Found Deceased CO - Joshua Maddux, 18, Woodland Park, 8 May 2008

[Rayemonde]

I wish I could see a photo of the rebar/webbing in the top of the chimney mentioned above, and of "the wood-burning insert in the fireplace of the cabin that made it impossible to get through the chimney at the bottom". I'm so confused!

The coroner agreed that Josh couldn't have got *up* the chimney, so he must have undressed in the cabin, gone outside, climbed onto the roof and then climbed down the chimney. The coroner said that the grate that blocked the top of the chimney had probably been removed at some point, or had disintegrated with age. But the coroner definitely agreed that the wood-burner and the heavy furniture that was in front of the fireplace would have made it impossible for Josh to get into the chimney from inside the cabin.

So why would he start out inside the cabin, undress and then go outside and climb onto the roof and down the chimney, when he knew that it would be impossible for him to get out at the bottom??

I'm not buying the paradoxical undressing and terminal burrowing theory, because he was less than a mile from home. If he had started to get cold he could have just walked home - it's not like he was stranded out in the wilderness somewhere.

I think that either foul play was involved (someone forced him to undress and go down the chimney, probably thinking he would manage to get out again or would be found alive - because if you murdered someone and went to the trouble of hiding their body in a chimney you wouldn't leave their clothes on the floor to be found), he thought there was a cat or something stuck in the chimney and was trying to rescue it, or he had a mental illness that we don't know about and was psychotic (or he was on recreational drugs that caused psychosis, but the tests didn't pick up on them).

The psychosis theory would be similar to Elisa Lam, whose naked body was found drowned in a hotel water tank on the hotel roof.

 

[Vedder]

Someone had to have shoved that heavy furniture in front of the fireplace.

 

[dotr]

Not suggesting that Joshua was trying to break in via the chimney, but it seemed to be an attractive, but obviously deadly option, for this 19 year old. imo

http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/World/2015/11/29/22578218.html

"Nov 29, 2015
A suspected burglar who attempted to enter a California home through the chimney died on Saturday after the homeowner lit a fire without realizing the intruder was inside, police said.

The man appeared to have climbed into the chimney during the night while the owner was away and then became stuck, according to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office."

 

[Rayemonde]

How awful Josh definitely wasn't trying to break in, though - his clothes were found already inside the cabin, so he'd started out already inside the cabin, then gone outside, climbed onto the roof and then climbed down the chimney.

I just don't understand it!!

 

[Rayemonde]

There was another man whose remains were found in a chimney in 2004 - he was reported missing in 1999 and LE think his body had been in the chimney the whole time. Archive Hinton Jr. Police think he was trying to break in to a Salvation Army thrift store.

Lieutenant Viadero said he believed Hinton was incinerated inside the chimney, where the temperature can reach 800 degrees.

''We think he suffered some kind of injury in a fall going down,'' he said. ''We're under the assumption that it happened rather quickly.''

Lieutenant Viadero said the incident may have gone undetected because of where it occurred and when. ''There had to be an odor, but the chimney rises far above anything else around there,'' he said. ''Plus, it was late winter, so people still had their windows closed.''

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2D71E3FF932A15752C1A9629C8B63

 

[Vedder]

How awful Josh definitely wasn't trying to break in, though - his clothes were found already inside the cabin, so he'd started out already inside the cabin, then gone outside, climbed onto the roof and then climbed down the chimney.

I just don't understand it!!

What an awful way to die!

 

[neesaki]

The coroner agreed that Josh couldn't have got *up* the chimney, so he must have undressed in the cabin, gone outside, climbed onto the roof and then climbed down the chimney. The coroner said that the grate that blocked the top of the chimney had probably been removed at some point, or had disintegrated with age. But the coroner definitely agreed that the wood-burner and the heavy furniture that was in front of the fireplace would have made it impossible for Josh to get into the chimney from inside the cabin.

So why would he start out inside the cabin, undress and then go outside and climb onto the roof and down the chimney, when he knew that it would be impossible for him to get out at the bottom??

I'm not buying the paradoxical undressing and terminal burrowing theory, because he was less than a mile from home. If he had started to get cold he could have just walked home - it's not like he was stranded out in the wilderness somewhere.

I think that either foul play was involved (someone forced him to undress and go down the chimney, probably thinking he would manage to get out again or would be found alive - because if you murdered someone and went to the trouble of hiding their body in a chimney you wouldn't leave their clothes on the floor to be found), he thought there was a cat or something stuck in the chimney and was trying to rescue it, or he had a mental illness that we don't know about and was psychotic (or he was on recreational drugs that caused psychosis, but the tests didn't pick up on them).

The psychosis theory would be similar to Elisa Lam, whose naked body was found drowned in a hotel water tank on the hotel roof.

First, I don't see how his clothing ended up in front of the hearth inside the cabin if he had tried to climb down on his own, and, second, the owner has already stated there was a metal rebar grate over the top of the chimney which they removed when tearing down the cabin.

I believe the cabin owner, Murphy, knows what he's talking about ( that coroner sounds like an idiot, JMO ) so I'm leaning towards your theory number one at this point: foul play. It seems to me that someone removed the grate forced him in then replaced the grate on top. For him to have ended up in the fireplace from the inside, the wood burning insert could have been removed and then replaced by the perpetrator. Either way it's beyond Horrific.

 

[badhorsie]

There is a long post about Josh on a thread on the site beginning with a colour, R. Apparently someone who knew Josh is also not satisfied with the coroners report. I don't think that I can post the link here. Thread is called "people who have known serial killers and it's about 2/3 the way down.

Sorry to be so obscure but I don't want to get in trouble

 

[Rayemonde]

I can't understand why the police didn't investigate.... Or why the coroner didn't rule that the manner of death was "undetermined" instead of "accidental" :/

 

[sknikixel]

Any updates or arrests? Or still considered an accidental death?

 

[Savemecastiel]

bump...

 

[margarita25]

Bringing over these quotes from Harley Dilly’s thread, who was found dead after getting stuck in a chimney:

I have actually heard that Joshua's case was found to be connected to a few other murders. Not sure on that 100% as the last person Joshua was with has a lengthy rap sheet and isn't in the state anymore, but it's still being investigated last I knew and I was getting that info around the time of the trial for Patrick Frazee.

I thought the case was closed but not well investigated. That friend of Joshua's was connected to an eerily similar death in Mexico (or maybe it was New Mexico).

 

[Meloni88]

So from what I remember reading the first strange thing about the circumstances of his death was that he was found wearing only his shirt inside the chimney and the rest of his clothes were inside the cabin's living room. As other have said, if he had already gained entry why would he go back outside to climb through the chimney and with no trousers on? It seems to me like he was possibly sexually assaulted then incapacitated/killed in the cabin and the perp stuffed him in the chimney. I guess the police ruled that out for some reason. He could have been horsing around I suppose but people usually do silly things like that with a companion IMO so someone must know something.

Then there's this character Andy Richard Newman who was a suspect in a stabbing murder in NM and when arrested claimed to have murdered a woman and put her in a barrel. Murder suspect held in county jail; claims link in second death A female victim was indeed found in Taos in a barrel but a different person was prosecuted for it and the key witness in the stabbing murder died so that case came to nothing. People claiming to be acquaintances of Joshua say that Andy and Joshua were friends and that they told the police about their suspicions about Andy but they weren't interested in taking another look at the case.

 

[ExitMusic]

If this death is suspicious, I don’t see anyone thinking a chimney is a good spot to conceal a body. It sounds like this unused property has plenty of land to use to hide him instead. Whether or not he was attempting to break in, IDK, but I can’t see someone hiding him there. MOO

 

[evilwise]

If this death is suspicious, I don’t see anyone thinking a chimney is a good spot to conceal a body. It sounds like this unused property has plenty of land to use to hide him instead. Whether or not he was attempting to break in, IDK, but I can’t see someone hiding him there. MOO

I agree. It's too contrived for someone to have planned it but then overlooked such obvious details. It may have been a case of horseplay that went too far like "lol dude climb down the chimney! Omg I'm stuck! Dude I'll pull you out! Haha your pants came off! Hold on, I'm gonna get Bob to help" and then by the time they get back it's not so funny any more.

 

[Night Watcher]

Josh was clad only in a ribbed thermal-type shirt; the rest of his clothes were found within the cabin outside the fireplace, near the hearth. Chimney discovery ends mystery over young man’s disappearance, but questions remain – The Denver Post

 

[Night Watcher]

Josh Maddux: The Boy in the Chimney – The Dark Histories Podcast

 

[Meloni88]

If this death is suspicious, I don’t see anyone thinking a chimney is a good spot to conceal a body. It sounds like this unused property has plenty of land to use to hide him instead. Whether or not he was attempting to break in, IDK, but I can’t see someone hiding him there. MOO

Right and it would be extremely difficult to carry an unconscious person up on the roof. Forced at gunpoint perhaps? A dare? It is a stupid place to leave a body but if his friends' suspicions are correct and Andy was involved I wouldn't expect his actions to make sense considering he volunteered the information about killing a woman and putting her in a barrel to the police (assuming he was involved with that and it wasn't just a coincidence that a woman was found in the area in a barrel...) and he has allegedly claimed to have killed Joshua as well.

 

[Seajay]

Was there a grate over the opening of the chimney when it was being torn down as per the owner? Because if that is true, no way did Joshua get in that chimney by himself and alone. Someone else had to be there to replace the grate. IMO

 

[Dnp2be]

The whole Andy thing confuses me. I really need to do a little more research on him. I believe I read that him and Josh were friends? I’m wondering how close of friends they were, not that it would matter tho because in most cases, the perpetrator is known to the victim. Initially I believed Josh tried to get in or went down the chimney d/t an altered mental status whether that be due to psychosis or drug induced. But the facts of this case are quite curious.

And IMO, I don’t know that a chimney is not a decent place to conceal a body. I will admit, it’s prob a terrible idea if it leads to a fireplace or if the house it is located on is next to places that are routinely inhabited. But in a remote spot at a place that is abandoned/condemned...a chimney that doesn’t lead to a fireplace...as we have seen, it’s def not a spot that anyone initially thinks of when searching and it could potentially conceal a body for a very long time. Who knows how long Josh could have remained there without any type of closure for his family had they not started work on the cabin.

If the facts in this case are accurately presented here, I do tend to agree with foul play. If it is, I pray his loved one get real closure.

All MOO