Post by hi224 on Sept 15, 2019 0:03:42 GMT
I found out about this case recently, and I became very interested in trying to explain all of the clues that didn't seem to fit.
Link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Zebb_Quinn
Case summary:
An 18 year old kid (Zebb Quinn) goes missing, last seen by his coworker Jason Owens. According to Owens, they were going to buy a car when Zebb apparently received a page on his pager, and whatever the message was, it freaked him out so much that he sped off into the night never to be seen again. He is so panicked that he even rear-ends Owens' car as he leaves. The page was later found to have come from Zebb's aunt's house, who denies sending the page, claiming that she was hanging out with her friend. Her friend's daughter, Misty Taylor, was in a relationship with Zebb for a while but Misty had a boyfriend (Westley) at the time, and Westley had made threats to Zebb when he found out about the affair. According to the aunt, Misty and the boyfriend were present at Misty's mum's house that night, and while they were there someone had broken into the aunt's house. The burglar reportedly moved some pictures around but didn't steal anything.
The next day, Owens calls into the Walmart where Zebb worked pretending to be Zebb and calling in sick. We know he did this because he later admitted to it, and explained that Zebb had asked him to do it for him as a "favour". Owens also checks into a hospital around this time as he has some bruising and chest injuries from what he claims was a second car accident he got into. Then a few days later Zebb's car shows up in the parking lot of his mum's workplace, with lipstick smeared on it and a (live) dog inside of it. The police get a tip and later a police sketch of a woman who was supposedly driving the car before it was dropped off; the woman seems to resemble Misty Taylor. The police are unable to find any evidence linking Owens with Misty and/or Westley.
Now 15 years later, after Owens has been convicted of a separate murder case, police have apparently found new evidence tying Owens to Zebb's disappearance, and have now charged him with Zebb's murder. This has raised many questions: who sent the page? Are Misty/Westley somehow involved, and if, so, how?
I told the case to my brother, and after hashing out the details for about half an hour, he came up with a theory which fits better than a lot of other theories I've read/seen. I apologise if someone else has posted this theory already, I did a quick search, looking at replies and so on, but the theories I found suggest that either Misty and Westley did it and somehow Owens got caught up in their murder plan, or Owens did it solo and framed Misty/Westley from the start, getting an accomplice to break in to his aunt's house to page Zebb or something.
My brother's theory:
So basically, Zebb and Owens go off to buy the car. The aunt is visiting her friend, Misty's mum, and she sees Misty and her boyfriend Westley there as well. At some point during this dinner party, while the aunt is deeply focused in conversation with Misty's mum, Misty and/or Westley slip away and sneak over to the aunt's house. They break in and page Zebb with some disturbing message. Maybe like "This is Misty/Westley. Your aunt is dead." Or something sinister that would cause Zebb to freak out. (Edit: As someone pointed out, it wouldn't be make a lot of sense to sign off on a page like this... so they probably didn't, they just sent some disturbing message, possibly pretending to be Zebb's aunt and making it out like she was in danger).
The thing with the page though is that it was just meant to be a prank, something to mess with Zebb or scare him. At most, they might have been planning to lure him to bash him up or something, but the point is Misty and Westley were never intending to kill Zebb. Maybe they had planned on beating him up only to ultimately chicken out. Most likely though, after sending the page they simply sneaked back to Misty's house, satisfied that they'd given Zebb a good scare for whatever reason - mission accomplished.
Here's what happens to Zebb however: Zebb receives this ominous page, understandably freaks out, and in his panic, he rear-ends Owens' car. Now we know that Owens is a madman - we know he has later gone on to murder this other couple in 2015. We know Owens is capable of murdering. And Zebb has just hit his car. So what does Owens do? Owens follows Zebb, not out of concern for his safety or thinking he needed "backup", but purely out of anger that Zebb hit him. One way or another Owens manages to confront Zebb about it. Maybe Zebb pulls over to try to calm down Owens who has been erratically tailgating him. Or maybe Owens follows Zebb all the way to the aunt's house, which is now empty as Misty and/or Westley have left. Point is, Owens is mad, and Owens and Zebb get into a physical fight. If Zebb made it to the aunt's house, because he'd been told his aunt was dead or dying, and then Owens arrives in an angry fit, Zebb trying to explain that he was panicking because his aunt was in trouble would probably only enrage Owens further, because for the two of them standing in what is now clearly an empty house, Zebb would sound like he was totally full of it or something. Owens and Zebb get into a fight; Zebb injures Owens, and Owens goes too far and kills Zebb. It may have been an "accident" too - Owens only meant to exchange a few punches, but when Zebb fell, he hit his head wrong. Woops.
After that, Owens finds a way to dispose of the body, and either gets a girl who coincidentally looks like Misty to drop off the car, or maybe he gets an accomplice to tip off the police that a woman resembling Misty was driving the car. Or maybe that witness statement is just bogus, and the witness was confused with a totally different car, and it just happened to work well in Owens' favour. (Witness statements are not always the most reliable).
Misty and her boyfriend basically are not responsible for his murder, but they DID cause a chain of events that led to it, and because of that, they look guilty as hell, and they know it. They probably have no idea what really happened, but they know how bad they already look, so understandably they've kept quiet about their dumb and illegal prank - breaking into a house to send a threatening page to a murder victim on the night he was murdered. After all, they already have an alibi for that night, so all they need to do is keep quiet! Owens, on the other hand, might have known about Misty if Zebb had confided to him about her, and he may have somehow staged the car drop-off a few days later to take some of the heat off of him and onto Misty - especially as by this point, the Walmart phone call has backfired on him and he knows he's a prime suspect.
Zebb's murder was not premeditated, it just looks like it was because of the events that led up to it, which is why this case has been so difficult to solve.
I like this theory a lot, because it explains how the police do eventually find evidence linking Owens to Zebb's death, even though there is no direct connection between him and Misty/Westley or the mysterious page. It also means that Owens wasn't lying when he described the events of that night. All good lies are based on truth. Zebb DID receive a page. He DID freak out. He DID speed off into the night after rear-ending Owens' car. All of that is true, but Owens just never told the full story - what happened after Zebb drove away.
I think the weakest part of this whole theory is that the ultimate "motive" for the murder was essentially just road rage, but I think it's plausible given the fact that Owens has since demonstrated he is capable of killing. Afaik the police never released a motive for the Codd killings, so I don't know if rage was a factor in that one.... but still, it's not a huge stretch of the imagination, is it?
Link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Zebb_Quinn
Case summary:
An 18 year old kid (Zebb Quinn) goes missing, last seen by his coworker Jason Owens. According to Owens, they were going to buy a car when Zebb apparently received a page on his pager, and whatever the message was, it freaked him out so much that he sped off into the night never to be seen again. He is so panicked that he even rear-ends Owens' car as he leaves. The page was later found to have come from Zebb's aunt's house, who denies sending the page, claiming that she was hanging out with her friend. Her friend's daughter, Misty Taylor, was in a relationship with Zebb for a while but Misty had a boyfriend (Westley) at the time, and Westley had made threats to Zebb when he found out about the affair. According to the aunt, Misty and the boyfriend were present at Misty's mum's house that night, and while they were there someone had broken into the aunt's house. The burglar reportedly moved some pictures around but didn't steal anything.
The next day, Owens calls into the Walmart where Zebb worked pretending to be Zebb and calling in sick. We know he did this because he later admitted to it, and explained that Zebb had asked him to do it for him as a "favour". Owens also checks into a hospital around this time as he has some bruising and chest injuries from what he claims was a second car accident he got into. Then a few days later Zebb's car shows up in the parking lot of his mum's workplace, with lipstick smeared on it and a (live) dog inside of it. The police get a tip and later a police sketch of a woman who was supposedly driving the car before it was dropped off; the woman seems to resemble Misty Taylor. The police are unable to find any evidence linking Owens with Misty and/or Westley.
Now 15 years later, after Owens has been convicted of a separate murder case, police have apparently found new evidence tying Owens to Zebb's disappearance, and have now charged him with Zebb's murder. This has raised many questions: who sent the page? Are Misty/Westley somehow involved, and if, so, how?
I told the case to my brother, and after hashing out the details for about half an hour, he came up with a theory which fits better than a lot of other theories I've read/seen. I apologise if someone else has posted this theory already, I did a quick search, looking at replies and so on, but the theories I found suggest that either Misty and Westley did it and somehow Owens got caught up in their murder plan, or Owens did it solo and framed Misty/Westley from the start, getting an accomplice to break in to his aunt's house to page Zebb or something.
My brother's theory:
So basically, Zebb and Owens go off to buy the car. The aunt is visiting her friend, Misty's mum, and she sees Misty and her boyfriend Westley there as well. At some point during this dinner party, while the aunt is deeply focused in conversation with Misty's mum, Misty and/or Westley slip away and sneak over to the aunt's house. They break in and page Zebb with some disturbing message. Maybe like "This is Misty/Westley. Your aunt is dead." Or something sinister that would cause Zebb to freak out. (Edit: As someone pointed out, it wouldn't be make a lot of sense to sign off on a page like this... so they probably didn't, they just sent some disturbing message, possibly pretending to be Zebb's aunt and making it out like she was in danger).
The thing with the page though is that it was just meant to be a prank, something to mess with Zebb or scare him. At most, they might have been planning to lure him to bash him up or something, but the point is Misty and Westley were never intending to kill Zebb. Maybe they had planned on beating him up only to ultimately chicken out. Most likely though, after sending the page they simply sneaked back to Misty's house, satisfied that they'd given Zebb a good scare for whatever reason - mission accomplished.
Here's what happens to Zebb however: Zebb receives this ominous page, understandably freaks out, and in his panic, he rear-ends Owens' car. Now we know that Owens is a madman - we know he has later gone on to murder this other couple in 2015. We know Owens is capable of murdering. And Zebb has just hit his car. So what does Owens do? Owens follows Zebb, not out of concern for his safety or thinking he needed "backup", but purely out of anger that Zebb hit him. One way or another Owens manages to confront Zebb about it. Maybe Zebb pulls over to try to calm down Owens who has been erratically tailgating him. Or maybe Owens follows Zebb all the way to the aunt's house, which is now empty as Misty and/or Westley have left. Point is, Owens is mad, and Owens and Zebb get into a physical fight. If Zebb made it to the aunt's house, because he'd been told his aunt was dead or dying, and then Owens arrives in an angry fit, Zebb trying to explain that he was panicking because his aunt was in trouble would probably only enrage Owens further, because for the two of them standing in what is now clearly an empty house, Zebb would sound like he was totally full of it or something. Owens and Zebb get into a fight; Zebb injures Owens, and Owens goes too far and kills Zebb. It may have been an "accident" too - Owens only meant to exchange a few punches, but when Zebb fell, he hit his head wrong. Woops.
After that, Owens finds a way to dispose of the body, and either gets a girl who coincidentally looks like Misty to drop off the car, or maybe he gets an accomplice to tip off the police that a woman resembling Misty was driving the car. Or maybe that witness statement is just bogus, and the witness was confused with a totally different car, and it just happened to work well in Owens' favour. (Witness statements are not always the most reliable).
Misty and her boyfriend basically are not responsible for his murder, but they DID cause a chain of events that led to it, and because of that, they look guilty as hell, and they know it. They probably have no idea what really happened, but they know how bad they already look, so understandably they've kept quiet about their dumb and illegal prank - breaking into a house to send a threatening page to a murder victim on the night he was murdered. After all, they already have an alibi for that night, so all they need to do is keep quiet! Owens, on the other hand, might have known about Misty if Zebb had confided to him about her, and he may have somehow staged the car drop-off a few days later to take some of the heat off of him and onto Misty - especially as by this point, the Walmart phone call has backfired on him and he knows he's a prime suspect.
Zebb's murder was not premeditated, it just looks like it was because of the events that led up to it, which is why this case has been so difficult to solve.
I like this theory a lot, because it explains how the police do eventually find evidence linking Owens to Zebb's death, even though there is no direct connection between him and Misty/Westley or the mysterious page. It also means that Owens wasn't lying when he described the events of that night. All good lies are based on truth. Zebb DID receive a page. He DID freak out. He DID speed off into the night after rear-ending Owens' car. All of that is true, but Owens just never told the full story - what happened after Zebb drove away.
I think the weakest part of this whole theory is that the ultimate "motive" for the murder was essentially just road rage, but I think it's plausible given the fact that Owens has since demonstrated he is capable of killing. Afaik the police never released a motive for the Codd killings, so I don't know if rage was a factor in that one.... but still, it's not a huge stretch of the imagination, is it?