Fiancée Found Murdered and Surrounded by Rose Petals

On Prime Crime. Grateful County 911. I think I might have a death. Walking into my fiance's house, there's a very weird smell and I can't get her to come around. A young mother brutally killed in her own home with no obvious reason why. Is she dead? We're all here, it's family. Presents for the ones you love. I don't know how to run. As far as I can tell, I'm not EMS, man. What the f***? This is your girlfriend? My fiance, but I didn't see my ring on her finger. Son of a b***h. This whole case at the beginning felt like a dead end. There's no reason his DNA should have been under her fingernails. As investigators dig deeper. I've never covered a murder case where the victim very quickly becomes the victim. The victim is the biggest villain. Dark secrets are revealed, taking the case down a path of shocking twists, one even detectives didn't see coming. I knew from that moment on, would be safe from sexual abuse. And there is proof to that, that the state is hiding from you. You're out of here. It's just you to be quiet. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hi, everybody, I'm Jesse Weber, and welcome to Prime Crime, where we break down some of the most compelling and memorable true crime cases from across the country. Right now, we have the story of a young mom who is savagely murdered in her South Carolina home in what appears to be a seemingly random act of violence. But as the investigation presses forward and hidden secrets come to light, the case pivots in a direction that no one expects. October 13th, 2021 starts out like any other day for 41-year-old Christina Parcell. Christina Parcell left that morning and walked her daughter up the street to Buena Vista Elementary School and dropped her off. She left that morning about 8:30 or so to go to an interview as a vet tech at a veterinarian clinic. Later that morning, Bradley Post, her fiance, tried to call to touch base with her, see how the interview went, but he didn't get her on the phone. So he decided to go over to the Cambridge hospital, which was a great address, just to check in on her. That's when the lives of Parcell's family and friends in that small community of Greer, South Carolina, change forever. -Grainville County 911. -I think I might have a death. -Okay, let me connect you to -- -I walked into my fiance's house. She wouldn't answer my call. It was a very weird smell, and I can't get her to come around. -October 13th of 2021 on Canebrake Drive, close outside the city of Greenville, 911 call was placed just after 11:00 a.m. by a Bradley Post reporting that he had discovered Christina Parcell's body inside the home. -I just walked in. I smell some weird smell. It looks like she's flat out on the floor. -Is she breathing? -No. -Okay, then we need to get her -- turn her over, make sure she's flat on her back, and we're going to start CPR, sir. -Okay, I think she's gone. -Let me get over here. -It looks like she's gone. -I think there's brain matter everywhere. Looks like somebody might have shot in the back. She won't respond. -She won't respond. -Eyes are open. -Eyes are open. -There's a lot of blood. -There was a tremendous amount of blood in this crime scene. We knew that this person had been very up close and personal with Christina Parcell, and then there were drag marks throughout the crime scene moving her body. We didn't know for what purpose or why. -So it looks like somebody may have broke in and shot her in the head. -Maybe. I don't know. -Do you see anybody? Still nearby? An assailant or anything? -No. -No? Okay. -There was a pungent smell that was inside of the residence. However, once the forensic technicians arrived, the smell had dissipated. -You got to come home right now. Emergency. I went to the door. No response. So the back door is always unlocked. -Okay. -So I walked around the back door. When I walked in, there was a smell, like a pesticide smell, and she's laying on her back. It looks like there's brain matter on the floor or there's a lot of blood. It looks like she fell and was on drugs. -What law enforcement determined to be the spot that she was initially attacked had the largest collection of blood by that couch and then the drag marks across the floor to where she was ultimately found. The cause of death was approximately 35 slash and stab wounds all around her body. Overwhelmingly, it was a vicious attack. A slew of questions. And potential implications arising from just those facts alone. -Is there anybody else in the house? Any pets? -No, but there are three cats. -Did you talk to her this morning? -I talked to her this morning, yeah. -Okay. Sheriff's office. I do smell something. -The best holiday finds aren't always the ones you went looking for. At Ross, discover unexpected gifts, fashion, decor, and plenty of reasons to keep looking. Ross. Expect the unexpected. -The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live US-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 70% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/spotify. -Outdoor returns plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/spotify. We didn't see a gun or anything. We didn't touch her, so I don't know, but it's weird. You'll see where she was drugged. -We never found a murder weapon. Obviously, every house has plenty of knives. Every house has a kitchen, but there was nothing that, you know, stood out as being the murder weapon. -There were blood droppings near the blinds of the house as well as chairs. In addition, we'd found rose petals sprinkled throughout the crime scene, and we didn't know the significance of those, and we didn't know what they were. -I just talked to Tina, who is his sister, who's at work. She's coming home now, and I said, "Was there a rose? Did you see on the floor?" -Yep, I saw it in the hallway there. -She said, "I don't know if there was any rose in the house." -Okay. -And I saw her sunglasses in the hallway, so it looks like she was surprised somehow. -We definitely felt that it was personal, not a random person who just walked in her house. -This is weird, dude. -This is weird. -Let's get out of here with that smell. We'll just lock it down. It's definitely not a death odor. -Is she dead? -As far as I can tell, I'm not EMS, man. They should be here in just a second. -What the? -And this is your girlfriend? -Well, she's my fiancé, but I didn't see my ring on her finger. Son of a. She's got a young daughter that's nine. -Deputies were dispatched to 122 Canebrake Drive just after 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October the 13th, after a woman who has since been identified as Christina Parcell was found deceased inside the residence by a person familiar with her. Investigators rushed to the scene and discovered the victim had been brutally stabbed multiple times, resulting in her death. -With a brutal murder and not many leads, police have a lot of work ahead of them. -The initial officers cleared the home itself. Evidence was collected, pictures taken of the inside of the home, and the first steps that investigators took was to speak to neighbors. -Canebrake Avenue is a really quiet suburb in the town of Greer. It's a place where a lot of families live. My first thought was, "Maybe this is somebody she rejected, or this is a jilted lover." -I do think the neighbors were probably afraid. We knew from the beginning we were going to be looking for somebody that was at least familiar with Christina. -Christina Parcell was a mother. She was the sister of Tina Parcell, and at that point, she was living at that residence with her sister Tina and her daughter. -Christina worked as a vet tech part-time. She was seeking full-time employment, and she had a fiancé named Bradley Post. -After she was murdered, you started to see people who knew her comment on social media about the person that they knew, and it's everything you would expect. She was a great mother to her daughter. Everybody at the animal hospital and animal clinic loved her. It seemed that she had this personality that drew people in, but also made people feel important and noticed. -We spoke to her sister, Tina Parcell, at great length, and even Tina expressed the fact that, you know, a lot of Christina Parcell's life was a mystery to her because they only rekindled their relationship about a year or so prior to her murder. -They had to look at was this a case of mistaken identity? Was this meant for her sister Tina? There were so many options on the table and so few answers that it seemed like investigators really had their work cut out for them. -Detectives canvassed the surrounding neighborhood in hopes of finding any new information to bring them one step closer to identifying the alleged killer. -Doorbell cam footage around these houses could be extremely valuable in trying to identify a suspect, and, thankfully, almost immediately after law enforcement arrived They find out that the home directly across the street had ring camera. We asked for, in some cases, days of footage just to make sure somebody wasn't kind of scoping out the house before it happened. Some homeowners didn't have anything of evidentiary value, but a couple of the neighbors did catch something that gave law enforcement their first big break. You see the suspect walk up to the front door and stands there for maybe 10 seconds. It's clear he has knocked on the door or rung the doorbell. You see the door crack open, and the last frame of that video shows the suspect walking inside Christina Parcell's house. We tried to get as much security camera footage as we could to figure out where he came from or where he went back to. We know he left on a bike. They. Kind of struck gold, in a sense, in falling into the footage of this individual walking into the home at 9.15. It didn't clearly identify who it was. They didn't have a face, but it led them ultimately to a suspect. Many questions begin swirling. Who would want this young mother dead? Who had access to the home and knew Christina Parcell's schedule? Is there anything or anyone investigators are missing? This soon leads detectives towards an unlikely character. There's been a custody battle. The father is in, was in Italy. Is he in Italy now? He's been threatening what we don't know. He sent a package to my office. It was all these old court documents between John and my sister where he'd accused her of being a prostitute. Anonymous packets also started showing up. Of. Naked pictures of her. Amid the investigation into the stabbing death of 41-year-old Christina Parcell, a strange figure spotted on nearby cameras gives police a new direction to go in. But who is this mystery person? We needed to really look and see what was the background of this family. And what was the family dynamic going on there? You're looking at any and every possibility. At the very beginning, there weren't very many leads. Obviously, Brad Post, the fiancée and the person who found the body was initially considered. Early on, detectives meet with 65-year-old Bradley Post to learn if he knows anything that could help the investigation. His background is in engineering. He had started his own company and had sold it. And so was of pretty significant, let's just say, financial means. When you look at statistics for murders. Any time. Any time a woman is murdered. This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just $15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song. Like, "All I want is f***ing right." Okay, we can't afford that. You know what, forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. May slow. One network is busy. See terms. ♪ We're all here, it's family ♪ ♪ Presents for the ones you love ♪ ♪ And run ♪ Heard it's usually a lover of some type, so we obviously had to consider him a suspect. And in talking with Post, they're led down an unforeseen path. Through the lens of law. He is a guy that they see as a potential suspect from the get-go. He turns over his phone, and the curtain is kind of pulled back on a separate angle. It seemed like there was a lot of speculation on social media. We just weren't getting any news about the case. And then all of a sudden, we find out Christina Parcell's fiancé has been arrested. And my first thought, okay, he's been arrested. Okay, here we go. We asked if he would allow us to do a forensic download of his phone, and he agreed to it. We discovered some content on his phone that resulted in Mr. Post receiving some criminal charges. Police had seized child pornography images and videos from devices that belonged to Brad Post. Bradley Post is arrested and charged with several counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, buggery, and criminal sexual conduct with a minor, charges that are unrelated to the case at hand. Detectives keep him in their sights, but another person is on their radar, Parcell's ex and the father of her daughter, then 61-year-old John Mello. Bradley and Christina dated on and off for maybe 20 years. During a period when they were broken up is when she met John Mello. About four years into their relationship, they welcomed a baby girl. The two dated for about seven years, but they did part ways. The custody issues started almost immediately. Mello wanted custody of his daughter. Christina wanted custody of their daughter. Christina just kind of yielded and gave in to John and gave him custody with her having visitation. But after several years, things between them take a turn. John Mello and Christina Parcell had been engaged in one of the most contentious custody disputes that we have ever seen. In 2020, John Mello left with his daughter and moved to Italy in violation of the current standing family court order between he and Christina Parcell. This was September 2020. That's the last we saw her. He missed visitation, which is, of course, a contempt. Said that they were out of the country and wouldn't be back in time. And wouldn't take phone calls. Missed the next visitation. So October of 2020, we basically figured out that he was in Italy. He had taken her to Italy. No communication from him. Christmas Day of 2020, so give or take three months, is the first time we got to talk. She was in Italy. He essentially kidnapped their daughter and took her to another country. And the Hague had to get involved and bring the child back to the United States. While John Mello becomes a person of interest, he seems to have an airtight alibi. The first thing that pops in mind is, all right, this guy, John, has something to do with it. But if he's in, obviously he can't do it if he's in Italy. But we don't know that he's in Italy. The nuance to the John Mello angle was the fact that they learned immediately that he was in Italy at the time of the murder. Once we learned that John Mello was not located in the United States, that route went a little cold. While Mello may not be their man, his connections are certainly of interest to investigators. There was an individual who knew John Mello and worked for him named Michael Manigault. Michael was doing some odd jobs for John Mello, cleaning his properties, doing landscaping work, and Michael mentioned that there was a man named Zachary Hughes that was a friend of John Mello's and he had worked alongside Zach for a couple of weeks. Zach was born in 1992 in California. He grew up in a very loving family. Religion was important in the family, hard work, accountability. Upon graduation from high school in 2010, he applied to the Juilliard School. While he was there, he flourished, was well respected, was very successful. After he graduated from Juilliard, he taught music lessons to pupils, and he was hired in 2017 to be the principal pianist with the Knoxville Symphony. When Zachary Hughes and John Mello first met up, it was kind of a chance meeting. During COVID, everything was shut down. Zachary Hughes had the idea. I'll play on the lawn outside for people. Later, Zach decided to start doing some street performances in downtown Greenville. And by chance, one day, John Mello and his daughter walked up and complimented Zach on his music. He asked the child, is there a song I could play for you? And the child said, Claire DeLune. It was Michael Manigault who kind of filled in some of the pieces about their relationship. He told us some information we later learned to be incorrect, saying that they had met at some restaurant downtown that john and zach had been friends for four or five years prior to this and we later learned that that wasn't true as well it seems like they had a very fast friendship develop but it wasn't a long one they only hung out for a couple of months zach was enamored with the young child in a big brother kind of way now 29 year old zachary hughes is in the picture but there's something that doesn't really add up. - Such a glaring question. There was no connection with Cristina Parcell. There was never a communication with Christina Parcell. There was no evidence. evidence the fact that he had ever met her the only connection between Zachary Hughes and Christina Parcell was John Mello I researched him online I found all kinds of articles about this Zachary Hughes in Greenville who's this great pianist and we pulled a list of his vehicles that he has from the South Carolina DMV and that's when I started looking through the flock traffic cameras that we have throughout the county and the day of Christina's murder I was able to find a picture of Zach's truck with seemingly little connection to Christina Parcell detectives begin to wonder could the hooded figure on the bicycle seen on surveillance footage be Zachary Hughes on two separate flock cameras at different times they see Zach's truck but they also see a bike in the bed of the truck and that this episode is brought to you by TXU energy if you're looking for a better way to save on electricity both night and day look no further than TXU energy free nights and cool summer it gives you free energy all night every night all year long plus a 25 bonus toward your daytime use every summer it's the only plan that lets you use free energy to get more savings so all nights are always free summer days are now always discounted with savings like that you'll never look at a free nights plan the same way again learn more at txu.com rep number one zero zero zero four that was the next big break we found no connection I think he got a burner phone and sent her some harassing text messages at one point but that was it they were not acquaintances they never hung out a loose theory begins to take shape surrounding the murder of Christina Parcell but as the investigation unfolds unsettling new details emerge and the mystery only deepens right after Christina was able to get her daughter back from Italy some nude photographs of her started being mailed to several different addresses these nude photos look to be from an escort of a woman who was at the airport website and these mailings were going to the guardian ad litem in the case attorneys to Bradley post her fiance as well as neighbors of his at first the sender of the envelopes remains unknown but as the murder investigation continues detectives begin building their case uncovering links to Zachary Hughes in doing their due They are able to identify his truck and they run that truck through flock cameras in Greenville. On the day of the murder, around 2.30 p.m., one of the flock cameras hits on Zachary Hughes' truck and you see very clearly in the bed of his truck a bike matching that description of the bike that was found on the ring cameras leaving the residence. So this is where it kind of snowballs. Even though his family was close by, Zachary Hughes was living with a family from church. Investigators, when they pull up, Zachary Hughes is standing at the French door holding a cell phone and puts his hands in the air. I obtained a search warrant for that residence, his truck, his DNA. When we arrived at his house, it's like he knew we were coming. Before we even got out of our cars, he didn't even ask us why we were there or what we were doing. The garage had a lot of bikes. There were some up on the shelves. They noted some had cobwebs on them. But when they turned and looked, they see a black bike that is in amazing condition. We asked if he wanted to speak with us about the case and he refused. That night we did the search warrant. We just detained him. So we could get his DNA at that point. He was our prime suspect. With not enough to hold him, Hughes is released. And several days later, in early November 2021, one final break. They learned that there's a DNA hit under Christina Parcell's fingernails to Zachary Hughes. So between the bike, between the fact that he matched the stature of that suspect going in the home, and the DNA, that was enough for law enforcement to make the arrest. Zachary Hughes was located in Michigan. And he was leaving to play the piano on a four-month cruise to make money. Once we notified him, he did voluntarily turn around and drive back to Greenville, South Carolina. And he turned himself in. I was his attorney at that time. So I was with him when he turned himself in. Zach actually had a plane ticket. Could have left the country. He did not. Or he could have simply walked across a bridge into Canada. But he got word about the charges. He came back to South Carolina. I'll never forget getting a breaking news alert that an arrest had been made. And the first thing I see is Zachary Hughes' mugshot. And I thought to myself, no way. I met this guy in downtown Greenville. outdoors playing piano. And not only did I meet him, I sat and had a 10-minute conversation with him. And my first thought is, there's no way. They've got the wrong guy. Zachary Hughes is arrested and charged with murder, burglary, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and harassment. After Zach was arrested, of course, law enforcement wanted to do a forensic download of his cell phone. The young man, who was able to memorize 32 of Beethoven's sonatas, which is just unheard of, couldn't remember the passcode to his phone. The phone download was able to generate WhatsApp messages between Zachary Hughes and John Mello. But unfortunately, with WhatsApp, because it's end-to-end encrypted, they were, for the most part, scrambled. Some of the smaller messages, we could kind of decipher. Like John saying, harass the f*** out of her. But some of the longer ones, it's just too scrambled to make sense out of. I obtained Zachary Hughes' emails, and I found where John Mello had sent him those nude photos that were mailed out. And another burning question remains. What reason would Zachary Hughes have to violently murder Christina Parcell, a woman he had never met? We knew that he was intimately involved in the child custody dispute. And we know that John Mello is telling him a lot of the specific information about the situation. John Mello, we knew, was very involved in the murder of Christina Parcell through his conversations with Zachary Hughes. But he was in Italy. I had John Mello on the five-yard line trying to punch it into the end zone, but I didn't have that last five yards. But then, a startling twist no one anticipates. After Christina was murdered, our local news social media pages just blew up with comments. People who didn't know her were horrified at what her last moments must have been like, the fear, the pain. But we all felt there was a big piece of this puzzle missing. We all felt there was a big piece of this puzzle missing. The prosecution's role is to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Zachary Hughes did, in fact, murder Christina Parcell. That sounds simple. In this particular case, it was quite complicated. Investigators working to build their case in the murder of Christina Parcell face controversy when serious accusations against Parcell come to light. There's a lot of allegations that were made against her, some false, some true. John Mello made several that were investigated by the sheriff's office. It did have to do with child abuse, and they were ultimately closed. On review of Brad Post's devices, Christina Parcell is in images and some videos. Allegations started to trickle out about Christina and her possible involvement in the murder of Christina Parcell. In the child sex abuse material that her fiancé, Bradley Post, had been arrested on just one week after her murder. And when that hit the news, it flipped this case upside down. And I've never covered a murder case where the victim very quickly becomes the biggest villain in this story. But after these allegations were made public, that's exactly what happened to Christina Parcell. This seemingly important evidence, however, would soon find itself on the chopping block. It actually took us a number of years to be able to even gain access to those images and videos. September of 2024, the state moved to exclude all evidence of child pornography that had been seized during the course of the law enforcement's investigation. We responded. Then the state filed another motion for the purpose of excluding it. It was not relevant because it didn't play a part in the murder. And I think the judge made a well-informed and the correct decision on excluding that material. In February 2025, Zachary Hughes goes on trial armed with a trove of solid evidence. Prosecutors lay out their case. Murder is an angry heart. We have to show that Zach Hughes had an angry heart. He was mad. In addition to also preparing a very complex trial through witnesses that could convince a jury that he did in fact kill Christina Parcell, on top of that was the why. Why would Zachary Hughes, somebody who's never met Christina Parcell, go and commit such a horrific crime? The question is how did Zach Hughes become involved in this case? Well, Zach Hughes had a relationship with John Mello and that relationship grew. And it grew to the point where Zach Hughes began inserting himself into this custody battle. And as the custody disputed elevated, it elevated. This episode is brought to you by TXU Energy. If you're looking for a better way to save on electricity, both night and day, look no further than TXU Energy free nights and cool summer. It gives you free energy all night, every night, all year long. Plus a 25% bonus toward your daytime use every summer. It's the only plan that lets you use free energy to get more savings. So all nights are always free. Summer days are now always discounted. With savings like that, you'll never look at a free nights plan the same way again. Learn more at TXU.com. Rep number 10004. Into a situation where custody might not go in John Mello's favor. And at that point, Zach Hughes made the ultimate decision. And to support their theory, the state's witnesses outlined the facts. Did you have the occasion to test the clippings from Christina Parcell's right hand? Yes, I did. What was obtained from item 2A is a mixture of at least two individuals. Assuming Christina Parcell is the major contributor to this mixture, a match between the minor DNA result of item 2A and the DNA of Zachary Hughes is approximately 825 million times more likely than a coincidental match to a random unrelated individual. Around 8:00, 8:15, did you see anything of interest that day? Yeah, I saw somebody on a bicycle. Just in all black with a mask on his face. Were you able to see his face? Yeah, a little bit. Ms. Gorin, do you recognize that person, Ms. Gorin? Yes, he's right there. Some ring cameras showed a person on a bicycle. There was some vastly conflicting testimony about that. One of the persons said that the suspect on that bicycle was about 6'5". Well, Zach is under 6' tall. Another witness testified that they were able to enhance the video, enhanced the video enough to see that the person on the bicycle had a beard. Well, Zach did not have a beard. Did you have the occasion to meet John Mello? I met him maybe a time or two from 2014 to when they broke up in 2015. Did they ever live together? No, he was living with his wife at the time. Did Christina Parcell and John Mello ever engage in disputes over who had rights to their daughter? For years, yes. Zach Hughes stabbing Christina Parcell 35 times, that we could prove pretty well. It was all the other ancillary issues regarding the custody dispute that made this case complicated. From the moment I walked into that courtroom, the first thing that stood out to me was how disproportionate the defense side was compared to the prosecution side. Every single day of that trial, Zachary Hughes had 20 or more people on his side. But on the other side, there's nobody there for Christina. And the jury noticed every single day. You see that something in this jury's mind is working. The defense finally presents its case and makes an intriguing move. The prosecution said that Zach was mad. They said he had an angry heart, that he wanted to inject himself into this custody dispute. But that's not why it happened. The why to the homicide is very important because it gives insight into the person's heart. In this case, you were going to hear that the why was not jealousy or greed or a crime of passion. This was not done for money or any other personal gain or benefit. Not to help out any kind of friend. This was done for a just cause. And that's not malice and that's not murder. Murder is defined as the unlawful killing of another with malice or forethought. Historically, one of the definitions of malice under South Carolina law has been the intentional doing of a wrongful act without just cause or excuse. In Mark's opening statement, he referenced that definition of malice specifically. And began the process of having the jury. Think about Zach's just cause or excuse for what he did. And in a shocking turn of events, Zachary Hughes takes the stand in his own defense. He started to tell me about his really grave concerns he had about his daughter, specifically when his daughter was with her mother. He just didn't trust her. And he thought that she wasn't responsible and that she might even hurt her at some point. It was clear that he just was terrified about the danger his daughter was in. But wait until you hear what Zachary Hughes has to say next and why sparks start flying in the courtroom. This was not about revenge or retribution or anything. I wasn't angry. I felt that I had a certain sense of responsibility to help him with what he was dealing with with this custody battle for his daughter's sake. At the end of September, beginning of October 2021, did you conclude that you had to rescue her and there was no other way? Yes, I did. zachary hughes testifies in his own defense as he faces murder charges over the stabbing death of christina parcelle the ex of his friend john mellow he walks jurors through what happened in the months leading up to the brutal killing in may of 2021 what if anything did john ask you to do for him john asked me that if i believed his daughter was in grave danger would i be willing to kill christina parcell for five thousand dollars i was shocked and insulted by the request and i gave him an immediate and unequivocal no maybe two or three weeks later He asked me again, if I became convinced that his daughter was in danger, would I be willing to kill Christina Parcell for $10,000? I told him the only way I would ever consider taking action like this is if I was absolutely convinced that his daughter was not only in danger, but that the only way to rescue her from that danger would be to take Christina Parcell's wife. We've heard from people who try to make it sound like Zach was manipulated. Zach wasn't manipulated. He gained a lot of information. Some of it was through John Mello. Some of it was from other sources that led him to believe that this child was being abused. In light of newfound information from Zachary Hughes' testimony, and to add to this already tangled web, Outside the courtroom, another player in this case finds himself in handcuffs. When Zachary Hughes was on the stand, we were curious, is he going to throw John Mello under the bus? They had nothing on John Mello, or at least not enough to have him arrested until Zachary Hughes was on the stand. That testimony right there led to investigators very quickly getting an arrest warrant for John Mello. He was in custody by 1.30 that day, and he is currently awaiting charges for accessory before the fact of murder. Did you take another step to try to act on your concerns? Yes, I made a phone call to Child Protective Services. I told them that I had seen being verbally and physically abused by her mother. That's when all hell breaks loose. I made that up. That's not true. But I said it because I wanted to give an opportunity to have FaceTime in person with an agent from DSS away from her mother where she could tell them that her mother was sexually abusing her. Objection, Your Honor. Sustained. You are to disregard. He began to discuss the fact that Christina Parcell had allegedly manufactured or produced child pornography of her daughter. As a result, we would object, and then he would rule in our favor, and he would tell Zachary Hughes, you're not allowed to say that. But the jury would hear these things. What I told the court is, Your Honor, I am asking questions that are designed to elicit evidence consistent with your ruling. But at the same time, Zach is on trial for his life. And so I'm going to. The best holiday finds aren't always the ones you went looking for. Ross, expect the unexpected. So while nights are always free, summer days are now always discounted. With savings like that, you'll never look at a free night's plan the same way again. Rep number 1-0-0-0-4. Continue to do what your honor has instructed me to do, and Zach's going to do what he thinks is right. And Zachary Hughes makes a startling confession. I had gotten this offer to go on this cruise ship, and I would have been leaving the country for a long time. Essentially, it was now or never. I had an opportunity to save her from a danger that I knew she was in. And. I just couldn't go on with my life and leave her to drown. Did you take Christina Farsell's life on October the 13th? Yes. Because I believed it was absolutely necessary to save her. And I was right. It is sustained. Had the child sex abuse allegations been broadened, interestingly enough, Christina and John Mello's daughter was going to be the first witness that the defense called. She was going to take the stand in Zachary Hughes' defense, but the judge said no. Zachary Hughes spells out exactly how it all went down. I brought a knife. And I brought a box that was made to look like. A gift-wrapped box. And a bunch of roses that I had bought the day before. I knew that the only way was going to be saved from what she was enduring was for me to take this route. It was his decision that he wanted to testify. Zach had been waiting three years to tell everybody what he did and why he did it. My plan had been to try to knock her unconscious because I didn't want to cause her to die. I didn't want to cause her or anyone any pain. I started striking her. And she started to fight back. I don't remember how many times I struck her. I saw that she had scratched my face. So I used the paint thinner to try to clean her hands. I drove back to the mountain house. And as soon as I left the house, I felt the most pain in my heart. I felt the most pain in my heart. the most enormous wave of relief wash over me because I knew from that moment on would be safe, would be safe from the sexual abuse that her mother was perpetrating on her. At the end of the day, he wasn't able to put up his defense without getting contempt charges because it wasn't allowed in, and yet he said, I put my hand on the Bible, I swore to tell the truth, and you're telling me I can't. He got out to that jury that there were allegations of sexual abuse by the victim, Christina Parcell. Very powerful moment. You see that light bulb go off where several of those jurors in that, in that moment, finished that puzzle. Even though we had it strict from the record, he was continuing to say it so much that the judge held him in contempt and sentenced him to six months in jail, which didn't seem to faze him very much. It just shows that he has no respect for, you know, the rule of law. I mean, he just admitted to being offered money and killing someone. He admitted that he knew nothing about Christina other than what he knew about her. He was told by John Mello, the case is left with the jury. The state has to convince 12 people of the same thing, and I don't care what the evidence is in any case, it is so difficult to convince 12 people of anything. So your mind races. I've never personally had a murder suspect confess to a jury, even testify in his own trial, let alone confess. I don't know what he thought was going to happen other than a guilty verdict. After just under three hours of deliberations, the jury comes back with their verdict. As to the charge of murder, we, the jury, find the defendant guilty. Zachary Hughes is found guilty of murder, among several other charges, but is acquitted of first-degree harassment and conspiracy to commit first-degree harassment. But before the judge. The judge hands down his sentence. Christina Parcell's sister, Tina Parcell, gets an opportunity to speak before the court. This man, no, I'm sorry, this defendant, wanted to kill someone. He was given a target on a silver platter. All of these men did nothing but use my sister for their own twisted personal gratification. He would do it again. Zachary David Hughes, indictment for murder. You're to be committed to the State Department of Corrections for life. Ultimately, Zach Hughes murdered Christina Parcell on the morning of October 13th of 2021, period. That happened. The defense's argument that Zach Hughes had the pretext to commit this murder justifiably, it wasn't there. I've covered a lot of murders that have some very, very crazy twists and turns, but I never thought one of the craziest would be 20 minutes from my backyard. Knowing what we know about what was allegedly being done to the daughter, that was a very conflicting feeling for me to not really feel as sorry for a victim as I normally do. And I struggled with that. But at the end of the day, we can't allow vigilante justice. Yeah. And somebody like that as talented and poised and amazing as he seemed to be, he committed a very vicious and scary murder. And we just can't allow people like that to walk around on the outside among us, no matter what noble cause he thought it was. It's kind of unbelievable, right? In the end, a classically trained musician is convicted for taking the life of another, an act that he claimed was meant to save a child. Jurors, though, they saw the killing of Christina Parcell as something else entirely, a premeditated murder. But questions still linger about who may have influenced him and how far someone's willing to go when they think they're right. That's all we have for you here on this episode of Premeditated. The Prime Crime. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Jesse Weber. And as always, stay safe. 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