Addie Hall and Zack Bowen

6 min readMay 16, 2021

Addie and Zack in their honeymoon phase.

This case has been one of my biggest heartbreaks to know about in my life thus far. Addie and Zack had fallen quickly and dangerously hard for each other and what now we know to be a doomed romance. Addie was described as being free-spirited, feisty-tempered, artistic, and had many friends. She was an aspiring poet and enjoyed dancing and creating other art as well. Unfortunately, she was suffering from bipolar disorder and irregularly taking the medication to treat her mental illness- which caused angry, uncontrolled outbursts. While she feared relationships with men due to prior abuse, she quickly fell for handsome, charming, and charismatic Zack. He had previously married a woman ten years older than him, had two children, and joined the army to support his family- only to be left alone and heartbroken. Heartbreak aside, Zack was dealing with severe and untreated PTSD from two consecutive tours overseas as a war hero.

Addie and Zack crossed paths when they were both bartenders in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Their friends remember their numerous and frequent fights and knew they were destined for destruction. They had only been dating for a brief period of time when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, wiping out the lights of the city. The couple chose to ride out the hurricane together in Addie’s apartment, serving up booze and scrapped meals to their fellow New Orlanders. They were the King and Queen of the Quarter as they were photographed for national magazines and newspapers in the wake of the devastating storm, being interviewed about their choice to stay in the demolished city. One day, reality returned and the lights of the city came back on, and their French Quarter happiness died.

Both of them spiraled into the addiction of drugs and alcohol which brought many more violent fights and the need for a fresh start. Seeing an apartment above a voodoo temple for rent was the fresh start they needed desperately until Addie realized he was cheating. Behind his back, she put the lease in her name only as she was at her breaking point. Unfortunately, this pushed Zack over the ledge and he became full of inconsolable rage.

Thursday, October 5th, 2006, Zack strangled his girlfriend Addie Hall to death and proceeded to fall asleep drunk next to her body and commit acts of necrophilia. Zack went to work the next day and worked in silence. Clearly, in a terrible mental state, he was unable to think clearly especially in terms of covering his tracks, so he decided to dismember Addie so it would be easier to dispose of the body. He gave her a haircut and placed her head inside of a pot on the front of the stove, placed her small feet and hands inside of another pot on the back burner of the stove, her legs and arms in a roasting pan inside the oven, and finally, her torso in a black plastic trash bag in the fridge to be dealt with later. Zack told her friends that she had left New Orleans and returned to her home state of North Carolina, which shocked most of them but didn’t phase others. None of them ever thought of where she truly was. On Tuesday, October 17, 2006, Zack jumped to his death from the seventh story of the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel. In his pocket police found his army dog tags, a key, and a note addressed to “police only.”

“This is not accidental. I had to take my own life to pay for the one I took. If you send a patrol car to 826 N. Rampart, you will find the dismembered corpse of my girlfriend Addie in the oven, on the stove, and in the fridge and a full signed confession from myself … Zack Bowen.”

His note directed authorities to Addie’s freezing cold apartment that painted a picture of a sad soul with broken dreams. There was spray paint on the walls which read “I love her”, “I’m a total failure”, and finally “look in the oven” with an arrow pointing to the stove door. Addie was discovered by police in the most horrific way possible. Her diary was recovered and the most recent entries were not by her, but rather Zack.

“Today is Monday 16 October 2 a.m. I killed her at 1 a.m. Thursday 5 October. I very calmly strangled her. It was very quick.”

“Halfway through the task, I stopped and thought about what I was doing. The decision to halt the first idea and move to Plan B (the crime scene you are now in) came after a while. I scared myself not by the action of calmly strangling the woman I’ve loved for one and a half years, and then (desecrating) her body but by my entire lack of remorse. I’ve known for forever how horrible of a person I am — ask anyone — and decided to quit my jobs and spend the 1,500 cash I had been happy until I killed myself. So, that’s what I did: good food, good drugs, good strippers, good friends, and any loose ends I may have had. I didn’t contact any of my family. So that’ll explain the shock. And had a fantastic time living out my days … It’s just about time now.”

In a documentary surrounding this case, Margaret Sanchez, a close friend of the couple was interviewed with tears in her eyes. These tears were taken less seriously when Margaret pled guilty and was convicted of the murder and dismemberment of another young woman. Her victim was Jaren Lockhart, a Bourbon street dancer and young mother. Margaret and her boyfriend “Allen’’ went to a gentlemen’s club and offered Jaren a large sum for a private performance in their home. There was no sum paid but rather they stabbed her in the chest, cut up her body, and threw it over a bridge. Allen, who was actually Terry Speaks, was a registered sex offender from North Carolina who violated his probation and had a long history that Margaret was unaware of. He would end up being convicted of second-degree murder and obstruction of justice. Not only did Margaret shed tears over losing her friends, but she forced them over the death of Jaren as well. “I felt so bad for her family, because I had a friend, my friend was Addie Hall, she was cut up and was cooked, and her boyfriend jumped off a hotel.”

The apartment at 826 N Rampart Street was above a well-respected voodoo temple, which caused some to blame the “darkness” of voodoo for Zack’s decline in mental health. Since voodoo is generally a healing and spiritual practice, it is pure coincidence that these two elements aligned. There was nothing paranormal or spiritual about the heinous crime that ended Addie’s life and eventually Zack’s as well. Addie and Zack’s relationship was the “perfect storm” of terrible events- untreated mental health, PTSD, former abuse, a hurricane, cheating, and heartbreak all led these lovers to a terrible end. In New Orleans, the dead are never truly gone from the world. Addie, Zack, and Jaren still live on in stories, tours, the hearts of locals and tourists alike, and the surfaces that they walked across. Any death is a tragic death, but this case specifically resonates with the theme of heartbreak within each individual and the aftermath on their community.

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