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foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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[Music] thank you [Music] shortly after my brother Edward came missing I kind of included the police chief of
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Crawford County that there was somebody going around saying that will never hide Edward that we need
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to quit looking and then we tried to push for the phone records early on and he was missing in April so
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when we pushed for the phone records it was immediately and we were kind of told that there was
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nothing we could do and then in August deegan's place got rated for a tip or something and they found multiple pot
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plants 31 all over the house outside everything Deacon was still never arrested after that he kind of fled and
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he fled to Colorado and I emailed him and I asked him I said is my brother with you
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and he said in his email some people live full arrest ghosts along with some other things that he had said
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I gave that to detectives and I gave that to the police Chiefs September we finally got Edward's records and was the
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last book called in December 2016 I begged the sheriff to look into Deacon and I told him if
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you can have this stuff growing on his property why is he still out there why is he back why is he not arrested
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nothing and the fact that Edward was vegan was Edward's last phone call they told me that because of where the
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plants were there was nothing that they could do come to find out the plants were right
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in the middle of his property within a couple yards from my brother nothing was ever done it went on and it
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went on until the fall of 2017 when the new chief of Crawford asked to bring on a different task force
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and that being Franklin County and when they brought on Franklin County and within
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I don't know a couple days of me talking to one Detective in September I found my brother in less than 20 days
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so I was always told from the beginning two things can't do nothing on hearsay or they didn't have enough to bring him
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in for a questioning [Music] foreign [Music] Hillhouse was last seen leaving his
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sister's house in Bourbon Missouri back in April of 2016. now we had two local agencies
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investigating this missing person's case the local police department and the Crawford County Sheriff's Office
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well after a Changing of the Guard after the chief and the sheriff retired and we
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brought in some new leaders maybe some better leaders one might think this investigation took a turn and this
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was when a vice squad was brought in to launch a new investigation we have This Confidential informant that
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emerges and I guess well we shouldn't say emerges because this person has really been there all along this is a
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person that Edward's sister Kayla had told investigators early on to talk to this person and you heard her just in
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that trailer there now regarding the confidential informant and the information that this person may have
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provided to law enforcement we can gather this according to the probable cause statement filed in the Crawford
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County prosecutor's office the informant connected to the investigation told authorities that Deacon J zelch admitted
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to killing Edward Hillhouse by shooting him in the head with a 22 caliber rifle back in April of 2016.
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the witness told authorities with the multi-county narcotics and violent crimes unit remember this is the vice
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squad that was brought in yeah he told them that on the day after Edward Hillhouse went missing so this
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would be April 27 2016. that he had went to the house and he had seen the body of Edward Hill House on
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the couch in the home of Deacon zelch well and the Rumor then was that he shot Edward while he was sleeping on the
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couch yeah and you know when we first saw this information come out my original thought was I was trying to
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figure this thing out it and it was this you know was was this the type of situation where you know because with
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the mafia when they have somebody that they want to kill you will hear them oftentimes say that well the best way to
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do this is you you take the person out to a nice dinner and then you give them a couple drinks couple glasses of wine
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and then you get in the car with them you put them in the passenger seat you get a couple guys in the back seat and
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you shoot them when they're least expecting it right and I I wondered here if this was in fact true
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was this that kind of situation where we have Deacon zelch who maybe have leading
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up to the murder itself if he was still acting as the friend of Edward Hill House that because it
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didn't seem from this rumor it didn't seem to be like there was any altercation between the two of them
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right did they start questioning what the motive is yeah that they broke out into some kind of fight is this
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something that Deacon had possibly planned and planned for days and just kind of lured him in as with using their
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friendship to put down the guard of Edward Hill House now this witness he says that he saw the
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body of Edward there on April 27th the following day this witness returned to Deacon's home right this time there's no
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body there's no there's nobody on the couch first of all if you're hanging out somewhere
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and there's a body on the couch dead you don't return the next day that's another thing that I question
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here about this information do you think that there's a chance that at the time that he saw the body that
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maybe this witness and I kept saying he he I don't even know if it's a he I think that's
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what's implied yeah what I've heard yeah so do you think that this person may not
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have known at the time that he was in fact looking at a dead body yeah it's possible that he just came in
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and maybe maybe didn't even enter the room that where the couch was positioned yeah and just saw someone on the couch
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or or was he threatened you know you know did Deacon tell him what happened and said hey look if you if you tell
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anybody I'll kill you I mean there was a lot of rumors in town that Deacon often
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bragged about killing people and has killed people also made threats uh to Ex-Wives or or not X wives but ex or
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baby mamas right he had a lot of kids with different people yeah women that he had had relationships with and I
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believed that he had threatened people close to them as well right let's get into this information about this backhoe
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on Deacon's property yeah so the following day this witness returned after having seen the body on
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the couch the following day he returns and this time there's no body there's no couch
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and he sees a backhoe on zelch's property any information on where this couch went
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so here's what they have the witness tells them that at a later Point Deacon zelch allegedly admitted to this Witness
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that Deacon had used the equipment used the backhoe to bury Edward Hill House along with the remains of the couch
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right and other evidence in the crime I don't know what other evidence uh refers
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to oh yeah because you got to think that law enforcement is going to be looking for this gun because we can assume that
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that's the murder weapon yeah yeah they're going to be looking for a 22 caliber rifle like the witness had told
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them about and we spoke earlier about that profitable cause statement well this is they're going to use this new
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information the the new task force that has taken over this investigation as you
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heard Kayla say earlier they're armed with this new information that they have and very quickly they're going to get a
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search warrant to go back and search the property of Deacon zelch and this time they're not just there looking for
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marijuana plants with some volunteer cadaver dog right they're going to go in there and they're going to search this
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place from top to bottom and they have this information about this tobacco so they're going to have to do some digging
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as well well on Wednesday September 20th 2017 they went to the residence of Deacon zelch the property that is
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located on Highway J letter J outside of bourbon This was um now here's the thing when you look at
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this search warrant captain we see that this is now being called a homicide investigation right
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so invest for law enforcement yes and so now investigators search the home and after an extensive search of the
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property they dug up and located an unidentified body they also located a couch later the deceased was positively
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identified as that of Edward J Hillhouse who was 28 years of age when he went missing a medical examiner ruled that
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Hill House was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head by a small caliber weapon yeah so
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what do we learn from this the the informant is telling the truth yeah or at least most of it is truth yeah we we
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have evidence backing up this witness's statement now during the investigation and upon
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the discovery of Edward hillhouse's body the person of interest in the death of Hill House well this is obviously Deacon
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zelch and who is he's 40 years of age from Bourbon Missouri while police issued a warrant for his arrest and in
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their pursuit of Deacon they announced that he is to be considered armed and very dangerous and he should not be
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approached by anybody in the public well and if you talk about Deacon's land for
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a little bit what they were searching I mean this is a bunch of shacks right the
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way I kind of visualize this is if you've seen True Detective season one uh were they fine Nietzsche man or whatever
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they call them um similar to that and because he was living off the land because Deacon was
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this you know he was this mythical in his head he was a mythical god-like creature and he was living off the land
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and he was you know a hippie but at the same time crazy and threatening people's
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lives and telling people he's killed people and He will kill people again yeah I saw Ariel photos or aerial images
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of the property itself and it looks to me to be like a ranch like a typical rectangle shaped ranch right the news
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referred to it as a rundown dwelling it didn't look overly run down to me from the outside but it probably did so
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on the inside would be my guess and but your standards are a little lower than most people well and then what we
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learned from the um from when they collected the marijuana plants is that there were two there were two outside
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structures on this property there to what they refer to as two outbuildings these could be simply just be sheds or
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or a detached garage or what you like to call a mansion a mansion yeah hey can we call the show
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show True Crime Mansion I was like No it's it's a freaking garage Nick wake up yeah the situation is
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we're doing the show in the garage well once they started looking for Deacon zelch it's just a matter of a few
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days on September 24th 2017 Deacon zelch was arrested at about 1 15 p.m now he's
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located in Bloomington Illinois rested on the warrant for the alleged murder yeah it sounds like he was taken
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in without incident they didn't list any type of altercation with him uh but Deacon zelch's connection to Bloomington
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is not known or at least uh had not been reported well like we said his father knows law enforcement is it possible
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that he was tipped off I mean when they found marijuana plants all over your property you fled town
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so now that they're digging on your property it's likely that he was flee in town yeah I I tend to agree with
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you when it when they found the marijuana plants it sounds like he took off to Colorado right and then he may
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have caught wind somebody may have called him maybe even his father called and said hey they're digging on your
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property yeah I mean maybe he caught when or he blew in I'm not really for sure he may not have fled though I
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mean the the arrest report states that he was arrested at a residence in Bloomington Illinois it may just be as
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simple as he went up there and was staying with somebody that he knew um and maybe the person wasn't
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comfortable stating that they know this person who's wanted for murder so they the news is convenient and says uh you
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know he's arrested without incident and the the connection to Bloomington is unknown
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now he he was later extra extradited to Missouri and Deacon zelch was charged in
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Crawford County for the marijuana plants finally charged for that I mean you're talking about that thing was 13 months
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old and then charged for the murder of Edward Hillhouse as well and he was also charged with armed criminal action of
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course that's going to be involved with the murder case there and he is being held at Crawford County Jail
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on one million one hundred and forty five thousand dollar cash only Bond that's cold Hard Cash that's what you
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strapped to somebody if you don't ever want them getting out before they can go to trial well I like when law
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enforcement does this I mean you know a lot of people go well you got to charge them with the marijuana plants for you
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know he's going to be charged with murder well you you tack on every charge so even if the as you're collecting
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evidence so you can go to trial you're holding this loser's ass in prison on a different charge yeah you you slap him
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with everything you can and you see which one sticks now Captain the obvious question here is why did it take a
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separate law enforcement agency to break the case open big enough that Edward's body is finally recovered and an arrest
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is finally made now Kayla his sister believes that her brother's case was covered up as an act of public
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corruption she says this is not only because of the lack of movement early on in the case but of course also because
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Deacon zelch is the son of Vernon zelch a Crawford County Sheriff's deputy yeah and this is just not going to be Kayla's
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Theory this is actually going to be the the detective that became the chief he actually believes that and in the rumors
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that he heard was how Deacon's father was snooping around and looking into evidence and there was a bunch of rumors
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in town that his his father was his main thing was trying to find that gun well if Kayla is right this means that
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for over you know for about a year and a half the Crawford County they were keeping this a secret yeah
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and okay so let's talk about Vernon zelch here for a little bit now I before I get any people calling me out and
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saying you know he wasn't a deputy he was a police officer um I want to be clear about this it's a
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little confusing as far as his career goes because I have information stating that he had worked for both of these
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agencies at one time right or another so now Vernon zelch has a website out there
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um and I believe it might be vernonzelch.com I don't know but yeah I thought it was uh I have ugly kids with
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weirdbeards.com but according to Vernon's website he is a police officer that works to pay for his farming hobby
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um he is now keep in mind this website was last updated in 2012. but it states that he served as the assistant chief of
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the department for about 25 years so we're talking about if his website is correct we're not talking about just
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some low-level cop you know we're talking about somebody that's that's higher up in the rent in the nicest way
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I mean it exactly the way that I said it um it seems that his true love is farming hunting and his tractor
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um Vernon zelch raises Beefalo what I didn't misspeak there he raises Beefalo okay
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I I have a farm okay you know what I raise what's that Slim Jims there you go okay
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okay well Beefalo is like half cattle half bison okay it sounds delicious I raise a thing called a
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foreign let's move on from this all right well at times he had been a reoccurring guest
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host on two different radio shows and I don't know if this is still current but as of 2012 Vernon zelch had penned a
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monthly column for the Sullivan Independent News so this is a person that is well known around town uh not
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only has influence because of his career at being in law enforcement right but also has influence as a farmer as
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somebody that's a radio personality as someone that's Penning a monthly column in the local news so this this is a guy
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that has a lot of influence amongst town but Deacon's not his only son right correct so we have Deacon zelch and we
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have his brother Wyatt zelch yeah and the two of them could never seem to stay out of trouble uh they were you know we
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have this respected Lawman and then we have his troublemaking sons yeah they weren't like the looks a hazard look
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just the good old boys these were just pieces of [ __ ] well they're always causing some harm
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the crazy thing here is that shortly after this case broke after they recovered the body of Edward and made
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the arrest on Deacon's out Deacon zelch sorry say that Zeke and zilch five times
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fast go they interviewed Wyatt zelch the brother and he had just been recently released from prison he did a stint
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there for drugs and theft right and his interview and I know you've seen this Captain it's it's strange to put it
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politely he's basically he's outside and he's smoking a cigarette and he's talking about his family right and the
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big question like we were talking about before is what the hell is his motive what the hell is Deacon's motive I mean
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it seems like everybody even even uh Edward's sister says look these were friends you
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know and yeah Deacon's this horrible dude but Edward's at least his friend so what's his motivation and so that's what
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they're asking Deacon's brother yeah and Wyatt basically says we're all lunatics everyone every last
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one of us the whole goddamn family right we're all lunatics and he says this he said it's the the person you don't see
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is the doctor and Jekyll and Mr Hyde Persona and he says that his father has that his brother he has that his sisters
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his mother the whole family he says damn family are not nice people we were not raised to be nice we were raised to be
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mean and hateful people he also told reporters that he has no doubt that Deacon killed Edward he also
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stated when talking about Deacon that he didn't know if there was any good left in Deacon and he thought that that
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probably was lost and had lost that a long time ago yeah he was directly asked if his father Vernon zelch could be
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involved in a cover-up to cover up this murder investigation and Wyatt said while he has no doubt the Deacon killed
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Edward he's not certain about any type of cover-up foreign [Music] [Music] all right we're back cheers me mateys
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cheers to you captain from the other side of the garage other side of the Mansion yeah uh New
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Year hopefully new Nick that's my resolution this is funny all right so we need to look into we need to
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explore did Vernon zelch interfere with the investigation in any way and for this I think we should introduce
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Somebody by the name of Amanda zelch who is she she is Deacon zelch's ex-wife and she herself she questions why
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absolutely nothing turned up in the investigation for approximately 17 months and as for her thought about her
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ex-husband deacon she said Deacon sometimes threatened her she feels he is capable of murder
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saying that he once wrote in a letter to her and a friend of hers that if it was
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not for their daughter that he would have filled that hole with their bodies well is this the one
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that at some point think uh Deacon Dicken whatever you want to call them super glued
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one of his sons and his wife to a door I don't have any knowledge of that that happened that was a rumor that I heard
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that he had super glued the Sun and his ex-wife to a door yeah and this is this is a real animal here
00:26:46
right but when you say that you're saying it it's not like oh we were goofing around no and you know super
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glue somebody to the door you're saying this is like he was malicious he was punishing somebody for something who
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knows right and he super glues these people to a door well well listen to this though because you
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had hinted about something earlier and this is where I think that that hint and that information comes from regarding
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Vernon zelch what he did after Deacon was arrested Amanda said that she found this strange
00:27:23
of course and I think anybody would find this strange she said that Vernon had come to her house and she asked Amanda
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if Deacon had given her any guns yeah she told Vernon that that he did that he had given her a gun now Vernon
00:27:41
immediately asked her if it was a 22 caliber gun to which she told Vernon it was not it was a 20 gauge
00:27:49
she said that upon Him hearing that it was a 20 gauge that Vernon zelch seemed to be relieved that it was a 20 gauge
00:27:58
and not the 22 caliber that he was asking about right of course we know this to be the same caliber with which
00:28:06
Edward had been killed now Amanda zelch said maybe Vernon was looking for the murder weapon obviously
00:28:13
she can't say for certain though right uh but Chief Satterfield this is the new Chief yeah I like this guy said that
00:28:21
Vernon had done um he was talking about what Vernon had done in the past also was not sitting
00:28:27
well with him stating that he had received information early on that Vernon zelch was going around and
00:28:33
inquiring about the investigation into his son right this was reported to to the detective's superiors it is unclear
00:28:43
what they did uh with that information if anything at the time uh but it seems like the new Chief is handling that
00:28:52
information appropriately well let me put this let's pose this question right right you
00:28:58
always want to talk about your situation let's pose this poly D question right okay
00:29:03
so whether your son is guilty or innocent whether you are trying to find out if he's guilty or innocent or whether
00:29:14
you're protecting or trying to protect this person aren't your actions going to be the same
00:29:22
on some level you know you have this kid that went missing there's rumors around town that your son
00:29:31
is involved and you worked high level law enforcement in this town for years this person's not going to call around
00:29:40
they're not going to pick up the phone start asking some of their connections what's going on
00:29:47
okay so that that's that's the problem here in my opinion that's that's where it makes it very hard to say what were
00:29:55
the intentions of Vernon zelch right was was his intentions to hide what his son had done or was his
00:30:04
intentions to just simply find out what his son had done yeah because some of it
00:30:09
is that okay first of all he's on the right side of the law four years 25 years something like that
00:30:19
right his both of his sons are on the opposite side of the law that doesn't necessarily mean that their
00:30:27
father is evil and yes you have now this guy that's in prison that gets out of prison his other son
00:30:33
what's that dick Face's name why why and why it's going the whole family's crazy
00:30:39
what's your lunatics right well speak for yourself you're the one that was in jail your father was in law
00:30:49
enforcement there is no record or evidence that this guy is a corrupt cop there's no as far as I could tell
00:31:00
this guy has served and protected his community and again maybe there's some rumors that
00:31:06
he was a shady cop I don't know I I just couldn't find those so I just want to pose that you know as much as
00:31:15
cop conspiracies they're interesting they're fascinating any conspiracy is right but
00:31:21
you know you gotta play both sides of the coin and and again it could have him it could just be him trying to figure
00:31:28
out you know or maybe he thought I'm going to go ask these people and what if she said you know what I do have a gun
00:31:36
22. and what if he took that gun and he turned it over to law enforcement yeah then we wouldn't be bad mouth and
00:31:44
that's all I'm saying no and I'm glad you brought that up because okay so there there's only a few uh news
00:31:51
articles on this there's only a few people that covered this case and one of them
00:31:58
and I won't mention who it is but one of them when they tell the story they say that they they don't say this but they
00:32:05
all they tell it in a way that seems like Vernon Deacon's father was asking about the gun the 22 caliber gun
00:32:15
while before they even found Edward Hill House right right and when I saw that and that report I was like oh my God
00:32:23
they need to get internal fares in their Affairs in there right away and investigate this guy because he's up to
00:32:29
no good he's trying to cover up a murder committed by his son and then when I looked at other accounts
00:32:36
of this story and these are the ones that I believe both of these ones say that after Deacon was arrested is when
00:32:43
he went to his ex daughter-in-law's house and asked inquired about the gun which would make
00:32:50
more sense because when you think about that maybe is it not the perfect thing to do right it's not he probably should
00:32:58
have been escorted by somebody or told officers where to go and what to ask that would have been a little more
00:33:04
kosher in my opinion however but hear me out it doesn't matter if it's before or
00:33:09
after because if it's before yes it does hold on let me explain to you why okay if it's before
00:33:19
is it is it possible when he's calling his connections and saying okay so we have this guy that we think is murder is
00:33:28
it is it possible that he found information through the cops or through his son or through rumors around town or
00:33:35
this informant that nobody is taken serious right there's rumors around town and
00:33:42
somebody goes hey look there's this rumor that your uh your son killed this boy he was laying on your boy's couch
00:33:49
the next day there's a backhoe and it's probably a 22. that's why like I said what if he found the gun before they
00:33:58
found the body and he turned it in and we don't know that because the gun was never found I think I agree with that by
00:34:05
Deacon I agree with what you're saying and we will never know the answer to that because that's not what happened
00:34:09
right the thing here is had he was he inquiring about this before Edward's body was found then there's a potential
00:34:17
there's a potential that more of a potential yes he had information that everyone else didn't have that he had an
00:34:24
Insider information about the crime and he may have received that information from the murderer himself right that's a
00:34:30
possibility now hearing that it that it's after the fact that it was after Deacon was arrested after the body was
00:34:36
found then I have to go you know what he's not working with any information here that the rest of us didn't already
00:34:42
know and at some point he may have just said you know what there's a person you know who knows he could have been
00:34:47
driving home from work one day and said you know what something might have clicked in his mind and said you know
00:34:51
what there's somebody we should talk to in this investigation now again it would
00:34:55
have been a little more on the up and up had he got somebody else involved in my
00:34:58
opinion right um but like you said had that gun been found we don't know what he would have
00:35:04
done with it now Martin and zelches has denied interfering with this investigation in
00:35:10
any way possible Right and again like I said he has we don't have evidence of him being
00:35:16
a flaming pile of dog [ __ ] like his sons right you don't have evidence of that
00:35:21
just because his sons just because it's one not case son said hey we're all crazy and it's Jacqueline Hyde and my
00:35:27
dad has it too well maybe the Jacqueline Hyde that he's talking about is when Jekyll and Hyde what did I say jackal
00:35:36
uh great band I like that band um the point is is that maybe this Jekyll and Hyde right yeah
00:35:47
side of his father that he's talking about is every time that his sons get in trouble
00:35:52
he gives them a little tough love he's he's in their face he's being aggressive or whatever like I said there's no as as
00:36:01
what I can see there's no evidence what to me points as more fishy is that you search his property you have
00:36:09
this volunteer cadaver dog you don't find anything but what you do find is you find guns and you find marijuana
00:36:16
plants and whether you're for marijuana or against marijuana that's not the point the point is is that in this part
00:36:22
of the country it's illegal and this is enough evidence to arrest somebody and they're not arrested to me that points
00:36:31
to a situation well and the other thing I don't like here is that we don't have any
00:36:39
what I believe to be a real response from the local law enforcement you know why don't they just say hey
00:36:46
look we would have liked to have arrested Deacon zelch on the marijuana charges back when we found them in
00:36:53
August of 2016 but we couldn't because he was in Colorado and we didn't know where he was you know something as
00:36:59
simple as that rather than just nothing no information um you know but this is a very tough
00:37:05
case for us because one we like to have multiple sources you know what I mean and in this case
00:37:13
you know this was a a listener request basically yeah we had a few few listeners that had suggested this this
00:37:20
case to us yeah and when somebody titles the case we're all lunatics your ears go
00:37:24
what what is this all about right when you start diving into it you go well man there's just not a lot of information
00:37:33
here and that's sad you know on multiple levels but I think the main level is that you know Edward
00:37:40
seemed like a very nice person he seemed like somebody that was striving to be a
00:37:46
good citizen good friend good family member and his story is cut short by somebody that by all accounts was just
00:37:54
not a good dude you know and didn't seem like he was contributing anything to society other than gluing people to
00:38:01
doors yeah and as far as Vernon zelch goes like I said he denied interfering in this investigation in any way
00:38:08
um when asked about this you know did he do anything what was his opinions on the
00:38:14
case right he simply States you know I'm I work for law enforcement there's there's a pending trial that's going to
00:38:21
take place here I cannot give a comment and I agree with that statement he did add though that when
00:38:29
when uh talking about Edward Hill House and talking about Edward's family he says that he he prays for them uh every
00:38:37
day he said that they have lost a son and that he is probably going to lose one too and he prays for them both yeah
00:38:44
and I think like I said I mean what a tough place for a father to be in because look is it wrong for a father to
00:38:52
go look I understand that my son isn't doing much for society and and maybe he's a little bit of Lost Cause but to
00:39:01
then go to the category of murder and You're a murderer your son's a murderer he's going to take an innocent
00:39:08
person's life is it wrong that he was snooping around and asking questions because maybe he
00:39:14
just wanted to know like he needed to know for his soul well and I'm I'm very curious about the actual relationship
00:39:23
between Vernon and his two sons right and I bring this up because you know I've I've snooped around on his website
00:39:32
uh and looked at all the pictures he had there and read everything that he had he
00:39:37
had wrote and posted on there and he talks a lot about Vernon talks a lot about his parents about his in-laws his
00:39:46
his wife's parents he talks about his grandkids and you see pictures of of these you
00:39:53
know I know that Wyatt said they're all lunatics but the pictures of these people they look like nice people to me
00:39:59
right and the way that Vernon speaks about these people seems like there's a real relationship
00:40:06
there between Vernon and the people that he talked about on his website who was missing from that website was the two
00:40:12
sons right it's almost like I mean you you read this website and you see these pictures and you wonder where these
00:40:19
grandkids came from because there's no mention of of Sons of sons at all and and maybe you know Christmas miracle
00:40:27
yeah we baby's on the doorstep but uh we you know and then we talk about why it makes reference to his sisters there's
00:40:35
no mention of the sisters either so maybe maybe that's just something he didn't include on his website or maybe
00:40:39
there's no relationship there now well and look you could be a very good cop and be a bad father you could yeah that
00:40:48
happens all the time you know you know you know it's like teachers you know my sister's a teacher and you know she
00:40:55
always says you know the thing that she feels bad about is she gives so much attention and love to these 30 some kids
00:41:02
every day and then when she gets home sometimes she's just exhausted and so she feels like sometimes she's a little
00:41:09
neglectful to her children you know so you see this all the time you know where maybe he's like and also cops
00:41:16
especially in these small towns might be working way too many hours I'm way too too much overtime and they're just not
00:41:24
there and then they feel some inner guilt or some responsibility that maybe if they spend a little more time that
00:41:32
maybe if they played a little more catch right maybe if they check the homework a
00:41:37
little more that they're their kid isn't going to grow up and glue people to doors
00:41:42
well the and shoot people the other thing though too is if and I don't know if he's a good cop or a bad cop I really
00:41:49
have no proof of this either way but let's say if Vernon if Vernon zelch is a good cop
00:41:57
well then he might want to distance himself from his law breaking Sons right you know this this could be very
00:42:06
embarrassing on several levels it's heartbreaking as a father but as a police officer it's embarrassing yeah
00:42:12
and you know okay so here's one thing that I do want to mention and and I heard this put better years ago than
00:42:20
what I'll probably put it now but I know a police officer very good uh cop who's
00:42:27
had a great career in law enforcement and he has um a son that has broken the law several
00:42:34
times and has been rather embarrassing let's say to his father and this man I've seen him on more than
00:42:44
one occasion you can tell that there's inner turmoil there for him that he questions himself as a father and as a
00:42:50
man for having a son that breaks the law when he is in fact somebody working in law enforcement right and somebody else
00:42:58
told this man you know even the best mechanic in town his car breaks down on the highway
00:43:05
sometimes yeah good analogy I like that and I that I think means something that should mean something I know that to
00:43:13
this man it made him feel better about his situation that could just be the situation that we have here with Vernon
00:43:20
zelch now before we move on from the zelch family too much we did talk about Deacon's ex-wife Amanda I want to make
00:43:29
sure that I include this before we move on from her when she spoke to reporters not only did
00:43:34
she say that she believed Deacon is capable of murder and passed along those threats that he had made to her and some
00:43:41
of her friends she also passed this along saying that Deacon had sent her a letter in
00:43:47
September of 2016 so one year before they found the body of Edward Hill House and in this letter Deacon had wrote
00:43:55
cryptically of what lies below the fields of my favorite back roads and of people feeding his Gardens
00:44:05
so once again we see these these weird tellings where he's almost telling people that he's killed and buried yeah
00:44:12
somebody did this with uh Edward's sister Kayla as well it's just weird cryptic again though I mean this guy
00:44:18
thought he was some god-like character you know so it's just he's it's a real piece of work now when
00:44:28
I did get the chance to speak with Kayla and we were talking about the Vernon's relationship with her with his sons
00:44:35
Kayla had an opinion on this and her opinion was that Deacon was the quote-unquote favorite son
00:44:42
that that Vernon had protected him that he was kind of always a bad guy he was always kind of involved in wrong things
00:44:49
and it is of her belief that that he that Vernon has kept Deacon out of trouble and when I asked her regarding
00:44:57
well what about Wyatt you know he's he's known to have gone to prison for drugs and for theft and she said that the
00:45:04
relationship was not the same with Vernon and Wyatt that uh if if Wyatt got in trouble why it had to to take the
00:45:12
punishment with for whatever he did now we said Kayla had done everything in her power to help find her brother to
00:45:19
help the investigation as she has publicly stated that in her opinion the facts are this
00:45:26
is as simple as this a deputy's son killed her brother and she feels like it was a cover-up she told reporters she
00:45:33
wants anyone who may have withheld Justice to be held accountable and she is grateful to the Franklin County uh
00:45:42
for that squad for that unit for getting involved and finally solving potentially
00:45:47
solving this case now some officers including the former bourbon police chief argued that they
00:45:55
did make some attempts to find her brother that they did make attempts to find Edward giving the example of the
00:46:01
cadaver dogs that were used to search the property the thing here though Captain is it's
00:46:08
very unclear to what may have motivated this murder to me it looks like we have a guy that's extremely guilty Deacon
00:46:16
zilch we we have a witness putting the body in his residence and then it's later located on his property I see no
00:46:25
question of guilt here in my mind the question I have is what the heck is the motive
00:46:30
yes so the the hearsay in this story is this is kind of what happened okay like I said this is hearsay they're going to
00:46:37
try to prove some of this in court taking us through from when um at the beginning when Edward went
00:46:43
missing yeah so Edward was going to meet somebody it's not clear if it's going to
00:46:48
be two individuals or one but he did meet up with two individuals they drove around for a while it's not clear of
00:46:55
what they were doing obviously friends with Edward he gets a call the call makes him upset
00:47:03
for whatever reason they end up going to a convenience store or gas station where he is then picked up by Deacon
00:47:10
they go back to Deacon's house the four of them are just the two of them or do we know
00:47:15
just Deacon and Edwards Okay so so Edward is there and like we said now what we do know from or what we can
00:47:26
assume that happened was that at some point he either fell asleep or he was on the couch that's where he was shot with
00:47:33
the 22. but now for motives the again this is hearsay but what he has told law enforcement the rumors are that he has
00:47:43
changed his story three times the first one being that maybe there was an argument or
00:47:49
something happened but he just snapped now I'd argue if there's that much pot on the property right what other drugs
00:47:59
are you doing is it is that a possibility or what other other drugs are being sold
00:48:04
right and we have also look there's tons of evidence and everybody and especially
00:48:10
at Middle America small towns you know I was from Richmond forty thousand people
00:48:16
and what you're talking about probably weekly heroin deaths yeah so is that something
00:48:22
that was happening there and he said he just snapped did he snap out of anger or
00:48:26
did he snap because he was on some kind of drug the second reason he gave was that Edward Hillhouse worked for the
00:48:36
mafia again this seems far-fetched zero right evidence that we know of makes no sense uh was he was Deacon
00:48:49
trying to come up with some kind of excuse who knows and then the third was that for whatever reason
00:48:55
Edward was going to hurt Deacon's brother Wyatt who was going to be getting out of prison for those drug
00:49:02
charges soon right and this again this doesn't go with the a lot a lot of witnesses and a lot of people that knew
00:49:10
Edward going hey this is not what kind of person he was you know he was a friendly person he'd
00:49:16
help anybody out so again but I like I said I don't know what drugs Deacon was on or wasn't on but if he was
00:49:26
on a bunch of drugs he might have been making up a bunch of stories in his head and it seemed like even if he wasn't on
00:49:33
drugs with everybody he built up stories in his head well and here's what I can see this is what I see Captain when I
00:49:40
see when I talk about Edward Hillhouse I see a guy a young man that looks to me like he was trying to move on with his
00:49:48
life he was trying to move forward it looked like he was you know he was moving in with a friend or taking up a
00:49:53
new residence elsewhere yeah I wonder if he was in part moving away from certain
00:49:59
people and that wouldn't be his sister that wouldn't be his future brother-in-law or their children this
00:50:04
would have been people like Deacon zelch he would have been moving away from these bad personalities somebody in in
00:50:13
bettering his life in the process from not being friends with people like that anymore now as far as motive goes why
00:50:21
would Deacon zilch kill Edward Hillhouse right I'll tell you the same thing I told Caleb when I spoke with her
00:50:28
he may have killed unfortunately it killed her brother for reasons we may not understand right you know it was it
00:50:36
was Kayla's words and it was the words of people in town that said Deacon zelch was known for saying crazy things and
00:50:43
doing crazy things I don't think he's crazy in the sense that the law would consider him to be
00:50:49
crazy I see what I would say is garage crazy that he's a you know he's somebody that doesn't make sense he does things
00:50:58
that are irrational but the thing that makes him so dangerous he's a violent individual yeah he's a you he's an evil
00:51:04
SOB yeah and he and he doesn't obviously care about anybody but himself and you know I know Kayla
00:51:13
she didn't want to hear me say that so much because I know her concerns her concerns are that that Deacon is
00:51:21
terrified of going to prison and because he is rumored to around town to be this
00:51:27
crazy guy that maybe he's going to claim some kind of I'm saying Insanity defense
00:51:32
and the thing here is though the problem with that is he's only crazy if he didn't know what he did was wrong and
00:51:40
proof that he knew what he did was wrong was he tried to cover it up afterwards well not only did he try to you know
00:51:47
well he did cover it up yeah I mean he he buried Edward and then he he buried the couch too yeah so you know I I think
00:51:56
trying to prove that he's insane in court it's going to be impossible and if anybody buys that well they're just as
00:52:03
you know they're just as evil and shitty as he is well and what's crazy about this Captain is this will actually
00:52:11
be um they're going to have this is going to trial and it's going to trial very soon it's going to trial this Wednesday
00:52:18
well it's today yeah yeah let's go well and is that weird we just randomly decided to cover this case and
00:52:27
he's going to trial today well in yeah he's going to trial later today and the thing is
00:52:35
I here's what I think is going to happen in this case I think that eventually Deacon is
00:52:42
probably going to plead guilty to this I mean the the evidence has got to be overwhelming uh in his guilt I don't
00:52:49
know if it will happen today you know he'll probably push for continuance to try to maybe form some kind of case
00:52:56
build some kind of case yeah I don't think there's any defense out there for this guy he's probably going to try to
00:53:01
plea plead guilty to this thing to get a shorter sentence is what I think is going to take place but the thing here
00:53:07
is is that it's because of Kayla it's because of the new detectives because of the new sheriff because of the new
00:53:15
police chief and Kayla's family the Hill House family that's why this case got solved yeah and
00:53:22
if it had not been for the efforts of Hill of Edward's family I wonder if this would have ever been
00:53:29
would have ever been solved and and then think about how dangerous a person like
00:53:34
Deacon zelch is to be out running around you know it see it doesn't seem so bad when we mention Bourbon Missouri a place
00:53:41
that most of us have never heard of but think about a person as dangerous as Deacon zelch living in your neighborhood
00:53:47
yeah why like I told her I mean I talked to her first and then you end up talking to her
00:53:53
and what I told her I said the key thing that I'd like to reiterate if you didn't get it
00:54:02
is that you have a sibling that went missing and how many missing person cases have we covered and because of his
00:54:11
sister not stopping that she was able to get answers and we're talking about years later and and
00:54:19
one one of the cops told her after a Time passed well you know cold cases normally don't get soft
00:54:28
and it was because of her effort and you know what if you have a missing person in your family and you have been trying
00:54:34
and you've been knocking on doors and you've been Gathering evidence this is proof that just you need to keep going
00:54:41
because you might be able to solve this case [Music] thank you [Music] all right Colonel do we have any
00:55:01
recommended reading uh yes we do on August 15 2006 someone or some ones broke into the home of Candace hiltz she
00:55:10
was murdered she was shot six times with three different guns so of course the possibility of maybe even three people
00:55:17
having committed this horrible horrible crime now we covered this case back in September of last year we covered it on
00:55:25
September 12th and 13th of last year right well Candace hilt's birthday would have been last year just before
00:55:33
Christmas and around that time I was able to speak with Candace's sister-in-law this is Heather hiltz
00:55:40
she was able to answer some of the questions that we posed during our coverage of this now Cold Case some of
00:55:47
you may remember there is a retired lieutenant Robert Dodd of the local sheriff's department that was not only
00:55:53
involved in the murder investigation but has also been suspected by some as maybe
00:55:59
having been involved in Candace's murder something you and I certainly took a look at and I know you and I have some
00:56:08
suspicions of our own when it comes to this case now having spoke to to Heather it is very obvious and rightfully so
00:56:17
that the hilt's family have they've not received any justice and they are still very heartbroken and quite angered by
00:56:25
the lack of effort that is the investigation into their daughter and sister's murder I promised the hilt's
00:56:32
family that the captain and everyone in the garage would do their best to keep Candace's case and memory alive on our
00:56:39
minds and on our hearts so if you have not yet well then please check out our two episodes on Candace hilt's case a
00:56:48
case I believe could still be solved and that is episodes 140 and 141 released September 12th and 13th of last year if
00:56:57
you have listened to them already go to our blog I have added some updates and some information that we received from
00:57:04
Heather Hills and you can do that by going to True Crime garage.com the blog comes up on
00:57:10
the main page there Candace hilt's case and the blog with comments is on the bottom of the second page just click on
00:57:17
there to see my post and of course we want to wish the hilt's family good luck in 2018 with the case and may you get
00:57:25
the justice that you deserve for everything true crime go to True Crime garage.com and thanks for listening
00:57:32
thanks for telling a friend thanks for sharing on social media thanks for spreading the word about the garage
00:57:37
onward and upward to the top of the pops this year in 2018. all right and until next time everybody be good be
00:57:47
kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause] foreign