The Sledgehammer Killer: Zachary Davis

Springfield, Tennessee, 2012: 15-year-old Zachary Davis walks into his mother’s bedroom in the middle of the night and attacks her with a sledgehammer. He then sets fire to the family home, leaving his older brother asleep inside.

But when Zachary is arrested, investigators are confronted with a teenager whose behaviour is difficult to understand. He speaks in a strange, emotionless voice, claims his dead father had instructed him to kill his family, and later says he had planned the attack for weeks.

As the case heads to court, questions begin to surround Zachary’s mental state. Was he a severely disturbed teenager experiencing psychosis and struggling with the death of his father? Or did he understand exactly what he was doing when he carried out one of Tennessee’s most disturbing family murders?

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