Austin Dane Colson, 19, was last seen January 11, 2018, after making plans to collect scrap metal with a man named Richard Whitcomb Jr. The South Royalton resident failed to return, and a few days later the utility trailer he was to use was found abandoned in Sharon, partially filled with scrap metal.

On May 23, 2018, remains were located inside a dilapidated barn in Norwich. An autopsy determined Colson’s death was a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Investigators identified Whitcomb, who had worked as a caretaker on the property where the body was found, as a suspect and the last person believed to have seen Colson alive. Cellphone records placed Whitcomb near the barn and the abandoned trailer despite his statements to the contrary, and a witness contradicted Whitcomb’s account and said Whitcomb asked him to lie.

Whitcomb admitted he had given Colson a firearm as collateral in a cocaine deal; that admission led to a federal felon-in-possession firearms charge. A phone search showed a query about how long gunshot residue lasts. Whitcomb was later sentenced to 37 months on the federal gun charge, but no one has been charged with Colson’s murder. Did anyone who knew Austin or who was in the area in January 2018 see him or that trailer?