Unsolved cases

Disappearance/murder of Zebb Quinn

Zebb Quinn was born on May 12, 1981, and was 18 years old when he disappeared after finishing his shift at a Walmart in Asheville, North Carolina.

Zebb had plans to travel to Leicester with Robert Jason Owens, one of his co-workers, to buy a new car after work.

The two met up in the parking lot before they each drove away separately in different cars. They were seen purchasing sodas at a convenience store at 9:15 pm.

According to Owens, after they left the gas stations, Quinn signaled him to pull over. Once they did, Quinn received a page from the Pager and needed to return the call. Once he made a call in a pay phone, Quinn was supposedly "frantic" and told Owen that the plan was canceled and he needed to go. Quinn drove off and ended up rear-ending Owens's car.

Hours later, Owen came to the hospital with fractured ribs and a head injury. He claimed it was from a car accident but no police report was made.

The following afternoon, Quinn's mother reported him missing. Two days later, someone impersonating Quinn called the Walmart where he worked and claimed he couldn't make it to work due to an illness. The employee who took the call knows that the voice on the phone wasn't Quinn.

The phone call was traced to a Volvo plant where Owen works. Owen claimed that he made the call to cover Quinn, who supposedly called him and asked him to make the sick call.

During the investigation, police talked to Misty Taylor, with whom Quinn was romantically interested. Quinn had developed a relationship with her in the weeks preceding his disappearance and had told friends and family that he had been threatened by her abusive boyfriend, Wesley Smith after he discovered the two had been speaking. Taylor and Smith have denied any involvement in Quinn's disappearance

The police reviewed the number that Quinn received on January 2nd and it was from his aunt's house, despite him having little contact with her—the aunt, Ina Ustich, claimed that she never made a call.  Ustich told police she was having dinner at the home of her friend Tamra Taylor, Misty's mother; Misty and Smith were also present. Ustich later filed a police report stating that her house was broken into that evening. Although nothing was stolen, she reported that a few picture frames and other items were moved around.

On January 6, 2000, Vlahakis received a phone call from a former classmate of Quinn's, who happened to be a co-worker at the Asheville hospital where both were nurses, who told her that she had seen his Mazda Protege in the parking lot of a Barbecue restaurant adjacent to the hospital. Police examined the car, which had been left with its headlights on; a pair of lips and an Exclamation mark were drawn on the car's back windshield in Lipstick, and a live black Labrador -mix puppy was found inside. A keycard was also found inside a hotel but the police were unavailable to trace the hotel.

A tip from a couple revealed that they saw the car driven downtown and helped police make a composite image of the driver. The tech resembles Misty Taylor.

On March 17, 2015, fifteen years after Quinn's disappearance, Owens was arrested for the disappearance and murder of Food Network Star contestant Christie Schoen, her husband J.T. Codd, and their unborn child.  Owens later admitted to killing the family by accidentally running over them and also pleaded guilty to two counts of dismembering human remains. On April 27, 2017, as part of a plea deal that his attorneys had reached with Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams, Owens was ordered to spend between 60 and 75 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

In June 2015, detectives investigating Quinn's disappearance announced they had unearthed "fabric, leather materials, and unknown hard fragments" under a layer of concrete on Owens's property. The search warrant was initially obtained on March 31, 2015. According to the warrant, investigators also found an unknown white powder substance, as well as pieces of metal and concrete. On another part of the property, authorities found "numerous plastic bags containing possibly pulverized lime or powdered mortar mix." Authorities did not comment on whether the fragments found were human bones or if they believed that they had discovered Quinn's remains, citing an ongoing investigation.

In July 2022, it was announced that Owens had told investigators back in 2018 that a family member killed Quinn, dismembered his body, and burned the remains, and that evidence could be found in Bent Creek Experimental Forest.

On July 25, 2022, Robert Jason Owens pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Via his attorneys, Owens accused his uncle, Walter "Gene" Owens, who died in 2017, of murdering Zebb Quinn. Robert claimed that Gene was hired by Misty Taylor's boyfriend to murder Quinn. Robert claimed that Gene had unknowingly lured him and Quinn to meet Taylor in Pisgah National Forest. Robert claimed that Gene was present at the park instead of Taylor and murdered Quinn by shooting him with a .22 rifle. Robert said that Gene then dismembered and burned Quinn's body and that he assisted Gene in the cover-up. He was sentenced to 12+1⁄2 to 15+3⁄4 years in prison, to be served concurrently with his de facto life sentence for the two unrelated killings. The district attorney stated that Robert Jason Owens's conviction legally establishes that Zebb Quinn was murdered

The case by some remains...

Unsolved