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[Music] [Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:01:45
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who just tattooed the
00:01:49
initials of Kim Kardashian's children right on his bare body ladies and gentlemen here is the very stylish and
00:01:57
topical Captain yeah they call me Captain Captain Pete it's good to be seing and good to see you thanks for
00:02:03
listening thanks for telling a [Music] friend this week we are excited to be featuring Purple Haze by the wonderful
00:02:14
people over at Aida Brewing Purple Haze is a song by the late great Jimmy Hendricks of course but it's also a fine
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delicious beer perfect for warm weather this is an American style wheat beer brewed with real raspberries added after
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filtration the berries add a fruity Aroma slightly sweet taste and of course the Purple Haze and in my humble garage
00:02:38
opinion Abida is one of the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly breweries in this great country and for
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that I thank you and let's do some thank yous and a toast to our good garage friends first up a big cheers to Ashley
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Hunt and Parts Unknown thank you to Ashley who sent us this delic delicious sixpack and a big shout out to Britney
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and Millington Tennessee next up we have a cheers to Audrey and Nesbit Mississippi and a big we like your trip
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to Gina Muny Indiana next up we have Acton in Alam California and last but certainly not least we have Stacy and
00:03:17
MCCA Alabama those folks filled up this beautiful garage fridge this week and so
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we say please and thank you yeah BW are you in be a run make sure you subscribe to the podcast if if you're listening
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and you're not subscribed what are you doing with your life get your life together hit that subscribe button and
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I'll thank you for it there you go thank you and that's enough of the business all right
00:03:43
everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime I just want to know where he is if
00:03:57
he's safe or not cuz that's the hardest thing is not knowing di mckin hasn't heard
00:04:04
from her son for 2 weeks there's a flyer on the door of her West Lebanon apartment like dozens of others posted
00:04:11
in towns along the New Hampshire and Vermont border hoping to find 19y old Austin Coulson I can't sleep or eat or
00:04:18
anything cuz I'm so worried cuz I don't know it's just killing me inside police say on January 11th Coulson left an
00:04:26
apartment he shared with his girlfriend in Royalton Vermont authorities say Coulson may have gone to
00:04:32
collect scrap metal a partially filled trailer it's believed he was using was found in nearby Sharon to date uh we
00:04:41
have had no uh sightings or contacts with him obviously his family is very very concerned uh this is uh as
00:04:49
described to us as very unlike him Captain Sinclair says Coulson cell phone has been turned off since 11:00 on the
00:04:56
day he disappeared and while they don't suspect foul play at this point they have received no credible leads to his
00:05:03
whereabouts his mother hopes someone can help the family get answers it kills me
00:05:09
inside because I know my son he would just get up and disappear with no evidence of anything it's like he just
00:05:16
vanished it's hard for me not knowing what happened or where he is if he's safe or if he's
00:05:28
not [Music] [Music] a couple of months ago I received the following email hi Nick I've listened to you guys
00:05:48
for a few years now I live in a small area in Vermont that is close to New Hampshire we had a horrendous murder
00:05:56
that happened a few years ago and still to this day there has been no conviction
00:06:03
this needs attention brought back to it this is a very small town with not a whole lot going on Trisha Haynes was the
00:06:12
last murder that was left by the wayside and I don't want that to happen again this young man was murdered and
00:06:20
found in the wall of a barn I would really like this case brought to light the victim was a young man and the
00:06:30
perpetrator is a nasty and continued offender of all kinds of crimes who continues to get away with this murder
00:06:39
and it sickens so many of us I would love for the two of you to tell this story please it might help bring the process
00:06:48
of a conviction back and that is what led us to this week's True Crime Story it's a case where we have a young man
00:06:57
trying to better his life sure he makes mistakes and sure he might take some shortcuts but he is still growing and
00:07:06
still learning learning to make it out on his own one way or another he's a man in some ways and other ways he's still
00:07:16
just a kid so in those years sure mistakes can happen all of the time but 99% of the time those mistakes are not
00:07:26
fatal but in this case he trusted someone one he should not have and then he paid for it with his life we are here
00:07:36
to tell you that someone our victim knew is responsible for his murder yet 4 years later that man continues to evade
00:07:44
a conviction will he ever face murder charges and will we ever find Justice for this young man this is true crime
00:07:54
garage and this is the case of Austin Coulson [Music] on Thursday January 11 2018 Katie Grisafi said goodbye to her
00:08:18
19-year-old boyfriend Austin Coulson when he left their apartment located at 224 rainbow Street in South Royalton
00:08:27
Vermont this was around 5: in the morning previously Austin had asked to borrow his father's trailer so he could
00:08:35
pick up some loads of scrap metal and get them to a dealer so that was the plan for the day pick up and haul some
00:08:42
loads of scrap metal get paid and return the trailer as soon as possible Austin will have some help with the labor as
00:08:50
well a buddy of his named Rich wicom will be working with him so the two Austin and Rich were going to go pick up
00:08:59
the trailer that morning and return it at the end of the day Katie his girlfriend was texting Austin throughout
00:09:07
the day but at some point Austin stopped replying to her text then later Katie's
00:09:14
text to Austin started not going through at all Katie wasn't too worried because
00:09:19
in Vermont there are lots of dead cell service areas sometimes you have to drive up a mountain to get some service
00:09:27
and calls can get dropped with no warning so she really didn't start to worry until much later yeah and the type
00:09:35
of work that Austin is doing there's no set end time so she's not going to get worried because his end time of work
00:09:44
could vary every single day now he's supposed to pick up this trailer from his father's house this is actually a
00:09:53
very typical situation Austin would pick up the trailer from his father's house take the scrap metal get money for the
00:10:01
scrap metal and then return the trailer at some point in the day before 2:00 around I'm guessing 145 or so is when
00:10:10
Austin's father sees that his trailer's gone but again no big deal because he'll
00:10:15
bring it back later that day yeah no big deal because the trailer is supposed to
00:10:19
be gone right Arrangements were already made so his father is his name is Dana and it's yes right around 1:45 p.m. that
00:10:28
he notices that one his trailer is gone as Austin said it would be but also he notices that Austin's vehicle was parked
00:10:37
there at his property so Dana knew that Austin and whoever was helping him that day would have hooked the trailer up to
00:10:45
someone else's vehicle now that night when Dana gets back home the second time and the trailer was still gone and
00:10:55
Austin's car is still there right where where his son had left it early that morning this seems like
00:11:03
something that he might be concerned about but Austin's father Dana would actually say that at first he wasn't
00:11:08
concerned he still wasn't concerned he assumed that they were just running late or had run into some type of
00:11:14
unpredictable delay and that eventually the trailer would be returned that night
00:11:20
or maybe even the following morning but Katie was a completely different story she was really starting to worry about
00:11:29
Austin because Austin wasn't answering his text and by now it was late and as we said at some point she believ the
00:11:37
texts weren't even going through to him and he's still not responding at a later
00:11:42
time so she starts to drive around looking for Austin she continues to call him and text him but there's no response
00:11:50
from her boyfriend his phone was off as far as she knew by 4:00 a.m. so this would be nearly 24 hours since she last
00:12:01
seen Austin she at this point is hysterical and not knowing what else to do she drove over to her mother's house
00:12:10
her name is Lori and the two of them together started making phone calls Katie texted Dian this is Austin's mom
00:12:19
who lived in New Hampshire praying that she would have heard from her son but she hadn't Diana called her ex-husband
00:12:27
Dana waking him up and same story there as well captain no he hadn't seen or heard from Austin as well yes his car
00:12:36
was still at his house and now is when we all start to believe that something was terribly wrong Austin's mother is
00:12:44
going to notify the police that he is missing yes she starts by calling the New Hampshire State Police remember she
00:12:51
lives in New Hampshire Austin lives in Vermont so she's told to call the police in Vermont where Austin lived and had
00:12:59
vanished from she does so and the police took down a report initial media Reports
00:13:04
say only that Foul Play was not suspected but police were concerned for Austin's welfare but Di emphasized that
00:13:13
Austin had never before left and remained out of touch for more than a day with his family and especially with
00:13:19
his girlfriend they were extremely close so she was concerned and later she admitted on a segment of Channel 5 news
00:13:27
that Austin's disappearance might have something to do with drugs now we have his father Dana that
00:13:35
said in an interview that the family went over to this guy's home who is this guy well we've heard this name before
00:13:43
already Richard wit's house they wanted to see if they could find Austin remember it was no mystery who Austin
00:13:51
was working with on the day that he did not come home so we have Austin who's missing went working with Richard
00:13:58
Wickham we also have this trailer that is still missing it's never been returned to Austin's father at this
00:14:04
point wickom was the man with whom Austin told his family he would be scrapping with on the day that he went
00:14:11
missing yeah Richard was somebody that would help him with different jobs but it's not out of the realm of possibility
00:14:18
that you wake up hey we're going scrapping today and Richard says hey I can't make it well and Austin worked for
00:14:25
himself and at times would work with different people he didn't work with Richard wickom daily this was specific
00:14:33
to that day's task now keep in mind though another key factor here is not only has he worked with Richard in the
00:14:40
past and told people that he would be working with Richard on that day Dana quickly points out that he knew that
00:14:47
Richard's vehicle was capable of Towing his trailer Austin's car was not capable
00:14:54
of pulling the trailer and wickom was someone Austin worked with and hung out with regularly according to Katie his
00:15:00
girlfriend that's a great point that you bring up and I think that's very important for people to understand
00:15:06
Austin's vehicle could not tow this trailer Austin had to be driving somebody else's car or somebody had to
00:15:13
be driving a vehicle that was capable of moving this trailer because we know the
00:15:17
trailer's not there right and when they go when the family goes to speak with Richard wickom he says well no in fact I
00:15:27
hadn't seen Austin that Thursday after all I know he told you that we were going to be working
00:15:33
together but I didn't see him one and two I have no idea who had towed the trailer but he says he himself was about
00:15:43
100 miles away in Manchester New Hampshire on that same day so not only did he not help Austin he was busy and
00:15:51
he was out of town doing other things for about the entirety of the day right an alert on the Vermont State Police
00:16:00
Facebook page said that Austin Coulson was missing and he was 5' 8 in tall 135 lb with brown hair and brown eyes said
00:16:10
that he was last seen wearing blue jeans boots and a hooded camo jacket with a white ball cap with black lettering with
00:16:19
the words A and C painting on it after that visit from the family Rich Wickham's wife Sarah started posting on
00:16:30
the state police Facebook page about Austin's disappearance saying she was hoping he would be found safe and soon
00:16:39
this makes this case a little more difficult because Austin working for himself you don't have this definitive
00:16:46
list of people that Austin could have been working with but let's dive into his background so we know a little bit
00:16:52
more about who Austin is Austin Coulson was a Vermont native born to Mom de and Dad Dana who were divorced Dana lived
00:17:03
just a few miles away and Di lived in nearby New Hampshire Austin also had an older brother and a younger sister he
00:17:12
went to Hartford High School where he played basketball soccer and baseball but he never graduated in the winter of
00:17:20
2018 he was trying to get his life on track and at this point he's actually running his
00:17:27
own and at this point he's actually running his own painting business that's the a andc painting that he started in
00:17:36
2017 things had gone well initially but business took a downturn in the wintertime so Austin and ktie had to
00:17:45
take on odd jobs to make ends meet hauling scrap metal was one of the jobs that he regularly took on Austin also
00:17:54
made homemade soaps and candles that he sold at farmers markets and even in local retail stores and he was working
00:18:02
to get his GED in 2018 before he went missing Austin and his girlfriend Katie as we said were very close di later said
00:18:13
of their relationship quote he had a good girlfriend and they both loved each other to death and would do anything for
00:18:19
each other end quote while Austin was missing Katie told dat line I just want him home I love him more than anything
00:18:29
now no one in Austin's family or Katie herself believed that Austin had just gone away on his own again we he was
00:18:39
very close with his family very close with his girlfriend and specifically he was very close with his younger sister
00:18:45
and his father the relationship that he had with his girlfriend to everyone said
00:18:50
that it was Rock Solid his family truly felt and believed and and shouted this from the mountaintops that
00:18:58
his leaving Austin leaving was really just simply out of the question well let's look at some of the evidence he he
00:19:05
takes no belongings with him he doesn't even have his vehicle and he then takes a trailer it it doesn't make a lot of
00:19:14
sense well and if Rich witcom did not go with him that day we know somebody went
00:19:18
with him that day because as you pointed out his vehicle can't tow the trailer right so we need to fill in that blank
00:19:27
real quickly was rich actually with him that day or did somebody else take Rich's place and now we need to figure
00:19:35
out who that person is almost a week after Austin vanished Katie and her mom Lori they're
00:19:42
together they end up finding the missing trailer this on one of the back roads this was Downer Road in Sharon Vermont
00:19:51
about 10 miles from Dana's home we have Dana who says when I was notified I dropped what I was doing and drove there
00:19:59
as fast as I could get down there he says when he got there to the trailer all of the detectives were already on
00:20:06
the scene the trailer was parked on the side of the road perpendicular to the road the trailer was still partially
00:20:13
loaded with some of the scrap metal pieces that they were to be hauling that day there was a light dusting of snow on
00:20:21
the trailer so according to everybody that was there that day they agreed that this meant that the trailer had been
00:20:28
sitting there for a couple of days so missing trailer found however there's still no sign of Austin so they find the
00:20:37
trailer but they don't find a vehicle with the trailer and again we we need a vehicle to be pulled in this trailer the
00:20:44
area in which they find the truck not only is there light dusting of snow I'm guessing it's pretty cold this time of
00:20:51
year what I see here Captain is a situation where it's fortunate that the police are taking this young man's
00:20:57
disappearance seriously right there's been some debate about that however what we do know is we have the father who
00:21:04
owns the trailer saying hey I'm notified that my trailer was found about 10 miles
00:21:10
from my home I raced down there as soon as I could get there and when I get on the scene detectives are already there
00:21:17
checking out the trailer looking in the area looking for my son looking for evidence as to why the trailer was there
00:21:24
who put it there where could my son be so it appears to me that they are already taking this very seriously
00:21:31
enough to send detectives to the scene of the trailer but I'm guessing that everything's going to get ramped up real
00:21:38
quickly with the finding of this trailer if I was a detective on the scene once I
00:21:44
find that trailer and no vehicle to me this is pointing to the worst case scenario of homicide plus they're going
00:21:51
to try to find anybody that may have seen the trailer arriving and being dropped off left there or vehicles
00:21:58
coming and going from the area so you're going to Canvas the area by reaching out
00:22:03
to anybody that you think may have seen or heard anything in the week that had passed since this man went missing and
00:22:11
now we have the trailer being found so they find a local jogger who tells them that she had actually seen the trailer
00:22:18
at that same location where it was eventually found but the first time she had seen it was on Thursday a week
00:22:25
earlier in fact Thursday was the day that Austin vanished so he goes missing on that day and according to this
00:22:33
jogger that trailer was there the entire time right the whole week that everybody's looking for him so it just
00:22:39
been sitting there Dana his father says that the detectives searched the area there there are 30 cabins in that
00:22:48
location because I guess in that same spot there's a summer camp so the detectives and law enforcement went into
00:22:56
every cabin they even brought in and dogs to help search the area they covered a wide area during their search
00:23:02
but unfortunately there was no sign of Austin but it's hard to imagine what his family's going through when they start
00:23:08
searching this land and searching the cabins again everything starts pointing to something very tragic happening well
00:23:17
and this is quite interesting too here Captain if it gives us some insight into their investigation because the police
00:23:25
will come out and say hey we need the Public's help and that's because according to a Vermont state troopers
00:23:30
news release the police believe that the scrap metal found on the trailer was likely collected in Royalton Sharon and
00:23:40
or the surrounding towns so they have reason to believe that they can narrow down where the scrap metal likely came
00:23:47
from so they are seeking public assistance and identifying the exact locations where the scrap metal was
00:23:54
collected from so often I'm sure some of us have experienced this I know I have where you may see a hauler a scrapper
00:24:02
whatever you call them in your area but they may drop by and say to you hey if you ever have anything set it out on
00:24:10
this day or leave it out on this day and I'll swing by and pick it up I I do my rounds in this area on this day and I
00:24:17
collect everything that I can so they're looking to find people that either had a
00:24:21
direct conversation with Austin about picking things up or set some things out that were later gone and this would be
00:24:30
interesting because what they want to do here Captain they want to try to trace the origins of the medal and that's
00:24:36
going to help them reconstruct Austin's day creating a timeline and a road map so to speak and perhaps lead them to
00:24:45
their missing person Austin Coulson authorities also determined that Austin's phone unfortunately was not
00:24:52
going to be helpful to them at all or if it was going to be helpful it was going
00:24:57
to be in the least bit helpful because they figured out that it was powered off around 11:15 a.m. on January 11th the
00:25:06
same day that he went missing Austin's whereabouts after that of course were a mystery but when you hear about Austin
00:25:13
and when I first was researching this case this young man picking up scrap metal he has a painting service he is
00:25:23
making candles and and making soaps and and doing all these odd jobs to make it by go look
00:25:31
up what Austin Coulson looks like he looks like a child but he was doing these manly type
00:25:40
jobs I think by seeing a picture of him you're going to be able to get a better sense of why his family was so fearful
00:25:51
and maybe also why law enforcement was taking this so serious so now we get into the searches and the searching for
00:25:59
Austin and searching for evidence as to what could have happened to this young man so first we know that police took a
00:26:06
look at the small home where Austin and Katie lived together it's not clear whether Katie gave permission for this
00:26:13
because she may not want the police in there not because she had anything to do with Austin's disappearance but rather
00:26:19
that police searched the home and find a small marijuana growing operation inside
00:26:25
the home as well as size able quantities of cash that's their words sizable quantities of cash I do not know exactly
00:26:33
what that means but that is a words used in media reports other searches and this
00:26:40
is very interesting here Captain police conducted several searches for Austin over the next few weeks after finding
00:26:46
the trailer they concentrated on the area surrounding the location where the trailer was found but to no avail but
00:26:53
then on February 1st they received a tip about about a quote body sighting this was at a very specific 2 acre property
00:27:03
located at 714 Beaver Meadow Road this is about 8 miles from the location where the trailer was found it's unclear what
00:27:13
or who the source of this tip was but police followed up on it right away on the property they found a baseball hat
00:27:23
with the words A and C painting on it this was Austin's hat [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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Angie that [Music] all right we are back if you need more TCG in your earballs check out our bonus
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show code off the Record we're go purchase one of our three bonus episodes Colonel cheers to
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you cheers well along with Austin's hat here Captain according to the VT Digger which
00:30:03
is a great new source for this case and some others that we've covered in the past police also located shell
00:30:10
casings at the scene as well as a cigarette butt with coulson's DNA on it and a pair of gloves MH now they did not
00:30:19
find any further signs of Austin Coulson in that area but you have to wonder unfortunately for the family and for his
00:30:29
girlfriend if I'm there on the scene or I'm a family member I'm getting worried at this point that we might be looking
00:30:37
for human remains rather than finding Austin alive and well state police records show that the investigation into
00:30:47
his disappearance began on January 12th Troopers first interviewed the family and trying to get a sense of who Austin
00:30:56
was his connections his last movements and so on now Dana and Katie both told police that Austin had plans on that day
00:31:05
he went missing to go scrapping with Richard wickom they're giving them that name a name once Austin went missing his
00:31:14
mother asked wickom about it he tells her that Austin had never responded to a text from him that day and he didn't
00:31:22
know what had happened so now we have multiple family members saying that Austin planned to spend the day
00:31:27
scrapping with Rich wickom and someone helped Austin tow away the trailer that he would have needed to go scrapping but
00:31:35
wickom as we know says Nope I wasn't there it was time for police to figure out if this man is lying or not and
00:31:44
really this is not rocket science here the last person believed to be with Austin was Richard Wickham of course
00:31:51
police are going to be very eager to pin him down on January 16th 2018 Vermont State Police Major Crimes
00:32:01
unit detectives Albright and Holden interviewed Rich witcom at the Royalton vssp Barracks during the interview
00:32:11
wickom denied knowing anything about coulson's disappearance the detectives were aware that Wickham was a felon with
00:32:19
a reputation for being involved in the drug tradeit at this interview Wickham admitted to knowing Austin and scr in
00:32:27
with him on occasion but wickom told the detectives that on January 11th he never
00:32:32
saw Austin that day instead he Wickham was in Manchester buying cocaine well that's quite The Alibi give me a little
00:32:41
bit of that nose sugar wickom admitted to middling drug deals for Austin Coulson and said that the previous week
00:32:49
he gave Austin a firearm as collateral in a cocaine transaction all right so we have wickom
00:32:56
and felon admitting that he was the middleman in drug deals whereby he would deliver drugs to Austin's customers and
00:33:05
bring the money back to Austin and he had used a gun as collateral collateral sounds like to me Captain that Austin
00:33:12
did not really trust wickom with the merchandise or the money I don't know if he should trust a drug dealing drug user
00:33:21
Wickham admitted that he and Austin were in contact via phone on the morning of the 11
00:33:27
he said that he texted Austin that morning but Austin never got back to him again that's the same story that he told
00:33:34
family members so the detectives naturally said well cool can we see your phone remember this interview is on the
00:33:41
16th Austin is only missing 5 days at this point in our timeline if Wickham is telling the truth well then there is
00:33:48
every reason to believe that Wickham's phone would reflect that conversation oh but Wickham told them he didn't have the
00:33:55
phone it was gone in fact he had switched to a new cellular account on the 13th telling detectives his wife
00:34:03
found out that he made a trip to Manchester on the 11th to buy drugs she was upset she made him get rid of all of
00:34:10
his drug connections that were saved on his phone she forced him to get rid of the phone so detective Albright of
00:34:18
course this ain't his first rodeo he found this story to be extremely fishy he also knew that as a convicted felon w
00:34:27
was prohibited from being in possession of a firearm yet he just readily admitted that to the police wicom told
00:34:34
the detectives he did get the gun back from Austin and it was located at his home that it was still there in his
00:34:40
house but it didn't belong to him it belonged to his father-in-law detectives said well you don't mind if we take a
00:34:47
look for it at your house do you to which wi to which wickom agreed to tell them where the gun was and let them
00:34:54
enter his home to retrieve it so he said that they could also search his car so meanwhile what we have here Captain a
00:35:01
separate batch of detectives was interviewing his wife Sarah in another room at the same time right they're
00:35:09
asking her about the gun in the phone she told them that both were at the house she consented to a search of the
00:35:16
residents and the couple's car she saying that the phone his phone is still at their home to which he said that they
00:35:24
had gotten rid of the phone so now we got some different stories going on here but at the end of it what we learn is
00:35:31
that police have permission to search for the gun and the phone in their home and in their vehicles what happens is
00:35:39
the Vermont State Police they're concerned that before they can get out there to search the home that somebody
00:35:47
else might get there and remove these items so very smartly here they contact some police department in Hartford and
00:35:56
asked if they would secure the Wickham residence so that nobody could go in and out before they could get in there and
00:36:03
search for these items that's pretty freaking smart what ends up happening is a Hartford officer got to the Wickham's
00:36:10
home and he convinced one of the children to open the door he called Sarah Rich Wickham's wife on the phone
00:36:20
and had her talk him through finding the phone in the home it was located underneath the covers of a bed in the
00:36:27
master bedroom the officer picked it up and placed it right next to the front door so when the detectives arrived it
00:36:33
was sitting there waiting for them when the vssp detectives arrived at the witcom household during the search of
00:36:42
the residence the officers also located the firearm in question and then additional cell phones they took all the
00:36:50
phones and the gun along with an eight round magazine containing five bullets and left the premesis but they would be
00:36:59
back Captain because on February 9th they charged Richard wickom with federal charges of possession of a firearm as a
00:37:09
previously convicted felon and the use of a firearm in a drug transaction but they still didn't have enough to charge
00:37:15
witcom with anything related to Austin coulson's disappearance but they named Wickham
00:37:22
publicly as the only person of interest in the case and and that's because of what they found or did not find on his
00:37:30
phone let's go through the wording of these search warrants for wickom yeah the wording here is key and it goes
00:37:38
along with the idea that he's the only person of interest in Austin's disappearance the warrants say that
00:37:44
searching Wickham's property was necessary because police had quote probable cause to believe that such
00:37:51
property or objects will be found and will constitute either possession or sale of C
00:37:57
unlawful restraint or kidnapping carrying a dangerous weapon while committing a felony or aggravated
00:38:05
assault manslaughter or homicide wow yeah that really seems to Echo what their thoughts and beliefs were in this
00:38:15
case meanwhile they started with the phone that wickom said that he had gotten rid of but of course they found
00:38:22
it in his home when investigators got the phone in front of their text they noticed that the phone appeared to have
00:38:28
been wiped clean but of course they were able to retrieve and view some of wic's
00:38:33
communications anyway immediately after Austin went missing this is what witcom is searching for his his internet
00:38:41
searches on his phone are at the same time that Austin Coulson goes missing one search was for how long does
00:38:47
gunpowder residue or GSR last and also whether deleted text messages can be retrieved yes dumbass they can on
00:38:57
January 15th he had a text exchange with his wife Sarah that included the following Sarah text tell me the truth
00:39:06
Rich it's all going to come out Rich wickom replies it's all crap I'm telling you the truth Sarah I want to know what
00:39:14
happened to Austin are you the last person to talk to him wickom no his girlfriend was the last I saw him Monday
00:39:22
Sarah you text him Thursday and then he vanished weird stuff sounds like the police are not the only ones that are
00:39:29
suspicious of Rich witcom well people are starting to catch him in a lie he's telling people I I didn't talk to him
00:39:36
Thursday I didn't see him Thursday now we're getting information that he they text him on Thursday so then one could
00:39:43
assume that he at some point met up with him yeah the the evidence on the phone is really all just kind of good
00:39:49
circumstantial evidence but it does not appear that there was much useful information on there so that they could
00:39:57
track uh tracking information for the phone or anything leading them to Austin Coulson other than the police said that
00:40:06
it place wickom on the 11th this is interesting at the location where the trailer was picked up from at Dana's
00:40:14
house so he says I never saw him but his phone says that he was near Dana's house
00:40:20
around the time that the trailer was removed from Dana's property lying [ __ ] princess the other thing too is his
00:40:28
phone also places him in the area where the trailer was eventually found but it's also difficult too because if they
00:40:35
have worked together you're going to find his fingerprints or Austin's fingerprints in his car you're going to
00:40:43
find you know some DNA touch DNA of Austin and Rich's vehicle and Rich's DNA and Austin's vehicle so that that does
00:40:53
make things a little more complicated so you have to really gather up as much circumstantial evidence as you can
00:41:01
before you can try to find um the nail nails in the coffin of the case and that's exactly right you're not really
00:41:08
looking for proof that the two knew each other or were together at any point leading up to the The Disappearance
00:41:15
you're really looking for your proof that they were together on the day that Austin colon disappeared and that will
00:41:22
be key here and what you have is you have evidence that is showing you that yes in fact witcom was likely with
00:41:29
Austin Coulson on that day but you still have Wickham's Alibi that hey I was 100
00:41:35
miles away purchasing cocaine well let's dive into that alibi real quick shall we
00:41:43
so wickom is going to try to back this up by saying Not only was he away but there are people that could could place
00:41:50
him away from Dana's home and away from where Austin has believed to have last been seen there's one person in
00:41:58
particular and this person that Wickham claims accompanied him to Manchester was
00:42:04
a one mark ruple of Lebanon wickom originally gave police a false last name I don't know the false last name that
00:42:14
they that he provided to police he said that the person's name was Mark something I guess he was hoping that
00:42:21
they would not be able to locate this individual but the police were a lot smarter than Rich wickom Mark Sniff and
00:42:28
butts so they find out that the person he was talking about was this Mark rule so they find ruple they interview him
00:42:35
rule tells police that wickom called him on January 17th and was quote upset on the verge of
00:42:42
crying and begging him to tell the police that he had either seen witcom or was hanging out with him in Manchester
00:42:50
on July 11th this is quoted from police affidavits but ruple hadn't been with him on the 11th this is a direct
00:43:01
contradiction to Wickham's statement that he gave to the police on January 16th so he manufactures this Alibi on
00:43:08
the 16th they're able to find this Mark sniffing whatever you called him sniffing butts and his real ass name is
00:43:15
Rule and thankfully this Mark rule is a better guy than Rich wickom because he says look man I ain't going to lie for
00:43:23
you and he tells the police straight up I wasn't with him and in fact he called me and asked me to say that I was right
00:43:31
so as law enforcement again this rich guy is a giant pile of [ __ ] and he's a liar he he tells you I was with this guy
00:43:40
makes up the last name the guy tells you no I wasn't with him and he wanted me to
00:43:45
make up at Alibi anybody that's trying to make up at Alibi always goes to my number one on the suspect list and
00:43:53
before we move on Captain I just want to Echo what we said earlier that the information what little information that
00:44:01
police were able to pull from that phone that cell phone that rich wickom said didn't exist anymore but they found it
00:44:07
in his home it absolutely pointed out that a he was where the trailer would have been picked up from on the day that
00:44:16
Austin went missing B he was in the area of where the trailer was later found a week later his phone says he was there
00:44:23
on the day that Austin Coulson went missing and so everything that they're seeing from his phone would indicate
00:44:29
that he was lying and that he actually was with Austin Coulson on the 11th when Austin went missing well you got to go a
00:44:37
step further the phone says that he was with the trailer in the Morning phone says he was with the trailer in the
00:44:44
afternoon and then the phone says he was in the location where Austin's hat cigarette and bullets were found this
00:44:53
brings us to May 23rd on our time timeline when police conducted an all day search for Austin at a 2 acre
00:45:00
property where they had previously found the baseball hat that belonged to Austin
00:45:05
or that they believed belonged to Austin I can't imagine that there were too many
00:45:09
A and C painting baseball hats anywhere in America let alone in this small town in Vermont so I would think that they're
00:45:19
pretty much 99% convinced that it's his hat at this point it was hoped that now that it was springtime and all the snow
00:45:27
had melted that it might expose things that were previously hidden things that they had missed in their previous search
00:45:34
this remote property was down one of those long winding dirt roads that are common place in Vermont a police press
00:45:41
release that evening stated quote Crews located what are believed to be human remains at the beaver Meadow Road
00:45:49
location the body was found buried in the dirt floor of an old dilapitated ated barn on the property 3 days later
00:45:59
on the 26th of May the chief medical examiner's office used dental records to identify those remains as belonging to
00:46:09
Austin Coulson so whose property was this and how did Austin get there is now our big questions again from the Vermont
00:46:19
Digger the home on Beaver Meadow Road that sits near the large barn is owned by Carlton Family Trust according to
00:46:27
property records Buck Carlton who is listed as a broker with Northeast commercial reality
00:46:35
in West Lebanon told the Valley News he owns the home on Beaver Meadow where police had been searching Carlton says
00:46:43
he stays at the home from time to time but Carlton was a snowbird so he's someone that goes to warmer climates
00:46:50
during the winter months and he says that while he's absent Carlton employed a caretaker to keep an eye on his
00:46:57
property he says that the person that he put in charge of this is this Rich whitcom all of the phone evidence is
00:47:05
saying he was with Austin Coulson on the day that he disappeared and now we have
00:47:10
the owner of the property saying where you found Austin coulson's body this man Rich wickom had access to the barn and
00:47:19
was expected to be at the property from time to time to take care of this property while I'm gone according to the
00:47:27
autopsy and according to Vermont's Chief Deputy medical examiner Austin died from multiple
00:47:34
gunshot wounds to the Head inflicted by another person oddly though the death certificate puts his place of death as
00:47:42
Woods or place found and the date of his death as January 2018 his death was classified as a
00:47:52
homicide The Windsor County State's Attorney announced that the case was in a holding
00:47:59
pattern while police worked the ballistic evidence meanwhile his father Dana told
00:48:07
WCAX news we hoped for a better outcome but it was good to get the final official word so we're not wondering he
00:48:16
pointed out that Austin's phone wallet and car keys remain missing at that time as far as we know they have never been
00:48:23
found Captain I've heard people criticize ize law enforcement a little bit because they found some items of
00:48:29
Austin and then it took them 4 months to do another search but I don't know how long they searched the initial time that
00:48:38
they did search and I don't know what the conditions of the weather were so what people need to realize it's it's
00:48:44
not an hourong episode of Law and Order or an hourong episode of Unsolved Mysteries the hands of Justice sometimes
00:48:53
work very slowly well and we're not getting told a lot of the story which we don't need to have a lot of the story
00:48:59
but we should all be smart enough to go well they didn't just find his hat and go okay well that's an enough work for
00:49:04
today yeah see you guys later see you see you at the bar got to be there by 3 p.m. now uh what I like here and when
00:49:12
they go out on these searches we got to keep in mind they've not been to this area before they could arrive on site
00:49:19
that day and go whoa we got a lot of difficulties and a lot of unexpected problems here in search ing this
00:49:26
property what I love though is they're going this is a place we want to come back to this is a place that we want to
00:49:32
search again and we want to keep digging and finding whatever we can because we think we have a case here I'm going to
00:49:39
shorten some of this a little bit because we have some difficulty in the case as far as getting anybody charged
00:49:49
in relation to Austin coulson's first disappearance and then later ruled a hom side but in the course of a lot of the
00:49:59
things that we've already discussed remember we have those charges that witcom was facing based off
00:50:06
of him in possession of a gun and using a gun in the transaction of drug trade so he will actually face those charges
00:50:15
before Austin coulson's body is even recovered at the pre-trial for those charges we have Austin's family there
00:50:24
that are wearing shirts that say where's Austin we also have his father going on
00:50:29
record speaking to the media saying we have a lot of Reason to Believe rich witcom is very guilty and not expanding
00:50:37
on that too much but we know exactly what his father means he's very guilty not only in these charges but these
00:50:43
charges are really just sort of backing up all of our thoughts and beliefs that he is responsible for what happened to
00:50:50
our son to our family member but it's smart for law enforcement get him on these charges you have a bad individual
00:50:57
you have this bag of [ __ ] now locked up in charge with these and you can then put together and piece together a case
00:51:07
which right now has a lot of circumstantial evidence well in the prosecutor for those charges made a
00:51:14
really good effort to try to convince the judge that hey this dude rich witcom is extremely dangerous and he's not only
00:51:22
dangerous because of his previous crimes the crimes we know that committed and the crimes that we are charging him with
00:51:27
today but also because he is the number one suspect in a murder that we have not
00:51:33
been able to bring charges against him yet so you should keep him in jail for the entirety of the time leading up to
00:51:40
his trial for these charges right sadly the judge did not fully agree with this the judge let him out but this was based
00:51:47
on the condition that he enter a drug treatment facility and that he was allowed to go home after completion of
00:51:55
that that rehab he was required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and he
00:52:00
had some other parameters that he needed to play Within during that time rich is
00:52:07
going to take a plea deal on one of these charges yeah they will ultimately drop one of the counts and deal on the
00:52:14
other one now again we have an assistant us attorney her name is Wendy Fuller she really wanted him convicted
00:52:27
to the the fullest extent right give him the best and longest punishment that you
00:52:34
can because Wendy Fuller knows how dangerous rich witcom is if he's out he's a danger to society and to our
00:52:44
communities she wanted to get some comments on the record despite the fact that she said in court they could not
00:52:53
charge they could not change the sentence because there was a plea agreement determining that but she wants
00:53:00
to really hit home how dangerous this individual is and remind them that he is a suspect and a murder so I'll read for
00:53:06
you just portions of her statements during court says this case started as your honor knows in connection with a
00:53:14
very serious investigation but it's largely driven by the defendant's own Admissions and so he admits to being a
00:53:21
member of that Community who regularly sold drugs this is a community it's small it has struggled mightily with
00:53:28
drug abuse and he aided in that I understand that he was not selling drugs for financial gain I've never made that
00:53:36
allegation he was doing it to feed his own addiction but it's serious nonetheless and by selling drugs to
00:53:43
other drug addicts you keep that cycle of addiction alive and it keeps these people who are addicted unable to
00:53:50
contribute to their Community they cannot pay their bills they cannot take care of their their children it destroys
00:53:57
lives just like it has in some sense destroyed his but he did that to other people so I just want to be clear that
00:54:05
this is not merely having access to a firearm there are greater factors here that go into the seriousness so he's
00:54:12
regularly selling to people in his community but the other aspect of this case is that he decided to take a
00:54:19
firearm that did not belong to him that belonged to his father-in-law he took the firearm he used it as a currency in
00:54:27
a drug trade he traded it to Mr Coulson Mr Coulson gave him drugs in exchange for that so that Mr wickom could go out
00:54:36
and sell more cocaine this conduct is extremely serious drug related offenses with Firearms as your honor knows is on
00:54:44
the rise in Vermont and what comes with that are drug rated shootings and Drug rated homicides and so this conduct of
00:54:53
taking a firearm espe especially one that doesn't belong to you and giving it to somebody in exchange for cocaine it's
00:55:00
some of the most serious conduct we see in drug rated crimes and so that's why he's here that's why he's in federal
00:55:08
court he committed a very serious crime but on top of that we have the defendant's
00:55:15
characteristics as I read his criminal history he has a violent history I don't think there's any dispute about that in
00:55:23
2002 he had an unlawful Mischief conviction in which he harassed his girlfriend damaged her belongings
00:55:31
and that during the arrest he had a loaded rifle and when the police asked him if he intended to use it on himself
00:55:37
he said no I'd rather shoot you he was convicted of that offense and then he went on to violate his probation for
00:55:45
that offense twice once for harassing and assaulting yet another girlfriend that's the 2003 felony conviction for
00:55:53
domestic assault and I'd like to read from the Affidavit of Lieutenant Jordan with regard to the domestic assault
00:56:00
felony conviction so the court understands the gravity of this offense and I will substitute the victim's name
00:56:08
for the word victim the victim told me that they arrived at home and wickom continued to scream and yell at her this
00:56:15
went on for some time when wickom got mad at her the victim said Wickham grabbed her by the arms and threw her to
00:56:22
the floor she was in pain the vi vitim said that Wickham then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her down to the
00:56:28
basement he put her in a headlock and he started choking her she could not breathe and she began to pass out the
00:56:37
victim said that Wickham let her go and then threw her onto the floor where he punched her in the head the victim told
00:56:44
the lieutenant that Wickham was looking for bullets and his hunting knife and Wickham told her he was going to kill
00:56:51
her and slit her throat the victim said that w wium could not find his hunting knife so he again grabbed her by the
00:56:58
hair dragged her out of the basement and back upstairs the victim in fear for her
00:57:03
life said she broke free ran out of the house and called her neighbors who called 911 now these are not just the
00:57:12
victim's words Captain wickom pled guilty to that offense and to reiterate we have cell phone technology that puts
00:57:20
him with the other victim Austin the day of the afternoon of the evening of and then he's caught lying to police trying
00:57:31
to establish an alab by and he's caught by police lying over and over yes and then
00:57:39
ultimately what we have is witcom is sentenced in January of 2020 to 37 months in federal prison so he's 40
00:57:48
years old roughly at that time he's still going to have to do his time he was scheduled to be released in February
00:57:57
of 2023 however we've seen Austin's mother posting recently that witcom has already
00:58:04
been moved to a halfway house and will be released alog together in 2022 it actually looks like he may have
00:58:13
already been released I just could not confirm any of that information to to support the statements that she posted
00:58:22
online regardless it's point out that he was supposed to be locked up until 2023 and I guess that what they were
00:58:30
hoping they being law enforcement was that we might not be able to charge this guy yet with a homicide but maybe we
00:58:37
could build a case against him and in the meantime he's locked away in federal prison so he's no real threat to anybody
00:58:44
in our communities but if these post that Austin's mother are are posting online
00:58:51
if they are true then this man is already back out and walking walking around a free man
00:58:58
well I know there seems to be some frustration with law enforcement but I'm not willing to give up on them just yet
00:59:05
because I don't know what cards they're are holding close to their vest what it seems to be for me is that they're
00:59:13
building a case and again hands of Justice sometimes move very slowly there is also some online rumor that Richard
00:59:20
Wickham is responsible for possibly another homicide and these are based off of several
00:59:27
Facebook posts like this one that simply say quote everyone knows wickom was involved with Robbie Briggs murder end
00:59:36
quote now I captain could not find any evidence or any articles that name wicom as a possible suspect in Robbie briggs'
00:59:45
murder that's a 20-year-old homicide case and in fact I found to the contrary of that that there were other possible
00:59:54
susp ects that were named in some of those articles Richard Wickham's name did not appear in anything that I read
01:00:01
regardless it's one of those situations where yes I'm on your side here Captain I think that law enforcement has done a
01:00:09
pretty good job in this case but if they are holding on to something that we've not already reviewed if they have the
01:00:15
icing on the cake that is going to be what they what one would expect that you would want to have and charge this man
01:00:21
with murder I think now's the time to do so if in fact that he's out we've seen his repeated History of Violence that he
01:00:30
carries out on people that are close to him so anybody out there close to Richard witcom if he's out and you're
01:00:37
hearing this get as far away as you possibly can well this is why it's important if you know something you need
01:00:43
to say something to keep the rest of the world the rest of the community safe it's not just all on law enforcement we
01:00:52
have to do our part as humans to go hey I actually know some information that could put this guy away come forward and
01:01:01
say [Music] something thank you so much for joining us here in the garage thanks for telling
01:01:16
a friend thank you so much for sharing the show on social media Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the
01:01:23
beautiful people first up a late and overdue happy Mother's Day to everybody out there listening this one was sent to
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me as a gift and I'm very grateful to have received it because this is a great and fascinating True Crime book the
01:01:37
title is if you tell a true story of murder family secrets and the unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by the
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great Greg Olen he is one of the best in the biz I recommend that you check this
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one out here's a little background information this is the true story of three young girls caught in the web of a
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coldly calculating killer after more than a decade when sisters Nikki Sammy and Tori hear the word mom it claws like
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an eagle's talents triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood until now check out if you
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tell by Greg Alon you can find that great recommendation and many more on our recommended page at true Crim
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garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't [Music] live the Angie's List you know and trust is
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