03-18-2015, 12:46 AM
COLD CASE TIE-IN
Asheville, NC police, have considered the 2000 disappearance of Zebb Quinn a homicide case from early in the investigation. The prime suspect: Robert Jason Owens (then 21 years old).
The 18-year-old's disappearance remains one of the region's best-known unsolved crimes and in 2012 was featured on the Investigation Discovery Channel show "Disappeared."
![[Image: Zeb_Quinn_Reward_Poster_FPJ.jpg]](http://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Zeb_Quinn_Reward_Poster_FPJ.jpg)
Quinn vanished on the night of Jan. 2, 2000. Quinn had gotten off work at the Hendersonville Road Walmart at 9 p.m. He planned to go look at a Mitsubishi Eclipse for sale with a co-worker — Robert Jason Owens.
A Hendersonville Road convenience store video showed Quinn and Owens buying sodas and driving away separately.
According to Owens' account, Quinn later flashed his headlights at Owens and the two pulled off the road. Quinn told Owens he needed to find a pay phone to return a page. He returned about 9:30 p.m. and bumped into Owens' truck. Quinn promised to pay for the damages, then said he had to leave and drove away, according to Owens.
Two weeks later, Quinn's car, a 1990 Mazda Protégé, turned up in the parking lot of Little Pigs Barbecue on McDowell Street, with a Labrador-mix puppy inside and a large pair of lips drawn in lipstick on the rear window. Quinn took no clothes, no contact lens solution, no extra money — nothing that would indicate he was going away. He liked his job and always stayed in close touch with his mother and sister.
The following month, on Feb. 14, a Superior Court judge issued a search warrant authorizing officers to draw hair, blood and saliva samples from Owens relating to Quinn's disappearance.
"He was definitely a primary suspect in the Zebb Quinn case," Duncan said. But police never had the evidence to warrant charges.
Quinn's mother says she has long suspected Owens was involved in her son's disappearance and hopes that he will provide information on the case now that he's incarcerated. I hope so too.
Source: http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/.../24888031/
Asheville, NC police, have considered the 2000 disappearance of Zebb Quinn a homicide case from early in the investigation. The prime suspect: Robert Jason Owens (then 21 years old).
The 18-year-old's disappearance remains one of the region's best-known unsolved crimes and in 2012 was featured on the Investigation Discovery Channel show "Disappeared."
Quinn vanished on the night of Jan. 2, 2000. Quinn had gotten off work at the Hendersonville Road Walmart at 9 p.m. He planned to go look at a Mitsubishi Eclipse for sale with a co-worker — Robert Jason Owens.
A Hendersonville Road convenience store video showed Quinn and Owens buying sodas and driving away separately.
According to Owens' account, Quinn later flashed his headlights at Owens and the two pulled off the road. Quinn told Owens he needed to find a pay phone to return a page. He returned about 9:30 p.m. and bumped into Owens' truck. Quinn promised to pay for the damages, then said he had to leave and drove away, according to Owens.
Two weeks later, Quinn's car, a 1990 Mazda Protégé, turned up in the parking lot of Little Pigs Barbecue on McDowell Street, with a Labrador-mix puppy inside and a large pair of lips drawn in lipstick on the rear window. Quinn took no clothes, no contact lens solution, no extra money — nothing that would indicate he was going away. He liked his job and always stayed in close touch with his mother and sister.
The following month, on Feb. 14, a Superior Court judge issued a search warrant authorizing officers to draw hair, blood and saliva samples from Owens relating to Quinn's disappearance.
"He was definitely a primary suspect in the Zebb Quinn case," Duncan said. But police never had the evidence to warrant charges.
Quinn's mother says she has long suspected Owens was involved in her son's disappearance and hopes that he will provide information on the case now that he's incarcerated. I hope so too.
Source: http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/.../24888031/