The Washington grandmother whose body was found buried under a shed suffered a painful, hours-long death — in which she was tortured with a nail gun, authorities said as her sex-offender handyman appeared in court over her murder.
Marcia Norman, 82, was bound with Velcro straps and beaten to death while also being injured with a pneumatic nailer, Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said, calling it the “worst case I’ve witnessed.”
“Her onset from injury to death was not instant. It was hours,” Warnock said, according to NBC News.
“We see and witness things, and this investigation is one you cannot unsee.”
The injuries suggested Norman was tortured, Thurston County prosecutor Jon Tunheim said, according to King 5 News.
The disturbing details emerged as Norman’s handyman, Jeffrey Zizz, 47, appeared in court Monday, a day after he was arrested on suspicion of murder, kidnapping and unlawful disposal of human remains.
The child-molesting veteran, a father of five, is being held without bail and is expected to be formally charged on Wednesday, the reports said.
Norman was reported missing by her family on April 4 and then found five days later buried under a ramshackle shed on an “unrelated property” in Olympia, Wa. — which had just been built by Zizz, according to authorities.
The handyman was the last person to see her when they went to dinner on April 1, Sheriff Derek Sanders said.
A search of Zizz’s home uncovered a “five-page letter which meticulously planned out a burglary and sexual assault of a woman who is referred to as his customer,” Sanders said, calling it “extremely disturbing.”
The evidence shows “similarities” with what was in the letter, although there was no evidence of a sexual assault, authorities said.
Asked if there was a motive, Sanders said: “If I had to guess at this point in time, it’s because the suspect that we have in custody is a violent person.”
Zizz was arrested in Missoula, Montana, on April 7 and extradited to Washington.
He was initially interviewed in Norman’s disappearance, but became a suspect after he falsely claimed he was home the night she disappeared, authorities said.
“That was the first step in which we were able to put him into a lie and then expand further,” Sanders said.
Zizz is set to be arraigned on May 6 in the case.
He was previously arrested on nine charges of rape and molestation of children, King 5 reported.
He pleaded guilty to three of the charges in October 2022 — getting out after just 11 months behind bars on condition he attend treatment.
Sanders, the sheriff, suggested it was part of a bigger issue he had raised before.
“I don’t have anything nice to say, so I think my only comment right now, so that I don’t say something that’s going to get me in trouble, is that, it’s almost like I’ve talked about this before,” Sanders told King 5 of the deal allowing the pedophile to be freed so early.
