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A Mississippi man is charged with killing his mother after authorities allegedly found him trying to flush pieces of her flesh down a toilet in what a local sheriff called one of "the most heinous crimes that I've ever witnessed in my entire life."
Zachary Lavel Jackson Jr., 29, faces charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, mayhem and tampering with evidence in connection with the death of his mother, Lana Brown Bradley, 62, a retired teacher.
The Adams County Sheriff's Office said deputies initially responded April 4 to Bradley's home in Natchez, after her relatives reported her missing.
Jackson was initially identified as a family member of Bradley before investigators confirmed he was her son.
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"This is by far the most heinous crime that I've ever witnessed in my entire life. We weren't out there that day; this was one of those things when we walked up. This was one of those cases that you will never, ever forget in your life. This is the type of case that follows you home," Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten told WJTV.
Deputies were called to Bradley's home after her oldest son could not reach her the previous day. Two of Bradley's other sons lived with her.
"As soon as they walked in the house, they could just see where somebody had been cleaning up, and they could smell chemicals all throughout the house. Floor was extremely slippery. And the older son said that this is just unusual for the youngest son to be cleaning up the house like that," Patten explained.
Jackson, the youngest son, was found in a bathroom where deputies allegedly saw a black substance in the toilet.
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"I can say what was in the toilet, and it was her flesh. He chopped her up in pieces and dismembered her in a way that whoever came looking for her would have to do their due diligence to find her, and that's just what we did," the sheriff said.
Authorities stated that Jackson had allegedly placed his mother's body parts in a suitcase and flushed the rest down the toilet after dismembering her. Bradley had threatened to evict her son from the home, according to the sheriff, who cited interviews with family members stating that Jackson was mentally unstable.
However, Patten noted that Jackson was "very calculating" when he allegedly committed the crime.
"He had threatened her the day before because she was looking to have him evicted from the home. She was in the process of doing so and had just gone to court the day before to have him removed from the home," Patten explained.
