Zachariah Rasch Trial Day 2 - What Did His Family Know?!?

Added: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]Today, these text messages remain very relevant. Particularly, I recommend paying attention to Sunday, June 23rd, because that is the day the detectives take action, and we learn that maybe he searched that and then came up with the plan, possibly involving another member of his family. So, the first witness on day two of the trial is Crystal's friend, Robin. If you haven't watched day one, the defense is basically agreeing to everything in the prosecution's case, except for how Crystal died. Now, Robin and Crystal stayed in contact every day, and they show her an exhibit that's a message from a Crystal account that she says was not Crystal's real account. It was a new account. She explains why it was odd, and that Crystal wouldn't call her when asked, and Crystal always would call when asked. Defense is up. The messages shown were after June 11th. On June 8th, Crystal says she was with friends on the 8th. She never mentioned she was with Zach. She spoke to Crystal daily. She doesn't remember when Crystal last dated Zach. She doesn't know she was seeing Zach in 2024, and did say that Crystal was getting a divorce. She didn't know Crystal was spending time with Zach.

[00:01:17]They spoke every day, but Crystal didn't share that. Robin says because if she talked about him, she would say not to hang around him because of how he is to her. And yes, we are going to get another look into their relationship.

[00:01:33]So, the next witness is by Zoom. As I said, the defense is basically just bending over and agreeing to most things. Next is Katie. She works for human services in Dodge County. She knew of Crystal and Zach through her job.

[00:01:47]Their children were removed from their care and assigned to her. She helped Crystal through unification or other results. There was a trial for each, Crystal and Zach. Zach's trial would be first, and it was set for June and Crystal's would be in July. Crystal was active in the process and still in touch with her children. Crystal knew adoption was an option and Crystal still expected to remain in the children's lives if they were adopted. Crystal was sick a lot, hopeful and also scared. She was making efforts to be independent and get her own housing. The foster mom had conversation with Crystal's that the kids would have communication with some sort even if there was an adoption.

[00:02:24]Crystal responded when questions happened and stayed in contact. But in June there was no response which was unusual. Zach's attorney instead contacted them and that Zach wanted to terminate the parental rights to his children. They don't say the date of this but I'm very interested on what date he decided to do this. But this wasn't something he had suggested before and he did follow through with it and Zach signed the paperwork on June 17th of 2024.

[00:02:52]So, Crystal was last seen on June 11th and on the 17th he's signing away the rights to his children.

[00:02:58]Crystal missed an appointment on June 10th and 24th. June 10th they did get a message from her that she was sick.

[00:03:05]Defense is up. This woman is a social worker. A judge can terminate parental rights in the trial and that leads to adoption. Once adoption happens the adoptive parents can decide if birth parents have any contact. That's up to them. The foster parents in this case were excellent and were looking to adopt and Crystal knew that. The children were happy in foster care. The ones old enough to understand were happy with the idea and it was going to be her recommendation actually that the children be adopted. Crystal had supervised visits and she used to have unsupervised at some point. Defense tries to ask why she lost supervised unsupervised visits but there was an objection to the relevance. For reunification there is a plan set out.

[00:03:46]Crystal was asked to go to mental health therapy but refused to participate for a time. Crystal was asked to take a parenting class, but then said that was too hard for her. So, it really does sound like she wasn't going to get to have the children in her custody, but she was going to be around them.

[00:04:01]Prosecution is back up. She worked with Crystal and foster parents, and her role was to oversee the relationship between the two. The foster parents would not have cut Crystal out of the children's lives. Next up is a witness, it's a deputy, and if you watched the trial, he has the most baby face I have ever seen from an officer.

[00:04:22]It is like you could copy it onto a baby and it would look real. It's crazy.

[00:04:28]But he took the call about Crystal being missing, and he spoke to Crystal's stepmother, who made the complaint. Then he stopped to see Crystal's birth mother, and he spoke to Zach, and met with him at his residence, and he was wearing a body camera. Zach said he hadn't heard from Crystal, and has been sending her messages. Hasn't seen her for a couple weeks. She disappears sometimes, then comes back. She might have went to Michigan. The mom thought uh he gave her a ride to Michigan. And Zach says that she's bipolar, so she might have gotten mad and run off. Zach, of course, doesn't have any questions for this officer after finding out his wife is missing. They play the squad camera, and as the car parks, you see Zach walk in from the woods. And you have to understand to set the scene, this is a bunch of junk cars in a wooded area, and you see him shut the trunk on some vehicle, but you can't see the vehicle cuz it's obscured by a truck, and then he talks to the officer, and the office The detective said they tried to have Michigan look for her. He contacted Robin, and Robin, after being contacted, started getting messages claiming to be from Crystal, but it wasn't her, and it was the same day that this detective talked to Zach. So, it sounds like, I mean, I'm piecing the evidence together, right? It sounds like the detective talked to Zach, and he's like, I need to bolster my falsehood, I'm going to message Robin. And then the defense had no questions. Next up is the lieutenant in the criminal investigation division. His division received a referral about Crystal being missing on June 25th. He instructed his division to do follow-ups with the family, and they began trying to find Crystal. They used emergency phone pings on her two phone numbers they knew of, and they showed the notes about requesting the ping. The phone One of the phones last pinged on June 8th at a tower by her residence.

[00:06:09]That phone had a May 28th text data that was gone. On another phone, the last activity was on June 17th with a tower near Zach's residence. And of course, remember she disappeared June 11th.

[00:06:23]Last outbound call on June 10th, which was to her attorney for a car accident case. And then there's a small break.

[00:06:30]So, car accident case, there's even more money motive.

[00:06:35]Back talking about ping, some technical difficulties, talk of bank transactions.

[00:06:40]And he's looking at them, and there's no objections. They show a map of the purchase locations. Crystal is red, yellow Zach, green is the property they live in. We've already kind of talked about this. It's kind of re-going through it. The purchases that Zach made with her card. It's hard to see the screen, but they do show June 11th footage of Culver's with Crystal and Zach.

[00:06:59]Zach paid for it. Crystal had a small purse. They show her in the parking lot of the Goodwill getting out of a silver car. Shows them shopping, going back to the vehicle. Crystal goes in the back passenger seat. She changes her shirt.

[00:07:10]Zach seems to block the public view, and then she gets in the front front passenger seat, and they leave, and this is the last video of her alive.

[00:07:18]The bank actually contacted the detective that there was a withdrawal from Crystal's account, who was a known missing person. And it shows Zach driving up to an ATM in a blue vehicle, and he's alone. And there's a receipt for drain cleaner and car wipes and Monster using Crystal's card. They show him alone buying it. There's another purchase of an air cooler, six more bottles of drain cleaner on the June 23rd using Crystal's card, the same day the officer went to his house, and they show him going to buy it alone. Search warrant around June 26th, they had the scene held until July. They show photos of the scene, show more of the vehicles that are out there, and they indicate where the burn pit was. There's a small tree by the burn pit showing singed at the bottom, green at the top, so this damage seems to be new. They show a bone in the burn pit. That wasn't actually found till June 30th. They explain going through the area with quadrants and sifting the dirt, and they found a tooth. They removed even more potential human remains.

[00:08:14]Defense is up. Testifies about Culvers in the Goodwill video. Culvers is from June 11th. It was behind the register.

[00:08:20]They both got drinks, and they don't know if they got food, but Zach paid for it.

[00:08:25]This is the defense. Why does this matter? Good question.

[00:08:28]Um but there was no unusual behavior.

[00:08:30]Then they were in the Goodwill less than 30 minutes, and you see that Zach wasn't holding Crystal hostage. She walked away and was shopping.

[00:08:38]Nothing malicious is shown by Zach. And that is the last video of Crystal in that parking lot. Now, remember, this is a woman with learning difficulties who is now with her husband with no contact to the outside world essentially, it seems.

[00:08:53]At least unsupervised contact, cuz yeah, she was in a store and walked away to buy something, but he was still, you know, in the store.

[00:09:00]Did she recognize danger?

[00:09:03]Lunchtime.

[00:09:04]David Lang is up. He's an attorney, and he represented Crystal in her divorce.

[00:09:08]And they had a lot of communication. She wanted this divorce, to be done with it.

[00:09:12]She was ready to move on. She was getting a new place through government assistance, and they were working on social services to get her regular visits with her children. And he doesn't think she ever missed a visit. She called the office regularly. They can meet receive communication from her on June 5th. She was also in an auto accident and would get money for it.

[00:09:32]The only message he got from Crystal was actually from Zach's attorney, his divorce attorney. And the email is shown to him. It's from June 17th and it included a forwarded message from Crystal dated June 12th at 1:21 a.m. Again, this is June 12th, she was last seen June 11th. The email was sent to Zach's attorney says, "This is Crystal Rosh. This is my new email. I can't access my other email account anymore. My phone isn't working that good either. I'm letting you know you're fired for my divorce case and for the case with Haley. You're fired. No excuses or guilt trips." So that Haley would be the children as well.

[00:10:16]Zach's lawyer forwarded saying he has no idea what's going on and they point out that this email was also sent to the incorrect email for Crystal's lawyer. Crystal would have known the real email because she used it regularly.

[00:10:29]Crystal liked his representation, was working with him pro bono for most of it and she wanted to sell the house and start over. Now the defense is up and the defense is about to hurt themselves.

[00:10:40]He met Crystal for the guardianship case that became a parental rights termination case. The termination case was because of Zach's conduct with the children.

[00:10:51]Zach, according to this attorney, is why they lost the kids.

[00:10:57]What did he do?

[00:11:02]Divorce would be the best to give her more contact with the children. Divorce was filed June 23rd. June 24th, she disappeared. About 9 months. You don't always know everything about You've been her client about 9 months. You don't always know everything about clients.

[00:11:15]Crystal was upfront and called three to four times a week. Crystal owned a home and was going to sell it. Crystal applied for subsidized housing and went with a one-bedroom because it was cheaper. Crystal wanted the uh guardianship where she would get to visit and she hadn't terminated her rights at the time. She thought by taking a one-bedroom it would leave her with more money to spend on her kids.

[00:11:34]One bedroom though isn't enough for four children.

[00:11:37]Crystal never talked about camping with Zach in the last conversation. First time he was aware about Crystal wanting to get a new attorney was when he got the email from Zach's lawyer. He didn't know that Crystal was trying to meet with attorneys on June 11th. Now to be clear, to be very clear, there is no evidence that Crystal was trying to meet with new attorneys while out with Zach.

[00:11:55]There's no evidence submitted. Maybe it'll come, but again, was that all part of Zach's plot?

[00:12:02]That's going to be a question for the jury.

[00:12:05]The attorney actually had three cases with Crystal. The child, the divorce, and the auto. Zach was also a passenger in the auto accident. And it's very interesting to me that why would you fire an attorney for the divorce and for the children, but not the auto accident?

[00:12:19]Could it be that Zach's like, well, obviously the divorce doesn't matter.

[00:12:23]Obviously the children aren't going to be with her, she's dead, but I still want that auto money, so I'm not going to fire him for that one.

[00:12:34]Don't want to let that work go down the drain.

[00:12:36]Just a thought.

[00:12:38]Prosecution says that there is a prior attorney on the auto case, and then we just move on to the next witness.

[00:12:44]So, as you can tell, the defense is not doing a good job. But the prosecution, they're having a lot of issues getting even their evidence to display.

[00:12:52]Next up is Detective Sergeant. He became involved on June 25th. They had some issues showing evidence again. He collected DNA from Crystal's mother, suspected DNA of Crystal. They show the DNA evidence, they have the PowerPoint working showing camera footage of the vehicle, and they take a break. Then it's back to more days of the vehicle driving around. So, what this is is like flock cameras.

[00:13:13]And this gets really interesting, uh because June 12th now shows photos of a blue truck that Zach owns. They show him driving it until June 18th. So, basically they show that this vehicle that Crystal was last seen in was everywhere. It was being used until until the 11th.

[00:13:32]Um and then Zack moved his truck. They show him driving it around until June 18th. And then there's a red uh car owned by Zack. I said he had a lot of cars. And that's driven around till the 19th. And that drives until the 23rd.

[00:13:42]And that's the day that the detective went to see Zack. Now, that silver vehicle, that vehicle that Crystal was in, the one that disappeared after the 11th, it's being driven.

[00:13:51]And then in the same location, same minutes, there's a photo of another vehicle, a vehicle owned by Zack's mom.

[00:14:02]She's 2 seconds behind.

[00:14:04]Few minutes later, passenger window is cracked open on that silver car.

[00:14:08]No passenger seen though. And they keep showing what appears to be Zack's mom's car. You can't tell who's in it, following the silver car.

[00:14:21]Eventually, that stops happening and you just see Zack's mom's car, the car she uses, the car that was following.

[00:14:28]Interesting.

[00:14:30]Eventually, the silver car was found and it was filled with blood.

[00:14:34]Next, they show us her surveillance uh system, June 5th through 8th and June 11th. And you see Crystal walking down her driveway carrying a bag and she walked down the sidewalk the morning of June 8th. So, she wasn't picked up at her house, she was picked up down the street or somewhere else it seems. Then the night of June 11th, a man is walking across the street and Zack's phone is pinged in the same general location.

[00:14:56]Next up, they show uh going to Crystal's place for DNA and they show her calendar is crossed off until the night. She crossed out all the previous months, camping listed on June 15th.

[00:15:06]Jury trial listed, doctor's appointment, every Monday is listed as visiting her kids. And the top image for this month says, "You can find joy even in the most difficult days."

[00:15:16]And now the defense is up.

[00:15:18]Some of the hours that the vehicle was driven is matching hours that uh Zach worked, right? And they like didn't verify. Zach's phone was in the general area of the camera on the house, but uh it could have pinged off him driving past, theoretically.

[00:15:32]Zach searched for law firms which were near where one of the Flock cameras picked up Zach's vehicle. And another law firm was close to another of the Flock cameras. And I want to stop here and tell you something.

[00:15:44]You might not know this, depending on where you live, but in a lot of areas, there is a road.

[00:15:49]The road. The only road that matters. If you need to go and buy yourself uh uh go to the dentist, go to Walmart, go to Costco, go to a sex shop, go to a lawyer, it's on the same road. What road do you follow? The only road. The main road. The road with all the shops. The road with the strip malls. The road with all the fast food places. It doesn't matter what it is you need, it's going to be on that road. And it's a main highway. And that main highway is a type of location that had Flock cameras. So, it'd be weirder if the lawyers, local lawyers, were not on that road. And if they are posting all of the camera footage they have from the Flock cameras on that highway, it's going to be somewhere near law firms because there's nowhere else for them to be. Everything is on the road. The main road. The main artery.

[00:16:40]Just pointing that out about how useless that coming from the defense is, especially to a local who's going to know that.

[00:16:49]Crystal camping was not on her cal- uh Zach was not on the calendar. And she actually had the 15th of June marked for camping. Crystal's mom had no information of her camping with Zach that weekend. And Crystal's vehicle was operable, but the detective made sure to mention, while it probably ran, it wasn't probably safe to drive because that vehicle had sustained damage.

[00:17:13]So, that was brought up a previous day, yesterday, that Crystal could have technically gone to for example the kindergarten graduation of her child if her vehicle was working. Sometimes it wasn't. Remember, she hadn't gotten paid for the accident. It's possible that vehicle simply could not be safely driven and that's why she couldn't go.

[00:17:33]If she could, she might have gotten to see her child one last time.

[00:17:39]And that is day two and I am wrapping up what is this about less than 18 minutes for nearly 8 hours of court. So hopefully this condenses it down and helps you understand what's going on in this case. I think that the defense is just screwed and I think that they have made things worse repeatedly.

[00:18:02]Um day one they did quite a few things to make it worse and today it is now come out that the children were lost because of Zach according to the attorney, which it's not going to give him a good look to that jury because it looks like maybe one parent cared about the children and another doesn't.

[00:18:21]He very quickly got rid of the attempting to get the rights to the kids back for example.

[00:18:26]Um hopefully this helps you catch up and of of course the full cases are online for people to look up.

[00:18:33]I am going through them. I'm going to try to do it. I know I'm getting a little late for these. I'm going to try to get them out a little earlier, but it is a lot to condense down and just takes a while to watch the full case and I will see you in the next video.