Murdered poker pro was burned so badly men who found body thought it was ‘prank’
Murdered pro poker player Susie Zhao was burned alive after being sexually assaulted — and left so badly charred that the men who found her body thought it was a Halloween-style prank, a court has heard.
The 33-year-old player, known in poker circles as “Susie Q,” had soot in her airway after being found in Michigan in July, suggesting “she was alive while being burned,” deputy medical examiner Dr. Andrew Hanosh told a hearing Monday, according to video aired on Fox 2 Detroit.
“It was extensively burned,” Hanosh said, estimating “at least 90% of the body’s surface area” was affected, with her hair also burned off.
It was so gruesome that the men who stumbled across her body in White Lake had no idea it was human, one of the men, Ronald Granville, testified.
“It was hard to tell if it was Halloween prank [or] mannequin that was burned,” Granville said, according to Fox 2.
There was also blood between her legs with extensive damage to her genitals, the court heard.
The latest gruesome details came during a preliminary hearing into murder charges against 60-year-old convicted sex offender Jeffrey Bernard Morris, the report said.
Morris and Zhao both stayed in room number 7 at Sherwood Motel in Waterford — not at the same time — and Morris’ phone records tied him to where the body was dumped, the court reportedly heard.
Morris was ordered bound over for trial on first-degree murder charges, Fox 2 said.
Zhao had raked in nearly a quarter-million dollars in poker winnings since 2009, according to an online poker database. Since 2009, she won $187,441 at World Series of Poker events, her WSOP player profile shows.
No evidence has been found indicating that poker or gambling was connected to Zhao’s death and a motive has not yet been released.
from Online Poker
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