A Pennsylvania man reportedly hacked his neighbor to death with a chainsaw while wearing a Scream mask.
Scream mask villain goes from fictional character to real-life killer
33-year-old Zak Moyer dressed up as the villain from the “Scream” franchise, who has been killing off coeds in while wearing a ghost face mask and all-black clothing since 1996, when he attacked his neighbor 59-year-old Edward Whitehead Jr.
Police were called to Whitehead’s home after he had been “struck multiple times with a knife and a battery-operated chainsaw,” at 3:30 p.m. on Monday.
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Anthony Petroski told journalists that the caller said that “the suspect was wearing an all-black outfit, consisting of a mask of the Scream character from a movie from a few years ago.”
When they arrived on scene, they found Whitehead still alive, but suffering from grave injuries, that he succumbed to after being taken to St. Luke’s Carbon County Hospital.
According to Law & Crime, Whitehead had a defensive wounds on his hands and huge puncture wound on the right side of his skull from a knife wound.
The shocking attack was all caught on security footage, and the assailant was seen leaving out of the home’s back door.
Scream mask disguise didn’t fool cops for long
Despite the odd description, police were quickly able to hone in on a suspect, Whitehead’s neighbor Moyer.
According to police, he attacked Whitehead, then went home and watched a movie until police showed up.
He was initially resistant to arrest and holed up in his house, which authorities said had a “perimeter around it.”
During negotiations to surrender, which consisted of Moyer holding hand-written notes against a window in his house, he revealed the motive for attacking Whitehead.
“Ed murdered women and kids. Eddie Junior murdered women and kids last summer,” the note he posted against a window pane reportedly alleged.
Law enforcement was eventually able to talk Moyer out of the house, and took him into custody without incident.
When pressed by investigators, he admitted to hiding the murder weapons – the knife in drawer and the chainsaw in his attic. A search revealed the the scream mask and black clothes he allegedly wore while killing his neighbor.
He initially told police that he had only went to Whitehead’s house in the costume and carrying weapons “for the purpose of scaring him.” The pair had reportedly gotten into an argument the same day as the incident.
Moyer eventually admitted that he planned to murder him all along, and his sister told authorities he had told her a week prior that he “wanted to kill” Whitehead.
The victim’s family is devastated by the loss of a man who has been described as “a rock to a lot of people.”
Whitehead’s niece, Megan Bernosky said that his horrific death has been absolutely “mindnumbing.”
“I don’t think anybody has truly had it all sit in at this point. What actually occurred and what happened it’s been horrible,” she told WNEP.
He was arrested and charged with criminal homicide and is being held at a local county jail without bond.
Moyer has had no run ins with the law, prior to his alleged homicidal act. His first court date is set for April 3.
“I think it’s safe to say that we want absolute justice for our uncle. He deserves that,” Bernosky remarked.
