The Department of Corrections says he was found unresponsive in his cell shortly after 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Guards and medical personnel rushed him to the prison’s medical center, but they could not revive him, spokeswoman Pamela Walker said.
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Police had charged Algarad with killing Joshua Fredrick Wetzler in 2009. After the alleged murder, Algarad and his girlfriend allegedly buried Wetzler’s body in their backyard. News media outlets report that Agarad’s girlfriend, Amber Burch, was charged with killing a second man later in 2009 and that Algarad helped her bury the body. This sounds like a real you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours type of arrangement. Authorities believe his death is the result of suicide. Burch is awaiting trial.
A video of the Knob Hill home taken by a county housing inspector showed debris, animal carcasses and moldy ceilings.
He told psychiatrists he had been practicing the “Sumerian” religion that involved the monthly ritual sacrifice of a small animal.
Algarad changed his name from John Lawson in 2002.
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Before being charged in October 2014 with first-degree murder and being an accessory after a felony, Algarad had been placed on five years’ probation in June 2012 after being convicted in Yadkin County of being an accessory to a crime, according to Forsyth County and state prison records. “Pazuzu” is the name of a demonic god who was referenced in the movie the Exorcist.
