When two cold case volunteers begin investigating the disappearance of an abused boy from the 1970s, they uncover evidence that the body was staged, and that the truth may implicate someone far closer than anyone suspects.

SYNOPSIS:

Frank Holloway and Eddie Lawson are retired friends who volunteer their time assisting local law enforcement with cold cases. What begins as small-town investigative hobbyism takes a darker turn when Detective Bennet presents them with the decades-old disappearance of thirteen-year-old Timothy Collins.

In 1974, Timothy vanished from his family’s rural property. Months later, a body was discovered buried on the Collins land, and Timothy’s parents, Jack and Olivia Collins, were convicted of murder. The case was considered closed. Timothy was declared legally dead.

Fifty years later, inconsistencies in the original evidence prompt a re-examination. Frank and Eddie visit the burial site and notice subtle irregularities in the terrain. Forensic review raises troubling questions. Dental analysis and burn pattern reconstruction reveal that the remains found in 1974 likely belonged not to Timothy Collins, but to another boy killed in a fiery car accident during the same time period.

The implications are staggering.

When the grave is exhumed in the present day, investigators discover three forty-pound bags of sand inside the coffin, not a body. The original burial was staged.

As the investigation deepens, behavioral profiling suggests a chilling possibility: Timothy Collins may have survived years of abuse at the hands of his abusive alcoholic parents and orchestrated the deception himself. By stealing the body of another deceased boy and burying it on his family’s land, Timothy could have ensured his parents’ conviction while escaping to start a new life.

Public scrutiny intensifies. An innocence advocacy group demands the Collins’ convictions be vacated. The case returns to court, where prosecutors argue that even if the body was misidentified, the original conviction was legally sound based on the totality of evidence. The judge ultimately refuses to overturn the ruling, stating that the law does not require the state to “produce a body twice.”

Privately, the truth surfaces.

Frank reveals to his wife and attorneys that he is Timothy Collins. As a terrified thirteen-year-old, he survived a violent home life, stole the body of the burned boy from a funeral home, replaced it with weights for a closed-casket burial, and buried the remains on his parents’ property. He later fled, reinvented himself, and anonymously tipped authorities to ensure the discovery of the staged grave. His life’s mission was simple: keep his parents in prison and ensure they could never hurt anyone again.

The court’s ruling preserves the conviction. Legally, the matter is settled.

But morally, nothing is resolved.

In a quiet moment alone, Frank scrubs his hands at a bathroom sink, as though trying to remove something no longer visible. The past cannot be washed away. The cost of survival lingers.

The film ends where it began: another cold case, another excavation. Frank agrees to keep digging.

Because some truths are buried.

And some are buried on purpose.

TIMOTHY COLLINS