On October 19, 2023, a maintenance worker in Norfolk, Nebraska found a body inside a chimney after investigating a foul smell from an apartment building.
This ended the search for a man, Zachariah Andrews, who had been missing for over two weeks.
Zachariah, 29, was last seen on September 15 and was reported missing October 3.
Interestingly, he had an arrest warrant for seven counts of violating a protection order issued two weeks after he disappeared. Before vanishing, he was trying to reach an unknown woman and had posted about it on Facebook. Friends on his page advised him to move on, and some mentioned a treatment he had.
People living in the apartment said they heard screams for help more than a month before the body was found. The police had checked but didn’t find the source of the screams. This suggests Zachariah might have been stuck in the chimney then.
No one knows why he was in the chimney, but his recent legal problems and his attempts to reach the woman might give some hints. Online, he had written about the police reading his “love letters” and doubting his chances with the woman. He talked about wanting to prove them wrong.
In 2018, Zachariah was charged for trying to lure a pre-teen girl during a Facebook sale of a swimsuit. In another event from 2017, he was charged for resisting arrest after attacking someone. He also supposedly kicked police officers while being arrested.
While he was missing, there was a parking notice on his car right in front of the apartment where he was found.
After Zachariah was found, his friend Josh Isenbart posted a tribute on Facebook, saying he hoped Zachariah was now at peace.
