Pennsylvania man in 'Scream' costume slaughtered neighbor with chainsaw, knife: police

A Pennsylvania man is accused of donning a "Scream" costume, butchering his next-door neighbor with a chainsaw and knife, then going home to watch a movie before his arrest.

Zak Moyer, 30, was taken into custody on Monday and charged with criminal homicide in the killing of 59-year-old Edward Whitehead Jr., according to court records..

The Lehighton Borough police called state police for backup around 3:34 p.m. on Monday as they surrounded a home on the 200 block of Carbon Street. They had been called to the scene to respond to an active assault in which a victim was being attacked by an assailant with a knife and chainsaw, according to a Pennsylvania State Police news release.

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Zak Moyer, 30, was charged with criminal homicide on Monday, according to Pennsylvania court records. (Pennsylvania State Police )

After police managed to extricate him from his home, Whitehead was pronounced dead at St. Luke's Carbon County Hospital with a large puncture wound to the side of his head, cuts to his head and arms and defensive wounds to his hands, State Trooper Anthony Petroski told WFMZ.

"The suspect was wearing an all-black outfit, consisting of a mask of the Scream character from a movie from a few years ago," Trooper Petroski said. "This was not just a random attack. They did know each other."

Police surrounded Moyer's home after seeing him leave Whitehead's house on surveillance footage, according to Lehigh Valley Live. They coaxed Moyer outside after a period of negotiation, during which the 30-year-old communicated using a notebook held up to a window: 

"Ed murdered women and kids," read one note, according to the police report. "Eddie Junior murdered women and kids last summer."

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Moyer first told police that he had donned the "Scream" costume and taken up the weapons "for the purpose of scaring [Whitehead]," but later confessed that he had gone next door with the intention of killing his neighbor. (PA Images/Sipa USA)

Whitehead had never been charged with murder, according to Pennsylvania Court System records. Petroski told Lehigh Valley Live that the claims are "not something we are looking into." 

Moyer had changed out of the "Scream" outfit and into a red sweatshirt before he left his house of his own accord and was arrested. 

Moyer's sister told police that he had talked about killing Whitehead a week before the attack. While he waited for police to respond to the scene, she told police, he sat down to watch a movie – the report reviewed by Lehigh Valley Live did not specify which film. 

Initially, Moyer told interrogating police that he had donned the "Scream" costume and taken up the weapons "for the purpose of scaring [Whitehead]," the outlet reported, but later confessed that he had gone next door with the intention of killing his neighbor.

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He hid the battery-operated chainsaw and knife he had used to kill Whitehead, along with his costume, inside his house for cops to find later, according to the records.

District Judge Eric Schrantz arraigned Moyer on homicide charges and remanded him to Carbon County Jail without bail, according to Pennsylvania court records. His preliminary court hearing is scheduled for April 3. 

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The day after his son's arrest, Moyer's father, Francis, was arrested for harassing the Whitehead family, according to WNEP. 

"I just don't know what kind of people in this world that could do that. That's the sad thing," Whitehead's niece, Jennifer Whitehead, told the outlet. 

"I don't think anybody has truly had it all sink in at this point," Whitehead's other niece, Megan Bernosky, told the outlet. "What actually occurred and what happened, it's been horrible."