OLYMPIA, Wash. — Jeffrey Zizz, a man accused of kidnapping and murdering an 82-year-old woman he worked for, has pleaded not guilty to all four counts against him.
Zizz was arraigned on May 6 in Thurston County Superior Court, about a month after his arrest.
He is accused of kidnapping and murdering 82-year-old Marcia Norman.
About a week after she was reported missing, her body was found partially encased in cement under a shed Zizz was working on.
Zizz has been charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder with a deadly weapon/aggravating circumstances, first-degree kidnapping, and unlawful disposal of human remains.
He has entered a plea of not guilty on all counts.
Zizz did not speak during his arraignment.
Zizz as a suspect
Early on in the investigation, detectives named Zizz as a person of interest, believing he was the last person to see her alive.
Phone records from Marcia indicate that she had asked Zizz to come over for dinner on the day she was last seen. Zizz worked as a handyman for Marcia.
When detectives learned he may have been the last person to see her, Marcia’s son told police of an alleged troubling incident that his mother had told him:
“Marcia told her son about an incident that had happened several months prior with Zizz entering the home when she was asleep. Her son stated that she was startled by Zizz in the middle of the night when she was sleeping and awoke to him standing at the foot of her bed. Marcia stated that she told Zizz that it was inappropriate for him to be there and that he needed to leave. Marcia told her son that she spoke with Zizz later and made it clear to him that they were to keep a professional relationship; he was not to cross those boundaries again. He advised that this was not reported to law enforcement,” court documents detailed.
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When questioned about what he was doing on April 1, Zizz told officers that he went straight home after dinner with Marcia, according to court documents.
However, court documents say officers found surveillance footage of Zizz’s truck leaving the area of her home a few times in the early morning of April 2. He later claimed he went back for tools and his trailer, according to investigators.
During the course of the investigation, detectives executed a search warrant to search Zizz’s home and found a five-page typed letter, which appeared to be a “meticulously planned out burglary/sexual assault of an adult woman, identified as a ‘customer,’” court documents said.
Apprehension of Zizz and locating Marcia
According to court documents, Zizz allegedly took a roommate’s truck to Montana, which the roommate reported as stolen.
Troopers in Idaho found the vehicle in a rural area near Missoula, Montana but Zizz was not in it.
On April 7, found and arrested for violating probation for an unrelated child molestation charge.
He was extradited to Washington.
On April 8, a search warrant was executed to search Zizz’s truck in Washington. According to court documents, cadaver dogs detected the presence of human decomposition in that truck.
The dogs also searched a construction site in Olympia that Zizz had been working at, and GPS had placed him there, according to court documents.
Those dogs also scented to human decomposition, and Marcia was found under a shed that Zizz was working on.
According to court documents, the owner of the shed was a friend of Marcia’s, who hired Zizz at her suggestion.
During the autopsy, it was discovered that Velcro strips were wrapped around Marcia’s wrists and ankles, and there was evidence that she had been bound before her death.
Her cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma as well as “penetrating injuries” to her head. Charging documents say a nail gun was used, but it was not specified how.
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