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Zebb Quinn: Murdered In 2000 (Asheville, NC) | Part One
00:31:08
It’s January 2nd, 2000—just two days into the new millennium—when 18-year-old Zebb Quinn clocks out of his Walmart shift in Asheville, North Carolina, and vanishes. He was last seen heading off to look at a used car with an older friend and...
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- [00:00]
T Mobile Representative
Summer fun goes great with family freedom from T Mobile. We'll pay off four phones up to $3200 and give you four free phones all on America's largest 5G network. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com familyfreedom. Up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card typically takes 15 days. Free phones via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement eg Apple iPhone 16 128GB8 2,999 eligible trade in eg iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due if you pay off early or cancel contact T Mobile.
- [00:39]
Sarah Reid
It's January 2nd, the year 2000, just two days into a brand new millennium. In Asheville, North Carolina, Zeb Wayne Quinn finishes his shift at Walmart and heads out for a low key evening. He's planning to meet up with a former co worker, Jason Owens, to go look at a used car. But a little after 9pm Something goes wrong. Zeb suddenly pulls over at a gas station and tells Jason he got a page and needed to return the call. Then he just vanishes. Two weeks later, Zeb's car turns up at a barbecue restaurant parking lot. Inside the vehicle are some bizarre clues or red herrings, but there's absolutely no trace of Zeb. What begins as a simple missing person's case quickly spirals into something darker. A trail of staged evidence, suspicious injuries, a mysterious love triangle, and years later, a confession from a man who was already convicted of another brutal, unspeakable crime. And investigators believe they know exactly who killed him. So what happened that night? And who was the quiet, kind hearted teenager at the center of it all? I'm Sarah Reid and this is sequestered season two, case five the disappearance and murder of Zeb Quinn, part one in January of 2000, Asheville, North Carolina was still more of a mountain town than a tourist destination. Downtown had a few quirky cafes and vintage shops, but nothing like the art scene it's known for today. There were still empty storefronts, quiet neighborhoods. The River Arts District was mostly warehouses and if you needed something reliable like a job, you might work in food service or retail like Walmart. Zeb Quinn worked at the one in South Asheville. It sat right off the main drag, Tunnel Road, surrounded by chain stores, fast food joints, and the Blue Ridge Mountains hanging in the distance. The nights that time of year got dark, fast. Cold too. Daytime highs were in the 40s. The roads were still icy and if you got a page, you pulled over and found a payphone There were no GPS apps, no smartphones, just back roads, gas stations and a kid trying to buy his first car. Before the headlines, before the missing posters, before the cold case unit would reopen his case, Zeb Wayne Quinn was just a normal 18 year old kid, born May 12, 1981. The same year as me, actually. We were just seven months apart. That's part of what makes this case stick with me, because I remember exactly what it felt like to be 18 in the year 2000. Your whole life ahead of you, still figuring things out, still coming home for dinner. Zeb lived with his mom Denise and his sister Brandy. His parents divorced when he was 2, so it was just the three of them weathering life together. In an article from the Asheville Citizen Times, his sister Brandy mentioned that Zeb enjoyed caring for his fish and that he was particularly gentle with animals. It's a small but memorable detail that family and friends often repeated to emphasize how sweet natured he was. He was quiet and kind. He worked hard, stayed out of trouble and was somewhat of a mama's boy. Zeb had just graduated from high school and was navigating the push and pull of early adulthood. He was taking his first full course load at Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College and working part time at the local Walmart to pay his way. He was determined to buy his own car, something dependable so he could stop borrowing his mom's. It was a small milestone, but for Zeb it meant freedom, independence, a chance to take another step into the adult world that he was just beginning to build for himself. Zeb was finishing his shift at Walmart that Sunday night, January 2, 2000. He clocked out around 9pm wearing a striped shirt and jeans. Co workers remember him being in good spirits that night. Chatty even. He mentioned to a few people that he was meeting up with his buddy Jason Owens after work to go look at a car. Nothing unusual. No sign of what was to come. Robert Jason Owens was a bit older than Zeb, 25, and used to work in the same electronic department with Zeb at Walmart. They weren't best friends, but they got along. Sometimes they played pool together. And on this night, Jason offered to drive with Zeb to check out the car. Together, the two left Walmart in separate vehicles. Zeb was driving his mother's light blue Mazda 610 and Jason was in a Ford Taurus. The plan was simple. They'd head north toward Lester highway, meet the seller and check out the car. Zeb followed Jason out of the Walmart parking lot. According to Jason, a few minutes passed and then Zeb suddenly flashed his headlights. Owens later told police it seemed like a signal to pull over. At 9:15pm security footage shows both cars pulling into a Citgo gas station. Zeb got out and told Jason that he had gotten a page and needed to make a call. He used the payphone outside of the store. Here's a clip from News 13, WLOC's documentary the Good Kid.
- [07:16]
News Reporter
And the key to finding out exactly what happened to Zeb may be in retracing his father steps on the night he disappeared. And we now know that he came here to this Sitco at the corner of Hendersonville and Long Shoals Road because he came past these doors to use this phone to return a page that he'd received. We know that because Zeb was caught on tape.
- [07:36]
Sarah Reid
Quinn was last seen in this Hendersonville Road convenience store at 9:14 at night with Jason Owens.
- [07:43]
Investigator
When he came back from making the phone call, Jason said Zeb was very excited and he just drove off and that was it.
- [07:50]
Sarah Reid
And then things got strange. Owens told investigators that when Zeb was leaving, he rear ended him. He said Zeb apologized and that he seemed shaken. And then he told him he had to cancel the car appointment and go take care of whatever the page was about. Then, according to Jason, Zeb just takes off. Jason claimed that was the last time he ever saw him. Just over an hour later, Jason Owens admitted himself into an urgent care center and was treated for a head injury, several rib fractures and abrasions that he said he sustained in another car crash that night. He claimed he had hit a deer on his way home. But his injuries and the timeline immediately raised suspicions. Over the weeks to come, Owen's story would change multiple times. And that story about Zeb rear ending him, that wasn't sitting right either. Because there was no damage to Zeb's car, no visible signs of any collision at all. Investigators would later question whether it ever even happened or if the story was just a convenient way to explain Owens own injuries that night. That night, Zeb's mom, Denise waited up. At first she figured he was just running a little late. Maybe he lost track of time. Maybe the car appointment had taken longer than expected. But by midnight, she was pacing. And by 1am she was calling around friends, co workers, anyone who might have seen him. Zeb wasn't answering his pager. He didn't call, he didn't show. By morning, Denise was panicking. She called Walmart, she called his friends. And then she called the police because deep down, she already knew this wasn't like him. Zeb wouldn't just disappear. One of the first articles we could find about Zeb Quinn going missing was published in the Asheville Citizen Times on Sunday, January 9, 2000, just one week after Zeb vanished. The article, written by staff writer Phil Alexander, was titled Buncombe Family Trying to Find Missing Teen. It captures the earliest moments of panic, uncertainty and the desperate hope Zeb's family clung to after he failed to come home. The article outlines what little was known in those early days. Zeb Quinn, 18 years old, had just finished his shift at Walmart on Hendersonville Road. Around 9pm on Jan. 2, he left the store with a friend to go look at a car for sale, but never made it back. Even in those first days, Denise Quinn told the paper she had a sinking feeling something was very wrong. But Zeb was 18, and as his mom said in the article, police have.
- [11:07]
Denise Quinn
Told me his disappearance doesn't seem suspicious for now.
- [11:11]
Sarah Reid
Of course, we know now it absolutely was. Two days after Zeb Quinn goes missing, Jason Owens calls Walmart pretending to be Zeb Quinn. He said he wouldn't be into work. Here's an interview with zeb's supervisor from WLOC's the Good Kid. I got a phone call here at the store and it turns out it was Jason Owens calling in saying that he was Zeb Quinn and that he was not going to be in to work. And I knew that was not Zeb's voice. And so as soon as he hung up, I hit star 69 on the phones to find out that it was traced to Volvo Construction Co. Where Jason Owens worked.
- [12:00]
Investigator
Jason made a phone call from his place of employment to Zeb's place of employment pretending to be Zeb. I mean, that's policing 101.
- [12:10]
Sarah Reid
Exactly two weeks after after Zeb Quinn disappeared, another headline from the Asheville Citizen Times sent a ripple of hope through the community. The article, written by Susan Dryman and published on January 18, 2000, read, Missing Buncombe Teenagers Car Found. Zeb's 1990 light blue Mazda, NC tag KXK 5057 was discovered in the parking lot of Little Pig's Barbecue on McDowell street in Asheville. Zeb's mother had received a call from one of his former classmates saying she had seen his car in the restaurant parking lot next to the hospital. According to Asheville police Captain Ted Lambert, the car had not been there since the night Zeb vanished January 2nd. It seemed like someone had moved it after the fact maybe even tried to hide it. And what was found inside the car made everything even more bizarre.
- [13:10]
News Reporter
This drawing found on the back of the missing teen's abandoned car is something police say they can't say they've seen before.
- [13:18]
Police Officer
On the back of the car, there was a set of lips that was drawn on the back window of the car. And on each side of the lips is an exclamation point. Now, this could have been drawn with, you know, a lipstick, crayon, magic marker, or paint. And we're not sure when the drawing was placed on the car.
- [13:40]
News Reporter
Inside the car, investigators found this, a magnetic hotel key. So far, they haven't been able to trace where it came from or who used it last.
- [13:49]
Investigator
You have a hotel room key and the local police somehow can't pull any usable information off of it. You had, I believe, a jacket that maybe was not Zeb's size, and then you had this pair of lips drawn in red lipstick on the back windshield. Just. Just bizarre. Once the car was found, that really, you know, made it seem like it just. It just didn't make sense, you know.
- [14:19]
Sarah Reid
A live black Labrador puppy, a hotel key card, and a pair of lips drawn in lipstick on the back windshield. There's no id, no signs of Zeb, just a series of strange disconnected clues. Here's news coverage from wlock.
- [14:49]
Investigator
Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.
- [14:53]
Denise Quinn
Honestly, Will, I didn't plan any trips, but I did switch to T Mobile with their new family freedom offer.
- [15:01]
Investigator
That's not the itinerary we're following.
- [15:03]
Denise Quinn
Well, I'm departing from AT&T and embarking on a new journey with T Mobile. They paid off my family's four phones up to $3200 and gave us four new phones on the house.
- [15:17]
Sarah Reid
Bon voyage.
- [15:18]
T Mobile Representative
Introducing family freedom. Our lowest cost to switch our biggest family savings all on America's largest 5G network. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com familyfreedom. Up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card. Typically takes 15 days. Free phones via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement eg Apple iPhone 16128 gigabyte $8029.99 eligible trade in eg iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits. End and balance due if you pay off early or cancel contact T Mobile.
- [15:47]
News Reporter
Police now know the car was parked here at the Little Pigs parking lot sometime between 9pm Saturday night and 8:30 Sunday morning. What police don't know is why it took nearly two weeks for the car to turn up at all.
- [15:59]
Police Officer
I think it was placed there to where it would be found easily. If not, then we would have found the car behind the warehouse out in the woods or something like that.
- [16:10]
Sarah Reid
As investigators tried to make sense of the car, a haunting reality started to set in. Zeb hadn't just run off. Zeb's sister Brandy told the Asheville Citizen Times that it wasn't like him to leave his family in the dark. He was sensitive to that kind of thing. He'd even get upset when his mom didn't tell him where she was going. Here's the other thing. Jason Owens version of events was starting to fall apart quickly. At first, he tells officer, Zeb accidentally rear ended him. But we know Zeb's car showed no damage from a rear end accident. Then Owens shows up at urgent care with multiple injuries stating he hit a deer on the way home. But no scene was ever found. Then he called Walmart pretending to be Zeb. And then he just stopped talking. Even in2020, his actions weren't just suspicious, they were damning. By late January, Citizen Times columnist Robin Tomlin reported in her piece that Zeb's mother, Denise Quinn, had already been searching for weeks, posting flyers, speaking with psychics and calling police every day.
- [17:28]
Denise Quinn
She told reporters, none of this adds up. Zeb loved his job. He'd just bought a DVD player and satellite television system. He was looking ahead. She added, he doesn't have a coat. I've been wearing his coat.
- [17:44]
Sarah Reid
In that same article, Denise Quinn wondered aloud, if this was a crime, why leave the car in such an obvious place? And what did the puppy, the lipstick mark and the hotel key mean? The pain of not knowing was unbearable. Denise told columnist John Boyle in another.
- [18:03]
Denise Quinn
Article, to not know is horrible. I don't know whether I should grieve or wish him well. If someone would just drop us an anonymous note or tell us where he's buried. I just want to be able to find some peace.
- [18:25]
T Mobile Representative
And then a local couple came forward, reporting to police that they saw Zeb's Mazda being driven on Tunnel Road by a white female about 25 to 30 years old, with light brown curly hair. From their description, a composite sketch was.
- [18:40]
Sarah Reid
Made in the weeks after Zeb's car was discovered abandoned outside Little Pig's Barbecue. Asheville police received a tip from a local couple. According to reporting in the Asheville Citizen Times, on August 6th of 2000, the witnesses told investigators they were out driving when they saw Zeb's light blue Mazda. But it wasn't Zeb behind the wheel. The couple said a woman was driving the car with a man in the passenger seat. The sighting stuck with them because of the car's resemblance to Zeb's and because of the unusual behavior of the people inside. They told police they believed the woman they saw matched the description of Misty Taylor, a young woman who would later become central to the investigation. At the time, Misty Taylor denied having anything to do with Zeb's disappearance, and there was never enough evidence to confirm whether it was truly her driving the car. But the sighting raised an important question. Who moved the car and if it was Misty or someone connected to her? Why? Police never publicly confirmed the couple's identities or released any additional details about their account. But to this day, it remains one of the only known sightings of Zeb's vehicle in motion after he vanished. The composite sketch was later said by the couple that it only moderately looked like the female they saw. But I can attest and it could be confirmation bias, but if you put the composite next to the picture of Misty, it looks pretty similar. We've put both of these images up on our website, sequesteredpod.com if you want to see them for yourself. So who was Misty, and how would she be connected to Zeb? That eyewitness account of a woman driving Zeb's Mazda and the resulting composite sketch raised immediate suspicion. Police began asking, who could that woman be and why would she be behind the wheel of Zeb's car? At the time of Zeb's disappearance, Misty was a young woman from Arden, North Carolina, known to be in an on again, off again relationship with an abusive boyfriend named Wesley Smith. It's reported that Zeb was romantically interested in Misty and the two had been developing a relationship. Multiple people, including Zeb's co workers at Walmart, later told investigators that Zeb had been spending time with Misty. Some even described it as a budding romantic interest. But there's more to it than that. According to reporting in the Asheville Citizen Times, Zeb's supervisor, Patty Andrich, said he had recently told her he was scared and that someone had threatened him, though he never said exactly who. The context pointed to complications around his connection with Misty. So when a couple claimed they saw a woman who looked like Misty Taylor driving Zeb's car days after he went missing, it couldn't be ignored. Was she helping someone cover something up? Was she afraid? Or was she more involved than anyone realized? Misty Taylor wasn't just a passing name in the investigation, she became one of the most talked about figures in the early days of this case. Zeb's mom, Denise, his father, and his sister all spent time walking investigators through those last days. They retraced everything. Zeb's shifts at Walmart, his conversations with friends, and his interactions with Misty. They believed this triangle, Zeb, Misty and Wesley might hold the key to what happened. So how does Jason Owens tie into Misty Taylor? The short answer is he doesn't. Not directly, at least. Not then. Despite being the last known person to see Zeb Quinn alive, despite telling police that he and Zeb had gone to look at a car together before Zeb got a page and abruptly left, Jason Owens had no apparent link to Misty Taylor. According to investigators, Jason didn't even know who Misty Taylor was or Wesley Smith, her boyfriend. There was no known relationship, no shared friends, no social overlap except Zeb. That leaves us with a chilling question. If Jason and Misty weren't connected, why did Zeb disappear while in Jason's company? And why was Zeb's car later spotted with a woman who looked like Misty behind the wheel? Was Jason simply a pawn in something bigger? Was he helping someone else? Or was he lying about what really happened that night? Years later, detectives would revisit this triangle again. But even then, they reiterated Jason had no motive tied to Misty, and yet he would become the case's most persistent shadow.
- [24:27]
Investigator
Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.
- [24:31]
Denise Quinn
Honestly, Will, I didn't plan any trips, but I did switch to T Mobile with their new family freedom offer.
- [24:39]
Investigator
That's not the itinerary we're following.
- [24:41]
Denise Quinn
Well, I'm departing from AT&T and embarking on a new journey with T Mobile. They paid off my family's four phones up to $3200 and gave us four new phones on the house.
- [24:55]
Sarah Reid
Bon voyage.
- [24:56]
T Mobile Representative
Introducing family freedom. Our lowest cost will switch our biggest family savings all on America's largest 5G network. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com FamilyFreedom up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card. Typically takes 15 days. Free phones via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement eg Apple iPhone16128 gigabyte $8029.99 Eligible trade in eg iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits End and balance due if you pay off early or cancel contact T Mobile.
- [25:25]
Sarah Reid
When Misty Taylor was questioned, she told investigators that she met Zeb through her mom at Costa's Kitchen. She said they were just friends and that her boyfriend Wesley knew they were friends. According to WLOS, investigators spoke to Misty Taylor six times and Wesley Smith three times between the years 2000 and 2009. In fact, years later, when investigators obtained a new search warrant connected to the case, it focused not on Owens but on Misty. The warrant cited Zeb's affection for her and mentioned that her boyfriend at the time had a history of being abusive. Still, police were careful to clarify the person named in the warrant was not considered a suspect or even a person of interest, just someone whose name kept coming up and someone whose connection to Zeb had never been fully explored. One official said it wasn't a new lead. It was unfinished business, loose ends left dangling in a case that had grown cold far too quickly. And even with the search warrant, there was one problem. As one detective put it, just obtaining.
- [26:38]
Investigator
The samples doesn't mean we necessarily have something to compare it against, because at this point, we don't.
- [26:48]
Sarah Reid
Months passed. Still no sign of Zeb. What started as a missing persons case was quickly turning into one of Asheville's most baffling unsolved mysteries. As the calendar flipped to January 2001, Zeb Wayne Quinn had now been missing for a full year. A year with no answers. No body, no concrete evidence of a crime. Just silence and grief. On the one year anniversary of his disappearance, the Asheville Citizen Times published a piece by Tanya Maxwell titled Questions Abound in Quinn Case. The article captures a community still waiting, a family still hoping, and a mother slowly coming to terms with the idea that she may never know what happened to her son. Zeb's co workers at Walmart hadn't forgotten him. They kept a vigil going, his name tag, photos, flowers and flyers pinned to a vest. At the store where he'd worked, customers still asked about him. His supervisor, Tricia Andrick, said she hadn't even decorated that year for Christmas. Zeb helps me put them up, she said. And this year I couldn't bring myself to do it. The article describes what Christmas Eve looked like for Denise Quinn. In 2000, Denise hung Zeb's stocking again, the same one he'd had since his first Christmas. She told the paper she missed his holiday excitement, how he used to rise early and wait patiently for his mom to give the green light to open gifts. He would have been 19 years old that day, and still Denise Quinn refused to believe. He simply left, she said.
- [28:39]
Denise Quinn
My boy can't be alive. It wasn't in him to just vanish.
- [28:44]
Sarah Reid
Everyone who knew Zeb agreed. He wasn't the type to disappear. He used to sneak into his mother's room late at night to let her know he'd made it home safe. After work, he reported his whereabouts like clockwork. But that was Zeb. He was consistent, he was careful, and he didn't run away. Even Captain Ted Lambert of the Asheville Police Department admitted how baffling this case had become.
- [29:12]
Investigator
He said, at times it's frustrating. There just isn't closure for Zeb and his family. That's not to say he isn't still alive.
- [29:21]
Sarah Reid
But the only thing that had surfaced in the past year was more mystery on what should have been Zeb's 20th birthday. May 20, 12th, 2001. His mother placed a deeply moving ad in the Asheville Citizen Times with a photo of her smiling son.
- [29:38]
Denise Quinn
She wrote, zeb, I miss your eyes, your smile, your laugh, your presence. Happy birthday. Love always, Mom.
- [29:51]
Sarah Reid
She called him a sweet baby, a cuddly little boy, a woman, warm and loving young man. The ad ended with a chilling reminder of all that remained unknown. May 12, 19812 question mark. A life paused in time. A mother still holding space, grieving, waiting. Theories piled up and so did the frustration. Zeb's father, Jerry Quinn, believed the answer was simple. He blamed Misty Taylor's boyfriend, Wesley Smith, and didn't mince words about it. To quote the Spin magazine article, quote, I'll choke the piss out of him. End quote. Zeb's mother, Denise, took a different path. She channeled her pain into action. She plastered the town with missing posters, pushed for media coverage, and even put up a billboard near the restaurant where Zeb's car was found, begging for answers. Meanwhile, suspicion around Jason Owens quietly grew. As we know, Owens was the last person to see Zeb alive. And here's something that rarely gets mentioned. The morning after Zeb vanished, Jason Owens own mother reported him missing. He hadn't come home. He missed work. And just like Zeb, he had disappeared. At least for a while. And Misty's family? They denied everything. Her mother, Tamara, told Spin magazine that she was tired of being harassed, frustrated by the whispers, the rumors and the constant suspicion. And that's where the trail stays made. Suspicion, silence. And a growing sense that no one was ever going to talk. And in the middle of it all was Zeb, an 18 year old kid who kept showing up for work, kept helping his mom, kept his head down and then just vanished. Not just from the road that night, but from the priority list of a system that should have gone looking harder. Zeb Quinn's family never stopped looking. But the trail was cold and the one person who knew more than he ever let on would disappear into the background for the next 15 years. Until another tragedy brought his name screaming back into the headlines. In part two of this case, we take a deep dive into the investigation, a second look at Jason Owens, a search warrant, and another murder case 15 years later that brings Zeb Quinn's name back into the headlines. To see photos, source documents and behind the scenes content, head to sequesteredpod.com subscribe on Apple Podcasts for ad free episodes and bonus material. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time for part two of this case. SA.