Murders of Tommy Welch and Joshua Wetzler by Amber Burch investigated on Snapped

Oxygen is re-airing the Snapped investigation into the murders of Tommy Dean Welch and Joshua Fredrick Wetzler, who were murdered by Amber Nicole Burch and her boyfriend Pazuzu Algarad at their home in Clemmons, North Carolina.

Burch and Algarad were partners and self-proclaimed Satanists who lived with Algarad’s mother, Cynthia James. 

After the murders were discovered in October 2014, their home was deemed unfit for human habitation and was soon dubbed the House of Horrors.

Algarad was born John Lawson, but he changed his name in 2002 to Pazuzu Algarad. Pazuzu is an ancient Mesopotamian demon who was famously referenced in the movie The Exorcist.

In October 2009, Burch and Algarad picked up Welch at a gas station and took him to their house, where they started drinking alcohol and hanging out.

At one point, Burch decided to kill Welch. She grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and shot him once in the back of the head as he sat on the couch. Welch’s remains were buried in a fire pit in the backyard.

Pazuzu Algarad shot dead Joshua Wetzler

Three months earlier, in July 2009, Algarad killed Wetzler by shooting him at least seven times. The killer’s mother heard the gunshots while she was getting ready for work in her bedroom.

She went into the living room and saw her son standing over a dead body, and she responded by going back to her bedroom to continue getting ready for work.

Wetzler had been living with Algarad for a few weeks. Burch was not present for the Wetzler murder, but she did help Algarad bury the remains in the backyard.

Welch and Wetzler were both reported missing in 2009, but their remains weren’t found until 2014, when Forsyth County Sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant at the House of Horrors.

A housing inspector later found the was house full of decaying animal parts and remains, cages with carcasses, feces and urine on the floors and walls, dried blood on the walls, and hundreds of dead and alive flies. The house was soon demolished, and a neighbor purchased the lot.

Amber Burch and Pazuzu Algarad admitted to killing Tommy Welch and Joshua Wetzler

Algarad told the police his religion involved monthly animal sacrifices. He also confessed to the murder of Wetzler. He later killed himself in a state prison in 2015.

Burch pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Welch and armed robbery and accessory after the fact to murder. She was sentenced to over 30 years in prison and is currently incarcerated at the Anson Correctional Institution in Polkton, NC.

A third person, Krystal Nicole Matlock, was charged with helping Burch and Algarad to dispose of Wetzler’s remains.

This episode of Snapped re-airs Tuesday at 7/6c on Oxygen.