Zachariah Rasch Trial Begins: Murder or a Tragic Accident?

追加: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Yesterday, the trial of Zachariah Rash began in Wisconsin. I'm starting my analysis today. Stick around.

[00:00:14]Hi, Tony Dit here. Formerly, I was a Missouri attorney in active practice.

[00:00:19]Then I retired. Then I unretired and started a YouTube channel and I bring you all kinds of stuff about trials and the law. So, no legal advice is given, but stay tuned. And is this what we're talking about today?

[00:00:34]Today we're covering the Wisconsin trial of Zachariah Rash, who is accused of murdering his estranged wife, Crystal Rash, and then attempting to conceal the crime by burning and hiding her remains.

[00:00:47]Prosecutors have charged him with firstdegree intentional homicide, including a domestic abuse enhancer, and hiding a corpse. Rash has pleaded not guilty, and his defense contends that Crystal's death was not murder. The jury will now decide what really happened that day in rural Dodge County in June of 2024. This is how the prosecution framed the crime in this case.

[00:01:13]Good afternoon everyone and thank you again for being here, for showing up for jury duty, for going through all those uncomfortable questions and that whole process.

[00:01:28]But thank you for showing up and I thank you for your attention as we go through this trial.

[00:01:36]This is Crystal Rash.

[00:01:40]She was married to Zach Rash. She had children with Zach Rash. She's going through a divorce with Zach.

[00:01:51]Now, this is Crystal and Zach on June 11th of 2024 together at Culver's in Okanamaw just before 10:30, 10:27.

[00:02:09]And this is Crystal Rash and Zach Rash walking in the parking lot of Goodwill in Okanamok again on June 11th, 2024, just before 11:00.

[00:02:27]And this video is the last image that captures Crystal Rash alive.

[00:02:35]As Crystal walked alongside Zach on that June morning, Crystal was a dead woman walking.

[00:02:46]The man beside her, her husband, Zack Rash, is the man who killed her.

[00:02:57]That is what this case is about.

[00:03:01]Crystal was a woman who was alive, who had children, who had a future, who had plans, and who was last seen alive with the defendant, Zack Rash.

[00:03:14]The evidence will show that in June of 2024, Crystal Rash was not a woman preparing to disappear. She was not preparing to abandon her children, to give up on the divorce. She was not preparing to abandon the life that she was trying to build for herself.

[00:03:32]You will hear that a divorce was filed between Crystal and Zach. But you'll hear that Crystal was positive, optimistic about that, optimistic about her future. You'll hear that she was trying to become more independent, including working towards having her own place.

[00:03:50]You will hear that though her children were not in her custody, that though there was a pending termination of parental rights both for her and for Zach, that she was continuing to maintain that relationship with her kids and that she had every reason to believe that that relationship would continue.

[00:04:11]It's a pretty horrific crime and I didn't go into the details of it. I just wanted you to get the flavor of it.

[00:04:19]This is apparently somebody who had anger issues and and he was jealous and apparently neither one of them were very good parents. A termination of parental rights hearing or process is what happens when you abuse or neglect your children and the state finds it necessary to find a new home for them and give someone else the right to parent them. Now, at this point, investigators seek and obtain a search warrant for that Wood Road property in the town of Climman Dodge County. And that search warrant is executed on June 26th.

[00:04:58]Inside the residents, law enforcement finds several receipts connected to some of those debit card transactions among the defendants property.

[00:05:10]They locate a large amount of cash and they locate a 9mm Taurus handgun and a holster.

[00:05:19]Outside in the property, they find multiple burn areas and hone in on one of them. And there they find a tooth and a bone fragment known as the Petrus pyramid.

[00:05:32]Now, you'll hear from a forensic dentist, Dr. Leos, that the tooth matched known dental records for crystal rash.

[00:05:40]And you'll hear testimony explaining what the Petrus pyramid is, a dense part of the bone at the base of the skull from which DNA can sometimes still be recovered even after burning. You'll hear that that Petrus pyramid was sent to an outside lab and a DNA profile was uh developed from that bone and that that DNA profile was consistent with a DNA profile developed for Crystal Rash.

[00:06:11]Now, at about the same time as this investigation is going into this Wood Road property, law enforcement is also tracing the movement of the defendant, his defendant's vehicle, uh, through uh, flock camera information, which shows that that vehicle traveled towards the Wisconsin Dells area.

[00:06:33]Detective Cotney learns that the defendant's family has property in Adams County towards the Dells. Investigators determined that the defendant traveled to Adams County on June 24th, the day after Deputy Coupon first made contact with him.

[00:06:52]A search warrant is obtained for that Adams County property. And there on that property, investigators find the defendants's Mitsubishi Eclipse parked near a camper.

[00:07:06]Now, the evidence will show that this Mitsubishi Eclipse, this vehicle, was the vehicle that the defendant was using when he was with Crystal on June 11th when they were seen together at Culver's, they're in the parking lot of Goodwill, in the last image that we have of Crystal alive.

[00:07:26]But the evidence will also show that beginning the evening of June 11th and continuing in the surveillance videos from the debit card transactions that followed, the defendant is no longer using that Mitsubishi.

[00:07:39]He's using different vehicles, a Dodge Ram and a Chevy Cobalt. So when investigators locate the Mitsubishi hidden away on that Adams County property, they're finding the very vehicle that he was using when Crystal was last seen alive with him. And inside the Mitsubishi, they find blood.

[00:07:59]>> So, we know there's going to be DNA evidence in this case, and there'll probably be some additional scientific evidence besides the testimony from the dentist. This is going to be an interesting case to follow if for no other reason than the science. However, if you are bothered by rather graphic descriptions of what happens, I am going to try to keep as much of that out as possible. But this was a pretty bad incident. Uh there's no really good way to kill somebody. I I would assume and u but unfortunately he chose probably the worst of all possible ways of disposing of her body. Now, the defense gets a turn. And the defense approach is really kind of simple. You plead guilty or say you're guilty of one offense in order to mask your involvement in the other offense.

[00:08:57]And in this case, I'm not really sure that the defense strategy makes a whole lot of sense, but you have to tell me in the comments.

[00:09:08]This case is about a young woman who while handling a firearm in front of Mr. Rash discharged it and tragically killed herself.

[00:09:20]>> So, let me see if I have this right.

[00:09:22]They were going through this amicable divorce and all of a sudden, boom, she just decided to end her life. I think he's going to need to explain this a little bit more >> instantly.

[00:09:34]And to make matters worse, Mr. Rash believed that he would be blamed for her death as it was his firearm and the divorce that was pending.

[00:09:47]He panicked and made a series of incredibly poor decisions.

[00:09:54]He lied to his friends and family. He raised suspicions.

[00:09:59]He was targeted by law enforcement.

[00:10:02]and eventually he was prosecuted for her death.

[00:10:10]The government is attempting to turn the tragedy of Crystal's death into the travesty of prosecuting Mr. Rash for her death. And at the end of this case, my partner Merly Josie will come before you and ask you to end it once and for all.

[00:10:27]So, how did we get here?

[00:10:29]>> Yeah, please tell me how we got here.

[00:10:31]That would be an important thing to know.

[00:10:34]>> So on June 8th, Zachariah Rash picked up Crystal Rash from Climate and they were going through a divorce at the time.

[00:10:45]They had a divorce trial, divorce hearing set for August of 2024.

[00:10:52]And by and large, it was going to be the end of their marriage. But they still still spent time together. They had children together. And from time to time, they spent time together.

[00:11:02]And on this weekend, beginning on Saturday until the following uh Monday and Tuesday, they spent time in Adams County near Wisconsin Dells, where his grandmother has some trailers on a property there in the woods that's frequented by all the family members.

[00:11:20]And they spent time together. They behaved as a couple. They went down to the Wisconsin Dells in town, spent time there, eating, enjoying the Dells.

[00:11:32]But there was one thing that was looming that's always been looming. In fact, it's been looming for the past five years.

[00:11:42]And that's the children that they have together are not with them.

[00:11:48]The state of Wisconsin has taken them away.

[00:11:53]And that no doubt Crystal loved her children.

[00:11:59]And no doubt she also had a looming date to determine what is going to happen with her children.

[00:12:08]Will she get to be with them again? Will she have custody with them again? You have to remember these are young children. They've been five years with a foster mother at this time developing relationships and moving forward.

[00:12:22]adoption was on the table.

[00:12:24]>> Okay, I can see where that might make you a little bit despondent. The fact that your children are going to be taken away from you forever. They're going to be adopted out by someone else. The real question in my mind is what was going on? Why were they children? Why were the children taken in the first place?

[00:12:42]Clearly, it wasn't just dad. Clearly, mom had some issues in this, too. And you know, I suppose it is possible that would make her suicidal, but it sounds a little too, I don't know, a little too cute, a little too pat to be the right answer here. But I'll keep an open mind and I know you will, too.

[00:13:05]It's a zero sum game adoption.

[00:13:09]Someone's going to have the children and somebody won't.

[00:13:12]And on June 11th, they went together to Milwaukee looking to speak with some attorneys.

[00:13:23]Now, they each uh Crystal did have an attorney at the time, but you'll see from the Google searches that they Googled attorneys in Milwaukee and that their cell phone records show that they were there.

[00:13:37]But they couldn't get into they couldn't walk into a law firm and say, "Look, we want a meeting." They didn't have an appointment and it was a let down again.

[00:13:48]And in that ride home, something happened.

[00:13:55]And Zach doesn't know exactly what happened as he was driving, but he did have a 9 millimeter in his vehicle.

[00:14:03]And then as he was driving, the gun discharged.

[00:14:08]>> He didn't know what was happening. He didn't see her messing around with the firearm.

[00:14:15]Again, this sounds like a rather contrived defense put together by defense attorneys with a little assistance, I guess, from Zachariah. But it doesn't sound credible to me and I wonder if it will sound credible to the jury. Tell me what you think in the comments. Is this a credible basis for a defense here? Let me know.

[00:14:41]And then he drove to his property and climate and began a series of incredibly poor decisions because of how it looked.

[00:14:54]And it didn't look good.

[00:14:57]It was his firearm.

[00:14:59]It was his divorce. Clearly the last person to be with her and he panicked.

[00:15:08]He did what he could to dispose of her body. He lied to friends and family.

[00:15:14]He created false Facebook accounts and messages.

[00:15:19]And he lied to the police. There's no doubt about that.

[00:15:24]But other than lying to the police and doing all kinds of horrible things to her corpse, um, he's an all-around great guy. You can tell I'm I have my serious doubts, serious reservations about this defense.

[00:15:40]Basically, the defense is he didn't kill her. She killed herself. He just hit her body because he was afraid he'd be charged with it. Well, if indeed she killed herself, there would be all kinds of evidence to that effect. The there would be contact wounds for the firearm, you know, went in or where where the bullet went in. There'd be all kinds of stuff that would back up that kind of claim. It's really hard to imagine that that happens in a moving vehicle and you don't try and flag down some help. Maybe it was clearly a mortal wound. I don't know.

[00:16:17]But this is going to be an interesting case to follow primarily for the scientific evidence and the DNA evidence because I don't think there's going to be a whole lot of reasonable doubt by the time we get to the end. But I'm prejudging. I shouldn't do that. So, ignore me and we'll see where this goes.

[00:16:38]Thanks for being here today. And programming note, Wednesday the 3rd of June is my anniversary.

[00:16:46]My anniversary I always spend with my wife. And as I told somebody on the channel yesterday, my wife is my angel.

[00:16:55]She is the person who rescued me from a life that would not have been half as good as it was since I have known her.

[00:17:03]We have spent the last 26 years together. She is the most wonderful, genuine, beautiful person that I know and I know a lot of good people.

[00:17:13]So, tomorrow I'll be away from the computer, but I'll be back on Thursday.

[00:17:20]Thanks for being here. Catch me on Thursday. Thanks for watching. I appreciate you being here today. And if you're a new subscriber, a double thank you. That means a lot to me. One of the themes on this channel, in case you didn't know, is kindness. If you have the opportunity today, try to do just one thing to help somebody else. It doesn't have to be a big thing. Any kind thing will do. Buy somebody a Coke. Get them a cup of coffee. Hold a door open for somebody struggling with a package.

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