Its now 2025 and time for an update.
Disappeared in 2008
Body found 7 years later.
Issues with Coroner: Though no broken bones or obvious injuries. Due to no idea which way to go, the coroner decides its an accident. However the clothing inside the cabin and him outside naked makes no sense. When challenged with it, coroner still has no theory because there is no evidence on the body. Lots of coroners push things to accidents and unk- death after 7 years of decomp. happens all the time.
Still he could have been murdered, strangled, or even a drug over dose with friends who hid the body. Would make much more sense then him undressing inside, then climbing the roof and somehow gets stuck naked inside a chimney that is blocked from both ends.
IMO: Coroner did not know how he died, couldn't tell if it was Dehydration, exposure to cold, much less if he was strangled, suffocated, or a drug overdose. Dead end.
Issues with Police: Police did not want to re-open the case if you ask me. It had been 7 years since he went missing. What kind of search they even really do in the beginning? I think they treated it like a run away due to family statements and age. He was so close to home I would think scent dogs could have found him. They say they check the cabin, then how did they miss the smell? Decomp would have started immediately and continued during the search time. Sounds like no one really checked out the cabin, dogs did not go near the cabin, etc. The owner didn't even check in very often though a boy went missing near by. That place would have stank enough for a long time to stick out to people searching.
Besides not finding him. When the coroner 7 years later says its an accident, they washed their hands and did not investigate it as hard as they could have.
Andy Newman (suspect): After he was found friends went back to the issue that he had just started hanging out with Andy and he was a bad guy in a rough crowd. Andy also took off from the area right after Joshua went missing.
Andy told people "he put josh in a hole" after he disappeared before skipping town himself.
Andy looks pretty scary in HIS MANY MUG SHOTS he continues to get to this day (he is free now). He was accused of a stabbing of a disabled person but got off the charges because the witness died.
While in custody he told police he killed a woman and put her in a barrel, police just happened to find a woman in a barrel in this area, but they had convicted someone else of the crime so it looks like Andy got away again if he did it. If Andy killed her, he bragged about it after. Just like he supposedly did with Josh.
Andy keeps getting in trouble with the law and some how he keeps getting out. Theories are that he knows someone powerful or someone with money that is facilitating him being free from crime after crime.
On another site that blogs crimes, a person from the area claims to have Pictures of Andy in that same cabin as if they were those vandals that the owner said break in time to time. There is also apparently a photo of another known kid from Andys gang supposedly in that Cabin on that same day Josh went missing. Theories are that several people, Josh, Andy & other friends of Andy's were all there together and Josh was Bullied or something happened to him. And that multiple people may have put him in the Chimney and place the Metal grate back over the top to either lock him in alive or to hide the body after whatever happened to him.
The thread above takes a turn that it was accident during bets or hazing. No I disagree, if done in all fun they would not block off the chimney in both directions and leave him there to die. I don't think he was playing with other people like that. No I don't believe the kid got naked inside, then crawled down there on his own. I don't care how high they light be that makes no sense. Even if you were so out of you gourd that a bet like this were to take place, your friends aren't going to then put the grate back in place and leave you there to die. It really only makes sense to do that to someone if you want them to die. That's not a joke, its a murder. If there was an accident among friends this wouldn't be a cold case today imo. Someone else hid him there is all that makes sense, and you don't hide a friend and put the grate over it for an accident, that behavior is covering up a crime typically.
The home owner injected himself after the coroner declared accident. Sounds like he and the demolition guys had to pursuade the police of the evidence they did not want to look at themselves. Due to the witnesses of the scene, they had to admit the clothing inside made no sense so they pretended to care enough to take questions from the demo team. The demo team and the home owner swore they just removed the Heavy animal proofing chimney cap and that he could not have climbed in and put it back in place... When you look at the evidence of clothes inside and cap on top of chimney I don't understand how anyone can say someone else didn't put that cover back on after he got in. And one source said he was found "Upside down and mummified" this indicates to me he was dumped in head first not alive" And if he fell in head first and couldn't get out, then how does he put the cover back on top of the chimney.
My theory: Andy knows what happened and there may be more friends that were there, but I would guess Andy and Josh only were there. Andy is exactly the type of person to do these things and he is probably responsible for more crimes than we will ever know. He is a drifter constantly getting in trouble and admits crimes, but somehow gets out. he is free right now and people should be concerned. The police did not search enough when he went missing, and they weren't going to open a case 7 years later that the coroner dismissed so easily. But that kid did not go inside, get naked, then go back outside, climb into a chimney, and then place the cover back on to sit in there until he died from exposure or dehydration. I don't think for 1 minute he was alive in that chimney.
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.
