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

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[Music] [Music] % [Music] 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 Captain Pete it's good to be seing and good to see you thanks for
listening thanks for telling a [Music] friend this week we are excited to be featuring Purple Haze by the wonderful
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I'll thank you for it there you go thank you and that's enough of the business all right
everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime I just want to know where he is if
he's safe or not cuz that's the hardest thing is not knowing di mckin hasn't heard
from her son for 2 weeks there's a 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 19y old Austin Coulson I can't sleep or eat or
anything cuz I'm so worried cuz 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 Coulson may have gone to
collect scrap metal a partially filled trailer it's believed he was using was found in nearby Sharon to date uh we
have had no uh sightings or contacts with him obviously his family is very very concerned uh this is uh as
described to us as very unlike him Captain Sinclair says Coulson cell phone has been turned off since 11:00 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 would 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 or if he's
not [Music] [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 and 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 it 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 and 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 one 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 4 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 Coulson [Music] on Thursday January 11 2018 Katie Grisafi said goodbye to her
19-year-old boyfriend Austin Coulson when he left their apartment located at 224 rainbow Street in South Royalton
Vermont this was around 5: 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 named Rich wicom 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 end time so she's not going to get worried because his end 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 2:00 around I'm guessing 145 or so is when
Austin's father sees that his trailer's 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 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 believ 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 4:00 a.m. 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 Dian this is Austin's mom
who lived in New Hampshire praying that she would have heard from her son but she hadn't Diana 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 Di 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 is this guy well we've heard this name before
already Richard wit'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
Wickham we also have this trailer that is still missing it's never been returned to Austin's father at this
point wickom 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 wickom 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 wickom was someone Austin worked 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's not there right and when they go when the family goes to speak with Richard wickom 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 5' 8 in tall 135 lb 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 Wickham'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 de and Dad Dana who were divorced Dana lived
just a few miles away and Di 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 andc painting that he started in
2017 things had gone well initially but business took a downturn in the wintertime so Austin and ktie 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 di 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 dat line 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 felt and believed and 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 it doesn't make a lot of
sense well and if Rich witcom 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 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 pulled in this trailer the
area in which they find the truck not only is there 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 and 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 going 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 and 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
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 medal 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 and making soaps and and doing all these odd jobs to make it by go look
up what Austin Coulson 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 a 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 size able quantities of cash that's their words sizable quantities of cash I do not know exactly
what that means but that is a 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 about a quote body sighting this was at a very specific 2 acre property
located at 714 Beaver Meadow Road this is about 8 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 [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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Angie that [Music] all right we are back if you need more TCG in your earballs check out our bonus
show code off the Record we're 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 new 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 MH 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 wickom they're giving them that name a name once Austin went missing his
mother asked wickom 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 wickom and someone helped Austin tow away the trailer that he would have needed to go scrapping but
wickom 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 Wickham of course
police are going to be very eager to pin him down on January 16th 2018 Vermont State Police Major Crimes
unit detectives Albright and Holden interviewed Rich witcom at the Royalton vssp Barracks during the interview
wickom 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 tradeit at this interview Wickham admitted to knowing Austin and scr in
with him on occasion but wickom told the detectives that on January 11th he never
saw Austin that day instead he Wickham was in Manchester buying cocaine well that's quite The Alibi give me a little
bit of that nose sugar wickom 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 wickom
and 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 wickom with the merchandise or the money I don't know if he should trust a drug dealing drug user
Wickham admitted that he and Austin were in contact via phone on the morning of the 11
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 5 days at this point in our timeline if Wickham is telling the truth well then there is
every reason to believe that Wickham'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 w
was prohibited from being in possession of a firearm yet he just readily admitted that to the police wicom 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 wi to which wickom 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 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 Wickham residence 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 Wickham'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 vssp detectives arrived at the witcom household during the search of
the residence 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 premesis but they would be
back Captain because on February 9th they charged Richard wickom 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 Wickham
publicly as the only person of interest in the case and 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 wickom 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 Wickham'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 C
unlawful restraint or kidnapping carrying a dangerous weapon while committing a felony or aggravated
assault manslaughter or homicide wow yeah that really seems to Echo what their thoughts and beliefs were in this
case meanwhile they started with the phone that wickom 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 text they noticed that the phone appeared to have
been wiped clean but of course they were able to retrieve and view some of wic's
communications anyway immediately after Austin went missing this is what witcom 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 wickom 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 wickom no his girlfriend was the last I saw him Monday
Sarah you text him Thursday and then he vanished weird stuff sounds like the police are not the only ones that are
suspicious of Rich witcom well people are starting to catch him in a lie he's telling people I I didn't talk to him
Thursday I didn't see him Thursday now we're getting 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 uh tracking information for the phone or anything leading them to Austin Coulson other than the police said that
it place wickom 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 in his car you're going to
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 um 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 colon disappeared and that will
be key here and what you have is you have evidence that is showing you that yes in fact witcom was likely with
Austin Coulson on that day but you still have Wickham's Alibi that hey I was 100
miles away purchasing cocaine well let's dive into that alibi real quick shall we
so wickom 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 has believed to have last been seen there's one person in
particular and this person that Wickham claims accompanied him to Manchester was
a one mark ruple of Lebanon wickom 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 wickom Mark Sniff and
butts so they find out that the person he was talking about was this Mark rule so they find ruple they interview him
rule tells police that wickom 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 witcom or was hanging out with him in Manchester
on July 11th this is quoted from police affidavits but ruple hadn't been with him on the 11th this is a direct
contradiction to Wickham'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 ass name is
Rule and thankfully this Mark rule is a better guy than Rich wickom because he says look man I ain't going to 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 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 at Alibi anybody that's trying to make up at 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 wickom 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 Coulson 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 time timeline when police conducted an all day search for Austin at a 2 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 common place in Vermont a police press
release 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 dilapitated ated barn on the property 3 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 reality
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 whitcom all of the phone evidence is
saying he was with Austin Coulson 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 wickom 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 ize law enforcement a little bit because they found some items of
Austin and then it took them 4 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 hourong episode of Law and Order or an hourong 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 an enough work for
today yeah see you guys later see you see you at the bar got to 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 search ing 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 hom side but in the course of a lot of the
things that we've already discussed remember we have those charges that witcom 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 witcom 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 in charge with these and you can then put together and piece together a case
which right now has a lot of circumstantial evidence well in the prosecutor for those charges made a
really good effort to try to convince the judge that hey this dude rich witcom is extremely dangerous and he's not only
dangerous because of his previous crimes the crimes we know that 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 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 us 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 witcom 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 take care of their 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 he used it as a currency in
a drug trade he traded it to Mr Coulson Mr Coulson gave him drugs in exchange for that so that Mr wickom 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 rated shootings and Drug rated homicides and so this conduct of
taking a firearm espe 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 rated 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 that 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 wickom continued to scream and yell at her this
went on for some time when wickom got mad at her the victim said Wickham grabbed her by the arms and threw her to
the floor she was in pain the vi vitim said that Wickham 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 Wickham let her go and then threw her onto the floor where he punched her in the head the victim told
the lieutenant that Wickham 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 w wium 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 911 now these are not just the
victim's words Captain wickom 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 alab by and he's caught by police lying over and over yes and then
ultimately what we have is witcom 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 witcom has already
been moved to a halfway house and will be released alog together 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 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 post 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 them just yet
because I don't know what cards they're are holding close to their vest what 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
Wickham is responsible for possibly another homicide and these are based off of several
Facebook posts like this one that simply say quote everyone knows wickom was involved with Robbie Briggs murder end
quote now I captain could not find any evidence or any articles that name wicom as a possible suspect in Robbie briggs'
murder that's a 20-year-old homicide case and in fact I found to the contrary of that that there were other possible
susp ects that were named in some of those articles Richard Wickham'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 witcom 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 [Music] something thank you so much for joining us here in the garage 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 Olen 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 Alon you can find that great recommendation and many more on our recommended page at true Crim
garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't [Music] live the Angie's List you know and trust is
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Austin Colson ////// 578

Part 1 of 1

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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 went missing in 2018; his remains were found later, leading to suspicions about Rich Wickham's involvement.

Key points

The Disappearance of Austin Coulson. Austin Coulson goes missing after leaving his apartment for a day of work.
Trailer Found, No Sign of Austin. A missing trailer is discovered, but Austin remains unaccounted for.
Police Seek Public Assistance. Authorities are narrowing down the origins of scrap metal related to Austin's disappearance.
Wickham's Alibi Unravels. Richard Wickham claims he was far away when Austin went missing, but evidence contradicts him.
Austin Coulson Identified. Dental records confirm the remains found belong to Austin Coulson, raising many questions.
Rich Witcom's Connection. Rich Witcom, the caretaker, was with Austin on the day he disappeared.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It kills me inside because I know my son... it's like he just vanished.

Austin's mother expressing her anguish over his disappearance

5:11WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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