Today, I will be discussing the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Joshua Vernon Maddux, an 18-year-old who went missing on May 8th, 2008 in Woodland Park, Colorado. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely had prior interests in mysterious disappearances and unsolved murders. Joshua’s case is an interesting tale of his 7-year long absence, followed by the discovery of his body that raised more questions than it answered
Joshua was a creative boy who was described as an incredibly intelligent and outgoing young man, known at school for being “that awesome kid who wore a top hat and brought a briefcase to school instead of a backpack” (1). He was relatively well-liked and an avid lover of nature, often venturing out to explore. On the day of his disappearance on May 8th, 2008, he told his sister Kate Maddux that he was going for a walk. He enjoyed going on hikes, and the family expected he would be home soon.
The Maddux family quickly learned this would not be the case. Joshua Maddux never returned and was reported missing a few days after his disappearance. Though family members searched for him, no trace was found (1). The family held onto the hope that he was alive, his sisters stating they had reason to assume he “decided to leave town to start a new life”, and that they “expected Josh to return home … at any time with a wife and small children” (2). Unfortunately, after 7 long years of waiting for their son to return home, they were met with a grisly discovery.
In October 2015, the remains of an 18-year-old boy were discovered stuffed into the chimney of a historic Woodland Park cabin when contractors tore it down. Hauntingly, the cabin was located only two blocks from the Maddux family home and was not found during search party investigations.
The cabin had been empty for more than a decade. Dental records were used to identify the mummified remains as Maddux, though it was unclear on how long his remains were in the chimney. The Teller County Coroner, Al Born, stated “There are going to be some questions out there that are unanswerable” (2).
Family immediately began to wonder why Maddux had ventured out to the cabin, and how he had gotten in the chimney. Though his older brother, Zachary, had killed himself two years before Joshua’s disappearance, there was no indication that it had any impact on Joshua’s death.
The cabin’s owner, Chuck Murphy, said that the property was bought 60 years ago by his parents and was formerly a homestead of the Thunderhead Ranch, which was infamous for illegal gambling and wild parties (2). He would occasionally check the cabin, but due to the perpetual odor of animal droppings and what he assumed to be a dead rat, Murphy thought nothing of the smell.
The circumstances of the position which Joshua Maddux died is among the most perplexing aspects of the case. The initial theory that Coroner Born held was that Maddux was trying to enter the cabin through the chimney and got stuck. At the top of the chimney, there was what had been described by Murphy as “rebar” and “iron webbing” to prevent animals from entering. While “Murphy, 80, said it was impossible for anyone to slide down the chimney because a “heavy steel mesh grate” was installed near the top of the chimney when it was built 25 years ago.”, the Coroner ultimately concluded that the elements easily could have rusted the iron webbing, given the age of the cabin (4).
Chillingly, Maddux was discovered wearing only a thermal shirt. From the torso down, he was naked. His clothing was found inside of the cabin, which raises several questions. At the bottom of the fireplace, a steel Heatilator was installed, making it uncomfortable and unrealistic to climb up the chimney. On top of that, a heavy wooden breakfast bar was ripped from a wall and placed across the fireplace, blocking it.
Chuck Murphy, the cabin’s owner, firmly believed Joshua was murdered, either forced up the chimney alive, trapped there and left to die, or killed in the cabin with his remains forced “through the damper and into the smoke chamber just above the firebox” (4). However, the Heatilator and the breakfast bar make it unrealistic that Joshua could have been able to climb up the chimney to begin with. The Coroner, Born, concluded accidental death by sliding down the chimney was still the most plausible explanation, given Maddux was found fetal style within the chimney, feet down and knees above his head, an arm around his face. Born suggested that the metal mesh at the top of the chimney could have disintegrated over the years, allowing Maddux to enter from the top, and the case was mostly abandoned, being considered “accidental death”.
However, many questions are still left unanswered. If Maddux had stripped and then climbed to the roof (since climbing up the chimney was out of the question), why would he enter the chimney, knowing he would get stuck? To solidify, climbing up the chimney to begin with would have been a challenge, given the blockades and the Heatilator, and winding up in the fetal position with his feet down was simply unrealistic from the perspective of climbing up. Then, what motive would an intelligent young man have for entering the cabin, stripping down, then climbing to the roof to seal his fate?
No stab wounds, broken bones, or other trauma was present on the body, not immediately indicating foul play. Drug tests came back negative, but the advanced state of decay that the body was in makes it hard for tests to be reliable. Assuming Maddux was alive in the chimney when he got himself stuck, he likely died from hypothermia or compressive asphyxiation. The position that one finds themselves stuck in when trapped in a chimney forces the body into an awkward position, making air hard to get. Alternatively, Woodland Park temperatures May 8-10 in 2008 dipped into the high 20s according to historic data at Weather Underground, hinting at possible hypothermia. Leaving things at Maddux climbing down the chimney himself, leading to his death, Born distanced from trying to theorize without evidence and mostly set the case aside. But perhaps there is more yet to be examined.
On Reddit in 2017, a user by the name of u/seaturtle70 began digging into the case, unearthing a sinister twist to Maddux’s mysterious death (8). The user stumbled upon an AskReddit post about people who have known serial killers, and in the comments, someone mentioned Maddux’s case. Since it is best heard in full breadth, the recount is as follows:
"I went to high school with this skinny dorky hippy named Andy who played guitar 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 went missing. Last I heard, Andy was telling another friend, "Yeah, me and Josh have been spending a lot of time together, we're planning a trip to New Mexico!" Didn't really think anything of it until somebody showed me these articles.
Turns out that in addition to becoming a lot scarier looking, Andy had indeed headed down to New Mexico, where he found himself shootin the shit with the caretaker of a disabled guy, and got invited over to their apartment. Caretaker gets in the shower, and when he comes back out, the disabled guy is stabbed to death and Andy's gone. When Andy got arrested, he also claimed to have killed a woman in Taos and stuffed her body in a barrel.
The cops had indeed found a woman stuffed in a barrel in Taos, but already had somebody in custody for it and decided to stick with that guy instead. Years later, I found out that the caretaker had died in a bar fight, and without him the cops didn't have much in the way of evidence somehow, so that case against Andy was dropped, too.
Several of us went to the cops saying "Yo, Josh Who Went Missing was last seen with Andy Who's A Murderer, maybe you should check that out?" Despite a fair amount of pestering, nothing ever really came of it, and by nothing I mean that the police mostly didn't even return our calls, and once accidentally canceled the bulletin on Josh because "He's alive and well and living in the next town over!" (he wasn't)
He was actually in the chimney of an abandoned cabin like two blocks from his parents' house. The coroner said the body had been there for about seven years, and ruled the death accidental, concluding that Josh had probably climbed down the chimney in an attempt to break into the house and gotten stuck. Which, given the age of the corpse, doesn't seem overtly ridiculous.
Except for the fact that in addition to Josh having last been seen with Andy-immediately-before-his-stabbing-spree, people called in to report having heard rumors that Andy was bragging about having "put Josh in a hole." And the fact that the owner of the cabin says it would have been impossible to access the chimney from above because he'd installed a heavy steel grate under the top layer of bricks to keep out raccoons and whatnot. (The coroner said he never saw the grate, so maybe it rusted away; the owner pointed out that this was because they only found Josh's body while in the process of demolishing the cabin, and that the grate had been hauled off to the junkyard with the other scrap metal.) Or the fact that somebody had ripped a heavy bar off the wall in the kitchen and propped it against the fireplace. Or the fact that Josh's stuff was already inside the cabin, meaning (a) he'd already broken in and would have had to lock himself out to have to go for the chimney, and (b) he might have noticed that either the flu or the big bar would have prevented him from getting in through the fireplace. Or the fact that when he was found, Josh's knees were above his head, which sounds to me like he would have had to go in head-first (disclaimer: not an expert at fucking all). Or maybe the fact that Josh was barefoot and naked from the waist down.
This is just my opinion, but I don't care who you are: you don't try to climb headfirst into a chimney via a hole rusted through a metal grate with your dick hanging out.
But the most ridiculous part for me is this quote from the coroner:
“I know it’s not a natural death and I’m confident it’s not suicide,” he said. “My other options are an accidental death, homicide and undetermined cause of death. It is frustrating we can’t pin it down.”
The perspective is interesting to consider, as it brings up several valid points adding to the circumstances of Maddux’s disappearance and death.
He was last seen with Andy Richard Newman, who was rumored to have bragged about “putting Josh in a hole” before leaving to commit two murders in other states (5, 6, 7).
In one instance a woman was killed and her body was shoved into a barrel, perhaps establishing a pattern of “stuffing victims into tight spaces”. That’s simply a theory, however.
At this point, we’ll begin to look into some of the theories and discussions had by Reddit users within the Maddux thread. User charley_patton mentioned in a comment that:
"You could tell if there were marks on the bones I’m sure, but if you stab someone in the gut, for example, and they bleed out, I don’t think you would be able to know that after such a long time.”
This brings up a plausible point, as Joshua could have been cornered, forced to strip, stabbed, and then stuffed down the chimney. The ordering of the stripping and stabbing is important because there is no mention of blood and/or tears visible on the clothing, which would inevitably be present if Joshua was stabbed prior to stripping. One problem with this theory is that we lack any evidence of blood at the scene, which would be concerning if he were stabbed within the cabin itself, even with the body being discovered 7 years later. Blood is not easily removed, especially not within a protected cabin. While animals could surely lap up the blood, stains would be obvious somewhere unless destroyed during the cabin’s demolition. However, if he were stripped, then stabbed on the roof, elements and time would make blood stains fade to nearly nothing. This all assumes that there was a struggle and a weapon involved, though. Reddit user Tim_Buk2 theorizes:
“From what we have established so far, the scenario I am reluctantly being drawn towards is that once Maddux was inside the cabin he was confronted by another person, forced to disrobe, managed to escape outside and chose to conceal himself on the roof and then in the chimney in fear of his life.”
There are a few flaws with this line of thought. Looking at the cabin’s address on Google Maps (9), we can see that despite the area now being more developed, it was not awfully far from any sort of public space. The Maddux family even mentions that the cabin was a mere two blocks from their family home. If Joshua had escaped from a captor, why would he climb onto the roof, then into the chimney to escape? He would still acknowledge he would get stuck, having been in the cabin and knowing about the breakfast bar and the Heatilator. If he managed to get out of the cabin, he would realistically run the two blocks to his home for help (or to a closer house). Tum_Buk2’s theory simply does not make sense from a logical standpoint, even in the frayed state of mind someone might be in during an assault.
I have a personal theory of my own regarding the death of Joshua. Since I find it hard to believe that Joshua entered the chimney of his own volition, I am inclined to side with foul play. Evidence of a struggle is unclear since the cabin would have been in dismay when Joshua and Andy arrived. However, no weapons or signs of bleeding were found at the scene. I believe Joshua may have been knocked out in some way; the body is described as mummified when found (4), which results from exposure to extreme cold and/or dry conditions. The average humidity level for Colorado today is 52.1%, and natural mummification requires 10-20% humidity, leading me to believe that repeated freezing in Colorado winters lead to at least partial mummification. We are only given this description of the corpse once, and no images of the body are available for public viewing, so I can only assume. While there was no evidence of obvious trauma, it is possible that Joshua was strangled, de-robed, and then thrown into the chimney (from the top; even the Coroner acknowledges that it would take several people to shove Joshua up into the chimney the way his body was discovered) to hide the body. It is also possible that he was knocked out, rather than killed, and thrown into the chimney to die, depending on the cruelty of the killer. Normally, one might find bruising present around the neck of a victim of strangulation, but I have found no accounts of any way to indicate strangulation on a mummified corpse. As these are mere theories, I will throw mine out there. It seems most plausible to me, with no sign of a struggle (tears in clothing, blood on clothing/surrounding area, obvious items knocked over or broken that the owner noticed, etc.). But it is simply a hypothesis and should be treated as such.
Ultimately, all of this is speculation. It is worth considering that Andy Richard Newman had bragged about “putting Josh in a hole” and went on to commit murders in other states, along with possessing a lengthy criminal record, and that foul play may be possible. With the odd circumstances of death, it would not be unrealistic for another person to have been present with Joshua that meant to do him harm. He was a smart young boy and as adventurous as he was, I sincerely doubt he would have entered the cabin, stripped, then returned to the roof to enter the chimney. Nothing but death lie waiting for him on the other side, as he had already had the thrill of breaking into a vacant cabin and knew that the bottom of the chimney was blocked. If he were depressed after the death of his brother 2 years prior to his disappearance, he would have expressed suicidal tendencies prior to entering the chimney, which the family does not express. And if he were, indeed, suicidal, I am certain he would not opt for a slow, painful death, suffocating or freezing within a chimney. Still, you may choose to believe he had a moment of weakness and impulsively climbed into what he surely knew was his demise or believe that foul play was at work. Ultimately, we cannot know the truth. What we do know is that the Maddux family has suffered greatly for the loss of not only their oldest son Zachary, but of Joshua. The family may never get the justice that they deserve, given the complicated and mysterious nature of the crime. Perhaps the greatest justice we can give Joshua Maddux is keeping his memory alive, acknowledging that cold cases are not lost to police files, and that there will always be someone, somewhere, trying to figure out what authorities could not.
Thank you for reading, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed! If you have any theories or speculations of your own, feel free to comment! I have no doubt there are resources I might have left out or dots I did not connect. Please, stay safe and take care. Every moment is precious and you never know when it could be your last.
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