North Carolina Man Turns Himself In To Police For Murder Of His Daughter

A North Carolina man entered a sheriff's office and confessed to killing a person, who was later identified as his daughter.

Joshua Lee Burgess, 32, of Monroe, North Carolina, walked into the Union County Sheriff’s Office at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday and turned himself over to the dispatcher present, alleging he had killed someone in his home. Burgess, however, did not provide the identity of the victim at the time.

Investigators went to Burgess’ home and later identified the victim as 15-year-old Zaria Joshalyn Burgess, Burgess’ daughter.

Zaria Burgess had visited her father for the weekend when he allegedly strangled her before cutting her throat. The Union County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that Joshua Burgess provided "detailed information concerning his daughter’s death."

Zaria Burgess' official cause of death will be determined by a medical examiner after an autopsy.

“She was the type of kid to come in a room ... or in a house and say, ‘Hey everybody’ -- Just wanting to make everybody smile,” Zaria's cousin Dytaysha Wadsworth told WSOC, an ABC affiliate in Charlotte. “She was so young and nobody deserves to leave this world like that, especially by someone they thought was gonna protect them and be there for them.”

Joshua Burgess appeared in court Monday, when he described the act in detail, though he did not provide any motive. He was subsequently provided a court-appointed attorney and is expected back in court in September. He is currently being held on charges of first-degree murder with no bond.