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Worst Ex Ever - Season 2 Episode 3
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00:15I'm working a missing person case, and you said you had some information.
00:23I've never dealt with anything like this ever in my life.
00:29She said, I am not a good person, Katie.
00:33It was just a matter of time before someone really got hurt.
00:38She said, I'm never going to go to jail. I'll kill myself before I go to jail.
00:46Connie's not alone. Where's your emergency?
00:48I think there's a stabbing. Can you send somebody immediately to the officer?
00:53I'm sure that she was coming for me next.
01:07In 2016, I was living in Florida.
01:12My daughter and I were living together near the beach.
01:16I was enjoying my job, hanging out with some friends occasionally, spending a lot of time with family.
01:23Life was good.
01:26I was happy actually being single.
01:30Not really dating, maybe meeting a few people from time to time.
01:36One day, I was on Facebook, and I was in a few groups, singles groups.
01:45And I came across a lady by the name of Joyce.
01:50She had a nice smile.
01:52And I liked her picture.
01:56Suddenly, I got a private message, and it happened to be Joyce.
02:01We exchanged phone numbers, and we started talking on the phone for a while.
02:07We kind of bonded over the similarities in our professions.
02:12I was a home health care aide at the time, and I found out that she was a registered nurse.
02:21We talked, and we just really enjoyed each other's conversations.
02:25And we decided, after about a month, that we would really like to meet each other in person.
02:31Joyce was living in the Atlanta area at the time.
02:36She said, hey, why don't you come on up to Atlanta?
02:38I'll show you around.
02:40I was a little bit nervous, but also excited.
02:47That first weekend that Joyce and I spent together, we were staying at the Omni Hotel in downtown Atlanta.
02:55And just learned a lot more about each other.
02:58She had told me that she was legally married.
03:01However, things were rocky and complicated, and she and her wife were separated.
03:10Joyce painted this beautiful picture for me.
03:13She was very attractive.
03:14She dressed very nicely.
03:17And when we would go out for dinner, she would pull out stacks of cash out of her pocket
03:24and tell me I could have whatever I wanted to eat or drink.
03:29Joyce also had told me that she owned a hydroclonic clinic that brought in quite a bit of money.
03:37So that was pretty impressive to me.
03:40She seemed to be very caring and very generous.
03:45And she had everything that I was hoping for.
03:49When it was time for me to go back home, we didn't really want to part ways.
03:54We really wanted to continue to spend more time together.
04:00After I was dating Joyce for about two months, she drove down to Florida to my home to visit me.
04:09And we began talking about exes, as you do sometimes in relationships.
04:17And Joyce proceeded to tell me that a previous girlfriend had gone missing.
04:23She wasn't sure what happened to her.
04:26She had begun to cry.
04:29And she cried for just a minute, and then she seemed to get happy again and didn't talk about it
04:37anymore that day.
04:38I didn't really think much about it, but once Joyce went home, I thought, it seemed a little strange.
04:55A couple of months later, I went to visit her in Conyers, Georgia, which is where Joyce was living.
05:04She insisted that I stay in a hotel because she had some family staying in her home.
05:09And I was okay with it.
05:12I was just happy to see her again.
05:16During that visit, Joyce seemed a little more subdued.
05:20So I asked her if she was okay, and she said she just had a lot weighing on her mind.
05:26She couldn't stop thinking about the girlfriend before her wife that had gone missing.
05:32I was thinking, well, maybe this just happened recently.
05:36She said, well, she went missing in 2011.
05:38That had been five years.
05:42She said that the police detectives were contacting her and that they thought that maybe she had some information as
05:52to what happened.
05:53I asked her if she knew what happened, and she was very adamant that she just disappeared and never heard
06:02from her again.
06:05By this time, Joyce and I had been dating for about six months, and she had brought up this missing
06:12girlfriend about four times.
06:16The more I listened, I finally learned that missing ex-girlfriend's name was Shondell.
06:25When I returned home, I thought, I'm going to find out what's going on.
06:29It just kind of seemed not normal in my eyes.
06:33New at 11, a family is desperate for answers after a Lithonia woman disappeared with no explanation nearly five months
06:39ago.
06:40I had seen several news stories that were posted online about the missing case.
06:45We believe in that, you know, somebody knew something and wanted this lady missing.
06:53But the one that really affected me the most was the one where they interviewed Shondell's mother.
07:00It was a way that I had hoping and praying.
07:05This is how Badesia McLeod tells me she spends some days looking out the window, hoping for a sign of
07:11her daughter, 35-year-old Shondell McLeod.
07:14No sign, no card, no choice.
07:18Me being a mother myself, I could never imagine if my daughter was missing and there were no answers.
07:26She would never walk away from her fatherly.
07:40When the Shondell McLeod case came to me in 2011, I had been with special victims in the domestic violence
07:47unit of the Cab County Police Department for roughly 11 years.
07:52Well, after receiving the case, I went to see the victim's mother.
07:56She said the last time she spoke to her daughter was the day before she went missing.
08:02They was a tight-knit family.
08:05The day doesn't go by that she don't speak to her daughter.
08:08I knew that this wasn't just an average missing person case.
08:13This wasn't a case that somebody actually got up and needed a break from their family and walked away.
08:18This was something more serious than that.
08:23On the day Shondell went missing, Sunday, September the 25th of 2011, she was supposed to report to work at
08:35a nursing home facility where she was a cook.
08:39It was her responsibility to open the kitchen.
08:44She never made it to work that morning.
08:48When Shondell's co-worker arrived a few hours later, she found the back door slightly ajar and all the lights
08:59in the kitchen were off.
09:02She was very scared at that point and went to the management to report that Shondell hadn't made it to
09:07work and the back door was open.
09:11Shondell is not someone who misses work.
09:14She was a very dedicated and devoted employee.
09:18And when they weren't able to get her on the phone, they were very concerned.
09:24Later that evening, Shondell didn't show up to a family dinner at her mother's house.
09:30So Shondell's mother contacted the police.
09:37When detectives started working the case, they immediately tried to determine if there was any activity that would indicate that
09:46Shondell was still alive and maybe had gone off on her own.
09:49They looked at Shondell's bank account, her credit cards, her telephone records, nothing was found.
09:58I learned while speaking to Ms. McLeod that her daughter was involved with Joyce Pelzer.
10:06After I learned more about Shondell, I had Googled Joyce's name.
10:16A news story popped up that immediately listed her as a person of interest.
10:23I was taken aback.
10:25I wasn't quite sure what it was that I was dealing with.
10:30Should I cut off contact?
10:33Is she a terrible person?
10:38But maybe what I'm reading isn't true.
10:42And at this point, I had fallen in love with her and wanted to give her the benefit of the
10:49doubt.
10:51Joyce told me that Shondell was the type of person that wanted a lot of nice things.
10:59And so she and Shondell bought a house together.
11:04Joyce told me that Shondell had good credit, but that Joyce had all the money.
11:08And so they decided that Shondell would get the loan in her name, but Joyce would pay for everything.
11:17According to Joyce, she put all the money down on the house.
11:20She paid to have the house remodeled, new floors, new lighting fixtures, new kitchen.
11:29Things seemed to be going well.
11:33But a short time later, Shondell just did not want to be with Joyce anymore.
11:40Shondell wanted Joyce to leave.
11:44Joyce was furious that Shondell broke up with her, that she had kicked her out of the home.
11:53In July, just mere months before Shondell went missing, Joyce was talking to some of their mutual friends and seemed
12:01obsessed.
12:02Like she couldn't leave it alone.
12:04She pleaded with their mutual friends to get Shondell to talk to her and made Shondell feel very uncomfortable.
12:14Joyce's behavior became really concerning.
12:19To the point where Shondell got a gun.
12:22She was telling people that if anything happened to her, that it was Joyce.
12:27Shondell reported to the police that Joyce had broken into the home that they used to live in together and
12:34threatened to kill her.
12:36Shondell had to get a temporary protective order blocking Joyce Peltzer from having any contact with Shondell.
12:45From what Joyce told me, when Shondell was at work one day, Joyce decided to go and take everything out
12:55of the house and just clean her out.
13:00She had taken everything down to the light fixtures, the light plate covers.
13:08She took Shondell's beloved cookbook collection and threw it in the trash.
13:15This was someone doing anything they could to cause pain.
13:28After talking to Shondell's mother, it was plain to me that this was a violent relationship.
13:35So I reached out to Ms. Peltzer.
13:38I explained to her that I need to speak to her.
13:41It's about Shondell missing.
13:43She said she hadn't seen Shondell since they broke up.
13:47And she said she had moved out of the home that her and Shondell shared and had moved in with
13:54Ms. Rosalyn Lewis.
13:58Rosalyn Lewis was a relationship that Joyce had during the course of Shondell and Joyce's relationship.
14:07But Joyce was sleeping with both of them.
14:09Shondell's mother was telling me this.
14:11And Shondell knew that Joyce was out there doing something and she just wanted out of the relationship.
14:19After speaking to Ms. Peltzer on the phone, her and Rosalyn Lewis came into my office.
14:30I interviewed Joyce first.
14:33How do you know Ms. McLeod?
14:35We dated for about five and a half, six years.
14:39When was the last time you'd seen her?
14:41About a couple of weeks ago.
14:44She had called me because she wanted some stuff that I have in the storage.
14:49How was the conversation?
14:50It was fine.
14:51We hugged.
14:52Chatted a little while.
14:54She'd been with the dogs.
14:55That was that.
14:57What broke your locks?
14:59She just said it wasn't working anymore.
15:01And she wanted something different.
15:02I wanted something different.
15:05I didn't really see a caring person that was in a relationship with somebody for that length of time.
15:14And when I told them that they was missing, it was just like it didn't faze her.
15:20She said, well, she's not missing.
15:22But she told me she was going back to her country.
15:24She was tired of her family.
15:26And after the interview in the family, I kind of figured that wasn't true.
15:31I explained to her that I need to know the timeline of everything that happened when Ms. McLeod went missing
15:38September 25, 2011.
15:56After getting her side of the story, I spoke to Ms. Lewis.
16:02Roz said they was together all day.
16:05They didn't leave the house.
16:09During this investigation, we got a search warrant on his Pelser's cell phone.
16:14We can't say for sure where Joyce was when Shondell went missing.
16:19But what we can say from her telephone records is that she was out of her home network.
16:25And that is in direct contradiction to what Joyce and Rosalind told the police.
16:30So I locked her off for false statement.
16:35At this point, Joyce was my main person of interest.
16:39During this time, I was monitoring her jail calls to see if I can just pick up anything on this
16:45case.
16:47My thing was, eventually she's going to talk.
16:51But the lady was good.
16:53She said nothing.
16:58Joyce told me that the police asked to see her computer, but they found nothing.
17:05And she kind of laughed and said, of course they didn't, because I have nothing to do with this.
17:12All of the evidence that we gathered points right back to Joyce.
17:19But nobody's telling us how this lady went missing or where she's at.
17:26I worked this case strong for over a year, but I wasn't getting enough leads on it.
17:35It's always challenging when you sort of feel in your gut that something has happened, but you can't prove it.
17:44There wasn't a physical struggle at her house.
17:48There wasn't a murder weapon.
17:50There wasn't any evidence anywhere else that anything had happened to Shondell.
17:56I stayed in contact with Shondell's mother.
17:59I just wanted to bring some kind of closure to this family.
18:03I wasn't going to stop looking for this girl.
18:13The more times that Joyce and I got together, the more I thought about Shondell going missing.
18:20I had never known anybody that had been involved in a situation like this.
18:25But the more that she talked about Shondell, she seemed to become more agitated, more defensive.
18:33And a couple of times when I decided to ask Joyce for a little bit more information,
18:41she would reply by saying, what are you, the cops?
18:45I just kind of let it go.
18:49I didn't want to cause any problems.
18:52We still had a good time.
18:54She was very loving as long as I went along with whatever it was that she wanted to do.
19:06The next time that I went to visit her, I was sitting at her dining room table with her and
19:13a couple of family members.
19:15She and one of the family members got into a heated discussion and the family member stood up and looked
19:24at me to let me know that Joyce is a fraud and a phony and she uses people.
19:30And told me that I needed to be careful because Joyce was still involved with her wife, Rosalyn.
19:42Joyce had brought up Roz to me on several occasions, but she had said that she was separated.
19:52When I asked her about the relationship, she said, think whatever you want, Katie.
20:00I kind of got my answer without really getting an answer.
20:06I then began to wonder, what else is there?
20:10What else could she possibly lie about?
20:16My first impression of Joyce was, I didn't like her.
20:23Rosalyn used to always tell me, Erica, you know, give her a try.
20:26She's really nice.
20:27I really like her.
20:29She's funny.
20:30And I was like, you're being gullible and you can't see it.
20:34I don't know what's wrong with this woman, but she's not everything.
20:39Rosalyn, to me, is the big sister, the friend, the confidant.
20:44She was everything to me.
20:48We have a huge family and everyone cared for Joyce and they welcomed her in.
20:54So she was a part of our family.
20:57They were together for a very long time before they got married.
21:03Rosalyn didn't share a lot with me when it came to her relationship with Joyce once they
21:08were married.
21:10But I always told my sister, keep your head on a swivel and if anything go down, even
21:16though I'm the little sister, I'm still your sister, you know.
21:21So then she started telling me that Joyce was cheating.
21:25And that's when I was like, whoa.
21:28Joyce was lying about where she was going, who she was going out with.
21:32Lies upon lies upon lies.
21:35Ros was, she was hurt.
21:38My sister went back because Joyce said it will never happen again, you know.
21:42She was very manipulative and just lied about everything.
21:52After about a year of Joyce and I seeing each other, Joyce seemed to want to be in control
21:59of everything that we were doing, where we would go to eat, if I was going to travel to
22:07Georgia to see her or if she was going to come and travel to see me.
22:12We would still do things together, but Joyce's demeanor seemed to be increasingly aggressive
22:20as time went on.
22:22One day, I was visiting her in Conyers at her home and she decided to take a shower.
22:33She got into the shower and I let her know that I was going to go to the store and
22:40that I
22:40would be right back.
22:43As I walked through the house, Joyce came flying out of the shower, grabbed me around my neck
22:54and told me that I was not going anywhere.
22:58She then moved a little closer to the kitchen counter and picked up a knife and held that
23:06against my neck.
23:09Inside, I was afraid, but I never let her know that I was afraid.
23:14I just remained calm.
23:17She said, you're not going to leave me.
23:20You don't leave until I tell you you can leave.
23:26And she kept squeezing my neck tighter and tighter.
23:30And I said, can you just let me go and we can go to the store?
23:38And she finally let me go.
23:41She put the knife down on the counter and then she turned around and gave me a hug and started
23:46to laugh and she said, you know I love you.
23:50You know I wouldn't do anything to you.
23:53And she just proceeded about her day and acted as though none of that even ever happened.
24:02It was as if I was looking at somebody that I had never seen before.
24:08From that point on, I never showed Joyce any rejection for fear of something happening to me.
24:18One night, Joyce looked at me, kind of worried.
24:25She said, Katie, I want to tell you something.
24:31I killed Shondell.
24:39Then she proceeded to tell me what had actually happened.
24:47Shondell had gone to work early in the morning and it was still dark.
24:54Joyce had hired a hitman to take Shondell and hold her hostage for a couple of days.
25:05They rented some heavy equipment to dig a very large hole somewhere out in the north Georgia woods where nobody
25:14would ever go.
25:17And then they took her to the edge of this very large hole and they tasered her, which caused her
25:27to fall down into this hole.
25:32And they covered up the hole with dirt and left her there.
25:43After she shared this very devastating news with me, she dried her eyes and just got right back to being
25:52happy again.
25:54And I knew this girl was crazy.
26:00I didn't think about calling the police.
26:03I was completely overwhelmed.
26:06And at that point, I was pretty frightened.
26:11I wasn't sure what she was capable of next.
26:15I decided that I should probably distance myself from Joyce and cut off ties as quickly and as smoothly as
26:25I could.
26:28One day, I was out with some friends near my home in Florida.
26:33And I got a phone call from my mother that there was a detective trying to get in touch with
26:40me.
26:41And she gave me the phone number of a detective guest.
26:46Even though the case went cold, detective guest never gave up on it.
26:51He researched and tracked Joyce's life, who she was seeing, where she was living.
26:57And he kept tabs on her.
26:59This is a case I've been pushing for like seven, eight years.
27:03Finally, I discovered that Joyce had been in a relationship with Katie Long.
27:09I wanted to see if Joyce actually just said anything to Katie about her past.
27:17Detective Guest let me know that he was investigating a missing persons case.
27:24He wanted to know if I knew anything about Shondell going missing.
27:30And I said yes.
27:33So I met with Detective Guest in August of 2018.
27:39Tell me exactly what was told to you by Miss...
27:44Joyce Pelzer.
27:46Yes.
27:46What did she say?
27:49And she said, I knocked off my ex-girlfriend, Shondell.
27:56And I said, knocked her off, meaning...
27:59And she said, Katie, I killed my ex-girlfriend.
28:05Did that scare you?
28:07Yes, very much so.
28:09I've never dealt with anything like this ever in my life.
28:13She had me fooled in the beginning.
28:16Do you think she committed this murder?
28:18I very much believe that she had to do with the murder of this girl.
28:26She said, Katie, I'm never going to go to jail.
28:29I'll kill myself before I go to jail.
28:33What Miss Long gave us was a new beginning.
28:37I believe Katie Long did not reach out to the police because she was scared of Miss Pelzer.
28:43I told her to be careful.
28:46You didn't leave Joyce Pelzer.
28:48Joyce did not like rejection.
28:51And what would happen if you left Joyce Pelzer?
28:55What happened to Shondell McLeod?
29:00After my interview with Detective Guest, he asked me to keep in touch with Joyce as much as I could,
29:08as long as I was comfortable and felt safe to do so.
29:13I had built a rapport with her where she did trust me and felt comfortable to share information with me.
29:21I wanted Katie to record her conversation with Miss Pelzer, and she agreed to it.
29:29I was actually happy to do so because any little bit of information might help to either solve a situation
29:40or prevent something further from happening.
29:47Joyce called me one late afternoon and let me know that she was going to take a little road trip
29:54to New Orleans.
29:57She said, there's just something I have to take care of, and it's going to be taken care of.
30:04I knew that Joyce was referring to her estranged wife, Rosalyn,
30:09because she had told me that she had relocated to New Orleans.
30:14Roz had come to New Orleans to take care of my dad.
30:18At that time, her and Joyce were already separated.
30:21She had her disorder that she wanted a divorce.
30:25In Rosalyn's and Joyce's marriage and financial situation,
30:30Rosalyn did hold down the fort.
30:33Joyce was lying about her jobs, lying about going to work, not paying some of the bills.
30:40So Rosalyn, she cut all the lights off.
30:43She didn't stop paying utilities.
30:45Rosalyn took her name off.
30:47The lease, Joyce was calling billions and billions of times, telling her to come home.
30:55She missed her wife.
30:56She's sorry.
30:59But Rosalyn, she was fed up, and she was done.
31:02Up until that point, Roz had never mentioned that Joyce could be dangerous.
31:12On that phone call, Joyce started to tell me about a little .25 handgun that she had purchased
31:20from a guy off the streets in Atlanta.
31:25So I went and grabbed my old cell phone.
31:30I put the phone call on speaker and recorded with my other phone.
31:37She seemed to be on a mission.
31:49Houston, if you killed her, you wish you could go underground?
31:58For the rest of your life?
32:04Yeah.
32:08In the tape, Joyce is telling Katie she's going to lure Rosalyn back to Georgia, get a
32:14hotel room, and when she pulls up, get in the car with her and just shoot her.
32:19She also says, I wanted to call Detective Guest and tell him that Roz killed Shondell.
32:27So Joyce was going to set up Roz to take the fall for Shondell McCloud's murder.
32:33When I was recording the phone call, I was becoming increasingly nervous about something happening
32:42to Roz.
32:43I knew that she was serious.
32:47After I spoke with Joyce on the phone, I thought that Roz should know what Joyce's plans were.
32:54So I contacted her through Facebook.
32:58Being the other woman, I was thinking maybe she would be angry with me.
33:04But she, in fact, was very willing to talk to me.
33:09I told her that I thought that Joyce was after her.
33:13I said, she's on her way there and she's looking for you.
33:17Roz was very adamant about going to the police station immediately.
33:33My wife is here in town.
33:37She threatened me a few weeks back.
33:41Her, well, I guess now it's her ex-girlfriend because the woman, don't mess with her anymore,
33:45called me and said that Joyce is in town and she says that she's going to kill you.
33:56And when I pulled in my parents' driveway, as I was backing up into the driveway,
34:01I saw her start her car and come that way.
34:03She had her head turned, but I know what she looks like.
34:07We had been together for 14 years, so I definitely know what she looks like.
34:11Now I'm thinking that she would call the police alone for fucking time to go.
34:17The night that Joyce drove down to New Orleans,
34:21Joyce thought that only Roz was at home with my dad.
34:24But once she got there, I had cousins that was also there.
34:28And I think that's what spooked her and scared her away.
34:34Y'all need to find out where she is because I don't know what her plans are
34:37because she threatened to kill me.
34:54I don't know what her plans are for me to come through this.
34:58I've been good for this woman.
35:01And for her, it's hard to kill me now.
35:04Kill me, kill me now.
35:07I'm not understanding.
35:12It is frightening to know that someone who my sister brought into our life
35:16could potentially want to harm her.
35:20At that point for me, that's when it got real.
35:23I didn't know the extent of how crazy Joyce was.
35:32Katie called Rozlin and told her that she probably needed to call a detective guest.
35:38At this point, Roz is afraid for her life.
35:42I drove all night getting to New Orleans.
35:45When I got to town, I went to Roz's house.
35:49I said, well, why?
35:50Why does she want to kill you?
35:51I said, what do you think?
35:53Why does she want to kill you?
35:55Rozlin, uh, Lewis was so fearful of Joyce, she told me nothing.
35:59She, uh, she told me nothing about Shondell McCloud's case,
36:03uh, Joyce's involvement in that.
36:05She, she said nothing.
36:08I told Roz, you need to be careful.
36:11Well, she's going to be coming after you next.
36:16Rozlin wanted a divorce from Joyce.
36:17She said, I'm never going back.
36:20She's lied to me too many times.
36:22She won't stop cheating.
36:24She's crazy.
36:26But Joyce was not willing to sign those papers.
36:29Her whole thing was, Roz and I'm going to do better.
36:32I will be a better wife.
36:33I will be a better friend.
36:35I will be a better lover.
36:37Um, so let's give us another chance.
36:42Several months later, Joyce called me, and she was pretty upset.
36:48I tried to get any other information out of her that I could, but she just wasn't doing
36:56a whole lot of talking, and she let me know she was going to go back to her wife and
37:02for
37:03me to never call her again.
37:06She didn't want Rozlin to go.
37:08Rozlin was adamant.
37:09She was like, I'm just going to fly up there, and I'm going to make her sign these papers.
37:15And I remember telling her, Rozlin, are you crazy?
37:18No, you're not going to go fly anywhere where Joyce is to get her to sign the papers.
37:23So this girl could be crazy, and you don't know what she would do.
37:27No, absolutely not.
37:42Conny's 911, where's your emergency?
37:45Uh, yes, ma'am.
37:45I'm calling from Motel 6, Conny.
37:47Motel 6, Conny's, what's going on there?
37:50Somebody's screaming and hollering, I think there's a stabbing.
37:56Can you send somebody immediately, officer?
37:58We're sending someone.
38:06On December the 10th at about 1035, Conyers police received a call of a trouble unknown
38:12at the Motel 6 located in the city of Conyers.
38:16They said it was a stabbing.
38:22When I arrived, the first responding officer was already there.
38:31She's bleeding profusely from the abdomen.
38:33We was able to identify the female as Rosalyn.
38:37Ros, listen to me.
38:40I need you to hold still, okay?
38:42You're okay.
38:43I need you to hold still, okay?
38:46Rosalyn is laying in the doorway.
38:49Blood's on the door.
38:50It's all over the room.
38:51598 radio.
38:52We've got multiple stab wounds.
38:54She's in and out of consciousness, breathing pretty heavily at this time.
38:58We knew that we had a serious situation that had happened, and it didn't look very promising
39:03for Rosalyn at the time.
39:05Ros?
39:06Who did this?
39:08Joyce.
39:09Who?
39:10Joyce.
39:11Joyce?
39:12Yeah.
39:13Okay.
39:14Do you know Joyce's last name?
39:17Pelzer?
39:19Who is she to you?
39:23She's your wife?
39:24Okay.
39:26You're doing good.
39:27Just hang tight for me, okay?
39:32Once I learned that Ros was stabbed by a female named Joyce, who was her wife,
39:37I then started assigning duties for people to try to identify who Joyce was.
39:44Meanwhile, EMS had arrived and were attending to Rosalyn.
39:49She was really fighting hard for her life.
39:52She was definitely a fighter.
39:58Once we were able to get Rosalyn to the ambulance, we could really investigate the crime scene.
40:08It was obvious it was a violent attack inside that room.
40:13We did observe a knife laying on the floor that was covered in blood.
40:19It was one of the worst crime scenes I've been on.
40:25Reviewing the video of the room, you could tell by the movement of the curtains that there
40:30was an outright fight inside the room.
40:33It almost appeared at one point that someone was trying to yell through the window
40:38because the curtain held open for a moment before it quickly closed back.
40:43The door opens and Joyce exits the room and Rosalyn falls to the ground inside the doorway.
40:52I observed Joyce walking toward her vehicle on the sidewalk with no shoes on and only was wearing sops.
41:01She then got into a little trot to her car where she got in the car and then exited the
41:06parking lot at a high rate of speed.
41:15Rosalyn had been stabbed 34 times by Joyce.
41:19She was transported to the hospital, but unfortunately she should come to her injuries.
41:27I was home with some friends and I get a phone call
41:32to find out that my sister had been murdered by Joyce.
41:38The most horrific phone call I've ever had gotten.
41:44It didn't register in my head that Joyce could have stabbed my sister to death.
41:54I can't even scream because I'm so numb.
42:00I'm so in disbelief.
42:03This is a dream and someone is lying to me.
42:07It wasn't a dream.
42:09Joyce murdered my sister in cold blood.
42:14About three hours after the initial call to the hotel,
42:17we were working a full-blown murder investigation at this point.
42:21What we had learned was Joyce had kind of lured Rosalyn to the hotel room.
42:26Rosalyn went there, what we feel was the intent to serve the voice papers on Joyce.
42:35Could that have provoked Joyce to stab my sister as many times as she did?
42:41I believe that rage came from somewhere and she unleashed it on my sister.
42:53We have no idea where Joyce may be headed,
42:56but we needed to make sure we could find her as fast as possible.
43:00We obtained the phone number for Joyce and we contacted the phone company
43:06and requested a ping on the phone so we can determine the direction that she may be traveling.
43:11While we were waiting to get the ping back from the phone,
43:14we found out that she had a past with a female identified as Katie Long.
43:21When our ping returned about two hours after the request,
43:26the phone pings indicated to us that Joyce was headed south toward Florida.
43:33We learned that Katie Long resided in Florida.
43:38We were afraid that her life may be in danger because she knows she had killed Shondale.
43:45My phone starts to ring and it's Joyce.
43:49I did not answer the call.
43:52We continued to get pings on Joyce's phone.
43:56Every ping we got, she was getting closer to Florida.
44:00She continued to call approximately 25 times.
44:06Georgia State Patrol saw Joyce Pelzel's vehicle on I-75 South
44:11and attempted to initiate a traffic stop on her.
44:18She refuses to stop and began to increase her speed.
44:24Georgia State Patrol decided to initiate a pit maneuver on the car.
44:35When Georgia State Patrol got Joyce's car immobilized
44:39and they were approaching the vehicle,
44:44Joyce raises a gun and points it toward the direction of the officers.
44:48They began to open fire on the vehicle.
44:57Striking Joyce one time in the neck.
45:01At approximately 2.30 p.m., the call stopped.
45:12Joyce did not die from the gunshot wound.
45:16She was transported to a local hospital for treatment of her injuries.
45:21When she didn't die from that incident,
45:24it was like the lady had nine lives.
45:29On early Tuesday morning, December 11th, 2018,
45:33I got a phone call from Detective Guest,
45:37and all he said was,
45:40Roz is dead, Joyce is in custody,
45:43I will be in touch.
45:47I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that she killed Roz.
45:53I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that
45:55she could have been coming to also kill me.
46:03Once she was able to be released from the hospital,
46:05she was then transported to Rockdale County Jail
46:08for the charge of murder of Roz.
46:12Now that Joyce is in jail,
46:14and I had the opportunity to interview her once again,
46:19hopefully she would, at this point,
46:21tell me what exactly happened to Shondell McLeod.
46:25Ms. Prozer, what we're going to do
46:27is we're going to be questioning you
46:28about Shondell McLeod being missing.
46:32One thing I can pretty much remember from that
46:35is that I ended up leaving the household
46:38for the second party.
46:40Who was the second party?
46:42Rozelle and Lewis.
46:43Okay.
46:44She was jealous of Shondell.
46:47How was she killed?
46:48I'm not sure if they shot her
46:50or if they don't know how they just push it,
46:53I'm not sure.
46:54When they picked her up,
46:55was a taser used on her?
46:57Because Roz had to come back and give you details.
47:00She had to boast about it.
47:02Roz cursed me out.
47:05And she said it was handle.
47:09Joyce ends up telling the police
47:11exactly what she said she was going to do
47:14in the phone call to Katie Long.
47:16She blamed Rosalind,
47:18and she said that she was just a bystander.
47:20But no one believed it.
47:24The allegations that Joyce have made toward my sister
47:28is the most disrespectful,
47:31beyond evil.
47:33And the reason why you're blaming things on Rozelle
47:36is because she's not here to defend herself.
47:39Do I believe that Rozelle had anything at all
47:42to do with the Shondell's murder?
47:43Absolutely not.
47:46Is Shondell buried in that park, Arabian Park?
47:51It's your hand, yeah.
47:53Okay.
47:55After we did a search on Arabian Mountain,
47:58we didn't find Shondell's body there.
48:01We found nothing.
48:04But I felt I had enough evidence
48:07to charge Joyce Pelzer
48:10for the murder of Shondell McLeod.
48:21Ultimately, Joyce Pelzer took a plea offer
48:25out in Rockdale County
48:26to the murder charges involving Rosalind Lewis.
48:32She went to the hearing
48:33for her to be sentenced.
48:35When Joyce walked out of the doors
48:38into the courtroom,
48:40she showed no signs of remorse.
48:44When she was asked to say something,
48:46she held her head down,
48:47and she never answered.
48:50You're sitting there in a courtroom
48:53with people who adored Rozelle,
48:58and you don't have anything
48:59to say to this family?
49:02Not even an I'm sorry.
49:08You should ride in jail
49:09for the rest of your life.
49:26After Joyce was sentenced,
49:29Detective Guest came back
49:31to the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office
49:33and asked us to take another look
49:36at the suspected murder
49:38of Shondell McLeod.
49:40Detective Guest pointed out to us
49:43that we now had a third-party confession
49:46from Katie Long.
49:48I knew that we had a case
49:49that we could present to a jury.
49:52It was the state's theory
49:54that Joyce was enraged
49:57about the breakup,
49:58about losing the home,
49:59and had decided to seek revenge.
50:04We believe that Shondell was kidnapped
50:06from her work
50:07and then held for some amount of time
50:10before ultimately being taken
50:12to the Arabia Mountain area
50:13where she was killed and buried.
50:16No body was recovered,
50:18but at this point,
50:19we have motive,
50:21we have opportunity,
50:23and we have a confession.
50:32In November 2023,
50:34I attended Joyce's trial
50:36and testified against her
50:39regarding her confession
50:40in the murder of Shondell.
50:43I had not seen Joyce
50:45since 2018.
50:48I was sitting in the stand
50:50watching her walk
50:52across the courtroom floor,
50:53being escorted by two guards
50:57with chains around her ankles
50:59and handcuffs on her arms.
51:03And it was very chilling for me,
51:08very emotional
51:09to see her
51:11in a completely different light
51:13than the day that I had met her.
51:19When I was on the stand
51:21and answering questions,
51:23I actually stopped in the middle
51:26and broke down.
51:29She never looked up from the table,
51:31not once.
51:43Shondell's family
51:44will never get her back,
51:46and this verdict
51:47and the sentence
51:50that Joyce will have to serve
51:52doesn't change that.
51:55But there is now
51:56some measure
51:57of justice.
52:01This case is important to me
52:02because I'm a father myself.
52:04I have daughters.
52:05And if one of my kids
52:08went missing,
52:09God forbid,
52:10I would want somebody
52:11to work it the same way
52:13that I worked in.
52:16No parent should have to lose
52:17a child
52:19in the hands of somebody else
52:20and not let it be investigated
52:24all the way through.
52:29I feel very lucky
52:31to be alive today.
52:33I am extremely confident
52:35that after Joyce
52:37carried out the murder of Roz,
52:40I'm sure
52:41that she was coming
52:42for me next.
52:45I am mostly
52:47back to my old self,
52:48happy,
52:49enjoying life.
52:51I will be honest
52:52and say that
52:53the situation with Joyce
52:55still to this day
52:57affects my life.
52:59I don't think
53:00it's something
53:01that I will ever
53:02completely
53:03get over,
53:07but I have learned
53:08to cope with it.
53:39inates
53:41just
53:56I like
53:57I don't think
53:57but I don't
54:01want
54:02I don't know
54:07can
54:08the
54:37Transcription by CastingWords
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55:37Transcription by CastingWords
56:03Transcription by CastingWords
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