the night at their respective homes, but they also engaged in a long phone conversation that was described as flirty.

But in the days that followed and right before Zeb's disappearance, Zeb couldn't reach Misty, so he became worried for her safety. He'd always use the Star 67 feature when he called Misty, not to be confused with the Star 69 feature, which allows you to obtain a call back. But as many of us know, the Star 67 feature would block a caller's number so it couldn't be traced, as many of us middle schoolers did to prank call people. Oh man, oh so many times. Which is right where my mind went earlier when you were talking about star six years. Exactly. Yeah, back in the day. Back in the day. But when Zeb finally called Misty after a few days of not hearing from her, he accidentally forgot to use star 67. So Wesley would be able to see who was calling.

Zeb told his grandmother after the call, quote, I'm in big trouble now. When Detective spoke with Wesley Smith, who they interviewed at his job painting houses, Wesley confirmed that Misty, Ina, and Taylor's story was correct, and that they were all at Tamla and Misty's house on the night of January 2nd.

So how was the call to Zeb's page or made from his aunt's home? What's also strange here is that after Zeb received the page from his aunt's phone, police told her that someone tried to call her three minutes later, but the call came from Jerry Quinn's apartment, who remember Zeb's father. Now Jerry denies over making this call. So if it was in fact Zeb, who was the one calling from his father's apartment, how the hell did he get there so quickly that night? His dad lived in built more village, and Zeb would have been leaving from Longshul's

road to make the call. Well, I track the distance between the two, and from what I can tell, it's about a 14-minute drive north from Longsholes Road to build more village. So something was just not really adding up here. Furthermore, Aina Ustige told police that in the days after her nephew Zeb had disappeared, some mysterious calls had been made from her apartment. And she stated, I wasn't ever home when those calls were made. When I got home those days, my phone was moved to different parts of the house.

One day, a picture from my wall was down and it was broken. I was really scared. No one has a key to my apartment. I even called the detective from the case to tell him about it. This is so bizarre. Yeah, it's so bizarre because we're kind of wondering if maybe she's telling police this because she's trying to cover up something or trying to hide something like, oh, it wasn't me who was making that with those calls. Somebody broke into my house, so it's possible that this person who broke into my house was using my phone to make these calls. It's just hard to believe because it feels kind of like a random choice. Like, why is somebody breaking into your house to use your phone to page Zab?

Like, it doesn't make sense. So it's like, are you telling the truth? Yeah, this was kind of the weirdest part of the story for me because I was like, I don't know who to believe or what to believe. And just as a side note, I wanted to add, Zeb and his father, Jerry Jerry weren't very close at all. And Zeb also wasn't very close with this Aunt Ina, and he actually hardly knew her. He and his father had a pretty rocky relationship after his parents divorced,

so he wasn't close with almost anyone from his father's side of the family. And I just wanted us to keep this in mind as we tell this story. No, I mean, it's very useful information, especially because Ina and Jerry, um, you know, apparently have this weird place in this story. Yeah, I mean, they are definitely players in this case. Totally. And to make things even more strange, and I know we keep saying that, but I mean, things are getting stranger, so I gotta point it out.

No, it's just bizarre. Yeah. So, police decided to look into Jason Owens' alibi and background, and they discovered that the day after Zeb had gone missing, Jason had called in late to work at Volvo, but that's not the shocking part. Something that he had told his boss, but not told police during questioning, was that he had been involved in a second car accident the morning after Zeb vanished. He explained that he pulled out of the parking lot of a waffle house located on Longcholl's road, and he had accidentally struck another car.

He told his boss that he had sustained multiple injuries from the accident, and that he checked himself into an urgent care where he was treated for a cracked rib and a head injury. But not only did Jason mention that he had been involved in two separate car accidents within 24 hours, but when they went to investigate the damage to Jason's truck, there was almost none. On top of this, investigators couldn't find any record of a traffic incident report to verify Jason's story, so he was labeled a person of interest for those reasons.

I mean, it's, you know, goes without saying. Everything he has said up to this point is sketchy and it's just not adding up. But because there was no solid evidence to connect Jason to a crime, police weren't able to charge him. They were however able to obtain DNA samples from Jason and also give him a polygraph test which he did pass. No one had any idea as to where Zeb had gone and although there were a few persons of interest, there was no evidence to connect to anybody. But then, just two weeks after Zeb disappeared on January 16th, 2000, a huge clue was discovered. On Sunday, January 16th, 2000, Zeb's light blue Mazda Protoje was discovered in the parking lot

of the Little Pig barbecue restaurant in town located on McDowell Street. One of Denise's co-workers from the hospital said that on her way to work, she spotted his car, so she called Denise right away, who then called police, and by the way, this person who's a co-worker of Denise's actually went to high school with Zeb, so that's how she knew what Zeb's car looked like. Investigators weren't sure when the car had been left there, but they were positive that it had not been there since January 2nd.

So it appeared that somebody had placed it there at some point, and the barbecue restaurant where his car was found is located right across the street from the hospital that Denise worked at. So is it possible that it was put there on purpose for Denise to notice it? I don't know. An Asheville officer named Chuck Sam's had been the first person to approach the scene at the Little Pig Restaurant.

When he pulled up, he noticed that the headlights of Zebs car were on, and upon approaching the car closer, Officer Sam noticed that a big set of lips, along with an exclamation mark, were drawn on the back of the window and a pinkish orange lipstick. So obviously very, very weird here. Well, also before you continue,

if the headlights are on, that means the car battery hasn't died yet. So what does that really say about how long the car has been on or the battery has been on? Very true, that's actually a great point. But in the most bizarre twist of events, inside Zeb's car was an eight week old black Labrador puppy who appeared to have been inside the vehicle for quite some time, given the amount of animal urine and feces found on the seats. So sad.

Yeah, and this is just so fucking weird. I mean, this is really bizarre. Yeah. So the windows had been cracked, but the puppy looked weak and frail. And this is like Zev didn't have a dog, by the way, like, or he had his mastiff, but he didn't have a puppy. Right. Also inside the car, investigators noticed several drink bottles, which I'm not sure

what kind of drink bottles they're talking about, but there were bottles inside the car. They also found a jacket that didn't belong to Zeb, and also the front driver's seat had been pushed forward, indicating that somebody shorter had driven the car to that location. There was also a plastic hotel key card found inside, but investigators couldn't figure out where or what hotel it was from. There was no logo on the card, so detectives had to essentially go door-to-door to every local hotel to see where it belonged. But in the end, that information was never discovered. This is all so bizarre. So let's kind of talk about it. Like the lipstick on the window,

this is like a kiss from somebody's lipstick, which is just weird in itself. Right. And then there's the dog. Like why would there just be a dog in the car, like a little puppy? And the car is on. There's a hotel key card,

there's a jacket that's not Zebs. Like this is such a random collection of things that I mean truly, truly makes no sense. And by the way, Zebs' sister Brandy also worked at the same hospital as her mother and their mother just to kind of give you more of a background. So police had the thought that the puppy was placed in the car on purpose to draw attention to it, because most people who would hear or see a puppy locked inside a vehicle would

probably contact the police. Investigators also checked with local breeders and animal hospitals to see if they could figure out where the puppy had come from, but they were not able to do so. The puppy was taken to a county animal shelter, but after being there for several weeks, Officer Chuck Sam, who had first discovered her, decided that he needed to adopt the puppy so it wouldn't be put down, which is amazing, and he named her Katie and said, quote, �I knew she was a part of the case and I didn't wanna see her put down. I thought one day the animal could be the key

to the whole case. He then went on to say, I remember how tiny she was. I remember thinking how odd it was for this dog to be in the car. People have said to her, if you could only say what happened, you could solve this whole mystery. First of all, I just think it's very special that officer Chuck Sam had taken this puppy in.

Oh, I agree. You know, because he was like, this is just, I can't, I can't let this go. Like this puppy is such a huge clue in this case. Like I've got, I've got to take care of her. So although there seem to be a plethora of clues located in and on Zebs Car, none of them proved to be helpful in finding Zeb. But eight days after Zebs Car was located, police got another tip. A local couple had told police that they had seen Zebs Car in downtown Asheville before

it was placed at the barbecue restaurant and it was driving around. They were suspicious because they had seen Zebs' disappearance on the news and matched the description of the car. So that day, they jotted down as much of the license plate as they could and also got a description of the person driving. Love people like this. Yes, me too. They only had come to police days later after they had found out about his car being discovered. So police worked with this couple to put together a composite sketch of the person seen driving Zebs car. And when it was finished, police were blown away.

The sketch matched exactly to Misty Taylor. Also, the partial license plate that the couple noted down did match Zebs' actual plate. So this, you know, it was the same plate. This is such a wild piece of information because his car wasn't at the little pig barbecue restaurant then it was all these bizarre things are in and around the car. Nobody has any answers and then finally,

they're like, someone's like, I saw that car driving around and here's who is driving it. And it happens to match somebody that is involved in Zebs life. Right, it's just so strange. And we will post that composite sketch on our socials for you guys to check out.

So police brought Misty in for questioning and she denied ever driving Zebs Car. Of course she did. Right. So unfortunately again, there was no evidence to prove that Misty had driven Zebs Car so they had to let her go. After this, the case kinda seemed to slow down

and years passed with still no answers. In 2005, police filmed a reenactment of the night that Zeb vanished, hoping that it would spark some public interest, and they released it to the media to air on the public access cable channel. But no leads came from this effort. Now let's fast forward and talk about the last person to see Zeb alive. Jason Owens. the last person to see Zeb alive. Jason Owens. In an article that we found dated December 8, 2007, an incident occurred between state troopers and Jason, who by the way around this time would be like 27 or 28 years old.

North Carolina Highway Patrol was conducting routine license plate checks on Newfound Road in Likester at 3.30pm when Jason Owens drove by. The officers attempted to stop Jason, but he sped off and a chase took place, which is never a good sign. I mean, why are you speeding away from the police when they're just doing a routine thing? Yeah, not a good look. Not a good look at all. So speeds reached up to 100 miles per hour before Jason decided to point a gun out the window and started firing shots at the officer's vehicles. Eventually troopers did catch up with Jason near Hooker's Gap Road where they were able to corner him and arrest him.

Jason was charged with driving while under the influence, which is, we can only assume why he was speeding away. Driving with an expired license, which is also a reason he was probably speeding away. Assulting an officer, and many more charges in which he pled guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison. And during his incarceration, police tried to press Jason about Zeb's disappearance, but he refused to speak on advice of his legal counsel.

But that same year in April of 2007, while Jason was in prison, police got a tip that back in 2000, remember which is the year that Zeb went missing. A hole on Jason's property, which was located on, conveniently named Owens C cove road had been dug up and used to burn various items. Then after Zeb went missing, Jason filled in the hole with concrete, stating that he was going to create a fish pond in the 8 foot by 8 foot hole. Which is a pretty large hole, 8 feet by 8 feet, not like a little small hole. This is a pretty big hole.

Yeah. So the thing is, the fish pond was a decent distance from the residents far enough that it really didn't make sense to even put one there. Yeah, like you would assume if you were going to dig a hole and pour concrete to have a fish pond that it's going to be at least close to your house so you can see it. I know people do home renovations all the time and they poor concrete, like this is no weird thing, but it's just like how I feel about,

when somebody goes missing or someone is murdered and somebody connected to the case moves within, you know, a couple months or something, like this is that same thing where he's the last person who saw Zeb and he poured concrete after Zeb disappeared yeah you're like um something right and also you know we're gonna talk about Jason Moore and like you guys will get a sense of why we feel so suspicious about this motherfucker because he's honestly a piece of shit. Yes, it's good words, yes.

Exactly. So, police used ground piercing radar, and after searching the property fully, they discovered unearthed fabric, leather materials, and unknown hard fragments. What are the remains? Yes, so this was in the fish pond area that they dug up They also discovered several bags of pulverized lime as well as powdered mortar mix Which is never a good sign if you have a lot of lime or a huge amount of bags of lime on your property Wait, can you explain a red flag? Well because the lime can eat up decomposing bodies. It can actually get rid of Like it's kind of like acid, you know Align can eat up decomposing bodies. It can actually get rid of,

it's kind of like acid, you know? Like lime eats away at stuff over time. I feel like we talked about that recently or maybe we heard it in a show or something or a movie. Yeah, definitely. I don't think I ever fully processed that ability. Sorry, continue. Yeah, so anyway, those things were on as property. But here's where things get even more interesting.

On March 15th, 2015, a 45-year-old man named Joseph J. T. Codd and his pregnant wife, 38-year-old Christie Schoencodd, were reported missing from their home in Lycester. The family was supposed to meet Christie's parents in Mississippi at 4 p.m. that day, but they never showed up. So Christie's parents asked for officers to conduct a welfare check. No calls had been made from J.T. or Christie's phone since March 11th, so a few days prior,

and when police showed up to their residents, two dogs were found inside and appeared to have not been taken care of due to the amount of feces on the floor and the lack of food and water, so it appeared that no one had been there in days. When police looked into the situation further, they found out that Jason Owens had been a home contractor for the couple and had been working for them for the last few weeks before they disappeared. Okay, sorry to interrupt, but this is what we were talking about too with the Rachel Cook case that we covered last week. Just that, you know, somebody with bad intentions could be working inside your home is so scary.

Exactly. And she then I just moved and we've had a bunch of people in our house, so I have been actively thinking about this every time somebody comes over. Well, don't put that out in the universe No, not on some wood. I don't think there's any wood in this room. There's no wood in this room All right, yeah, we'll knock on some later. Oh actually, you know what the floor is is made out of wood There we go. There's the nox all is well. Nothing's bad get avid nothing bad is gonna happen now So anyway JT cod

Worked as a grip in the film industry handling cameras and equipment, and Christie was actually a celebrity chef and a contestant on season 8 of the show Food Network Star. The Cod's were originally from California, but decided to move to North Carolina to just settle down and start a family, and Jason lived about a mile from the Cod's home at this time. A resident who lived nearby saw Jason move large trash bags into a dumpster and thought that this was kind of suspicious, so they contacted police.

Yet another search was conducted on Jason's property, but this time investigators did not come up empty handed. Inside of a wood burning stove, they found human remains. So with that, Jason Owens admitted to killing JT and Christie Cod. But he claimed that it was just an accident. He was an accident now in burning their remains on a stove.

Yeah, not even, no. No. So he told investigators that he had gotten his truck stuck in a ditch and while the Cods were helping him get it out, he accidentally ram them over. Yeah, complete bullshit. So dumb story. So he worried that he would then go to jail and he decided to dismember the couple and their unborn child and cremate the bodies to get rid

of evidence. He then said that he moved their cars and sold some of their personal items to make it look like a robbery. Among the things stolen and sold were laptops, jewelry, and a handgun. So not only was Jason charged with first-degree murder, but he was also charged with counts of breaking and entering and larceny. Jason pled guilty and entered a plea deal on April 27, 2017, to three counts of second degree murder and two counts of dismembering remains. The deal made it so that Jason would avoid the death penalty, but he would serve a minimum of 60 years and a maximum of 75 years in prison. And he was 36 years old when he was charged,

but that still beg the question, where could Zeb Quinn be? And this is even such a crazy development in Zeb's case to know that the last person that saw Zeb is somebody who is capable of murdering multiple people, because I don't buy this whole, who I accidentally backed over them and ran them over and they both died like, yeah, I don't believe that for a second.

And if we're going just based on the facts here, I think in my personal opinion that the motive was robbery because he stole these things, you know, the laptops, the jewelry, he stole the handgun. So in my mind, what I'm thinking about, going back to Zeb's case, I'm like, Zeb had a bunch of money saved up to buy a new car.

Did Jason Owens know this? And he robbed Zeb? Great point, because that really could connect it, knowing what he did to this poor couple. Yeah, if that's the motive, you know, there's a couple different motives in my mind regarding Jason Owens for killing Zeb. One would be the fact, you know, that there's money. But then the other part would be possibly that Zeb had run into the back of his truck. He got pissed off in altercation

and sued. Obviously, I'm not going to speculate too much. Well, the problem here is that it seems like Jason really makes up stories because as we can go back to as well. Oh, yeah, he's a fucking liar. Well yeah, so we can't trust a single thing he says because he had told his work, oh I got in a really bad car accident and I have a head injury and a cracked rib. So I went to, you know, the urgent care, the hospital, whatever he said. And that turns out that that's not true. His car is fine, but he was injured.

So it's like you made up a story that you got into a bad accident that you didn't get into the morning after Zeb went missing. So where do those injuries come from? Right, so did he get into some sort of altercation with Zeb where Zeb fought back? And that's how Jason got injured. That makes the most sense to me.

This is all just pure speculation, but I don't believe a word that Jason Owen says. No, but this case is so complicated. You know, as we'll get into here for the rest of this, this episode, but it's so complicated because then you have the witnesses saying that they saw a woman driving or young woman driving, you know, Zeb's car and that matched Misty's description. But then Jason is obviously a really sketchy player. But then what about the calls coming from the Ants house and the dad, the lips on the back of the the car that would have, you know, you would assume that

somebody who's jealous, like maybe Wesley Smith had put those lips there with the exclamation mark. It honestly, like I'm just so confused. Yeah, it's a really confusing case. And Daphne, to answer your question from earlier about where Zeb could be? On July 10, 2017, a Buncombe County Grand jury finally returned an indictment, charging Jason Owens with the first-degree murder of Zeb Wayne Quinn. But, here's the kicker. Due to several circumstances as well as personnel changes, the trial for Zebs Murder has still not taken place after five long years. In March of 2020, all jury trials were suspended by Chief Justice Sherry Beasley due to COVID-19. So Robert Jason Owens is still incarcerated at the Alexander Correctional Institution located

in Taylor'sville, North Carolina, and still awaits trial for the murder of Zeb. Although nothing has been released to the public about the direct evidence linking Jason to the murder, the Asheville Police Department said in a news release, quote, this indictment is the result of years of investigative work and persistence by detectives of the Asheville Police Department as well as ongoing partnerships with members of the Quinn family and the Bunkham County Sheriff's Office. I mean, hopefully the trial will be held soon that proves without a doubt that Jason Owens was the person who took the life of the very sweet and all around great

Zeb Quinn. And I know that obviously COVID is pushing things back, but there's a case that we're going to cover very soon. It's in deliberation right now. So hopefully we're just days away from a conclusion. But the person of interest in that case was arrested in 2019. So and that is in trial right now. So, it's weird that this is two years older and hasn't,

but I don't know exactly how everything works for different states, but I mean, this has been severely pushed off. Yeah, sometimes these cases just take a really long time to go to trial. Sadly, but as soon as there is a trial, and you know, once it's over, we will absolutely do an update episode.

But as for Misty Taylor and Wesley Smith, we may never know if they were somehow involved in the case, as well as Ina Ustich, but for Zeb's family and friends, justice seems to be right around the corner, and they're looking forward to closing a horrible and devastating chapter of their lives. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. And y'all know I gotta say thank you too, so thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. And on Friday, on Tuesday. On Tuesday. On Tuesday.

We'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. This case is honestly so bizarre. And like I said in the very beginning of this episode, like this is one that I had known brief details to, but really diving into it, it just genuinely makes no effincense. Yeah, it really doesn't make a lot of sense. And you know, shout out to Disappeared.

I know a lot of you guys. This show. Yeah, the show. A lot of you True Crime fans watched out to disappeared. I know a lot of you guys, so yeah, the show, a lot of you true crime fans watch that show disappeared. There's an excellent episode on Zebs case, so if you're interested in watching that, please go check it out, shout out to disappeared. Yeah, I mean podcasts are great because you can, you know,

you don't have to sit down and watch something and you can listen to us while you drive or you cook or you clean or whatever it is you're doing right now. But yeah, disappeared is an awesome show. So go check it out. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We would love to know what you think about this case.

And we posted photos of Zeb. He was so adorable and it's really sad to think that something happened and his poor family doesn't know what happened to him or where his body is because we can only assume he is dead now that somebody has been arrested for his murder. So please let us know what you think. Our Instagram is at Going West Podcast. Hit the follow button.

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So if you just like click on this episode to look at the description you can have a direct link So you can do that too. So thank you guys so much for listening. We love you all and we'll see you next week All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world don't be a stranger Thank you. you