A recently released felon and one-time Marine appeared in an Arizona court Friday and was charged with the brutal murder of hiker Lauren Heike — as it emerged she’d been chased and then stabbed 15 times in the back and chest.
Zion Teasley, 22, appeared in Maricopa County Court in handcuffs and an orange prison jumpsuit to face a single felony charge of first-degree murder.
He was held on $1 million cash bail after the court heard he had only been released from prison in November — and already had a ticket to fly to Detroit on Thursday, the day he was busted for Heike’s murder.
Prosecutors said there was a “confluence of evidence,” including people who IDed him as the man seen running from the April 28 murder scene less than a mile from his home in Phoenix.
“That’s me,” he told cops when shown images from the video, according to police documents in the case.
“When asked why police had arrested him, Zion stated, ‘There’s no freaking way I’m here for a sex crime. I haven’t been with anyone for a long time,'” read a probable cause statement obtained by Fox 10.
“I am definitely not the person who plans to kill another person. If I was going to do something like that, it wouldn’t be premeditated,” he said, according to documents.
Teasley was also linked by phone and DNA evidence, prosecutors told Friday’s hearing, with courts docs saying a preliminary match was found on one of Keike’s shoes found near her body.
People who “know him and worked with him” also gave statements about “a knife that would have been consistent with the murder weapon,” Maricopa County prosecutor Ryan Green told the court.
He had recently been fired from his job for being “aggressive” toward female employees — and allegedly stealing clothing that matched that worn by the suspect seen fleeing the scene, according to court documents obtained by Fox10.
The arrest records revealed distressing new details about how Heike, 29, was found with 15 stab wounds, as well as injuries to her hands and arms from seemingly trying to defend herself.
“The suspect ran after Lauren and then sprinted away before returning to the location where Lauren’s body was found and climbing over the barbed wire,” the affidavit stated.
Heike may have tried to escape over a barbed wire fence where her body was found.
Court records show he was charged in 2020 with 13 felonies — including five kidnapping charges.
They were dismissed in a plea deal a year later in which he admitted three felonies: armed robbery with a deadly weapon, robbery and disorderly conduct. He was released from prison in November 2022 and was on probation at the time of Heike’s slaying.
The Marine Corps confirmed that Teasley had entered recruit training in March 2019, but left three months later before seeing active service. No further details were given about his departure, citing privacy laws.
Teasley did not speak during Friday’s hearing other than to calmly read out his full name and date of birth.
He was held on $1 million cash bail until May 11. If convicted, he potentially faces the death penalty, local reports said.
