Say What Now? Handyman Accused of Torturing 82-Year-Old Woman Found Encased in Concrete for ‘Hours’ [Video]

The suspect, reportedly the last to see the victim alive, was interrogated twice by police following her disappearance, until evidence allegedly exposed his lie, revealing the grim truth.

Charges have been brought in the tragic case of an 82-year-old woman whose body was found encased in concrete.

Originally reported missing, police had previously questioned the last person known to have seen her alive. After examining the evidence, he was charged with her murder.

Jeffrey Zizz, 47, is now facing counts of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and unlawful disposal of human rights. He was initially named a person of interest in the disappearance of Marcia Norman. Zizz was already in custody on separate charges.

Appearing virtually for a court hearing on Monday, prosecutors asked that Zizz be held without bail on the charges related to Norman’s murder.

“The allegations before the court are shocking, both in their nature and that the alleged victim was an 82-year-old woman, a member of this community, who, the defendant, over a two year period befriended and knew lived alone,” said Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Rosemary Fitzgerald, as covered by local ABC affiliate KOMO.

Thurston County Judge Sue Wilson agreed, ordering Zizz held without bail. “The allegations here are among the most serious and very troubling in terms of the prepared plan and the execution,” she said in court.

Police Investigation

Authorities also released Zizz’s arrest report, which detailed some of the investigation’s findings about his relationship with Norman. Over the past two years, the pair had struck up a friendship through Zizz’s position as a handyman in her employ.

According to the document, Norman had opened up to her family about a frightening encounter with Zizz one night, though no one ever involved the police at the time, when she woke to find him standing at the foot of her bed.

She told her family “that she told Zizz that it was inappropriate for him to be there and he needed to leave,” according to the report. She also purportedly “told her son that she spoke with Zizz and made it clear to him that they were to keep a professional relationship and he was was not to cross those boundaries again.”

Police were finally involved when her family, after having not heard from her for a few days, went to her home on April 4. There, they found her wallet, her vehicles, and a pill organizer that indicated she’d not taken her medications since April 1, per the document. There was no sign of Norman.

They were, however, able to access her Apple ID, where they found communications with Zizz, in which “Zizz and (Norman) had planned to have dinner on Tuesday, April 1 at her house.”

Defendant Caught Lying

After engaging police and reporting Norman as a missing person, investigators questioned Zizz at his home. He told them at that time that he and Norman had had dinner that night and that he’d left around 9 p.m. He claimed he went straight home and didn’t leave the house again until he got up for work the next day.

That was the first apparent lie in which Zizz was caught, with automated license plate readers pinging his truck at 3:04 a.m. and again at 7:30 a.m. in Olympia, per the arrest affidavit.

When confronted with this evidence, Zizz “admitted that he had lied and said that he did return to (Norman’s) house twice that night after he had left following dinner.”

As explanation, investigators reported, “He said he went there at about 12:00 a.m. to collect some tools from the shop for a job he had the next day. He said he went back home after this and maybe slept for a short period of time before he realized he needed his trailer for his job the next day as well.”

Zizz was also asked by police about the night-time encounter Norman’s family said she told them about. He told them that it did happen, per the filing, saying “he went into (Norman’s) room and while she was sleeping, he rubbed her shoulder, wanting to speak with her.”

Zizz said that she “told him to leave,” and “told detectives that he did have thoughts about [her] romantically.”

In a press conference (below) on Monday, Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders shared that Zizz was given a polygraph test which he “failed, extremely poorly,” and that he subsequently requested an attorney during his second interview.

Suspect Flight & Arrest

After obtaining a search warrant for Zizz’s house, per the affidavit, detectives found a five-page typed letter which they described as a “meticulously planned out burglary/sexual assault of an adult woman, identified as a ‘customer.'”

In the press conference, Sanders called the letter “extremely disturbing” and said that it had some “similarities” to what’s been discovered about Norman’s death, but they are still withholding some information as it remains an ongoing investigation.

Zizz’s roommate told police on April 7 that Zizz had borrowed his truck, but then never returned home. He also told police he had concerns that Zizz might seek to harm himself. The truck was reported as stolen.

Later that day, the Idaho State Police contacted the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office to report that the stolen truck had been found in a remote area near the border between Idaho and Montana. The truck appeared damaged as if it had struck a large animal, possibly an elk, per police.

An arrest warrant was then issued for Zizz for violating the terms of his release in relation to a prior sex offense conviction in Washington state. It was on this warrant that Zizz was ultimately found and arrested in Montana.

Finding Marcia Norman

In their ongoing efforts to find the still-missing Norman, police began to piece together Zizz’s movements after those April 1 “dinner” plans. Per the arrest report, they found that he had rented an excavator and trailer, and then they caught a break when the company shared that they had GPS tracking on the equipment.

Investigators were able to use this information to track the excavator to a specific location. When they arrived, the property owner told them that she had hired Zizz to build a shed on a recommendation from Norman.

Police returned on April 9 with cadaver dogs, who were able to discern the scent of human decomposition at the site of the shed. After excavating the site, they found the victim’s remains encased in the cement.

An autopsy was conducted on the remains, which confirmed they belonged to Norman. “Long black Velcro straps” were wrapped around her wrists and ankles, while there was “evidence that she had been bound prior to death,” according to legal filings.

Additionally, Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock reported her cause of death as blunt force trauma and penetrating injuries to the head, with his determination that the head injuries were sustained from a nail gun and that her injuries were “consistent with torture.”

Warnock further indicated, as detailed by Law & Crime, that the “injuries were inflicted while Miss Norman was alive.” He added in his report, “Her onset from injury to death was not instant. It was hours.” He did, however, state that he believed she was dead when buried.

In his report, Warnock commented, “In our line of work, we see and witness many things. And this investigation is one you cannot unsee. I have been with the coroner’s office for nearly 25 years, with 19 years as the coroner, and this is the worst case I’ve witnessed.”

An arraignment for Zizz is scheduled for May 6. He remains behind bars without bail.

via: TooFab

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