Missing from: Asheville, North Carolina
Missing: January 2, 2000
Age at disappearance: 18
Height: 5’9″
Weight: 165 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Distinguishing Characteristics: Scars, Marks, Tattoos: Caucasian male. Scars between ring and middle fingers on both hands. Wears gas permeable contacts.
Details of Disappearance: Quinn was employed at the store on Hendersonville Road in Asheville, North Carolina in 2000. He departed from work at 9:00 p.m. on January 2 of that year and met his friend, Robert Jason Owens, in the store’s parking lot (some agencies may spell his last name “Owen”). Quinn planned to look at a vehicle he was considering purchasing in the near future that evening. Owens said he was accompanying Quinn and they drove separate cars to the location.
A security camera videotape at the Eblen Citgo gas station on Hendersonville Road showed Quinn and Owens entering the store to purchase sodas at approximately 9:15 p.m. Owens’s Ford pickup truck and Quinn’s light blue Mazda Protege are seen pulling away from the station on the tape several minutes later. Both vehicles were headed towards Long Shoals Road. Owens told authorities that Quinn flashed his headlights sometime prior to 9:30 p.m. The men were near TC Roberson High School on Long Shoals Road in Asheville at the time. Owens said they both pulled over to the side of the road and Quinn told him he received a page. Owens stated that Quinn drove away to make a phone call at that time. Owens told authorities that Quinn returned approximately ten minutes later and rear-ended Owens’s truck. Quinn apologized for the accident and said that he could not look at the vehicle as planned that evening. Owens said that Quinn drove away and has never been heard from again. Owens was treated for head injuries and a broken rib he claimed to have incurred during an unrelated automobile accident during the early morning hours of January 3, several hours after Quinn disappeared. Owens stated that the accident occurred near The Waffle House restaurant on Long Shoals Road by the intersection of Interstate 26. Owens called Wal-Mart on January 4 and reported that Quinn was ill and would not be arriving for his shift that day. After giving his inital statement about Quinn’s disappearance, he refused to cooperate further with police.
Quinn’s Mazda Protege was discovered abandoned on January 16, two weeks after his disappearance. The vehicle was located in the parking lot of The Little Pigs Barbecue restaurant on McDowell Street. A live black Labrador puppy, approximately three months old, and a plastic hotel key were found inside Quinn’s car, as well as several empty drink bottles, hairs, and a jacket that didn’t belong to Quinn. The puppy was also not his. A pair of lips and two exclamation points had been drawn in orange-pink lipstick on the rear windshield, and the driver’s seat was adjusted for someone shorter than Quinn. There was no sign of him at the scene. The vehicle was parked nearby Mission St. Joseph’s Hospital, where Quinn’s grandmother, mother and sister all work as neonatal nurses.
Investigating Agency: Asheville Police Department (828) 252-1110 (828) 259-5910
If you have any information on this case please contact CUE Center For Missing Persons using the contact form below or contact Cue Center at (910) 343-1131 24 hour tip line (910) 232-1687. All information submitted to CUE Center For Missing Persons is confidential.