“Diabolical” Georgia Woman Kills Ex-Girlfriend With Wife, Then Later Stabs Wife 34 Times

It started with a missing woman in 2011 and ended with a bloodied woman screaming for help in a Conyers, Georgia hotel room in 2018.

Joyce Pelzer, a bonafide “black widow,”initially escaped punishment for stalking, harassing, and murdering her ex-girlfriend, Shawndell McLeod, with her current lover, Rosalyn Lewis.

“What we learn about Joyce is that she has this pattern of sort of being this charismatic, exciting, larger-than-life person when she wants to develop a relationship with someone,” said prosecutor Shannon Hodder on Snapped, airing Sundays at 7/6c on Oxygen. “But as people get in a relationship with Joyce, they learn the truth. It’s not real. She has anger management issues. She’s very manipulative. And she’s very unfaithful.”

Seven years later, it all caught up with Pelzer when Lewis filed for divorce — and threatened to expose the darkest secret of their relationship.

“Joyce’s world was falling apart. I think that she was completely paranoid and scared that the ball was going to drop any day,” Hodder said. “That she was finally going to be held responsible for Shawndell’s murder, and that Rosalyn was going to be the reason."

On Sept. 25, 2011, Shawndell McLeod’s mother reported her missing, after she didn’t show up both for work and a family dinner. Her mother immediately pointed the finger at McLeod’s ex-girlfriend, Joyce Pelzer.

“Shawndell was telling her mom everything that was going on,” said reporter Alexandria Ikomani on Snapped. “Shawndell stated the Joyce was verbally abusive, emotionally abusive, physically abusive. How she was controlling. She didn’t like when certain people would really be around. She wanted Shawndell to really end certain relationships that she didn’t like. Mind you, Shawndell was also stating that Joyce was having her own relationships on the side.”

Joyce Pelzer. Photo: Oxygen

McLeod told her mom she suspected Pelzer was cheating with a woman named Rosalyn Lewis, and it caused the two to end their relationship earlier in 2011.

“She finally broke free of her,” said Henry Guest, former Dekalb Co. Police Detective, on Snapped. “She finally got her out of the house. But the lady was still stalking her.”

After their breakup, Pelzer removed everything from the home they once shared.

“Even the toilet seats off the toilet,” Guest said. “Took all the furniture. All the fixtures. Everything. Shawndell was pretty much sleeping on an air mattress.”

And that wasn’t the only disturbing incident. Once, Pelzer allegedly broke into the home in the middle of the night.

“Joyce [was] standing over her with a knife. Joyce threatened to kill her over the situation. In the sense of, ‘If I can’t have you, nobody can have you,’” Ikomani said.

McLeod even went to court and asked for a protective order against Pelzer — but then she went missing. Pelzer and Lewis were questioned about her disappearance, but both claimed they were with each other all weekend while McLeod disappeared. A look at Pelzer’s phone records showed that wasn’t true, though.

“Basically, her whole alibi gets blown up,” prosecutor Parker Aziz said on Snapped. “If you’re lying about that, what else are you lying about?”

But police were unable to come up with enough evidence to arrest Pelzer or Lewis.

“Joyce was able to get away with what she did for years,” Hodder said. “But she knew that Rosalyn knew what she did. Joyce and Rosalyn get married, but their relationship was troubled just like Shawndell and Joyce’s relationship was troubled. And that relationship started to crumble.”

The case then went cold — until December 2018.

On Dec. 10, 2018, an employee at a Motel 6 in Conyers, Georgia called 911 to report a woman screaming for help in a room.

“As he’s talking to us on the phone, the door opens, and the victim falls outside the door and he sees all the blood,” said Clay Ivey, former Conyers Police Lieutenant, on Snapped.

“Not only was there a pool of blood there, there is blood smeared up the door, as if, I would surmise, she probably slid on her back,” Jackie Dunn, former Conyers Police Captain, added on Snapped. “There are also bloody handprints all over the curtains.”

The woman, who was still alive, identified herself as Rosalyn Lewis to EMS and police. She also told them she was stabbed 34 times by her wife, Joyce Pelzer, before she died at the hospital.

As a manhunt was underway for Pelzer, her new girlfriend, Katie Long, contacted police, and shared a conversation she’d had with Pelzer.

“She got real quiet, and I asked her what was wrong,” Long said in a recorded interview. “And she said, ‘Katie, I killed my ex-girlfriend.’ She said, ‘I just feel like I can talk to you, and that this is something that you needed to know, so that you know who you’re dealing with … I am not a good person, Katie.’”

Long had recorded conversations with Pelzer where she said she was going to blame Lewis for what happened to McLeod, and mentioned she was scared Lewis was going to talk to the police. Lewis agreed to meet Pelzer at the motel, then she was attacked.

“They had talked back and forth, and I think Joyce thought there was some room for reconciliation between her and Ros,” Dunn said. “When Ros began telling her that she had filed for divorce, Joyce snapped.”

Law enforcement caught Joyce Pelzer trying to drive south away from the motel where she stabbed her wife to death. She had bloody clothing in the car with her, as well as the knife used in the attack. She ended up confessing in December 2019 to Lewis’ murder, and negotiated a plea deal that sentenced her to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

But when it came to Shawndell McLeod’s disappearance, Pelzer claimed Rosalyn Lewis was responsible.

“She said Ros hired two guys,” Guest said. “They drugged her, put her in the car, and buried the body in a ravine in Arabia Mountain.”

Shawndell McLeod’s body has never been found. Despite that, a jury convicted Pelzer of McLeod’s murder in 2023, and she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“Shawndell wanted to move on from Joyce Pelzer. And that was something that Joyce Pelzer was not going to accept,” Aziz said. “Was not going to allow it to happen. So, in that moment, Joyce Pelzer snapped and made sure that Shawndell was not going to move on to be with anything or anyone.”

Watch all-new episodes of Snapped on Sundays at 7/6c on Oxygen.