Texas truck driver kidnapped woman in Dallas, left her body in woods with bag over her head
A Texas truck driver who kidnapped a 25-year-old woman from Dallas and dumped her dead body in the woods about 100 miles away was found guilty at his trial in federal court last week, authorities said.
After hearing nine days of testimony and arguments, jurors deliberated for about an hour before convicting 28-year-old Naasson Hazzard, of Austin, on a charge of kidnapping resulting in death.
The body of his victim, who family members have identified as Caleigha Zangari, was found in August in the woods off Texas Highway 11 in Pittsburg, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. She had a black plastic bag tied around her head.
Zangari was a U.S. Army veteran from San Diego, California, who served in Afghanistan and later became a victim of sex trafficking, her family has said.
“Like many veterans, she faced unrelenting challenges after returning home, including trauma from military service and sexual assault,” according to a news release from nonprofit organization Rescue Hill, which raises awareness and provides services for trafficking victims. “Struggling to rebuild her life, she was lured into a relationship with a sex trafficker who exploited her vulnerability. Even after breaking free and working to support herself and her child, Caleigha faced ongoing financial and emotional hardships that led her back into commercial sex work.”
“A young woman’s life was cut tragically short, her last moments likely spent in terror,” Acting U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham said in a news release on Thursday, Feb. 6. “But those final moments do not define her life. She mattered, her life had worth, and we are proud to put her kidnapper behind bars.”
Evidence presented at the trial included surveillance video that showed the woman get into Hazzard’s semi truck in Dallas on the night of Aug. 15, eight days before her body was found.
Cell phone records showed Hazzard drove that night to a nearby parking lot, where he stayed for about 17 minutes before driving for over three hours to the woods, authorities said. Once there, he texted his boss that he would be out sick the next day. He stayed at the site in Pittsburg for about an hour.
The next day, Hazzard and his wife returned to the scene and then went to dinner in Tyler, authorities said.
In the days after the kidnapping, Hazzard switched cell phones and deleted his Google and Life360 location sharing accounts, the jury was told. He also cleaned his truck with bleach and searched online for information on “how many years for first second and third degree murders.”
On Aug. 23, the day the victim’s body was recovered, federal agents found her cell phone shattered on the side of the road on the route that Hazzard drove the night she was killed.
Hazzard faces an automatic life sentence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The North Texas Trafficking Task Force, led by Homeland Security Investigation’s Dallas Field Office, conducted the investigation along with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, the Dallas Police Department, the Midlothian Police Department, the Texas Rangers, the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, the Titus County Sheriff’s Office, the Buda Police Department, the Austin Police Department, the Hayes County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 2:35 PM.
