Emma R. Zimmerman was a transgender woman who was murdered and dismembered by her roommate in 2015. Her remains were identified in 2020.
Case[]
On January 3, 2016, a woman walking her dog discovered a partial skeleton in St. Mary's State Park near Coldwater Creek in Celina, Ohio. The remains were missing their arms, legs, and head and had appeared to have been dismembered. In May 2017, isotope testing determined the victim had once lived within or around Corbin, Kentucky.
Identification[]
In June 2020, the remains were identified as Emma Zimmerman of Columbus, Ohio. Zimmerman was reported missing by her family in Kentucky in November 2015 after not hearing from her since late September.
Zimmerman had moved in with Sarah Buzzard, Buzzard's husband, and Naria Whitaker in August 2015. Zimmerman was in an open relationship with Buzzard's husband, with Buzzard being in one with Whitaker, after the two met online.
Over the next few weeks after Zimmerman moved in, Buzzard's husband wanted her to leave, with Buzzard learning about the situation from Zimmerman. After telling Whitaker about the situation, her and Buzzard plotted Zimmerman's murder. Buzzard placed Zimmerman in a headlock and strangled her to death. Buzzard and Whitaker then put her body in the bathtub and cut off her head, arms, and legs and dumped her torso in the park, with her arms and legs being disposed of in dumpsters and her head being kept in the freezer. Later that November, Buzzard and her husband filed for divorce and married Whitaker two weeks later. The two moved around over the years before ultimately settling in Marion, Indiana.
On August 25, 2021, police in Marion arrested Buzzard for Zimmerman's murder. When police attempted to apprehend Whitaker, she pulled a handgun from her purse and shot herself in the head, killing her. Buzzard pleaded guilty that December to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years on January 20, 2022.
Gallery[]
Sources[]
- Emma Zimmerman at the Charley Project
- Sidney Daily News
- Oxygen
- Explore With Us POSTMORTEM WARNING