Her Severed Head Was Boiling In A Pot

In the beginning 

Joel Michael Guy Jr. was the epitome of entitlement. Born in 1988, Joel Guy Jr was a frustrating combination of intelligent and unambitious. Joel graduated from Natchitoches' Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts in 2006, attended the prestigious George Washington University for one semester before enrolling at Louisiana State University to train to become a plastic surgeon.

Throughout his extended studies, Joel never worked and was financially supported by his parents, Joel Guy Sr., then 61, and Lisa Guy, then 55 years old.

However, after being in college for nearly a decade, that financial freedom was coming to an end. Joel Guy Jr.s' parents were planning to retire and would no longer be supporting their then 28 years old son.

This did not sit too kindly with Joel Guy Jr. However, Joel soon found a solution to his future financial woe. Unfortunately for his parents, that solution called for their death. For you see, Joel Guy Jr. was the beneficiary of Joel Sr. and Lisa's $500,000 life insurance benefits. 

It would be the Monday following the 2016 US Thanksgiving weekend when this horror show would be exposed.

Lisa's coworkers sent out the alarm when she failed to show up to work. Authorities conducted a welfare check that Monday and gruesomely discovered the couple's remains scattered throughout their Knox County home. Joel Guy Jr. had returned to his apartment in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by this time.

Prosecutors claim he stabbed his father 40 times while his mother was grocery shopping and then stabbed her 30 times when she returned.

He then dismembered both their bodies. 

Prosecutors alleged that the hands and arms of Joel's dad were severed at the shoulder blade. His legs were cut off at the hip, and his right foot was amputated.

It is alleged, that the blows Lisa Guy received were so powerful that nine of her ribs were severed. Her legs were severed below the knee, and her arms were hacked off at the shoulder. Joel Guy Jr snapped his mother's skull from the topmost vertebra in her spine.

Lisa's head was allegedly discovered boiling in a pot, while Joel Guy Sr.'s hands were discovered in their marital bedroom.

Their torsos were discovered inside plastic containers in a bathroom, according to reports. According to the Knox County Sheriff's Office, Joel Guy Jr. "placed portions of the remains in an acid-based solution in an attempt to destroy evidence."

According to an affidavit, authorities identified Joel Guy Jr. as a suspect using Walmart surveillance video that appears to show him "purchasing items located within the residence that were apparently used in the attempted destruction of the crime scene."

And, like many murderers before him, Joel Guy Jr. left plenty of clues behind. Including a notebook that would be his undoing.

Joel Guy Jr. actually had the audacity to brainstorm his parents' murder and leave the written evidence at the scene. He planned to chop up his parents, flush chunks down the toilet, and melt their fingerprints, according to court documents.

The conviction 

Joel Guy Jr. was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of felony murder, and two counts of abuse of a corpse by a Knox County jury on 2 October 2020. 

Joel Guy Jr.'s attorneys argued against consecutive sentencing and the additional four years for the abuse of a corpse charge during the sentencing hearing. According to the defense, he had no prior criminal history and would be a senior citizen by the time he was released, making him no longer a danger to anyone.

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steve Sword said while Guy Jr.'s body would deteriorate over 51 years, it was Guy Jr.'s mind he was worried about, calling it "sick and depraved."

"I don't think his mind is going to change," he said. "Quite frankly, I think if it were 300 years, it wouldn't be sufficient."

"I don't see the potential for rehabilitation of Mr. Guy. I was watching him during the trial; he showed absolutely no remorse or despair over at seeing what he had done," Sword said. "Quite frankly, Mr. Guy, you look like you're kind of proud of what you've accomplished."