00:00:00
Hey weirdos. I'm Ash. >> And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid. This is morbid. And man, there's a lot
00:00:21
going on the last couple days. >> Do you know why? Because it's stupid daylight savings time.
00:00:27
>> I [ __ ] hate daylight. I [ __ ] hate it. >> Is this a polarizing opinion? I don't
00:00:31
think so. >> So, I don't I don't think it's polarizing to not like it because of the
00:00:34
whole like you lose an hour thing, but people love the longer days with more sunlight.
00:00:43
>> I That's polarizing. >> That's I just polarized the [ __ ] out of this. I hate it.
00:00:48
>> Yeah. I much prefer darkness. >> I want a longer night. Yeah. >> Give me a longer night. When the sun
00:00:53
sets at 4, I'm so happy. Well, and I just I get used to one way and then it flips the other way and it's pissing me
00:01:00
off. I I was in such a good like routine of getting up super early and getting up
00:01:04
way before the kids get up and now my body doesn't know what time it is so it keeps waking up later and then I don't
00:01:10
get my time in the morning before everyone wakes up. It's really [ __ ] me up. >> I actually weirdly like am the opposite.
00:01:16
I've been waking up better with daylight savings but I'm like confused when I wake up cuz I'm like is it 5:30? Is it
00:01:21
6:30? Where am I? >> I don't like it. And I want to abolish it. >> Yeah, I want to abolish it, too. I also,
00:01:28
every time that it happens the last couple years, I'm like, didn't we get rid of this?
00:01:32
>> I feel like we've been trying to for decades. >> I swear courts across the nation have
00:01:36
voted millions of times and we've all said, "Nah, >> I think we've all said we don't want
00:01:40
this anymore, but then the government was like, I literally don't give a fuck." >> I thought the government actually cared
00:01:44
about this one, but >> Yeah, I was going to say you thought the government actually cared about
00:01:47
>> this one. About this one, I said. >> No, they don't care about anything. >> Yeah. No, they don't. But here we are
00:01:53
dealing with daylight savings time still. >> It's [ __ ] brutal. [ __ ] a. Anything
00:01:58
else you got? You should tell people to buy your book. >> Yeah, buy buy my pre-order my book, The
00:02:02
Butcher Legacy. It's the third in the Dr. Ren Mueller series. >> And there's signed editions available.
00:02:06
>> There is. I don't know if they're still available. Um >> I just said there's signed editions
00:02:11
available and you said there is. I don't know if they're available. >> There was. I should say. Uh maybe
00:02:16
there'll be more. I don't know though. Not right. Not at this moment. If they're sold out right now. Okay. Well,
00:02:23
you can still buy an unsigned edition. >> You can buy so many editions that you want. There's special edition.
00:02:28
>> I was going to say special. >> There's regular editions that are still special in my heart.
00:02:32
>> Yeah. >> You can pre-order them all. You can do it at butcherleacy.com. Anywhere you
00:02:37
want to get it. Anywhere you feel connected to that you want to purchase this book, purchase it.
00:02:42
>> I support it. That's really nice of you. >> Yeah, I support you. >> The interaction where you were like, I
00:02:47
said they're available and then you were like, they are, but they're not. just reminded me of something before we
00:02:51
actually get into this. You'll love this. I was watching Watch What Happens Live the other night and Andy said to
00:02:57
Tom Sandival, uh, he like Tom Sandival was talking about how he met Kristen and like her baby. This is Vanderpump Rules
00:03:03
in case you're interested. >> Yeah. >> And in case you're interested in what I'm talking about,
00:03:07
>> in case you're interested in what I have to say. And so Andy was like, "That must
00:03:11
have been so strange." And or like, "Oh my god, like that was crazy." And Tom was like, "Yeah, it was so strange." And
00:03:17
then he kind of trailed off and Andy was like, "Yeah, that must have been strange." And then Tom goes, "It wasn't
00:03:22
strange though." And it was just like, "What the [ __ ] are you guys talking about?"
00:03:28
>> Like, "Are both of you?" >> He was like, "Yeah, it was so strange." And it must have been strange, but it
00:03:33
wasn't even strange. >> What we've determined is that it was strange, but it wasn't.
00:03:36
>> It was crazy. >> So, there was that. >> It was something. >> Yeah. So, you know what? They're
00:03:40
available, but they're not. >> That's just the way it I think that's what I've heard recently is that they
00:03:45
might be out of the signed ones. >> Look at you selling [ __ ] out. >> But you know what? If you have demand,
00:03:51
let me know because one thing I will do is make my life harder and continue signing things till the end of time.
00:03:57
>> One of your favorite pastimes on this planet, Capricorn. Yeah, >> I'm speaking to all the Capricorns
00:04:04
worldwide is to make your [ __ ] lives harder. I've got a whole stack of uh tippins right next to me that I'm
00:04:10
signing to make sure you guys have them. >> I'm not trying to like toot your horn
00:04:14
like excessively, but I don't know how you do it. >> Thank you. >> I don't want to do a lot of things.
00:04:20
Yeah, I bet. I'm tired and I don't even do much. So, I like I said to Drew this morning, I was like, I got to stop
00:04:27
saying I don't feel like it. I say I don't feel like it >> so frequently and I'm like, you've never
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noticed. >> I don't know if I have clocked that. Well, now you won't because I'm not
00:04:36
saying it anymore. I'm switching it with I get to. >> I get to. >> I get to. >> Like, oh, I don't feel like going to
00:04:43
work today. I get to go to work today. I'm gainfully employed. >> Oh, I feel like it.
00:04:48
>> There's a nice way to bring some some goodness into your life. >> Oh, I don't feel like driving home
00:04:52
today. I have a car >> and I get to drive to my home. >> And I get a home to drive to.
00:04:56
>> A shelter over my head. >> I don't feel like taking the dog out. I have a [ __ ] dog.
00:05:01
>> And I can go walk. >> I can walk. >> Yeah. >> You know, you get to I like that. Yeah,
00:05:05
>> actually I really like that. >> I'm trying. It's I'm At first you feel a little silly. You feel a little zany.
00:05:10
>> It's okay. There needs to be more silliness. >> But I I have to stop saying I don't feel
00:05:14
like it because I'm I'm creating a bad world. >> Yeah. Well, you can just you make
00:05:18
yourself feel like >> Yeah, exactly. all the time. >> But yeah, that I mean the the moral of
00:05:23
the story is if you really want more signed copies, keep yelling at me about it cuz it'll work.
00:05:27
>> Yeah. And she won't say I don't feel like it. She'll say I get to sign these copies.
00:05:31
>> Cuz that's essentially what I say. like I will sign a million copies for you guys. So,
00:05:35
>> if you want copies, >> I'll do it. I have I have always wanted to sign copies of a book I wrote, so you
00:05:42
can do that forever. >> I also just read something pretty cool that she's working on.
00:05:46
>> I'm really excited. >> I can't say anything else, but it's really cool. >> Hang tight, everybody.
00:05:51
>> All right, so let's get into the case today. This one Dave found Dave our researcher David
00:05:56
>> and I hadn't heard of this before which makes sense because it was like in the
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'9s but it carries on into a time when I was alive >> or and like you know conscious
00:06:06
>> conscious and you were saying you weren't sure if you had heard of this case.
00:06:10
>> Yeah. I wonder if when I I have I don't know what it's about. I've only seen the
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title of this. Um so maybe when you're talking about it might ring a bell. >> I wonder if it will ring your bell. We
00:06:19
were just >> uh but it's it's crazy. Like I'm excited to get into this one and thankfully I
00:06:25
will tell you it is solved, but there is still a lot of mystery surrounding the case. It's it's strange.
00:06:31
>> Interesting. >> So, in the late fall of 1999, 18-year-old Zeb Quinn was in the market
00:06:36
for a new car. For 2 years, he was working at the local Walmart after school, and on weekends, he was always
00:06:42
working, and he managed to save a solid amount of money. So on January 2nd, 2000, one of his former co-workers,
00:06:49
Jason Owens, visited Zeb at Walmart and said, "Hey, I know this guy who's selling a car. I think you might like
00:06:55
the car. Do you want to check it out? We can go tonight after you get off work."
00:06:58
>> Yeah. >> So Zeb was like, "Hell yeah. I've been looking for a car. Let's go." So a short
00:07:02
time later, they were seen walking out of the store together. Out in the parking lot, they both got into their
00:07:08
respective cars, and Jason led the way to the home of a person who was selling the car with Zeb close behind him. Now,
00:07:14
along the way, they stopped at a convenience store and then they got back on the road. But not long after leaving
00:07:19
the store's parking lot, Zeb apparently got an urgent message on his pager. >> Yeah. Know, crazy. And he started
00:07:27
flashing his headlights indicating to Jason like, "Pull over." So Jason said on the side of the road, Zeb ran over
00:07:33
and explained he got a message and he needed to he returned that call immediately. So like the plan was off.
00:07:39
Now, Zeb apparently seemed uncharacteristically panicked about this call. And he asked if he could use
00:07:45
Jason's cell phone, but Jason didn't have a cell phone >> because it's 1999. >> Cuz it's the '9s. And he was like,
00:07:51
"Maybe you can go back to the convenience store to use that phone." And apparently Zeb did.
00:07:55
>> Okay. >> So, about 10 minutes later, around 9:30 at night, Zeb returned to where Jason
00:08:00
was waiting on the side of the road just chilling. >> When he pulled up behind the other car,
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he was actually so frantic that he accidentally rearended Jason's car when he came to a stop. something big was
00:08:09
going on. >> Yeah. >> He immediately apologized and said he would pay for everything, but he was
00:08:14
like, "I'm sorry. We have to work out the details later cuz I actually have to go like right now."
00:08:17
>> What the [ __ ] >> Yeah. So Jason was like, "Do you still want to go see the car?" But Zeb said it
00:08:22
would have to wait. And he got back in his car and sped off without giving any indication as to who called him and what
00:08:28
was so urgent. >> Wow. And that's hard because you want to be like, "What's going on? Like what's
00:08:33
happening?" But you don't want to like pry if he's not offering the information.
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>> That's the thing. I don't think they were like super close. They were just like
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>> He probably felt like old co-workers, you know? >> Yeah. So, he's not going to be like,
00:08:43
"What's going on in your personal life?" >> Right. Exactly. Now, that was the last
00:08:47
time that anybody saw Zeb Quinn. >> What? Yeah. So, a little later that night around 10 p.m., Zeb's mother,
00:08:53
Denise, called her son's pager and left a message, hoping and expecting that, you know, he would call her back at any
00:08:58
minute. He was always super super close with his mom. Like, they were each other's best friend. So when he didn't
00:09:04
return her call as quickly as he usually did, she thought it was strange, but she
00:09:08
was like, "Okay, maybe he went out to play pool with like somebody after work and she was like, I'm not going to think
00:09:13
too much of this right now." >> So as the evening wore on though, Denise started to get more and more nervous.
00:09:19
More time is going by. He's not answering. And she starts to get seriously worried. She later said, "He
00:09:24
never returned any of his pages. I kept waking up and paging him. I must have paged him four times." Oh,
00:09:30
>> not only was it out of character for him to ignore his mother's phone calls, it
00:09:34
was also really out of character for Zeb to stay out all night, especially without telling his mom or his sister
00:09:39
where he would be. >> His sister Brandy said later, "Pretty quickly, I was worried. He wasn't a
00:09:45
normal teenage boy. He wasn't rebellious. It was just really out of character." >> Oh, that must have been horrifying.
00:09:50
>> Also, if you look him up, he is as cute as a button. Like, >> oh, he is. I just looked him up.
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>> He just seems like a sweetheart. She's got that kind of face that you're just
00:09:58
like, "Oh." >> Yeah. And I just love her being like, "No, like he's not a rebellious
00:10:01
teenager." Like he's he literally seemed he gave off like teddy bear energy, you
00:10:05
know? >> Yeah. >> So the next morning when Zeb still hadn't come home, his mother and sister
00:10:10
at this point started to panic. It wasn't just worry anymore. >> Denise called Walmart where the
00:10:15
supervisor informed her that Zeb had clocked out a little past 9 the night before and a few of his co-workers saw
00:10:21
him leave the store with Jason Owens, but nobody had seen him since. So Denise made a few more calls to some of Zeb's
00:10:27
friends, some more co-workers, but nobody had seen him. That afternoon, when she still hadn't heard from her
00:10:32
son, she had no choice but to go to the police department and she filed a missing person's report.
00:10:38
>> So his failure to return his mom's calls and his sister's calls and the fact that
00:10:42
he didn't return home that night wasn't just unusual because of how close he was
00:10:46
with his mom and how close he was with his sister. But it was also unusual because there were very few other places
00:10:52
that he would have gone except for home. >> Like he usually hung out at home. He'd
00:10:57
always been a stereotypical good kid who was wellliked by teachers and other people in the community. But
00:11:03
unfortunately, making friends was never easy for him. He kind of struggled at that.
00:11:07
>> Oh, that breaks my heart. >> It's really sad. >> People are so mean. >> People are so [ __ ] mean.
00:11:11
>> Like just be cool with with people, man. Be be gentle with people. >> That's the thing. Like you don't know
00:11:17
what's going on in people's lives. And >> were you all [ __ ] doing this for the
00:11:20
first time? Like Jesus Christ, >> it's rough in this. >> I haven't been in a skin suit before
00:11:24
this. I don't think that I remember. >> I think I have. >> If I have, I don't remember it. So I
00:11:28
don't remember doing it for the first time consciously. >> This time? Yeah. This time and place is
00:11:33
the first time. >> So when he was younger, his mom said he was a lot smaller and clumsier than the
00:11:38
other kids his age. And he also had a learning disorder which made him really self-conscious. and he was occasionally
00:11:44
targeted by [ __ ] at school, bullies. He struggled to fit in. That said, he did have people that he met through
00:11:50
sports and cub scouts, but they were kind of more acquaintances than friends. Like they didn't hang out on the
00:11:54
regular. >> He wasn't like those weren't like deepening relationships. >> Yeah. Not where he would like go hang
00:11:59
out after work or anything like that. And even at work, like I was just talking about where he was adored by his
00:12:04
co-workers, he was actually closer with a lot of the older women at the store than he was with anyone his own age. Oh
00:12:10
my god, he sounds adorable. >> No, he does. And also, you have to think he's being raised by women. Like, he's
00:12:16
growing up in a house with his sister. His mom was like his primary parent for a long time. His grandmother was also
00:12:22
very involved in his life. So, like he's got a strong lad of ladies behind him. >> Oh, so he's that's that's a that's a guy
00:12:29
right there. That's a guy you want around right there. >> Exactly. Now, if he did have a best
00:12:34
friend at all, it was said to be his sister Brandy. >> Oh my god. >> Which I love.
00:12:38
>> I love this a lot. So in his mid- teens, Zeb got involved with the Junior Reserve
00:12:42
Officers Training Corps, which is ROC. This was the first thing that he had ever expressed any strong in interest in
00:12:49
as far as his mom could remember. And once he joined the program, he really started to come out of his shell there.
00:12:54
>> Oh. >> Now, all of that said, Zeb Quinn was the last person anybody would expect to
00:12:59
disappear without telling anybody. And no one in his life could think of anywhere that he could have gone or
00:13:05
anyone he would have run off with. Yeah, >> they were at a loss. He kept a small
00:13:09
circle. Nobody could think why he would be so upset that he just, you know, took
00:13:13
off, anything like that. >> To those who knew him best, he was a laid-back person. He really didn't get
00:13:17
rattled by anything. So, the fact that he had been so upset by the page he received on the night he went missing,
00:13:23
>> that's shocking. >> That was as unusual as the disappearance itself. >> Yeah. Cuz you're like, "What the [ __ ]
00:13:28
was that?" >> Right. Now, days passed and there was still no word from Zeb. Then on the
00:13:34
Sunday after he disappeared, his boss at Walmart, Patty King, got a really weird
00:13:38
call. She said, "The person on the other end said, "This is Zeb Quinn. I will not
00:13:43
be into work today." And I'm thinking, "Okay, this is not Zeb." >> So Patty had been his boss for the last
00:13:50
2 years, and she knew him fair like fairly well enough to know his voice. >> Yeah.
00:13:53
>> So she actually, this was really smart of her, she played dumb, and she tried
00:13:56
to get more information asking what uh asking the caller what department he worked in and what shift he was supposed
00:14:02
to work. But the other the person on the other end of the phone said they didn't
00:14:05
know and just hung up. >> Oh, that's spooky as hell. >> It's spooky. >> That's really ominous.
00:14:10
>> Now, our girl Patty is not done yet. Thinking fast, Patty dialed star 69. >> Oh, which was
00:14:16
>> You remember those days? I remember that even from when we were like prank calling when we were younger.
00:14:21
>> So, and for anybody that doesn't know, that's when you dial star 69, it connects you with the last person who
00:14:26
called you. So, she discovered that the person who had just called, pretending to be Zeb, had called from Volvo
00:14:32
Construction. >> Oh. >> But the person on the other end explained that there were a lot of
00:14:36
phones at that company and they didn't know who contacted from that number. >> But it's like, how many phones are 700?
00:14:43
>> Because you should go check because this person is missing. >> Not only is this person missing,
00:14:48
somebody is literally impersonating them. >> Yeah, this person is missing and now
00:14:51
somebody is calling out of work for them, >> right? >> Ding, ding, ding. Go look at every
00:14:55
[ __ ] phone in that place. >> Also, I don't know how all that works, but wouldn't you think they would all
00:15:00
have like slightly different numbers? >> Yeah, you would think. >> I don't know.
00:15:03
>> Unless it's like one dispatch that sends out to other phones. >> Oh, that's a good point.
00:15:07
>> So, like you start 6ix9ine and it goes right back to so they can't >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good call. Well,
00:15:13
nonetheless, Patty reported the strange call to the police and they followed up immediately. In discussions with some of
00:15:18
Zeb's co-workers, investigators learned that while he himself had no connection to Volvo Construction, some people
00:15:24
recalled that it was where his former coworker Jason Owens worked. >> Oh. >> Aka the last person he was seen with.
00:15:31
>> So, detectives spoke with Owens, who admitted to making the call to Walmart, but he said he had only done so after he
00:15:37
got a call from Zeb, who asked if he could call in sick for him. >> No. Which like if Zeb is calling you,
00:15:45
>> why wouldn't he just call Walmart himself and say like, "I can't come in today."
00:15:48
>> Exactly. >> Why wouldn't you just say to the person, "Hey, like Zeb is unable to call, but he
00:15:55
wanted me to call in for him instead of pretending to be him." >> Exactly. >> No.
00:15:59
>> Yeah. Well, >> I don't like that. >> It's [ __ ] weird. Jason told the police he didn't know why Zeb couldn't
00:16:03
call in sick for himself. and that other than the call he hadn't seen or heard from Zeb since he left him on the side
00:16:08
of the road a few nights earlier after abandoning their plans to go look at the car.
00:16:13
>> Huh. >> Now, to us and investigators, Jason Owen's story was highly suspicious.
00:16:18
>> Yeah. >> Especially because as far as anybody knew, they weren't that close. I think I
00:16:23
said it earlier, they were just co-workers really. And when police dug into Jason's whereabouts in the days
00:16:28
immediately after Zeb's disappearance, they learned from his boss at Volvo that Jason had called in the day after to say
00:16:36
he'd be late to work that day because he'd been in a minor car accident. >> Huh.
00:16:41
>> According to Jason, he had been on his way to work that morning and got in a car accident where he got a cracked rib
00:16:47
and a minor head injury. Considering that Jason also said that Zeb had rear ended his truck the night he went
00:16:53
missing, investigators were like, "Yeah, it's highly unlikely that you would get
00:16:56
into two car accidents in less than 24 hours. Like, you're really that unlucky."
00:17:01
>> Yeah, exactly. >> And in fact, while Jason did appear to have some minor injuries, when they
00:17:06
checked his truck, there was very minimal damage, which definitely indicated that he probably hadn't been
00:17:12
involved in a second car accident. >> So, what the [ __ ] are you talking about?
00:17:16
And are you maybe trying to explain away some injuries because he went to the hospital and had those injuries treated
00:17:21
by the way >> the day after Zeb went missing. >> Yeah. >> Now, Jason Owen's strange behavior and
00:17:26
questionable explanation for his involvement in the case obviously made him a person of interest. But the main
00:17:32
problem was that investigators couldn't find anything to say he was directly involved and he passed a polygraph,
00:17:39
>> which is so it's so interesting to me that polygraphs aren't admissible in court evidence,
00:17:45
>> but they are still something that we do and like and we'll like dismiss people
00:17:49
if they pass one. >> It almost feels like Yeah, it feels like it's doing way more harm than good.
00:17:55
Yeah, >> cuz it's just like tainting real evidence because it's like, well, they passed a polygraph and it's like,
00:18:02
okay. >> Yeah. Like you can if you're >> But it's like if I don't if I have this
00:18:05
piece of actual tangible proof that's somehow putting in someone's head that it could not be tangible,
00:18:11
>> right? Exactly. >> And the other way around, like if they don't pass it, then it's like they're
00:18:14
obviously guilty. And it's >> Exactly. It works way. >> I think just the fact that it's not
00:18:19
admissible in court is like maybe we should take it out of practice. I don't I don't know. It's just weird to It
00:18:24
doesn't feel like it should be used anymore. >> Yeah, it does. It seems day now.
00:18:28
>> Now, even though it was strange and out of character for Zeb to have suddenly
00:18:30
gone missing, within a few days of that disappearance or of his disappearance, detectives still had yet to find any
00:18:37
evidence that an actual crime had occurred. That was the problem. >> Yeah. >> So, frustrated and feeling like they
00:18:42
were headed for a dead end, they went back to the missing person's report filed by Denise. going over the names of
00:18:47
his friends and potential contacts, they came across Misty Taylor, a girl whose name had actually come up a few times in
00:18:53
the investigation, but to whom they hadn't spoken to in any detail. Now, according to Denise Quinn, Misty was one
00:19:00
of Zeb's newer friends, who he had become infatuated with a month or so before he disappeared. They spent hours
00:19:07
talking on the phone, and it was very clear to Denise and like anybody close to to Zeb that he had developed feelings
00:19:12
for her. >> Okay. His sister Brandy said, "I got the feeling that he probably grew to love
00:19:16
her." >> Yeah. Now, a few weeks after a few weeks of getting to know each other, Zeb
00:19:22
unfortunately learned that not only was Misty already in a relationship, but she
00:19:27
also had a small child. >> Oh, wow. >> Yeah. Upon learning this, his family and friends assumed, you know, maybe that's
00:19:32
going to be the end of the relationship here. But Zeb wasn't ready to let it go.
00:19:36
They kept talking on the phone regularly, but from that point on, Zeb made sure to block his number so that
00:19:42
Misty's boyfriend, Wesley Smith, wouldn't know who was calling. >> Messy. >> Okay. Yeah, that is messy.
00:19:49
>> Now, listen to this. One evening, the day before Zeb disappeared, he forgot to
00:19:55
block his number when he called. And Misty's boyfriend, Wesley, answered the phone. And when that happened, Zeb
00:20:01
panicked and hung up. But seconds later, the phone rang. And when Zeb answered it, it was Wesley on the other end. And
00:20:06
he threatened Zeb, telling him to stay away from Misty and then just hung up. >> Now, despite the repeated warnings from
00:20:12
those close to him that he was being unrealistic and pursuing this girl, Zeb was convinced that things would just
00:20:18
work themselves out. >> When you're 18, you think everything's going to work itself out.
00:20:22
>> You don't think it's going to get bad. >> And also like this seems like one of the
00:20:25
first girls that he was like really interested in and who seemed interested back in him. So, it's exciting.
00:20:30
>> Yeah, of course. Now, when detectives questioned Misty Taylor about her relationship with Zeb, she had a
00:20:35
different take on the friendship entirely. As far as Misty was concerned, she said her and Zeb were just friends.
00:20:40
I never intended for it to be anything more. Investigators still felt like there was something Misty wasn't telling
00:20:46
them, though, but they couldn't put their finger on what it was. >> Now, Wesley Smith, her boyfriend, was
00:20:51
similarly evasive when he was interviewed about Zeb's relationship with Misty. He said that on the night
00:20:56
Zeb disappeared, he and Misty were at his mom's house watching TV and that alibi was confirmed.
00:21:03
So things got even murkier a few days later when investigators got the call logs from Zeb's pager. According to the
00:21:10
logs, the urgent phone call Zeb received the night that he disappeared came from
00:21:15
the home of Ida Stitch. I hope I said that correctly. That was Zeb's aunt on his father's side.
00:21:21
>> Okay. So Denise Quinn had divorced her husband when Zeb and his sister were still very little. And for most of their
00:21:27
lives, their father, Jerry Quinn's relationship with them was inconsistent at best. When Zeb turned 16 and he got
00:21:33
his driver's license though, he started visiting his dad at his bar more often, which was the Builtmore Tavern. And they
00:21:39
spent hours there just shooting pool, catching up, kind of bonding. >> Yeah. When Zeb reconnected with his dad,
00:21:45
his mom was concerned about how Jerry's quote rough country ways would rub off on her son. She said, "I always saw Zeb
00:21:51
as a backward geek kind of guy." >> Oh, >> I know. Jerry, on the other hand, was
00:21:56
like what somebody would call a man's man. >> A man's man. >> He was a hard drinking, tough, walking,
00:22:02
workingass guy. >> Oh, man. >> And he struggled to understand Zeb's more sensitive nature.
00:22:07
>> Still, Denise wasn't going to stop her son from getting to know his father, though, or his father's side of the
00:22:12
family. So, Zeb started to get to know them, including his aunt, who was the one who paged him,
00:22:17
>> which was very good of her. >> I know. Denise sounds like she was a [ __ ] rockstar mom. Is a rockstar mom.
00:22:23
>> Now, in yet another strange twist, when investigators spoke to Ida, the aunt,
00:22:27
about the pager records, she denied having made the call. >> Huh. >> And she said that she was actually at
00:22:33
Misty Taylor's house. >> Oh. >> Apparently, it ended up that Ida was close friends with Misty's mom and they
00:22:40
were actually planning on going into business together. >> Oh, wow. >> As for who placed the call though from
00:22:45
Ida's house, she said she had no idea, but the evidence was clear. phone records from her landline showed the
00:22:50
outgoing call to Zeb's pager. >> Interesting. >> Now, strangely enough, not long after
00:22:56
that, the denial of the phone call. She reported to the police that on that evening that Zeb went missing and like
00:23:02
her landline allegedly called him or did call him. She said while she was at Misty's mom's house, somebody broke into
00:23:08
her home. >> Oh. >> She said nothing was taken. Only a few picture frames were moved around, but
00:23:14
she said it must have been the intruder who placed the call. Did she call the police?
00:23:19
>> No. >> Okay. >> So, I guess I wonder if she just >> I wonder like if she was like, "Are the
00:23:28
did these pictures move or did they not?" Like, and also like I mean like I would probably call the police.
00:23:33
>> I would call the police, >> but also like you have to think of it as like you're sitting there being like,
00:23:37
"Okay, a couple picture frames are moved. Are they going to do anything?" >> If you don't if you don't know for sure,
00:23:41
I guess, but like I mean >> feel free to overreact. >> Overreact. It's always better. So
00:23:46
investigators had a very hard time believing that somebody had broken into her house just to place a phone call and
00:23:51
move a few pictures around. >> That would be weird. >> It'd be super weird. Probably the first
00:23:54
time. >> Whatever. >> But they didn't have any way of disproving the claims. So they couldn't
00:23:58
make any accusations. Later, after the story made its way to the National News Circuit, Ida actually denied reporting
00:24:05
any break-in to the police. She was like, "I never told them that." What the [ __ ] Yeah, when I told you this. Also,
00:24:11
this is not as weird as it gets, everybody. Like this case is weird. >> All right. It already is.
00:24:18
>> And there's answers, but there's kind of like not answers at the same time, which
00:24:21
is really unfortunate for anybody close to Zeb. >> So, two weeks into their investigation,
00:24:27
Asheville detectives had a number of suspicious people on their hands, obviously. Some with very interesting
00:24:32
connections to each other, but they still had no evidence of a crime, and the case was in danger of going cold at
00:24:38
this point. Then in mid January, they got a break in the case when Zeb's car was discovered abandoned in a parking
00:24:45
lot. And inside they found some of the strangest evidence that we'll probably ever talk about.
00:24:50
>> Oh no. >> So on the evening of January 16th, 2 weeks after Zeb went missing, Denise had
00:24:55
just got home from a nursing shift at the hospital when her phone rang. The person on the other end was calling from
00:25:00
the medical records department at the hospital. she was a co-orker or they were a co-orker that Denise knew by
00:25:05
sight, but like didn't really know personally too much. But the woman said she had just arrived for her shift at
00:25:11
the hospital and as she was driving into work, she thought that she saw Zeb's car
00:25:15
in the parking lot of a nearby shopping plaza. This parking this shopping plaza was like right near the hospital. Like
00:25:22
couldn't have missed it. >> So Denise jumped in her car and raced to the plaza where she was stunned to find
00:25:28
her son's car parked at the edge of the lot. Imagine this too as a mother. >> Well, the car was parked like diagonally
00:25:35
too. Like we'll get into it. >> Like halfhazard. >> Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So, the
00:25:38
headlights were on and the windows were cracked, but l like smart and luckily before touching anything, Denise called
00:25:44
the discovery into the investigators who got there a few minutes later to process
00:25:48
everything. Now, to Sergeant Chuck Sams who arrived at the scene the scene, it seemed that whoever left the car there,
00:25:54
like I was just saying, positioned it in a way that would almost certainly be be
00:25:58
discovered quickly. Yeah, not only were the headlights on, but the way that it was parked was strange. It was like
00:26:04
diagonal, like I said. And the location of the car was as conspicuous as it could have been without genuinely being
00:26:10
parked in like the middle of the street, like the middle of the road. >> And not only did Denise work at this
00:26:16
hospital where the car was like found right near, her daughter did and her mother did.
00:26:22
>> So Zeb's mom, Zeb's sister, and Zeb's grandmother all work at this hospital. >> They should. So, like clearly they knew
00:26:28
that they would all see it. >> Yeah. Now, it turned out though that that was just the first of many strange
00:26:34
aspects of this particular scene. Sam's said on the back windshield of the car, there were a set of lips drawn in what
00:26:41
appeared to be a lipstick type material. >> What? >> And then there was two exclamation
00:26:45
marks. There were a number of things that were unusual about it, he said. One of which was that there was a live puppy
00:26:53
inside of the car. What? So, this car is parked right near where his family works, basically
00:27:02
diagonal, headlights on, windows cracked, puppy inside the car. Also, inside the car was a jacket that didn't
00:27:13
belong to Zeb. But let's let's sit with the puppy for a second. >> I was just going to say, we can't just
00:27:18
go away from the puppy. Why is there a puppy in the car? >> We never find out, Elena.
00:27:23
>> Oh my god. We never and listeners, weirdos, >> watcher, >> we never find out.
00:27:30
>> Holy [ __ ] Why the [ __ ] is there a puppy in the car? >> I have gone down every [ __ ] deep dark
00:27:36
hole to try to figure out why the [ __ ] there is a puppy in the car. And I don't
00:27:39
know. >> And the puppy's okay. >> Puppy's totally fine. Okay. >> So, to everybody's astonishment, sitting
00:27:44
on the passenger seat of the car, happy as a [ __ ] like happier than ever, just wagging her tail and excited to see
00:27:51
new people, was a little black lab. no more than a month or two old. Oh my god, I would literally scream. Now, desperate
00:27:58
for answers, and this will break your heart. She later realizes that this is not the case, but desperate for answers,
00:28:04
Denise, Zeb's mother, interpreted the discovery of the car and the weird clues, bizarre clues, as messages from
00:28:11
her son. >> Brandy later told a reporter, "My mom automatically thought that the drawing
00:28:15
on the windows means he's sending kisses and the live puppy means he's alive and
00:28:20
well." >> I mean, that's his mom. >> Like, of course, you're going to grass straws.
00:28:24
>> Yeah. >> Investigators on the other hand believed that the puppy was just left in the car
00:28:29
to attract attention, ensuring that it would be found quickly. >> Yeah, that actually makes a lot of
00:28:34
sense. >> But like what? You could also just park it weird and it'll be found quickly.
00:28:38
>> The windows were cracked, too. So, they were not they wanted that puppy to be
00:28:42
alive and barking. >> Now, luckily, the dog appeared healthy. It didn't seem she didn't seem agitated
00:28:47
at all. So, it was unlikely that the the puppy had even been in the car very long. Um, but they also found a hotel
00:28:54
key card in the car as well. >> What the [ __ ] >> In a statement to the press, Captain Ted
00:28:59
Lambert cautioned anybody about interpreting the discovery as the car is a positive or a negative. He said,
00:29:04
"There's no indication so far of foul play. No indication that he's run away. We're still receiving information and
00:29:10
leads daily and we're following up on that information and will continue to do so."
00:29:13
>> What a way to hedge your bets. >> Truly, >> there's no indication of foul play.
00:29:17
There's no indication that he left willingly. What does that leave? >> Nothing. >> He's like, "There's no indication."
00:29:24
>> He said, "Period. There's no >> That could have been a quick press conference.
00:29:28
>> No indication >> and no comment." DM like, cuz that's essentially what he just said is like,
00:29:34
>> "We don't know." >> Yeah. >> No idea. >> Got nothing for you. >> Which is true.
00:29:38
>> Yeah. >> I mean, what the [ __ ] This is bizarre. >> What do you say? >> Yeah. Now, in the days after the
00:29:42
discovery of Zeb's car, officers fanned out across Asheville and the surrounding
00:29:46
area, visiting every hotel and motel to find the establishment that had issued the key card. But after days of
00:29:52
searching, they came up with nothing. >> What? >> So, they literally can't even figure out
00:29:56
where this key card like what hotel it belongs to. >> And without having access to the scanner
00:30:01
that created it, there was no way of learning what data was on the card, like possibly who had the room or anything.
00:30:08
I wonder if we have like the potential to do that now. >> I know. Well, >> cuz I almost said I was like in the year
00:30:14
2026 we can't do that and then I was like this isn't 2020. >> You were like this is 199.
00:30:17
>> I was like do we though? >> I mean >> like would you be able to get the data off of a key card? I wonder.
00:30:23
>> I think you'd need the scanner that created the card. >> But I wonder maybe not now. Maybe
00:30:27
figured out a way to do it. >> But I I mean realistically like the data on the card is like who has the room.
00:30:34
>> Yeah. So, I feel like that would only really be with the hotel database. >> Well, you would think that, but who
00:30:39
knows? Come up with like further reaching databases now. >> Or maybe even just to get to the hotel,
00:30:44
cuz they don't even know what hotel. So, I see what you're saying. >> So, unfortunately, they came to a
00:30:49
similar dead end with their search to determine where the [ __ ] this sweet little puppy had come from. After
00:30:54
visiting every shelter and breeder in the region, they were still no closer to knowing of the dog's origin or what, if
00:31:02
anything, she had to do with the case. >> Yeah. >> Now, in a 2012 interview, Sam said,
00:31:07
>> "It's always been such a great mystery where this dog came from, but from the
00:31:11
moment that she was discovered in the car, Chuck Sams was taken with this little lab, and he ended up adopting her
00:31:17
from the shelter that she was placed in, and he named her Katie." >> Oh, I love that so much. Katie the pup.
00:31:24
I love that. >> Yeah. So, you know, at least you know the dog's safe. >> Hell yeah.
00:31:28
>> But where did she come from? >> That's the thing. Where did she >> What does she mean?
00:31:32
>> What does she mean? >> I don't You could There's so many holes you can go down.
00:31:37
>> So, the discovery of Zeb's car and the evidence contained within it were an exciting development in the case after
00:31:42
like nothing for a couple weeks. But as strange as it all was, it also suggested
00:31:46
that something bad could have happened to Zeb. Even Denise, who desperately wanted her son to be alive, started to
00:31:52
accept that it was probably somebody other than Zeb who had left the car in the parking lot.
00:31:56
>> Yeah. >> Later in 2012, she said somebody knew that his sister and I worked at the
00:32:01
hospital. I mean, we just felt that it was parked there to be found. >> Yeah, it absolutely was.
00:32:06
>> It was. After the car was discovered, investigators released a statement to the press urging anybody who had seen
00:32:12
that car in the previous two weeks to come forward, regardless of whether they thought they could help at all. like
00:32:17
just if you saw the car, tell us. >> Mhm. >> Within a week, a local couple contacted
00:32:22
Asheville police to say, "Hey, we saw somebody driving that car downtown a few days before it was discovered." They had
00:32:28
been following the case in the papers, and they had read the description of the car several times over. So, when they
00:32:33
saw that it seemed to be a matching vehicle a short time later, they wrote down the plate number, and they called
00:32:38
the police. >> What badasses. Good job. >> Good job, local couple. >> Good job being observant.
00:32:43
>> Hell yeah. >> You saw something and you said something. >> That's what you do. The plate number
00:32:47
turned out to be a close match for Zeb's car, indicating that the couple had in fact seen the car after Zeb went
00:32:53
missing. But when they were asked if they could describe who was driving at the time, they reported it was not a
00:32:58
teenage boy who was driving. It was a young woman. >> Oh. When they sat down with a sketch
00:33:03
artist to com to create a composite sketch of the person they saw driving, the result was an image that looked a
00:33:09
lot like Misty Taylor. Oh, which is weird. What the [ __ ] Investigators took the sketch and the information to Misty,
00:33:17
who strongly and repeatedly denied having driven Zeb's car or to have known anything about the disappearance, and
00:33:24
they had no cause to keep her or charge her with any kind of crime. So, they had
00:33:27
to let her go. >> Damn. >> Now, by the end, what >> is going on? >> It's wild. So, by the end of January,
00:33:34
the case had gone from baffling to outright [ __ ] bizarre. Yeah. >> Like, what what indeed? But
00:33:42
investigators were no closer to finding Zeb Quinn or learning what happened than
00:33:47
they were on January 3rd when his mom reported him missing. >> I want to know what happened.
00:33:50
>> They had all these weird >> things, but nothing was really evidence aside from like what was found in the
00:33:57
car. >> Yeah. >> Now, with the case going cold and the story now fading from the headlines
00:34:01
because unfortunately awful things continue to happen. >> Yep. >> It seemed like the mystery of Zeb's
00:34:06
disappearance was bound to go unsolved. But in yet another bizarre turn of events, a series of unrelated crimes
00:34:12
finally led new to new leads and a familiar suspect emerged. >> A year passed and there was still no
00:34:18
sign of Zeb. While the family started to lose hope, investigators kept searching
00:34:23
for answers. Investigator Ted Lambert told reporters, "We take each and every lead seriously and run it into the
00:34:29
ground. At times, it's frustrating that there isn't closure for Zeb and his family."
00:34:33
>> Yeah. A month later, Asheville police managed to get a warrant to collect hair, saliva, and blood samples from
00:34:40
Jason Owens based on the fact that DNA evidence was found inside both vehicles. >> Oh.
00:34:45
>> And they wanted to determine whether Zeb had been in Jason's car before or after
00:34:49
he had disappeared. Unfortunately, like so many other leads in this case, the DNA samples led them
00:34:56
nowhere. >> But it did seem though, no matter where the case seemed to lead them, Jason
00:35:01
Owens was always there. Yeah. Then in October of 2002, Jason Owen showed up in the news again. This time for reasons
00:35:09
unrelated to Zebuin and that whole case. In the early morning hours of October 30th, an Asheville police officer was
00:35:15
driving on Interstate 240 when she spotted a car that was driving somewhat erratically. Suspecting that the driver
00:35:21
was probably impaired, the officer attempted to pull the car over, but rather than pull off to the side of the
00:35:27
road like you're supposed to, the driver, who turned out to be Jason Owens, attempted to flee. Ah, while
00:35:33
driving at high speeds on the interstate and then on residential roads as well, Owen stuck a [ __ ] handgun out the
00:35:39
driver's side window and fired four or five shots at the pursuing officer >> while going down residential roads as
00:35:47
well. >> But luckily, none hit their intended target. >> Jesus. The chase finally ended when he
00:35:52
struck a mailbox and flipped his car. And he suffered serious injuries in the process. Obviously,
00:35:58
>> Owen spent a little over a week in the hospital before he was stable enough to
00:36:01
be arrested on nine charges. >> Holy [ __ ] >> Including uh eluding arrest, assault on
00:36:06
a law enforcement officer with a firearm, and a myriad of others. He eventually was found guilty of the
00:36:11
charges. And he only spent two years in prison. Are you kidding me? I always I'm
00:36:16
always just like, what? What the [ __ ] Like, he shot five times at an officer. What if that person died? What the [ __ ]
00:36:24
Like, hello. Was he white? >> Yes. >> Okay. Period. >> That sounds about white. >> It does. So, when he was released, he
00:36:31
kind of just faded back into private life for like a minute. But in the years that followed, he became a familiar face
00:36:36
to the Asheville police. Not just because of his link to the Zeb Quinn case, but also because of his tendency
00:36:41
to get arrested for various petty crimes. Like, >> what? >> I mean, I wouldn't call drunk driving
00:36:45
petty, but he got uh pulled over many more times and he also was a thief. So years passed and the case grew colder
00:36:52
and colder and colder and in the hope of eliciting some new leads, police released the surveillance camera footage
00:36:58
from the convenience store where Zeb stopped just before he went missing. So Captain Tom um Arda, hopefully I said
00:37:06
that right, said, "We have put a lot of hours into this case and we have no further leads on it, but we will not
00:37:11
close this case until we bring it to a conclusion." >> I hope so. >> I know. When the tape failed to get a
00:37:16
response from the public, investigators released a second tape the next year where they recreated the circumstances
00:37:22
leading up to the disappearance and that concluded with the discovery of Zeb's car in the parking lot. Investigator
00:37:27
Daryl Fischer said, "Somebody knows where Zeb is. We just need for that person or persons who know what happened
00:37:33
to come forward and tell us what they know." >> Yeah, we do. >> But sadly, the video failed to produce
00:37:39
any useful clues and the case was shelved as detectives shifted their attention back to active cases.
00:37:45
So Zeb's case sat on the shelf for another decade as his family and friends had to come to terms that he was most
00:37:52
likely no longer alive. >> Holy [ __ ] >> It was also looking like they might never have answers for all their
00:37:57
questions. >> That's the worst part. >> Yeah. For all that time to go by and you
00:38:02
probably wake up every single day with a new question about where your brother is, where your son is being answered
00:38:07
>> and and you have we say it all the time like your mind fills in the holes. >> Oh yeah. Makes it much worse. So, but
00:38:13
all of a sudden, a seemingly unrelated case brought Zeb's disappearance back to the front pages all over North Carolina,
00:38:21
not just in Asheville. On March 15th, 2015, Christy Cod's father became worried when he hadn't heard from his
00:38:28
daughter and couldn't get a hold of her husband, JT, either. He called Christiey's neighbor, Cecilia Owens, who
00:38:34
he knew had a key to their house, and he said, "Can you just check on Christy? She's 5 months pregnant. I want to make
00:38:38
sure she's okay." Cecilia said, "As soon as I walked in, I knew something was wrong. Just the look of the place and
00:38:45
she had left the dogs. She would never leave the dogs. Those were her babies." >> Now concerned that something happened to
00:38:51
Christy and to JT, Cecilia called the police and reported them both missing. >> Now, 3 years before Christy and JT's
00:38:59
disappearance, Christy actually appeared as a contestant on the Food Network um for Food Network Star.
00:39:05
>> Oh my god. >> Which mom and I used to watch all the time. >> We used to watch that constantly.
00:39:09
>> Yeah. So, I'm sure we saw her season. >> Now, obviously, that gave her a certain
00:39:13
amount of notoriety around this area, >> and that led to her disappearance gaining maybe more attention than it
00:39:18
otherwise might have. >> A day after the story appeared in papers, police got an anonymous call
00:39:24
where it was reported that somebody had been setting fires around the house next
00:39:28
to the Cod's home. >> What the [ __ ] >> And that they'd left a lot of suspicious
00:39:32
debris in a dumpster. >> What? Now, when police arrived at the address provided by the caller, do you
00:39:37
want to guess who the homeowner was? >> Oh, no. It was Jason Owens. Are you kidding me? And the suspicious debris
00:39:45
left in the dumpster were items known to have belonged to Christy Cod. What the [ __ ] Among other things, Owens was in
00:39:52
possession of Christiey's jewelry, the couple's laptop, and a handgun registered to JT Cod. What is going on
00:40:00
right now? So based on the evidence, investigators were able to get an arrest warrant and Owens was taken into custody
00:40:05
and considered the primary suspect in the Cod's disappearance. Now, a week after Christy and JT Cod were reported
00:40:12
missing, Jason Owens now confessed. And he said he stored and destroyed the bodies of the couple at his house. What?
00:40:20
Just simple as that. He said he stored and destroyed them. What the [ __ ] is this dude? He's a lot of things.
00:40:28
Investigators got a search warrant for his home now that he confessed. And they did in fact find human remains inside a
00:40:34
large wood stove on the property. It seemed that he had killed them and dismembered their bodies and then tried
00:40:40
to destroy the remains to hide any evidence. >> Wow. This man is diabolical. In an interview with his wife,
00:40:48
detectives learned that he confessed the murders to her, but was apparently vague
00:40:52
about the details. >> Yeah, no comment. According to his wife, Jason had agreed to do some work for the
00:40:59
CODs and he was driving. Let me before I get into this, let me just tell you this
00:41:04
explanation in this like quote unquote confession makes no [ __ ] sense. There are many pieces of this puzzle also
00:41:11
missing. >> Jason said that he was doing some work for the family and he was driving JT's
00:41:18
truck when he just struck and killed JT with the vehicle. >> You know, as so often happens when
00:41:23
you're driving, you just strike somebody. Once JT was incapacitated, he said Jason decided to rob Christy at
00:41:30
knife point and he killed her in the process. >> So, okay. So, is he saying he accidentally
00:41:39
hit JT or he did it on purpose? >> He just said that he hit him. >> He just hit him
00:41:43
>> as he was driving. He hit him. >> Motivations, none. >> Yeah. >> But while while I was doing it, I
00:41:48
decided why not try to rob his wife. >> Yeah. Apparently, >> this what? Obviously, he had a plan
00:41:53
obviously this entire time and he intentionally hit JT and then robbed his wife. But the way he made it sound and
00:41:59
the way his wife said his confession was was >> what the [ __ ] >> bizarre. >> So Owen's wife, she said, "I don't know
00:42:04
what much beyond those basic details." And Jason wouldn't say much more. So the motive for the crime now really still
00:42:10
remains mostly a mystery. >> What? I think he just wanted to rob them. >> That's so [ __ ] up. By the way, don't
00:42:18
forget Christy was five months pregnant. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. >> Oh [ __ ] So, a few days after his
00:42:24
confession to dismembering the bodies and attempting to destroy the remains, Jason was indicted on three counts of
00:42:30
first-degree murder. >> Good. >> For the deaths of Christy, JT, and their unborn baby.
00:42:35
>> I'm glad he got three. >> Three. >> Yeah. Uh, facing the death penalty, he accepted a plea deal in 2017 and was
00:42:42
sentenced to a minimum of 60 years in prison. Now, the plea obviously brought the COD case to a close, but for Zeb's
00:42:49
family and the investigators who worked the case over the previous 15 years, it sparked a renewed hope that with his
00:42:55
arrest for this latest horrible crime, they actually might finally get some answers to their questions about where
00:43:00
Zeb was and what had happened to him. The renewed interest in the case prompted some new leads from the public,
00:43:06
including an unnamed relative of Jason Owens, who told investigators that quote, "Before and after January 2000,
00:43:13
Owens dug a pit on his uh Owens Cove Road property to burn items. And sometime after January 2000, he poured
00:43:21
concrete over the area and said he was going to make a fish pond." >> Oh, yeah. >> Interesting.
00:43:28
>> That's [ __ ] weird, everybody. Right. >> Yep. Now, investigators searched the
00:43:31
area and they found what they described as unknown hard fragments buried underneath the area that Owens had dug
00:43:39
out for the pond, but they have never revealed whether or not those fragments are related to the Zeb Quinn case.
00:43:45
>> Guys, come on. >> I don't know if they can't say for certain what they I have no idea.
00:43:51
>> Can we get under that pond? Can we do like ground penetrating radar or something?
00:43:55
>> Well, I mean, they found fragments. Like, can you just figure out what they are?
00:43:59
So whether or not the fragments had anything to do with Zeb's disappearance though, District Attorney Todd Williams
00:44:04
felt that there was enough evidence to take to a grand jury at this point. >> Yeah. And on July 10th, 2017, Jason
00:44:10
Owens was indicted on one count of first-degree murder in the death of Zeb Quinn. 6 months later, court records
00:44:16
filed by his own attorneys, Jason's indicated that in interviews with investigators, Jason Owens, quote, said
00:44:23
a family member killed Zeb Quinn and then dismembered him and burned the remains.
00:44:27
>> Oh my god. He went on to provide a quote detailed account of Quinn's death which
00:44:31
included that evidence of the murder might be found in the Bent Creek ex uh experimental forest.
00:44:38
>> Bent Creek Experimental Forest? What the [ __ ] is that? >> Like what's an experimental forest?
00:44:44
>> Wait a minute. That's a thing. It was established in 1927 to study rehabilitation of cut over degraded
00:44:52
forests. I've never heard of an experimental forest. Never heard of that in my I need
00:44:57
to go down such a [ __ ] rabbit hole. >> Please guys, tell us if you have heard of experimental forest before cuz for a
00:45:02
second I was like, did I read that wrong? >> What did I do something wrong here?
00:45:05
>> It's an experimental forest. >> And he's saying that evidence of Quinn's of Zeb Quinn's death would be could be
00:45:11
found there. >> Yeah, evidence of his murder. >> Interesting. >> So, despite the bombshell admission,
00:45:16
years passed without any involvement in the case. >> What the [ __ ] Then in 2022,
00:45:23
more details of Jason Owens interview with detectives were made public. So according to Jason, his uncle Walter,
00:45:30
better known as Jean Owens, shot and killed Zeb the night that he went missing. And then he dismembered the
00:45:35
body and burned the remains. >> Why? >> Uncle Jean. >> Now, by that time, Gene Owens had died.
00:45:40
So he wasn't there to refute those claims or offer any kind of counternarrative. And actually,
00:45:45
according to Owen's attorneys, the person who called in the anonymous tip about Jason's fish pond, which literally
00:45:51
got him like, you know, involved in the Zeb Quinn case in the first place or, you know, more involved, like brought
00:45:56
him back, was Jean Owens. >> Oh. >> Who had called, but Jason's attorney said that that was in an attempt to
00:46:05
misdirect detectives. >> I mean, sure, you're the lawyer, so you're gonna say that. But
00:46:12
yeah, like I don't know. Or and this is just me like you know speculating speculation here is like it could be
00:46:19
that >> y >> or the other possibility is that he really was calling to report that Jason
00:46:25
knows that so now he's like well he's dead now so I'm going to put this on him because he was about to out me.
00:46:30
>> Yeah that's the widely held belief feels like that's the widely held like it's
00:46:35
more like okay well now it's going to get put on you because you can't do anything about it.
00:46:38
>> Exactly. >> Yeah. Who knows? >> And again that's just me speculating. That's pure speculation, but that's
00:46:44
speculation you share with many, and I do too. Yeah. >> Now, Jason's accusations left everybody
00:46:49
familiar with the case somewhat conflicted. Like, we're talking you, you actually led me right into this.
00:46:54
>> On one hand, people were eager to finally resolve the case after more than two decades of mystery and unanswered
00:47:00
questions and bizarre happenings. >> But on the other hand, it all seemed a little too convenient. Jason had
00:47:06
recently been convicted of another crime where the details matched exactly what he was now claiming his uncle had done
00:47:12
to Zeb Quinn. >> Yeah, >> cuz that's the thing. He's literally sitting there saying like, "Oh, my uncle
00:47:16
did that to Jason and I just so happened to also just do that to this couple." >> Yeah,
00:47:21
>> that doesn't make any sense. >> Like, what? How does that make sense? >> Cuz that that's like a trait you guys
00:47:24
share. So, a lot of people felt that Jason couldn't be trusted to tell the truth in any situation. Amy Carson, a
00:47:30
former friend and neighbors neighbor said, "In a letter me and my husband received, he's basically blaming his
00:47:35
uncle. I really have a hard time believing that. He's blaming someone who's dead who can't defend himself,
00:47:40
which is what you were just saying." >> Exactly. >> Jason's story had put the district
00:47:44
attorney's office in a pretty tough position. They lacked the evidence to prosecute Jason for a murder, but at the
00:47:50
same time, it also felt like the one chance they could finally get some justice for Zeb and his family. So on
00:47:56
July 25th, 2022, Jason Owens accepted a plea deal where he pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder and he was
00:48:04
given a sentence to 13 to 16 years in addition to the life sentence that he was already serving.
00:48:09
>> Oh. Now, according to the defense, Jason's defense, Gene Owens had quote duped his nephew into luring Zeb Quinn
00:48:16
to the Pisca National Forest to meet a woman with whom Quinn was smitten, who we can assume is Misty Taylor.
00:48:23
>> Yeah. However, when Zeb arrived, Misty was nowhere to be seen, and it was Gene
00:48:27
Owens, who had allegedly been hired by Misty's boyfriend to kill Zeb, who was there waiting to meet him.
00:48:34
>> Wow. Jean then shot and killed Zeb and enlisted Jason's help to get rid of the
00:48:39
body. That's the defense's argument. >> Okay, >> that's very hard to follow, I understand. So basically, yeah, they're
00:48:44
saying >> Jason lured Zeb out into the woods because Misty's boyfriend, who Zeb was
00:48:52
involved with Misty, remember? >> Okay. >> Misty's boyfriend had hired Jean, >> Jason's uncle, to kill Zeb.
00:48:59
>> Okay, >> that's simply put. >> Sort of. There's so many that I can follow that now. So, the defense went
00:49:06
out of their way to insist that this was not a compromised plea, but an accurate
00:49:10
reflection of the facts and a sentence that fit the crime committed by Jason. But the assistant district attorney,
00:49:16
Jeremy Engel, on the other hand, remained skeptical that Jason wasn't just the real killer. Yeah. Engel said
00:49:22
based on the evidence available, the lack of evidence of a motive, cause of death, spoilation of evidence based on
00:49:27
the decadesl long pause and critical leads in the case, a conviction of first-degree murder at trial, though
00:49:32
never a certainty would present a steep challenge considering all these factors.
00:49:37
>> Yeah. >> So, in this case, they agreed to the plea rather than let the case continue
00:49:41
to go unsolved. >> That makes sense. >> They publicly said, "We don't really agree that that's what happened here.
00:49:46
Like, that's not the truth in our opinion, >> but at least he'll serve some time."
00:49:50
>> Yeah. like we can't let him just walk out of here something else, you know? >> And I I really like that they went
00:49:56
through with it because he was already serving a life sentence, so they definitely didn't have to, especially
00:50:00
where they didn't agree with the facts. >> I didn't think about that. >> But they were like, "No, you need to be
00:50:04
held responsible in some capacity. >> Justice needs to be served in some >> the family deserves that at the very
00:50:09
least." >> No, I I do like that, >> you know. So after the judge accepted the plea, friends and family were given
00:50:14
the opportunity to speak and share their victim impact statements, which is >> another needed that like they they
00:50:20
should always be afforded that. >> While everybody had wonderful things to say about Zeb, obviously it was his
00:50:26
mother's statement that will hopefully remain with Jason Owens forever. >> Denise said, and I actually have
00:50:31
goosebumps already. She said, "I'd grown up learning to trust people and believe
00:50:34
in their goodness until they showed you otherwise. I passed that on to Zeb who took it to heart. When I was not really
00:50:40
happy with a couple of his friends in high school and told him he would be judged by the company he kept, he looked
00:50:45
back at me and said, "They have done nothing wrong to me and have done nothing wrong around me, and I will
00:50:50
continue to be their friend." This is the young man that was taken from his family, friends, community, and the
00:50:56
world. This is a young man that never would have seen his end coming. This is a young man who trusted his friend
00:51:01
Jason. Oh, that's gut-wrenching. >> Yeah. Like truly gut-wrenching. >> It really is. Oh,
00:51:09
>> it's just this was a trusting person and you prayed on that >> and he's a much better person than you
00:51:15
ever [ __ ] were. >> That's so sad. >> It is. Now Jason Owens is currently serving a sentence of 59 to 74 years to
00:51:23
life uh without parole in North Carolina. >> Good. >> Yeah. It's always confusing when it's
00:51:28
like this year to this year to life. >> I know. It's like to life. >> I'm like what?
00:51:31
>> You're like huh? >> Wow. What a I've I don't think we've really come across many cases like that.
00:51:39
>> No, that I don't know even what I'm so I like >> there's so many unanswered questions.
00:51:47
>> Yeah, like the idea of the puppy makes sense for like their theory of like they
00:51:51
wanted the car to be found. So I guess a puppy >> but why barking makes sense. >> The lips on the back.
00:51:57
>> But why did you want the car to be found, right? >> Because why? Just make it disappear if you want
00:52:03
to make it disappear, >> right? >> Why the lips? >> The lips. >> Where's the hotel key card from?
00:52:09
>> The Whose jacket is that? >> Whose jacket is that? >> Like like what is going on? And you can
00:52:15
look it up. You can see the picture of the lips drawn. >> It's bizarre. >> It's bizarre.
00:52:20
>> It's big, too. Like it's big. It's like the whole back window and like the exclamation points. I'm like, what does
00:52:26
all this mean? >> I don't know if you just do that. >> It's like does it all mean nothing? and
00:52:31
you guys are just it's like to [ __ ] with people. >> Maybe it's just to like make people go
00:52:36
down all these different roads and like distract from what was actually happening.
00:52:40
>> I'm like, did people involved just think that they were like masterminds? >> And is that lipstick? And if so, whose
00:52:46
lipstick is that? >> Right. It seemed like lipstick. That's >> it looks like lipstick. Like I don't
00:52:50
know. This is just weird. >> It's so And where did the dog come from? >> That's the thing. Where did the dog come
00:52:55
from? Like where did you just travel to another [ __ ] like >> where did that key card come from that
00:53:00
it didn't match anywhere? >> Right. >> It's all very bizarre. >> So weird. >> It's sad. It's really really sad.
00:53:08
>> And the fact that they don't know where Zeb is. >> Exactly. >> Like I want them to have Zeb.
00:53:13
>> I know. And they absolutely should. >> And I'm like where is he? Tell someone.
00:53:17
>> I I wonder and again this is speculation where Jason apparently had a whole thing
00:53:22
for burning people's remains. Yeah, >> maybe that's what the hard fragments are buried underneath that fish.
00:53:29
>> I want to know what's under that fish. >> But wouldn't you at least say like I
00:53:33
don't know if I don't know what happens here, but it's like wouldn't you say hard fragments that we believe to be
00:53:39
human? >> That's the thing. It's like >> isn't there cuz it doesn't say human. It
00:53:44
just says hard fragments. Isn't there a way to try to get some kind of warrant to like
00:53:51
>> drain that pond and be able to crack through the bottom and like see what's under there?
00:53:55
>> I don't even know if he even even built the fish pond. He was just planning to.
00:53:59
>> I don't even know if the fish pond ever came to fruition. >> Okay. >> I think that's why they were able to
00:54:03
kind of like figure out that they were >> I'm like, did you dig up hard fragments
00:54:08
or did you use ground penetrating radar and see something? >> And also, why are we not figuring out
00:54:14
what that is? Like I are they just too but and and that's the thing like we've covered cases before where charred
00:54:19
remains are found. Yeah. And they're never I mean I don't want to say never but like they're very rarely too charred
00:54:25
to determine if they're animal at least or human. >> That's the thing, >> you know.
00:54:29
>> I'm just really curious about that part. >> Yeah. It's very strange. >> Yeah.
00:54:33
>> Very very strange and very sad. >> I feel so bad for his family. >> I do too because because obviously they
00:54:38
loved each other a lot. >> They did. And it's like even though there was a conviction, it's there's
00:54:42
still like we're just sitting here asking so many questions >> or so many questions because the answer
00:54:47
is not given. >> Exactly. >> Oh, damn. It's a strange one. >> It is. I need to look up a a fun fact.
00:54:54
>> Yeah, got us a fun fact. >> And please look up Zeb Quinn cuz man, what an adorable.
00:55:00
>> I know. I'm telling you like teddy bear energy. >> Yeah, >> this is fun. Tell me. Uh, it also is
00:55:08
kind of horrifying. Oh, there's a statue of Jason Vorhees chained on the bottom of a Minnesota
00:55:16
lake. >> Oh, I did. I knew that actually. >> Did you? >> Yeah. Isn't that really That's really
00:55:21
fun, isn't it? >> That's horrifying. >> That's such a fun. Imagine you're just like
00:55:26
>> I would never be >> swimming around and you bump into Jason [ __ ] Borhees. >> Yeah. I would never be swimming in a
00:55:30
lake so I don't have to worry about it. But I I would watch you bump into it. >> Yeah. I I would swim in a lake for sure.
00:55:36
>> You love a lake. I love sitting by a lake. You do. You're looking at it. Alena's never been caught dead in a
00:55:41
lake. >> She's crazy, [ __ ] You're such an earth sign. You're like, I'm not in the water.
00:55:46
>> I'm on the ground. You're crazy. I'll look at water though. >> Yeah, water is so serene.
00:55:49
>> Love to look at it. I would not like to look at water where Jason Vorhees is.
00:55:53
>> Damn. What Minnesota lake is he in? >> I think also like whoever did that just
00:55:57
like did it for the joke of it all. >> Just did it for the walls. >> I saw that recently for the plot.
00:56:01
>> It's so funny because for a second when you said Jason Vorhees, I was like Jason
00:56:05
Vorhees, Jason Vorhees. Is that a political figure? And then I was like, oh no, Jason Vorhees. Oh, okay. So, so
00:56:12
weed at the bottom of Louise Mine Pit, often referred to as Crystal Lake >> in Crosby, Minnesota.
00:56:19
>> There it is. >> Uh, it happened in 2013 by diver Doug Klene. >> It's a surprise.
00:56:27
>> 120 foot deep. Damn. >> Damn. That's really, really scary. >> Oh, and there's pictures of it
00:56:34
underwater. >> Do you see that, guys? It's very realistic, >> guys. Look that up and it will ruin your
00:56:40
life. He's literally looking up. >> Talk about shark week. >> He's looking up. That is shark week
00:56:45
right there. >> Oh my god. Imagine you're just diving and you have no idea. And then you just
00:56:49
That could give somebody a heart attack. My god. >> I have to say that is literally genius.
00:56:54
But one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen in my life. >> I'd cry for sure.
00:56:59
>> I don't like things submerged in water. That really either me. >> That's a specific fear.
00:57:03
>> Yeah. That takes me to a place in a place of panic. >> Submerged in water phobia is called.
00:57:12
>> Oh, that's hard. Submechanophobia. Yeah, you have that. You're also afraid of
00:57:16
really big things. >> Yeah, especially big things that are submerged in water. >> Oh, man.
00:57:20
>> Yeah. >> I wonder if that's another one. We got to We got to end it somewhere.
00:57:24
>> Yeah. A lot of things give me anxiety. >> Yeah, that's spooky. That's fair enough.
00:57:28
The world is insane. >> It's insane. Insane. Insane. >> All right. Well, we hope that you keep
00:57:33
listening and we hope you keep it weird. Maybe keep it so weird that you submerge
00:57:39
like a horror figure in a random lake somewhere. Yeah, cuz that is fun. It is a little bit fun and I won't have to see
00:57:44
it. >> Just make sure it's like environmentally friendly. I think I think that one is.
00:57:48
>> As long as that's cool. >> Okay. And be nice to sharks. >> Yeah. Bye.