Joel Guy Jr

Although I do not have children of my own, I have been reliably informed that most parents—outside of the horrific ones that are usually featured on this channel—want to see their children succeed in life. Because many parents view their children as an extension or continuation of themselves, it’s as natural as wanting to see themselves succeed. But the word “success” can take on many different meanings.

For some parents, nothing short of becoming a doctor or a lawyer will satisfy, but for most, seeing their child happy, healthy, and pursuing something they love is enough. They take pride in their children’s accomplishments and will do everything they can to help them along the way, but they do not pressure them unduly.

However, unfortunately, for some children, no matter how reasonable their parents’ requests are, no matter how much support and encouragement are offered, no matter how much love is given, something simply goes wrong. For those children, the term “bad seed” comes to mind. They are the ones who, despite the best efforts of everyone around them, cannot be helped. These types of children are every parent’s worst nightmare.

The Guy Family

Joel Micheal Guy and Lisa Guy were married in Louisiana in 1983. At the time of their union, Micheal already had three very young daughters from a previous marriage. Their names were Chandice, Michelle, and Angela. Joel Micheal, who often simply went by Micheal, worked as a pipeline engineer and was described by those that knew him as a hardworking, down-to-earth man and loving father who would help anyone in need whenever possible.

Likewise, Lisa was a hardworking mother who, despite not being biologically related to Micheal’s daughters, treated them as her own. All three girls were loved and never once made to feel like leftovers from a previous marriage. Effectively, as soon as Lisa married Michael, she became a mother, and the girls quickly grew to love her as much as they loved their father.

Throughout the couple’s marriage, Micheal and Lisa’s lives were described as near perfect. They loved each other fiercely and fought hard to give their girls a good life filled with opportunities, and after being together for several years, the pair decided to have their first and only biological child together, a son that Micheal named after himself.

Joel Micheal Guy Jr was born on March 13th, 1988, and as soon as Lisa laid eyes on him, she claimed to know that her son was special—and she was right. Joel Jr was a very intellectually gifted child who excelled in school, scoring near-perfect marks during his time at The Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts. And as a teenager, he was accepted into George Washington University in Washington DC, where he studied for a year before returning to Louisiana to enroll in the medical program at Louisiana State University (LSU), a research college known for being one of the most prestigious in the country. He had high hopes of becoming a plastic surgeon, and Micheal and Lisa were beyond excited for him.

Additionally, while Joel Jr was finding success, so were Chandice, Michelle, and Angela. They were all living on their own, and Michelle was even married and had provided Micheal and Lisa with grandchildren to love and spoil as only grandparents can.

By the 2010s, after decades of hard work and sacrifice in service of their children, Micheal and Lisa’s nest was empty and their child raising days were behind them. With this in mind, the couple sold their large family home, packed their bags, and moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where they purchased a two-story home on Goldenview Lane in the Hardin Valley community. Micheal had grown up in Tennessee and had chosen to return in order to be closer to his aging parents, who then lived in Surgoinsville, a community just over an hour northeast of Knoxville.

At this time, all three of their daughters were also living locally as well; Michelle was also in Knoxville, and Chandice and Angella were in Kingsport. This new home, although it was smaller than their old home, was located within a nice neighborhood and had plenty of spare bedrooms for visitors.

For work, Micheal and Lisa found jobs at Jacob’s Engineering in Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Micheal as an engineering designer, Lisa as a human resources administrator. In the evenings and on weekends, the pair would spend quality time together and take their dog, Jake, on walks. Everything was going well for them—with the exception of one small problem:

You see, while all three of Micheal’s daughters were prospering as adults, Joel Jr, who I will simply be referring to as “Joel” for the remainder of this episode, was not. As a student living and studying on campus in Louisiana, Joel had been relying on his parents to finance his entire life for him since birth. They paid for his schooling, his housing, his food, his car, his textbooks, his cellphone, and everything else he needed or wanted.

At first, Micheal and Lisa had been fine with providing Joel with financial support because they believed it allowed him to focus on his grades and graduate without the burden of student debt; however, the arrangement had long overstayed its welcome. Joel’s first year in university had started in 2006 when he was eighteen years old, but by 2014, a full eight years later, he still had not graduated. Shouldering those extra expenses for such an extended period had been a huge financial burden for Micheal and Lisa, and had Micheal not held such a high-paying job, their family would have quickly found themselves underwater.

This was a problem that Micheal and Lisa did not have a solution to because whenever they mentioned money to Joel, he would become angry and dismissive of their concerns. He had also never held a job, had never shown interest in finding a job, and had never thought twice about accepting their money.

Additionally, making the situation even worse, the longer the arrangement went on, the worse it became as Joel spent his parents’ money like it was his own. He didn’t hold back when purchasing things he wanted, and by 2016, his expenses had grown so numerous that Lisa began sending her entire biweekly paycheck directly to Joel’s bank account. She hoped that, by doing this, Joel could focus on his schooling and graduate sooner rather than later, but what she and Micheal did not know was that their efforts were all in vain.

Over 500 miles away from their home in Knoxville, Joel had been purposefully dragging out his education as long as possible in order to continue receiving their support, and by the time he was 28, he had dropped out of LSU entirely. He was using their money to rent an off-campus apartment for himself and a roommate.

Eventually, Joel planned to return to school, but he did not have plans to join the workforce. As far as Joel was concerned, his parents’ money was his money, and he had no reason to worry about completing his education or finding a job because their money would always be there to fall back on.

Unsurprisingly, this mindset put Joel at odds with his parents on more than one occasion because, despite what his spending habits would suggest, Micheal and Lisa were not rich. They made decent money and had a sizable safety net, but they were still average, middle-class Americans who worked normal nine-to-five jobs. Joel knew this, but it did not change his attitude toward money. Joel had even gotten himself into some unspecified legal trouble at one point in his early twenties, and his parents had been forced to refinance their home to help pay for it.

Although this was challenging enough, Joel’s problems with his family ran even deeper. Starting when he was a child, Joel had been a socially inept loner who rarely got along with his sisters, and this problem—like the money problem—had only worsened over time. As a teenager, Joel’s behavior could be dismissed as normal teen angst, but as a fully grown adult, he could only be described as rude and arrogant, someone who showed little interest in having a genuine relationship with anyone in his family.

Micheal and Lisa recognized their son’s many problems, but they had no idea how to fix them. Every time they mentioned money, Joel became enraged, and if they decided to cut Joel off financially, he would likely stop talking to them altogether. That, Micheal knew, would break Lisa’s heart. However, even the most genuine love has a limit, and after allowing his son to mooch off him for over a decade, Micheal saw that Joel was—for lack of a better term—a complete loser.

He knew he needed to find a way to get his son back on the right track.

Fortunately, in 2016, a bittersweet opportunity arose in the form of a layoff when Micheal, who was then 61 years old, was let go from his engineering job in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. When this happened, instead of trying to find a new job with less than 4 years to go before his retirement began, Micheal looked over the family’s finances and realized that he and Lisa had saved enough money to retire early. This would prevent him from having to undergo the nearly impossible task of finding suitable employment at his age while also giving him and Lisa extra time to enjoy the fruits of their lifetimes of labor. Lisa, who was then 55 years old, was overjoyed by the idea.

That year, in mid-2016, Micheal contacted a local realtor to list their home on Goldenview Lane. They were planning to move to an even smaller home in Surgoinsville, Tennessee to be closer to the rest of Micheal’s family during their retirement, and in almost no time, they had a buyer lined up. Things were moving quickly, and Lisa was eager to put in her two-week notice at her job. But before they could do anything, they first needed to address the “Joel problem.”

In late October of 2016, Micheal and Lisa notified several members of their family via text message of their plans to retire early. They said that the closing date on their old home was scheduled for December 13th, less than three months away. This would give them just enough time to move into their new home before Christmas.

Following this message, they also revealed that they planned to cut Joel off before officially signing the papers. After 10 years of complacency, it was time for some tough love; it was time for them to let Joel sink or swim, and that’s exactly what Micheal was prepared to do. He also made it clear to everyone else in the family that they should refuse to provide Joel with financial support as well. If this plan was going to work, he said, they all needed to be unified and stand firm in their decision.

The family, including Lisa, agreed that it was time.

However, even after coming to an agreement, Micheal and Lisa struggled to approach the subject with Joel. Micheal suggested that they wait until closer to December to reveal their plans. By then things would already be in motion and harder to argue against, but Lisa knew that giving Joel a heads-up sooner rather than later would be beneficial to everyone. They wouldn’t have to hide their plans from him any longer, and more importantly, Joel would have more time to get his life together and find a job, a very difficult task for a 28-year-old who had never been employed.

That month, a few days after notifying the rest of the family, Micheal and Lisa called Joel to inform him of their decision. This conversation did not go as expected. They had anticipated Joel would lose his temper and go on an expletive-filled rant, but that’s not what happened. And while we don’t know exactly how this conversation went, Micheal and Lisa later said that Joel had taken it surprisingly well.

They had laid out their plan, explained their reasoning, and he had accepted it. He wasn’t happy about it, but he would make do.

Perhaps, Micheal thought, he and Lisa had not given Joel enough credit.

Thanksgiving Day

The first time that Micheal and Lisa saw Joel in person after their conversation was in late November of 2016 during the family’s yearly Thanksgiving dinner, and this reunion was strange to say the least. As was tradition, Micheal and Lisa had invited their entire family into their home to celebrate, and Chandice, Michelle, and Angella were each in attendance—as were Chandice and Michelle’s husbands and children; Micheal’s sisters, Renee and Robin; and Micheal and Lisa’s dog, Jake.

In the kitchen, Lisa and a few others were preparing food while Micheal and the rest of the family were outside in the garage, where they had set up a temporary space to accommodate the large number of guests that day. For the Guy family, Thanksgiving was an informal event, and the extra space allowed their grandchildren and Jake to run and play freely while the adults smoked cigarettes and sipped alcohol together after dinner.

As mentioned earlier, Joel was also in attendance. He had driven in from Louisiana the prior day and was staying inside one of Micheal and Lisa’s spare bedrooms. This was not unusual as Joel normally visited during the holidays, but what was unusual was Joel’s behavior toward the rest of his family.

According to Michelle, Joel was not normally the type of person to socialize at family get-togethers because he actively disliked most of the members of his family, including her. This Thanksgiving, however, Joel was uncharacteristically eager to talk with and be around everyone. From the time Michelle, her husband, and her children arrived at 10:30AM that morning until they left at 8PM that evening, Joel stayed around the family, telling them stories of his time in college and attempting to be friendly in his own awkward way.

This was especially unexpected considering how he had just been cut off. Like Micheal and Lisa, the rest of the family kept expecting him to cause a scene or act out in some way. But that never happened.

Even stranger, Michelle said, Joel had also attempted to interact with her children, which he had never done before. At one point, he went upstairs to his bedroom, dug out some of his old toys, and then distributed them to be played with. Michelle thought this was odd because, up until that day, Joel had never even made an effort to learn his own nephews’ names.

At several points while her children and Joel were playing together in Joel’s room, Michelle went upstairs to make sure there was nothing strange going on. Despite how Joel was acting, she couldn’t help being suspicious of him because his behavior that day was such a far cry from the Joel she had always known. Inside his bedroom, she noticed that the room and adjoining bathroom were extraordinarily clean—something else that was unusual when he stayed over—and that Joel seemed uncomfortable with her being in there. The entire time she was in the room, Joel stood beside her, watching her carefully, which made her very uncomfortable.

Another thing that Michelle noted during her visit was Joel’s car. That morning, she had brought several baskets of laundry with her to Micheal and Lisa’s home because the washer and dryer at her house needed to be serviced. She planned to wash and dry some of her family’s clothing throughout the day, but when she backed her car into the driveway to unload her laundry hampers, she noticed that Joel’s car, which was parked adjacent to hers in the driveway, had several large plastic totes sitting in the backseat and trunk.

When she asked Joel about them later that day, Joel simply avoided the question. Michelle knew that Joel’s overnight items were in his suitcase, which was already unpacked inside the spare bedroom, so she wasn’t sure what else he would have brought with him from Louisiana. She was curious but did not press the issue.

After the family dinner was over, Chandice, Michelle, Angela, and the rest left the home, but Joel stayed behind. He said he would be returning to Louisiana the next day after helping their father transport a few things to the new home. By this point, Micheal and Lisa had less than three weeks to be moved out, and with Thanksgiving over, it was officially crunch time.

The next day, on Friday, November 25th, at around 1PM, Micheal’s sister, Renee, spoke with Michael over the phone. He told her that he and Joel had transported the family’s boat to their new home and planned to return to Knoxville soon. Later that day, she called and texted him again, but her multiple messages went unanswered.

Over the next two days, Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th, both Renee and Chandise once again attempted to reach out to Micheal, but he did not answer, and their calls were never returned. This struck Renee as unusual because Micheal almost always returned her calls within a few hours, but for Chandise, it was beyond unusual because Sunday the 27th was her birthday and Micheal always called her on her birthday. He had not even texted her.

A little disappointed, Chandise told herself that, as unlikely as it was, the day must have simply slipped his mind because he was so preoccupied with the move. She told herself that she would call back the next day, but this call also went unanswered.

Goldenview Lane

On the morning of November 28th, 2016, the Knox County Sherrif’s Office (“KCSO”) received a call from a woman named Jennifer Whited, Lisa Guy’s direct supervisor at Jacob’s Engineering in Oak Ridge. In the call, Jennifer said that Lisa had not shown up to work that morning as scheduled—something that was exceptionally out of character for her—and that she had not responded to any of the text messages or calls Jenifer had made that morning to check if she was alright.

Even more suspicious, Jennifer said, that particular Monday was not an ordinary workday because it was one of Lisa’s last workdays. Lisa’s retirement day was quickly approaching, and she, Jennifer, and several of their other coworkers had planned to have an extended lunch that morning at a local restaurant to celebrate. Lisa had missed that lunch without even texting them a heads up.

Half an hour later, officer Stephen Ballard of the KCSO arrived outside Micheal and Lisa’s home. He approached the front door on foot and noted that, unlike how the home had been the previous week during Thanksgiving, its garage door was then shut, and its doors and windows were all locked tight. There was a real estate lawn sign near the edge of road that showed the home was pending sold, and both Micheal and Lisa’s vehicles were parked in the driveway.

When Ballard approached the home, he noted that the front door’s doorknob was missing. Directly underneath the door’s locked deadbolt, there was an empty round hole that allowed him to peer inside. When he looked through the hole, he noticed that the foyer’s lights were on, but everything else inside appeared normal. When he knocked and rang the adjacent doorbell, there was no answer.

Attempting to circle around to the home’s rear entrance, Ballard was met with a locked gate. Over the fence, he could plainly see a doghouse sitting atop the meticulously manicured lawn, but no dog came out when he whistled.

After about ten more minutes of ringing the doorbell and knocking loudly, Ballard left the home as he had found it without entering. He then contacted Jennifer to inform her that Micheal and Lisa did not appear to be home and that, without probable cause, he could not enter the home.

Still concerned after the unsuccessful welfare check, Jennifer then reached out to Lisa’s emergency contact, her stepdaughter, Michelle. Michelle had already been planning to stop by the home later that day to check on her parents herself, but Jennifer’s call encouraged her to take more immediate action.

As the person in charge of her father’s estate, Michelle had been given access to Micheal’s bank account and was able to view his recent transactions online. There, she found that several large payments totaling over $10,000 had been made over the weekend to a utility company, a university, and an apartment complex in Louisiana. After a bit more digging, she realized that the apartment complex was Joel’s apartment complex, and that the university was LSU, Joel’s university. She quickly dialed the police to make another report.

Later that day, Officer Ballard returned to the home alongside Officer Benjamin Gresham, Officer Jared Graves, and Detective Jeremy McCord of the KCSO. This time, after failing to make contact once again, Detective McCord authorized the other officers to begin looking for a way inside.

First, Detective McCord and Officer Ballard scaled the backyard fence and approached the backdoor. Like the front door, it was locked by a deadbolt and its handle was also missing. There was also a notable heavy odor emanating from inside that both McCord and Ballard thought smelled strongly of chemicals, possibly cleaning products.

Even stranger, when Detective McCord placed his hands onto the backdoor’s glass to peer inside, he noted that it was exceptionally warm to the touch, as if he was placing his hand on the exterior glass of an oven door. Inside, in the hallway near the main entrance, he saw bagged groceries lining the walls that appeared as if they had been brought inside but never put away.

Back at the front of the home, officers contacted the real estate company using the number on the lawn sign, hoping that the family’s realtor would be able to point them toward a key hidden somewhere on the property for easy access; however, the realtor was no help. He said that the key should be inside the lockbox affixed to the door, but there was no lockbox to be seen. Upon closer inspection of the door, the detective realized that the front door’s deadbolt had toolmarks on it, which indicated to him that the lock had likely been changed recently.

After this, one of the officers suggested entering the home using a wireless clicker for the garage door that was found inside Lisa’s unlocked car. When he pressed the button and the door began to rise, all four of them were hit with an uncomfortable wave of heat that reeked profoundly of chemicals and stung their eyes and noses. As they walked inside, that odor became even more pungent. At their feet, they noted several large red containers filled with gasoline.

They walked past them, drawing their weapons and announcing their presence to anyone inside as they went.

Just through the door, they discovered a real-life nightmare. In the kitchen, atop the counter, Joel and Lisa’s wallets were found with their IDs and credit cards still inside; a box of open medical gloves sat beside them. On the floor below, three containers of bleach, a bottle of muriatic acid, an unopened container of baking soda, and a spray bottle filled with an unknown clear liquid were sitting alongside a partially used roll of paper towels and several rolls of trash bags.

Off to the side, atop the kitchen stove, a large, covered cooking pot was sitting on a burner, and that burner was switched on. In the sink beside it, the missing realtor’s lockbox was found submerged in water.

As the officers moved deeper into the home, into the dining room, they discovered multiple rifles and handguns splayed out neatly across the dining table. Some of them were loaded, some were not. There were boxes of ammunition and more rifle cases stacked neatly around the room’s perimeter.

Down the hallway, the bags of groceries that the officers had noticed from outside the home could now be seen up close. They contained bacon, sausage, ice cream and many other perishables that needed to be refrigerated or frozen but had been left out and were then spoiled. The melted ice cream had seeped out of the paper carton and onto the floor.

Inside the living room, feces were smeared across the carpet, and as the officers progressed toward the stairwell, they could hear a dog scratching at a closed door from somewhere upstairs. The dog was alternating between barking and whimpering, and although the officers did not immediately see the dog as they climbed the stairs, they did notice smears of blood steaked across the walls and banisters on either side of them. There was also blood splattered on a baby gate at the stop of the staircase.

When they reached the upstairs landing, Detective McCoy found more dried blood on the carpet and a bucket filled with knives, power tools, and other sharp instruments. An empty bottle of lye drain-cleaner and several empty six-pound containers of sewer-line cleaner were beside them. Against the nearby wall, a set of tattered clothing that appeared to have been cut off was lying beside a pair of scissors.

From his position on the staircase landing, Detective McCord saw two small objects lying amongst even more blood further down the hall, inside the home’s exercise room. These objects were two severed human hands, propped up and leaning against one another, positioned as if they were folded in prayer.

With their weapons still ready, the officers then entered the nearby master bedroom. Inside, they discovered even more tools, more blood, and a roll of tarp lying atop the bed. At the foot of the bed, there were more chemicals, including food-grade hydrogen peroxide, another spray bottle, and another container of lye drain-cleaner. Beside them, there was a space heater, a jobsite work light, extension cords, hammers, knives, and more.

A large amount of safety equipment was seen as well, including a respirator, safety goggles, kitchen gloves, a long sleeve t-shirt, long pants, and a 3M dust mask. On the dresser, a kitchen timer was set and counting down. Across the room, the closet door was standing open, and the jewelry box and nightstands had been raided.

Where they now stood at the foot of the bed, the chemical odor was almost unbearable; it had been getting progressively worse the deeper they ventured into the home, but by this point, the officers were becoming lightheaded. As they approached the master bedroom’s ensuite bathroom, another wave of heat hit them in the face. The room was over 100° F (38° C)—primarily due to another space heater that was sitting inside the enclosed space—and the floor was covered wall-to-wall in clear plastic.

In the hand sink, they saw rubber gloves, a kitchen knife, and a detached showerhead. In the shower head’s place, a garden hose had been attached to the home’s waterpipe. In the center of the floor, wedged between the shower and the cabinets, two large, plastic totes were filled with liquid and bulging at the sides; several dismembered arms and a torso could be seen floating in that liquid.

As the dog continued to whimper behind one of the unopened doors deeper in the home, Detective McCord ordered the rest of the officers to turn and exit immediately. Up until the moment he saw the plastic totes, his primary concern had been that someone inside the home may still be alive and in need of assistance, but after their gruesome discovery, he knew that Micheal and Lisa were dead. His primary objective at that point was to preserve the crime scene.

As they exited the same way they entered—through the kitchen and out into the raised garage door—Officer Ballard lifted the lid of the pot that was cooking on the stove and discovered Lisa Guys’ severed head simmering in boiling water. Ballard lowered the lid and then followed the rest of his team outside to wait for backup.

Deconstructing the Crime Scene

The home at 11434 Goldenview Lane has been called one of the most chaotic and disorganized crime scenes that the KCSO has ever seen, and what I just described to you in the previous section is just a small taste of what was found inside. Somehow, despite all the cleaning products spread throughout the home, there was blood splatter on nearly every single wall and carpet in upstairs halls, bedrooms, and bathrooms. As officers worked to process the scene, the sheer amount of evidence inside the home was overwhelming.

As more officers arrived at the scene, Detective McCoy set out to clear the home and identify anyone who may still be inside. He had left several upstairs doors unopened during their initial check, and inside one of them, officers found Jake. He had been locked inside the home’s laundry room and was hungry and dehydrated. After removing him from the home, police began a multi-day, exhaustive search that revealed much more than had been noticed upon first glance.

First, after photographs and fingerprints were collected, the totes filled with human remains and the pot containing Lisa’s head were transported to a forensics lab for further testing. It was a slow and gut-wrenching process that revealed that the bodies had been separated crudely at the joints using a knife.

Next, inside the upstairs hallway bathroom—a separate bathroom than the one containing the totes—they found and collected a pile of used first-aid supplies. These included several disposable gloves and wet wipes, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, multiple strips of used medical tape, antibiotic ointment, pain relieving antibacterial spray, and a utility knife. All of these were splattered with reddish-brown blood and sitting on the countertop beside the sink.

Beside them, there was also a set of keys to Lisa’s Kia, a Samsung cellphone, and a receipt from the nearby Walmart that listed many of the aforementioned supplies as being purchased two days prior on November 28th at 3:35 PM. As far as fingerprints went, there were two identical prints on two separate boxes of opened gloves, another matching print on the package of wet wipes, and a distinct palm print on the countertop.

Inside the exercise room near the end of the upstairs hallway, the room where the severed hands were discovered, police found a large bloodstain in the middle of the room that appeared to be where an attack had taken place. It was right beside an overturned Bowflex machine, and there were kitchen knives and more bloody clothes nearby.

In the guest bedroom, blood was found smeared on the doorframe leading inside, and just past the door, there were more clothes and towels soiled with blood, more plastic gloves, and the sheath for the utility knife found inside the hallway bathroom. Scattered around the room, police found the lids for the totes, prescription medication prescribed to both Joel and Lisa sitting on the bookshelf, buckshot ammunition, a suitcase, a backpack, and a laptop. The laptop was sitting atop the bed, opened and switched on. To the police’s disappointment, its hard drive was encrypted in a way that could not be bypassed.

Obviously, the police suspected that the guestroom’s occupant, Joel, was involved in the crime in some way; however, they had not seen or heard from him since they arrived. They were not sure if he was responsible for the massacre around them or if he was another victim whose body had not yet been discovered.

Judging by the number of cleaning products spread throughout the home, police assumed that whoever was responsible had been in the middle of a desperate cleanup, but nobody had returned to finish the job. Officers had been watching the streets, waiting for a car to approach, but none ever did.

Even more disappointing, the home’s security system—including its many cameras and recording hardware—had been removed and could not be located. However, as it turns out, they wouldn’t need the footage because another major piece of evidence was about to tie everything neatly together for them.

The Book of Premeditation

As officers continued to search the home, the backpack that was discovered inside the upstairs guest bedroom was photographed and transported to a local forensics lab so that its contents could be thoroughly analyzed. Inside, investigators found a calculator, stationery, several college textbooks with the name Joel Guy Jr written inside the cover, and the instruction manual for a residential gas water heater. With the exception of the water heater manual, these were all items that police expected to find inside a college student’s backpack; however, there was also one other things: a small black notebook that had been purchased from a Co-op in Batton Rouge, Louisiana. Inside this notebook, there was a syllabus for Joel’s 2016 fall semester at LSU as well as dozens of handwritten notes that outlined how Joel had planned to kill his parents—including an entire murder plan written out from start to finish.

Based on these notes, Joel had been planning his parents’ murders for weeks, and the whole process had begun shortly after Micheal and Lisa notified him of their intent to cut him off. Despite their belief that Joel had taken the news well, he had been enraged by their decision and had only chosen to hide his true feelings in an attempt to avoid drawing suspicion from those around him. After deciding to kill them, Joel set out to write down the perfect murder plan:

First, he needed to choose a weapon and, for simplicity’s sake, considered using one of the many guns his father kept inside the home. However, he quickly decided against this since the home was in the middle of a residential neighborhood. This would not do because Joel needed plenty of time alone with the bodies after they were dead to complete the rest of his plan. So, instead, he chose to kill them using a butcher’s knife.

This way, there would be no bullet holes to deal with, no risk of missing his shot, no chance of a misfire, and—of course—no loud noises. He could sneak up behind them, cut their throats, and then let them bleed out. Easy-peasy.

However, this plan was not foolproof either because knives opened the door to several other potential problems that needed to be considered. Using a knife meant having to be physically close to his mother and father at the time of the kill, which would give them an opportunity to overpower him—something that, in the case of his father, was a real concern. Joel would also have to attack and defend against both at the same time, which would be nearly impossible because, self-admittedly, he was not athletic in the slightest.

Not wanting to introduce unnecessary risk into the equation, Joel decided that he would wait to make his move at a time when his mother was out of the home running errands. This way, he could focus all his attention on his father and then kill his mother afterwards. He also planned to create a distraction by sabotaging the kitchen’s garbage disposal and attacking his father when his back was turned. This way, there would be little opportunity for his father to effectively fight back.

After Micheal was dead, Joel would then wait for his mother to return, ambush her as she entered the home, and then slit her throat as well. It was chilling cold plan, but the next part was even worse:

After his parents were dead, Joel planned to place their bodies on a plastic-covered surface, dismember them at the joints, cut each piece into smaller pieces, and then place everything into large tubs of hydrochloric acid to be dissolved. With enough time, the acid would liquify the bodies’ soft tissues and weaken the bones. To speed up the process, Joel would introduce heat by setting the homes’ thermostat to high and placing several portable heaters inside the room where the bodies were being dissolved.

After this, as the bodies soaked in the tubs of hydrochloric acid, Joel would establish an alibi for himself by programming his mother’s cellphone to send an automated text message to his cellphone. He would then remove the home’s security system, change the locks on the front door, drive back to his apartment in Baton Rouge, and wait for that text message to arrive. Then he would return to Knoxville the following day.

Back inside the home, whatever solids remained inside the totes would be crushed using a sledgehammer, ground up using a meat grinder, and then flushed down the toilet. He would then use drain and sewer cleaner to thoroughly flush the home’s pipes, clean up any blood using hydrogen peroxide and bleach, and then dispose of his and their bloody clothing. He would wipe away any fingerprints within the home and dispose of the murder weapon, tools, and other cleaning supplies that may be covered in his DNA.

To further obfuscate any potentially forgotten evidence, Joel would connect a curling iron to a timer inside the kitchen—the room where the murders were intended to take place—lay the curling iron atop a pile of flammable material, douse the home in gasoline, and then exit through the front door. When the timer went off, the curling iron would activate, quickly turning the home into an inferno within minutes with the aid of the accelerant.

With everything done, Joel would then return to Louisiana and wait for a call from the police or his sisters so he could start playing the part of the grieving son.

Alongside this plan, Joel wrote an itemized shopping list that included all the supplies he would need, all of which were found inside the home. He even included what each item would be used for. Here is a sample (Please note that this list’s order has been altered for clarity):

• Get killing knives - quiet – multiple
• Get carving knives to make small pieces
• Get sledgehammer - crush bones
• Bring blender and food grinder - grind meat
• Plastic sheeting for disposal process
• Get bleach - denature proteins
• Get plastic bin for denaturation process
• Big Spayer
• Lye

When making these purchases, Joel was careful not to group certain items together that would appear suspicious on the same transaction. He also spaced his purchases out over the course of several weeks at multiple different stores. Inside Joel’s backpack and suitcase, they found receipts for many of the items.

When paying for these supplies, Joel purposefully avoided using a credit or debit card, instead opting for cash at a self-checkout lane. He hoped this would reduce the likelihood that anyone would remember his face, although I’m not sure anyone could ever forget it.

As for motive, Joel had conveniently compiled a list of Micheal and Lisa’s assets within the notebook in a manner so calculative that the police could not believe what they were reading. At the top of the page, Joel had written and underlined information pertaining to Lisa’s $500,000 life insurance policy. Below the policy, he wrote:

“$500,000 would be all mine.”

And:

“With him missing/dead, I get the whole thing.”

Obviously, “him” was Joel’s father. Joel was killing his mother for the insurance money, but he was killing his father because, if Micheal was still alive, Joel would only receive $250,000. With both dead, Joel would receive the entire payout.

For some reason, despite Joel having three half-sisters, he also assumed that he could pocket his father’s entire 401K retirement plan as well as the money from Micheal and Lisa’s joint savings account and investment portfolio. Based on the police’s best guess, Joel likely assumed he would be put in charge of handling Micheal and Lisa’s affairs after their disappearance because he was their only biological child together. Joel wasn’t aware that, as we have discussed, Micheal had already made Michelle the executor of his will.

Joel also assumed that he would be the one to receive all his parents’ personal property, including their vehicles. He noted that he wouldn’t be able to keep either Lisa’s KIA or Micheal’s SUV because those had been financed and were not yet fully paid off, but he did hope to keep his father’s boat and antique truck, both of which were paid off. He also listed the possibility of receiving a home insurance payout—that is, if his parents had fire protection listed on their policy, which Joel wasn’t sure of.

On Tuesday, October 29th, 2016, Joel Micheal Guy Jr was arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the murders of Joel Micheal Guy Sr and Lisa Guy. At the time of his arrest, he had already been under surveillance by the FBI for an entire day while investigators in Knoxville filed the necessary paperwork to make their arrest legal. Joel was apprehended while walking from his apartment’s front door to his car. A meat grinder was discovered in the car’s trunk.

Joel was then transported to the local booking station, and his fingerprints and mugshot were taken. At the time he was processed, there were several cuts and abrasions on the inside and outside of his hands, including a deep gash on his inner left thumb and another on his right palm, both indicative of knife wounds. There were also scratches and bruising on his right arm near the elbow and more on his back and knees.

Putting the Pieces Together

Following his arrest, Joel was extradited back to Tennessee and placed in the custody of the KCSO to await his trial. Now that the crime scene was clear, the evidence was cataloged, and their suspect was in custody, all the police needed to do was work with the prosecutor’s office to determine what exactly had happened inside Micheal and Lisa’s home the prior weekend. Thanks to the “book of premeditation,” this would not be too difficult; however, as evidenced by the fact that the home was still standing and the bodies had not yet been disposed of, Joel’s plan had obviously gone off the rails at some point. So, what exactly went wrong?

Well, for starters, the police had interrupted Joel’s plans by stumbling into the crime scene far sooner than he had expected. At the time of his arrest, Joel was still in the “establishing an alibi” phase of his plan and had not yet returned to the home to finish disposing of the bodies. He had driven back to Louisiana to wait for the automated text message from his mother’s phone and use his mother’s credit card to pay for his next semester at college, his past-due utility bills, and several months of prorated rent. Had Lisa’s coworkers and Micheal’s daughters not been so concerned for their safety, Joel would have likely had time to finish what he started; that’s where he was headed at the time of his arrest.

Although, even if he had been given more time, police were not confident that it would have helped because, based on the sheer amount of blood inside the home and the location of that blood, Joel’s master plan had gone off the rails long before that. Micheal had not been killed inside in the kitchen where Joel intended; he had been killed in the upstairs workout room where the severed hands and overturned Bowflex machine was discovered. They reasoned that this was likely because Joel had been unable to get his father to inspect the garbage disposal while his mother was away, and he had been forced to improvise.

Next, it appeared that, as Joel feared, Micheal had fought back viciously during the attack. Over 40 stab wounds of varying depth were identified on Micheal’s body, and Joel’s DNA was discovered underneath his fingernails, which evidenced a frantic struggle between the two. The blood and fingerprints discovered in the hallway bathroom on and around the used medical supplies were Joel’s as well.

He had purchased these supplies during an emergency trip to a nearby Walmart shortly after the attack, which police learned about via a receipt left near the supplies. In the Walmart’s surveillance footage, police observed that Joel’s hands were already crudely bandaged at the time he purchased the supplies at the self-checkout lane. They believed that Joel had been forced to grab the blade of the knife at one point to prevent it from being yanked from his hand during their struggle.

At his trial in September of 2020, Joel requested to represent himself. He was charged with 2 counts of felony murder, 2 counts of first-degree murder, and 2 counts of abuse of a corpse. He entered a plea of not guilty; however, after filing a motion requesting to receive the death penalty should he be found guilty, his motion was denied, and he was told that he must have an attorney. I can only imagine what that poor, unfortunate public defender must have been thinking when he drew the shortest straw in legal history.

When the prosecution presented their case, they weren’t worried about the trial’s outcome. Even without the notebook, it would have been a slam dunk as Joel’s blood and DNA had been found all throughout the home, most consequentially on the blade and handle of knife used to end his parents’ lives.

As a witness, the prosecution called Michelle to testify against his brother at trial. She told the jury how she had spotted the totes in the backseat of his car while unloading her family’s laundry on Thanksgiving Day. These totes contained the supplies Joel had transported from Louisiana and were the same totes that would eventually be used to hold Micheal and Lisa’s bodies as they dissolved.

To defend against the prosecution’s mountain of indisputable evidence, Joel’s lawyer did the only thing he could: he attempted to have everything found inside the home thrown out of evidence based on the assertion that it had all been collected illegally. According to the motion filed, Joel was an overnight guest inside his parents’ home and, as such, had a legally recognized expectation of privacy. This meant that, in order to legally search the home, police needed a documented reason for why they believed someone was in danger before stepping inside.

Since none of the evidence was visible from outside the home, the defense asserted that Detective McCoy and the three other officers who entered the home that day had not satisfied this legal requirement. Their search was nothing more than an illegal raid on a private residence, they said.

However, according to court documents, it was determined that:

“To establish a legitimate expectation of privacy in a residence as an overnight guest, a defendant must demonstrate that he had permission to be there.”

And:

“Once that permission or consent has been revoked, a defendant is no longer a ‘guest’ who has a legitimate expectation of privacy in the residence.”

It was a well-established fact that Joel was a guest inside his parents’ home during Thanksgiving, which satisfied the first requirement; however, to prove that permission had not been revoked, the defense pointed to the many personal items Joel had left inside the home, such as his suitcase, backpack, laptop, and medication. These were things, the defense claimed, Joel either would not or could not permanently leave the home without. He was planning to return; thus, he maintained his legally recognized status as an “overnight guest.”

Truthfully, this approach was not the worst idea considering what they were up against—in fact, getting off on a technicality was likely the attorney’s only viable strategy—but the judge disagreed and allowed the evidence to be presented to the jury anyway. From this point on, the legal battle ahead was essentially a forgone conclusion.

Joel’s trial lasted only five days, and after closing arguments were made on the fifth day, the jury deliberated for only two hours. They returned a guilty verdict for all counts.

While Micheal and Lisa’s family read their impact statements before the sentencing, Joel sat silently, his face devoid of any shame or regret. While they spoke through sobs, Joel sat at the defense table, leaned back, taking sips of water from a plastic bottle and swishing the liquid around in his mouth. He listened disinterestedly as if he were watching a rerun of a legal drama.

Joel’s request for the death penalty was not granted; he was given life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Dismembered Appendices

The dog lived.

Cheat Sheet:

• Joel Micheal Guy Sr (Micheal) – Victim
• Lisa Guy – Victim
• Joel Micheal Guy Jr (Joel) – Murderer/Micheal and Lisa’s son
• Chandise Guy – Micheal’s daughter/Lisa’s Stepdaughter
• Angela Guy – Micheal’s daughter/Lisa’s Stepdaughter
• Michelle Dennison Guy – Micheal’s daughter/Lisa’s Stepdaughter
• Jake – Micheal and Lisa’s dog
• Stephen Ballard – Officer with KCSO
• Benjamin Gresham – Officer with KCSO
• Jared Graves – Officer with KCSO
• Jeremy McCord – Detective with KCSO
• Jennifer Whited – Lisa’s manager
• Renee Charles – Micheal’s sister
• Robin White – Micheal’s sister

Key Takeaways

• Joel Guy Jr murdered his parents after they cut off financial support after a decade of funding his education and lifestyle.
• He meticulously planned the murders in a notebook, including dismemberment with acid and staging a house fire to destroy evidence.
• Police discovered a gruesome crime scene with body parts in plastic totes, his mother’s head boiling on the stove, and chemicals everywhere.
• Joel’s plan failed when concerned family members prompted an early welfare check before he could return to finish cleanup and establish alibi.
• He was convicted in 2020 after a five-day trial and sentenced to life in prison without parole despite requesting the death penalty.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who were Joel Guy Jr’s parents and what were their occupations?

Joel Guy Jr’s parents were Joel Micheal Guy Sr (referred to as Micheal) and Lisa Guy. Micheal worked as an engineering designer at Jacob’s Engineering in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Lisa worked as a human resources administrator at the same company.

What was Joel Guy Jr studying and what was his career goal?

Joel Guy Jr studied at George Washington University for a year before returning to Louisiana to enroll in the medical program at Louisiana State University (LSU). He had high hopes of becoming a plastic surgeon.

Why did Micheal and Lisa decide to cut Joel off financially in 2016?

Micheal and Lisa decided to cut Joel off financially because he had been relying on them to finance his entire life since birth, and by 2014, eight years after starting university at age 18, he still had not graduated. The financial burden had become too great, especially after Micheal was laid off and they decided to retire early. They wanted Joel to become independent and support himself.

What unusual behavior did Joel exhibit at Thanksgiving dinner in 2016?

At Thanksgiving dinner in 2016, Joel was uncharacteristically eager to talk with and be around his family, telling stories of his time in college and attempting to be friendly. He also interacted with his sister Michelle’s children for the first time, giving them old toys from his room. His room and bathroom were extraordinarily clean, and he seemed uncomfortable when Michelle entered his room, watching her carefully.

What was discovered in the pot cooking on the stove at the crime scene?

Officer Ballard lifted the lid of the pot that was cooking on the stove and discovered Lisa Guy’s severed head simmering in boiling water.

What was the ‘Book of Premeditation’ and what did it contain?

The ‘Book of Premeditation’ was a small black notebook found in Joel’s backpack. It contained a syllabus for Joel’s 2016 fall semester at LSU and dozens of handwritten notes outlining how Joel had planned to kill his parents, including an entire murder plan written out from start to finish. It also included an itemized shopping list of supplies, a list of his parents’ assets, and details about Lisa’s $500,000 life insurance policy.

What was Joel’s motive for killing his parents?

Joel’s primary motive was financial. He planned to collect Lisa’s $500,000 life insurance policy, which he would receive entirely if both parents were dead (only $250,000 if his father survived). He also assumed he would receive his father’s entire 401K retirement plan, money from their joint savings account and investment portfolio, and personal property including his father’s boat and antique truck.

How did Joel’s plan go wrong?

Joel’s plan went wrong in several ways: police interrupted his plans by discovering the crime scene sooner than expected; his father was killed in the upstairs workout room rather than the kitchen as planned, likely because Joel couldn’t get him to inspect the garbage disposal; his father fought back viciously, causing Joel to sustain injuries and need emergency medical supplies; and Joel was arrested while still in the ‘establishing an alibi’ phase before he could return to finish disposing of the bodies.

What was Joel’s defense strategy at trial?

Joel’s defense attorney attempted to have all evidence found inside the home thrown out by asserting that Joel, as an overnight guest, had a legally recognized expectation of privacy. The defense argued that police needed a documented reason to believe someone was in danger before entering, and that Joel’s personal items left in the home showed he maintained guest status. The judge disagreed and allowed the evidence.

What was Joel Guy Jr’s sentence?

Joel Guy Jr was found guilty on all counts after the jury deliberated for only two hours. His request for the death penalty was denied, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Sources

• Original Casual Criminalist video: Joel Guy Jr
• Hero image source by Timothy Holdiness / openverse, by.

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