Mackenzie Cowell’s Murder by a Classmate Obsessed with Serial Killers

Mackenzie Cowell was a 17-year-old student in Wenatchee, Washington, studying cosmetology. On February 9, 2010, she drove off in her car after leaving class for a short break, but a fellow beauty school student was right behind her.

Police had few clues when Mackenzie Cowell was found four days later, strangled and stabbed to death in the Columbia River, until they saw Christopher Wilson’s name. Wilson was suspected of killing Cowell based on circumstantial evidence and some physical evidence, but there were still unanswered questions: Were other people involved in Mackenzie Cowell’s violent murder?

Mackenzie Cowell Disappears from Beauty School

Mackenzie Nicole Cowell was born on April 1, 1992, and spent time at both of her parents’ houses until 2010, when she was a senior at Wenatchee High School. Cowell was a committed dancer for a Wenatchee dance studio as well as the school dance squad. The motivated Cowell was earning additional credits at the downtown Wenatchee Academy of Hair Design, where she was enrolled in a cosmetology career training program.

On February 9, at 3 p.m., Cowell left her beauty school for a fifteen-minute break. She questioned if she was required to check out for such a short period of time. External security cameras saw Cowell leaving through a rear entrance, crossing the parking lot, and getting into her red car.

Any further calls to Cowell’s phone went directly to voicemail, with the exception of the single-word text message, “Hey,” to her boyfriend, which was met with the identical answer at 3:42 p.m. Cowell never went back to the beauty school since classes finished at five o’clock.

Around 5:40 p.m., Cowell’s father left his daughter many voicemails and was more concerned when she did not come home that night. In Pitcher Canyon, a rancher reported an abandoned automobile close to his driveway at around 8 p.m. It was Cowell’s, and when the police contacted Reid Cowell, the registered owner, he informed them that his daughter, the driver, was also missing.

Soon after Cowell’s car was discovered, a police helicopter and canine hunt began after finding a single pair of tracks in the snow. The dog was only able to smell Cowell’s scent inside the vehicle, but three locals said they saw a slender guy with black hair and a dark coat leave the automobile at around 4:30 or 5:30 p.m. on Pitcher Canyon Road.

Finding Mackenzie Cowell’s Remains

Mackenzie Cowell vanished on February 13; four days later, her corpse was found in the Colombia River near the quiet resort town of Crescent Bar, some 20 miles east of Wenatchee.

Mackenzie Cowell passed away on February 9 between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m., according to the autopsy. She was still wearing her beauty school uniform, had not been sexually abused, and had no drug or alcohol in her system. Cowell had been stabbed, strangled, and subjected to blunt force assault to the skull.

Unsettlingly, a kitchen knife that had been used by Cowell’s killer to try to cut off her arm was still lodged in her shoulder.

When Cowell’s parents learned of their daughter’s horrific death, a multiagency task team was formed with FBI consultation. Investigators quickly found no evidence against the family, including Cowell’s mother’s boyfriend, with whom Cowell had some history of conflict. However, after hundreds of interviews and the gathering of crucial DNA samples, a fresh development in the case quickly emerged.

Claiming to have seen a “snuff film” of Cowell’s murder, Liz Reid, a woman who was allegedly a police informant, accused two local drug dealers.

After weeks of investigation by the task team, the men were found not guilty based on phone records and their attendance at work the afternoon of Cowell’s disappearance. In the end, Reid’s claims were unjustified, and she abandoned her accusations, but she insisted that she had seen the snuff tape.

Christopher Wilson, A Classmate Fixated on Serial Killers

Theo Keyes, a different police informant, suggested in a letter from jail in August that detectives look into Christopher Wilson, a 29-year-old friend of his. Wilson went to the same beauty school as Mackenzie Cowell and had a macabre obsession with death, according to Keyes, a bipolar teenage criminal in jail for indecent exposure. Wilson had also been fired from a funeral facility for an unspecified violation.

Wilson, according to Keyes, once unexpectedly choked a female at a party before letting her go.

Wilson would have looked right at home in Seattle with his black hair, gothic clothes, and eyeliner, but he stood out like a sore thumb in tiny Wenatchee. Wilson has a tattoo of Hannibal Lecter on his bicep and was a huge fan of the hit serial killer television series Dexter. Wilson’s pals often emphasized that he was merely quirky and had some peculiar interests — not evil. There was disagreement over whether Wilson and Cowell were acquainted, although Wilson denied it.

Wilson was last seen on security camera leaving the beauty school 72 seconds after Cowell that afternoon; his whereabouts remained unclear for the rest of the day. Wilson was in regular communication with his ex-girlfriend that afternoon, according to phone records, and she was in contact with her boyfriend at the moment, who lived three miles away from Crescent Bar.

Also, it is said that she panicked and contacted him that evening, saying, “Something really, really bad has happened.”

Justice For Mackenzie

Christopher Scott Wilson willingly submitted his DNA, which was revealed to match the male profile DNA on duct tape that was found close to Cowell’s body. Upon being questioned on October 6, he was arrested for Mackenzie Cowell’s murder and just requested an attorney. Wilson’s DNA had not been discovered on the knife or in Cowell’s automobile, and no forensic evidence had been found in Wilson’s own vehicle connecting him to Cowell.

However, horrifying circumstantial footage including Wilson, his ex-girlfriend, and a blood-stained carpet was found. Wilson is purportedly heard asking, “Does it look clean in here?” on the footage. To which his ex-girlfriend said, “Clean for…? Considering what’s going on? I believe it to be clean, yes.”

The footage focused on a stained part of the carpet, which Wilson later claimed had been soiled during a gathering. After being tested by a crime lab, a little bloody spot of carpet was identified as Mackenzie Cowell’s blood. Although Wilson’s ex-girlfriend was detained for covering up the crime, no charges were brought against her by the detectives.

Wilson turned down the once-in-a-lifetime plea bargain in April 2011 — six years for manslaughter. According to a jury questionnaire completed before the trial, eighty percent of potential jurors already believed Wilson was guilty. Wilson had pleaded guilty to Cowell’s manslaughter the day before, requesting the six-year sentence because he believed he would not get a fair trial.

Finally, in exchange for a written statement admitting he was responsible for Mackenzie Cowell’s murder, Christopher Scott Wilson accepted a 14-year plea offer.

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