Joyce Marie Pelzer Killed 2 of Her Lovers—and 1 of Their Bodies Hasn’t Been Found

When Shawndell McLeod disappeared in September 2011, the motive immediately seemed to be an attempt to leave a volatile relationship.

McLeod, 35, had recently ended what investigators later described as an abusive relationship with Joyce Marie Pelzer. Her mother called DeKalb County police after McLeod failed to show up for work, and when relatives went to her house in Lithonia, Ga., McLeod and her car were gone.

It would take more than a decade for a jury to convict Pelzer in McLeod’s presumed death. By then, another woman close to Pelzer was already dead.

In December 2023, Pelzer, then 47, was found guilty of malice murder and felony murder in McLeod’s 2011 kidnapping and killing. A judge sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

At the time, Pelzer was already serving a life sentence for the 2018 stabbing death of her wife, Rosalyn Lewis. Prosecutors said Lewis had been involved in McLeod’s killing and that Pelzer later murdered her to keep her from cooperating with police.

The case began years earlier with a missing person report.

Investigators learned from McLeod’s coworkers, family members and friends that she had recently broken up with Pelzer. The relationship had already drawn police attention: Pelzer had an outstanding arrest warrant after allegedly threatening McLeod with a knife in July 2011. The next month, McLeod called police again, reporting that Pelzer had come to her home without permission and taken all of her furniture.

Former DeKalb County Police Detective Henry Guest later said on Snapped that McLeod had gotten Pelzer “out of the house,” but that “the lady was still stalking her.”

McLeod believed Pelzer was seeing Rosalyn Lewis while still involved with her, which marked one inciting factor in their breakup.

After McLeod disappeared, investigators interviewed Pelzer on September 29, 2011. Asked where she had been the weekend McLeod went missing, Pelzer said she was at the home she shared with Lewis and had only left to walk their dogs. Pelzer also told investigators she had gone to work on September 26, but her boss said otherwise.

That same day, an Atlanta police officer found McLeod’s abandoned car in southeast Atlanta. Investigators found a tarp and spare tire in the back seat. The car was damaged and had mud on its tires and trim, according to the district attorney’s office.

Still, for nearly seven years, McLeod’s family had no body, no trial and no answer that could hold up in court. Then, in August 2018, a detective tracked down Pelzer’s newest girlfriend, Katie Long. The woman told investigators that Pelzer had spoken about her troubled relationship with McLeod and, in 2017, admitted to killing her.

According to prosecutors, Long said Pelzer told her the murder had been planned over two to three months. Pelzer allegedly said Lewis, her wife, had hired a hitman to help kill McLeod. The group kidnapped McLeod as she arrived for work, then held her captive for days while they dug a hole for her body.

Long later said Pelzer told her, “I am not a good person, Katie.” By late 2018, investigators were no longer only looking backward at McLeod’s disappearance, but they also worried about Lewis.

In December 2018, Pelzer’s girlfriend contacted DeKalb police and warned that Pelzer planned to kill Lewis, who had filed for divorce. A few days later, Conyers police were called to a Motel 6, where they found Lewis suffering from more than 30 stab wounds. Before she died, Lewis told police that Pelzer had stabbed her, according to prosecutors.

Lewis went into cardiac arrest while EMTs were transporting her to the hospital and she was pronounced dead there.

A manhunt followed. Police issued a “be on the lookout” alert for Pelzer, who was believed to have fled in a black Nissan, potentially headed south toward Florida. A Georgia State Patrol trooper spotted her vehicle on I-75 in Crisp County but when authorities tried to stop her, she accelerated and kept driving, according to the GBI.

The chase lasted nearly 10 minutes and reached speeds of about 110 mph, Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock said at the time. After a trooper used a Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) maneuver, which causes an intentional spinout, to stop the car, deputies approached. The GBI said at least one shot was fired from inside Pelzer’s vehicle before deputies returned fire, striking her multiple times. Pelzer ultimately survived.

Days later, investigators interviewed Pelzer, who claimed Lewis had orchestrated McLeod’s murder and said McLeod was buried at Arabia Mountain, a nature preserve in DeKalb County. Authorities searched the area with cadaver dogs in 2019, but McLeod’s body was never recovered.

Pelzer pleaded guilty in January 2021 to charges connected to Lewis’ killing and was sentenced to life in prison. But McLeod’s case remained open until December 2023, when jurors ultimately convicted Pelzer despite the absence of McLeod’s remains. The conviction made official what investigators had spent years trying to prove: McLeod had been killed after trying to move on, and Lewis was later killed as the old case threatened to resurface.

As prosecutor Parker Aziz put it on Snapped, “Shawndell wanted to move on from Joyce Pelzer.”

At press time, McLeod’s body has not been found.