Like most Americans in November 2016, Joel Michael Guy and his wife Lisa were preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday. The Knoxville, Tennessee, couple was grateful to have their son, Joel Guy Jr., and her three daughters at home for the celebration. However, what began as a joyful family reunion would turn into a nightmare of terror.
Joel Guy Jr., born on March 13, 1988, had always been an enigmatic figure in the family. His relatives called him Joel Michael to distinguish him from his father. His stepsisters noticed that he was withdrawn and rarely left his room, although his intellect was never in doubt. Joel Jr. is a 2006 graduate of the Louisiana School of Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts.
Despite his promising start, Joel Jr. spent most of his adult life with his parents in the family home located in West Knox, Tennessee. He attempted to continue his studies at George Washington University and then at Louisiana State University, where he planned to specialize in plastic surgery. However, he abandoned both attempts.
Joel Michael Guy Sr.engineer by profession, and Lisa Guy, employed in human resources, supported their son financially. After nine years, Joel Sr. was fired from his job. At that point, the couple decided it was time to retire and stop supporting the boy. They planned to move back to his hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee, two weeks after that Thanksgiving.
However, this last family celebration was stained with blood. They were unaware that Joel Jr., deeply familiar with his parents’ finances, had hatched a macabre plan to obtain his retirement money.
That November 26, 2016, Thanksgiving gathering on November 26, 2016 seemed to go off without a hitch. The three stepdaughters of Joel Guy Sr. and Lisa Guy said goodbye to continue with their lives, while Joel Guy Jr. had already begun to put his sinister plan into motion. In his notebook, he had written down each step. He had bought plastic containers and bleach.
After the meeting, with dishes still dirty in the kitchen, Joel Guy Jr. went upstairs and stabbed his father while he was doing a morning exercise routine. The young man stabbed him 42 times, puncturing his lungs, liver, kidneys and breaking several ribs. Lisa Guy, oblivious to the horror that awaited her, returned home and was attacked in the same brutal way. The woman was stabbed 31 times and lost nine ribs in the attack.
But the work of Joel Guy Jr. it was just beginning. With a shocking coldness, she dedicated herself to dismembering the bodies of his parents. She cut off his father’s hands at the wrists and separated his arms by the shoulder blades. She then proceeded to amputate his legs at the hips and one foot at the ankle. After uncovering the horror, forensic experts discovered multiple defensive wounds on the victims, demonstrating the desperate struggle to survive the attack.
Lisa Guy’s fate was even more macabre. Joel Jr. not only dismembered her body, but also decapitated her. He then placed her parents’ torsos and limbs in two plastic containers and tried to accelerate decomposition over the kitchen fire.
The next day, before returning to his apartment in Baton Rouge, Joel Jr. put another part of his plan into action: try to erase any forensic evidence. Her notebook contained explicit instructions, such as “flooding the house to cover forensic evidence” and “sending an automated message from her mother’s cell phone to pretend she was still alive.” She even detailed how to dispose of the bodies: “Spill bleach at the crime scene (kitchen?)” and “throw the pieces down the toilet, not down the garbage disposal.”
The scene investigators found on November 28, 2016 was one of pure horror. He Detective Jeremy McCord from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, was the first to arrive after Lisa’s boss reported her absent from work. McCord remembers with horror what he saw: “I walked around the ground floor of the house, nothing made sense. “I saw hands lying in the hallways.” The smells and sights of that bloody chaos were etched in his memory forever. Just a few steps away, the officer had to go out and throw up the coffee and donut he had eaten that morning before starting his shift.
The walls were covered in blood and the floor was covered in red-dyed clothing. Lisa Guy’s head boiled in a pot on the stove, a macabre scene that culminated the terror unleashed by Joel Guy Jr. The brutality of the crime ensured the quick capture of the murderer. The young man had left dozens of traces in his actions. On Nov. 29, he was arrested while trying to flee in his 2006 Hyundai Sonata.
But what had motivated this young man to commit such a crime? The objective of Joel Guy Jr. It was simple: he was looking for his father’s money. The life of Joel Guy Jr., 28, had been completely financed by his parents, who had covered all of his expenses, from college to his daily life. Despite having spent nine years in different educational institutions, Joel Jr. never graduated or found a job. His existence was, in economic terms, an unsustainable burden for his parents, who had reached the limit of their resources.
Joel Guy Sr., 61, and his wife Lisa, 55, were ready to retire and return to their hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee. However, Joel Jr., fully aware of the family’s finances, saw this decision as a threat to his dependent lifestyle. He knew that his parents were planning to cut off the flow of money, and with them out of the picture, he could claim life insurance on $500,000. This fact was clearly captured in his notebook, where he noted: “$500,000 would be all mine.”
Joel Guy Jr.’s greed and desperation not only drove him to plan the murder of his parents, but also to meticulously document every step of the process in his notebook.
The most incriminating detail in Joel Jr.’s notebook was his consideration of life insurance: “With him gone/dead, I’m left with everything.” This cold, premeditated calculation revealed his absolute lack of remorse and the purely financial motivation behind his act.
The brutal execution of the plan, coupled with the meticulousness with which Joel Jr. prepared every detail, from purchasing containers and cleaning supplies to instructions for dismembering and disposing of the bodies, demonstrated the lengths he was willing to go for money. . However, his attempt to benefit from life insurance was in vain. Quick police intervention and overwhelming evidence against him ensured that Joel Guy Jr. never saw a dime of the inheritance he so desperately sought.
After being detained, during interrogations Joel Jr. chose not to have a lawyer. He first denied the crimes and recounted detailed stories about intelligence work he had allegedly performed for the military, and tours in the Middle East and Central America. However, checks with the military confirmed that he had never been deployed overseas.
With the compelling evidence gathered, the case against Joel Guy Jr. quickly grew stronger. The crime scene, detailed documentation of his plan, and his suspicious behavior allowed investigators to build a strong case against him.
The trial of Joel Guy Jr. It began four years after the crimes, on October 2, 2020. The hearings attracted considerable media attention due to the brutality of the crime and the coldness of the accused. Joel Jr. faced multiple charges: two for first-degree premeditated murder, three for first-degree murder in the commission of a felony, and two for abuse of a corpse. The evidence presented by the prosecution was so overwhelming that it left little room for doubt.
Prosecutors focused their case on Joel Guy Jr.’s notebook, a key piece that detailed his meticulous plan to murder his parents and dispose of their bodies. This notebook not only documented his steps, but also his financial motivation, with explicit notations about the $500,000 life insurance.
The testimonies during the trial were shocking. Investigators described the crime scene in graphic detail, and Detective Jeremy McCord testified about his discovery of the dismembered bodies. The images presented at the trial showed the remains of Lisa Guy and Joel Guy Sr. in the plastic containers, and Lisa’s head boiled in a pot on the stove. Prosecutors called this a “diabolical stew of human remains.”
Joel Guy Jr. was sentenced to life sentence without possibility of parole. In April 2023, the murderer appealed his conviction. He alleged that the initial search of his parents’ home had been conducted without a warrant, which he claimed invalidated the evidence obtained. However, the Tennessee Court of Appeals He rejected the measure. Thus, Joel Guy Jr. remains detained in a cold cell in the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee.
