Pro poker player Susie Zhao was tied up, sexually assaulted, lit on fire by convicted sex offender in mid-July murder, police say

Susie Zhao, the professional poker player whose body was found badly burned July 13 in Michigan, was bound and assaulted before she was killed, police said.

Cops said Zhao was tied up with zip-ties, sexually assaulted with a large object and then lit on fire until she died, Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ reported.

Jeffery Morris, 60, has been charged with killing Zhao. Police arrested Morris on July 31 and later charged him with first-degree premeditated homicide.

Cellphone data shows that Morris and Zhao met in West Lake Township, about 40 miles northwest of Detroit, on the evening of July 12, according to WXYZ. Morris told police that Zhao left around midnight and took her phone, but cops said location data shows Zhao’s cell at a hotel until 5 a.m. on July 13.

Police said when they detained Morris he had a bloody baseball bat and bloody bed sheets in his car and his house, WXYZ reported. They also found a bunch of physical evidence that is being tested at the county crime lab.

Morris is a convicted sex offender who has been in Michigan’s public registry since 1989, when he was convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Cops have not determined a motive for the meeting or the murder.

At the time she was killed, Zhao, 33, had recently returned home after playing poker professionally in Los Angeles and Las Vegas for several years.