A Pennsylvania man allegedly slaughtered his neighbor with a chainsaw while wearing a “Scream” mask — then went home to watch a movie, according to cops.
Victim Edward Whitehead Jr., 59, was pronounced dead Monday afternoon after being found at his home in Lehighton with gruesome cuts on his head and arm as well as defensive wounds to his hands, state police told local media.
Whitehead had been “struck multiple times with a knife and a battery-operated chainsaw,” State Trooper Anthony Petroski told WFMZ.
“The suspect was wearing an all-black outfit, consisting of a mask of the ‘Scream’ character from a movie from a few years ago,” the trooper said.
Cops soon zeroed in on Whitehead’s next-door neighbor, Zak Moyer, 30, after he was seen on surveillance footage leaving the back of the dead man’s home, Lehigh Valley Live reported, citing authorities.
Moyer began communicating with cops via a notebook, making wild claims about Whitehead being involved in crimes — including one note reading: “Ed murdered women and kids. Eddie Junior murdered women and kids last summer.”
The wild allegations are “not something we are looking into,” Petroski stressed to Lehigh Valley Live.
Moyer eventually handed himself in, wearing a red hoodie rather than the “Scream” outfit he allegedly wore during the horrific attack.
Moyer’s sister told police he had been talking about killing his neighbor a week before the ghastly crime — and went home to watch a movie while waiting for cops to arrive, according to police records cited by Lehigh Valley Live, which did not identify the flick he watched.
He also hid the battery-operated chainsaw and knife, which cops found along with the costume, according to the police records.
Moyer’s mugshot showed a red wound and remains of a bandage under his eye, which the suspect said came from being hit by his alleged victim.
Megan Bernosky, Whitehead’s niece, called the crime “mind-numbing.”
“I don’t think anybody has truly had it all sink in at this point. What actually occurred and what happened, it’s been horrible,” she told WNEP.
The suspect was arraigned before District Judge Eric Schrantz on a charge of homicide and sent to the Carbon County Jail, where he is being held without bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 3.
The day after the arrest, police responded to the scene again amid reports that Moyer’s father, Francis, was harassing the Whitehead family.
The elder Moyer was arrested on harassment and related charges, according to WNEP.
“I just don’t know what kind of people or people in this world that could do that. That’s the sad thing,” the victim’s other niece, Jennifer Whitehead, told the outlet.
