The True Crime Vault

Joshua Maddux: The Boy in the Chimney (2008)

The searches were spread far and wide, scouring the neighbourhood and wider parkland area, days turned into weeks and weeks turned to months yet still, no clue as to his disappearance had been uncovered. The hope of finding Josh began to fade and his sister Kate spoke of how she had always hoped that he had simply skipped town to go play music or start a different life and held on to the hope of such an eventuality. In a post online, she wrote of her brother's disappearance:

"Since Josh was 18, it has been reasonable to assume he may have decided to leave town to start a new life. As one of his two older sisters, I have always chosen to believe that this was the case. I have expected Josh to return home to my father's house at any time with a wife and small children so that they can meet their grandparents and two aunts. Josh has always been known for his musical and literary talent, so maybe we would find him playing music with a band on tour, or catch him writing successful novels under a pen name so that he could keep his preferred lifestyle of solitude in the woods."

They had no reason to believe that Josh had gotten involved in any trouble and he had not given them any worry or concern about his mental health, although two years prior to his disappearance, on June the 1st 2006, a week before his high school graduation, Josh's Older brother, Zachary, had committed suicide. His father spoke about the tragic death of his son and how it had affected Josh:

'I buried his older brother two years before and it was so difficult on Josh. When his brother died, it pushed him over the edge. It was a big shock for the family and a big shock for Josh. He thought highly of his older brother.

Despite this difficult period, however, his family noted that Josh had been doing well and was happy around the time he disappeared. The police had no reason to suspect any criminal activity and so listed him as a missing person. The searches continued and the missing person file remained open. His father Mike retained ownership of the family home after they moved, in case Josh would ever return, as that would be the only place he would have known to go, but news of Josh remained elusive. That was, until 2015, when a local builder by the name of Chuck Murphy made a grim discovery.

• THE BOY IN THE CHIMNEY •

In 2015, Chuck Murphy, a builder from nearby Colorado Springs, was demolishing his old wood cabin. The cabin sat on a large patch of land, surrounded by tall pines. The cabin hadn't been used for over ten years and had fallen into a state of disrepair. Chuck had made the decision to tear down the building to make way for a property development and in August, the time had come to begin demolishing the decaying building.

He had originally purchased the cabin in the 1950's. It had formerly been the Homestead of Thunderhead Ranch, a locally infamous drinking and gambling complex owned by 'Big Bert' Bergstroms. Bergstroms had come to America from Sweden in 1912 and run the thunderhead Inn as a dining and drinking Establishment after the end of prohibition. On the side, however, he used the ranch as an illegal gambling den and was rumoured to offer prostitution. He was arrested by the FBI, but the jury, who one would assume enjoyed a little of what Bert offered, promptly found him not guilty.

In more recent times, Chuck's brother had lived in the cabin until 2005, but since moving out, it had become a storage facility and Chuck had rarely visited the property. Animals had been a problem and inside it carried an uninviting stench. As they dismantled the chimney and reached the interior, Chuck made the horrifying discovery of the body of a young man, cramped into a fetal position with his legs above his head. He called the police who arrived with the County coroner who, with the help of a forensic odontologist used dental records to positively identify the corpse to be that of Joshua Maddux, less than a mile from his family home.

• ACCIDENTAL DEATH? •

The Maddux family were stunned when the news of the discovery of Josh's body was delivered. His sister Kate said: