Austin Colson ////// 578 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who just tattooed the
initials of Kim Kardashian's children right on his bare body ladies and gentlemen here is the very stylish and
topical Captain yeah they call me Captain Pete it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening
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there you go thank you and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer
let's talk some true crime foreign Deanna McKinney hasn't heard from her son for two weeks
flyer on the door of her West Lebanon apartment like dozens of others posted in towns along the New Hampshire and
Vermont border hoping to find 19 year old Austin Coulson I can't sleep or eat or anything because I'm so worried
because I don't know it's just killing me inside police say on January 11th Coulson left an
apartment he shared with his girlfriend in Royalton Vermont authorities say Colson may have gone to collect scrap
metal a partially filled trailer is believed he was using was found in nearby Sharon to date we have had no
sightings or contacts with him obviously his family is very very concerned this is as described to us as very unlike him
Captain Sinclair says coulson's cell phone has been been turned off since 11 o'clock on the day he disappeared and
while they don't suspect foul play at this point they have received no credible leads to his whereabouts his
mother hopes someone can help the family get answers it kills me inside because I know my son he wouldn't just
get up and disappear with no evidence of anything it's like he just vanished it's
hard for me not knowing what happened or where he is if he's safe but if he's not
[Music] no foreign [Music] a couple of months ago I received the following email
hi Nick I've listened to you guys for a few years now I live in a small area in Vermont that is close to New Hampshire
we had a horrendous murder that happened a few years ago still to this day there has been no conviction
this needs attention brought back to it this is a very small town with not a whole lot going on
Trisha Haynes was the last murder that was left by the wayside and I don't want that to happen again
this young man was murdered and found in the wall of a barn I would really like this case brought to
light the victim was a young man and the perpetrator is a nasty and continued offender of all kinds of
crimes who continues to get away with this murder and it sickens so many of us I would
love for the two of you to tell this story please might help bring the process of a
conviction back and that is what led us to this week's True Crime Story it's a case where we have a young man
trying to better his life sure he makes mistakes and sure he might take some shortcuts
but he is still growing and still learning learning to make it out on his own one way or another
he's a man in some ways in other ways he's still just a kid so in those years sure mistakes can
happen all of the time but 99 of the time those mistakes are not fatal but in this case he trusted
someone he should not have and then he paid for it with his life we are here to tell you that someone our victim knew
is responsible for his murder yet four years later that man continues to evade a conviction
will he ever face murder charges and will we ever find Justice for this young man
this is true crime garage and this is the case of Austin Colson [Music] on Thursday January 11 2018 Katie
grasafi said goodbye to her 19 year old boyfriend Austin Coulson when he left their apartment located at 224 rainbow
Street and South Royalton Vermont this was around five in the morning previously Austin had asked to borrow
his father's trailer so he could pick up some loads of scrap metal and get them to a dealer so that was the plan for the
day pick up and haul some loads of scrap metal get paid and return the trailer as
soon as possible Austin will have some help with the labor as well a buddy of his name Rich Whitcomb will be working
with him so the two Austin and Rich were going to go pick up the trailer that morning and
return it at the end of the day Katie his girlfriend was texting Austin throughout the day but at some point
Austin stopped replying to her text then later Katie's text to Austin started not
going through at all Katie wasn't too worried because in Vermont there are lots of dead cell service areas
sometimes you have to drive up a mountain to get some service and calls can get dropped with no warning so she
really didn't start to worry until much later yeah and the type of work that Austin is doing
there's no set in time so she's not gonna get worried because his in time of work could vary every single day
now he's supposed to pick up this trailer from his father's house this is actually a very typical situation Austin
would pick up the trailer from his father's house take the scrap metal get money for the scrap metal and then
return the trailer at some point in the day before two o'clock around I'm guessing 145 or so is when Austin's
father sees that his trailer is gone but again no big deal because he'll bring it
back later that day yeah no big deal because the trailer is supposed to be gone right Arrangements were already
made so his father is his name is Dana and it's yes right around 1 45 p.m that he notices that one his trailer is gone
as Austin said it would be but also he notices that Austin's vehicle was parked there at his property so Dana knew that
Austin and whoever was helping him that day would have hooked the trailer up to someone else's vehicle now
that night when Dana gets back home the second time and the trailer was still gone and
Austin's car is still there right where his son had left it early that morning this seems like something that he might
be concerned about but Austin's father Dana would actually say that at first he wasn't concerned he still wasn't
concerned he assumed that they were just running late or had run into some type of unpredictable delay and that
eventually the trailer would be returned that night or maybe even the following morning
but Katie was a completely different story she was really starting to worry about Austin because Austin wasn't
answering his text and by now it was late and as we said at some point she believed the texts weren't even going
through to him and he's still not responding at a later time so she starts to drive around looking
for Austin she continues to call him and text him but there's no response from her boyfriend
his phone was off as far as she knew by 4 am so this would be nearly 24 hours since she last seen Austin she at this
point is hysterical and not knowing what else to do she drove over to her mother's house her name is Lori and the
two of them together started making phone calls Katie texted Diana this is Austin's mom
who lived in New Hampshire praying that she would have heard from her son but she hadn't Deanna called her ex-husband
Dana waking him up and same story there as well captain no he hadn't seen or heard from Austin as well yes his car
was still at his house and now is when we all start to believe that something was terribly wrong
Austin's mother is going to notify the police that he is missing yes she starts by calling the New Hampshire State
Police remember she lives in New Hampshire Austin lives in Vermont so she's told to call the police in Vermont
where Austin lived and had vanished from she does so and the police took down a report initial media Reports say only
that Foul Play was not suspected but police were concerned for Austin's welfare but Diana emphasized that Austin had
never before left and remained out of touch for more than a day with his family and especially with his
girlfriend they were extremely close so she was concerned and later she admitted
on a segment of Channel 5 news that Austin's disappearance might have something to do with drugs
now we have his father Dana that said in an interview that the family went over to this guy's home who was this guy well
we've heard this name before already Richard whitcomb's house they wanted to see if they could find
Austin remember it was no mystery who Austin was working with on the day that he did not come home
so we have Austin who's missing went working with Richard Whitcomb we also have this trailer that is still missing
it's never been returned to Austin's father at this point Whitcomb was the man with whom Austin told his family he
would be scrapping with on the day that he went missing yeah Richard was somebody that would help him with
different jobs but it's not out of the realm of possibility that you wake up hey we're going scrapping today and
Richard says hey I can't make it well and Austin worked for himself and at times would work with different people
he didn't work with Richard Whitcomb daily this was specific to that day's task now keep in mind though another key
factor here is not only has he worked with Richard in the past and told people that he would be working with Richard on
that day Dana quickly points out that he knew that Richard's vehicle was capable of Towing his trailer Austin's
car was not capable of pulling the trailer and Wickham was someone awesome work with and hung out with regularly
according to Katie his girlfriend that's a great point that you bring up and I think that's very important for people
to understand Austin's vehicle could not tow this trailer Austin had to be driving
somebody else's car or somebody had to be driving a vehicle that was capable of moving this trailer because we know the
trailer is not there right and when they go when the family goes to speak with Richard Whitcomb he says well no
in fact I hadn't seen Austin that Thursday after all I know he told you that we were going to be working
together but I didn't see him one and two I have no idea who had towed the trailer but he says he himself was about
100 miles away in Manchester New Hampshire on that same day so not only did he not help Austin he was busy and
he was out of town doing other things for about the entirety of the day right an alert on the Vermont State Police
Facebook page said that Austin Coulson was missing and he was five foot eight inches tall 135 pounds with brown hair
and brown eyes said that he was last seen wearing blue jeans boots and a hooded camo jacket with a white ball cap
with black lettering with the words A and C painting on it after that visit from the family rich
whitcomb's wife Sarah started posting on the state police Facebook page about Austin's disappearance saying she was
hoping he would be found safe and soon this makes this case a little more difficult because Austin working for
himself you don't have this definitive list of people that Austin could have been working with but let's dive into
his background so we know a little bit more about who Austin is Austin Coulson was a Vermont native born to Mom Diana
and Dad Dana who were divorced Dana lived just a few miles away and Diana lived in nearby New Hampshire Austin
also had an older brother and a younger sister he went to Hartford High School where he played basketball soccer and
baseball but he never graduated in the winter of 2018 he was trying to get his life on track and at this point he's
actually running his own and at this point he's actually running his own painting business that's the A
and C painting that he started in 2017. things had gone well initially but business took a downturn in the winter
time so Austin and Katie had to take on odd jobs to make ends meet hauling scrap
metal was one of the jobs that he regularly took on Austin also made homemade soaps and
candles that he sold at farmers markets and even in local retail stores and he was working to get his GED in
2018 before he went missing Austin and his girlfriend Katie as we said were very close Diana later said of
their relationship quote he had a good girlfriend and they both loved each other to death and would do anything for
each other end quote while Austin was missing Katie told Dateline I just want him home
I love him more than anything now no one in Austin's family or Katie herself believed that Austin had just gone away
on his own again we he was very close with his family very close with his girlfriend and specifically he was very
close with his younger sister and his father the relationship that he had with his girlfriend to everyone
said that it was Rock Solid his family truly fell and believed and shouted this from the mountaintops that
his leaving Austin leaving was really just simply out of the question well let's look at some of the evidence he he
takes no belongings with him he doesn't even have his vehicle and he then takes a trailer it doesn't make a lot of sense
well and if Rich Whitcomb did not go with him that day we know somebody went with him that day because as you pointed
out his vehicle can't tow the trailer right so we need to fill in that blank real quickly was rich actually with him
that day or did somebody else take Rich's place and now we need to figure out who that person is almost a week
after Austin vanished Katie and her mom Lori they're together they end up finding the missing trailer
this on one of the back roads this was a downer Road in Sharon Vermont about 10 miles from Dana's home we have Dana who
says when I was notified I dropped what I was doing and drove there as fast as I
could get down there he says when he got there to the trailer all of the detectives were already on
the scene the trailer was parked on the side of the road perpendicular to the road the
trailer was still partially loaded with some of the scrap metal pieces that they
were to be hauling that day there was a light dusting of snow on the trailer so according to everybody that was there
that day they agreed that this meant that the trailer had been sitting there for a couple of days
so missing trailer found however there's still no sign of Austin so they find the
trailer but they don't find a vehicle with the trailer and again we we need a vehicle to be
pulling this trailer the area in which they find the truck not only is their light dusting of snow
I'm guessing it's pretty cold this time of year what I see here Captain is a situation where it's fortunate that the
police are taking this young man's disappearance seriously right there's been some debate about that however what
we do know is we have the father who owns the trailer saying hey I'm notified that my trailer was found about 10 miles
from my home I raced down there as soon as I could get there and when I get on the scene detectives
are already there checking out the trailer looking in the area looking for my son looking for evidence as to
why the trailer was there who put it there where could my son be so it appears to me that they are already
taking this very seriously enough to send detectives to the scene of the trailer but I'm guessing that
everything's going to get ramped up real quickly with the finding of this trailer
if I was a detective on the scene once I find that trailer and no vehicle to me this is pointing to the worst case
scenario of homicide plus they're going to try to find anybody that may have seen the trailer arriving and being
dropped off left there or vehicles coming and going from the area so you're going to Canvas the area by reaching out
to anybody that you think may have seen or heard anything in the week that had passed since this man went missing and
now we have the trailer being found so they find a local jogger who tells them that she had actually
seen the trailer at that same location where it was eventually found but the first time she had seen it was
on Thursday a week earlier in fact Thursday was the day that Austin vanished so he goes missing on that day
and according to this jogger that trailer was there the entire time right the whole week that everybody's
looking for him so it just been sitting there Dana his father says that the detectives searched the area there there
are 30 cabins in that location because I guess in that same spot there's a summer
camp so the detectives and law enforcement went into every cabin they even brought in dogs to help search the
area they covered a wide area during their search but unfortunately there was no sign of Austin but it's hard to
imagine what his family's gone through when they start searching this land and searching the cabins again everything
starts pointing to something very tragic happening well and this is quite interesting too here Captain if it gives
us some insight into their investigation because the police will come out and say hey we
need the Public's help and that's because according to a Vermont state troopers news release the police believe
that the scrap metal found on the trailer was likely collected in Royalton Sharon and or the surrounding towns so
they have reason to believe that they can narrow down where the scrap metal likely came from so they are seeking
public assistance in identifying the exact locations where the scrap metal was collected from so often I'm sure
some of us have experienced this I know I have where you may see a hauler a scrapper or whatever you call them in
your area but they may drop by and say to you hey if you ever have anything set it out on this day or leave it out on
this day and I'll swing by and pick it up I I do my rounds in this area on this day and I collect everything that I can
so they're looking to find people that either had a direct conversation with Austin about picking things up or set
some things out that were later gone and this would be interesting because what they want to do here Captain they want
to try to trace the origins of the metal and that's going to help them reconstruct Austin's day creating a
timeline and a road map so to speak and perhaps lead them to their missing person Austin Coulson
authorities also determined that Austin's phone unfortunately was not going to be helpful to them at all
or if it was going to be helpful it was going to be in the least bit helpful because they figured out that it was
powered off around 11 15 a.m on January 11th the same day that he went missing Austin's whereabouts after that of
course were a mystery but when you hear about Austin and when I first was researching this case this young man
picking up scrap metal he has a painting service he is making candles and making
soaps and doing all these odd jobs to make it by go look up what Austin Colson looks like
he looks like a child but he was doing these manly type jobs I think by seeing a picture of him you're
going to be able to get up better sense of why his family was so fearful and maybe
also why law enforcement was taking this so serious so now we get into the searches and the searching for Austin
and searching for evidence as to what could have happened to this young man so first we know that police took a look at
the small home where Austin and Katie lived together it's not clear whether Katie gave permission for this because
she may not want the police in there not because she had anything to do with Austin's disappearance but rather that
police searched the home and find a small marijuana growing operation inside the home as well as sizable quantities
of cash that's their words sizable quantities of cash I do not know exactly what that means but that as the words
used in media reports other searches and this is very interesting here Captain police
conducted several searches for Austin over the next few weeks after finding the trailer they concentrated on the
area surrounding the location where the trailer was found but to no avail but then on February 1st
they received a tip about a quote body sighting this was at a very specific two-acre property located at 714 Beaver
Meadow Road this is about eight miles from the location where the trailer was found it's unclear what or who the
source of this tip was but police followed up on it right away on the property they found a baseball hat with the words
A and C painting on it this was Austin's hat thank you [Music] all right we are back if you need more
TCG in your earballs check out our bonus show called off the Record or go purchase one of our three bonus
episodes colonel cheers to you cheers well along with Austin's hat here Captain according to
the VT Digger which is a great news source for this case and some others that we've covered in the past police
also located shell casings at the scene as well as a cigarette butt with coulson's DNA on it and a pair of
gloves now they did not find any further signs of Austin Coulson in that area but you
have to wonder unfortunately for the family and for his girlfriend if I'm there on the scene or I'm a
family member I'm getting worried at this point that we might be looking for human remains rather than finding Austin
alive and well state police records show that the investigation into his disappearance
began on January 12th Troopers first interviewed the family and trying to get a sense of who Austin was his
connections his last movements and so on now Dana and Katie both told police that
Austin had plans on that day he went missing to go scrapping with Richard Whitcomb they're giving them that name a
name once Austin went missing his mother asked Whitcomb about it he tells her that Austin had never responded to a
text from him that day and he didn't know what had happened so now we have multiple family members saying that
Austin planned to spend the day scrapping with Rich Whitcomb and someone helped Austin tow away the trailer that
he would have needed to go scrapping but Whitcomb as we know says Nope I wasn't there it was time for police to figure
out if this man is lying or not and really this is not rocket science here the last person believed to be with
Austin was Richard Whitcomb of course police are going to be very eager to pin him down on January 16 2018
Vermont State Police Major Crimes unit detectives Albright and Holden interviewed Rich Whitcomb at the
Royalton VSP Barracks during the interview Whitcomb denied knowing anything about
coulson's disappearance the detectives were aware that Wickham was a felon with a reputation for being involved in the
drug trade at this interview Whitcomb admitted to knowing Austin and scrapping with him on occasion but Whitcomb told
the detectives that on January 11th he never saw Austin that day instead he Whitcomb was in Manchester buying
cocaine well that's quite The Alibi give me a little bit of that nose sugar Whitcomb admitted to middling drug deals
for Austin Coulson and said that the previous week he gave Austin a firearm as collateral in a cocaine transaction
all right so we have Whitcomb and ex-felon admitting that he was the middleman in drug deals whereby he would
deliver drugs to Austin's customers and bring the money back to Austin and he had used a gun as collateral
collateral sounds like to me Captain that Austin did not really trust Whitcomb with the merchandise or the
money I don't know if you should trust a drug dealing drug user Wickham admitted
that he and Austin were in contact via phone on the morning of the 11th he said that he texted Austin that morning but
Austin never got back to him again that's the same story that he told family members so the detectives
naturally said well cool can we see your phone remember this interview is on the 16th
Austin is only missing five days at this point in our timeline if Whitcomb is telling the truth well then there is
every reason to believe that whitcomb's phone would reflect that conversation oh
but Wickham told them he didn't have the phone it was gone in fact he had switched to a new cellular account on
the 13th telling detectives his wife found out that he made a trip to Manchester on the 11th to buy drugs she
was upset she made him get rid of all of his drug connections that were saved on
his phone she forced him to get rid of the phone so detective Albright of course this ain't his first rodeo he
found this story to be extremely fishy he also knew that as a convicted felon Whitcomb was prohibited from being in
possession of a firearm yet he just readily admitted that to the police Whitcomb told the detectives he did get
the gun back from Austin and it was located at his home that it was still there in his house but it didn't belong
to him it belonged to his father-in-law detectives said well you don't mind if we take a look for it at your house do
you to which WIC to which Whitcomb agreed to tell them where the gun was and let them enter his home to retrieve
it so he said that they could also search his car so meanwhile what we have here Captain a separate batch of
detectives was interviewing his wife Sarah in another room at the same time right they're asking her about the gun
in the phone she told them that both were at the house she consented to a search of the residents and the couple's
car she's saying that the phone his phone is still at their home to which he said that they had gotten rid of the
phone so now we got some different stories going on here but at the end of it what we learn is that police have
permission to search for the gun and the phone in their home and in their vehicles what happens is the Vermont
State Police they're concerned that before they can get out there to search the home that somebody else might get
there and remove these items so very smartly here they contact some police department in Hartford and asked
if they would secure The Whitcomb residents so that nobody could go in and out before they could get in there and
search for these items that's pretty freaking smart what ends up happening is a Hartford officer got to the Wickham's
home and he convinced one of the children to open the door he called Sarah rich whitcomb's wife
on the phone and had her talk him through finding the phone in the home it was located underneath the covers of a
bed in the master bedroom the officer picked it up and placed it right next to the front door so when the
detectives arrived it was sitting there waiting for them when the VSP detectives arrived at The
Whitcomb household during the search of the residents the officers also located the firearm in
question and then additional cell phones they took all the phones and the gun along with an eight-round magazine
containing five bullets and left the premises but they would be back Captain because on February 9th they charged
Richard Whitcomb with federal charges of possession of a firearm as a previously
convicted felon and the use of a firearm in a drug transaction but they still didn't have enough to charge witcom with
anything related to Austin coulson's disappearance but they named Whitcomb publicly as the
only person of interest in the case and that's because of what they found or did
not find on his phone let's go through the wording of these search warrants for Wickham
yeah the wording here is key and it goes along with the idea that he's the only person of interest in Austin's
disappearance the warrants say that searching whitcomb's property was necessary because police had quote
probable cause to believe that such property or objects will be found and will constitute either possession or
sale of cocaine unlawful restraint or kidnapping carrying a dangerous weapon while committing a felony or aggravated
assault manslaughter or homicide wowza yeah that really seems to Echo what their thoughts and beliefs were in this
case meanwhile they started with the phone that Whitcomb said that he had gotten
rid of but of course they found it in his home when investigators got the phone in front of their texts they
noticed that the phone appeared to have been wiped clean but of course they were
able to retrieve and view some of whitcomb's communications anyway immediately after Austin went missing
this is what Whitcomb is searching for his his internet searches on his phone are at the same time that Austin Coulson
goes missing one search was for how long does gunpowder residue or GSR last and also whether deleted text messages can
be retrieved yes dumbass they can on January 15th he had a text exchange with his wife Sarah that included the
following Sarah text tell me the truth Rich it's all going to come out Rich Whitcomb replies it's all crap I'm
telling you the truth Sarah I want to know what happened to Austin are you the last person to talk to him Whitcomb no
his girlfriend was the last I saw him Monday Sarah you text him Thursday and then he vanish weird stuff sounds like
the police are not the only ones that are suspicious of Rich Whitcomb well people are starting to catch him and a
lie he's telling people I I didn't talk to him Thursday I didn't see him Thursday now we'll get information that
he they text him on Thursday so then one could assume that he at some point met up with him yeah the the evidence on the
phone is really all just kind of good circumstantial evidence but it does not appear that there was
much useful information on there so that they could track tracking information for the phone or anything leading them
to Austin Coulson other than the police said that it placed Whitcomb on the 11th
this is interesting at the location where the trailer was picked up from at Dana's house so he says I never saw him
but his phone says that he was near Dana's house around the time that the trailer was removed from Dana's property
lying [ __ ] princess the other thing too is his phone also places him in the area
where the trailer was eventually found but it's also difficult too because if they have worked together you're going
to find his fingerprints or Austin's fingerprints and his car you're gonna find you know some DNA touch DNA of
Austin and Rich's vehicle and Rich's DNA and Austin's vehicle so that that does make things a little more complicated so
you have to really gather up as much circumstantial evidence as you can before you can try to find the nail
nails in the coffin of the case and that's exactly right you're not really looking for proof that the two knew each
other or were together at any point leading up to the The Disappearance you're really looking for your proof
that they were together on the day that Austin Coulson disappeared and that will
be key here and what you have is you have evidence that is showing you that yes in fact Whitcomb was likely with
Austin Coulson on that day but you still have whitcomb's Alibi that hey I was a hundred miles away purchasing cocaine
well let's dive into that alibi real quick shall we so Whitcomb is going to try to back this up by saying Not only
was he away but there are people that could could place him away from Dana's home and away from where Austin
is believed to have last been seen there's one person in particular and this person that Whitcomb claims
accompanied him to Manchester was a one Mark ruffle of Lebanon Whitcomb originally gave police a false last name
I don't know the false last name that they that he provided to police he said that the person's name was Mark
something I guess he was hoping that they would not be able to locate this individual
but the police were a lot smarter than Rich Whitcomb Mark sniffing butts so they find out that the person he was
talking about was this Mark ruffle so they find Rebel they interview him Ruppel tells police that Whitcomb called
him on January 17th and was quote upset on the verge of crying and begging him to tell the police that he had either
seen Whitcomb or was hanging out with him in Manchester on July 11th this is quoted from police affidavits
but ruffle hadn't been with him on the 11th this is a direct contradiction to whitcomb's statement that he gave to the
police on January 16th so he manufactures this Alibi on the 16th they're able to find this Mark sniffing
whatever you called him sniffing butts and his real last name is rubble and thankfully this Mark ruffle is a better
guy than Rich Whitcomb because he says look man I ain't gonna lie for you and he tells the police straight up I wasn't
with him and in fact he called me and asked me to say that I was right so as law enforcement again this rich guy is a
giant pile of [ __ ] and he's a liar he tells you I was with this guy makes up the last name the guy tells you no I
wasn't with him and he wanted me to make up an alibi anybody that's trying to make up an alibi always goes to my
number one on the suspect list and before we move on Captain I just want to Echo what we said earlier that the
information what little information that police were able to pull from that phone
that cell phone that rich Whitcomb said didn't exist anymore but they found it in his home
it absolutely pointed out that a he was where the trailer would have been picked
up from on the day that Austin went missing B he was in the area of where the trailer was later found a week later
his phone says he was there on the day that Austin Colson went missing and so everything that they're seeing from his
phone would indicate that he was lying and that he actually was with Austin Coulson on the 11th when Austin went
missing well you got to go a step further the phone says that he was with the trailer in the Morning phone says he was
with the trailer in the afternoon and then the phone says he was in the location where Austin's hat cigarette
and bullets were found this brings us to May 23rd on our timeline when police conducted an all-day search for Austin
at a two-acre property where they had previously found the baseball hat that belonged to Austin or that they believed
belonged to Austin I can't imagine that there were too many A and C painting baseball hats anywhere in America let
alone in this small town in Vermont so I would think that they're pretty much 99
convinced that it's his hat at this point it was hoped that now that it was Springtime and all the snow had melted
that it might expose things that were previously hidden things that they had missed in their previous search this
remote property was down one of those long winding dirt roads that are commonplace in Vermont a police press
released that evening stated quote Crews located what are believed to be human remains at the beaver Meadow Road
location the body was found buried in the dirt floor of an old dilapidated barn on the property three days later on
the 26th of May the chief medical examiner's office used dental records to identify those
remains as belonging to Austin Coulson so whose property was this and how did Austin get there is now our big
questions again from the Vermont Digger the home on Beaver Meadow Road that sits
near the large barn is owned by Carlton Family Trust according to property records
Buck Carlton who is listed as a broker with Northeast Commercial realty in West Lebanon told the Valley News he owns the
home on Beaver Meadow where police had been searching Carlton says he stays at the home from time to time but Carlton
was a snowbird so he's someone that goes to warmer climates during the winter months and he says that while he's
absent Carlton employed a caretaker to keep an eye on his property he says that the person that he put in charge of this
is this Rich Whitcomb all of the phone evidence is saying he was with Austin Colson on the day that he disappeared
and now we have the owner of the property saying where you found Austin coulson's body this man Rich Whitcomb
had access to the barn and was expected to be at the property from time to time to take care of this property while I'm
gone according to the autopsy and according to Vermont's Chief Deputy medical examiner
Austin died from multiple gunshot wounds to the Head inflicted by another person
oddly though the death certificate puts his place of death as Woods or place found and the date of his death
as January 2018. his death was classified as a homicide The Windsor County State's Attorney
announced that the case was in a holding pattern while police worked the ballistic evidence
meanwhile his father Dana told WCAX news we hoped for a better outcome but it was
good to get the final official word so we're not wondering he pointed out that Austin's phone wallet and car keys
remain missing at that time as far as we know they have never been found Captain
I've heard people criticize law enforcement a little bit because they found some items of Austin and then it
took him four months to do another search but I don't know how long they searched the initial time that they did
search and I don't know what the conditions of the weather were so what people need to realize it's it's not an
hour-long episode of Law and Order or hour-long episode of Unsolved Mysteries the hands of Justice sometimes work very
slowly well and we're not getting told a lot of the story which we don't need to
have a lot of the story but we should all be smart enough to go well they didn't just find his hat and go okay
well that's enough work for today yeah see you guys later see ya see you at the bar gotta be there by 3 P.M now uh what
I like here and when they go out on these searches we got to keep in mind they've not been to this area before
they could arrive on site that day and go whoa we got a lot of difficulties and a lot of unexpected problems here in
searching this property what I love though is they're going this is a place we want to come back to this is a place
that we want to search again and we want to keep digging and finding whatever we
can because we think we have a case here I'm going to shorten some of this a little bit because we have some
difficulty in the case as far as getting anybody charged in relation to Austin coulson's
first disappearance and then later ruled a homicide but in the course of a lot of
the things that we've already discussed remember we have those charges that Whitcomb was facing based off of him in
possession of a gun and using a gun in the transaction of drug trade so he will actually face those charges before
Austin coulson's body is even recovered at the pre-trial for those charges we have Austin's
family there that are wearing shirts that say where's Austin we also have his father going on record speaking to the
media saying we have a lot of Reason to Believe Rich Whitcomb is very guilty and
not expanding on that too much but we know exactly what his father means he's very guilty not only in these charges
but these charges are really just sort of backing up all of our thoughts and beliefs that he is responsible for what
happened to our son to our family member but it's smart for law enforcement get him on these charges you have a bad
individual you have this bag of [ __ ] now locked up and charged with these and you
can then put together and piece together a case which right now has a lot of circumstantial evidence well and the
prosecutor for those charges made a really good effort to try to convince the judge that hey this dude Rich
Whitcomb is extremely dangerous and it's he's not only dangerous because of his previous crimes the crimes we know that
he committed and the crimes that we are charging him with today but also because
he is the number one suspect in a murder that we have not been able to bring charges against him yet so you should
keep him in jail for the entirety of the time leading up to his trial for these charges right sadly the judge did not
fully agree with this the judge let him out but this was based on the condition that he enter a drug treatment facility
and that he was allowed to go home after completion of that rehab he was required
to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and he had some other parameters that he needed to play Within
during that time rich is going to take a plea deal on one of these charges yeah they will ultimately drop one of the
counts and deal on the other one now again we have an assistant U.S attorney her name is
Wendy Fuller she really wanted him convicted to the the fullest extent right give him the
best and longest punishment that you can because Wendy Fuller knows how dangerous Rich
Whitcomb is if he's out he's a danger to society and to our communities she wanted to get some comments on the
record despite the fact that she said in court they could not charge they could not change the sentence
because there was a plea agreement determining that but she wants to really hit home how dangerous this individual
is and remind them that he is a suspect and a murder so I'll read for you just portions of her statements during court
says this case started as your honor knows in connection with a very serious investigation but it's largely driven by
the defendant's own Admissions and so he admits to being a member of that Community who regularly sold drugs this
is a community it's small it has struggled mightily with drug abuse and he aided in that I understand that he
was not selling drugs for financial gain I've never made that allegation he was doing it to feed his own addiction but
it's serious nonetheless and by selling drugs to other drug addicts you keep that cycle of addiction alive and it
keeps these people who are addicted unable to contribute to their Community they cannot pay their bills they cannot
not take care of their children it destroys lives just like it has in some sense destroyed his but he did that to
other people so I just want to be clear that this is not merely having access to
a firearm there are greater factors here that go into the seriousness so he's regularly selling to people in his
community but the other aspect of this case is that he decided to take a firearm that did not belong to him that
belonged to his father-in-law he took the firearm and he used it as a currency and a drug trade he traded it to Mr
Coulson Mr Coulson gave him drugs in exchange for that so that Mr Whitcomb could go out and sell more cocaine this
conduct is extremely serious drug-related offenses with Firearms as your honor knows is on the rise in
Vermont and what comes with that are drug-related shootings and drug-related homicides and so this conduct of taking
a fire arm especially one that doesn't belong to you and giving it to somebody in exchange for cocaine it's some of the
most serious conduct we see in drug related crimes and so that's why he's here that's why he's in federal court he
committed a very serious crime but on top of that we have the defendant's characteristics
as I read his criminal history he has a violent history I don't think there's any dispute about that in 2002 he had an
unlawful Mischief conviction in which he harassed his girlfriend damaged her belongings and then during the arrest he
had a loaded rifle and when the police asked him if he intended to use it on himself he said no I'd rather shoot you
he was convicted of that offense and then he went on to violate his probation for that offense twice once for
harassing and assaulting yet another girlfriend that's the 2003 felony conviction for domestic assault and I'd
like to read from the Affidavit of Lieutenant Jordan with regard to the domestic assault felony conviction so
the court understands the gravity of this offense and I will substitute the victim's name for the word victim the
victim told me that they arrived at home and Whitcomb continued to scream and yell at her this went on for some time
when Whitcomb got mad at her the victim said Whitcomb grabbed her by the arms and threw her to the floor she was in
pain the victim said that Whitcomb then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her down to the basement he put her in a
headlock and he started choking her she could not breathe and she began to pass out
the victim said that Whitcomb let her go and then threw her onto the floor where
he punched her in the head the victim told the lieutenant that Whitcomb was looking for bullets and his hunting
knife and Wickham told her he was going to kill her and slit her throat the victim said that Whitcomb could not
find his hunting knife so he again grabbed her by the hair dragged her out of the basement and back upstairs the
victim in fear for her life said she broke free ran out of the house and called her neighbors who called 9-1-1
now these are not just the victim's words captain Whitcomb pled guilty to that offense and
to reiterate we have cell phone technology that puts him with the other victim Austin the day of the afternoon
of the evening of and then he's caught lying to police trying to establish an alibi and he's caught by police
lying over and over yes and then ultimately what we have is Whitcomb is sentenced in
January of 2020 to 37 months in federal prison so he's 40 years old roughly at that
time he's still going to have to do his time he was scheduled to be released in February of 2023 however we've seen
Austin's mother posting recently that Whitcomb has already been moved to a halfway house and will be released
altogether in 2022 it actually looks like he may have already been released I just could
not confirm any of that information to to support the statements that she posted online regardless it's to point
out that he was supposed to be locked up until 2023 and I guess that what they were hoping they being law enforcement
was that we might not be able to charge this guy yet with a homicide but maybe we could build a case against him and in
the meantime he's locked away in federal prison so he's no real threat to anybody
in our communities but if these posts that Austin's mother are are posting online if they are true
then this man is already back out and walking walking around a free man well I know there seems to be some frustration
with law enforcement but I'm not willing to give up on him just yet because I don't know what cards there
are holding close to their vest but it seems to be for me is that they're building a case and again hands of
Justice sometimes move very slowly there is also some online rumor that Richard Whitcomb is responsible for possibly
another homicide and these are based off of several Facebook posts like this one
they simply say quote everyone knows Whitcomb was involved with Robbie Briggs murder end quote now I captain could not
find any evidence or any articles that name Whitcomb as a possible suspect and Robbie briggs's murder that's a 20 year
old homicide case and in fact I found to the contrary of that that there were other possible suspects that were named
in some of those articles Richard whitcomb's name did not appear in anything that I read regardless it's one
of those situations where yes I'm on your side here Captain I think that law enforcement has done a pretty good job
in this case but if they are holding on to something that we've not already reviewed if they have the icing on the
cake that is going to be what they what one would expect that you would want to have and charge this man with murder I
think now's the time to do so if in fact that he's out we've seen his repeated History of Violence that he carries out
on people that are close to him so anybody out there close to Richard Whitcomb if he's out and you're hearing
this get as far away as you possibly can well this is why it's important if you know something you need to say something
to keep the rest of the world the rest of the community safe it's not just all on law enforcement we have to do our
part as humans to go hey I actually know some information that could put this guy
away come forward and say something foreign [Music] thank you so much for joining us here in
the garage and thanks for telling a friend thank you so much for sharing the show on social media
Colonel do we have any recommended reading for The Beautiful People First up a late and overdue happy Mother's Day
to everybody out there listening this one was sent to me as a gift and I'm very grateful to have received it
because this is a great and fascinating True Crime book the title is if you tell
a true story of murder family secrets and the unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by the great Greg Olsen he is one of the
best in the biz I recommend that you check this one out here's a little background information this is the true
story of three young girls caught in the web of a coldly calculating killer after
more than a decade when sisters Nikki Sammy and Tori hear the word mom it claws like an eagle's talents triggering
memories that have been their secret since childhood until now check out if you tell by Greg Olsen you can find that
great recommendation and many more on our recommended page at truecrime garage.com and until next week be good
be kind and don't live [Music]

Austin Colson ////// 578

Part 1 of 1

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

This week we dig into an unsolved homicide case out of Vermont. A couple years back 19 year old Austin Colson went missing. Unfortunately the search ended in an outcome that no one wanted. It took a couple of months but his body was eventually recovered. This case should be solved. Tune in and find out why.

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Brief Summary

Austin Coulson, 19, vanished in Vermont; his remains were found later, leading to suspicions about Richard Whitcomb's involvement in his murder.

Key points

The Disappearance of Austin Coulson. Austin Coulson goes missing after leaving home for a day of work. His family is frantic as they search for him.
The Search for Austin. Authorities are tracing the origins of metal to reconstruct Austin's last day.
Discovery of Evidence. Police find Austin's hat and other items at a property linked to a person of interest.
Whitcomb's Alibi Unravels. Rich Whitcomb's alibi is contradicted by evidence and witness statements.
Austin's Remains Identified. Authorities confirm the remains found belong to Austin Coulson, raising new questions.
Frustration with Law Enforcement. Austin's family expresses frustration over the slow progress in the investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It kills me inside because I know my son wouldn't just disappear.

Deanna McKinney expresses her anguish over her missing son.

4:05WatchOct 24, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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