Joyce Pelzer

[MUSIC PLAYING] A woman and her wife were building their life together. They'd got married on a beach. They would laugh together. They were getting along good. Outside, looking in, it seemed normal. Until it ended with a bloody assault in a Georgia hotel room. Not only was there a pool of blood, there is blood smeared up the door. The victim's halfway in and halfway out of her door. She is bleeding profusely. She had been stabbed 34 times total. The investigation reveals one of them has a history of violence. Am I any other cover we are, dude? Chundel stated that she was verbally abusive, emotionally abusive, physically abusive. She finally broke free, but her ex-girlfriend was still off now. But was the stabbing a repeated pattern or an attempt to silence a copen spirit error? I asked her what was wrong. And she said, I killed my ex-girlfriend. She was completely paranoid and scared that the ball was going to drop any day. She threatened to kill her over the situation. In a sense of, if I can't have you, nobody can have you. On the morning of December 10, 2018, police in Kanye's Georgia are called to the scene of a bloody crime. Chundel is not alone. Where's your emergency? Oh, yes, ma'am. I'm calling from what does the exponents, somebody's screaming and somebody. He stated that he had guests telling him that there was a latest screaming for help, saying that she's trying to kill me inside of the hotel room. The maintenance worker was unable to make contact by knocking on the door. So the hotel manager called 911 and she's talking to us on the phone. The door opens and the victim follows outside the door and he sees all the blood. When I arrived, I could see that the victim had shallow breathing. She appeared to be in a state of consciousness. You could tell that she was very weak and was losing tremendous amount of blood. The M.S. began to arrive shortly after. She's bleeding profusely from the abdomen. I see the knife. The knife on the floor. I see it. Hey, honey, what's your name? I'm not sure. The hotel room itself also bears the signs of a brutal attack. Not only was there a pool of blood there, there is blood smeared up the door as if I would smile as she probably slid on her back. There are also bloody handprints all over the curtains. You would smile as she's trying to get curtains open off because she's hollering for hell. Who did this? [INAUDIBLE] Do you know if the voice is last name? OK. Who is she to you? Roslyn Lewis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 31, 1971. It's my two older brothers, and then it was Roslyn and myself. We had loving parents, my mom, my dad. It was brought up just to love and the nurture and the care and to have laughter and just be good people. Roslyn was a bundle of joy. She literally met no stranger. Coming from New Orleans, I'll call to you. Everyone is baby or sweetheart. She talked to everybody. She made you laugh. She had this huge smile, beautiful white teeth that just lit up the room. She went to college in New Orleans, Louisiana for a period of time, and then she started working in health care, medical building, and things like that. She liked the seniors. She liked the elderly people. She was able to give them some kind of joy. Roslyn's open acceptance of people also extended to her love life. Roslyn was around the age of when she first started dating same sex, mid-20s, I want to say. With Roslyn coming out as being a lesbian, it was mixed feelings within the family. Some of the family understood. Some of the family was taken back, shocked. We grew up very Christian family, very religious family. So that was maybe taboo, to say at least. It never wavered our love for her. I just wanted her to be genuinely happy at the end of the day. In the early 1990s, Roslyn decided it was time to make a change and moved east to Atlanta, Georgia. She wanted to go to better herself, to get a different environment, and a different take on the world. And my dad would call a thousand times a day, 'cause that was his first daughter, his baby girl. Roslyn found a new job in a medical call center. She also found the love of her life, Joyce Pelser. I want to say they just met out somewhere through a mutual friend. One of the things that she liked about Joseph, she was spontaneous, that she was adventurous. Adventure was one of Roslyn's key things that she'd just get up on a whim and go. First meeting Joyce, she looked like she had a good head on her shoulders. She seemed to be educated, kind and nice. She just was a well put together person. She just was a normal person. After dating for several years, the two women got married in 2016. It got married on a beach. My mom and my dad didn't attend the wedding. They loved Roslyn with everything in their hearts, but that was just something that they wasn't willing to participate in. Some of my cousins went in witness, but we didn't go. Seeing Roslyn and Joyce interact as a couple, outside looking in, it seemed normal. This is what she wanted. Now, two years later, Roslyn is barely clinging to life outside a hotel room in Conjures. And she says her wife Joyce was the one who attacked her. Of course, they were life-saving measures trying to happen in order to keep her alive. It was an overall bond in the amount of staves, a tremendous amount of blood loss. Once they approached the ambulance, Roslyn went into cardiac arrest for the head of again, CPR. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital. The information that she told us that her wife Joyce had stabbed her. We were knocking on doors, interviewing witnesses, collecting BDO. We had to apprehend her and keep her from hurting someone else. I go to the front desk and I meet with a manager at the hotel. He provided me with the registration for the room that had been occupied for about three days by Joyce Pelser. I had handled the video for me to watch at the hotel. And you can observe during the altercation of the curtains, moving back and forth. From watching the video, you know there's a severe fight going on behind the curtains. Shortly later, you see a maintenance worker knocking on the door of the hotel room and then walk away. And then the door opens. You see the arm of the victim fall outside the door as the suspect begins walking towards the rear parking lot. Next, officers speak to the maintenance worker that saw Joyce flee the motel. What all do you know about that? I'm hearing somebody scream, so I knocked on the door. She came and knocked. She came straight down. So I took out, I took wearing my hand and bureau and stabbed it. And when she saw me falling, she cut it. Where did she run to to a car? He gave a description of Joyce leaving the hotel room. She was not wearing shoes. She was only wearing socks. We did find bloody footwear impressions on the sidewalk. And the pattern was consistent with wearing just socks. Witnesses did describe that she appeared very calm. But that she was bloody. Her hands were bloody. Her clothing was bloody on the front. The endkeeper told us that the car that left was a dark car. It was an out-of-state plate that had the numbers 307 on it. As the manhunt swings into high gear, police are left wondering what could have caused such a vicious attack. We had a lot of love. All enforcement south on I-75 that was looking for to us Pelsar and the blackness time that she was operating. They need to use caution 'cause she was somebody that we felt was a danger. Coming up, a previous missing persons investigation suggests a pattern of behavior. She was going to a violent relationship with an ex-girlfriend Joyce Pelsar. And police begin to suspect the two cases are connected. She has a pattern of not allowing people to leave her. Kanye's police are tracking down Joyce Pelsar after paramedics have transported her wife Roslyn Lewis to the hospital in critical condition. Emergency room doctors are fighting to save her life. Roslyn had been stabbed 34 times total. There was one penetrating wound from the back that caused her lung to collapse at that point. Another significant stab wound was in the neck. Unfortunately, she did pass. She was not able to make it. Now this has gone from attempted murder to an actual murder investigation. We contacted Joyce State Patrol and the Marshall Service. At the same time, we have crime analysts back at headquarters. We have been feeding information as quickly as we could get it to them. Analysts conduct a background search on Joyce looking for any possible motive for the murder. What they find is surprising. Our analysts had found out that Joyce was the person of interest in a missing person case into Cab County. So we felt like she was dangerous. The missing person's case was filed seven years ago. And the woman in question was Joyce's ex-girlfriend, 35-year-old Chondelle McLeod. Her mother called the police after she didn't show up for dinner on a Sunday night on September the 25th of 2011. Chondelle also hadn't gone to work that morning. That was very unlike Chondelle. Chondelle was hired on a nurse care bucket as a cook. This I met her. That Sunday morning, another young lady called me and told me that Chondelle wasn't at work. And that was kind of unusual for Chondelle because she always called me if she could make it that day just so I can step in. Unfortunately, you have to wait 24 hours before you can upgrade this case to a missing person's case because she is an adult. After two days passed with no sign of Chondelle, the case was assigned to Detective Henry Guest. They gave me the report I called Ms. McLeod. I said, hey, I see you made a police report about your daughter being missing. Slady was hysterical. And then she explained her relationship to me of her and her daughter, how closely we're as a family. And that she would never just walk away from the family. Ms. McLeod had told me Chondelle was in a violent relationship with an ex-girlfriend Joyce Pelser. For me, I just start reaching out with tracked down Joyce. Detective Guest begins by digging deeper into Chondelle's background. Chondelle has six brothers and one sister. The family was originally from Guiana and her mother moved with her children when Chondelle was fairly young to New York originally. They then moved to Atlanta. She was very close to her family. They depended on her, especially her mother. Chondelle took her to the grocery store, just whatever her mother needed. Just the loving families from day one since I met her. They were always bonded and they eventually started cooking together, and it actually eventually led to her getting a job in Guiana at the life care center. Cooking was her passion. She took pride in whatever she'd do. Everybody was ready to eat whatever she'd cooked. Detective Guest learns the job provided Chondelle with more than just a source of income. While Chondelle was working at the life care center of Guiana, that's where she met Joyce Peltzer. They developed a friendship, but that friendship turned into something a little bit more. And eventually, her mother found out she was dating a woman, and her mother was very upset. It was brand new to her. She accepted it, you know, but she didn't like it. I think her family was the most supported, you know, because they wanted to see Chondelle happy. Chondelle's mother tells investigators she thought the relationship was going well. So she was shocked to learn the truth was quite different. Chondelle was telling her mom everything that was going on. Chondelle stated that Joyce was verbally abusive, emotionally abusive, physically abusive. How she was controlling. She didn't like when certain people would really be around. She would want Chondelle to really end certain relationships that she did not like. Mind you, Chondelle is also stating that Joyce was having her own relationships on the side. She had been a mother that she felt Joyce's out there, being unfaithful. The woman Chondelle suspected Joyce was cheating with was Rosalind Lewis. Chondelle's mother tells Detective Guest that led to a breakup in 2011. She finally broke free of her. She finally got around to the house, but the lady was still stalking her. She would call Chondelle's friends and ask them about her. Plead with them to convince Chondelle to come back to give her another chance. She would follow Chondelle around. Over the following months, Joyce's harassment only continued to escalate. One day Joyce came and pretty much took everything out of their house. Even the toilet seats off the toilet, took all the furniture, all the fixtures, everything. Chondelle was pretty much sleeping on the ear mattress. Chondelle was very-- she was destroyed. She was crying. She was very upset. You come home to-- she don't talk pictures up, throw them in the yard, taking everything. Finally, she-- it would work hard for-- Chondelle spent the next month trying to put the incident behind her and rebuild her life. At this point, they broken up. Joyce is out of the house. She thinks she's at peace. Just to wake up in the middle of the night of Joyce standing over her with the knife. Joyce threatened to kill her over the situation. In a sense of, if I can't have you, nobody could have you. In July, Chondelle went to the court and asked for a protective order. Chondelle told her mother that she was scared she was going to die that night. Investigators are searching for Joyce Pelser. After her wife, Rosalind Lewis, named her responsible for the stabbing before ultimately succumbing to her injuries. In a shocking revelation, investigators learn Joyce was considered a primary person of interest. In ex-girlfriend Chondelle McLeod's disappearance, seven years earlier, in September of 2011. At the time, my biggest thing was to talk to Joyce. We have our suspicion, but there's always two sides to the story. Joyce eventually comes into the police station and she also brings Rosalind Lewis, her current girlfriend, and Joyce sits down for questioning. This is going to be a reference to a missing person. Miss McLeod? How do you know Miss McLeod? We used to date for a couple of years and we also met again. We ever served with a TPO and we stopped no contact with her. Yeah, but she caught me still. She just sat down with me. It was lightning. You know, she'd been in a relationship for five or six years. I believe you would have some kind of expression. She had no expression. I asked her about that. She said, well, Chondelle had hurt her. So she said she wanted to go back to her family. She don't believe she's missing. She believed she's in Guyana. That was a relationship between you two. It was good. Um. Like any other couple we argue, argue. No, we got violent. No. Both of us have a problem, yeah. She made it seem like all of these details that were coming out from family and friends were completely untrue. [MUSIC PLAYING] Joyce also claimed to have an air tight alibi the night Shondelle disappeared. She indicated that she had been home with Rosalyn all weekend, and the weekend that Shondelle's believed to have gone missing. Hello, 26. Wait to work. Because Rosalyn was part of Joyce's alibi, police went on to question Rosalyn about what took place. I'm just going to take a statement from you, but I'm investigating as a missing person. Who's missing? Who's missing? Yes. Joyce's ex-girlfriend, you know what I mean? Yes, Shondelle. She indicated, like, Joyce did, that they had been home all that weekend, that they really hadn't left the house. But unlike Joyce, on the Monday, she indicated that she went to work. Rosalyn said that on Monday, they had stayed home as well. Yeah, both stayed home. Yeah. We showed up. It was one of those days you just wanted to just chill out, because we didn't really do a whole lot. I was like, OK, let's just stay home today. I'm a crazy kid. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Joyce lied to police. Police still have a lot of lingering questions after investigating and interviewing Joyce and Rosalyn. Certainly have them as people of interest. Detectives don't have enough to charge Joyce, so they follow up on her other alibi. Checked records, a supervisor pulled the records. She said she did not show up that day. So no, let's force five statement. The detectives get a search warrant for Joyce Peltzer's phone records as well. And what they're able to determine is that not only did she lie about going into work on Monday, but she wasn't at home on Sunday or Saturday. She wasn't with Rosalyn, as she said. In fact, there were multiple phone calls and text messages between Joyce and Rosalyn showing that they weren't together. Basically, her whole alibi gets blown up. So if you're lying about that, what else are you lying about? The phone calls and false statements suggested to police that Rosalyn was covering something up for Joyce. So investigators searched Chondelle's home, looking for signs of a struggle. Chondelle lives in the up and coming part of the Cab County. We was thinking maybe she got abducted from it in front of the house. While there's no evidence of a struggle or anything like that, they do find a man's watch on the floor in her bedroom, as well as some shot glasses in the sink. Looks like someone may have come over. She may have had company, and they had a drink together. There was also an ash tray with some cigarettes. Ms. McLeod told us, you know, Chondelle didn't really drink. She didn't smoke. You know, we found cigarette butts, we found the man's watch there. And I believe we found liquor. Joyce is a person of interest that keeps coming up. But now they're trying to figure out who his person was, who was in the house of Chondelle, because the evidence is right there saying that there's another person involved. Coming up, investigators zero in on the truth. Joyce and Rosalyn, their relationship has troubled just like Chondelle and Joyce's relationship was troubled. And they learn of Joyce's plan to silence her own wife. She said, I am not a good person. She said, I knocked off my ex-girlfriend. Investigators believe the murder of Rosalyn Lewis may be connected to the disappearance of Chondelle McLeod seven years earlier, through their shared ex Joyce Pelser, who is currently on the run. When evidence of a third party was found at Chondelle's home, detectives wondered if they had a new person of interest or a possible witness. So now investigators are trying to really figure out the pieces of who this person was. So in talking to Chondelle's co-workers, they learned that she struck up this flirtation and romance with the food delivery driver, Rico. He was very nice, so friendly. It's the person who she will ha ha giga giga with every morning. Chondelle wanted to have kids. She wanted to start back dating men. The issue, though, is that Rico was actually married. That certainly created an inference of motive that he might have had something to do with Chondelle's disappearance. To find out the details of the potential affair, investigators brought Rico in for questioning. When he comes in, he's a little nervous because Pelser telling him that Chondelle is missing. Unlike Joyce, he appears very concerned, very upset and emotional. He said he had been seeing her for quite a while now, but he didn't plan on leaving his wife or children anytime soon. He knew all about Joyce. He said Chondelle was so afraid of her that he used to leave a pair of his work boots over at her house to sit on my side. With Joyce, we drive by the house. Rico confirms he was with Chondelle on September 24th the night before she disappeared. He said it was him that was smoking, that was his watch. He explains he went over to Chondelle's house. He had a few drinks, and because he was drinking, he wanted to kind of sleep and offer a second. A little after midnight, he's rushing to try and get back to his house. And that's why the watch was still at the house. But he does go back home to his wife. He sleeps with her the rest of the night. He's very cooperative, but based on our records, he was the last one that saw him. Although Rico seemed genuine, detectives needed to verify his story, which involved an uncomfortable conversation. They call the wife. She is obviously distraught because she just found that her husband has been cheating on her. She verified all of his information of what he told us. She had every opportunity to throw this guy under the bus for cheating on her, but she confirmed he was there at home. There wasn't anything to indicate that Rico or his wife had been untruthful or that they had done something to Chondelle. With Rico and his wife officially cleared from any involvement in Chondelle's disappearance, detectives are left with Joyce Pelser as the only suspect. But they still need more evidence. We checked our credit cards, seen that last time it was used, it was used at the gas station in Gwinnett County, right on the line of the cab county. So I went out there and so happened to have videos of that pump so we was able to see Chondelle heading to work getting gas in a car. She had never actually made it inside her place of employment. A working theory at that point was that Chondelle had been kidnapped somewhere in between. So at this point in the investigation, please certainly have strong suspicions that something bad has happened and that Joyce and Rosalyn know more about it than they're letting on. I tried to get a warning on them but the DA wanted more. We didn't have a body. We know she was missing. We know foul play was in play. But we just needed a little more. Detective Gas pursued this case for seven years, keeping up with leads for all these years, and always thinking that Joyce Pelser had some involvement. Kanye's police investigating Rosalyn's murder, questioned why would Joyce have reason to hurt her wife seven years after Chondelle. Joyce was able to get away with what she did for years. But she knew that Rosalyn knew what she did. Their relationship is troubled just like Chondelle and Joyce's relationship was troubled. And she has a pattern of not allowing people to leave her, not allowing people to move on, and retaliating against anyone who broke up with her or her. Over the seven years before the murder of Rosalyn Lewis, Georgia investigators worked diligently to close the case on Shondell McLeod's disappearance. - It was hard on the family. I'm a parent myself. If something was to happen to my kids, I would want that investigated that police officer to exhaust all avenues. - Those efforts included keeping tabs on their prime suspect Joyce Pelsar. - Detective Gas doesn't give up. He continues to have the media cover the case on Shondell's birthday every year. See if he can generate some information from the public. - Detectives believe Joyce got rid of Shondell once she realized she couldn't control her. And similar issues emerged shortly after her marriage to Roslyn in 2016. Roslyn found out that Joyce was cheating. And she was not happy with that, of course. - I have been doing interviews with a lot of Joyce family members. They pretty much told me that Joyce had a new girlfriend. I did some work up on her and found out who she was. - Joyce's latest affair was with a woman named Katie Long in August of 2018. - It took me a minute, but I tracked down Miss Long. She was in clear water, Florida. And she said, "I've been waiting on you to call me." She told me she had some things for me to hear. - Katie told investigators about a conversation she had with Joyce a year before Roslyn's murder. - She got real quiet and I asked, "What was wrong?" And she said, "I have to tell you something." And she said, "I knocked off my ex-girlfriend." And I said, "Who?" And she said, "Shondale." And I said, "Knocked her off meaning." And she said, " Katie, I killed my ex-girlfriend." She said, "I just feel like I can talk to you and that this is something that you needed to know so that you know who you're dealing with." And I said, "Who am I dealing with?" And she said, "I am not a good person, Katie." - But they don't have evidence of an actual crime being committed. They have nothing concrete to prove that Shondale has been kidnapped or murdered. - Following her interview, Katie agreed to help detectives get the evidence they needed. Katie is starting to realize a type of person she's in bed with and she, truthfully, is scared. - Katie records Joyce and their phone conversations. Joyce is making statements about why she did what she did. She makes statements about implicating Roslyn and that she seems basically to express fear that Roslyn's going to go to police. - Katie reached out to Cap County Police, to detectives' guests in December of 2018 and was very concerned about threats that Joyce was making about Roslyn. She was going to point it all towards Roslyn. - As Kanye's police finish reviewing the Shondale McLeod case, the reason for Roslyn stabbing comes into sharper focus. - Despite the violent threats from Joyce, Roslyn agreed to meet her in that hotel room on December 10th with the intent to end their marriage. - They had taled back and forth and I think Joyce thought there was some room for reconciliation between her and Ros. When Ros began telling her that she had filed affordable worst Joyce snapped. Joyce's world was falling apart. I think that she was completely paranoid and scared that the ball was going to drop any day and that she was finally going to be held responsible for Shondale's murder and that Roslyn was going to be the reason. But before Joyce can be charged with any crimes, investigators need to find her. - We went up on an ex-agent request for services with a phone company and they began to ping Joyce Peltzer's cell phone live. And the first ping that we got indicated that she was heading south toward Florida. K-long lives in Florida. - I immediately asked the sergeant to notify Georgia State Patrol and all agencies that would be on I-75 toward Florida to try to apprehend the suspect before she reached Florida and did violence to another person. - Georgia investigators have notified State Patrol and federal marshals to be on the lookout for Joyce Peltzer. Three days after she allegedly stabbed her wife Roslyn, Joyce's spotted heading south on I-75. - We were notified by Georgia State Patrol dispatch that they had made contact with the car in Chris County. - Initiated their emergency equipment to try to conduct a traffic stop. Joyce fell to yield to the traffic stop and continued traveling at high-rich speed. Third state patrol performed a pitman over which is a precision immobilization technique on the vehicle to try to stop the vehicle before she caused any more harm. - There's dust, dirt, all in the air. The sirens are still going. The officers are running up surrounding the car, trying not to create crossfire. They've got their guns drawn and as soon as it clears enough, they see her raise a gun and that's a threat to the officers and they fire. - The troopers fire into her vehicle. They're able to take her into custody. She's transported to the hospital where she's treated. But there was no significant trauma. - Once Joyce recovered from her wounds at the hospital there, she was then transported to Rotterdam County jail. Myself and crime scene investigator began searching. Joyce tells us vehicle. We were able to locate the bloody clothing along with a knife believed to have been used during the attack on Rosalind. - When Joyce is confronted with the evidence she confesses to the assault. - December of 2019, Joyce decided to negotiate a plea with the Rockdale district attorney's office and she pled guilty to the murder of Rosalind Lewis. - She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the incident that occurred in Rotterdam County. - Detectives are hoping she will do the same regarding the suspected murder of Shundell McLeod. - Detective Gast comes to interview her and this is someone who has pursued this case for seven years at this point. Keeping up with the family, keeping up with leads and always thinking that Joyce Peltzer had some involvement. - We spoke for about an hour and a half and she confessed to being there when Shundell was killed. But Joyce said she had nothing to do with it. Joyce said it was Rosalind. Rosalind said that Shundell gave her herpes and she transmitted it to Rosalind. So Rosalind wanted revenge for that. She said that Rosalind hired a few guys. They drugged her, put her in the car and buried the body in a raving mountain park. - What Joyce doesn't realize is that investigators know she's lying. - We had a phone call, a recorded phone call between Joyce and Katie, where she laid out her plan to tell Detective Gast this very story and she followed through with that plan. - Joyce's whole story was that she was afraid of Rosalind. That Ros was the violent type in this relationship and doing all my investigation, that's not true. - Shundell wanted to move on from Joyce Peltzer and that was something a Joyce Peltzer was not going to accept and was not going to allow it to happen. - When she faces trial in 2023 for the murder of Shundell McLeod, Joyce's attorneys argue the state has insufficient evidence to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. - The defense for Joyce Peltzer was that since there's no body here, there's not enough evidence to show that Joyce was the one that did it. And they leaned into implicating Rosalind Lewis and the murder of Shundell McLeod. executors use Joyce's ex-girlfriend Katie Long to refute those claims. Katie Long's testimony was so impactful. She didn't share friends with Joyce or Rosalind, but she had these details that she would only have if she had gotten them from Joyce. And then when we played that recorded phone call, and when the jury listened to her hatching her plan to frame Rosalind, the air changed in the courtroom, I felt like it was over. Joyce was convicted of both malice murder and felony murder. After the trial, the judge sentenced Joyce Peltzer to life without the possibility of parole. The most bizarre thing of this case is the amount of hatred and violence that could be built up into one person is just very disturbing to me that a person could be that way. Prism is not good enough for her. Chandel life was too soon. Chandel was the most canous person I ever met. Rosalind should be remembered as a person who saw the good, who loved with her whole heart, to have known her was truly an experience and a joy of life that so many won't get to experience because she isn't here anymore. But those who knew her get cherished at for a lifetime. (upbeat music)