Motel 6 Murder: Joyce Lewis-Pelzer's Double Life Sentence for 2018 Wife's Murder and 2011 Cold Case

The 2018 Motel 6 Incident

• 🚨 Police responded to a 911 call at a Conyers, Georgia Motel 6 in December 2018, reporting screaming and a bloody individual.
• 🩸 First responders found Rosalyn Lewis with 34 stab wounds, identifying her assailant as her wife, Joyce Lewis-Pelzer.
• 🔪 Witnesses reported seeing a woman, covered in blood and holding a knife, leaving the scene.

Joyce Lewis-Pelzer's Past and Motive

• 💔 Prosecutors alleged Joyce Lewis-Pelzer had a pattern of affairs and violence, including an outstanding warrant for threatening her former lover, Shawndell McLeod, with a knife in 2011.
• 🕵️ McLeod's 2011 disappearance, initially a cold case, was linked to Joyce after Rosalyn Lewis came forward with information in 2018.
• 🚗 Joyce Lewis-Pelzer was apprehended after a police chase, during which she allegedly brandished a gun at officers.

Investigation and Confession

• 🚗 Surveillance footage showed Joyce Lewis-Pelzer checking into the motel days before the murder and fleeing the scene afterward.
• 🐶 Animal control was called to handle two small dogs found in Rosalyn Lewis's room.
• 🗣️ During an interview, Joyce Lewis-Pelzer initially denied involvement and requested an attorney after hearing about the murder warrant.

Conviction and Sentencing

• ⚖️ Joyce Lewis-Pelzer pleaded guilty to the murder of her wife, Rosalyn Lewis, and was sentenced to life in prison.
• 💀 While serving her sentence, she was found guilty of the 2011 murder of Shawndell McLeod, receiving a second life sentence without parole.
• 🚫 McLeod's body was never recovered despite Joyce admitting to burying her, but a jury convicted her based on the evidence.