On July 25, 2022, over 22 years since Quinn's disappearance, Owens pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of accessory after-the-fact to first-degree murder.

[4][5][6] At around 9:00 p.m., on Sunday, January 2, 2000, Zebb Quinn ended his shift at the electronics department of a Walmart in Asheville, North Carolina.

The two men were seen on surveillance footage at a nearby gas station at approximately 9:15 p.m., purchasing sodas at a convenience store.

Hours later, Owens was treated at a hospital for fractured ribs and a head injury that he said he had sustained in a second car accident that evening.

Quinn had developed a relationship with her in the weeks preceding his disappearance and had told friends and family that he had been threatened by her abusive boyfriend, Wesley Smith, after he discovered the two had been speaking.

[7][12] A review of the phone records in the case indicates that the page Quinn received on the evening of January 2 was dialed from the home of his paternal aunt, a woman named Ina Ustich.

[14][15] Owens later admitted to killing the family by accidentally running over them, and also pleaded guilty to two counts of dismembering human remains.

In June 2015, detectives investigating Quinn's disappearance announced they had unearthed "fabric, leather materials, and unknown hard fragments" under a layer of concrete on Owens's property.

On another part of the property, authorities found "numerous plastic bags containing possibly pulverized lime or powdered mortar mix."

Authorities did not comment on whether the fragments found were human bones or if they believed that they had discovered Quinn's remains, citing an ongoing investigation.

[16] In July 2022, it was announced that Owens had told investigators back in 2018 that a family member killed Quinn, dismembered his body and burned the remains, and that evidence could be found in Bent Creek Experimental Forest.

[17] On July 10, 2017, a Buncombe County grand jury returned an indictment charging Owens with first-degree murder for the death of Quinn.

[20] On July 25, 2022, Robert Jason Owens pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of accessory after-the-fact to first-degree murder.

However, the court accepted the plea deal, citing a lack of strong physical evidence linking Robert Jason Owens directly to Quinn's death.