Poker star was sexually assaulted with large object before she was set alight and burned to death
A murdered poker player was sexually assaulted with a large object before being set alight and left to burn to death, police say. Horrific new court documents say Susie Zhao was bound with zip ties before being assaulted and burned.
Her remains were so badly charred investigators had to use fingerprint analysis to identify the professional poker player, known on the card circuit as Susie Q, after finding her corpse in the Detroit suburb of White Lake Township on July 12.
Those documents confirm Zhao’s cause of death as being ‘lit on fire until she died.’ A bloodied baseball bat was found at the scene, and is currently undergoing forensic analysis.
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Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Morris is suspected of carrying out the brutal sex attack and murder. Cell phone records seen by WXYZ showed that the couple met the evening before her murder, and checked into a motel.
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During a police interview, Morris told cops he and Zhao had left the motel to go and buy booze, before returning. He then claimed Zhao left their room at midnight, taking all her belongings – including her phone – with her.
But phone mast analysis is said to show Zhao’s phone remaining in the motel room until 5am the next morning. Morris’s phone data allegedly tracked him driving away around that time, to the secluded park where Zhao’s corpse was later discovered.
He was arrested days after the murder, with investigators claiming to have found vital forensic evidence including blood stains during a subsequent search.
They also found duffle bags containing a bloodied fitted bed sheet, as well as the bloodied baseball bat. Morris has a 1989 sexual misconduct conviction.
Police have yet to comment on a motive for Zhao’s murder. They initially believed she may have fallen victim to an organized criminal linked to the professional poker circuit.
Zhao had returned home from a high stakes tournament weeks before her killing.
She had netted more than $289,000 in winnings since beginning her professional poker career in 2009, but had returned home to Michigan from Los Angeles after facing ‘challenges in her personal life’ according to Zhao’s parents.
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