Welcome back to the path when Chili, I'm Robin, I'm Jules, and
I'm Ashley. Ashley, we missed you in the past couple of weeks.
I'm sure all the listeners did too. Oh, I missed you guys and
all of our incredible listeners. Thank you guys for being so patient with me
and so supportive of me. As you guys know, I'm a crazy woman
in just normal life where I'm jumping from teaching to podcasting with you guys and
running the gallery writing children's books. But I've had a lot of mad things
happening in my life with my daddy, who has been quite sick, and
I appreciate how supportive you guys have been of that, allowing me to put
my family first. My kiddos have been struggling, so I've been putting them
first, and like I just told Jules before we started recording, like the
fact that mental health and making sure everyone's safement taken care of that it comes
first, and I'm very grateful that y'all y'all support me on that journey.
So we love you ash well. I love you both as well and all
of our incredible listeners. So because I've been missing you guys, and I
cannot wait for some more true crime in my life. Let's dive right into
this week's case. July twelve, two thousand and seven, Sykesville, Pennsylvania,
the fire department shows up at the burning home of thirty three year old
Joey Lynn off It. The charred body of her six week old infant,
sun Lex, is found in the bathtub, but Joey herself is nowhere to
be found. Three days later, Joey's abandoned cars discovered over sixty miles away
at an apartment complex where she had previously lived. It turns out that no
one can confirm having seen Joey in the week prior to her disappearance, and
while there is initial speculation that she may have killed her child and gone on
the run, no trace of her has ever found after that the path went
chilly. So we've got a very odd missing person's case to cover today,
the two thousand and seven disappearance of Joey Lynne off It. I first learned
about this story when it was featured on a two twelve episode of the TV
show Disappeared. And even though this isn't one of the most well known missing
Persons cases to be featured on that program. It's certainly one of the most
bizarre. There are technically two victims in this story, as Joey was discovered
to be missing after her house caught on fire in the middle of the night
and the remains of her six week old son, Lex were found in the
bathtub. Since both Joey and her car had vanished, people initially wondered if
she might have been responsible for the death of her child and ran away,
as Joy suffered from developmental disabilities and was diagnosed as having the mind of a
fourteen year old, which had a serious effect on her coping skills. However,
her vehicle was soon found abandoned, and it seems very unlikely that Joy
could have managed to stay out the radar this long if she were alive.
An additional complication is that the last confirmed sighting of Joy took place a whole
week before the house fire, So could Joey and her son have been dead
that entire time, and if they were both murdered, who was responsible.
This is going to be one of those cases where it's very difficult to come
up with an airtight theory about what happened, because there are a number of
odd details which don't make much sense. This is going to be an interesting
one. So when I'm listening to this, one of the things that really
stands out to me is that she only has this mental capacity of a fourteen
year old. So if you think of one of your children or a fourteen
year old kid that you know who is one raising a child but two,
is going to say, what the theory that she stages this and runs away.
If that's the case, look at how sophisticated this must have been.
I mean, I'm sure you have details about the fire and how it was
set and how long it was burning in those kinds of things. But like
y'all said, if she's fourteen in her mental capacity, does she really have
the ability to live off the grid on her own or would she eventually need
support social services things where she would need to tell her identity, she would
need to know, she'd be desperate to get help, like a kid does
once they kind of run out of their own ideas. So I find it
quite unlikely at this point, with no more details, that she would have
the ability to cover this to this extent to not only kill her child,
because that could happen with someone with intellectual disability, but then to burn the
house, escape, runaway, and never be located again seems a little bit
of a stretch to me. I mean, it seems like it could have
happened back in two thousand and seven when this originally happened. But this is
one of those cases where we don't even have an eyewitness sightings, any mistaken
eyewitness sightings of Joey in the years following your disappearance to confirm she's still alive.
So it seems very unlikely, like you said, that anyone with that
mental capacity could successfully stay hidden for nearly sixteen years. Our story begins in
two thousand and seven in Sykesville, Pennsylvania, a small borough located in Jefferson
County, which had a population of just over a thousand people. Our central
figure is thirty three year old Joey Lynn Offit, who originally hails from Warrenton,
Virginia, and has spent the past six months living in a house which
was purchased by her mother's Sherry Hallett. Joey suffers from developmental disabilities, as
a psychologist once diagnosed her as having the mind of a fourteen year old.
Ever, since her parents divorced at the age of three, Joey always had
issues coping with problems. She was known for being a very sweet, good
natured person with an almost childlike innocence, but transitioning into adulthood was not easy
for her, as she had trouble holding down jobs and maintaining long term relationships,
and often moved around a lot. Joey has three children, including a
nine year old daughter and two year old daughter, the latter of whom was
fathered by her on again, off again boyfriend, Alexis Broland Junior, who
also had a son of his own from a previous relationship. On June third
of this year, Joey gave birth to her first son, Alexis Alfred Broland,
the third who would go by the name alex In spite of having two
children together, Joey and Alexis often had a rocky relationship. Even though they
had lived together in the past and were hoping to get married at some point
in the future, they were not quite ready to start living together again just
yet. This is what prompted Joey's mother, Sherry, to buy her a
small house in the quiet community of Sykesville hoping that this would give her daughter
the opportunity to settle down as her children. Alexis lived thirty minutes away from
Joey in the town of Clearfield, and they both shared custody of their two
kids. As July rolled around, Joy wanted to have some time alone with
her newborn son, so she made arrangements for her youngest daughter to stay with
Alexis while her oldest daughter stayed with Sherry in Virginia. At approximately four am
on July the twelfth, many of the residents in Joy's neighborhood were awakened by
a loud explosion. It turned out that Joey's house was in flames, so
the fire department was immediately summoned to the scene. The fire consumed a large
portion of the residence, but after they extinguished the blaze, the firemen were
shocked to discover the charred remains of what appeared to be an infant child in
the bathtub. DNA testing would eventually identify him as Joey's son Lex. However,
neither Joey nor her vehicle and nineteen ninety four Saturn coop could be found
at the scene. So this makes me think one of two things is going
on. One she sends the children to these other locations and in kind of
as a precursor to what's going to happen to the youngest, to the newborn,
or she's doing what a lot of people feel when they have a new
baby, where they're feeling overwhelmed. Remember this is like a fourteen year old
child who has three children to take care of, and things like postpartum hormone
changes the emotions of not having dad. They're constantly, you know, trying
to live on her own. So a lot of times there is that desire
to please, let me catch my breath. I can rock my newborn to
sleep, but I can't run after my older two kids. So I think
one of those two things could have happened. That she's setting us up to
be isolated with Lex because maybe it's too much, or possibly more likely is
that she just needs to catch her breath and she's asking for help. That's
what I feel like. I mean, she's basically as the mind of a
fourteen year old. To think of the fourteen year old even having just one
infant child to look after, little Lex is a lot, But then when
you're adding in two other children, one being two years old, and Ashley,
I'm sure you can speak to the terrible twos. I remember my brother
and sister going through them, and it was a lot. Like a two
year old takes a lot of energy and a lot of mental fortitude to deal
with. And she's doing this all on her own, like her mom's helping
her, but in the home it's just Joey. So that's a lot for
any young mum to be handling just by herself with no partner there to help
her exactly. Like, I don't think that she had any premeditated intention of
killing her child while she was alone. I think she just needed some space,
Like this would have been the first time she had time to spend alone
with just Lex because she always had her other children around. So I think
she was hoping this would be like a bonding experience for and that she would
get used to having her very first son, but then disaster happened. Yeah,
that's definitely the way I'm leaning as well, that she says I need
that time with just us. And like you said, Jules, oh my
gosh, kids in general are always it's a lot to deal with. Magical,
but a lot to deal with and so, like I said earlier,
you got to remember too, she's likely struggling with the hormone changes and kind
of the exhaustion that comes with it as well. So if I can just
have that quiet in the house, which a newborn does give you that right.
And so she very likely was saying, I have my amazing mom who's
going to help with this baby. My other baby gets to spend time with
her dad, and I get to snuggle my little one, and then,
like you said, disaster strikes. So in autopsy was performed on legs,
and due to the condition of his body, investigators were unable to figure out
his exact cause of death, though they were able to determine he was likely
already dead before the fire began. A gas can was found at the house,
and it turned out an accelerant had been used in both the basement and
the upstairs bathroom to start the fire, making this a clear cut case of
arson. Initially, there was speculation that Joey they had killed her son accidentally
or otherwise, and in a state of panic, she decided to start a
fire and burned out the house to cover up the crime. She then subsequently
fled the scene in her vehicle and went into hiding. However, while Joey's
car keys were missing, her person identification were discovered in the rubble. That's
problematic. She's not sophisticated enough. I don't think at this time to say,
Okay, I'm going to go on the run. What would make it
look like I've been taken, I've been injured, something happened to me.
I'm going to leave my purse and identification and everything here and her car keys.
I don't believe she would have the fortitude to actually do that. And
you also have this accelerant being poured in the home, the fire being lit.
It just seems more sophisticated than what Joey likely would have been able to
concoct on her own. And I think it is a big deal that her
car keys are missing. But later we're gonna find her car, so that
makes sense. But then her purse and identification are found in the rubble.
We talk about this on almost every case. If I'm leaving, I'm gonna
take my things with me, a couple of things that are important, and
here they're not. And like I said, you could stage that. I
just don't think she's sophisticated. Enough to do so, do you think at
the age of fourteen, like I personally could think, Hey, if I
had an infant child and something happened to that child where they died, my
first phone call would be my mother. It wouldn't be to think to grab
an accelerant and set the house on fire. It just doesn't really seem like
it's in line with what would be the thought process of a young mother who
seems to have the mental capacity of a fourteen year old. Oh yeah,
I can see her running away in a panic, but I don't see her
going to the trouble of actually starting a fire. That's just not something that
when you're that age you're going to think of. Well. On July the
fifteenth, three days after the fire, Joey Saturn coop would be discovered over
sixty miles away and State College, Pennsylvania. It was abandoned in the parking
lot of the Nitney Gardens Apartments, a location where Joey and Alexis had previously
lived together in two thousand and three, But there was no sign of Joey
herself, and none of the residents from the apartment complex could recall having seen
anyone leave the vehicle there. One resident was positive that he had seen the
Saturn parked in the lot since July the thirteenth, and thought it may have
been there as early as July the twelfth. Joy's family had suspicions that she
did not actually abandon the vehicle herself because it had been neatly backed up into
its parking space. Since Joy was not a particularly good driver and didn't like
to back into spots, there was skepticism about her being able to park the
car so perfectly between the two lines. The driver's seat was also reclined in
such a way to suggest that someone larger than Joy, who was only five
foot three, had been behind the wheel. Luminol testing failed to turn up
any forensic evidence inside the vehicle which suggested foul play, and fingerprint analysis came
up empty as well. Investigators were unable to find any concrete evidence to suggest
that Joey was still alive, as she never contacted anyone from her family and
her bank accounts were never touched. Her oldest daughter's birthday happened to take place
two weeks after she disappeared, and concern grew when Joying no attempt to contact
or creating great fear among her loved ones that she was dead. So many
problems with this. We've seen this where when you look inside of a car
and the seat is pushed all the way back, it's reclined further than it
normally is, the steering wheels located in kind of a bizarre position. You
can pretty easily tell the little person who normally drives this car was not driving
right that someone much larger had to scoot the seatback, they had to lean
the seatback, they had to raise the steering wheel because they couldn't fit in
the settings that Joey would have had. So that is majorly important in this
case. And I have to agree, I don't want a gender stereotype.
Typically one US girls are not the greatest fancy drivers, and I never back
into a spot. But especially remember she's got an intellectual intellectual disability where she's
functioning at fourteen. I doubt she's this highly skilled driver who's going to not
only park this car so neatly, but back in while in a state of
panic or right after she's done this incredibly large crime. The final thing I
want you guys to tell me about is the location. It matters. This
was a former apartment complex where she had lived with her boyfriend. That seems
too personal to be accidental. I agree, definitely not a coincidence. And
the fact that it was sixty miles away means that whoever took the trouble of
driving there with a great distance exactly, it means that it has to be
somebody who has at least some level of familiarity with her. This can't be
some stranger abduction or murder, because how would they then extract that information from
Joey. It just doesn't seem likely. But anybody who's close to her,
who had known her within that time period would have known that she lived at
that apartment complex. But it justly And when you think that it was sixty
miles away, like you said, this was not three miles around them,
you know, around the block, a couple, a couple of blocks away.
This is sixty miles. So it was very purposeful, either to possibly
stage it to look like Alexis did it or Alexis did it. The case
got even more puzzling when investigators attempted to trace Joey's movements prior to her disappearance
and discovered that she hadn't actually been seen in a week. The last confirmed
sighting of Joey took place on July fifth, when one of her neighbors walked
past her on the sidewalk while she was pushing a stroller. The neighbor claimed
that when he said hi to Joey, she didn't even acknowledge him, and
also said that he could not recall actually seeing a baby inside her stroller.
After the fire in Joey's house was put out, Samarallah hamburger meat was discovered
on her kitchen counter, which had maggots crawling on it. Test showed that
the meat had probably been sitting there since sometime between July third and fifth.
So did this mean that Joey and her son could have been dead for an
entire week before the fire took place. While Alexis and Joey's mother, Sherry,
had both attempted to contact her during that week but failed to reach her.
Prior to that, Joey, Alexis, and their kids had visited Sherry
in Virginia so they could introduce her to baby lex. Joey's nine year old
daughter then wound up staying there with Sherry while the others returned home to Pennsylvania.
Maggots. That does mean that it was over a week. That meats
just sitting there, So this seems it seems wild. And what do you
think to the claim where he says he doesn't even know that he saw a
baby in the stroller. A newborn doesn't do much, so unless they're having
a fuss, you probably wouldn't notice them. I think it would be more
compelling if he said, like, I looked in and there was nothing in
the stroller. You could think, is she having a mental break? Is
she in a state of psychosis? But I don't know that I would read
too much into that piece of evidence. Don't you think you'd go home and
be like to your partner or one of your friends, I just saw that
Joey girl. She was pushing a stroller and there's no baby in it.
Isn't that weird? I feel like that's something you would share, somebody pushing
around an empty stroller. But being like, I can't recall a baby,
I don't know how much veracity that statement has given the problematic nature of eyewitness
statements in general. Oh yeah, I think his memory may have been playing
tricks on them. That after he found out that her baby was killed.
He started thinking himself, well, I never saw the baby. Maybe she
had a breakdown and was like pushing an empty stroller out of grief because Lex
was already dead. But because he didn't flat out say I saw an empty
stroller, I wouldn't put like much racity and say with absolute certainty that the
baby was not there. Just think about it, Like when I go and
walk Winston in the morning and may walk by like one person with the stroller.
You could ask me later on that day if I saw a baby in
the stroller, and unless that baby stood out for some reason or was doing
something, I could say I can't recall seeing a baby. I know there
was a lady pushing a stroller, but that doesn't mean that the baby wasn't
there. It just means that, like, we have so much stimuli that
we're taking in when we're outside that we don't necessarily clock every single detail.
So I just don't think that we can trust that eyewitness statement. And I
also don't see Joey ignoring her mother. I mean, maybe the ex boyfriend
if she's fussing with him, but he has her daughter at the time.
So the fact that she does not answer the phone the fact that she's not
responding to her mother is a problem. I mean, I get that she
would not respond, let's say, to Alexis if they were fighting, but
Alexe has one of her children as well. So the fact that I wouldn't
answer the phone to check on my child, and I wouldn't reach out to
my mother if I was struggling, those two things don't seem like Joey.
Based on what you told me, her mother was helping her live independently,
which is a big deal for someone with an intellectual disability. Her mom was
kind of her rock, and so I just don't see her avoiding both of
those important people in her life. Question for you, Robin, is there
any history that Joey would kind of ignore her mother when times got difficult,
because I know when she faced criticism she could shut down. But do we
know that she ever ignored her mother. I think that's a possibility, Like
I don't want to spoil it, but later on we're going to talk about
an incident from Joey's past where her mother tried to take custody, a temporary
custody, of her children because she didn't like something that Joy was doing.
So it could be a case where if Joey did something and screwed up,
like maybe accidentally caused Lex's death, that she would be too scared to face
her again, and so that could provide an explanation for why she ignored her
phone calls if she was still alive at that point. So the last time
Alexis could confirm having seen Joy was at her house on July the third.
According to Alexis, they got into an argument because he did not like the
way Joy was giving Alexa bath inside a dirty sink. Due to her developmental
issues, Joy could not handle criticism very well and her typical response to a
fight would be to completely shut down and withdraw for a while. So in
response to this, Alexis said that he left the house shortly before midnight and
returned to his home in Clearfield in order to give Joy a chance to cool
off. The following day, Alexis called Joy numerous times and left several messages,
but she never called him back. Even though they had gotten into a
fight, Alexis was still surprised to not hear from Joy since they had been
planning to visit his grandmother together to attend a Fourth of July fireworks display.
On July the fifth, Alexis decided to go back to Joey's house to see
her, but after knocking on the front door, there was no answer.
Since Alexus did not possess a key to the house, he returned home.
Alexis claimed he started to become concerned the following day when he was contacted by
a home care nurse. Since Joey was an unemployed single mother, she was
entitled to receive state aid, which would involve a nurse from the Home health
agency visiting her house at regular intervals to provide care for her son well.
Joey had a scheduled appointment for a house call in July the sixth, but
the nurse told Alexis that when she showed up, there was no answer at
the front door, even though Joey saturned Coop was still parked outside. The
nurse also said there was mail piled up outside and when she peeked in through
the window, she could see a baby seat and a diaper bag inside the
house, which implied that lex should have still been there. A lot of
problems with this when you look at the fact that these people are coming by
her house and no one's getting a response, even though her car is there,
She's alone with a baby, she has antellectual disabilities, she has people
who are supposed to be checking on her, she has a home visit that's
scheduled. These are major things from state employees and people who care about her.
So why weren't the police called for a wellness check and have them opened
the door and see if she's okay. Her car's there, She's supposed to
have a newborn baby there. You know Alexis, I'd love to know more
about him. He's in a fight with her the day before and then all
of a sudden she won't answer anymore. So yes, she could push him
away, Yes she could shut him down. But is that suspicious that Alexis
is the last one to see her and has this newborn baby with her.
Is it possible Alexis didn't want another child? Do we know much about him
as a dad and kind of where he stood with Joey on parenthood? Well,
I know they had a rocky relationship, and I haven't heard like any
indication at all that Alexis did not want this new child. And he did
some interviews on Disappeared when they cover this case, and he did seem sincerely
broken up in an upset that he had lost his son. And as we're
going to talk about, like, police have heavily checked into Alexis story during
this time period and they've never found anything particularly suspicious to think that he might
know more than he's telling. But I can see all on the surface,
it might seem strange that he doesn't seem more concerned if he even if he
doesn't care that much about Joey, the fact that his newborn son is in
the house and he hasn't heard any anything from him in the past couple of
days. Okay, so Alexis. Alexis is young, though, so I
can even give him a pass of saying, Okay, your ex girlfriend and
you know she's not answering the phone, and you're mad at her a little
bit. But what about these state workers, a home nurse, people that
are supposed to be coming to check on the well being of both Joey and
her baby? Why did no one call for a wellness check? Why did
mom not call for a wellness check? Yeah, the thing about the nurse
is weird because she does come back later on, but she doesn't become concerned
enough to contact the authorities. One thing about Alex this too, is that,
Okay, so the police looked really deeply into him, but we don't
even know when Joey died or when little Lex died. We've got a range
of several days given them Meat and the maggots. So if you're checking an
alibi, or you checking an alibi for three days, is there not at
some point in time that he could have been responsible for that? And I
think both things can be true. I'm not saying he did it, but
I'm saying that somebody could have been responsible for what happened to Lex and Joey,
and then they also could be sincerely broken up about it. It could
have been an accident what happened to Lex, and then what happened to Joey
could have happened sometime thereafter, and then things just got out of hand and
he could be incredibly remorseful. And I'm not at all saying that that's what
happened. I'm just saying, when we have a really wide range of time
frames, it's really hard to say that that person one isn't responsible. Yeah,
I'm absolutely in agreement with you, Jules. You're saying, look,
there could have been like three to six days where she could have been deceased
already or the baby could have already been deceased. So, unless as a
potential suspect, which everyone would be, unless a potential suspect can document days
where every single hour and minute is accounted for, you do have that question
mark. It's very hard to exclude people when you have such little detail.
Things got really strange on July seventh, when Alexus returned to Joey's house once
again, there was no answer at the front door. But the big difference
this time is that her Saturn coop was no longer parked outside. However,
when Alexis went back to the house on July eighth, the car was parked
outside again, even though he could not get any response when he knocked on
the front door. After waiting for Joey for over an hour, Alexis decided
to leave a note for her, apologizing for their previous argument and asking her
to call him. In spite of this, Joey still did not answer or
returned repeated phone calls, which were made to her not only by Alexis but
from her mother. On July eleventh, Alexis heard from the nurse from the
home health agency, who told him that Joey was still not answering the door
and had missed another scheduled appointment. Alexis decided to meet the nurse at the
house, and they both noticed the mail was still piled up at the front
door. Alexi's child seat and diaper bags also still appeared to be in the
same place as when the nurse peered through the window five days earlier, but
in another strange turn of events, Joey's Saturn coop was missing again. Alexis
decided to leave one more note informing Joey that if she did not contact him
or the nurse by the following day, he was going to involve the police.
While they still did not hear from Joey, so on July twelfth,
Alexis finally contacted the Pennsylvania State Police. He was asked to visit the station
in order to file a missing person's report, but while he was there,
Alexis learned about the fire which took place at Joey's house earlier that morning.
It's also worth noting that even though Joey's Saturn coop was eventually found in State
College, it had apparently returned to her house at some point after Alexis went
there on July eleventh, as witnesses were called seeing it parked outside at approximately
three am on July twelfth, one hour before the fire started. This is
just such a wild forensic case when you're thinking about it, because, I
mean, we have evidence that she has been deceased for quite a while.
There's not much of anything we're going to learn from the baby's body. But
Joey clearly has not been functioning in this home. She's not answering the door,
she's not going to any doctor's appointment. She's not allowing any help that
she's going to need. Like, let's be honest, if she has a
home nurse that's coming to check on her and people who come for home visits
to support her in independent living, she's going to use those resources as a
new mama, right, She'd probably be craving and waiting for them to come,
like, hey, I get help for a few minutes, right,
And there's no response. So when you talk about like she could have definitely
isolated away from her mom or from Alexis, I just don't think she'd be
isolating away from those people as well. And this car moving around, very
very Odd's there, it's not there, It comes back. Do you guys
think there was someone who is coming to the crime scene. I think lex
probably died far in advance. Then Joey is deceased at some point and someone
is just like existing in her space, using her car, trying to figure
out how they're going to deal with this, And then they drive the car
sixty miles away in park It where they know Alexis and Joey used to live,
which to me is very symbolic, right, it's an important place to
Joey or a big part of her life. It just seems diabolical that someone
could carry on for days with at least a deceased infant, if not a
deceased infant and a mama and no one saw them. No, And think
about this too, people with intellectual disabilities or physical disabilities. There's such targets,
especially intellectual disabilities, such target for people praying on them. You know,
she has multiple kids. I often wonder like do people take advantage of
people who have special needs? And yes, yes they do, and so
would Joey being a target because of her intellectual disabilities. But it still seems
so diabolical that you would not just target her once but would continue this kind
of escapade for days with her car, possibly with bodies, seems very risky
and very disturbing. Yeah, the part about the car is just so weird
because the first few sightings on the seventh and the eighth, it's like,
Okay, we only have Alexis's word that the car was missing and then it
returned, but we also have a second end to pine and eye witnessed the
nurse who was with Alexis and confirmed on the eleventh that the car was not
there yet it returned at a later time. So whoever did this? Why
are they driving her car back and forth so many times? It does feel
like somebody is kind of in a state of like just existing in her space.
But also I feel like I agree with you that they're probably panicking and
they've got this mess to clean up. And perhaps if they had Joey's body,
they used her car to move the body. Maybe they then had to
clean the car. Maybe they tried to clean her place as well before they
decided to set it on fire when that note was left, perhaps the note
was the catalyst or if you believe that Alexis is responsible, then that was
all part of the plans. So it seems like this person was like,
Okay, I'm biding my time. But it just feels so protracted, like
they could have figured this out within a day, you know, Like I
don't understand why you would kind of twiddle your thumbs and wait so long,
be moving around the car so many times. This doesn't seem like a very
forensically sophisticated or maybe I'll go out on lim and sate intelligent individual exactly.
It's someone who's like spending a week trying to figure out how they're going to
cover up this crime. And then I think finally reached the point where it's
like, okay, I'll set fire to everything and hopefully nobody will figure out
what actually happened. So investigators would make some interesting discoveries when they examined Joey's
computer and looked into her Internet activity. Since Joey was known for being a
naive and trusting person who liked to meet people on the internet, there was
speculation that she may have crossed passed with someone who did her harm. In
fact, for this reason, Sherry had been granted temporary custody of Joey's children
in the fall of two thousand and six. This arrangement came about after Alexis
noticed some disturbing emails on his computer and brought them to Sherry's attention. It
turned out that Joey had been corresponding online with a man from California who told
Joy he was a photographer and eventually said he was interested in using her for
some pornography. Well. Sherry became terrified that Joy was communicating with a sexual
predator at potentially jeopardizing her children's safety, so she notified the authorities and was
granted temporary custody of Joey's two daughters. Sherry informed Joy of this news while
some sheriff's deputies were at her house, and she did not take this very
well. Joey wound up reacting violently and had to be handcuffed by the police
and taken away. After this took place, Joey informed her mother that she
had become pregnant with her third child. When she underwent counseling and agreed not
to speak to any more strange men over the internet, Joey finally regained custody
of her kids. This is exactly what I was talking about. Because Joey
is a fourteen year old alone. Let's think of that in a mental space.
As a fourteen year old, you're really trying to understand your sexuality.
You're really trying to explore these ideas of people loving you and wanting you and
protecting you and you know, really liking you. And so Joey is functioning
like that, the maturity level of a kid who's craving someone to say,
you're beautiful, you're pretty. You know, I could make something out of
you. Joey probably doesn't have a whole lot of that in her life,
and she also probably doesn't have many prospects of, you know, promising jobs,
being told that she's going to be something. And so this person knew
that and preyed on that as a predator, which is exactly what her mother
said, and it definitely put her at risk. There's no way of knowing,
just like I don't know what my five daughters are doing all the time
on devices, there's no way of knowing who Joey spoke to. There's no
way of knowing who made her these promises, because it's likely, just like
teenagers do, she put herself out there to an audience she did not know
and got feedback that she wanted that quick gratification and feeling beautiful, and then
gets kind of caught up and lost in these kind of relationships and conversations.
And what I was referring to earlier that theoretically, if Joey had accidentally killed
Lex, this could provide an explanation for why she wouldn't answer her mother's phone
calls or reach out to her, Because we had this previous incident where Sherry
took away her children because she thought that they weren't safe with her. So
theoretically, if Joey did something bad again, I could see her wanting to
avoid telling her mother about what she had done. Though we have no proof
that this took place, that Joey was the one who was responsible for Alex's
death. It turned out the weeks before she went missing, the internet service
in Joey's house was turned off due to non payment, so investigators could not
find anything on her computer to suggest that her Internet activity played a role in
her disappearance. However, there were some interesting revelations about Alexis. In February
two thousand and five, Joey joined an Internet group for single mothers and made
five hundred and twenty five posts over the course of the next two and a
half years. She often posted about her rocky relationship with Alexis, claiming that
she feared potential physical harm from him for both herself and her children, and
even got a protection from abuse order against Alexis. At one point in two
thousand and six, Joey posted about how Alexis son from a previous relationship,
had sexually assaulted her oldest daughter. This led to her daughter being removed from
their home, so Joey had to fight to get her back. However,
by March two thousand and seven, Joey started posting that she'd grown a lot
more optimistic about the relationship. While she said that she was not ready to
completely trust Alexis, she believed they could work things out and eventually get married.
She also mentioned that Alexis was a felon and a former drug addict,
but that having children had completely changed him. Joey's last official post in the
group took place on June fifth, where she announced the birth of her newborn
son, alex and she said that she hoped to post photos of him soon.
Let's dissect a little bit of this. We've all joined public groups on
Facebook or something like that, like I'm in a group of moms for a
certain neighborhood, in different kind of academic mom groups things like that, And
there are posters who post too much, they overshare, they invite you into
a very complicated world. And I often wonder, again, keep in mind,
she has a fourteen year old's mentality. I think there can be a
lot of manipulation and exaggeration by fourteen year olds because they don't grasp bigger concepts
and dynamics and things like that. And if she's lonely and she's not getting
a lot of support, if she is kind of craving people to give her
attention and kind of encourage her as a mama, and you're so great and
giving her these compliments, then you can beef up a story to make it
worse. I'm not saying that these things weren't happening, but I think for
teenagers and people who might have mental health issues or things like that going on,
that there is definitely manipulation and stretching the truth. They're making false allegations
to get people to feel pity for you and to feel like, you know,
they need to reach out and support you and boost you as a mother.
Five hundred and twenty five posts over two and a half years. I
think I've made like three posts in seven years. You know, it seems
excessive, and like that's where she goes to get her social support and her
encouragement. I would love to know how much of this we know is true?
Was there a protection order? Do we know that there had been calls?
Did mom know that there was physical abuse? Like? How much is
true? And how much is Joeys saying? I'm getting the reaction I want
people pity me. People are boasting me up, They're saying I'm great,
And therefore I go here when I'm feeling lonely and I want to be the
center of attention for a few minutes. You get that dopamine boost right where
people are telling you you're doing a great job. I mean, this is
before people go to TikTok to get their dopamine or going to mental health professionals
would be, you know, pretty much the norm, especially for somebody like
Joey. And was she seeing any mental health professionals or did she just have
the nurse to come and help her Robin and that nurse you're referring to was
actually just there to help her child, So she wasn't really treating Joey for
her mental health. And yeah, I haven't really heard much indication about how
much. I think she did see a specialist at one point who diagnosed her
with having like the mind of a fourteen year old. So she did see
get some treatment at some point, but I don't know if she was getting
it that thoroughly or that frequently. And I think it was one of those
things that only came about late in life, Like she wasn't getting it when
she was still a teenager. It was just as she got older when people
realized there's something different about her. Maybe we should have her checked out by
someone. Can we just acknowledge how horrific the idea of her nine year old
daughter being sexually assaulted by Alexis's son, And can you imagine putting that out
there? Jewels like that's something that you need to deal with in a more
private setting. Again, is she putting that out there even if it did
happen for the attention, she's like a fourteen year old, So maybe because
it doesn't sound like she has a lot of a girlfriends around her. Typically,
you know, think we'll just refer to her as being like fourteen,
right, because that is the way that her mind operates. Typically, you
would have friends around you who you would share this information with. You wouldn't
share it with a bunch of strangers. So I feel like her mom,
Sherry is a great support to her. Alexis seems to be a good support
at sometimes, but it seems like she really is craving that connection with other
people and maybe she isn't able to go out and like make friends in a
typical capacity, and so this is the closest thing. And like you said,
Ash, it's almost like put all this information out there to gardner sympathy
because that is the only way that she knows to kind of draw people in.
Yeah, don't you guys know the friend who's like, can't tell you
why, but can prayer request? And you're like, well, what's going
on? Like it was that, you know, can I what? Can
I a fishing? Yeah? Or I'm sick? Oh, it's so bad.
And they overshare all this medical information and you're like, oh, Lord,
have mercy, Like you know, there's always a problem. They always
want people to you like they want to click on and see that. Twenty
two people have said like, oh my god, I'm thinking of you,
you know, can you can you tell us more? Can we help you
in any way? It feels good? And I want to know how much
of this about him, like we said, is true. And did Sherry
ever come forward and say like this man was danger russ I did not want
him around my daughter or did she know like ah, yeah, they go
back and forth, but it's like two teenagers. I'm basically dealing with a
young set of parents who seem like teenage kids that fuss and don't get along
sometimes and aren't really mature enough to be carrying out the life that they built
for themselves. Yeah, that's a disclaimer. I want to add, I
have no idea this story about Alexis's son abusing Joey's daughter is true. I've
never seen anyone go on the record to confirm it or deny it. But
I've also never seen Joey's family, like her mother say anything bad about Alexis
either, Like they've never flat out and said I saw him abusing Joey.
I saw that his son was trouble and was abusing her. Daughter. And
I'm thinking that if Alexis was really like this, I'd have a feeling that
Joey's family would be shouting it from the rooftops and putting their finger at him.
But because I had never seen any confirmation that any of this stuff is
true, I would definitely take it with a grain of salt and feel that
maybe Joy was just like letting loose and making up things for attention in an
internet forum. But don't you both think it's a little bit odd that if
it was untrue, or if it was fabricated, that Alexis wouldn't refute that,
because that's a pretty big allegation to be lobbying at your child. Well,
I bet this is what happened. I bet she's in this kind of
mom group and there's Alexis has no idea what's happening. And again, I
think this would have been a bigger deal, Like Sherry would have said,
Alexis has no assist to those children anymore, Like I think there would have
been a bigger fight to keep him away if these things were true, if
he was a known drug addict, if he was a felon, if he
was allowing his children or part of the process, whereas you know child's sexually
assaulting another kid. I just don't think that could be all true. And
Sherry's fine that he's raising grand babies with her, right, she's gone forward
and said my daughter is not doing well taking care of the kids. I
need help. Surely she would have done the same and said Alexis needs to
be barred from that home. He should not have access to these children.
He is a danger to them. I cannot imagine her letting that happen.
So I think this is an a closed group of moms. And like I
said, she's starting small oversharing, getting what she wants, and she keeps
up and upping and upping because well, this time a slap wouldn't matter.
So this time I'm going to say that he punched me, and then that
won't really get the much more attention than I got last time. This time
my daughter was sexually assaulted. You know, like, what else can I
do to raise the bar and get more support from these people. I just
mean that, like, once this information was out to the public, people
are going to know who Alexis's children are. I would think that given you
know, the stigma with somebody being a sexual predator that you would want to
refute those claims, Like, I don't think he would have had access to
the information while she was doing it. And I do think it is possible
that she did fabricated or did kind of just build on certain things, especially
since we haven't heard from Sherry that there was anything more than just kind of
a tumultuous relationship, which is typical for any young relationship. I just think
it is strange that Alexus didn't come out and say those things that Joey said
in that group, are you know, untrue? Just because it does cast
a bad light on one of his children. Oh that's so true. Sorry,
Jules, I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you were like,
in that moment, why is he not calling her out? Oh no,
he it's not going to know in that moment. I just meet in
the aftermath. Yeah, for sure. That is interesting because I wonder if
part of it's like, look, she's missing, she's deceased. I don't
want to even go there, like she had special needs. Like I wonder
if he's moved forward. This is not a you know, crazily I don't
know, I don't know, I would I would be screaming from the rooftops,
although I may not want to bring the attention to my kid as well.
So that's a tough one. It makes me think it might be true,
because if it was untrue, I would think Alexis and or his child
would want that to be No. But a lot of the disclaimer is that
this information was not shaired on the disappeared episode, So it's not like it
went out in national TV. All the stuff about the Internet post, I
think was only published in one article, So it's not like it's common knowledge
out there that Alexis's son was being accused of sexual abuse. It's not like
it was something that went out on national television. So that could explain why
Alexis has never said anything publicly, because maybe he's worried it a lonely more
attention to his son, which he does not want. That makes sense,
Yeah, that does make sense, because if it's not this crazy thing I
need to confront, does calling it out and bringing light to it actually cause
a bigger problem for my son than saying, obviously, you can tell this
is fabricated. She was struggling, she was making up all these different lines.
No one's going to take it seriously, and I don't want to put
my son's name in his kind of character out there. Sometimes when people defend
themselves, it actually makes them look worse than when they just stay quiet.
It totally does, and isn't that often the strategy is like, don't respond,
especially with famous people when they're getting baited. You don't address, You
don't respond unless it's absolutely something that you need to and then you eat your
pr team. But you're absolutely right, Ash. If he would have,
like it would have been listed in like one article and he would have kind
of gone in front of a camera and made it a big deal, it
would have just shown a light on him and on his son and on this
situation and this potential sexual assault that happened to her nine year old. So
yeah, I think it probably would have been advantageous for him to just say
nothing given the limited exposure. So, like we just said, we don't
have enough information to know just how truthful Joey's allegations against Alexis were. After
Joy went missing, Alexis was questioned and interviewed by police multiple times, and
he was very cooperative with the investigation. He allowed his computer and phone records
to be checked and no evidence could be uncovered to implicate him and Joy's disappearance.
Alexis initially agreed to take a polygraph and said he was told he did
well on the test, but the police later approached him and informed him that
he did not actually pass, so he was asked if he would consent to
a second polygraph. On the advice of his family, Alexis declined to take
the test again. Alexis has since got remarried, and while police have never
named him as a suspect, he has never been completely eliminated as a suspect
either. Joy's family set up a website of voted to her case at find
Joey dot org and have offered a twenty five thousand dollar reward for information,
and the story would be featured on episodes of America's Most Wanted and Disappeared.
Sherry Howett had her daughter legally declared dead in twenty sixteen, and investigators now
seem certain that Joey was the victim of foul play, But even though nearly
sixteen years have passed, the investigation has failed to turn up any solid leads.
So the circumstances of Joey Lynn off it's disappearance as well as the death
of her infant son remained unclear. So I guess you could say the path
went chilly. You know, Jules, you brought this up earlier in the
episode, that it's nearly impossible to clear Alexis. It's nearly impossible to clear
Sherry. It'd be impossible with this range of time, when we don't know
the details, when we don't know where she is, when we don't know
what day she disappeared or died. How do you then say I can check
off every potential with you as a suspect and clear you. I don't think
it can happen in this case, which is really hard because if Alexis has
nothing to do with this, he still has not only the death of his
infant son, not only the death or disappearance of Joey, but he also
has scrutiny on him, or at least even if it's five percent right or
are a percent, if you don't clear my name, I live with that
kind of shadow over me where somebody still thinks I could have hurt her.
And so there's so much trauma for Alexis. There's also so much trauma for
Sherry. And her family as well. They lose their grand baby, they
lose their daughter, and there's this kind of question mark of what happened to
her? Where is she? And especially because she has this intellectual disability.
I can imagine the stories that Sherry concocted in her mind of like people take
advantage of her, are potentially being trafficked and being in a human trafficking ring.
You know, those are the kind of people that individuals prey on because
they don't have the ability all the time to have the same access, the
same communication, the same wherewithal to get help or to react as quickly as
someone who doesn't struggle with an intellectual disability. So it's such a tragic case
that family does not know where their baby is and they had to bury their
infant grand baby, and so my heart breaks for them. I wish they
could bring Sherry home and lay her to rest next to her son. I
think there would be so much peace and healing in that. But at this
point, it seems nearly impossible that we would be able to put the pieces
together to know what happened to her. So this story is a bit reminiscent
of another case I featured on the trail went cold way back on episode number
fourteen, which ironically enough, took place in Stroudsburg, another borough in Pennsylvania,
and involved a man named Edward Knapps, who vanished in nineteen sixty two
after his wife an infant dad found dead inside their burning house. It was
initially believed that Maps killed them, and he was listed as one of the
FBI's ten most Wanted Fugitives for a while, but he could not be found.
As a result, there's always been debate about whether Maps actually murdered his
family and started the fire, or if his father in law was actually the
real culprit and disposed of Maps's body in order to frame him for the crime.
Well, we have a fairly similar scenario. In this case, a
deceased infant was found inside a burning house and the child's parent went missing,
So there was ambiguity about whether she decided to go on the run because she
was responsible for what happened, or if she was another victim. Of course,
given that there's been no trace of joy Lynn off at at all in
nearly sixteen years, I think there's virtually no chance she's still alive. But
the circumstances of what actually happened to her are incredibly murky. This is one
of those cases where it's very difficult to figure out an airtight theory which makes
one percent complete sense, because nothing really adds up now I know. It's
something of a running joke about how true crime shows often go out of their
way to paint the victims in their stories in the best possible light and practically
make them sound like perfect individuals. Well, that's definitely not how Joy lit
off. It was portrayed when her case was featured on Disappeared. Well,
everyone who knew Joy described as a very sweet, good hearted woman. It
sounds like her developmental issues did not always make her the most easy person to
be around, Like we mentioned earlier, even though she was in her early
thirties, a psychologist diagnosed her as having the mind of a fourteen year old,
and during her interview on Disappeared, Joy's mother actually described her as being
mentally handicapped. Well, Joy could certainly function on her own and live a
normal life. The impression I get is that she was stunted and just to
not have the emotional maturity level to handle the real world and maintain any focus.
That's what the problem is. It's this idea that really you're trying to
rationalize and function with a fourteen year old who is building a life as a
very busy adult. Right and so I have three teenagers right now, so
I can tell you that dealing with a fourteen year old or in any range
there, let's say she's really at an eighteen year old level whatever, when
you confront them, when you ask them to be accountable, when you challenge
them, when you don't agree with them. It's not that they're not great
humans, it's not that they're not lovable, but my god, it is.
It is maddening when you try to rationalize and explain like a very common
sense thing, if you do this, this will happen. You know,
if you make this decision, this is who you hurt. It's they don't
have that forward thinking and the ability to really stand in their space and say,
if you know, I need to understand the consequences and the complications that
come with my behavior. And so you do have Sharry trying to kind of
reel her in and keeper in line. I guarantee you there was a lot
of headbutting because she's thirty and she's having to be treated like a fourteen year
old in many cases, and I will tell you that fourteen year old,
as lovable as they are, it would be a big challenge. Joey attended
Shepard University in West Virginia to study journalism, but wound up dropping out after
only a year because of poor grades, and after that she had a hard
time holding down a job and pretty much drifted around a lot. And of
course, Joey also had a lot of difficulties with relationships, which explains the
strange circumstances of her relationship with Alexis. As you'll recall, they lived together
for a while and had two children together, but then reached the point where
they had to live separately while raising these children. However, they still hoped
they would be able to get married in the future and become a family.
It sounds like one of Joey's main drawbacks is that she had a particularly hard
time handling criticism. Is if she was angry with someone, she would essentially
act like a child and give them the silent treatment for a while, and
instead of dealing with her problems, Joey seemed to have a tendency to run
away from them or just hope they disappeared on their own if she ignored them
after hearing this, you get the impression that if Joey was somehow responsible for
the death of her infant son, she could have panicked and ran away in
order to avoid dealing with the consequences. But if that's the case, what
actually happened to her. I definitely think you could see a panicked child trying
to cover their tracks if something happened to the baby, But I don't think
she'd have the ability to do so so successfully for so long without accessing any
of her information. Like, think about this, so her remember her credit
or all of her identity, her purse, that's all left behind. She
never accesses her bank account. This is a teenager on the run. Let's
just say that who just torched their home and we can't find any clues.
It seems I don't know, it just seems too sophisticated. I don't see
her being able to I could see her for a week, I could see
her for two weeks. But think about when you were a kid and you're
like, I'm gonna run away from my parents, right, I'm gonna run
away. Well eventually you're like, shoot, I'm lonely. I need my
mama. I need a good cooked me all right, and you come home
for me. That was like four hours after I ran away. Once I
was really sad. Oh my god, you know I was down the street.
I like parked myself down the street. I'm pretty sure my mom knew
where I was. But like four hours into it, I started crying and
I was like, I want to be home, you know. So I
remember like going and watching my parents to the kitchen window and then be like
shit, I have to walk back in and face this, you know,
But I just can't. As bad as the situation would be, I can't
imagine Joey eventually not getting to the point where she says, my mom will
love me regardless. They've always been there for me. I'm gonna try to
get her to help me and come home. I just don't see it.
I don't think she'd be able to function alone with never using her name,
never using her bank, never using her identity. Just don't think it could
happen. It is possible, although I don't think it's probable that she could
have panicked, ran away and then met with foul play, Like what is
that Gone Girl case? That we did Robin where she was married to the
lawyer and then she was found like states away, buried in the mountains Smith.
Yes, that case right where it seems like she left maybe of her
own accord or you know, that seems to be the case because she had
completely different clothes on. She's found in this different location. Although it's all
very ambiguous and mysterious, but in this case, I just don't think that
that is very probable. But I guess, of course, it's the possibility
that she could have ran away panic and then met with some individual who did
her harm, and then that's why she's never been fun But it seems like
the most likely scenario is that she obviously met with foul play and that's why
we've never found her. She just didn't. She wasn't like a CIA operative
or method agent. How would she have been able to disappear herself successfully for
this many years and there's never been any trace of her exactly. So in
part two we're going to be talking about theories about how she would have been
murdered and who could have been responsible. So yeah, I do think this
is a good time to bring an end to part one, So join us
next week as we present part two of our series on the disappearance of Joey
lynnoff it Robin, Do you want to tell us a little bit about the
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