Horror movies can be terrifying, but at least once the credits roll you’re safe from the monster within. Well, think again Scream fans, because Ghostface is now real and just murdered someone in an incredibly brutal manner.
Pennsylvania State Police have released an affidavit (via E! News) explaining that on Mar. 25, 2024 a killer dressed in an outfit “consistent with the Scream movie character” burst into the home of the 59-year-old Edward Whitehead Jr. and attacked him. As per the police report, Whitehead was “struck multiple times with a knife and a battery-operated chainsaw.” Whitehead was rushed to hospital but soon died of his traumatic injuries.
Their neighbor Zak Russel Moyer, 30, was arrested soon afterward when cops arrived after receiving reports of an assault in progress. A trooper on scene confirmed that “The suspect was wearing an all-black outfit, consisting of a mask of the Scream character from a movie from a few years ago.” Moyer escaped Whitehead’s house and returned to his own, eventually surrendering to the cops without further violence.
Why attack the Whiteheads?
As for a motive? Well at least from Moyer’s point of view, the murder appears to be some form of vigilante justice. After police surrounded his house Moyer placed a note in the window reading “Ed murdered women and kids. Eddie Junior murdered women and kids last summer.” There is no record of Whitehead being involved in any murders on police databases.
Digging a little deeper, I found what’s almost certainly Moyer’s X account, named @TheGrimmR3apr. A series of tweets names the Whitehead family as murderers and gives a Carbon Street address that aligns with the police reports:
The account goes on to claim that the family “threw severed heads to me” and they’ve killed several women and children. The other postings on the account are a combination of art of the Grim Reaper (and uh, lots of softcore porn) which would tally pretty well with a suspect who dressed up as Ghostface to carry out a murder.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about this case, but this account posting “Mental illness is a Hell of a thing” on Feb. 1. certainly sounds like an untreated mental health condition was involved. That said, speculation on Moyer’s state of mind isn’t going to get us anywhere.
We’ll know more when the preliminary hearing in the murder takes place on Apr. 3. Moyer is now in custody in the Carbon County Correctional Facility where we hope he’s getting some psychological attention.