Joel & Lisa Guy Sr.

Case background and investigation

Joel Michael Guy Sr., 61, and his wife Lisa Guy, 55, lived on Goldenview Lane in the Hardin Valley area of west Knox County, Tennessee. Guy Sr. was a civil engineer originally from Surgoinsville, and the couple were preparing to retire to a home in Hawkins County, WVLT reported. Their son, Joel Michael Guy Jr., then 28, lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and came to the house for Thanksgiving 2016 along with other relatives.

The Knox County Sheriff's Office said the couple were last seen on Friday, November 25, and were believed to have been killed that day or the next, according to an Associated Press report carried by ABC7 Chicago. Wikipedia's account of the trial evidence gives the date as Saturday, November 26. On Monday, November 28, Lisa Guy's supervisor called 911 after she failed to arrive at work, and deputies carrying out a welfare check found the couple's remains inside the house.

Both had been stabbed many times and dismembered. Prosecutors told the jury that Guy Sr. had 42 sharp-force injuries and Lisa Guy 31, and that remains had been placed in containers of corrosive liquid, WVLT reported. Guy Jr. was arrested on a fugitive warrant at his Baton Rouge apartment on Tuesday, November 29, 2016, after being placed under surveillance by the FBI and sheriff's deputies.

The trial opened in Knox County on September 28, 2020. Prosecutors argued the killings were planned and the motive was money. Relatives testified that the parents intended to stop supporting their son financially once they retired. According to WVLT, investigators recovered a notebook containing a list of steps to take before and after the killings and notes about Lisa Guy's $500,000 life insurance. Wikipedia's account says the defence presented no evidence.

On October 2, 2020, the jury found Guy Jr. guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder and abuse of a corpse in relation to both parents, according to Wikipedia's summary of local reporting. He received two consecutive life sentences. The Daily Beast reported that Judge Steve Sword later added four years for the abuse of a corpse counts and said the defendant had shown no remorse.

Wikipedia, citing the Knoxville News Sentinel, reports that an appeal was rejected in May 2023 and that Guy Jr. is held at Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee. No later change to the convictions or sentence was found.