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