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[Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] 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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garage friends first up a big cheers to ashley hunt and parts unknown thank you to ashley who sent us this delicious six
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pack and a big shout out to brittany in millington tennessee next up we have a cheers to audrey and nesbitt mississippi
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certainly not least we have stacy and mccalla alabama those folks filled up this
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beautiful garage fridge this week and so we say please and thank you yeah bww are
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there you go thank you and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather
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round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime i just want to know where he is if he's
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safe or not because that's the hardest segment it's not knowing diana mckinney hasn't
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heard from her son for two weeks there's a flyer on the door of her west lebanon
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apartment like dozens of others posted in towns along the new hampshire and vermont border hoping to find 19 year
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old austin colson i can't sleep or eat or anything because i'm so worried because i don't know
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it's just killing me inside police say on january 11 coulson left an apartment he shared with his girlfriend in
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royalton vermont authorities say coulson may have gone to collect scrap metal a partially filled trailer it's believed
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he was using was found in nearby sharon to date we have had no sightings or contacts with him obviously
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his family is very very concerned this is is described to us as very unlike him captain sinclair says colson's cell
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phone has been turned off since 11 o'clock on the day he disappeared and while they don't suspect foul play at
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this point they have received no credible leads to his whereabouts his mother hopes someone can help the family
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get answers it kills me inside because i know my son he wouldn't just get up and disappear with no
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evidence of anything it's like he just vanished it's hard for me not knowing what happened or where he is if he's
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safe or if he's not [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 and 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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tricia 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 love for the two of you
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to tell this story please it might help bring the process of a conviction back and that is what led us to this week's
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true crime story it's a case where we have a young man trying to better his life
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sure he makes mistakes and sure he might take some shortcuts but he is still growing and still
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learning learning to make it out on his own one way or another he's a man in some ways in other ways
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he's still just a kid so in those years sure mistakes can happen all of the time
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but 99 of the time those mistakes are not fatal but in this case he trusted someone he should not have
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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 coulson [Music] on thursday january 11 2018
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katie grizzofe said goodbye to her 19 year old boyfriend austin coulson when he left their apartment located at 224
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rainbow street in 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
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so that was the plan for the day pick up and haul some loads of scrap metal get paid and return the trailer as soon as
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possible austin will have some help with the labor as well a buddy of his name rich whitcomb
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will be working with him so the two austin and rich were going to go pick up the trailer that morning
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and 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 going through at all
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katie wasn't too worried because in vermont there are lots of dead cell service areas sometimes you have to
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drive up a mountain to get some service and calls can get dropped with no warning so she really didn't start to
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worry until much later yeah and the type of work that austin is doing there's no set in time so she's not
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gonna get worried because his end time of work could vary every single day now he's supposed to pick up this
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trailer from his father's house this is actually a very typical situation austin would pick up the trailer from
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his father's house take the scrap metal get money for the scrap metal and then return the trailer at some point in the
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day before two o'clock around i'm guessing 145 or so is when austin's father sees
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that his trailer is gone but again no big deal because he'll bring it back later that day yeah no big deal because
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the trailer is supposed to be gone right arrangements were already made so his father is his name is dana
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and it's yes right around 1 45 p.m that he notices that one his trailer is gone as austin said it would be but also he
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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
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and that eventually the trailer would be returned that night or maybe even the following
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morning but katie was a completely different story she was really starting to worry about austin
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because austin wasn't answering his text and by now it was late and as we said at
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some point she believed the texts weren't even going through to him and he's still not responding at a later
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time so she starts to drive around looking for austin she continues to call him and
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text him but there's no response from her boyfriend his phone was off as far as she knew
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by 4 am so this would be nearly 24 hours since she last seen austin she at this point is hysterical and not
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knowing what else to do she drove over to her mother's house her name is laurie and the two of them
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together started making phone calls katie texted diana this is austin's mom who lived in new hampshire
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praying that she would have heard from her son but she hadn't dianna called her ex-husband dana
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waking him up and same story there as well captain no he hadn't seen or heard from austin as well
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yes his car 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
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initial media reports say only that foul play was not suspected but police were concerned for austin's welfare but
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deanna emphasized that austin had never before left and remained out of touch for more than a day with his family and
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especially with his girlfriend they were extremely close so she was concerned and later she admitted on a segment of
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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
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who was this guy well we've heard this name before already richard whitcomb's house
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they wanted to see if they could find austin remember it was no mystery who austin was working with on the day that
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he did not come home so we have austin who's missing when working with richard whitcomb we also
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have this trailer that is still missing it's never been returned to austin's father at this point whitcomb was the
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man with whom austin told his family he would be scrapping with on the day that he went missing
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yeah richard was somebody that would help him with different jobs but it's not out of the realm of
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possibility that you wake up hey we're going scrapping today and richard says hey i can't make it well and austin
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worked for himself and at times would work with different people he didn't work with richard whitcomb daily this
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was specific to that day's task now keep in mind though another key factor here is not only has he worked with richard
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in the past and told people that he would be working with richard on that day dana quickly points out that
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he knew that richard's vehicle was capable of towing his trailer austin's car was not capable of pulling the
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trailer and whitcomb was someone austin worked with and hung out with regularly according to katie his girlfriend that's
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a great point that you bring up and i think that's very important for people to understand
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austin's vehicle could not tow this trailer austin had to be driving somebody else's car or somebody had to
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be driving a vehicle that was capable of moving this trailer because we know the
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trailer's not there right and when they go when the family goes to speak with richard whitcomb
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he says well no in fact i hadn't seen austin that thursday after all i know he told
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you that we were going to be working together but i didn't see him one and two i have no idea
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who had towed the trailer but he says he himself was about 100 miles away in manchester
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new hampshire on that same day so not only did he not help austin he was busy and he was out of town doing other
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things for about the entirety of the day right an alert on the vermont state police facebook page said that austin
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coulson was missing and he was five foot eight inches tall 135 pounds with brown
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hair 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
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austin working for himself you don't have this definitive list of people that austin could have been
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working with but let's dive into his background so we know a little bit more about who austin is austin coulson was a
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vermont native born to mom diana and dad dana who were divorced dana lived just a few miles away and
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dianna lived in nearby new hampshire austin also had an older brother and a younger sister
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he went to hartford high school where he played basketball soccer and baseball but he never graduated in the winter of
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2018 he was trying to get his life on track and at this point he's actually running his own
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and at this point he's actually running his own painting business that's the a and c painting
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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 metal was one of the jobs
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that he regularly took on austin also made homemade soaps and candles that he sold at farmers markets
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and even in local retail stores and he was working to get his ged in 2018 before he went missing
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austin and his girlfriend katie as we said were very close diana later said of their relationship quote he had a good
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girlfriend and they both loved each other to death and would do anything for each other and quote while austin was
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missing katie told dateline i just want him home i love him more than anything now no one in austin's
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family or katie herself believed that austin had just gone away on his own again we
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he was very close with his family very close with his girlfriend and specifically he was very close with his
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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 felt and believed and shouted this from the
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mountaintops that his leaving austin leaving was really just simply out of the question well
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let's look at some of the evidence he he takes no belongings with him he doesn't
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even have his vehicle and he then takes a trailer it doesn't make a lot of sense well and
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if rich whitcomb did not go with him that day we know somebody went with him that day because as you pointed out
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his vehicle can't tow the trailer right so we need to fill in that blank real quickly was rich actually with him that
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day or did somebody else take rich's place and now we need to figure out who that person is almost a week after
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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 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 could
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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 there 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
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it's fortunate that the police are taking this young man's disappearance seriously right there's been some debate
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about that however what we do know is we have the father who owns the trailer saying hey i'm notified that my trailer
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was found about 10 miles from my home i raced down there as soon as i could get there
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and when i get on the scene detectives are already there checking out the trailer looking in the area looking for
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my son looking for evidence as to why the trailer was there who put it there where could my son be so it
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appears to me that they are already taking this very seriously enough to send detectives to the scene of the
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trailer but i'm guessing that 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
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the trailer arriving and being dropped off left there or vehicles coming and going from the area so you're going to
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canvas the area by reaching out to anybody that you think may have seen or heard anything
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in the week that had passed since this man went missing and now we have the trailer being found so they find a local
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jogger who tells them that she had actually seen the trailer at that same location
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where it was eventually found but the first time she had seen it was on thursday a week earlier in fact
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thursday was the day that austin vanished so he goes missing on that day and according to this jogger
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that trailer was there the entire time right the whole week that everybody's looking for him so it just been sitting
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there dana his father says that the detectives searched the area there there are 30 cabins in that location because i
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guess in that same spot there is a summer camp so the detectives and law enforcement
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went into every cabin they even brought in dogs to help search the area they covered a wide area during their search
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but unfortunately there was no sign of austin but it's hard to imagine what his family's going through when they start
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searching this land and searching the cabins again everything starts pointing to
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something very tragic happening well and this is quite interesting too here captain if it gives us some insight into
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their investigation because the police will come out and say hey we need the public's help and that's
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because according to a vermont state trooper's news release the police believe that the scrap metal
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found on the trailer was likely collected in royalton sharon and or the surrounding town so
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they have reason to believe that they can narrow down where the scrap metal likely came from
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so they are seeking public assistance in identifying the exact locations where the scrap metal was collected from so
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often i'm sure some of us have experienced this i know i have where you may see a hauler a scrapper or whatever
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you call them in your area but they may drop by and say to you hey if you ever have
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anything set it out on this day or leave it out on this day and i'll swing by and
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pick it up i i do my rounds in this area on this day and i collect everything that i can so they're looking to find
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people that either had a direct conversation with austin about picking things up or
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set some things out that were later gone and this would be interesting because what they want to do here captain they
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want to try to trace the origins of the metal and that's going to help them reconstruct austin's day
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creating a 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 is going to be in the least bit helpful because
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they figured out that it was powered off around 11 15 a.m on january 11th the same day that he went missing austin's
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whereabouts after that of course were a mystery but when you hear about austin and when i first was
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researching this case this young man picking up scrap metal he has a painting service
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he is making candles and and making soaps and and doing all these odd jobs to make it buy
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go look up what austin coulson looks like he looks like a child but he was doing these
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manly type jobs i think by seeing a picture of him you're gonna be able to get a
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better sense of why his family was so fearful and maybe also why law enforcement was taking this so
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serious so now we get into the searches and the searching for austin and searching for evidence as to what could
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have happened to this young man so first we know that police took a look at the small home where austin and katie live
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together it's not clear whether katie gave permission for this because she may not want the police in there not
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because she had anything to do with austin's disappearance but rather that police search the home and find a small
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marijuana growing operation inside the home as well as sizable quantities of cash that's their words sizable
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quantities of cash i do not know exactly what that means but that is the words used in media reports
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other searches and this is very interesting here captain police conducted several searches for austin
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over the next few weeks after finding the trailer they concentrated on the area surrounding the location where the
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trailer was found but to no avail but then on february 1st they received a tip about a quote body
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sighting this was at a very specific two acre property located at 714 beaver meadow road this is about eight miles
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from the location where the trailer was found it's unclear what or who the source of this tip was
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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 [Music] hmm [Music] all right we are back if you need more
00:27:01
tcg in your earbuds check out our bonus show called off the record or go purchase one of our three bonus
00:27:08
episodes colonel cheers to you cheers well along with austin's hat here captain according to the
00:27:17
vt digger which is a great new source for this case and some others that we've covered in the past police also located
00:27:24
shell casings at the scene as well as a cigarette butt with coulson's dna on it and a pair of
00:27:31
gloves now they did not find any further signs of austin coulson in that area but you have to wonder
00:27:40
unfortunately for the family and for his girlfriend if i'm there on the scene or i'm a family member i'm
00:27:49
getting worried at this point that we might be looking for human remains rather than
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finding austin alive and well state police records show that the investigation into his disappearance
00:28:03
began on january 12th troopers first interviewed the family and trying to get a sense of who austin
00:28:11
was his connections his last movements and so on now dana and katie both told police that austin had plans on that day
00:28:20
he went missing to go scrapping with richard whitcomb they're giving them that name a name
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once austin went missing his mother asked whitcomb about it he tells her that austin had never
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responded to a text from him that day and he didn't know what had happened so now we have multiple family members
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saying that austin planned to spend the day scrapping with rich whitcomb and someone helped austin tow away the
00:28:47
trailer that he would have needed to go scrapping but whitcomb as we know says nope i
00:28:53
wasn't there it was time for police to figure out if this man is lying or not and really this is not rocket science
00:29:01
here the last person believed to be with austin was richard whitcomb of course police are going to be very
00:29:08
eager to pin him down on january 16 2018 vermont state police major crimes unit detectives albright and holden
00:29:19
interviewed rich whitcomb at the royalton vsp barracks during the interview whitcomb denied knowing anything about
00:29:28
coulson's disappearance the detectives were aware that whitcomb was a felon with a reputation for being involved in
00:29:36
the drug trade at this interview whitcomb admitted to knowing austin and scrapping with him on occasion
00:29:44
but whitcomb told the detectives that on january 11th he never saw austin that day instead he
00:29:50
whitcomb was in manchester buying cocaine well that's quite the alibi give me a little bit of that nose sugar
00:29:57
whitcomb admitted to middling drug deals for austin coulson and said that the previous week
00:30:04
he gave austin a firearm as collateral in a cocaine transaction all right so we have whitcomb and ex
00:30:12
felon admitting that he was the middle man in drug deals whereby he would deliver drugs to austin's
00:30:18
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 whitcomb admitted
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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
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so the detectives naturally said well cool can we see your phone remember this interview is on the 16th
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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
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but wickham told them he didn't have the phone it was gone in fact he had switched to new cellular account on the
00:31:15
13th telling detectives his wife found out that he made a trip to manchester on the
00:31:20
11th to buy drugs she was upset she made him get rid of all of his drug connections that were saved on his phone
00:31:28
she forced him to get rid of the phone so detective albright of course this ain't his first rodeo he found this
00:31:36
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
00:31:50
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 which to which whitcomb agreed to tell them where the gun was and let them enter his
00:32:10
home to retrieve it so he said that they could also search his car so meanwhile what we have here captain a separate
00:32:16
batch of detectives was interviewing his wife sarah in another room at the same time right they're asking her about the
00:32:25
gun and the phone she told them that both were at the house she consented to a search of the residence and the
00:32:32
couple's car she's saying that the phone his phone is still at their home to which he said that they had gotten
00:32:39
rid of the phone so now we got some different stories going on here but at the end of it what
00:32:45
we learn is that police have permission to search for the gun and the phone in their home and in their vehicles what
00:32:53
happens is the vermont state police they're concerned that before they can get out
00:32:59
there to search the home that somebody else might get there and remove these items
00:33:05
so very smartly here they contact some police department in hartford and asked if they would secure the
00:33:13
whitcomb residence so that nobody could go in and out before they could get in there and search for these items that's
00:33:20
pretty freaking smart what ends up happening is a hartford officer got to the whitcomb's home
00:33:26
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
00:33:40
the covers of a bed in the master bedroom the officer picked it up and placed it
00:33:46
right next to the front door so when the detectives arrived it was sitting there
00:33:49
waiting for them when the vsp detectives arrived at the whitcomb household during the search of the residence the
00:33:58
officers also located the firearm in question and then additional cell phones they took all the phones and the gun
00:34:06
along with an eight-round magazine containing five bullets and left the premises
00:34:12
but they would be back captain because on february 9th they charged richard whitcomb with federal charges of
00:34:21
possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon and the use of a firearm
00:34:27
and a drug transaction but they still didn't have enough to charge whitcomb with anything related to austin
00:34:33
coulson's disappearance but they named whitcomb publicly as the only person of interest in the case
00:34:41
and that's because of what they found or did not find on his phone let's go through the wording of these search
00:34:48
warrants for whitcomb yeah the wording here is key and it goes along with the idea that he's the only
00:34:55
person of interest in austin's disappearance the warrants say that searching whitcomb's property was
00:35:01
necessary because police had quote probable cause to believe that such property or objects will be found and
00:35:08
will constitute either possession or sale of cocaine unlawful restraint or kidnapping carrying a dangerous weapon
00:35:16
while committing a felony or aggravated assault manslaughter or homicide wowza yeah that really seems to echo what
00:35:27
their thoughts and beliefs were in this case meanwhile they started with the phone
00:35:33
that whitcomb said that he had gotten rid of but of course they found it in his home
00:35:38
when investigators got the phone in front of their techs they noticed that the phone appeared to
00:35:43
have been wiped clean but of course they were able to retrieve and view some of whitcomb's communications anyway
00:35:49
immediately after austin went missing this is what whitcomb is searching for his
00:35:56
his internet searches on his phone are at the same time that austin coulson goes missing one search was for how long
00:36:02
does gunpowder residue or gsr last and also whether deleted text messages can be retrieved yes dumbass they can on
00:36:12
january 15th he had a text exchange with his wife sarah that included the following
00:36:18
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
00:36:32
whitcomb no his girlfriend was the last i saw him monday sarah you text him thursday and then he vanished weird
00:36:42
stuff sounds like the police are not the only ones that are suspicious of rich whitcomb well people are starting to
00:36:48
catch him in a lie he's telling people i i didn't talk to him thursday and then see him thursday
00:36:53
now we're getting information that he they text him on thursday so then one could assume that he at some point met
00:37:00
up with him yeah the the evidence on the phone is really all just kind of good circumstantial evidence
00:37:07
but it does not appear that there was much useful information on there so that they
00:37:12
could track uh tracking information for the phone or anything leading them to austin coulson
00:37:20
other than the police said that it placed whitcomb on the 11th this is interesting at the location
00:37:26
where the trailer was picked up from at dana's house so he says i never saw him but his phone says that he was near
00:37:34
dana's house around the time that the trailer was removed from dana's property lying [ __ ] princess the other thing too
00:37:42
is his phone also places him in the area where the trailer was eventually found but it's also difficult too because if
00:37:50
they have worked together you're gonna find his fingerprints or austin's fingerprints and his car
00:37:57
you're gonna find you know some dna touch dna of austin and rich's vehicle and rich's dna and austin's vehicle so that
00:38:07
that does make things a little more complicated so you have to really gather up as much circumstantial evidence as
00:38:15
you can before you can try to find um the nail nails in the coffin of the case and that's exactly right you're not
00:38:22
really looking for proof that the two knew each other or were together at any point
00:38:28
leading up to the the disappearance you're really looking for your proof that they were together on the day that
00:38:34
austin coulson disappeared and that will be key here and what you have is you have evidence that is
00:38:40
showing you that yes in fact whitcomb was likely with austin coulson on that day but you still have whitcomb's alibi
00:38:47
that hey i was 100 miles away purchasing cocaine well let's dive into that alibi real
00:38:57
quick shall we so whitcomb is going to try to back this up by saying not only was he away but there
00:39:03
are people that could could place him away from dana's home and away from where austin is believed to have last
00:39:11
been seen there's one person in particular and this person that whitcomb claims accompanied him to manchester
00:39:19
was a one mark ruppel of lebanon whitcomb originally gave police a false last name i don't know the false last
00:39:29
name that they that he provided to police he said that the person's name was mark something
00:39:35
i guess he was hoping that they would not be able to locate this individual but the police were a lot smarter than
00:39:41
rich whitcomb mark sniffing butts so they find out that the person he was talking about was this mark ruppel so
00:39:47
they find rupple they interview him ruppel tells police that whitcomb called him on january 17th
00:39:55
and was quote upset on the verge of crying and begging him to tell the police that he had either seen whitcomb
00:40:02
or was hanging out with him in manchester on july 11th this is quoted from police affidavits
00:40:11
but ruppel 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
00:40:27
sniffin whatever you call them sniffing butts and his real last name is ruppel and
00:40:32
thankfully this mark ruppel is a better guy than rich whitcomb because he says look man i ain't gonna lie for
00:40:38
you and he tells the police straight up uh i wasn't with him and in fact he called me and asked me to say that i was
00:40:46
right so as law enforcement again this rich guy is a giant pile of [ __ ] and he's a liar he he tells you i was
00:40:54
with this guy makes up the last name the guy tells you no i wasn't with him and he wanted me to make up an alibi anybody
00:41:02
that's trying to make up an alibi always goes to my number one on the suspect list and before we move on captain i
00:41:09
just want to echo what we said earlier that the information what little information that police were able to
00:41:17
pull from that phone 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 up from on the day that austin
00:41:31
went missing b he was in the area of where the trailer was later found a week later his phone
00:41:37
says he was there on the day that austin coulson went missing and so everything that they're seeing from his phone would
00:41:44
indicate that he was lying and that he actually was with austin coulson on the 11th when austin
00:41:50
went missing well you got to go a step further the phone says that he was with the
00:41:55
trailer in the morning phone says he was with the trailer in the afternoon and then the phone says
00:42:02
he was in the location where austin's hat cigarette and bullets were found this brings us to
00:42:09
may 23rd on our timeline when police conducted an all-day search for austin at a two-acre property where they had
00:42:16
previously found the baseball hat that belonged to austin or that they believed belonged to austin i can't imagine that
00:42:23
there were too many a and c painting baseball hats anywhere in america let alone in this
00:42:29
small town in vermont so i would think that they're pretty much 99 convinced that it's his hat at this
00:42:37
point it was hoped that now that it was springtime and all the snow had melted that it might expose things that were
00:42:45
previously hidden things that they had missed in their previous search this remote property was down one of those
00:42:51
long winding dirt roads that are commonplace in vermont a police press released that evening stated quote crews
00:42:58
located what are believed to be human remains at the beaver meadow road location
00:43:05
the body was found buried in the dirt floor of an old dilapidated barn on the property
00:43:13
three days later on 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 near the large barn is
00:43:39
owned by carlton family trust according to property records buck carlton who is listed as a broker
00:43:47
with north east commercial realty in west lebanon told the valley news he owns the home on beaver meadow where
00:43:55
police had been searching carlton says he stays at the home from time to time but carlton was a snowbird so he's
00:44:03
someone that goes to warmer climates during the winter months and he says that while he's absent
00:44:09
carlton employed a caretaker to keep an eye on his property he says that the person that he put in
00:44:16
charge of this is this rich whitcomb all of the phone evidence is saying he was with austin
00:44:21
coulson on the day that he disappeared and now we have the owner of the property saying
00:44:27
where you found austin coulson's body this man rich whitcomb had access to the barn and was expected to be at the
00:44:36
property from time to time to take care of this property while i'm gone according to the autopsy
00:44:43
and according to vermont's chief deputy medical examiner austin died from multiple gunshot wounds
00:44:50
to the head inflicted by another person oddly though the death certificate puts his place of death as woods
00:44:58
or place found and the date of his death as january 2008 his death was classified as a homicide
00:45:08
the windsor county state's attorney announced that the case was in a holding pattern while police worked the
00:45:16
ballistic evidence meanwhile his father dana told wcax news we hoped for a better outcome but
00:45:26
it was good to get the final official word so we're not wondering he pointed out that austin's phone
00:45:33
wallet and car keys remained missing at that time as far as we know they have never been found captain i've
00:45:39
heard people criticize law enforcement a little bit because they found some items
00:45:44
of austin and then it took them four months to do another search but i don't know how long they searched
00:45:52
the initial time that they did search and i don't know what the conditions of the weather were so
00:45:58
what people need to realize it's it's not an hour-long episode of law and order or hour-long
00:46:03
episode of unsolved mysteries the hands of justice sometimes work very slowly well and
00:46:10
we're not getting told a lot of the story which we don't need to have a lot of the story but we should all be smart
00:46:15
enough to go well they didn't just find his hat and go okay well that's enough work for today yeah see you guys later
00:46:21
see ya see at the bar got to be there by 3 p.m no what i like here and when they go out on
00:46:28
these searches we got to keep in mind they've not been to this area before they could arrive on site that day and
00:46:34
go whoa we got a lot of difficulties and a lot of unexpected problems here in searching this property
00:46:41
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 search
00:46:48
again and we want to keep digging and finding whatever we can because we think we have
00:46:53
a case here i'm going to shorten some of this a little bit because we have some difficulty
00:46:59
in the case as far as getting anybody charged in relation to austin coulson's first disappearance and then later ruled
00:47:10
a homicide but in the course of a lot of the things that we've already discussed
00:47:16
remember we have those charges that whitcomb was facing based off of him in possession of a gun and using a gun in
00:47:25
the transaction of drug trade so he will actually face those charges before austin coulson's
00:47:31
body is even recovered at the pre-trial for those charges we have austin's family there that are wearing shirts
00:47:40
that say where's austin we also have his father going on record speaking to the media saying we have a lot of reason to
00:47:47
believe rich whitcomb is very guilty and not expanding on that too much but we know exactly what his father means
00:47:55
he's very guilty not only in these charges but these charges are really just sort of backing up all of our
00:48:01
thoughts and beliefs that he is responsible for what happened to our son to our family member but smart for law
00:48:08
enforcement get them on these charges you have a bad individual you have this bag of [ __ ] now
00:48:16
locked up and charged with these and you can then put together and piece together a case
00:48:22
which right now has a lot of circumstantial evidence well and the prosecutor for those charges
00:48:29
made a really good effort to try to convince the judge that hey this dude rich whitcomb is extremely dangerous and
00:48:36
is he's not only dangerous because of his previous crimes the crimes we know that he committed and the crimes that we
00:48:41
are charging him with today but also because he is the number one suspect in a murder
00:48:47
that we have not been able to bring charges against him yet so you should keep him in jail for the entirety of the
00:48:54
time leading up to his trial for these charges right sadly the judge did not fully agree with this the judge let him
00:49:01
out but this was based on the condition that he entered a drug treatment facility and
00:49:06
that he was allowed to go home after completion of that rehab he was required to wear an electronic monitoring
00:49:14
bracelet and he had some other parameters that he needed to play within during that time rich is
00:49:22
going to take a plea deal on one of these charges yeah they will ultimately drop one of the counts and
00:49:28
deal on the other one now again we have an assistant u.s attorney her name is wendy fuller
00:49:38
she really wanted him convicted to the the fullest extent right give him the best and longest punishment
00:49:49
that you can because wendy fuller knows how dangerous rich whitcomb is if he's out he's a
00:49:57
danger to society into our communities she wanted to get some comments on the record
00:50:03
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
00:50:18
is and remind them that he is a suspect in a murder so i'll read for you just portions of her statements during court
00:50:26
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
00:50:40
this is a community it's small it has struggled mightily with drug abuse and he aided in that
00:50:46
i understand that he was not selling drugs for financial gain i've never made that allegation he was doing it to feed
00:50:53
his own addiction but it's serious nonetheless and by selling drugs to other drug addicts you keep that cycle
00:51:00
of addiction alive and it keeps these people who are addicted unable to contribute to their community they
00:51:07
cannot pay their bills they cannot take care of their children it destroys lives
00:51:12
just like it has in some sense destroyed his but he did that to other people so i
00:51:18
just want to be clear that this is not merely having access to a firearm there are greater factors here that go into
00:51:25
the seriousness so he's regularly selling to people in his community but the other aspect of this case is that he
00:51:33
decided to take a firearm that did not belong to him that belonged to his father-in-law he took the firearm and he
00:51:40
used it as a currency in a drug trade he traded it to mr coulson mr coulson gave
00:51:46
him drugs in exchange for that so that mr whitcomb could go out and sell more cocaine
00:51:53
this 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 firearm especially one that doesn't belong to you and giving it to somebody in exchange for cocaine
00:52:15
it's some of the most serious conduct we see in drug related crimes and so that's
00:52:21
why he's here that's why he's in federal court he committed a very serious crime
00:52:27
but on top of that we have the defendant's characteristics as i read his criminal
00:52:32
history he has a violent history i don't think there's any dispute about that in
00:52:38
2002 he had an unlawful mischief conviction in which he harassed his girlfriend damaged her belongings and that during
00:52:46
the arrest he had a loaded rifle and when the police asked him if he intended to use it on himself he said no
00:52:54
i'd rather shoot you he was convicted of that offense and then he went on to violate his probation for that offense
00:53:01
twice once for harassing and assaulting yet another girlfriend that's the 2003 felony conviction for
00:53:08
domestic assault and i'd like to read from the affidavit of lieutenant jordan with regard to the
00:53:14
domestic assault felony conviction so the court understands the gravity of this offense
00:53:20
and i will substitute the victim's name for the word victim the victim told me that they arrived at home and whitcomb
00:53:28
continued to scream and yell at her this went on for some time when whitcomb got
00:53:32
mad at her the victim said whitcomb grabbed her by the arms and threw her to the floor she
00:53:38
was in pain the victim said that whitcomb then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her
00:53:43
down to the basement he put her in a headlock and he started choking her she could not breathe and she began to
00:53:50
pass out 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
00:54:02
and his hunting knife and whitcomb told her he was going to kill her and slit her throat
00:54:08
the victim said that whitcomb could not find his hunting knife so he again grabbed her by the hair dragged her out
00:54:15
of the basement and back upstairs the victim in fear for her life said she broke free ran out of the house and
00:54:22
called her neighbors who called 9-1-1 now these are not just the victim's words captain
00:54:29
whitcomb pled guilty to that offense and to reiterate we have cell phone technology that puts him with the other
00:54:37
victim austin the day of the afternoon of the evening of and then he's caught lying to police
00:54:46
trying to establish an alibi and he's caught by police lying over and over yes and then ultimately
00:54:55
what we have is whitcomb is sentenced in january of 2020 to 37 months in federal
00:55:01
prison so he's 40 years old roughly at that time he's still going to have to do his time
00:55:09
he was scheduled to be released in february of 2023 however we've seen austin's mother posting
00:55:17
recently that whitcomb has already been moved to a halfway house and will be released altogether
00:55:24
in 2022 it actually looks like he may have already been released i just could not
00:55:30
confirm any of that information to to support the statements that she posted online
00:55:38
regardless it's to point out that he was supposed to be locked up until 2023 and
00:55:44
i guess that what they were hoping they being law enforcement was that we might not be able to charge this guy yet
00:55:50
with a homicide but maybe we could build a case against him and in the meantime he's locked away in federal prison so
00:55:57
he's no real threat to anybody in our communities but if these posts that austin's mother
00:56:05
are posting online if they are true then this man is already back out and walking walking around a free man
00:56:13
well i know there seems to be some frustration with law enforcement but i'm not willing to give up on them just yet
00:56:20
because i don't know what cards there are holding close to their vest what it seems to be for me
00:56:28
is that they're building a case and again hands of justice sometimes move very slowly there is also some online
00:56:34
rumor that richard whitcomb is responsible for possibly another homicide and these are based off of several
00:56:42
facebook posts like this one they simply say quote everyone knows whitcomb was involved with robbie
00:56:49
briggs murder end quote now i captain could not find any evidence or any articles that
00:56:56
name whitcomb as a possible suspect and robbie briggs's murder that's a 20 year old
00:57:02
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
00:57:30
cake that is going to be what they what one would expect that you would want to have and charge this man with
00:57:37
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
00:57:45
carries out on people that are close to him so anybody out there close to richard whitcomb if he's out and you're
00:57:52
hearing this get as far away as you possibly can well this is why it's important if you know something you need
00:57:58
to say something to keep the rest of the world the rest of the community safe it's not just all on law
00:58:06
enforcement we have to do our part as humans to go hey i actually know some information that could put
00:58:14
this guy away come forward and say something [Music] thank you so much for joining us here on
00:58:29
the garage 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 more than a decade when sisters
00:59:16
nikki sammy and tori hear the word mom it claws like an eagle's talents triggering memories that
00:59:24
have been their secret since childhood until now check out if you tell by greg olsen you can find that great
00:59:32
recommendation and many more on our recommended page at truecrimegarage.com and until next week
00:59:39
be good be kind and don't [Applause] [Music] you