Trey Zwicker, a kid, was brutally killed behind a school in Louisville, Kentucky, in May 2011. The inquiry that followed was complicated, with many different stories and contradictory testimony. All of this left the authorities with the tough challenge of determining who was responsible for Trey’s death. ‘False Confessions: Death at Blood Creek,’ a documentary on Investigation Discovery, goes into the story of Trey’s murder and the different confessions that had a role in the case. So, shall we investigate what transpired?
Trey Zwicker’s Cause of Death
Terrence Wicker Jr. and Amanda McFarland had a son named Terrence Wayne “Trey” Zwicker. Amanda was still in high school at the time of his birth. Despite the fact that Trey’s parents were divorced, they shared custody and raised him together. He was a student at Louisville’s Seneca High School and was characterized as someone who always went out of his way to help people. However, in mid-2011, the 14-year-old was tragically killed. Authorities received a complaint of a dead person in a creek behind Liberty High School in Louisville around 1:17 p.m. on May 11, 2011. Trey was the caller, and he was around 200 yards from his mother’s house. Trey had a traumatic brain injury as a result of severe blunt force trauma. He suffered a large fracture in his skull, and investigators suspect he was struck in the back of the head multiple times.
Who mudered Trey Zwicker?
Amanda was married to Joshua Gouker at the time of the incident, and he had a teenage son, Josh Young, from a previous relationship. They were all attending a picnic at Amanda’s place, along with Trey and his stepsister MaKenzie. According to the show, Amanda last saw Trey at night. Josh later revised his account, claiming that he only saw his stepbrother during the cookout. On the night of May 10, his father, Gouker, was seen buying smokes at a neighborhood gas station. Gouker and Josh left Kentucky shortly after Trey’s death to travel to Tennessee and then Alabama. The fact that Gouker was detained for carjacking was reported on the broadcast, which led to a sensational development in the case.
Was Joshua Young’s 14-year-old stepbrother, Trey Zwicker, actually murdered?
Josh was arrested when Gouker initially told the police that Josh had slain Trey. Cassie Gouker, Gouker’s cousin, testified later that Josh woke her up around 1:30 a.m. and admitted to killing Trey. He begged for assistance in getting rid of some bloodied garments and a baseball bat, which he used to hit Trey with, according to her. However, according to the show, Gouker told other convicts that he was complicit in the murder, leading officials to suspect that both the father and the son were to blame. As a result, both were scheduled to stand trial in July 2013 for Trey’s murder. But, in an unexpected twist, Gouker changed his tale, claiming that he was the sole perpetrator of Trey’s murder and that his son was uninvolved. Gouker said he was in the living room after Amanda went to bed that night when Trey came up, and they later went to a nearby creek to smoke a cigarette. Gouker claimed to have confronted Trey about his stolen lighter and eating his remaining food, after which he became enraged and struck him with a pipe.
Josh was acquitted of Trey’s murder in August 2013 as a consequence of Gouker’s confession. His defense claimed that there was no forensic evidence linking him to the crime and that it was all his father’s fault. The prosecution said that Gouker pressured his son to kill Trey because he was angry at Amanda, who was pregnant with Gouker’s kid and then had an abortion. The defense attempted to invalidate Cassie’s previous allegations by bringing up her previous sexual involvement with Gouker. According to the episode, Josh’s lawyer stated that because of her friendship with Gouker, she would do everything to protect him.
What Has Happened to Joshua Gouker and Josh Young?
Gouker pleaded guilty to the murder of Trey Zwicker in May 2013 and offered a full confession. He was condemned to life in jail after that. Gouker, who is now 42 years old, is still imprisoned at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Lyon County. In October 2031, he will be eligible for parole. Following his acquittal, Josh had several run-ins with the law, including arrests for intimidating a witness, assault, stealing, public intoxication, criminal mischief, and drug possession, to name a few. Then, in February 2019, it was revealed that Josh, who was 23 at the time, admitted to Trey’s murder and denied his father’s involvement. Josh admitted in the letter that he couldn’t recall why he started attacking Trey, but that he “got a little smart.” They had gone to the creek to smoke marijuana, he explained. Josh claimed he went to Cassie’s house after beating him with a baseball bat about 20 times.
Cassie allegedly drove him to trash near an apartment complex, where he disposed of the bloodied garments and bat. Gouker went on to say that he only confessed to killing Trey in order to keep his son safe. Gouker advised Josh on what to say to the police if they were detained after they left Louisville following the murder. Josh, on the other hand, did not follow through with the plan, according to him, and refused to admit to the murder. Due to double jeopardy, Josh cannot be tried again because he has already been acquitted. Legal experts have also stated that overturning Gouker’s conviction would be difficult. Josh was apprehended by US Marshals in Louisville in August 2021 after getting a supervisory release.
