Former Neighbor Says Anderson Harassed Her, Demanded Sex
MONTICELLO, Minn. (WCCO) -- We're learning more about the man charged with Alayna Ertl's kidnapping and murder.
Wright County court documents released on Thursday reveal the first clues into Zachary Todd Anderson's sexually deviant behavior.
Anderson was a teenage boy a decade when he is accused of harassing and attempting to engage an older neighbor woman in sex.
In May 2006, Anderson lived with his mother in a Monticello townhouse complex. Immediately next to the Andersons lived a 31-year-old single mom with two young children.
That summer, the woman told Wright County investigators that Anderson began leaving love notes on her car's windshield.
The notes said that she "was a pretty lady" and that he "thought she was beautiful." He also wrote to her with a cell phone number to call if she wanted him to be her boyfriend.
The same woman also suspected Anderson of stealing cigarettes from her adjacent garage when she left it unattended.
However, it was an episode on an early December morning that caused her the greatest concern.
That's apparently when Anderson pounded on her door at 1:30 a.m., wearing nothing but boxer shorts.
He demanded to have sex with the woman and insisted that she let him in the door, which she didn't.
According to court documents, Anderson said, "come on, you know you wanna ….Open the door, open the door, come on."
Anderson bolted away when the woman's boyfriend came downstairs amid the commotion.
But the last straw for his victim came the following June in 2007. One night, the young woman was sleeping upstairs with her two kids.
That's when Anderson removed a window screen from a downstairs window and stole her cell phone from a living room table.
He was soon charged with both first-degree burglary and theft.
In Wright County court, Anderson would plead guilty to third-degree burglary and was ordered do community service.
As a condition of his sentence, Anderson was also to have no contact with his victim, who was so fearful of him she could no longer stay at the home.
Because he was convicted of a felony, and was at least 16 years old at the time of the burglary, those records are now public.