‘Just Something That Wasnt Right About Him: Student’s Killer First Masqueraded As A Witness – Oxygen

On a fall night in November 1990, college senior Amy Blount went out to havefun with her group of friends but it would tragically be her final night with them.

The group of college students went to St. Georges Tavern, a local hotspot near Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. Theywere having a good time when Kelly Brockman, Blount's roommate, decided to leave early because she wasnt feeling well. When she left, Blountwas spending time with her crush, Shawn Nolan.

However, when Brockman woke up the following morning,Blount had still not returned home andfailed to show up at her morning classes.Her friends initially assumedshe was still with Nolan, butwhen they asked himabout Blount, they were shocked by what they heard: Nolantold themhe andBlount had walked out to the coastline the night before at around 2 a.m. butgot into a fight while waiting for a taxi to take her home. When Blountbegan walking off by herself, Nolantook a cab home alone.

Upon hearing Blounthad been left to walk home alone in the middle of the night, Blounts roommates were immediately concerned andsuspicious of Nolan.

As much as Amy liked Shawn, I thought Shawn didnt seem like he was really too concerned, to be honest, Brockman told Oxygens Buried in the Backyard, airing Thursdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.

Brockmann reported Blountmissing to police, and investigatorslaunched a search for Blount, checking local hospitals for reports of any Jane Does who may have matched Blounts description and reaching out to local cab drivers. These first stepswent nowhere.

Sincethere was not yet any evidence of foul play, policecould not officially declareBlount a missing person, despite her friends beliefsomething bad may have happened to her.With no answers, Brockmanrealized it was time to call Blounts parents.

That was probably one of the toughest calls Ill ever make in my life, she recalled to producers.

The search for AmyBlount leads to numerous dead ends.

The following day, Blounts loved onesbegan searching for her around town, putting up missing persons flyers and forming search parties to scour the woods, but no one found anything. When days passed andBlount still had not materialized, authorities finally launched an official investigation into her disappearance, and the first thing they did was bring in Nolan, Blount's crush, for questioning.

When speaking to police, Nolangave a different story than the onehed given Blounts roommates: At the end of the night, when he was ready to go home, hed used a nearby payphone to call a taxi to take Blounthome, he said, but when he turned around after making the call, she was gone. Although he waited for awhile, he said she never reappeared, so when the cab arrived, hewent home.

Police reached out to the cab driver to verify Nolans alibi, and he confirmed hed picked Nolanup that night. He also said when he arrived, Nolan had been slumped over, asleep on a public bench.Most importantly, however? Nolanwas alone.

We knew that Shawn was the last person [Blount] was actually seen with, Steve Fricke, aninvestigator with the St. Augustine Police Department, told producers.

After Blounthad been missing for nearly 10days with no activity on her bank accounts authorities offered a $10,000 reward for information about Blounts disappearance, leading to an influx of tips. One such call came from a man named Timothy Gatchell, who told policeas soon as he saw Blounts face on the missing person poster, he recognized her as a young woman hed seen in the downtown area on the same night Blounthad disappeared.

Gatchell met with police in person and told themhed seenBlount approached by someone in an older-model car a Camaro or a Firebird and Blounthad spoken to what looked to be two people who were in the car before getting inside and leaving with them.

While police now had a promising lead, they were also suspicious of the person whod hand-delivered it to them, though they could not initially explain why.

You could call it police intuition, but there was just something that wasnt right about him, Fricke said.

Police convinced Gatchell to take a polygraph testand he passed. Their doubts assuaged, police followed up on the tip, searching for cars that matched the description, but after interviewing everyone they could find with a car of that type, they wereback to square one. They were no closer, it seemed, to finding Blount.

Weeks had passed, andBlounts family was struggling with having to celebrate Christmas without her.

There was no news, Blount's sister, Kim Blount Potter, told producers. I really felt numb.

A gruesome discovery leads to answers.

Weeks after Blounts disappearance, a man walking his dog on New Years Day 1991 on the outskirts of St. Augustine made a horrifying discovery. After the mans dog was attracted to a pile of logs and rocks in a deserted area, the man went to investigate, only to find what looked to be human bones.

He immediately called the authorities, who, upon their arrival, found a body that had been wrapped in a floral bedsheet and buried in a shallow grave.

I really started thinking that this truly could be Amy Blount, Mary Fagan, a detective with the St. Johns County Sheriff,told producers.

An official autopsy confirmed Fagan's hunch. Italso revealedBlount had been stabbed five times in the front of her body. Additionally, there were bruises on the left side of her head and on her left shoulder, suggestinga struggle had taken place prior to her death.

After authorities delivered the devastating news to Blounts loved ones, they were heartbroken to find their search had reached the worst possible conclusion.

It made me sick to my stomach, but there was a little bit of relief that I could start the grieving process, Brockman recalled. I could start mourning, really mourning, the loss that Im never gonna see my friend again.

As Blounts family and friends began to grieve, police continued the investigationby identifying the owner of the property on which Blountwas found. However, because that man was very cooperative with police, they soon ruled him out as a suspect and instead zeroed in on other possibilities: The property owner had rented out two mobile homes on that plot of landand he told police hed been having problems with one of the tenants a man named Timothy Gatchell.

The truth of what happened to Amy Blount finally emerges.

Investigators rushed to search Gatchells home, where they found a sheet that matched the kind that Blountwas found wrapped in as well as a long hair that was the color of Blount'scaught in a screw on a weight-lifting bench. Crime scene technicians also discoveredthere were traces of blood throughout the home.

Police also found a scrap of paper with the name "Toby" written on it and a phone number, leading them to a man who could help them finally fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. When contacted by police, this Tobyagreed to come in for questioning.

He told investigatorshe was with Gatchellon the night of Blounts disappearance and that the two of them had been out bar-hopping when they spottedBlount walking alone.Gatchell told Tobyto stop the car sohe couldtalk to her, and Tobywatched as Gatchell went to talk toBlount andled her back to the car. She got inside willingly, Tobysaid, and he drove them all to Gatchell'shouse. Once there, Gatchellbegan coming on to Blount, but Blountwasnt interested. At that point, Toby said, he went to the bathroom andleft the home without seeing either of them again.

Weeks later, after Toby realized the missing girl everyone was talking about was the same onetheyhad picked up that night, he confronted Gatchell, who claimed hed given Blounta ridedowntown and thensaw her talking to a couple of guys in a Camaro before he drove away. Toby pressed him to report what hed seen to the police, which prompted Gatchellto reach out to investigators and give them the tip regarding the old car.

At that point, authorities had heard enough: They rushed toGatchells home to take him into custody. He didnt resistand instead told officershed been expecting them.

Once at the station, Gatchell told the same story as Tobyand claimed hed given Blounta ride back into town using the property owners truck. Investigators immediately knew thenGatchell was lying: The truck in question had three flat tires.

With a little more coaxing from authorities, Gatchell slowly started to confess: He claimedhe andBlount had gotten into a fight andat some pointa knife had gotten got involved, but he wasnt sure because he may have blacked out. He said the next thing he knew, Blountwas lying on the floor with blood coming out of her mouth and the knife was in his hand.

He claimed hethen went outside, got a shovel, and dug a hole before going back inside, wrappingBlount up in a sheet, and carrying her outside, where he buried her body and said a prayer for her.

Gatchell was arrested for first-degree murder andstood trial in July 1991. In order to avoid the death penalty, he pled guilty and is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

For more information on this case and others like it, watch Buried in the Backyard on Oxygen on Thursdays at 8/7c or stream online any time at Oxygen.com.

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'Just Something That Wasnt Right About Him: Student's Killer First Masqueraded As A Witness - Oxygen