Neighbors said they heard screams for help weeks before the body of 29-year-old Zachariah Andrews was found stuck in a chimney, according to a local police press release.
Authorities recovered Andrews’ body after a maintenance worker noticed a shoe while investigating a foul odor coming from a chimney in a Norfolk, Nebraska, apartment building, the Norfolk Daily News reported Oct. 25.
Andrews was last seen alive Sept. 15, and authorities received a call the following day from a resident who said they heard someone screaming for help.
“The resident reported that he heard a man yelling for help and that it appeared to be coming from the first floor,” Norfolk police said in a press release. The neighbor told authorities he’d heard yelling for approximately three to four minutes before the officers arrived, but then could no longer hear it. The officers also spoke with several other residents and no one else could confirm the screams, according to the press release.
A missing persons report was filed Oct. 3, the same day police issued a warrant for his arrest on seven counts of violating a protection order, a Facebook announcement from the Madison County Sheriff’s Department shows.
Andrews had been trying to contact an unidentified woman for several months prior to his disappearance despite friends and family warning him to let her go, the New York Post reported. He allegedly posted on Facebook claiming police took his “love letters” and told him the goal of their relationship working was not “realistic.” (RELATED: Last Contact Of Missing San Diego Woman Included A Chat With A Police Officer)
Andrews was previously charged in 2018 for allegedly trying to meet up with a 12-year-old girl, offering to host her for a drink and “see what happens” next, according to local outlet Siouxland Proud. He pleaded guilty to attempt of a class 1 misdemeanor and a class 2 misdemeanor and was sentenced to 60 days in jail with a $400 fine Jan. 29, 2019, the outlet reported.