The Bizarre Death Of Joshua Maddux 'The Boy In The Chimney'

One day, an 18-year-old high school student just weeks away from graduating, walked out the front door of his family's home, and never returned. I had a hard story to tell, but it ends with a Southern Colorado family finally getting closure. Joshua Maddox was 18 when he vanished in May of 2008. It was the last time that Joshua Maddox was ever seen alive. And we had most of the building down and we were going to jump over the chimney. And when we did, the top of the chimney popped off and inside was the body of a mad. Four years his family held on to hope. They imagined that he was out there somewhere, miles and miles away, living a life he'd one day come home to tell them all about. But the entire time, Joshua was less than a mile away from his home. Not what we wanted, obviously. We wanted him to come home, but at least now we can stop looking. Seven years after he disappeared, his body was finally found. But instead of bringing answers, the discovery only raised more questions. This is the extremely suspicious disappearance and death of Joshua Maddox. And my name is Brianna and I'm hot on the case. Thank you so much for joining me for the first episode of Hot on the Case in 2026. If you've been here before, thank you so much for joining me again for yet another year. And if this is your first time ever joining me for an investigation here at Hot on the Case, we talk all things true crime every single Friday on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple podcasts. Please, everyone, make sure that you are subscribed on YouTube that you're following the show, wherever you get your podcasts, that you like, rate, and review the show because that's what really helps push out these episodes and these stories and these cases to even more people. I chose this case for the first episode of 2026 because this is a case that I truly feel extremely passionate about. I've known of this case for many, many years and it's definitely one that has stuck with me. I really thought by 2026, it has been over 10 years since the events of today's tragedy really unfolded that we would have more answers but sadly we do not, which is why it was really important to me that we talk about this case again, hopefully bring some more awareness to today's case and Joshua Maddox's story. I'd really like to start out in the beginning of this video saying that I mean absolutely no disrespect to any of the victims I'm going to discuss today and of course any of their families. And just one more really quick disclaimer before we jump into today's case. I found not only conflicting sources when I came to this case but sources were also limited. As always I tried my best to find the information that I believe to be the most accurate but if you think that maybe I left something out or possibly got something wrong, please just let me and your fellow detectives know in the comments. So today's case is about an 18 year old boy named Joshua Vernon Maddox but he was more well known by the nickname Josh. And before we talk about the truly terrible things that happened in this case I would like to tell you a little bit about who Josh really was. Joshua Vernon Maddox was born on March 9th 1990 he was the youngest of four children and he was born to his parents Michael and Roberta Maddox. Like I said Josh was the youngest of four siblings. He had two older sisters named Kate and Ruth that he absolutely adored and one of Josh's absolute best friends was his older brother Zach. Zach was two years older than Josh. Zach was your typical cool older brother he was a skateboarder and it was really Josh's older brother Zach that instilled this huge interest in reading and writing and music in Josh at such a young age. The family was living in Woodland Park Colorado right outside the historic Colorado Springs. Woodland Park sat surrounded by mountains snow-capped summits in this truly beautiful area. I've been Colorado a handful of times and it really is as beautiful as people say especially if you're into outdoor activities like hiking and camping and Joshua was definitely into all those outdoor things. There were actually multiple hiking and walking trails right outside. Joshua's family home like right outside their front door and Josh absolutely loved the outdoors. He would often go on like little nature walks just to clear his head. This was something that he did like almost daily. Josh really gives me like free spirited hippie vibes. He had the long hair. He played a bunch of different instruments. Everyone that knew him talked about how many friends he had and how he was so kind like he was truly a friend to all. Josh would even often preach about how no one should ever say anything mean about anyone and we should all try our best to be nice to each other. He loved all things outdoors like I said he loved hiking and camping with his friends. Josh loved writing stories and writing music. Music was absolutely Josh's biggest passion in life. He played multiple instruments and he was extremely talented and on top of that I thought this was kind of silly. Josh also wrote his own comic strip that he called Stickman and Smiley. He honestly seemed like such a cool dude like someone that you would want to be friends with. Josh would often tell his family that he was going to leave with them park one day and go see the world go travel and have all of these great adventures. Josh absolutely loved his family. It's not like he wanted to get away from his family but his family understood that Josh was destined for great things. They said that they always imagined him going off and traveling the world going on tour with a band and they knew that he wanted to have these big adventures traveling the world traveling the country but they always felt like he would come home one day if he were to leave. The family was extremely close which made it so much harder when in 2006 tragedy struck the Maddox family for the first time. In June of 2006 about one week before Josh's older brother Zach was supposed to graduate high school. Zach actually brought an end to his own life. It was no secret that Zach was struggling with severe depression for a long time but no matter what something like this especially when it's someone so young it came at such a huge devastating shock for the entire family and Zach's death really hit Josh extremely hard. It was so sudden and no one saw it coming and Josh and Zach were so close in age. They were brothers only two years apart. They went to school together and they had so much in common and as much as Josh seemed okay on the outside for the next two years like he was still the same old kind friendly Josh he kept his grades up he was still hanging out with friends deep down of course he was still grieving. During his senior year of high school Josh formed a band with some of his friends and actually started planning to go on that big adventure that he always wanted to go on with one of his bandmates after he graduated high school and this particular bandmate that Josh was planning this big adventure with was a boy a little bit older than him he was two years older than him and his name was Andrew Andy Newman. Andy and Josh were in this band together Andy was pretty well traveled even at like 1920 years old he would hop trains to go visit different cities and different states and this is something that Josh thought was really interesting Josh sort of looked up to Andy in a way because Josh was also like a free spirited type of guy that wanted to travel and do all these different cool things and have these cool adventures and this seemed like what Andy was doing. Like I said Andy was two years older than Josh but Andy and Josh started hanging out during Josh's junior year of high school and then during Josh's senior year of high school they formed this band together and they were actually planning to take a trip to New Mexico together after Josh graduated high school. May 8th 2008 it was nearly two years exactly since Josh's older brother Zachary passed away and it was just a few weeks away until Josh would be graduating high school. That day It was a cold but sunny day. and I'm gonna be honest I'm a little confused about this next part. It's not extremely important to the case but it was something that gave me a little bit of pause when I was researching it. So that morning Josh left to go take a walk. But every single source I've read stated that Josh was just a few weeks away from graduating and if I had to guess I would say he would be like maybe five six weeks away from graduating based on when his brother was set to graduate high school. So Josh would have still definitely been in school on May 8th, 2008 but that day was a Thursday and that morning he left home to go on a walk instead of go to school. If anyone has any additional context please let me know. I feel like this could be relevant potentially if he was supposed to go to school that day and did not but anyway like I said this day was a chilly Thursday morning and Josh told his sister that he was gonna go for a walk. He walked right out the front door and that was the last time he was ever seen alive. The rest of the family went about their day and it wasn't until later that evening when Josh's father Mike got home from work and his son was not there and no one saw or heard from him all day that his dad started to get really worried. The rest of Josh's family tried to remain calm. Josh was you know a free-spirited guy. He was freshly 18. He had just turned 18 two months prior. He never did anything to make his family feel like they couldn't trust him to make it weird if he was you know gone for a few hours during the day. They thought that maybe he was just at a friend's house and forgot to call his family and let them know but by the next day and there were still no signs of Josh his father started to really panic. His dad called all of Josh's friends but no one saw him at all the day before. No one spoke to him or even knew where he could be. Josh's dad was really fearing the worse he had already lost one son so the thought of losing another was unbearable. So on May 13th after no one had seen or heard from Josh for five days his father went to the police and reported him missing. And like so often happens in these true crime cases the Woodland Park police department had no sense of urgency. They just assumed that Josh had likely ran away and had really no interest in investigating his disappearance. And like I get it Josh was 18 he had just turned 18 two months earlier but he's still only 18 that's still a child and he's still in high school. And other than Josh saying that he wanted to travel and go on adventures one day which is like something that like every teenager says there were no signs that Josh would leave town. And yeah him and his bandmate had planned to take a trip to New Mexico after he graduated high school but that was still over a month away. Josh didn't pack a bag or tell any of his friends or family members that he was planning on skipping his high school graduation to go take the trip early. So even though it was certainly possible that Josh had skipped town there was no evidence to prove that that is what happened and even if there was you would think that would still be worth investigating this missing person's case. All the Woodland Park Police Department really did to help in the efforts of finding Josh was help make and distribute a missing person's fire. But even that attempt honestly sucked because the missing person's fire that the Woodland Park Police Department created for Joshua Maddox had misinformation on it. The poster stated that Josh's brother had passed away the year earlier and they were really close and one Zach passed away two years earlier and two I don't really see how this is relevant information in Josh's disappearance. It's like the Woodland Park Police Department is trying to plant seeds to everyone that whatever happened to Josh wherever he was it was at his own free will. Josh's sisters like I said were really trying not to worry they were trying not to stress Josh always said that he was going to leave town one day and travel and do all of these cool things so they thought or hoped that that was what he was doing the entire time he was missing. His sister Kate actually said to the news that it was reasonable to assume that her brother had left town to start a new life and that's what she chose to believe and she always imagined that one day Josh would return home and he would return with a beautiful wife and children. Josh was a really talented musician and writer his family imagined that he was touring the country with a band or writing successful novels under a pen name. Of course there was the plan that he had with his bandmate Andy to go travel to New Mexico after graduating it's possible that maybe you wanted to take that trip early even though there was no concrete proof that that happened and at least seemed pretty possible when Woodland Park locals heard that Josh's bandmate Andy was actually seen in New Mexico shortly after Josh vanished but there were sadly no signs that Josh was with him so at this point this was just another dead end. Josh's father always feared the worst but the rest of the family really tried to hold on to hope that Josh was out there that he was alive but days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and months turned into years and years with no answers and no signs of Josh. Over the years Josh's parents divorced but his father always stayed in the family home just in case his son ever returned he would be able to come home his son that one day just walked out his front door and vanished into thin air. Seven long years would pass without answers and then in 2015 Chuck Murphy who was a builder from Colorado Springs began tearing down an old cabin that he had on some land that he owned. The cabin had been empty for more than 10 years and was falling apart. It sat in a pretty isolated part of the woods surrounded by tall pine trees less than one mile from Josh's home. Chuck's brother lived in the cabin until 2005 and after that it was pretty much abandoned. Chuck would visit the property a few times over the years but that was like really really rare. The cabin had a chimney and Chuck had a thick iron grate installed on the top of it to keep out any animals or debris from getting inside the chimney and getting inside of the cabin. Sometime after 2008 which was the year that Josh disappeared. During one of Chuck's rare visits to the cabin he noticed that the breakfast bar from inside the cabin had been ripped off the wall in the kitchen, dragged over to the fireplace, and then pushed in front of the fireplace. It was also around this time that Chuck began to notice a terrible smell coming from inside of his cabin. So by 2015 the cabin is in terrible condition and Chuck decides it was finally time to demolish the cabin to make room for new development. He planned on putting like 32 family homes on this plot of land. The demolition began in August of 2015 workers started demolishing the cabin early in the morning on August 7th. Before tearing down the chimney the workers removed the thick iron grate from the top of the chimney and set it aside to save it so we know without a doubt that the iron bars were still attached to the top of the chimney on August 7th 2015. And then as demolition of the chimney began is when they made a horrific discovery. Human remains were stuffed inside of the chimney. Tragically these were the remains of 18-year-old Joshua Maddox was identified by his dental records seven years after he went missing. He was two blocks away from his home the entire time. He was less than a mile from his home and it was likely that he died the very same day that he went missing. His body was discovered stuck in the chimney of this isolated abandoned cabin less than a mile from his home. Inside the chimney his body was found in the fetal position upside down so he was facing the ground. He was wedged unnaturally inside of the chimney his knees were above his head like his knees and legs above his head and then his hands were covering his face. Joshua's body was found partially naked he was found only wearing his [BLANK_AUDIO] T-shirt and his remains had begun to mummify. This news came as a devastating shock for the entire family. Obviously, they always hoped that he was alive out there having these adventures and he would come back to them one day with a bunch of cool stories and with a family. So to know that the entire time he was gone was a heartbreak especially after losing their other son and their other brother. But a lot of times after the remains of a missing family member are found, it at the very least comes with closure that you now have answers. You're not worrying anymore. You're not wondering about what happened. Wondering if your loved one is still out there, but after the discovery of Josh's remains, there were just more questions. I almost wish that I could say that the investigators dropped the ball on the investigation, but I can't even say that because there was no investigation. The county's coroner and medical examiner named Al Burn was the one to do the autopsy and he was pretty much the only person doing any sort of investigation into the death of Joshua Maddox. This is the first time in any case and I've researched a lot of true crime cases that I've heard that it's the medical examiner that is like the lead and only investigator on someone's death. After the medical examiner Al Burn finished his autopsy investigation into the death of Joshua Maddox, he ruled out foul play immediately and officially ruled Joshua Maddox's death as an accidental death and closed the case. And the case was closed with absolutely no criminal investigation being done. Al Burn was actually quoted saying that Josh's remains had no signs of trauma, there were no broken bones, no stab wounds, no bullet holes. So pretty much he was saying that he found no evidence of foul play so no evidence of foul play existed. Even though there are plenty of ways that someone can be murdered that wouldn't necessarily show up when you are looking at skeletal remains. I'm also going to get into it in a second, but the crime scene or possible crime scene was completely disturbed before any evidence could even be found and before any forensic testing could even be done. So just because he said that there was no evidence of foul play found doesn't mean that no evidence of foul play ever existed. And also saying that they found no evidence of foul play and just closing the case without even doing an investigation in the first place is absurd in my opinion. You can't just not look for signs of foul play and then say well we didn't find any evidence of foul play, like of course you didn't because you didn't even look. So I bet you're wondering what the medical examiner Al Burns theory was in this accidental death. How and why would Josh's body be stuck inside of a chimney less than a mile away from his home if this was an accident. That's a very good question. So this is the official story or the official theory on how that happened. After Josh left his home to go on a walk, he stumbled upon this abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods and he wanted to go inside to explore this abandoned cabin a little bit. And this you know so far makes sense as a teenager myself I used to like to go inside abandoned buildings, but Josh couldn't find a way inside of this cabin. So he decided to climb onto the roof and decided to enter the cabin through the chimney. And to do so he thought it would be best to go head first down the chimney, which is why he was upside down and then he got stuck. Al Burns actually was quoted saying that Josh went down the chimney Santa Claus style, which I find incredibly disrespectful. Al Burns also theorized that before Josh could succumb to starvation or dehydration that he likely passed away from hypothermia because that night the temperatures were about 20 degrees Fahrenheit, which would be about negative seven degrees Celsius. So below freezing temperatures. And I'm not necessarily trying to dog pile on the medical examiner Al burn, but apparently when he was giving Josh's family his condolences, I'm so sorry that your son has passed away. He was reported saying to Josh his parents that Josh's death would have been a very horrible way to go. Like why would you even say that to a grieving family? So quick recap, the official story is that Josh wanted to enter this cabin, but he couldn't find a way inside. So we decided to enter the cabin by going head first down a chimney and he got stuck and that's what happened. Well, now let me tell you why that story makes absolutely no sense. Other than it just being a pretty odd story. I mean, I obviously did not know Josh, but from what I've read, he seemed like a pretty normal level-headed guy. He was pretty smart in school. He got pretty good grades. He seemed smart enough to know not to go head first down a chimney. And if he hadn't gone head first down this chimney, then he would have had to climb up the chimney feet first, which makes even less sense. But there's a pretty major contradiction that makes this theory completely collapse. You know how I said other than a t-shirt, Josh was completely naked inside of the chimney. Well, the rest of Josh's clothing was found folded neatly inside of the cabin. Let me say that again. The official story is that Josh wanted to enter this cabin, but couldn't find a way inside the cabins. We decided to go head first down the chimney to enter the cabin, but got stuck. But his clothing, his socks, his shoes, his underwear, his pants were found folded neatly inside of the cabin, right by the fireplace, which he was stuck in because he was stuck inside the chimney. So what does that mean? Josh went inside of the cabin, stripped nearly completely naked, folded his clothes up nicely, and then went outside, went on the roof, and then climbed through the chimney to enter the cabin. And if he could enter the cabin to strip almost completely naked and fold up all of his clothes and leave them inside the cabin, why would he need to go head first down a chimney to enter the cabin? It makes absolutely no sense that this theory just completely crumbles. And Albert has absolutely no answers for any of these contradictions. This is definitely where suspicion should have shifted from this being a possible weird but tragic accident to a possible murder. And because it doesn't, it gives like maybe possible cover up. And the Woodland Park Police Department definitely dropped the ball on this case, but to be fair, I guess, since the medical examiner ruled this in accidental death and closed the case, her hands weren't technically tied. If the medical examiner rules a death and accident, they can't open up a murder investigation on that same death, but they 100% could have pressured Albert to reopen the case after hearing all of the details, but they didn't. They were actually quoted saying that this was the coroner Albert burns case and not thurs when people were asking them for answers and asking them to investigate. In this exact feeling of lazy police work and being more interested in closing a case and doing the bare minimum, then actually finding out the truth is a sadly common theme within this entire case. And not just with the Woodland Park Police Department, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So obviously they discovered Josh's body while demolishing the cabin and the chimney that he was found in. So the scene was compromised already, unfortunately, before they found his body. But they discovered his body right in the beginning of the demolition and they stopped demolition immediately after discovering Josh's body. In any situation where you find a body, especially in a situation as bizarre as this, you would think that you would do any investigation, right? Like try and collect any evidence, do any forensic testing. And they could have even created a reconstruction of the cabin and the scene and the chimney maybe get a dummy the same size and height of Josh to try and answer some of these questions. But they didn't do that though Woodland Park Police Department didn't do anything. In fact, the Woodland Park Police Department gave Chuck and his team, who was the owner of the cabin, the okay to go forward with the rest of the cabin. demolition within days of Josh's body being identified. This is beyond crazy please work. This feels like intentional negligence at this point. And unfortunately we might never have answers in this case because of that move. What evidence could have been there that was just destroyed? It's absolutely insane to me that this cabin was completely destroyed after they found a body in it, the body of a teenage boy. He was a high school student. This was someone's son that was missing for seven years. And he was found in such a bizarre way. You would think that you would do some sort of investigation, some sort of testing before just destroying what was his resting place for so long. What was a possible crime scene? So the cabin owner Chuck. He was not made aware of all of the bizarre circumstances around Josh's death at the time that the police gave him the okay to completely demolish the cabin. And he said that if he was made aware, then he would not have gone forward with the cabin's demolition. And speaking of all the bizarre and suspicious details surrounding Josh's death, when the cabin's owner Chuck started to piece together and heard all of the very bizarre details surrounding Josh's death. And then he heard Al Burns' theory that he ruled Josh's death accidental and closed the case. Well, Chuck was very confused because he knew the odd position that Josh's body was found in. He knew that Josh wasn't wearing really any clothes and his clothes were found inside of the cabin. He knew that his thick iron grate was still attached to the top of the chimney, making it literally impossible for anyone to enter the chimney from the top of it. So all this just makes Al Burns' theory just completely crumble. So Chuck, the owner of the cabin who's not even related to Josh, he's just like really just a nice guy trying to help out. And he actually goes and tries to have a conversation with Al Burns, the medical examiner, about all of these discrepancies that it would have been literally impossible for Josh to enter the top of his chimney because of this extremely thick iron grate. He had attached to the top of the chimney when they discovered Josh's body about Josh's clothing, how it was discovered in the cabin, and that someone removed the heavy breakfast bar from the wall in the kitchen of the cabin and then dragged it over to the fireplace and placed it in front of the fireplace like someone was trying to conceal Josh's body. Chuck goes to Al Burns with all of this and Al Burns washes his hands of the entire situation. He said that he understood that there were bizarre aspects in this death, but unfortunately there were just no answers, so what was he to do? And after the owner of the cabin, Chuck got nowhere with the medical examiner. That's when he actually took all of this bizarre information to the media. And this is when the suspicious death of Joshua Maddox really began to blow up in the media and online. And this is when even more bizarre information came out and where more lazy police work was exposed. Turns out since the very year that Joshua disappeared seven years before his body was discovered, even back when the police and everyone else just assumed he was somewhere else in the country that living a different life, multiple people had been calling in tips to the police all about the same guy saying that the same guy was going around with Lim Park, bragging about killing Josh and putting him in a hole. And apparently, not apparently, it's confirmed, the police did nothing to investigate any of these tips. They apparently never even returned at these people's phone calls. To them, the easiest, quickest answer was that Josh was just in a different state playing guitar. They were so sure that he was alive somewhere else that they never followed up on these tips that multiple people were making claiming that the same guy was bragging about killing Joshua Maddox. People were making these tips for the entire seven years that he was missing and everyone just assumed that he was somewhere else living a new life. And turns out the entire time, Josh was already gone and his body was inside of a hole. So who was this guy, going around town, bragging about killing Josh? Well, I actually already told you about him. It was Josh's older friend, Andrew Andy Newman, that he was in that bandwift that he had plans to travel to New Mexico with after he graduated high school. The same Andy Newman that actually skipped town and took that trip to New Mexico without Josh shortly after Josh disappeared, it's seeming very, very suspicious. So about 10 years ago in 2015, shortly after Josh's body was discovered, an anonymous Reddit user made a comment on someone's post in our slash ask Reddit and the original poster asked the question, people who have known murderers, serial killers, etc. How did you react when you found out? How did it affect your life afterwards? An anonymous Reddit user claiming to be from Whitlam Park who was also claiming to be friends of Josh's and also someone that claimed to know of Andy commented something that absolutely shocked everyone. The user wrote, "I went to high school with this skinny, dorky, hippie named Andy who played Qatar in a band. I was never good friends with him or anything, but a year or so after I graduated, one of my good friends, Josh started hanging out with him and then he went missing." Last I heard, Andy was telling another friend, "Yeah, me and Josh have been spending a lot of time together and we're planning a trip to New Mexico." The user then wrote that Andy didn't fact make that trip to New Mexico shortly after Josh disappeared and a year after Josh vanished, while Andy was in New Mexico, he probably murdered two other people. You heard that right. After Josh disappeared and Andy traveled to New Mexico, Andy befriended a local man in Albuquerque named James Willito. James lived with and was the caretaker for a man with disabilities named Anthony Schneider. Andy and James were drinking buddies, Andy was still doing, you know, like his transient train hopping thing, where he was traveling to different cities and different states all the time. But any time Andy came back to Albuquerque, Andy would stay with his friend James at the apartment that him and Anthony shared together. And then on May 2nd, 2009, less than one week shy of the one year anniversary since Josh Maddox disappeared. Andy Newman, James and Anthony were all hanging out in the apartment and at one point James gets up to take a shower and when he got out of the shower, Anthony was dead. He had been stabbed to death and Andy was nowhere to be seen. He fled. I have no clue what transpired in the amount of time it took James to take a shower. There's actually very limited resources, unfortunately, into the murder of Anthony Schneider. But something snapped in Andy Newman during the time that it took James to take that shower. He allegedly stabbed this disabled man to death in this man's own apartment and then fled with no attempt to conceal the murder. He even left behind a bunch of his own belongings with things that had his fingerprints on it and things that had his name and information on it. So it says, like, cut and dry evidence that he was in this apartment at the time of this murder and that he allegedly committed this murder. But no one could find Andrew Andy Newman. He was a transient. He was always traveling between cities and states. His official address was still his family's home in Whitlam Park, Colorado. So it would actually be a few weeks later in June that Andy was stopped trying to hitch hike in Houston, Texas by a few police officers. These police officers just let Andy off with a warning and then a few days later, Andy who was out of his mind at the time was seen in the suburbs of Houston, going door to door asking people for glass of water. Two teenagers, a set of 15 and 17 year old siblings actually let Andy off. the inside and gave him that glass of water and then they called their parents to let their parents know that they let this strange, this oriented man into their home. These teenagers' father immediately rushed home, thank God. And then the father asked Andy if he needed a ride, he offered Andy a ride, said, you know, take you wherever you needed to go. And Andy accepted the father's offer, but instead of taking Andy anywhere he needed to go, the dad took Andy immediately to the police station, which was a really, really smart move, honestly, because this could have gone really, really, really bad. At the police station, the officers took Andy's fingerprints and found out that not only did Andy have a criminal record in six different states, he had a warrant for his arrest in Seattle for a burglary that he had committed and he was also wanted for murder in New Mexico. Andy's court appointed attorney entered a plea of not guilty on Andy's behalf for the murder of Anthony Schneider because Andy was still two out of his mind. It seemed like he didn't even understand what was happening at that moment. He was kind of dosing off and he was, you know, rambling and speaking gibberish and also making these like random albus in court. A few days later he actually attempted to escape jail and then he had additional charges stacked on top of his murder charge and he was actually held for about a year pending his trial. And then on May 6, 2010, while being held for the murder of Anthony Schneider, Andy Newman confessed to a second murder. This was not the murder of Joshua Maddox. Andy confessed to killing a woman in Tows, New Mexico and stuffing her body inside of a barrel. And shortly before Andy made this confession, the authorities actually found 33-year-old Gladys Garcia from Albuquerque, New Mexico inside of a barrel trash can in Tows, New Mexico. She had been reported missing in June of 2007, so like three years earlier. According to sources online and also according to this Reddit post, by the time Andy confessed to the murder of Gladys Garcia, the authorities actually already had a suspect in custody for Gladys Garcia's murder. So they did not investigate Andy for the murder of Gladys, despite his confession. He was still going to trial for the murder of Anthony Schneider, but then the following year in May of 2011, James was actually tragically killed during a bar fight in Albuquerque, New Mexico. James was not only like the key witness, he was the only witness in this murder trial, so without the key witness to the murder of Anthony Schneider, the prosecution made the decision to drop the charges against Andrew Newman and they released Andy. Even though like he allegedly killed Anthony Schneider, but like no one else really could have done it, and still they did not investigate him for the murder of Gladys Garcia that he confessed to. And remember, all of this is happening before Josh's body was even found in that chimney in Colorado, but the news quickly traveled back to Colorado that one of their very own citizens was probably guilty of committing at least one, but maybe two murders in New Mexico. And this happened after multiple witnesses had already gone to the police saying that this same guy bragged to them that he killed Josh and put Josh in a hole. And now he's allegedly gone to New Mexico a year later and allegedly killed two more people. And the police again, they did nothing with those tips. They didn't even call those people back. And according to this reddit post, not only did multiple people call in tips, saying that Andy bragged about killing Josh, but apparently there were a bunch of witnesses that saw Andy and Josh together the day that Josh disappeared. So Andy is probably the last person to ever even see Josh alive. Josh disappears and then Andy brags about killing Josh. And then shortly later, after Josh disappears, Josh goes to New Mexico where he allegedly murders two more people. So the same people that called in those tips in 2008 that Andy was bragging about killing Josh well when it came out in 2009, 2010, 2011 that he may be killed two more people. They circled back and told the Whitlam Park Police Department that the same guy that was bragging about killing Josh is you know killing more people maybe in New Mexico. Maybe we should investigate him into the death of Josh. Remember, Josh is still a missing person at this point too. His body has not been found yet. And still, the Whitlam Park Police never investigated Andrew Newman in the disappearance of Joshua Maddox. And even after Joshua Maddox's body was found in a hole, just like Andy was saying, back in 2008, seven years earlier, and his body was found under, you know, very bizarre and suspicious circumstances to this very day, Andrew Newman has never been investigated or officially considered a suspect in Josh's death. Not only that, from my research, I could be wrong. Please let me know if I'm wrong, but from my research, the Whitlam Park Police Department has never even talked to Andrew Newman in connection to Josh's death. It's not even worthy of a phone call. And in the years since Josh's body was discovered, Andrew Newman has continued to live a life of crime in multiple different states. And it was during one of these arrests that Andy was found on and in possession of the very serious, strong illicit street drug PCP, which is like really, really strong stuff. So some people have maybe theorized that Andy and Josh were hanging out the day that Josh went missing, if they were, you know, hanging out in this abandoned cabin. Maybe Andy gave Josh some substances. Maybe it was too much. Maybe Josh wasn't used to it. And then Josh started to trip a little too heavy. He began to tweak. He took off his clothes and then went inside of this chimney. He got stuck and Andy, who was also on these substances, freaked out, you know, put the breakfast bar in front of the fireplace to try and hide what was going on and dress ran off because he was scared. Personally, I think this theory is possible, but extremely unlikely, everyone that knew Josh, his friends, his family said that he did not use substances and no substances were found in his system during his autopsy. There's also the theory that Josh was not doing as well as some people suspected following his older brother Zachary's death. Zachary passed away just a few weeks before he was set to graduate high school and at the time of Josh's disappearance and death, he was also in the same position. He was about to graduate high school. And from my research, when someone has an older sibling die and then that younger sibling, you know, reaches an age where now they are older than their older sibling or they reach a milestone that their older sibling never got to reach. That can, you know, really trigger someone. So is it possible that Josh was about to graduate high school and, you know, he's thinking about how he never saw his older brother graduate high school did that trigger something and maybe Josh wanted to bring an end to his own life as well. I really want to be respectful when discussing this. Obviously, this is extremely heavy. This is extremely real topic here, but I find this to be extremely unlikely, purely based on it seems like a very unlikely way that you would do this if that was something that you were planning to do going headfirst downy chimney. I actually think the two most likely answers is that Joshua Maddox either accidentally got stuck inside the chimney or that foul play was involved. I'm not rolling out an accidental death. I think it sounds far fetched based on the information that we have in this case, but I do understand why some people do believe this theory. There have been other deaths where people are trying to break into someone's home and they try to go down a chimney and they get stuck and they tragically pass away. Is it possible that Josh wanted to go down this chimney to break in and burglarize this cabin and he took off a majority of his clothes so he could fit in the cabin. Maybe he went headfirst because he thought it'd be easier to just like kind of slide down on his tummy and then maybe someone found his clothes afterwards and didn't see his body and then folded them and put them inside the cabin. I don't know. I'm just spitballing here, but I'm really interested to hear all your theories, but please, please, please be respectful. You don't know who could be in the comments. Someone that actually knew and loved Josh in real life could be in the comments. So [BLANK_AUDIO] arise opinions that's fine but please always be respectful in the comments. At the end of the day this was a real person. Josh was a brother and a son and a friend to so many people. So many people really really loved Josh and he lost his life tragically way way too young and I really want to be respectful to the family members. From what I can tell his family really isn't in the public eye but from what I could tell obviously the sources were really really old. It was right when Josh's body was discovered but it looks like they accept the official ruling that this was a tragic accidental death and I do obviously want to respect that. So I mean absolutely no disrespect in covering Josh's story today and that's all I have for this week's episode of Haunt in the Case. If you made it to the end of Joshua Maddox's story I know this was a very long episode so that means the absolute world to me that you would listen to Josh's entire story and that you made it to the very end of the first episode of Haunt in the Case of 2026 and I cannot wait for it this year that we have together And I will see you guys all next time when we are hot in the case once again.