Transcript
Sarah Reed (0:08)
In the last episode, we trace the final hours of the last day. 18 year old Zeb Quinn was seen alive. The urgent page that made him abruptly change his evening plans and then vanish without a trace. Two weeks later, his Mazda was found abandoned in the parking lot of a local barbecue restaurant. Inside, officers found a lot. A hotel key card sat on the dash and a set of lips were painted in lipstick across the back window. Zeb's family made mention that the driver's seat had been moved forward like someone shorter had been behind the wheel. That detail lined up with a tip police received. A woman was seen driving that car a week prior with a man in the passenger seat. Some thought that woman resembled Misty Taylor. Others weren't so sure. In this episode, we follow the people and the clues that tried to untangle what happened. This is sequestered. Season two, case five the disappearance and murder of Zeb Quinn, part two. In early 2000, cell phones weren't yet universal. A lot of people, especially teens, still carried pagers. I know I did. To page someone, you'd dial their pager number, hear a series of beeps, then punch in a callback number before hanging up. Seconds later, the pager would beep or vibrate and a small LED screen would light up with that number. Pagers had their own shorthand too. For example, you could leave a callback number and then add the numbers 1, 4, 3, which meant I love you based on the number of letters in each word. Or you could put 07734, which read hello when you read it upside down. But if you received a 911, that meant call me ASAP. It's not clear what numbers flashed across the screen of his pager that evening, but for Zeb, that page and the phone call that followed would be cause enough for him to abruptly change his plans and leave in a hurry. Eventually, police would trace that page back to a landline. But not just any landline. It actually came from the home of Zeb's aunt on his father's side. Ina Ustich. A little context here. Zeb's parents divorced when he was young. His father, Jerry Wayne Quinn, was a Vietnam veteran, a Marine, and a respected member of the Asheville community. He stayed in the area, stayed in touch with his son, and owned a local restaurant and bar where Zeb would sometimes meet up with friends, including Jason Owens, to shoot pool. A woman named Tamara Taylor worked there as a waitress. She was close friends with Zeb's aunt Ina, so close that the two women were even planning to open a restaurant together. So here's where things start to connect. Tamara's daughter is Misty Taylor. And just weeks before his disappearance, Zeb met Misty for the first time at his dad's bar, where she was waiting for her mom to finish her shift. The two exchanged numbers and began talking regularly. But Misty had a secret. She had a baby and a boyfriend. Wesley Smith, who was known to be abusive and controlling. Friends and family warned Zeb to stay away from Misty, but despite their warnings, he kept talking to her. By all accounts, his feelings for her were genuine and his advances were innocent. Maybe even a little naive. Now, we can't corroborate these next details, but according to the Reddit Web sleuths, on New Year's Eve 1999, while the century was turning and the world was welcoming in a new year, Zeb and Misty reportedly spent the entire night talking on the phone. But over the next two days, Misty would ignore Zeb's pages and any of his attempts to contact her. On January 2nd, at some point before his shift began at Walmart, Zeb finally decided to call Misty. Usually, he would dial Starseed before calling, blocking his number so that Wesley didn't know it was him. But that time, he forgot, and Wesley answered. Zeb's grandmother just happened to be walking in the room as he hung up the phone. She later reported that she saw the fear on his face as he told.