It was two days into the year 2000. Everyone was still breathing a sigh of relief that Y2K hadn't melted the world's power grids. In Asheville, North Carolina, 18-year-old Zebb Quinn was finishing his shift in the electronics department at Walmart.
He had plans. Big ones, for a teenager. He was going to look at a Mitsubishi Eclipse he wanted to buy. He never made it to the car lot. He never made it home. Honestly, the way he vanished feels like something out of a Lynchian fever dream rather than a standard missing persons case.
The Night Zebb Quinn Disappeared
Around 9:00 p.m. on January 2, Zebb met up with a coworker, Robert Jason Owens. They were supposed to drive out to Leicester to see this car. They took separate vehicles.
About 45 minutes later, they were caught on surveillance footage at a Citgo gas station. They bought sodas. They looked normal. But according to Owens, everything went sideways right after they pulled back onto the road.
Owens told police that Zebb suddenly saw a message on his pager. He supposedly flashed his lights, pulled over, and looked "frantic" after using a payphone. Zebb told Owens he had to cancel their plans. Then, in a rush to leave, he allegedly rear-ended Owens' truck and sped off into the night.
That was the last time anyone saw Zebb Quinn alive.
👉 See also: Why the Recent Snowfall Western New York State Emergency Was Different
The Bizarre Discovery at Little Pigs BBQ
Two weeks passed. No Zebb. Then, his light blue Mazda Protegé was found abandoned in the parking lot of Little Pigs Barbecue. The location was deliberate. It was right next to the hospital where Zebb’s mother worked as a nurse.
But it’s the details inside the car that turn this from a missing person case into a nightmare.
- The headlights were left on until the battery died.
- A pair of giant lips and an exclamation point were drawn on the back window in pink lipstick.
- A live, three-month-old black puppy was sitting in the back seat.
The puppy wasn't Zebb's. Nobody knew where it came from. There were also empty drink bottles and a jacket inside that didn't belong to him. It looked like a stage set. It looked like someone was trying to send a message, but nobody could translate it.
Who Was Jason Owens?
For years, Jason Owens was the primary person of interest. He had those broken ribs and a head injury from a "second car accident" he claimed happened later that same night. Weirdly, he never filed a police report for that second crash.
Police also traced a phone call to the Walmart where Zebb worked. Someone had called in sick for Zebb a couple of days after he vanished. The person on the line sounded nothing like him. That call was traced back to a Volvo construction equipment plant where Owens worked.
✨ Don't miss: Nate Silver Trump Approval Rating: Why the 2026 Numbers Look So Different
The case went cold. It stayed cold for fifteen years.
The Codd Family Murders
In 2015, the name Robert Jason Owens hit the headlines again. This time, it was for something horrific. He was arrested for the murders of Cristie Schoen-Codd, her husband J.T. Codd, and their unborn child.
This was a high-profile case. Cristie had been a contestant on Food Network Star. Owens had been doing handyman work at their home. He eventually admitted to killing them, dismembering their bodies, and burning the remains on his property.
When police searched his land, they didn't just find evidence of the Codd family. They found fabric, leather, and "hard fragments" buried under a layer of concrete in a spot where Owens had once told people he was building a fish pond.
What Really Happened to Zebb Quinn?
In 2022, we finally got a version of the truth. Owens pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
🔗 Read more: Weather Forecast Lockport NY: Why Today’s Snow Isn’t Just Hype
But he didn't take the full fall. He pointed the finger at his uncle, Gene Owens, who had died in 2017. According to Jason, Zebb had been caught in a "love triangle." Zebb had been interested in a girl named Misty Taylor, whose boyfriend was reportedly jealous and abusive.
The story goes that the boyfriend hired Gene to kill Zebb. Jason claimed he only helped cover it up. Prosecutors were skeptical of this "hitman" narrative, but with Gene dead and other witnesses gone, it was the only closure the court could get.
Jason Owens is currently serving a de facto life sentence.
Finding Answers in the Aftermath
If you’re looking for a lesson in the Zebb Quinn case, it’s about the long game of justice. It took 22 years to get a conviction.
What you can do if you’re following this case:
- Support Cold Case Initiatives: Many local departments, including Asheville PD, still have cold case units that rely on public interest and funding.
- Report Historical Info: If you lived in Asheville in 2000 and saw that Mazda being driven, even a "small" detail can confirm or debunk the remaining rumors about the "hitman" theory.
- Follow the Evidence: Digital archives from the Asheville Citizen-Times provide the most localized, step-by-step reporting on the search warrants from 2015 and 2017.
The mystery of the lipstick and the puppy might never be fully explained by a court of law. Some things are just too strange for a plea deal to cover. But legally, the case is closed. Zebb Quinn is gone, and the man who saw him last is behind bars.