Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Fiancée Found Murdered and Surrounded by Rose Petals

Episode Date: March 28, 2026

A South Carolina man found his fiancée dead in the living room of her Greer home. Bradley Post said Christina Parcell was surrounded by rose petals, and he noted a chemical odor in the house. It was known that Parcell, a vet tech at a local animal hospital, had issues with her ex-husband over the child they shared together, but investigators soon pieced together the true motive behind the murder. Find out what happened to Christina Parcell on this episode of “Prime Crime with Jesse Weber.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On prime crime. Graefell County 9111-1. I think I might have a death. Walking like fiancé's house, there's a very weird smell and I can't get her to come around. A young mother brutally killed in her own home with no obvious reason why.

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This is your girlfriend? My fiance, but I didn't see my ring on her finger. Son of a . This whole case at the beginning felt like a dead end. There's no reason his DNA should have been under her fingernails. As investigators dig deeper. I've never covered a murder case where the victim very quickly becomes the biggest villain.

Dark secrets are revealed, taking the case down a path of shocking twists one even detectives didn't see coming. I knew from that moment on would be safe from sexual abuse, and there is proof to that that the state is hiding from you. You're out of it. It's just to be quiet. Hi there, everybody. I'm Jesse Weber and welcome to Prime Crime, where we break down some of the most compelling and memorable true crime cases from across the country. Right now we have the story of a young mom who is savagely murdered in her South Carolina home in what appears to be a seemingly random act of violence.

But as the investigation presses forward and hidden secrets come to light, the case pivots in a direction that no one expects. October 13th, 2021 starts out like any other day for 41-year-old Christina Parcell. Christina Parcell left that morning and walked her daughter up the street to Buena Vista Elementary School and dropped her off. She left that morning about 8.30 or so to go to an interview as a vet tech at a veterinarian clinic. Later that morning, Bradley Post her fiance tried to call to touch base with her her see how the interview went but he didn't get her on the phone so he decided to go over to the cane break address just to check in on her that's when the lives of parcell's family and friends in that small community of Greer South Carolina change forever

grateful county 911 I think I might have a death okay let me connect you if I walk in my fiance's house she wouldn't answer my call there's a very weird smell and I can't get her to come around October 13th of 20th 2021 on Canberrake Drive, close outside the city of Greenville. A 911 call was placed just after 11 a.m. by Bradley Post, reporting that he had discovered Christina Parcell's body inside the home. Is she breathing? No.

Okay. Then we need to get her, turn her over, make sure she's flat on her back, and we're going to start CPR, sir. Okay, I think he's gone. There looks like there's brain matter everywhere. Looks like you might have gotten about. You won't respond. You don't respond. Eyes are open.

There was a lot of blood. There was a tremendous amount of blood in this crime scene. We knew that this person had been very up close and personal with Christina Parcell. And then there were drag marks throughout the crime scene, moving her body. We didn't know for what purpose or why. It looks like somebody may have broken in and shot her in the head. Maybe. I don't know.

Do you see anybody still nearby in the salient or anything? No. No? Okay. There was a pungent smell that was inside of the residents. However, once the forensic technicians arrived, the smell had dissipated. You got to come home right now, emergency. I went to the door, no response, so the back door is always unlocked.

Okay. So I walked around the back door, and I walked in there was a smell like a pesticide smell. And she's laying on her back. It looks like she's either brain matter on the floor or their door. Okay. is a lot of blood. Looks like she fell and was drug. What law enforcement determined to be the spot that she was initially attacked, had the largest collection of blood by that couch, and then the drag marks across the floor to where

she was ultimately found. The cause of death was approximately 35 slash and stab wounds all around her body. Overwhelmingly, it was a vicious attack. a slew of questions and potential implications arising from just those facts alone. Is there anybody else in the house? No, but there are three cats. Do you talk to her this morning? I talked to her this morning, yeah. Okay.

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But it's weird. You'll see where she was drug. We never found a murder weapon. Obviously, every house has plenty of knives. Every house has a kitchen. but there was nothing that, you know, stood out as being the murder weapon. There were blood droppings near the blinds of the house as well as chairs. In addition, we'd found rose petals sprinkled throughout the crime scene,

and we didn't know the significance of those. I just talked to Tina, who was his sister as at work, she's coming home now, and I said, was there a rose? Did you see on the floor? Yep, I saw it in the hallway there. She said, I didn't have any rose in the house. Okay. And I saw her sunglasses in the hallway, so it looks like she was surprised somehow. We definitely felt that it was personal, not a random person who just walked in her house.

This is weird, dude. This is weird. Let's get out of here with that smell. You just lock it down. It's definitely not a death odor. As far as I can tell, I'm not EMS, man. They should be here in just a second. What the f***?

And this is your girlfriend? My, well, she, my fiance, but I didn't see my ring on her finger. Son of my b***. She's got a young daughter that's nine. Deputies were dispatched to 122 Can Break Drive just after 11 a.m. on Wednesday, October 13th. After a woman who has since been identified as Christina Parcell was found deceased inside the residence by a person familiar with her. Investigators rushed to the scene and discovered the victim have been brutally stabbed multiple times resulting in her death. With a brutal murder and not.

many leads police have a lot of work ahead of them the initial officers cleared the home itself evidence was collected pictures taken over the inside of the home and the first steps that investigators took was to speak to neighbors painbreak Avenue is a really quiet suburb in the town of Greer it's a place where a lot of families live my first thought was maybe this is somebody she rejected or this is a jilted lover. I do think the neighbors were probably afraid. We knew from the beginning we were going to be looking for somebody that was at least familiar with Christina. Christina Parcell was a mother. She was the sister of Tina Parcell and at that point she was living at that residence with her

sister Tina and her daughter. Christina worked as a vet tech part-time. She was seeking full-time employment. And she had a fiance named Bradley Post. After she was murdered, you started to see people who knew her comment on social media about the person that they knew. And it's everything you would expect. She was a great mother to her daughter. Everybody at the Animal Clinic loved her.

It seemed that she had this personality that drew people in, but also made people feel important and noticed. We spoke to her sister Tina Parcell at great length, and even Tina expressed the fact that, you know, a lot of Christina Parcell's life was a mystery to her because they only rekindled their relationship about a year or so prior to her murder. They had to look at, was this a case of mistaken identity? Was this meant for her sister Tina? There were so many options on the table and so few answers that it seemed like investigators really had their work cut out for them. Detectives canvassed the surrounding neighborhood in hopes of finding any new information to bring them one step closer to identifying the alleged killer. Doorbell cam footage around these houses could be extremely valuable in trying to identify

a suspect and thankfully almost immediately after law enforcement arrives, they find out that the home directly across the street had ring camera. We asked for, in some cases, days of footage just to make sure somebody wasn't kind of scoping out the house before it happened. Some homeowners didn't have anything of evidentiary value, but a couple of the neighbors did catch something that gave law enforcement their first big break. You see the suspect walk up to the front door and stands there for maybe 10 seconds. It's clear he has knocked on the door or rung the doorbell. You see the door crack open, and the last frame of that video shows the suspect walking inside Christina Parcell's house. We tried to get as much security camera footage as we could to figure out where he came from or where he went back to.

We know he left on a bike. They kind of struck gold, in a sense, in falling into the footage of this individual, walking into the home at 9-15. it didn't clearly identify who it was. They didn't have a face, but it led them ultimately to a suspect. Many questions begin swirling. Who would want this young mother dead, who had access to the home and knew Christina Parcell's schedule? Is there anything or any one investigators are missing?

This soon leads detectives towards an unlikely character. There's been a custody battle. The father is in, who's in Italy. Italy. See you in Italy now? And he's been threatening what we don't know. In a package to my office, it was all these old court documents between John and my sister where he accused her of being a prostitute. Anonymous packets also started showing up of naked pictures of her. Amid the investigation into the stabbing death of 41-year-old Christina Parcel, a strange figure spotted on nearby cameras gives police a new direction to go in.

But who is this mystery person? We needed to really look and see what was the background of this family, and what was the family dynamic going on there? You're looking at any and every possibility. At the very beginning, there weren't very many leads. Obviously, Brad Post, the fiancé, and the person who found the body was initially considered. Early on, detectives meet with 65-year-old Bradley Post to learn if he, knows anything that could help the investigation.

His background was in engineering. He had started his own company and had sold it, and so was of pretty significant, let's just say, financial means. When you look at statistics for murders, any time a woman is murdered, it's usually a lover of some type. So we obviously had to consider him a suspect. And in talking with Post, there led down an unforeseen path.

Through the lens of law enforcement, he is a guy that they see as a potential suspect from the get-go. He turns over his phone and the curtain is kind of pulled back on a separate angle. It seemed like there was a lot of speculation on social media. We just weren't getting any news about the case. And then all of the sudden we find out, Christina Parcell's fiancee has been arrested. And my first thought, okay, here we go. We asked if he would allow us to do a forensic download of his phone, and he agreed to it.

We discovered some content on his phone that resulted in Mr. Post receiving some criminal charges. Police had seized child pornography images and videos from devices that belong to Brad Post. Bradley Post is arrested in charge with several counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. buggery and criminal sexual conduct with a minor, charges that are unrelated to the case at hand. Detectives keep them in their sights, but another person is on their radar. Parcell's ex and the father of her daughter,

then 61-year-old John Mello. Bradley and Christina dated on and off for maybe 20 years during a period when they were broken up is when she met John Mello. About four years into their relationship, they welcomed a baby girl. The two dated for about seven years, but they did part ways. The custody issues started almost immediately. Mello wanted custody of his daughter.

Christina wanted custody of their daughter. Christina just kind of yielded and gave in to John and gave him custody with her having visitation. But after several years, Things between them take a turn. John Mello and Christina Parcell had been engaged in one of the most contentious custody disputes that we have ever seen. In 2020, John Mello left with his daughter and moved to Italy in violation of the current standing family court order between he and Christina Parcell. This was September 2020. That's the last we saw her.

He missed visitation, which is, of course, a contempt. said that they were out of the country and wouldn't be back in time and wouldn't take phone calls missed the next solicitation so October of 2020 we basically figured out that he was in Italy and he had taken her to Italy

no communication from him Christmas Day of 2020 so give her take three months is the first time we got to talk to she was in Italy he essentially kidnapped their daughter and took her to another country and the Hague had to get involved

and bring the child back to the United States. While John Mello becomes a person of interest, he seems to have an airtight alibi. The first thing that pops in mind is, all right, this guy, John, has something to do with it. But if he's in, obviously, he can't do it if he's in Italy. But we don't know that he's in Italy. The nuance to the John Mello angle was the fact that they learned immediately that he was in Italy at the time of the murder.

Once we learned that John Mello was not located in the United States, states, that route went a little cold. While Mello may not be their man, his connections are certainly of interest to investigators. There was an individual who knew John Mello and worked for him named Michael Managault. Michael was doing some odd jobs for John Mello, cleaning his properties, doing landscaping work. And Michael mentioned that there was a man named Zachary Hughes that was a friend of John Mellows. and he had worked alongside Zach for a couple of weeks. Zach was born in 1992 in California.

He grew up in a very loving family. Religion was important in the family, hard work, accountability. Upon graduation from high school, in 2010, he applied to the Juilliard School. While he was there, he flourished, was well respected, was very successful. After he graduated from Juilliard,

He taught music lessons to pupils, and he was hired in 2017 to be the principal pianist with the Knoxville Symphony. When Zachary Hughes and John Mello first met up, it was kind of a chance meeting. During COVID, everything was shut down. Zachary Hughes had the idea, I'll play on the lawn outside for people. Later, Zach decided to start doing some street performances in downtown Greenville, And by chance, one day, John Mello and his daughter walked up and complimented Zach on his music. He asked the child, is there a song I could play for you? And the child said, Claire Dalloon.

It was Michael Managault who kind of filled in some of the pieces about their relationship. He told us some information we later learned to be incorrect, saying that they had met at some restaurant downtown that John and Zach had been friends. for four or five years prior to this, and we later learned that that wasn't true as well. It seems like they had a very fast friendship develop, but it wasn't a long one. They only hung out for a couple of months. Zach was enamored with the young child

in a big brother kind of way. Now, 29-year-old Zachary Hughes is in the picture, but there's something that doesn't really add up. Such a glaring question. There was no connection. no connection with Christina Parcell. There was never a communication with Christina Parcell. There was no evidence the fact that he had ever met her. The only connection between Zachary Hughes and Christina Parcell was John Mello.

I researched him online. I found all kinds of articles about this Zachary Hughes in Greenville, who's this great pianist, and we pulled a list of his vehicles that he has from the South Carolina DMV. And that's when I started looking through the flock traffic cameras that we have throughout the county. And the day of Christina's murder, I was able to find a picture of Zach's truck. With seemingly little connection to Christina Parcell, detectives begin to wonder, could the hooded figure on the bicycle seen on surveillance footage be Zachary Hughes? On two separate flock cameras at different times, they see Zach's truck, but they all. also see a bike in the bed of the truck, and that was the next big break.

We found no connection. I think he got a burner phone and sent her some harassing text messages at one point. But that was it. They were not acquaintances. They never hung out. A loose theory begins to take shape surrounding the murder of Christina Parcell. But as the investigation unfolds, unsettling new details emerge, and the mystery only deep Right after Christina was able to get her daughter back from Italy, some nude photographs of her started being mailed to several different addresses.

These nude photos look to be from an escort website, and these mailings were going to the Guardian Ad litem in the case, attorneys, to Bradley post her fiancée, as well as neighbors of his. his. At first, the sender of the envelopes remains unknown, but as the murder investigation continues, detectives begin building their case, uncovering links to Zachary Hughes. In doing their due diligence, they are able to identify his truck, and they run that truck through flock cameras in Greenville. On the day of the murder, around 2.30 p.m., one of the flock cameras hits on Zachary Hughes's truck, and you see very clearly in the bed of his truck a bike matching that description of the bike that was found on the ring cameras, leaving the residence. So this is where it kind of snowballs.

Even though his family was close by, Zachary Hughes was living with a family from church. Investigators, when they pull up, Zachary Hughes is standing at the French door, holding a cell phone and puts his hands in the air. I obtained a search warrant for that residence, his truck, his DNA. When we arrived at his house, it was like he knew we were coming before we even got out of our cars. He didn't even ask us while we were there what we were doing. The garage had a lot of bikes. There were some up on the shelves.

They noted some had cobwebs on them, but when they turned and looked, they see a black bike that is in amazing condition. We asked if he wanted to speak with us about the case and he refused. That night we did the search warrant. We just detained him so we could get his DNA at that point. He was our prime suspect. With not enough to hold him, Hughes is released and several days later in early November 2021, one final break.

They learned that there's a. the DNA hit under Christina Parcell's fingernails to Zachary Hughes. So between the bike, between the fact that he matched the stature of that suspect going in the home, and the DNA, that was enough for law enforcement to make the arrest. Zachary Hughes was located in Michigan and he was leaving to play the piano on a four-month cruise to make money. we notified him he did voluntarily turn around and drive back to Greenville, South Carolina, and he turned himself in.

I was his attorney at that time, so I was with him when he turned himself in. Zach actually had a plane ticket, could have left the country. He did not, where he could have simply walked across a bridge into Canada, but he got word about the charges. He came back to South Carolina. I'll never forget getting a breaking news alert that an arrest had been made. And the first thing I see is Zachary Hughes's mugshot. And I thought to myself, no way. I met this guy in downtown Greenville when he was outdoors playing piano. And not only did I

meet him, I sat and had a 10-minute conversation with him. And my first thought is, there's no way. They've got the wrong guy. Zachary Hughes is arrested and charged with murder, burglary, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and harassment. After Zach was arrested, of course, law enforcement wanted to do a forensic download of his cell phone. The young man who was able to memorize 32 of Beethoven's sonatas, which is just unheard of, couldn't remember the pass code to his phone. The phone download was able to just just. generate WhatsApp messages between Zachary Hughes and John Mello. But unfortunately with WhatsApp, because it's end-to-end encrypted,

they were for the most part scrambled. Some of the smaller messages we could kind of decipher like John saying harassed the out of her, but some of the longer ones, it's just too scrambled to make sense out of us. I obtained Zachary Hughes's emails and I found where John Mello had sent him those nude photos that were mailed out. And another burning question remains. What reason would Zachary Hughes have to violently murder Christina Parcell?

A woman he had never met. We knew that he was intimately involved in the child custody dispute, and we know that John Mello is telling him a lot of the specific information about the situation. John Mello, we knew, was very involved in the murder of Christina Parcell through his conversations with Zachary Hughes. But he was in Italy. I had John Mello on the five-yard line trying to punch it into the end zone, but I didn't have that last five yards. But then, a startling twist no one anticipates. After Christina was murdered, our local news social media pages just,

blew up with comments. People who didn't know her were horrified at what her last moments must have been like, the fear, the pain. But we all felt there was a big piece of this puzzle missing. The prosecution's role is to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Zachary Hughes did in fact murder Christina Parcell. That sounds simple. In this particular case, if you're It was quite complicated. Investigators working to build their case in the murder of Christina Parcell face controversy when serious accusations against Parcell come to light. There's a lot of allegations that were made against her, some false, some true.

John Mello made several that were investigated by the sheriff's office. It did have to do with child abuse and they were ultimately closed. On review of Brad Post devices, Christina Parcell is in images and some videos. Allegations started to trickle out about Christina and her possible involvement in the child sex abuse material that her fiancé Bradley Post had been arrested on just one week after her murder. And when that hit the news, it flipped this case upside down. And I've never covered a murder case where the victim very quickly becomes the biggest villain in this story. But after these allegations were made public, that's exactly what happened to Christina Parcell. This seemingly important evidence, however, would soon find itself on the chopping block.

It actually took us a number of years to be able to even gain access to those images and videos. September of 2024, the state moved to excessive. exclude all evidence of child pornography that had been seized during the course of law enforcement's investigation. We responded. Then the state filed another motion for the purpose of excluding it. It was not relevant because it didn't play a part in the murder. And I think the judge made a well-informed and the correct decision on excluding that material. In February 2025, Zachary Hughes goes to do that. Zachary Hughes goes on trial, armed with a trove of solid evidence.

Prosecutors lay out their case. Murder is an angry heart. We have to show that Zach Hughes had an angry heart. He was mad. In addition to also preparing a very complex trial through witnesses that could convince a jury that he did in fact kill Christina Parcell. On top of that was the why. Why would Zachary Hughes, somebody who's never met Christina. and Parsel go and commit such a horrific crime.

The question is, how does Zach Hughes become involved in this case? Well, Zach Hughes had a relationship with John Mello. And that relationship grew. And it grew to the point where Zach Hughes began inserting himself into this custody battle. And as the custody disputed elevated, it elevated into a situation where custody might not go in John Mello's favor. And at that point, Zach Hughes really

made the ultimate decision. And to support their theory, the state's witnesses outlined the facts. Did you have the occasion to test the clippings from Christina Parcell's right hand? Yes, I did. The DNA obtained from Item 2A is a mixture of at least two individuals. Assuming Christina Parcell is a major contributor to this mixture, a match between the minor DNA result of Item 2A and the DNA of Zachary Hughes is approximately 825 million times more likely

than a coincidental match to a random unrelated individual. Around 8, 815, do you see anything of interest that day? Yeah, I saw someone on a bicycle. Just been all black with a mask on his face. Were you able to see his face? Yeah, a little bit. Ms. Gorman, do you recognize that person in this courtroom? Yes. He's right there.

Some Marine cameras showed a person on a bicycle. There was some vastly conflicting testimony about that. One of the persons said that the suspect on that bicycle was about six foot five. Well, Zach is under six foot tall. Another witness testified that they were able to enhance the video enough to see that the person on the bicycle had a beard. Well, Zach did not have a beard. Do you have the occasion to meet John Mello? I met him.

maybe a time or two from 2014 to when they broke up in 2015. Did they ever live together? No, he was living with his wife at the time. Did Christina Parcell and John Miller ever engaged in disputes over who had rights to their daughter? For years, yes. Zach Hughes stabbing Christina Parcell 35 times. That we could prove pretty well. It was all the other ancillary issues regarding the custody.

dispute that made this case complicated. From the moment I walked into that courtroom, the first thing that stood out to me was how disproportionate the defense side was compared to the prosecution side. Every single day of that trial, Zachary Hughes had 20 or more people on his side, but on the other side, there's nobody there for Christina. And the jury noticed every single day. You see that something in this jury's mind is working. The defense finally presents its case and makes an intriguing move. The prosecution said that Zach was mad.

They said he had an angry heart that he wanted to inject himself into this custody dispute. But that's not why it happened. The why to the homicide is very important because it gives insight into the person's heart. In this case, you were going to hear that the why was not jealousy or greed or a crime of passion. This was not done for money or any other personal gain or benefit, not to help out any kind of friend. This was done for a just cause. And that's not malice and that's not murder. Murder is defined as the unlawful killing of another with malice or forethought.

Historically, one of the definitions of malice under South Carolina law has been the intentional doing of a wrongful act without just cause or excuse. In Mark's opening statement, he referenced that definition of malice specifically and began the process of having the jury think about Zach's just cause or excuse for what he did. And in a shocking turn of events, Zachary Hughes takes the stand in his own defense. He started to tell me about just really grave concerns he had. had about his daughter, specifically when his daughter was with her mother. He just didn't trust her, and he thought that she wasn't responsible and that she might even

hurt her at some point. It was clear that he just was terrified about the danger his daughter was in. But wait to you hear what Zachary Hughes has to say next and why sparks start flying in the courtroom. This was not about revenge or retribution or anything. I wasn't angry. I felt that I had a certain sense of responsibility to help him with what he was dealing with with this custody battle for his daughter's sake. At the end of September, beginning of October 2021, did you conclude that you had to rescue him? Yes, I did.

Zachary Hughes testifies in his own defense as he faces murder charges over the stabbing death of Christina Parcell, the ex of his friend John Mello. He walks jurors through what happened in the months leading up to the brutal killing. In May of 2021, what, if anything, did John ask you to do for him? John asked me that if I believed his daughter was in great, of danger, would I be willing to kill Christina Parcel for $5,000? I was shocked and insulted by the request, and I gave him an immediate and unequivocal no, maybe two or three weeks later.

He asked me again, if I became convinced that his daughter was in danger, would I be willing to kill Christina Parcel for $10,000? I told him the only way I would ever consider taking action like this is if I was absolutely convinced that his daughter was not only in danger, but that the only way to rescue her from that danger would be to take Christina Purcell's wife. We've heard from people who tried to make it sound like Zach was manipulated. Zach wasn't manipulated. He gained a lot of information. Some of it was through John Mello, some of it was from other sources that led him to believe that this,

child was being abused. In light of newfound information from Zachary Hughes testimony and to add to this already tangled web, outside the courtroom, another player in this case finds himself in handcuffs. When Zachary Hughes was on the stand, we were curious, is he going to throw John Mello under the bus? They had nothing on John Mello, or at least not enough to have him arrested until. Zachary Hughes was on the stand. That testimony right there led to investigators very quickly getting an arrest warrant for John Mello. He was in custody by 1.30 that day, and he is currently awaiting charges for accessory before the fact of murder. Did you take another step to try to act on your concerns from you?

Yes, I made a phone call to child protective service. I told them that I had seen being verbally and physically abused by her mother. That's when all hell breaks loose. I made that up. That's not true. But I said it because I wanted to give an opportunity to have FaceTime in person with an agent from DSS away from her mother where she could tell them that her mother was sexually abusing her. Your Honor? Sustained.

You are to disregard. He began to discuss the fact that Christina Parcell had allegedly manufactured or produced child pornography of her daughter. As a result, we would object, and then he would rule in our favor, and he would tell Zachary Hughes, you're not allowed to say that. But the jury would hear these things. What I told the court is, Your Honor, I am I am asking questions that are designed to elicit evidence consistent with your ruling. But at the same time, Zach is on trial for his life.

And so I'm going to continue to do what Your Honor has instructed me to do, and Zach's going to do what he thinks is right. And Zachary Hughes makes a startling confession. I had gotten this offer to go on this cruise ship, and I would have been leaving the country for a long time. Essentially, it was now or never. I had an opportunity to save her from a danger that I knew she was in, and I just couldn't go on with my life and leave her to drown.

Did you take Christina Farsall's life on October the 13th? Yes, because I believed it was absolutely necessary to save her. And I was right. rejection your honor, it's sustained. Had the child sex abuse allegations been brought in. Interestingly enough, Christina and John Mello's daughter was going to be the first witness that the defense called. She was going to take the stand in Zachary Hughes's defense, but the judge said no. Zachary Hughes spells out exactly how it all went down.

I brought a knife and I brought a box that was made to look like a gift wrapped box and a bunch of roses that I had bought the day before. I knew that the only way was going to be saved from what she was enduring was for me to take this route. It was his decision that he wanted to testify. Zach had been waiting three years to tell, everybody what he did and why he did it. My plan had been to try to knock her unconscious because I didn't want to cause her or anyone any pain.

I started striking her and she started to fight back. I don't remember how many times I struck her. I saw that she had scratched my face. So I used the paint thinner to try to clean her hands. I drove back to the mountain house, and as soon as I left the house, I felt the most enormous wave of relief wash over me because I knew from that moment on would be safe, would be safe from the sexual abuse that her mother was perpetrating on her.

And there is proof to that that the state is hiding from you. You're all right. It's instructed to be quiet. Okay. You need to stop talking. At the end of the day, he wasn't able to put up his defense without getting contempt charges because it wasn't allowed in. And yet he said, I put my hand on the Bible.

I swore to tell the truth. And you're telling me I can't. He got out to that jury that there were allegations of sexual abuse by the victim, Christina Parcel. Very powerful moment. You see that light bulb go off where several of those jurors in that moment finished that puzzle. Even though we had it strict from the record, he was continuing to say it so much that the judge held him in contempt and sentenced him to six months in jail, which didn't seem to face him

very much. It just shows that he has no respect for, you know, the rule of law. I mean, he just admitted to being offered money and killing someone. He admitted that he knew nothing about Christina other than what he was told by John Mello. the case is left with the jury. The state has to convince 12 people of the same thing. And I don't care what the evidence is in any case. It is so difficult to convince 12 people of anything. So your mind races.

I've never personally had a murder suspect confessed to a jury, even testify in his own trial, let alone confess. I don't know what he thinks. thought was going to happen other than a guilty verdict. After just under three hours of deliberations, the jury comes back with their verdict.

As to the charge of murder, we the jury find the defendant guilty. Zachary Hughes is found guilty of murder, among several other charges, but is acquitted of first-degree harassment and conspiracy to commit first-degree harassment.

But before the judge hands down his sentence, Christina Parcell's sister Tina Parcell gets an opportunity to speak before the court. This man, no, I'm sorry, this defendant, wanted to kill someone. He was given a target on a silver platter. All of these men did nothing but use my sister for their own twisted personal gratification. He would do it again. Zachary David Hughes, indictment for murder, you're to be committed to the State Department of Corrections for life. Ultimately, Zach Hughes murdered Christina Parcell on the morning of October 13th of 2021, period.

That happened. The defense's argument that Zach Hughes had the pretext to commit this murder justifiably. It wasn't there. I've covered a lot of murders that have some very crazy twists and turns, but I never thought one of the craziest would be 20 minutes from my backyard. Knowing what we know about what was allegedly being done to the daughter, that was a very conflicting feeling for me to not really feel as sorry for a victim as I normally do. And I struggled with that. But at the end of the day, we can't allow vigilante justice. Somebody like that is talented and poised.

and amazing, as he seemed to be, he committed a very vicious and scary murder. And we just can't allow people like that to walk around on the outside among us, no matter what noble cause he thought it was. It's kind of unbelievable, right? In the end, a classically trained musician is convicted for taking the life of another, an act that he claimed was meant to save a child. Jurors, though, they saw the killing of Christina Parcell as something else entirely. a premeditated murder.

But questions still linger about who may have influenced him and how far someone's willing to go when they think they're right. It's all we have for you here on this episode of Prime Crime. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Jesse Weber, and as always, stay safe.