New prosecutor gives new hope for answers in teen’s mysterious death at Pillen Family Farms

Flatwater Free Press

Days after a 17-year-old died while working at a hog farm owned by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s family, Boone County’s attorney knew Zach Panther’s mother would seek independent lab tests to determine what had killed her son — an effort the prosecutor seemed supportive of.

John Morgan wrote an email on the family’s behalf to the medical lab performing Zach’s autopsy a week after the teen was found collapsed at the farm outside his hometown of St. Edward on April 1, 2024. Morgan told the lab Zach’s mother “would like all medical samples from the autopsy to be preserved for independent analysis.”