5 Best Theories About Colter’s Dad’s Killer on Tracker
While the plot surrounding the mysterious death of Ashton Shaw (Lee Tergesen) was the focus of Tracker season 1, little is known about the bounty hunter’s father. The mystery of Ashton’s death remains unsolved, leaving Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) with some big questions to answer in Tracker season 2. Heading into season two, Colter will need to have important conversations with his mother, Mary Dove Shaw (Wendy Crewson), his brother, Russell Shaw (Jensen Ackles), his sister, Dorian Shaw (Melissa Roxburgh), and childhood friend Lizzy Hawking (Jennifer Morrison), to continue to peel back the layers of the mystery.

Tracker season 1 was well received, leading CBS to renew Tracker for season 2. The show established who the bounty hunter was and how he operated: Colter lived on the road, traveling from town to town looking for missing people to collect bounties. When people asked him what he did or why, the answer was simple: “Everyone’s looking for something.” That included Colter, who would continue to search for answers about his father’s death along with other Tracker characters in season 2. Several theories about who might be behind Ashton’s death emerged in the show’s first season.

When Tracker season 1 began, Colter believed that his brother, Russell Shaw, had killed their father. Colter describes his unconventional childhood to a local police officer in season 1, episode 1, “Klamath Falls.” He describes that, one night while his mother was away, his father told him and his siblings that they needed to leave. The three siblings did not want to leave without their mother, so Ashton went off on his own at night. The first element that suggests Russell may have killed Ashton Shaw is that he was the one who immediately went looking for him.

Colter was left to care for his sister Dory, but when his mother finally returned home, Colter went looking for their father. From there, the story of how Russell killed their father became clear to Colter. When the younger brother finally found his father, he was dead at the bottom of the cliff, and Colter looked up at the top of the cliff where his father fell and saw his brother Russell standing in the middle of a thunderstorm with a gloomy expression on his face. This occurs in a flashback to the brothers’ childhood.
One of the main reasons it was easy to believe that Russell killed Ashton Shaw (at least at first) was that when the show showed Russell at the edge of the cliff, he looked furious, as if he had just killed someone. Then, when Colter yelled at his brother, his brother did nothing to absolve him. He just stared at Colter fiercely for a moment, then turned and walked off into the woods. Until Supernatural star Jensen Ackles appeared as Colter’s brother in the season 12 episode “Off the Books,” that was all Colter had to go on about his brother’s potential involvement.
One of the most likely theories about Colter’s father’s killer after the season 1 finale of Tracker was Colter’s mother, Mary Dove Shaw. While his mother hasn’t been explicitly identified in the story as the person who may have killed her husband, new revelations from Justin Hartley’s This Is Us co-star Jennifer Morrison could change that heading into Tracker season 2. Morrison plays Lizzy Hawking, Colter’s childhood friend, and she brought new information to the surface in the show’s finale, and the recent discovery could have serious implications for Colter’s mother.

Colter’s mother doesn’t have an alibi for the night of her husband’s murder, as Mary Dove Shaw’s whereabouts on the night of her husband’s murder remain a mystery

The new information gives Colter’s mother a motive for the murder: her husband was having an affair, and she may have found out. The conflict between the parents could be why Ashton wanted to hide whatever was in the box from Lizzy’s mother. There could be information he didn’t want his wife to know. Additionally, Colter’s mother had no alibi for the night of her husband’s murder, as Mary Dove Shaw’s whereabouts on the night of her husband’s murder remain a mystery. It is only known that upon her return, Colter found her father’s body.