A 28-year-old Louisiana man has been charged in the grisly deaths of his parents, who authorities say were stabbed, mutilated and dissolved in a homemade acid solution over Thanksgiving weekend.
Joel Michael Guy Jr., of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was arrested Tuesday evening and charged with two counts of first degree murder for the killing of Joel Michael Guy Sr., 61, and Lisa Guy, 55, according to the Knox County Sheriff’s Department.
Police say the couple’s bodies were discovered Monday scattered in multiple rooms of their family home outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, after Lisa Guy’s coworkers requested a welfare check.
Maj. Michael K. MacLean of the Knox County sheriff’s office described what police found as a “horrific, a very gruesome” scene, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
Both victims suffered “vicious stab wounds” and dismemberment, the sheriff’s office said in a post to Facebook. In an attempt to destroy evidence, the suspect reportedly placed portions of his parent’s remains in an acid-based solution.
According to police, Guy Jr. drove from Baton Rouge to Knoxville on Wednesday and spent Thanksgiving with his parents and three sisters “with no indication that anything was amiss.” After Thanksgiving, Guy’s siblings returned to their homes in Maryville and Kingsport, the News Sentinel reported.
It is believed that the murders occurred sometime between Friday and midday Saturday, police said. The suspect returned to Baton Rouge on Sunday, meaning he spent at least a day inside the home after allegedly dismembering his parents.
McLean said the suspect placed the bodies in a mixture of drain cleaner, hydrogen peroxide, bleach, sewer line cleaner and other chemicals, The Advocate in Baton Rouge reported. And investigators said they suspect he may have tortured his parents before killing them, according to the newspaper.
The Knox County Sheriff’s Department said removing the toxic homemade fluid required special bio-hazard equipment, and the “volume of evidence in such a disturbing scene” required forensic investigators to work through Monday and into Tuesday.
Guy Jr. was arrested Tuesday as he attempted to get into his car outside his Baton Rouge apartment complex.
So far, police have not pinpointed a motive. However, McLean said during a press conference that the “parents were in the process of encouraging him to fend for himself, and they were going to be cutting off some of his financial support.”
The victims had also reportedly sold the home where their gruesome murders took place and were in the process of moving to Surgoinsville, according to the Kingsport Times-News.
“We were going to have Christmases together again,” Rene Charles, the sister of Guy Sr., told the publication. “We were just fixing to have all of us back together again.”
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