He Looked Like A Loving Father Until He Abused And Brutally Murdered His 15-Year-Od Daughter

On August 18, 2019, a man entered the sheriff’s office in Union County, North Carolina to make a confession. According to him, he had ended a person’s life and the body was still at home.

The agents went to his home and the scene they found there left them completely in Shock for several reasons: The victim was his 15-year-old daughter and he had also done terrible things to her.

But to understand this case we are going to go back in time.

Zaria Joshalyn Burgess was born on December 23, 2003 in North Carolina and was the daughter of Akisha Pope and Joshua Burgess.

In 2019, the teenager was a second-year student at Monroe High School. There she was part of the music band, the dance team and was also a cheerleader. Everyone says that she was brilliant, the one who loved spending time with her family and making people laugh.

Zaria’s parents were separated because of what she lived with her mother in Union County.

Even so, she never noticed the absence of her father because the man was very involved in his daughter’s life, in fact his acquaintances say that they were very close and that the man referred to his daughter as my mini self. He continually said how much he loved her and that he would not exchange her for anything in the world.

Because of all this, it was impossible to predict what was about to happen.

The facts:

August 17, 2019 was Saturday so Zaria went to Monroe to spend the weekend at her father’s house. What the teenager could least imagine was going to spend the weekend at the house of horrors.

The next day Joshua entered the Union County sheriff’s office. As he told one of the agents, he wanted to turn himself in because he had killed a person and the body was still at home.

The agents immediately went to the scene and there found the lifeless body of 15-year-old Zaria. Some time later the autopsy revealed that the teenager had a strong wound on her neck and that she had died after being strangled, but not only that, she had also been tortured and abused for 22 hours by her father.

During the interrogation Joshua confessed that he had ended his daughter’s life out of lust and for exercising control over her.

Some time later it was speculated that Joshua was a white supremacist and that what he did to his daughter was part of a ritual. This arose from Joshua’s alleged activities on Facebook since as the agents discovered he liked the pages known for being anti-black... In addition, on his profile he posted something somewhat disturbing.

“I really like to cut people off. Oops, I wanted to say things. I like to cut things.”

The relatives were convinced that Joshua ended up with his daughter to take revenge on his ex-partner because they got along badly but for the investigators Joshua did what he did out of pure evil.

A few days later, the individual was accused of first-degree homicide along with other charges of serious crimes. The curious thing is that during the hearing he declared himself innocent.

The sheriff of Union County, Eddie Cathey, admitted that the crime disturbed him and his officers.

“The details are indescribable. All the officers and detectives involved in this case are feeling the effects of what happened to the teenager. There is no logical answer to explain what this man did. Our hearts and prayers are with Zaria’s mother and her family.”

The trial:

The trial of 35-year-old Joshua Burgess began in May 2022. After several sessions he was found guilty of first-degree murder and different types of abuse that I can’t describe here. For all this he was sentenced to die by lethal injection.

After the ruling, Trey Robinson, Union County District Attorney stated the following:

“This case was especially atrocious, atrocious and cruel of an innocent child. It was also emotionally exhausting for everyone involved. We continue to cry and pray for Zaria’s mother.

I would like to thank the men and women of the jury who devoted their time and effort to this emotional case and helped close the relationship with Zaria’s family and friends”

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