Zane Black’s neighbors shocked by his alleged crime rampage
The suspect in a string of campus-area sexual assaults and burglaries reportedly hanged himself on the University of Missouri campus on Saturday.
Columbia police said Zane Black, 36, of Columbia, may be connected to dozens of crimes in the East Campus area dating back to May 2013.
Black’s online resume indicated he was a registered operating room nurse for University Hospital and had graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Sinclair School of Nursing in 2013.
We were able to confirm his online resume Monday.
Before becoming a nurse he was a firefighter in Ohio and North Carolina.
Neighbors on Sunday told ABC 17 News he was quiet, but seemed like he had a lot going for him. One neighbor said they sometimes rode bicycles together.
Other neighbors ABC 17 News talked with on Monday say they were beyond shocked.
“The Zane we knew was really great with the kids. He was very engaged with the neighborhood. The type of guy you would really want to know and be friendly with,” said neighbor Rob Humfeld.
According to the MU News Bureau, the Black was the man wanted in a Friday night manhunt and for dozens of campus-area crimes.
University police responded to the Trowbridge Livestock Center for a deceased person around 11:45 a.m. Saturday.
The man was the subject of a campus-area manhunt Friday night, after a report of a suspicious person in the 3100 block of Rock Quarry Road.
At that time, police said the suspect matched the description of a man wanted for a string of six crimes since the beginning of May. Those crimes included a sexual assault, an attempted sexual assault and multiple break ins or attempted break ins of college student apartments.
The suspect’s name was not being released Saturday afternoon, pending notification of family.
On Friday, Columbia police responded to a call for a peeping tom in the 2500 block of Bluff Boulevard that had actually happened early in the morning on May 1. A woman told officers she was changing after a shower and saw the man looking in her window.
According to a police news release Saturday evening, the man knew officers wanted to talk to him about recent crimes. When officers tried to make contact with him Friday night, he ran in the woods near Rock Quarry Road.
