Zebb Quinn SOLVED

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. A little for you. Oh, thank you.

A little for me here. There we are. Well, Haley, we have made it. We have made it to episode 100.

Wow, cheers to that. Yes, I, you know, I was thinking about it the other day. Our journey to podcasts sort of started in a weird way. We pre-COVID and about three months before my son was born.

I had this job where I had to travel pretty far and usually I was out really late on Monday nights. And for some reason, driving back, Haley and I would always talk and we used to call it deep thoughts with Holly and Haley. I forgot about that. We used to call it deep thoughts because we were talking about some really like deep stuff.

And so we just kind of had this running joke of wouldn't it be fun to have a podcast because people were telling us like, oh, you guys are so funny together and you know, you should have a podcast and for the longest time you're like, yeah, we'll have a podcast. Hilarious, no, it's a girl's talk. That seems so just ridiculous. But then as COVID struck, well, my son was born, COVID struck things to change.

We just started talking about like, we could bring this into fruition. We could do it. We could do it. And it's kind of became real.

And then in October of 2020, we premiered. And here we are 100 episodes later. Yeah, we still have that love and feeling for each other and what we do. I know.

And now all of you are here with us. Yeah, which is kind of crazy. Because as we said, we were just hoping that five people would listen to, of which would be our mothers. Right.

So now I don't think our moms even listen. Well, they don't really listen, but the rest of you do. And you pick up where our mothers have abandoned us. Well, you'll be our mommies.

So thank you for doing that. And you know, Haley, cheers to 100 more. Yeah, it's been such a weird, like, a weird journey of figuring out, I mean, because we're still doing all this on our own. Yeah, we don't have as an assistant, we don't have anybody who produces us for us.

We don't have a researcher. We don't have an editor. Like it's all us. It's all us.

We manage our own social media. We do all of our editing, everything on our own. We still have our janky mics with our zip ties. We still have sound issues.

We still have problems. We, you know, it's never going to be perfect. And I think as we go along, things will get better. But and it has been because we started out sharing one mic.

We did. Yes, we had no mic stand. We sat side by side. And you can hear in those early episodes, it was like, Oh, I'm holy.

I'm Haley. It just it sounded like we were underwater. It did. It sounded like we were underwater.

I know. I've thought about several times. We need to go back and rerecord those. But then I'm like, I don't know, I kind of like to see how we have improved.

I think so like a good movie. I think it's kind of cool. Yeah. But we will hopefully have some exciting things coming out.

I'm working on, which I mean, if I've really I haven't shown any to Holly yet, because I don't have, they're all in my brain. I haven't put them on paper yet designs for like maybe some stickers and shirts and some do some merch. I love it. We have a potential lead, which I'm telling you just like alive on air right now, possibly getting to do like a live show somewhere.

That's great. You're really cool. Oh my gosh. Don't you tend me with a good time.

Yeah, it's really crazy. Can you imagine where we actually have to like look at decent and talk in front of people? And I can't. I have to do that at work.

And it's challenging. Right. But this is we have to talk about murder and like be funny in front of life. In one table.

In one table. And one table. You can't be like, Oh man, this is really bad. I can't say Hayley edit that out.

No pressure. Sorry. I'm good. I am so excited.

All right. I 100 episodes. Finally, might maybe in a few months present you with merch or something. I can't wait.

Yeah. So we're working on some designs. I will figure it out as we go. But if you guys would be interested in it, let us know.

Yeah. And let's talk about some things that we can have on there. I mean, you know, when I think Thanksgiving, I think dismemberment fits Gerald that bastard. Like, I mean, you know, there could be it was Fitzgerald.

You know, I mean, I think of all the things that we say that could be fun little shirts. Yeah. But yeah, just let us know if you would have any and I don't know if people wear t-shirts with like things like that. Of course they do.

We're just very big. Okay. And I'm feeling like I would represent all the time. I mean, I love stickers.

I put stickers on everything. Yeah, I actually just bought one for you that says I heart true crime. Fun. Seriously.

And I meant to bring it to I got you that last one that had the induction. Yeah, that's really fun. Perfect. But yeah, I just I think stickers are definitely an option.

Maybe shirts. Whatever. I mean, we can put what's some fun, whatever. I love it.

I know if you have an interest and we can create a little merch, maybe store. Yeah. Yeah. You're out.

Oh, I'm so excited. All right, you guys. Well, part of the reason, you know, we talked a lot about what is episode 100 going to be. There was a lot of pressure and maybe we just kind of put it on ourselves.

But then it happened. One of the stories that I had done in February of 2021, and that was episode 21. Which is also like a huge case. Yeah, but on ID channel, yeah, everything.

Well, there's a resolution to it. There's an answer. And now the case that was cold is closed. So what is that case?

I'm glad you asked. This is the case of Zeb Quinn. All right. So I am really happy to say this is solved.

Not by us. We didn't do it. We didn't do it. I promise we had nothing to do with this.

Absolutely nothing. But alas, here we are. So this is an 18 year old guy who went missing in Asheville, North Carolina by the name of Zeb Quinn. And he was never heard from since.

There have been many theories and some leads in this case, but also a lot of dead ends. So if you miss this original episode, which like I said was originally aired in February of 21, and this was episode 21, I kind of want to give you a brief synopsis on this case just so you know where we are. Give you a little context. So as I mentioned, Zeb Wayne Quinn was from Asheville and recently had graduated from high school.

He was working part time at Walmart while going to the local community college. Zeb was very trusting of people and he was very kind-hearted. Everybody said that he was a great worker. Just overall great kid.

Had a crush on the girl named Misty, but her ex-boyfriend allegedly had threatened Zeb and told him, you know, if you don't stay away from her, you know, this is going to happen. And Zeb kind of took a step back, but his family was like, you need to stay away. And she was like, excuse me, he was like, oh, you know, he's just an angry ex-boyfriend. So he just really didn't take it to heart.

So on the night of January 2nd, 2000, Zeb had finished his shift at Walmart and was seen at a convenience store with his friend, Robert Jason Owens. Owens and Zeb ran in the same friend circles and Owens promised that he would take Zeb to look at a car because Zeb was interested in purchasing a new car. Later that night, Owens ends up going to the hospital with a head injury and some broken ribs and he claimed that he had been in a car accident, although there were no reports of a car accident that were filed. Hmm, kind of weird.

When Zeb doesn't come home the next day, his family really becomes alarmed and his mom calls the cops. Two days after he disappears, the manager at Walmart, where he worked, received a call from someone pretending to be Zeb saying that, you know, he wouldn't be into work his shift because he was sick. When police trace the call back, it was from the Volvo plant, the same Volvo plant that Jason Owens worked at. Owens was brought in by the police for questioning and he was the last person to have seen Zeb and, you know, he was asked about this phone call like, how would this conveniently come from your work?

Well, Owens said that Zeb was following him in his car. So this is after they left the convenience store. So Owens is driving his car, Zeb is following and Zeb flashes his lights kind of tells Owen, oh, I need you to pull over. So Owens does and Zeb says, hey, I got this page.

That's right. Pater's worth it. I got this page and, you know, I've got to call whomever this was back. So he runs to a payphone.

So Owens went back then and he, you know, calls whomever this was and Owens says, you know, Zeb came back and said, oh my gosh, you know, there's an emergency I have to leave and he was kind of frantic. So Owens said that was the last time he saw Zeb, Zeb went off. He Zeb assumed, you know, maybe there was a family emergency, excuse me, Owens assumed maybe there was family emergency, maybe he went to see a girl, you know, we don't know. So he went off.

When questioned by police about the injuries that Owens had, that he went to the hospital for, he again claimed, no, I've been in the car wreck and when they said, look, there are no police records saying you were in a car wreck or a car wreck even happened. He said, well, I didn't report it. So you think about it, insurance purposes, you're in a car wreck, your car's damaged. Of course, you're going to report that.

But no report was made. Two weeks later, Zeb's car was found abandoned in the parking lot of Little Pigs BBQ. This was not far from the hospital where Zeb's own mother worked. The back window of the car had red lips and an exclamation point painted in lipstick.

Inside the car, they found a jacket that did not belong to Zeb, a hotel key card, empty drink bottles, and weirdest of all, a live Labrador puppy. Yeah, that's always an weirdest piece to me. Hey, that makes no sense. Anyway, I put a dog in there.

Right. People had said that they had seen this car being driven by a female. And some said, oh, it looked suspiciously like the girl he had a crush on, but no substantial leads really came from the car. And the case over time went cold.

That was until 2015, when Robert Jason Owens, the same one who saw him, who saw Zeb for the last time, was arrested for murdering Food Network star contestant, Christy Schoen and her husband, J.T. Cod. Christy was also pregnant at the time. And Owens claimed that he had accidentally run them over with his truck while they were doing work at the house.

And he got scared and burned their bodies. Just accidentally ran over to the pool. And two people of them? I mean, yeah.

I mean, I can kind of see like, okay, horrific accident. One person. Right. And horrific accident.

Then you call 911. Oh my God, we've got a call 911. Yeah. But no, there was no phone call.

There was a I'm scared. Why don't I just burn these bodies? Yeah, not it. So police searched Owens' property and found the charred remains of the couple.

Yeah. So in 2017, he was indicted on first degree murder charges. You know, not only in the desk of these individuals, these two poor people who were killed and they're in their unborn child, but also he was indicted on murder charges of Zeb Quinn. Right.

So that's kind of where we left off in our story that, you know, COVID had happened and there really hadn't been any movement on the case until recently. All right. So here we go. In 2018, Owens, who was serving the life sentence for killing Kristi, JT, and their unborn child, admitted to investigators.

And this was kept on the hush on by the way. So we're giving this info to you now, but we had no idea about this, right? So he admits to investigators that he was involved in Zeb's disappearance, but that he didn't kill him. He told them that he lured Zeb to the Piska National Forest, telling him telling Zeb, you know, that he would be meeting up with that girl Misty that he had a crush on.

So this was his plan, right? So we're going to get him out to the forest. We're going to tell him, hey, Misty's going to be there. And this would be the thing that he would be like, yeah, yeah, I'll go.

So he does. Zeb excitedly follows Owens behind him to the forest where Owens uncle Walter Jean Owens was waiting for him. Zeb quickly caught on that he was not meeting this girl Misty, but instead was ambushed by Jean Owens, who get this was hired by Misty's boyfriend. Remember the one who threatened to harm Zeb if he didn't stay away from Misty?

Two kills up. So this was a murder for hire. Owens claims that his uncle Jean shot Zeb and then dismembered his body right there in the forest. Yes.

So I haven't read any of this because I was anticipating you doing the story. So I'm like, I don't know any of this information. Yeah, it is insane. Absolutely insane.

So says that his uncle shoots him, dismembers him, and he helped his uncle burn and destroy the body. Yeah. Owens told officials that they could find the remains in the bent Creek area of the Piska National Forest. So quickly police ran, they didn't walk, to that area and began searching.

And it was never really revealed if any remains had been found necessarily. But Owens claimed that his uncle actually hit a piece of Zeb's skull under a rock in the forest, but that Owens had ended up getting scared and removed it hiding it somewhere else. Which, you know, all right. Yeah, I know.

It doesn't. That's a piece that just really doesn't make sense to me. So obviously we're thinking, okay, this is 2018. We have got to go and charge Jean.

Yeah, there's a problem. He is. Owens uncle Jean could not be called in for an interview because he had passed away in 2017 of a heart attack the year before. He was 66 years old.

Yeah, yeah. Which is just like so frustrating. So, but you know, the history of Jean was that apparently he had been very abusive towards his nephew, Jason Owens, and that Jason was so scared of him that he would do whatever. Yeah.

So it's important to note here that Owens did pass a lie detector test while delivering this information. Interesting. Yes. Exactly.

That's what I was going to say, this test, however, in admissible in court. So you couldn't even use that. So I'm unsure whether or not there have been any, I'm unsure whether there have been any current investigation into Misty's boyfriend. His name is Wesley, whom Owens had claimed, you know, set up the whole murder.

So I don't know. But one thing that is suspicious. Remember that page that Zeb got on the night he went missing? Yeah.

Okay. So the page was actually traced back to Zeb's aunt's house. Remember that? Yeah.

The aunt was, you know, someone that he really didn't have a relationship with. This was his paternal aunt. He really never spoke to her. The aunt ended up that night.

She was having dinner at a friend's house. The friend was Misty's mom. Misty was also present at the dinner. So this leads you to wonder.

Did the boyfriend know that the aunt would be gone for dinner? So he came into her house. Now the aunt did report that that night someone had broken into her house and they were like pictures moved around. But I mean, you know, they're like, somebody comes in and just moves your pictures.

Yeah. I remember that being the weird. I was like, well, that didn't somebody break in. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like, almost like you just had a weird ghost. Right. But it would make sense if someone knew you were gone, came into your house and just have hazardly moved things while they were paging someone, calling to page.

Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Okay. So the question is, did Owens really commit this crime on his own and he's blaming others?

He did pass a lie detector test. So after the admission, it took four years for Owens to see a courtroom. And this was due to personnel changes. This was due to COVID, which put, you know, all trials back.

So on July 25, 2022, just a couple of weeks ago, Owens takes a plea deal. Yes. He takes a plea deal as an accessory to murder. And while prosecutors themselves were not 100% of the belief that Owens wasn't the murderer himself, they agreed to the plea deal.

And the assistant district attorney, Jeremy Engel, said this, and this is a quote, based on the evidence available, the lack of evidence of motive, cause of death, and spoilation of evidence based on decades long pause in critical leads in the case, a conviction of first degree murder at trial, though never a certainty, would present a steep challenge considering all these factors. So in this case, I mean, they kind of had to take what they could get. But one thing is for certain, we now know that Zeb is dead. Investigators say that they were able to cooperate some of Owens's story and that it did appear that his uncle may have been the murderer or at least the mastermind.

So the hearing was held like I said on July 25th and wasn't just to announce the plea deal and sentence, but it also allowed the family and friends of Zeb to speak. Poignantly, Zeb's mother, Denise Velakis, stood before the courtroom and read her impact statement aloud. Here's what she said. When I was not really happy with a couple of his friends in high school, and I told him he would be judged by the company he kept, he looked back at me and said, they have done nothing wrong to me and have done nothing wrong around me and I will continue to be their friend, she said.

This is the young man that was taken from his family, friends, community and the world. This is a young man that never would have seen his end coming. This is the young man who trusted his friend, Jason. I really just wonder for myself, you know, like what a family like if the family feels a sense of peace knowing that, you know, he's no longer with us or has this caused some re-grieving?

Probably both. I mean, I would think like you finally like the relief of knowing, like at least now you know and you're like that peace can start to heal a little bit, but then also the like the trauma of now knowing what happened, like how the double edged sword there. And you know not just being lured out, but the manner in which he was killed that his body was disposed of. And you know, it's just so unclear.

I feel like there's a lot of information that just hasn't totally come out. Yeah, I mean, because it's odd that like it was it was a good friend of his. Yeah. Like he and Jason seem to have been good friends.

Yeah. And this kind of led Jason down this path of murder. I mean, and then to murder two other people, was it this idea of well, I got away with it then. I can get away with it now.

Yeah. I don't know. No, that's just. So honestly, in this case, there's still so many unanswered questions like what happened with the car?

Like what's the deal with the boyfriend who allegedly set up this murder for hire? Why was Jason so injured? Exactly. Why?

There's why doesn't make any sense that he had to zip fight him? Right. Did he exactly was there some kind of struggle? You know, maybe he's like, Oh my gosh, mrs.

Not here. And he tries to run away. And you know, Jason's trying to keep him there and they kind of go get into blows. I don't know.

Was he beaten up by his uncle? His uncle who was like, You're gonna do this? Was it kind of a force thing? Like, I don't know.

I don't know where the injuries come from. That is so weird to me. Very odd. Yeah.

And then I mean, clearly, he knew he was doing wrong by calling in and pretending that Zeb would, you know, couldn't come to work because he was sick. So, I mean, because he knew where I was the whole time. You know, it just is so weird. And the fact that they sat on this for like this many years, I know, is weird to me too.

Just to me says there's more evidence than we know of, but maybe not enough to get a first-screen murder. But you think now it would all come out because what would think it's over? Well, yes, but it's not over. So, honestly, what's going to go on with a boyfriend?

If they think that that was a murder for hire, I think they would start looking at him. I mean, honestly, I tried to Google this and no information has come up. So, I don't know if that's something they're keeping really close to the best, which probably, probably. So, you know, another thing of it is, you know, how they found remains or really can anything be physically linked to this crime besides the admission.

I mean, then again, we have a conviction. So, there's somewhat of a resolution. And, you know, we've had convictions of murders where nobodies have been found at all. So, I don't know.

But I just think about his mom's statement and how, yes, had he been a little bit more discerning, you know, maybe this wouldn't have happened. But honestly, at the same time, you know, would you have changed, you know, the loving guy's ab was. I'm sure she wouldn't have, you know. Those what-ifs I think for people that will just drive you crazy.

You know, it's hard, though. It's hard not to think. You know, he ends up, oh, and Jason Owens was sentenced to 10 years as an accessory to Zeb's murder and will serve that time concurrently along with his life sentences in the deaths of Kristi Showan, J.T. Codd and their unborn baby boy.

So, here is a statement by one of the prosecutors. He says, Zeb Quinn would have been 41 this year. It was always the hope of investigators in the DA's office that more facts and details would be uncovered with regard to Zeb's disappearance. In response to new statements made by Jason Owens, law enforcement conducted searches for evidence at Owens Cove Road.

That's where he lived. And bent Creek, but failed to find human remains or other evidence cooperating Jason's statements. So, there you go. That's weird to me.

I don't like contradictory information, though. It's like- Because you're not going to do that good job of getting rid of bones. Like, right. There's something here that we're missing.

So, he says, nevertheless, today's plea is supported by non-circumstantial direct evidence obtained by investigators going back to the week's following Zeb's disappearance. And for the first time, legally establishes that Zeb Quinn was murdered. All right. What do you have?

See, again, that's what I want to know. What is the evidence that you have that he was murdered? I don't know. You don't have a body.

Again, maybe this ties to- That boyfriend. Maybe there's something that they're not saying because they're working on another- Yes, could very well be. It's just so strange. So, while we may never know the full truth of these many years after Zeb's disappearance, my sympathies are with the family and all of those who suffered as a result.

Today's plea was discussed extensively with both Zeb Quinn's mother Denise Velakis and his sister, Brandy Quinn, and was approved by them in advance of today's conviction. It's my hope that anyone wishing to sensationalize today's plea will respect the family's desire for peace and privacy. I mean, on that note, we don't wish to sensationalize the plea at all and are grateful for the peace and closure for this family and the story, but I just can't imagine how difficult this has been for the last 22 years, not knowing. And, you know, does Zeb's family and friends like we wish them comfort?

Yeah, I mean, they've been through- they've had to deal with this, but this has been a really, really well documented case like, and it's been on everything. And it has, and it just seems like how weird, like, okay, so this uncle, I mean, we just never heard this angle before. And he never was a suspect, the uncle. Like, he never would have popped up there.

You would think that, you know, if you were being investigated, you would be like, my uncle did it. Like, I mean, like, that would be the first go to. I don't know, unless he was really just terrified of his uncle and his uncle threatened to kill him. And maybe the beating up could have been that.

Maybe he was beaten up by his uncle as a threat saying, listen, I'll do you what I do to Zeb if you ever tell anybody. And he waited until the uncle died to say it. So that could have been part of the angle. No, it's weird.

It's weird. I don't like it. It's really weird. But it's more to that.

I think so too. There's just something I feel like, just like, you can't reach. Like, there's something there that I can't quite put my finger on. And, you know, maybe, maybe more will come down, you know.

I don't know. So that's my 100. A solved case. Yeah.

Yeah, not too shabby for 100. Easy. Yeah. So anyway, yeah.

It's a heavy one for 100. But I'm glad we have some resolutions. Yeah. Well, if you would like to reach out to us and, you know, send us some feedback, please do so.

You can reach out to us, you know, through our email at mountainmysteries.appleachn at gmail.com. You can reach out to us on Facebook at mountainmysteries.talesfromappleachia. Check us out on Instagram. at mountainmysteries.appleachia.

And if you are hankering for more, and let me come on, this wouldn't be. Right. You know, after 100 episodes, you'd love some more. Please check us out on our Patreon at patreon.com slash mountain mysteries.

Hey, Lee, do you have a shout out? I do. This is special for 100. Warner Robbins, Georgia.

Thank you for listening. And thank you, everyone, for supporting us for 100 episodes. 100. I mean, here's to 100 episodes more, Haley.

Let's do it. I didn't think about that. Let's do it. We'll probably be back another, you know, almost two years.

How crazy. All right. Well, thank you guys. And we'll see you soon.

Bye.