Handyman Jeffrey Zizz, 47, was caught hovering over a granny’s bed in the middle of the night months before allegedly torturing her to death.
The creep is accused of torturing Marcia Norman, 82, with a nail gun earlier this month, and then encasing her corpse in concrete and burying her underneath a shed.
She suffered a painful, hours-long death, after being strapped up with Velcro and beaten to death, while also being attacked with a pneumatic nailer, police believed. Coroner Gary Warnock said it was “the worst case I’ve witnessed”, he said earlier this week.
“Her onset from injury to death was not instant. It was hours. We see and witness things, and this investigation is one you cannot unsee.” Ms Norman was last seen having dinner with Zizz on April 1, in Missoula, Montana. The handyman was later seemingly invited into her home that night, police said.
Three days later, Ms Norman’s family reported her missing, and Zizz was arrested on April 7, after crashing a stolen truck. He had previously been interviewed over her disappearance, and his responses appeared reasonable, said Thurston County sheriff Derek Sanders. But an ANPR license plate reader contradicted his claim he was at home.
Her body was found encased in concrete under a shed on April 10. Police subsequently found a long, five-page letter in Zizz’s home, which “meticulously planned out a burglary and sexual assault of a woman who was referred to as his customer”.
There’s currently no evidence that Ms Norman was sexually assaulted.
While a motive for the alleged killing wasn’t clear, Sanders added: “If I had to guess at this point in time, it’s because the suspect that we have in custody is a violent person.”
It’s now been revealed that the alleged killer was previously convicted of child molestation. He was serving in the US military at the time, and was forced to quit just 11-months into his role over the case.
He groped two teenagers, and one 11-year-old over a two-year period, and also raped the 11-year-old, prosecutors claimed.
He accepted a guilty plea deal that included allowing him to walk free from prison, provided he got treatment for mental illness. He later took a job as a handyman, and began working for Ms Norman before she disappeared.
One night, the elderly woman caught Zizz standing over her bed in the middle of the night, police said. She didn’t report the incident to police, but told him to leave the house.
He was later spotted having dinner with Ms Norman, before torturing her, detectives added. Zizz is being held without bail on suspicion of murder and other charges.
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