Original subtitles

[narrator] This week on CrimeFeed...

Black Friday disasters caught on tape.

My eyes! My eyes are burning!

My eyes!

[narrator] Do holidays make some people monsters?

And a deadbeat son comes to Thanksgiving dinner,

then leaves horror behind him.

The horrific ways he tried to hide his crime.

[Rachel] "Get carving knives to make small pieces,

get sledge hammer, crush bones."

[narrator] And a fiance charged with murder,

his soon to be wife vanished on Thanksgiving.

Her final moments caught on video with her baby

ON THIS SPECIAL EDITION OF CRIMEFEED

with Nancy Grace,

private Investigator, Derrick Levasseur,

and investigative reporter, Mara S. Campo.

Good evening, I'm Nancy Grace.

Happy Thanksgiving week.

This is CrimeFeed.

I wanna thank you for being with us.

It's the season of thanks.

So, how does everything go so sideways

on so called Black Friday,

just one day after all that turkey

and counting our blessings?

Well, here's one example.

Look at this

going down at a Victoria's Secret, Chattanooga, 2018.

As soon as the doors open on Black Friday,

shoppers flood the store.

Take a look at the employees' reactions.

People grabbing, people fighting.

The one woman has to actually climb on top of a table

to escape the crush.

Wow!

I don't think I want any new lingerie that badly.

Me neither, I'm gonna stay away from the lingerie.

And then, the employees, they're there working the day after Thanksgiving,

they didn't sign up for this.

You can't pay them enough for that.

But as crazy as that is,

thankfully, in that instance, nobody got hurt.

That is not always the case.

This next video is from Black Friday, 2008.

Now, just minutes before a Long Island Walmart

was set to open at 05:00 am,

even before it opened at 05:00 am,

a mob of shoppers

shatter the store's front doors to get in.

Less than a dozen store employees are on hand to control the crowd

and they are quickly overpowered.

One worker is thrown to the floor

and he is trampled in a stampede.

Other workers are hurled aside

as they try to help him.

Now, that man who was knocked down,

he was pronounced dead an hour later.

That mob mentality is very dangerous.

[Nancy] The amazing part is

that the ones that try to help,

they are hurled aside

and they are injured, too.

And what about the employees?

Now, of course, I'm more concerned with the victims.

And they are crime victims.

They go shopping

and all of a sudden, they're getting wheeled off in a gurney or worse.

Have you guys ever had to work on Thanksgiving?

I have.

-Have you ever had to work-- -I've worked in newsrooms on Thanksgiving

-but nothing like this. -Yeah.

-Yeah. -I was not mobbed

by a horde of shoppers.

I was in the middle of a trial

and the judge said, "We're working."

So, we had Thanksgiving Day off

and we resumed the trial on Friday.

Yeah, I will say, with cyber Monday now being a thing,

a couple of with Black Friday,

I think more people are prone to buying something online,

pre-ordering it, getting a ticket for it,

so they're not standing outside the store,

waiting for that hot ticket item.

There's some pre-emptive like measures you can take, so that doesn't happen again.

[Nancy] What's the defense here?

"I got excited because I wanted 50 percent off."

What's the defense?

[Mara] But also, not for nothing,

the stores who anticipate these kinds of crowds,

need to make sure that there's enough safety in place.

But of course, not having enough workers is one thing

but what we see now with people looting stores

and the employees are told to stand by

and let it happen,

I don't think an employee

is going to risk their lives

to stop an angry mob

hell bent on a pair of underwear.

-I wouldn't. -Yeah.

And unfortunately, Nancy, that wasn't the only Black Friday death that year.

That same day in Palm Desert, California,

at a Toys R Us,

two men got into a fight inside the store

filled with families and children all around them.

Police say the two men's wives got into an argument.

The men stepped in and both had hand guns.

Witnesses say the men started chasing each other around the store,

firing at one another

while the other shoppers ran for their lives.

[Mara] But here's what's crazy to me about this.

I could understand if there were deals on diapers

or milk or bread,

but the people are killing each other over Xboxes

and televisions, the day after--

Did you just say it's okay to kill--

Did not say it's okay.

-I think that's what you said. -Not at all.

I'm quoting you on that. Mara.

-But-- -You said it.

A mob of hungry people,

say, would be a little easier to understand,

especially, the day after, as you noted, Thanksgiving,

when we're supposed to be counting our blessings

and so grateful for the abundance that we already have.

I'm still trying to figure out

how when you get carded in front of a judge

and you have to make a defense,

what do you say?

"I wanted that widescreen TV. I wanted that plasma."

What do you do

when you're charged with shooting,

firing bullets in a crowded store?

-That's incredibly dangerous. -Endangering children.

Endangering children.

I actually, looking at the video,

I was looking at it a little bit.

I almost wonder if these individuals knew each other prior to this event?

Because it seems a little suspicious to me

that they would just run into each other there

and both have handguns.

I don't know if there's more to the story,

but either way, a tragic situation.

What... Is this... Do I have this correct

that neither one of you

are arguing temporary insanity,

because I'm all ready, I'm ready for it.

-Nobody? -What I will say

is that the psychology of the crowd being in a mob,

there's nothing, in all my years in the field of reporting

and all the dangerous situations I was ever in,

nothing scared me more than being in a crowd situation.

-'Cause the crowd mentality is very dangerous. -[Nancy] Yeah.

Otherwise, normal, peaceful people

go haywire when they're in a pack.

-Yeah. -And they do things they would never have done

if they were on their own.

Well, thankfully, not all incidents end in this kind of violence,

but one of the biggest years on record for injuries

during Black Friday was 2011.

And it's partly because of this case.

[woman] My eyes! My eyes!

My eyes are burning!

My eyes! My eyes!

My eyes!

[Mara] It is from Black Friday 2011,

a woman in Porter Ranch, California,

pepper sprays other customers

to get her hands on the new Xbox.

At least ten people suffered minor injuries from the attack.

The woman did eventually turn herself into the LAPD.

It's thought that she was trying to clear a path for herself

to be able to get to that deal.

That's one way to do it.

Okay, one of my children's

favorite movies is the one where Arnold Schwarzenegger

runs through stores

and you know, fights off other people to get a certain toy.

[Derrick] With Sinbad.

Can't remember the name of the movie, it was with Sinbad.

It was Sinbad, thank you.

But it's for real.

With us, psychologist Dr. Apryl Alexander

to explain why Black Friday

brings out the worst in people.

Oh, wow. I used to go to Black Friday for years and years.

We all love a good deal, right?

So, going out there to get some of the products I need

or the Christmas gifts that I wanted to get for families.

But thinking about the tense situations

that you run into at Black Friday,

you're out in the cold,

at least in a lot of the cold weather states.

You're in long lines for a period of time.

And then, once those doors open,

people running,

running to go get items.

If we think about the big ticket items like electronics,

they're in the back of stores.

So, you have people bolting to the back of these stores

just to grab these items.

And then, you have the whole process of just trying to check out.

So, you're in these long lines.

You often get glares when you got the key ticket item.

And then, you're also worried about your safety in the parking lot

which is something that we saw in some of these videos.

[Nancy] Is that what happened to you?

[Apryl] Not me, but we had an incident

where people were almost grabbing stuff out of your hands

in certain piles.

And just thinking about how you respond to stress as well,

which was brought up earlier.

I'm a freezer.

So, I'm like, "Okay,

I need to get out of the situation."

That's my kind of freeze response

and that's why I stopped going after a while.

You know, what makes this worth it for people?

But it is worth it for a lot of people

-because getting a deal... -It is.

...feels so good.

What is... I still remember the best sale I ever got.

What is it about a deal when you're shopping

that makes you feel so good?

What's happening in the brain?

I mean for us, you know, getting that deal is saving money.

It's thinking our friends and family are depending on us.

Our child needs that key Barbie doll this year

since the Barbie movie is out.

And then, people are trying to save money right now.

That we're in a current climate

where people are not getting paid as well.

Rising cost of living is going up.

And so, getting a deal means a lot for folks.

And so, people are willing to risk it

in order to get those needs met.

But what about crossing the line?

I'm all for getting a deal, especially if it comes to my twins.

But shooting a gun,

spraying pepper spray in somebody's eyes.

You saw the one lady climb up on a display

to get away from these rabid shoppers.

What clicks in your mind

and suddenly you think it's okay to join in?

Well, there has been some research out of Indiana University

that's looked at the personality characteristics

of some of these individuals

who are going to Black Friday shopping incidents

and a lot of them have poor frustration tolerance,

low emotional regulation,

and those people are the ones--

[Nancy] Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, what is that?

Those are individuals who just cannot deal with stress well,

so the ones that are easily able to pop off.

You know, these individuals that you might see,

especially in criminogenic settings.

And so, those individuals are going out to Black Friday,

maybe with malicious intent,

bringing the guns, bringing the pepper spray.

So, we always have to worry for those few people

who are going out there with malicious intent

and that's where we see the thefts

and those mob kind of incidents happening.

And so, knowing that that small portion of people are out there

makes it even more dangerous at this moment.

So, what is it about Black Friday

that turns seemingly normal everyday shoppers

into Thanksgiving felons?

And then later,

a Thanksgiving we can never forget.

A horrific Kill Book full of chilling plans

hatched by a deadbeat adult son.

Joel Guy Jr.

to hide his parents' murdered bodies.

Welcome back to CrimeFeed.

What goes so wrong on so called Black Friday

as statistics prove it's true.

Since 2006, 17 people dead,

125 injured

in a Black Friday related event.

The most common injuries, believe it or not,

from stampedes,

pepper spray, shootings,

car crashes, fights,

stabbings.

Stabbings?

But hey, Dr. Apryl,

what about family tensions?

It's not just fighting over something at a store,

it's family tensions.

When everybody gets together,

that one day and Thanksgiving out of the whole year,

and all their grudges and resentments from the whole year boil over.

Oh, Thanksgiving is a stressful day for so many people.

So, you have to do all the cooking, the cleaning,

you have family members,

maybe some, you haven't seen in a while

coming to your house.

You got football going on.

Maybe alcohol.

So, all the tensions are building up

and for some people, Black Friday is now an escape.

Back in the day, you would go to Black Friday,

maybe the day during the Friday.

-Now, it started moving up to Thursday. -Yep.

So, people are leaving Thanksgiving,

leaving time with their loved ones early

as an escape mechanism,

and then going into Black Friday

still holding on to that stress.

[Derrick] Yeah, something you said there that I want to go back to

because you talked about it.

Being Thanksgiving, people are drinking, they're partying.

Is there some culpability on the part of the businesses?

Like for question,

why are we having Black Friday at midnight?

Why not just push it off to the next day like every other day?

[Nancy] Because they make money, Derrick.

[Derrick] I get it, but that's the problem, right there.

They're sacrificing the safety of their consumers

for the sake of a dollar.

-And employees who have to go to work. -Exactly.

You're getting dangerously close to giving people

what you think they need

and not what they want.

Yeah, I don't know. I just feel like--

Maybe that works in Communist China or Russia,

but it ain't working here Derrick Levasseur.

But to Derrick's point,

a lot of what you're describing,

the frenzy is by design

to get people to come and to spend money.

The scarcity is by design.

They could put enough of the merchandise out on the floor.

Or let us know in advance.

Or they can make more than enough available,

but I think that is part of this,

like, putting it in the back of the store.

So, you have to go through the entire store

and see other things you may want to buy.

All of that is part of the psychology

to get people excited about shopping.

[Nancy] Hey, Apryl, take a look at this.

A fight breaks out in a Philly mall,

Black Friday 2013, it got so out of hand,

somebody pulls out a stun gun.

It's between two women

at the Franklin Mills mall

and witnesses say

one of the women was there with a tot in a stroller,

listen to this.

I was definitely taken back for it

because you know, everybody's out,

like, you know, trying to save money

and shop for everybody, and get stuff for themselves

and you just don't think that people are gonna do stuff like that.

You know, I always wonder, like, what drives somebody

to get in a fight like that, you know,

you don't just walk away.

It's a holiday, everybody's got to, you know, get along.

You know, Apryl,

I never carried a gun or a stun gun with me,

even investigating felonies or going to crime scenes,

much less in a mall.

It's terrifying,

especially in this incident where there was a small child

and that's where I get cautious

that people bring their children with them

to these Black Friday incidents,

even though we keep seeing the stampedes,

keep seeing the weapons.

I remember one time,

I did leave Thanksgiving early for a Black Friday deal.

in Dayton, Ohio.

Going out to the Kohl's early,

and you had all these children who were there.

And I said, "What's going to happen when those doors open?"

And I'm all for protecting the safety of the public,

but I think it's the crime doers problem,

not the store's problem.

Well, there's more to come.

A woman last seen alive on camera

shopping for Thanksgiving dinner with her baby girl

just before she vanishes.

And what role does her fiance's mistress play

in solving the mystery?

And next,

a son so upset at Mommy and Daddy's tough love,

he exacts some violent revenge

just after Thanksgiving.

Now, the golden boy turned killer,

Joel Michael Guy Jr.

Warning, this case is highly disturbing.

An adult son angry

when mom and dad stopped forking over money.

He commits the unthinkable.

Mara.

That's right, Nancy.

Joel Jr's family in Tennessee

was surprised to see him at Thanksgiving in 2016.

He lived in Louisiana

and he didn't really have a close relationship with any of them.

Well, here's more on what happened.

Joel and Lisa Guy,

who'd been married for 31 years

were preparing for their retirement in late 2016.

The couple had just sold their family home

in a suburb of Knoxville,

and were hosting one last Thanksgiving dinner there

before moving to their new home.

In attendance, Joel Guy's 28-year-old son,

Joel Michael,

two of Joel Sr's daughters

and some of their grandkids.

Just days later,

Joel Michael stabbed his father 42 times

before turning the knife on his mother 31 times.

He then dismembered his parents bodies,

scattering their parts in different rooms of the house

before trying to dissolve some of their remains

to destroy evidence.

Joel Jr. was completely reliant on his parents' financial support

and was about to lose it.

[Leslie] Just before Thanksgiving,

I want to ask if your brother made any statements to you

about his future plans

-regarding the support of his son, Michael. -Yes.

My brother had stated to me

that he was retiring,

he had cut his son off

and he was tired of keeping him up.

[Mara] The jury convicted Joel Michael Guy Jr. on all charges.

He was given two consecutive life sentences

plus four years.

And, of course, he feverishly lost his appeals immediately.

The issue here,

he had lied all along.

He had been going to college for nearly ten years

claiming he was going to be a plastic surgeon.

The whole time, he wasn't in school.

It reminds me of top mom, Casey Anthony,

as she kept saying she worked at Universal

and would even dress up

in a Universal employee outfit.

And they thought she had a job.

All those years of lies to his parents

and they supported him all those years.

Yeah, it was interesting what you said in the opening, Mara,

because from what we understand,

Joel knew that the family was...

that the parents were cutting him off since October,

the other siblings didn't.

So, on Thanksgiving day...

He was usually a reclusive person,

didn't really get involved with anyone,

he was an introvert.

But on that Thanksgiving, he's playing with the kids,

he's talking with everyone

and people were surprised by that

not knowing that this was all part of a bigger plan.

He was trying to set the tone

that everything was good in the house.

And he was happy with their decision.

Clearly, that wasn't the case.

And while he was there

being more amiable than he had ever been before,

he was already planning this awful crime.

There's evidence that he began shopping for supplies

to carry this out

as early as November seventh.

We're talking about three weeks prior.

"Get carving knives to make small pieces.

Get sledge hammer, crush bones.

Bring blender and food grinder.

Drop something down the garbage disposal to break it.

Get him on the ground fixing it.

Kill him with the knife.

Clean up mess from him before she gets home.

Kill her with knife.

Turn the heater up as high as it goes,

speeds decomposition.

Bleach reacts with luminol just like blood.

Douse area with bleach,

big sprayer,

lye, trash compactor.

Body gives time of death

and an arrow alibi.

Don't have to get rid of body

if there is no forensic evidence on the body."

He started buying things like acid

to be able to dissolve the remains.

A bleach sprayer to help clean up.

A knife, a meat grinder.

So, he had these detailed plans

before Thanksgiving.

And then, the entire time that he's with his family

on Thanksgiving,

the written plans are upstairs

in the room that he's staying in.

I can just feel that they're pulsing neon green,

those plans that included details like,

"After I dismember mom and dad,

flush chunks of their body down the commode,

not the disposal in the kitchen.

Turn the heat up, so their bodies decompose

at a much faster rate.

Wipe off the doorknob before you leave.

And then, he even had his mother's phone set

to text him

hours beyond the time that he would have left the home

to make it look as if she were still alive.

That takes a lot of thinking, Mara.

[Mara] Well, he clearly thought it through,

but there's one thing he didn't account for.

He had to leave

before he was able to complete the task

because he got injured.

Why did he get injured?

It's believed that the father fought back ferociously.

The room that the father was killed in

was turned upside down.

Exercise equipment turned over,

blinds and curtains pulled down.

So, you have to imagine that the father is the reason

that he got this terrible injury on his hand.

He had to stop what he was doing,

not once, but twice.

The first time, he went to Walmart

to try to bandage himself up.

That clearly didn't work.

[Nancy] Which is all on video.

All on video.

All the incidences you were talking about earlier,

going into the different supply stores, all on video.

[Mara] So, he thought about everything except, clearly,

surveillance video and store receipts.

But then, because the father fought back,

he had to stop and that's what gave police an opening to come in.

In theory, the plan was somewhat sound,

he was gonna blame the father, right?

So, he sends mom out to get ice cream.

He stabs dad first.

He did do some things that,

I guess, on the surface would look good.

He thought that by raising the temperature of the home to 90 degrees,

he would throw off the time, the decomposition,

basically would change the time of death

by speeding up decomposition

when police came into the home.

Eventually, they would find their bodies in a certain condition,

which would suggest that they had been dead longer than they actually had,

which would line up with his potential alibi

that he wasn't even in the state.

You know what else he did?

He in his note said,

"Cut off dad's arm,

then use mom's hand to scratch

dad's dismembered arm."

So when they find mom's body,

they will look under her fingernails

and find dad's DNA.

There it is.

I mean, it is a very detailed kill list.

[Derrick] I still don't know how he would have explained

or how he would expect police to understand,

"Okay, dad killed mom.

But then, who horrifically killed dad in that manner?

-He was stabbed 41 times. - [Nancy] Well, his plan was

to totally destroy the bodies

by putting their dismembered parts into buckets

of something akin to muriatic acid

to break down the body,

so there is literally nothing left.

P.S. That only works in the movies.

And also what's really, really...

I mean, there's so many things that are disturbing about this case,

let's just start with that.

But what's particularly disturbing to me

is that by all accounts,

these were doting loving parents.

This isn't a case where the child was abused,

and now they're getting their revenge as an adult.

This man was reportedly doted on by his mother and his family.

His mother was reportedly working for the sole reason

of supporting him financially.

That's why when they retired,

they weren't going to have the money to continue supporting him.

And the way he got her out of the house to kill the father

was asking for a specific flavor of ice cream.

And you know how moms are.

"If this is what my baby wants,

I'm gonna go to the store and get them some ice cream."

-So, it's-- -Oh, right there.

Can you imagine, he finally comes home for Thanksgiving

and the parents are so happy.

"Oh, Joel Jr is home.

Let's go get him his favorite kind of ice cream."

That kind of breaks my heart

thinking of the mom getting in the car,

like you just described,

driving to the store to get him exactly what he wanted.

And then, coming home to an ambush.

[Derrick] Yeah, well, think about it.

as soon as she walked in the door,

the crime scene, if you look at the video,

you can see that the shopping bags are all over the floor.

So, the minute she walked into the house,

her son was waiting for her.

But I wanted to ask you guys,

what did you guys think about the jailhouse phone call

between him and Joel Guy and Michael McCracken, I believe it was.

It sounded like...

he didn't seem like he was remorseful.

-It seemed more like... -Not at all.

..."Forget it, I'm gone.

I don't really care about this."

What was your take on it?

I almost felt like, I don't know if I'm going out on a limb here.

But there was more of a relationship between those two

than we know.

Honestly, I feel like it was more than just a roommate situation.

Guys, do you wanna hear a little sound from the jail?

I do. Let's hear it.

Again, I've had roommates

and I think most of us have had roommates.

That's not how I would normally talk to my roommate.

So, I really do wonder if there was

a deeper relationship there than we're aware of.

[Nancy] Do you care?

[Derrick] No, not necessarily,

but it is interesting to hear that conversation.

-Oh, man! -Interestingly, they sound like a couple.

You're worried about them being a couple.

I'm worried about mom's head on the stove, cooking.

Well, there has been speculation

that maybe this was part of the reason why he wanted to get the money.

Why he was so desperate.

-[Nancy] Five hundred thousand dollars. -Right.

[Nancy] Half a million dollars.

[Mara] That perhaps one of the reasons that he wanted this money

was so he could change his physical appearance

to get the love of this person.

That, you know, allegedly there perhaps

was more of a relationship with than just a friendship.

Guys, we haven't even gotten to the dismemberment.

That's a whole another can of worms.

The psychopathy behind

not just killing for money,

which is a death penalty qualified at.

That's money, motive,

a pecuniary interest in a murder

which is death penalty aggravating circumstance.

Not only did he do that,

he with his mother and father...

I mean, think about your mother.

Cutting up her body,

putting her body parts in different buckets

or even boiling them on the stove.

That's what he did.

And he's not crazy, he's not insane.

This was his plan to get the money.

Doing that to your mother's body...

That... Oh!

No wonder the jury returned a verdict so quickly.

Well, and you see, you can see the police body camera footage

which has been made available in public now.

And you see them going through the home.

And of course, you know, most places have blurred out the most disturbing parts,

but you you do see the pot on the stove

and knowing after the fact what was inside that pot,

it just really brings home...

You say he's not insane.

I know that legally, he did not want an insanity defense,

and legally, he may not be able to prove insanity,

but you cannot convince me that this person is not crazy.

He put his mother's head in a pot on the stove

two days after Thanksgiving.

You know, do either one of you guys cook Thanksgiving?

[Mara] Yes.

Okay, I was really directing that more to you.

[Derrick] Did you notice I didn't answer.

Yeah, you just, you take the fifth.

-DoorDash. -[Nancy] How long it takes to make dressing,

make the turkey,

get the house ready for people.

Can you imagine the mom and the dad

getting everything ready?

"Joel's coming home. Oh, we're so happy."

And this is what he had planned.

You know, it's impossible to imagine

what Joel Michael Guy Jr's siblings are going through.

Next,

investigative reporter, Jamie Satterfield

on the case from the get go.

[Nancy] Welcome back.

A family Thanksgiving turns crime scene

when an adult son unleashes fury

on both his mom and his dad

after they decide to stop bankrolling him.

The planning, the plotting, the scheming.

With us now, investigative journalist, Jamie Satterfield,

knox-news-dot-com.

Jamie, thanks for being with us.

-Thanks for having me. -This story is...

almost too much to take in.

Tell me your thoughts.

You know, Thanksgiving will never be the same for me.

I... I... I'm pretty certain my kids love me,

but you know, when they bring in the backpacks,

it makes me want to look,

make sure there's no murder book.

That's what struck me about this case most of all,

is that you have... especially, this mother,

Lisa Guy,

she loved this kid.

And she, in fact, would argue with her husband sometimes

about them bankrolling him.

But here he is, and he's not only

coming in for the holiday,

but he's actually being friendly.

According to his sisters,

when he would come in on a holiday,

if he did,

he would hide out in the bedroom.

He wouldn't talk to anybody.

But here he was

very cheerful,

talking to the parents,

to his nephews whose names he didn't even know.

Giving them some of his childhood toys,

posing for pictures.

So, Lisa had to be so tickled

that this was his response

'cause she was scared about cutting him off

and telling him that that was it.

She was nervous about his response.

And so, he comes out all cheery and happy,

so they literally suspected nothing.

[Nancy] And now, Jamie, when the parents are finally,

after years, decades of working,

they're finally gonna retire.

They sell the family home,

they're moving away,

then he can't take

not being bankrolled by mommy and daddy.

It's a pure money motive.

Oh, absolutely.

This fella has never worked a day in his life.

And you know, not only

if you look at his kill book,

his murder book, whatever you wanna call it,

he laid that out there.

He knew that dad had to die first

in order for him to get the full half a million.

Even after he was arrested,

he filed suit from jail

against his sisters

to try to collect on the life insurance, still.

And because he knew that there's a slayer statute in Tennessee

that forbids somebody from profiteering from their crimes.

He actually demanded that the state put him to death.

Why?

Because he knew it would drag out the court proceedings

and in his mind,

in the meantime,

win that lawsuit and get that money.

[Mara] Jamie, despite this, the thinking that you just described

which, you know, sounds very clear

and reasonable and logical

in terms of what his end goals were.

For a lot of people,

cutting your mother's head off and putting it in a pot makes you insane.

Why did he not plead insanity in this case?

Why was there no insanity defense?

Joel Guy wouldn't plead insanity

because he's too arrogant for that.

He would not let you suggest he's insane.

It's my understanding

from talking to his defense counsel,

he was absolutely,

you know, upset at that notion.

They were like, "Look, this the best defense we got, buddy."

And he said, "No.

I don't want people thinking I'm insane."

Speaking of guys,

you gotta hear this.

Roll it!

My dream was to hold my mom's,

Lisa's hand

as she took her last breath.

My dream was to hold my dad's hand

as he took his last breath.

People take moments like that for granted,

but I wanted those moments with my whole soul.

Not only that,

my kids' childhood was taken away.

I am angry for my dreams being destroyed,

but I'm not the only one that's been affected.

This has impacted my kids

and for that I will never be able to forgive.

The reason I wanted you to hear that

is he has no empathy.

-He's not crazy. -[Derrick] Yeah.

He knows exactly what he was doing.

He's seeing her crying and begging in the courtroom,

And he's just sitting there, like, "Wow, what's for lunch?"

Well, in fact, that's one of the things the judge noted.

He said, "You don't seem to have any remorse whatsoever.

You look like you're kind of proud of what you've accomplished.

[Derrick] Yeah, I wanted you guys to weigh in on this

because do you think the fact

that he wanted death penalty on the table,

do you think that could have been a strategy,

so the significance of it...

Right now, a jury is deciding guilt or innocence,

and the impact of that decision

could result in someone being killed, being put to death.

Do you think that was a strategy to maybe say, "Hey, listen,

there's a finality to this.

Maybe, if the jury knows that

what could potentially happen to me

if they find me guilty,

maybe they'll be more inclined to find reasonable doubt.

You know, there is speculation that the reason he wanted the death penalty

was because he would get his own cell

-and that he continued to try to get... -[Nancy] Oh, my stars!

-...his own cell... -Greedy till the end!

...by telling prison officials

that he was having fantasies

of gouging his cellmate's eyes out

while he slept,

which was led to the speculation

that he was trying to do whatever he could to get his own cell.

Jamie Satterfield, did I hear him say,

"Oh, no...

I'm never gonna be happy now."

Did he just say that?

Absolutely. And that was his attitude throughout this trial.

He showed great disdain for his siblings.

He's shown zero remorse.

When they put up the autopsy stuff

and that was hard to watch for strangers to see.

And he showed no emotion whatsoever.

He looked at it, you know...

I have covered probably as many cases you have tried, Nancy,

but I've covered many, many murder trials.

And even though the worst offenders

will have a...

good sense about them to look down,

when these big autopsy photos

are up on the screen

to at least appear as if they're bothered by what they've done.

Not Joel Guy.

Not Junior.

Wow, Jamie Satterfield, thank you so much for being with us.

Up next,

does a man brutally murder his fiance,

the mother of their baby girl

after she preps his Thanksgiving meal?

And does his mistress literally

clean up the bloody crime scene?

But she didn't keep quiet.

Next,

a story that stuns Colorado and the nation.

The desperate search for a young mom

who seemingly vanishes into thin air

after being spotted on grocery store surveillance video

buying ingredients

for Thanksgiving meal.

Mara, what happened to Kelsey Berreth?

Nancy, Kelsey is a 29-year-old mother

of a one-year-old child

with her fiance, Patrick Frazee.

She was a flight instructor

with aspirations of becoming a pilot

who had moved from Washington State to Colorado

to be with Patrick.

Let's take a look at the events surrounding her disappearance.

Kelsey Berreth lived in a townhome in Woodland Park, Colorado

with her one-year-old daughter, Kaylee.

Her fiance, Patrick Frazee,

the father of her child

lived on a ranch 15 miles away.

Around 12:30 pm on Thanksgiving Day, 2018,

Kelsey took Kaylee on a trip to the local Safeway

texting Patrick, "I bought some sweet potatoes

in case you wanted some sweet potato casserole."

Around 1:30,

the trio entered Berreth's home together,

but Berreth would not come out alive.

About a week later,

the search for Kelsey got underway

after her mother, Cheryl, had been unable to reach her for several days.

Cheryl pleaded for the safe return of her daughter

in a press conference on December tenth.

Kelsey, we just want you home.

Call us if you can, and we won't quit looking.

[Mara] But the real breakthrough in the case

came when investigators questioned Krystal Lee Kenney,

Frazee's mistress,

who had been romantically linked to him

since at least 2016.

She revealed to authorities

that Frazee had asked her to clean up the crime scene the following day.

[officer]

[Mara] Kenney even showed investigators

the spot on Frazee's ranch property

where she says, he burned her body.

In a plea deal,

the district attorney called "A deal with the devil,"

Kenney pled guilty to one count of tampering with evidence in the case

in exchange for her testimony against Frazee.

Patrick Frazee was convicted on all counts he faced

including first degree murder.

He was sentenced to life without parole,

plus 156 years.

Now, as far as motive is concerned.

Police only speculate

that Patrick wanted full custody of their daughter

based on conversations that he had

with Kelsey's mother, Cheryl.

Yeah, this case has a couple of things going for it.

You have the cooperating witness, obviously,

who comes forward, who was an accomplice,

but saw the writing on the wall,

knew she was going down for something, so decided to confess.

But I think the big, the superstar in this case is the digital data.

You have both the camera footage

outside of Kelsey's property,

both at 1:30 and at 3:30,

which contradicted what Patrick had told law enforcement initially.

And then, obviously, the cell phone GPS coordinates.

You have multiple text messages

allegedly coming from Kelsey.

But the phone at the time when those text messages were made,

were at Patrick's property.

Not good for him.

To me, the big fail was giving the rodeo queen,

Krystal Kenney, a deal at all.

'Cause let's analyze what she did.

I mean, he's the killer.

He sneaks up on her.

He acts like he's playing some romantic game

by saying, "Hey, I'm gonna blindfold you

and you guess the scent

of these candles I bought you."

And so, she does it.

Then, he beats her

brutally with a bat.

She starts running,

there is blood going up the walls in that home,

then over comes the rodeo Queen,

the mistress, if you can have a mistress

when you're not even married, I'm not sure how that works.

Don't want to know how that works.

She comes over, mops the floor up.

There's about two gallons, near two gallons

of Kelsey Berreth's blood

on the coffee maker,

on the little girl, Kaylee, their daughter's car seat,

everywhere.

Then, she takes Kelsey's phone

to pretend Kelsey has left the area

and goes 800 miles with it,

sent texts with Kelsey's phone

to cover up what her lover did.

And guess what?

She is walking free right now.

-Yeah. -She has walked free on this.

She knew what was happening.

Yeah, and you know, she got a very short sentence.

Initially, it was three years, then it got reduced.

So, she got out after 18 months.

She is free now.

But to Derek's point, she's the star witness.

Without her, there were so many details that were not explained

and they would have had a very hard time making their case.

So, she is the one that told them where the body was.

Where the body was burned.

How they were able to clean up the crime scene

and dispose of evidence.

She says... now we've to take this with a grain of salt.

She says, she intentionally left evidence behind

-when she was cleaning up... - [Nancy] Oh, please.

...so that investigators could potentially find something.

And the reason she went along with everything

is because she was so afraid of Patrick.

And let's back up a little bit.

She said that he wanted...

Kelsey and Krystal, I'm getting them confused.

He wanted Kelsey, the victim,

killed as early as September.

-That's right. -And he had tried to get Krystal,

the mistress,

to go and kill her on three separate occasions,

once suggesting that she poison her coffee.

Krystal drives all the way

from Idaho to Colorado,

actually buys the coffee,

and then chickens out.

Another time, he suggests that she hit her in the head

with a metal pipe.

Again, she chickens out.

So, he had been trying to get her to do this for him for months.

He finally does it himself.

And then, calls her and says,

"You have a mess to come clean up,

and she drives across the country

with cleaning supplies.

-Cleans everything. -I think

the state could have proven this without her.

I think with a search warrant,

if they got the clothes he was wearing that day,

if they follow and tracked his phone

to where it went,

and like, Derrick accurately said,

there is video surveillance of him going in

and never any surveillance shows her coming out.

And the burn patch.

They knew about the burn patch on that land

before the Rodeo Queen,

Krystal Kenney told them about that.

They never found Kelsey's body.

[Derrick] Nancy, when I was reading this,

I really wanted your opinion on it

because I agree with you.

I think that she definitely should have been held more accountable.

And it wasn't like she was just brought in last second

and she was held against her will and forced to do this.

She carried out a lot of different things to try to prevent law enforcement

from figuring out what happened.

As a prosecutor,

is there a conversation with the family with Kelsey's family

where they go to them and say, "Hey, here's what we have.

We're thinking about offering her a deal.

Are you okay with the fact

that you can be seeing this woman on the street one day?"

Does that conversation happen

or does the family have no involvement?

My general attitude when I was trying cases with multiple defendants

is unless it was a death penalty case

when they must be severed, tried separately,

I would put 'em all in the same pot to stew

and try them together

because then, there'd be a whole lot of that going on.

But they'll point at each other

trying to blame the other one.

And I guarantee that would have happened here.

Well, let's not forget one of the saddest parts of the story.

The child was in the house at the time

that her mother was being beaten to death

with a baseball bat by her father.

And then, he takes the child

to his family for Thanksgiving dinner,

knowing that the remains are at his house

and he called his mistress to come clean up.

[Nancy] And after she was shopping

for just the right ingredients

to make his Thanksgiving dinner.

Guys, the little girl,

now growing up without a mother or a father.

You know, here at CrimeFeed,

every week we bring you

the biggest crime stories from across our great nation.

Some are ripped from the headlines,

some you may never have heard of.

For Mara, Derrick and myself,

we'll see you next week.

And let's count our blessings tonight.

A lot to be thankful for.

Good night.

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