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On Friday, a Union County jury sentenced Joshua Lee Burgess to death for the murder of his daughter.
According to Fox Carolina, on August 18, 2019, Joshua Lee Burgess murdered his 15-year-old daughter Zaria, after torturing and violating her for 22 hours in their North Carolina home. WBTV reported that on the day of the murder, he went to the sheriff’s office and confessed to the killings.
The North Carolina court convicted Burgess on one count of first-degree murder and several other counts related to the exploitation of a minor. The Union County District Attorney told jury members that Burgess slit his daughter's throat with a knife, after hours of abusing her.
According to Charlotte Observer, when Zaria was murdered, she had been visiting her father for the weekend.
All you need to know about Joshua Lee Burgess
According to WCNC, Joshua Lee Burgess was a Union County local, and father to Zaria, who was a high achieving sophomore at Union County High School. The girl lived primarily with her biological mother. While little information has been released about Burgess, many netizens allege he has white supremacist leanings.
On August 2019, Zaria visited her father at his home on Hampton Meadows road, off Airport road in Monroe. Later on, at the sheriff’s office, Burgess would admit to authorities that he killed his daughter. He later led officers to the scene of the murder, where they recovered the body.
The tragic case shocked authorities. In a 2019 interview with WBTV, Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey said:
“The details of this murder are indescribable. Every officer and detective involved in this case is feeling the effects of what happened to this child. There is no logical answer to explain why this man did what he is accused of doing. Our hearts and prayers are with [the victim’s] mom and her family.”
While Joshua Lee Burgess revealed the details of the case to authorities, his motivations for killing his daughter remain unclear.
According to Charlotte Observer, Burgess is awaiting his execution at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is believed that he will most likely be executed using a single dose of pentobarbital. While the drug is often used for insomnia and anxiety cases, it is one of the most widely used methods to execute Death Row offenders in North Carolina.
