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Legally Brunette Presents: ‘Til Death Do Us Part - A Burned Body & One Surviving Tooth · Legally Brunette

0:01
Speaker 1: Hi, guys, Welcome to an episode of Till Death Do
0:04
Speaker 1: Us Part. I'll be your host today, Emily Simpson with
0:08
Speaker 1: Shane all Right, today we are going to talk about
0:11
Speaker 1: a very recent case. The husband's name is Zachariah Rash.
0:15
Speaker 1: He just went to trial recently, so let's just do
0:19
Speaker 1: a little breakdown. Let's just give you a little brief
0:22
Speaker 1: background on this case. So, his wife's name was Crystal.
0:25
Speaker 1: So after Crystal Raush disappeared in June of twenty twenty four,
0:29
Speaker 1: investigators in Dodge County, Wisconsin uncovered evidence suggesting that her
0:35
Speaker 1: estranged husband, Zachariah, attempted to cover up her death. Surveillance
0:41
Speaker 1: footage showed the couple together the day she vanished, and
0:45
Speaker 1: investigators discovered Zachariah's suspicious Internet searches, cleaning supply purchases, and
0:51
Speaker 1: a burn site containing Crystal's remains. His trial began on
0:56
Speaker 1: June first, twenty twenty six, where prosecutors charged him with
0:59
Speaker 1: first degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse. All right,
1:06
Speaker 1: so this is a husband killing a wife. Do you
1:09
Speaker 1: prefer husband killing wife stories or wife killing husband's story?
1:12
Speaker 2: Don't prefer I prefer husbands and wives getting a long story.
1:15
Speaker 1: Oh, would you like to do that? Do you think
1:16
Speaker 1: people would listen if we told if we did a
1:19
Speaker 1: new spin.
1:20
Speaker 2: Off on we should do it. We could do a
1:22
Speaker 2: bit where it's about a couple that got a divorced
1:25
Speaker 2: and then lived happily ever after. Oh oh moved on,
1:28
Speaker 2: yes with other people, or results in being imprisoned or
1:33
Speaker 2: anything like that.
1:33
Speaker 1: Oh, you want to tell happy stories about happy divorces. Well,
1:37
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's enough out there for you know,
1:41
Speaker 1: that's juicy, it's not all right. Zachariah of Rash met
1:45
Speaker 1: Crystal Rash in two thousand and eight, and the two
1:47
Speaker 1: married in twenty thirteen. They later had four children together.
1:52
Speaker 1: By twenty nineteen, the couple's children had been taken into
1:55
Speaker 1: state custody, which Zachariah later described as hard and depressing.
2:00
Speaker 1: I was trying to find more all four kids, all
2:02
Speaker 1: four kids. I was trying to find more information about that,
2:05
Speaker 1: because I'm this is before the murder, this is before
2:07
Speaker 1: the murder. I'm sorry, but if you have all four
2:10
Speaker 1: of your children removed and the state takes away your kids,
2:14
Speaker 1: you've got to be some pretty.
2:16
Speaker 2: So what did they do?
2:17
Speaker 1: Don't I couldn't find details on it.
2:19
Speaker 2: Really, oh, because it's probably the Department Child Services, so
2:22
Speaker 2: it's probably.
2:23
Speaker 1: Like yeah, and I know they went into foster care.
2:26
Speaker 1: But I'm just telling you just from the little bit
2:29
Speaker 1: we've been in family law and dealt with things like that.
2:31
Speaker 1: The courts want to give parents.
2:34
Speaker 2: They don't want more kids, they don't want.
2:35
Speaker 1: To take the kids, so they they I feel like
2:38
Speaker 1: they give the parents as many.
2:40
Speaker 2: You know, it was bad enough that the only thing
2:43
Speaker 2: to do was to take the kids right.
2:46
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, Crystal filed for divorce from Zachariah,
2:50
Speaker 1: though he later claimed that they still maintained a relationship.
2:54
Speaker 1: In spring of twenty twenty four, Zachariah purchased a Taurus
2:58
Speaker 1: nine millimeter five arm. Investigators later discovered searches on his
3:03
Speaker 1: phone about gunshot wounds and death. You know, this seems
3:07
Speaker 1: to be a common theme and people that commit murder
3:10
Speaker 1: but then try to cover it up. It's the Google searches.
3:13
Speaker 1: Have people not learned by now that your digital footprint
3:17
Speaker 1: tells what's going on in your mind. If you're going
3:22
Speaker 1: to do Google searches because you want to know about
3:24
Speaker 1: gunshot wounds or you know, how to burn a body
3:28
Speaker 1: or how to well or.
3:30
Speaker 2: You could do your search like how to burn a body,
3:32
Speaker 2: but I don't really want to do it. Oh search
3:34
Speaker 2: it that way.
3:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you should add that caveat onto your Google.
3:38
Speaker 2: Search to eliminate the intention.
3:40
Speaker 1: It's not me but asking for a friend. Okay, all right,
3:44
Speaker 1: I see. That's how you get around that or what
3:46
Speaker 1: I would advise. That's what you would advise, Shane, How
3:50
Speaker 1: to commit murder, Where to.
3:52
Speaker 2: Buy a murder kit per friend Walmart.
3:57
Speaker 1: On April fourth, twenty twenty four, investigators says Zachariah search
4:01
Speaker 1: topics including whether police can trace an IP address and
4:04
Speaker 1: mobile hotspots. On May twenty twenty four, investigators found searches
4:10
Speaker 1: about instant death from gunshots to the head and chest,
4:13
Speaker 1: including whether a nine millimeter could kill instantly. On June
4:18
Speaker 1: fourth of twenty twenty four, investigators say Zachariah search for
4:21
Speaker 1: information about widow's benefits. This is when his wife has
4:27
Speaker 1: disappeared and no one can find her, right, so they're
4:33
Speaker 1: questioning him as to the whereabouts of his wife. It
4:37
Speaker 1: was actually her step mother that said that she was missing.
4:43
Speaker 1: It was the stepmother that went forward and I believe
4:46
Speaker 1: called the police and said, I haven't heard from my stepdaughter.
4:49
Speaker 1: So then the police reach out to the husband, who
4:52
Speaker 1: then claims that, you know, he doesn't know where she
4:54
Speaker 1: is or what happened to her. They're going to either're
4:56
Speaker 1: getting divorced, you know. But then you know, they start
4:59
Speaker 1: to invest gate further and what brought him into spotlight. Well, one,
5:05
Speaker 1: he's the husband, right and they're getting a divorce, so
5:07
Speaker 1: he's always going to be a person of interest. But
5:10
Speaker 1: the other thing was they looked at her financial transactions
5:14
Speaker 1: and he had been using her debit card. Apparently they
5:18
Speaker 1: had separate accounts well after disappearance. So she disappeared on
5:22
Speaker 1: a June eleventh. That was the last time anybody comes murdered. Well,
5:26
Speaker 1: so that's the last time anyone can confirm that they
5:28
Speaker 1: had seen her last known date. Then there's these transactions
5:33
Speaker 1: on her debit card of like Walmart, buying draino and
5:39
Speaker 1: cleaning supplies. And then they look at the surveillance video
5:44
Speaker 1: and guess who It's not her, Zacharia making the purchases.
5:49
Speaker 1: It's Zachariah making the purchases. So then you go from
5:52
Speaker 1: that to then what do you do? You get a
5:54
Speaker 1: search warrant. You grab his computer and his phone, you
5:57
Speaker 1: search his phone, and then what's he doing? What's the
5:59
Speaker 1: first thing you go when you're an investigator, You want
6:01
Speaker 1: to look at the Google search history?
6:02
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah, yeah, you take your phone, right, you take
6:04
Speaker 2: their phone. That's part of search warns now right, common, right.
6:08
Speaker 1: And then you've got him googling. You know, nine millimeters,
6:10
Speaker 1: how fast instantly death, you know, wounds to head, widows benefits,
6:16
Speaker 1: all of these things. So this is June eleventh of
6:26
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. Surveillance video from a Goodwill store in
6:30
Speaker 1: Akonama Walk, Wisconsin, showed Crystal and Zachariah shopping together around
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Speaker 1: eleven oh seven am. They left together around eleven thirty
6:38
Speaker 1: two am. According to Zacharia's later testimony, the couple spent
6:42
Speaker 1: the day unsuccessfully attempting to meet with attorneys regarding their divorce.
6:48
Speaker 1: This is interesting to me. This is his story. He
6:51
Speaker 1: claims that they so they're separated, they want to get divorced.
6:54
Speaker 1: She wants to get divorced. He claims that they're in
6:56
Speaker 1: the car together and that they're just driving around to
6:59
Speaker 1: attorney offices to try to meet with them. They don't
7:02
Speaker 1: have an appointment. They don't have an appointment or a
7:04
Speaker 1: consultation or anything.
7:05
Speaker 2: Set up, but according to him, they do.
7:07
Speaker 1: No. According to him, they don't.
7:08
Speaker 2: They're just walking customers.
7:11
Speaker 1: But he claims that they got frustrated or that she
7:14
Speaker 1: got really frustrated because they've gone to several attorney's offices.
7:20
Speaker 2: Suspicious thing. Yes, couples that want to divorce each other
7:25
Speaker 2: do not go shopping for an attorney together.
7:27
Speaker 1: They usually don't know. And why in what scenario would
7:32
Speaker 1: you meet with an attorney together about a divorce and
7:36
Speaker 1: an attorney you wouldn't. But anyway, that's the story is
7:39
Speaker 1: that they were in the car together, they went to
7:40
Speaker 1: multiple attorney's offices to try to get a walk in
7:43
Speaker 1: type of consultation, they couldn't find one that was available,
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Speaker 1: and that she got very frustrated and mad while they're
7:51
Speaker 1: in the car together.
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Speaker 2: I bet they never even got as far as looking
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Speaker 2: for one.
7:57
Speaker 1: I don't know. Zachariah later testified that while he was
8:00
Speaker 1: driving and Crystal is in the passenger's seat, that she
8:03
Speaker 1: suddenly pulled out a gun and fatally shot herself in
8:07
Speaker 1: the passenger seat. So that's his story. His story is
8:11
Speaker 1: they're in the car together. They're shopping for an attorney.
8:14
Speaker 1: They can't get an appointment, they can't get a walk in.
8:17
Speaker 1: She gets frustrated because she wants to get divorced, and
8:20
Speaker 1: that she whips out a gun in the car and
8:23
Speaker 1: that she shoots herself in the car. Investigators later found
8:27
Speaker 1: a blood matching Crystal's DNA throughout the passenger side of
8:31
Speaker 1: Zachariah's Mitsubishi Eclipse. I used to have a Mitsubishi Eclipse.
8:36
Speaker 1: They also found DNA on the seatbelt, window and seat.
8:40
Speaker 2: Is that kind of DNA right?
8:41
Speaker 1: Blood DNA. Zachariah admitted that he never called nine to
8:45
Speaker 1: one one after Crystal died. So they're in the car together.
8:48
Speaker 1: He claims that she pulled out a gun and shot
8:50
Speaker 1: herself in the head in the car. He doesn't pull
8:53
Speaker 1: over or call police or call for an ambulance. He decides,
8:57
Speaker 1: I must let her die get rid of the body.
9:01
Speaker 1: He later admitted to taking Crystal's body to his parents'
9:04
Speaker 1: property and the town of Climb in Wisconsin, where he
9:08
Speaker 1: burned her remains and poured sulfuric acid on the burn site.
9:12
Speaker 1: Investigators believed that the Mitsubishi Eclipse was left behind and
9:16
Speaker 1: remained at that wood Road property after June eleventh, before
9:20
Speaker 1: later being moved to another location. So he transports the
9:24
Speaker 1: body to the parents property. Yeah, and he burns the
9:28
Speaker 1: body acid.
9:30
Speaker 2: I'm gonna ask the question. Okay, he came up with
9:34
Speaker 2: this story after they found her dead.
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Speaker 1: You mean the attorney story.
9:40
Speaker 2: No, the story of like, yeah, the sulfuric acid and
9:43
Speaker 2: I burned the body and she shot herself because she
9:46
Speaker 2: couldn't find an attorney fast enough or whatever. Yeah, you're
9:49
Speaker 2: saying he came up with that after he was found
9:52
Speaker 2: and arrested.
9:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm I assume they were in a car
9:56
Speaker 1: together and they were fighting and he he shot her.
9:59
Speaker 2: Get it right, So what I'm saying he didn't do
10:02
Speaker 2: all that and then come clean and say, okay, you know,
10:04
Speaker 2: like it was like after that he was charged with
10:07
Speaker 2: murder that he then said, oh, she actually shot herself
10:11
Speaker 2: and I buried her here in this.
10:12
Speaker 1: Net on June twelfth. Investigators say Zachariah searched online. We
10:16
Speaker 1: now remember June eleventh is the last day anybody saw
10:18
Speaker 1: her alive, and that's the day that they were driving
10:20
Speaker 1: around looking for an attorney's office. Allegedly, on June twelfth.
10:24
Speaker 1: Investigators say Zachariah searched online for carpet cleaners between June
10:29
Speaker 1: fifteenth and June twenty third. Investigators say that Zachariah used
10:33
Speaker 1: Crystal's debit card without permission. Well, he can't get permission
10:36
Speaker 1: because she's dead. He shot her on June eleventh, So,
10:39
Speaker 1: but he used her debit card to purchase cleaning supplies
10:43
Speaker 1: chemical resistant gloves, drain cleaner containing sulfuric acid, carpet stain removers,
10:49
Speaker 1: and storage totes, and automotive cleaners.
10:52
Speaker 2: What is his reasoning for hiding the body?
10:55
Speaker 1: I believe he claimed that she shot herself, but he
10:58
Speaker 1: knew that he would get blamed for shooting her, so
11:01
Speaker 1: he wanted to just get rid of the body because
11:04
Speaker 1: he was worried that, you know, they would come after him.
11:08
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, but now they can, they can still
11:11
Speaker 2: come after him.
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Speaker 1: I don't know why people do the things that they do.
11:14
Speaker 1: Why Why do people leave a digital footprint on their phone?
11:17
Speaker 1: Why do they do Google searches. Why do they go
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Speaker 1: to Walmart and buy a murder kit?
11:22
Speaker 2: Why do they why Walmart cell murder kids?
11:24
Speaker 1: I don't know why Walmart sells murders. You might want
11:27
Speaker 1: to think that they don't put it together and call
11:29
Speaker 1: it a murder kit. I mean it is all in
11:31
Speaker 1: separate aisles. You have to visit more than one aisle.
11:34
Speaker 3: You have to get your your you know, well, you
11:36
Speaker 3: know when you go by like sudeifet yeah right, oh yeah,
11:42
Speaker 3: they could be asked for your idea, right because you
11:44
Speaker 3: might make meth right like it flags it right, right.
11:47
Speaker 2: And if you go buy a suite fed at one
11:49
Speaker 2: store and another store like if because they check your idea,
11:52
Speaker 2: flags it like this guy has a lot of suit
11:54
Speaker 2: efet yours. So why don't they say, hey, these four
11:58
Speaker 2: items equal a murder they should get black flags it
12:02
Speaker 2: and they say, we need to check your ID.
12:03
Speaker 1: What would your four items be. It's definitely a shovel,
12:07
Speaker 1: trash bags, duct tape, duct tape, zip size. Yeah, that
12:10
Speaker 1: would be the four Yeah. If someone goes through Walmart
12:12
Speaker 1: with those four items, they should definitely be.
12:15
Speaker 2: There's a hyler hobby that takes place with those four items.
12:18
Speaker 1: No, there's not. No surveillance footage allegedly linked Zachariah to
12:24
Speaker 1: those purchases at multiple stores in Wisconsin. I do know
12:27
Speaker 1: one of the soores with Walmart, but he did visit
12:29
Speaker 1: other stores as well, so his murder kit didn't come
12:34
Speaker 1: entirely from Walmart. Yeah, he did go to other stores
12:37
Speaker 1: as well. On June seventeenth of twenty twenty four, Zachariah
12:41
Speaker 1: terminated his parental rights to his children. How do you
12:45
Speaker 1: you can just terminate your own parental rights? You can
12:48
Speaker 1: just maybe because they'd been they'd been removed by the
12:50
Speaker 1: state and they were in foster care.
12:52
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm sure there was something we don't know that
12:54
Speaker 2: he he did that, or at least he was willing
12:57
Speaker 2: to maybe signed a document in case they do find
12:59
Speaker 2: out home for them, or maybe he gave up his
13:02
Speaker 2: temporary you know rights, and so they could place him
13:05
Speaker 2: in a home against his you know, without it being
13:08
Speaker 2: against his will like that kind of thing.
13:10
Speaker 1: This is interesting. Investigators also found Internet searches asking whether
13:15
Speaker 1: raccoons or possums eat bones?
13:19
Speaker 2: And what's the answer.
13:20
Speaker 1: I don't know what the answer is. They didn't tell
13:21
Speaker 1: me that part.
13:22
Speaker 2: Why raccoons and possums?
13:23
Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess so why not?
13:25
Speaker 2: I don't know whatever.
13:26
Speaker 1: Bears along with searches involving sulfuric acid and search warrants
13:31
Speaker 1: during this period, Zachariah also sent text messages pretending to
13:35
Speaker 1: be Crystal while friends and family searched for her. Oh yeah,
13:39
Speaker 1: he was sending Facebook messages, you know, from I'm sure
13:43
Speaker 1: her Facebook was probably on her phone, so he has
13:45
Speaker 1: her phone.
13:46
Speaker 2: I don't even send Facebook messages like for my own
13:48
Speaker 2: account to my own friends.
13:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you murdered your wife and you wanted
13:51
Speaker 1: people to think that I was alive and out there,
13:53
Speaker 1: I guess you'd get on my Facebook and you know
13:55
Speaker 1: be like, hey, old friend, haven't heard from you for
13:58
Speaker 1: a while, just wanted you to know I'm alive.
14:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, season twenty one.
14:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, here we go. Yeah, start acting like everything's normal,
14:07
Speaker 1: right exactly. So that's what he's doing. He's texting, you know,
14:11
Speaker 1: texting people from her phone and sending Facebook messages. I
14:14
Speaker 1: guess to lengthen this amount of time that people think
14:16
Speaker 1: that she's just he might just be out.
14:18
Speaker 2: There fantasizing being her and I he's just wearing her
14:20
Speaker 2: painties too, it's right to some crazy guy.
14:22
Speaker 1: Oh, now you've just turned it into somethingletely different.
14:25
Speaker 2: Now he's just like living through her.
14:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's not part of the facts of this case.
14:30
Speaker 2: But so his plan was to murder my wife then,
14:34
Speaker 2: and if I get caught, I'll get rid of my
14:35
Speaker 2: kids too. Let's give up my kids to the state.
14:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, clearly they were terrible parents prior to the murder.
14:41
Speaker 1: I mean that's a given. We already know that. But then,
14:45
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. I don't know if he
14:48
Speaker 1: planned to murder her that day in the car, or
14:50
Speaker 1: if she just annoyed him a gun and he had
14:52
Speaker 1: a gun and he shot her. I don't know.
14:55
Speaker 2: Next time she annoys me, I'm going to shoot her.
14:57
Speaker 1: Right, this is now we get to June twenty third
14:59
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty four, crystal stepmother contacted authorities after not
15:03
Speaker 1: hearing from her since June eleventh. June eleventh is the
15:06
Speaker 1: key date that was the last time anyone saw her alive.
15:09
Speaker 1: Friends told investigators that text messages coming from Crystal's phone
15:13
Speaker 1: did not sound like her, and that she refused requests
15:16
Speaker 1: to call or video chat. I mean that's a red flag.
15:19
Speaker 2: That's always the case where language sounds different. Yeah, well, if.
15:23
Speaker 1: You were pretending to be me and you were text messaging,
15:26
Speaker 1: how would you sound like me?
15:29
Speaker 2: Shane is a jerk.
15:30
Speaker 1: I want to go to pizza and get some Bobby
15:33
Speaker 1: want to work out. I want to go to the
15:34
Speaker 1: gym Shane's.
15:35
Speaker 2: With the kids. Let's go take some selfies.
15:37
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it would mind be well, I don't
15:41
Speaker 1: feel like you really answer. I feel like you just
15:45
Speaker 1: you're not really out there being social. So I wouldn't
15:48
Speaker 1: text anyone anything. If I was trying to be you.
15:52
Speaker 2: Well, you'd have to do all the things around the house.
15:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would text kids and ask them, like if
15:57
Speaker 1: they need anything. But it's not like you're out playing
16:00
Speaker 1: golf with buddies and stuff. So investigator's searched Crystal's bedroomin
16:04
Speaker 1: found her cell phone still inside the home, along with
16:07
Speaker 1: a calendar showing June ninth as the last crossed off day.
16:11
Speaker 1: That's like a like showing the calendar with like the
16:14
Speaker 1: last cross on it. That reminds me of such a
16:18
Speaker 1: law school question, you know, when you get like a
16:20
Speaker 1: fact pattern and it's like and there's a calendar on
16:23
Speaker 1: the wall with June ninth, this is the last day
16:25
Speaker 1: with an X on it, you know. Deputies also spoke
16:28
Speaker 1: with Zachariah at the family property, where he claimed he
16:31
Speaker 1: did not know crystals whereabouts on June twenty six, law
16:43
Speaker 1: enforcement executed search warrants at Zachariah's residence and related properties,
16:48
Speaker 1: and investigators discovered a suspicious burn site near a shed
16:52
Speaker 1: on the Wood Road property. Detectives noted that there was
16:57
Speaker 1: melted residue, burned vegetation, and a strong chemical. Odor testing
17:02
Speaker 1: indicated the presence of strong acid. Then we get to
17:07
Speaker 1: June thirtieth. Investigators and forensic specialists excavated the burn site
17:11
Speaker 1: and recovered bone fragments and a tooth believed to.
17:15
Speaker 2: Be human not wait, we don't know how he shot her? Then, right?
17:19
Speaker 2: Do we know the manner of death? He said, gunshot?
17:22
Speaker 2: But was it in the head?
17:23
Speaker 1: It was in the head, yeah. A forensic dentist later
17:27
Speaker 1: matched the recovered tooth to crystal rash using dental records. Also,
17:32
Speaker 1: there was a DNA match, but I didn't know. Can
17:34
Speaker 1: you you can still get some DNA from a tooth,
17:37
Speaker 1: can't you? If you even get it?
17:38
Speaker 2: I mean you can if I think if the if
17:42
Speaker 2: there's like in the root, if there's enough in there. Yeah,
17:46
Speaker 2: but you know, if it's burn and stuff, I don't know.
17:49
Speaker 1: A forensic anthropologist concluded that the remains had been exposed
17:53
Speaker 1: to a prolonged high temperature fire. Zachariah Rash was initially
17:58
Speaker 1: arrested on identity theft allegations after investigators accused him of
18:02
Speaker 1: using Crystal's debit card after her disappearance. I mean, that's
18:06
Speaker 1: how they initially arrested him and brought him in and
18:08
Speaker 1: started questioning him as when they caught him on the
18:11
Speaker 1: surveillance right the result of that, prosecutors later charged him
18:15
Speaker 1: with first degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse in
18:19
Speaker 1: connection to Crystal's death. He pleaded not guilty to the charges,
18:23
Speaker 1: and bond was set at a million dollars. In July
18:26
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, a Dodge County judge found Zachariah
18:30
Speaker 1: incompetent to stand trial at that time, though likely to
18:34
Speaker 1: regain competency after treatment. I don't know how you determine that. You're, like,
18:38
Speaker 1: he's crazy now, but like, let's just give him a
18:40
Speaker 1: couple of weeks and he'll probably be competent later.
18:42
Speaker 2: And so I guess the argument is during trial he
18:46
Speaker 2: can't have a normal conversation with the lawyer to strategize,
18:49
Speaker 2: so we have to give him treatment.
18:51
Speaker 1: I know, well, this is he deemed him not competent
18:55
Speaker 1: to stand trial, but said he would be competent at
18:58
Speaker 1: some point.
18:59
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. So is the idea is that
19:01
Speaker 2: he's not combatant stand trial. Therefore he can't discuss and
19:04
Speaker 2: strategize with his attorney. So we have to give him
19:06
Speaker 2: treatment and then when he gets better, then we can
19:08
Speaker 2: put him on trial. I guess because he never really
19:10
Speaker 2: you know, if he's not going to take the stand,
19:12
Speaker 2: he's never going to speak in court anyway. It's going
19:14
Speaker 2: to be his attorney.
19:16
Speaker 1: June first of twenty twenty six, so he just went
19:19
Speaker 1: to trial. Jury selection started in Dodge County Circuit Court.
19:22
Speaker 1: The trial ran for seven days. Rash took the stand, oh,
19:30
Speaker 1: which probably wasn't smart, but he took the stand. He
19:34
Speaker 1: claimed that Crystal died by suicide in the passenger seat
19:37
Speaker 1: of his car using a nine millimeter handgun, saying that
19:41
Speaker 1: he Sawid out of the corner of his eye. So
19:45
Speaker 1: I guess he's claiming that they were driving along together.
19:47
Speaker 1: She got frustrated, she grabbed the nine millimeter and shot
19:49
Speaker 1: herself in the head.
19:51
Speaker 2: Likely story.
19:52
Speaker 1: He admitted to burning her body, telling prosecutors quote, I
19:56
Speaker 1: burned her end quote. Prosecutors can tered with his Google
20:01
Speaker 1: search history, which they say revealed premeditation, as well as
20:05
Speaker 1: the surveillance footage of his supply purchases made on her
20:08
Speaker 1: stolen debit card.
20:09
Speaker 2: And what what date were those purchases made? Do we remember?
20:13
Speaker 1: Well, it was after Well the last time anyone saw
20:14
Speaker 1: our live was June eleventh, so after it was June eleventh. Yeah,
20:18
Speaker 1: so she is dead, he was body.
20:21
Speaker 2: The meditated part would be what was what was found
20:24
Speaker 2: as evidence to show premeditation.
20:27
Speaker 1: I guess just the widow's benefits, the nine millimeter handgun.
20:31
Speaker 2: The searches.
20:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. After roughly two hours of deliberations, the jury found
20:36
Speaker 1: Zachariah Roush guilty of first degree intentional homicide and hiding
20:41
Speaker 1: a corpse. I didn't know what it was called hiding.
20:43
Speaker 1: I thought it was like, what's it called desecration?
20:47
Speaker 2: Or it might be Wisconsin. They might just have different
20:50
Speaker 2: terms that they use for the crime.
20:53
Speaker 1: He is scheduled to be sentenced, so we have a verdict,
20:56
Speaker 1: but we do not have a sentencing yet. He is
20:58
Speaker 1: scheduled to be sentenced on July twenty first, of twenty
21:02
Speaker 1: twenty six. He faces life in prison. His sentencing hearing
21:06
Speaker 1: is set for two thirty pm on July twenty first
21:09
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty six, so we will follow that and
21:11
Speaker 1: see what do you think life in prison? Well, I'd hope,
21:14
Speaker 1: so you would hope, So I would hope.
21:16
Speaker 2: So that's that's what possibility of parole then, right, that's
21:18
Speaker 2: what life in prison is, right.
21:20
Speaker 1: Any further thoughts on Zachariah.
21:22
Speaker 2: I hope the kids are in better hands.
21:24
Speaker 1: It's probably good they were taken away and that they're
21:26
Speaker 1: in foster care. Hopefully they get adopted and they get
21:28
Speaker 1: adopted by nice.
21:29
Speaker 2: People non murderous phrase.
21:31
Speaker 1: Yes, and they can have a you know, somewhat of
21:34
Speaker 1: the normal somewhat of a normal family life. That's what
21:37
Speaker 1: I would hope for those children anyway. Yeah, all right,
21:40
Speaker 1: thank you guys for listening to Till Death dus part.
21:43
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