DECATUR, Ga. — A 47-year-old woman has been convicted in the cold case where she was accused of murdering and abducting her ex-girlfriend over a decade later.
A jury found Joyce Pelzer guilty on Friday on malice and felony murder charges for allegedly kidnapping and murdering Shawndell McLeod in 2011. McLeod's body was never found.
This comes after she was sentenced to life in prison in 2021 to charges connected to the stabbing death of her wife, Rosalyn Lewis, in 2018.
McLeod was reported missing after her mother learned she did not show up to work on September 25, 2011. Family members went to check on her but said they found her car missing and no one at her home, the DeKalb County district attorney said.
The investigation continued and found that McLeod recently ended her alleged abusive relationship with Pelzer.
Months before the reported disappearance, Pelzer had a warrant for her arrest for threatening McLeod, the district attorney's office added. A month before the incident, McLeod called police to report Pelzer was in her home without her permission, authorities said.
Police then interviewed Pelzer about her whereabouts the night of McLeod's disappearance. Authorities said she lied and told authorities she was at her home with her then-girlfriend Lewis, who was also killed years later. She also told investigators that she went to work on September 26, 2011, but her boss said she was not there.
That same day Pelzer was interviewed, Atlanta Police found McLeod's car abandoned with damage to it.
After the discovery, the case went cold for years until police tracked Pelzer's newest girlfriend in 2018. According to the district attorney's office, she told investigators Pelzer admitted to murdering McLeod.
The newest girlfriend revealed that her murder was planned for months in advance. Lewis allegedly hired a hitman to help kill McLeod.
Pelzer, Lewis, and the alleged hitman reportedly kidnapped McLeod after she arrived at work that day in 2011 and held her captive for days, digging a hole for her body, the district attorney's office revealed.
The same girlfriend then contacted DeKalb Police to warn them Pelzer planned to kill Lewis, who had recently filed for divorce. Days later, Lewis was found stabbed almost three dozen times. She later died at the hospital.
Georgia State Patrol Troopers shot Pelzer when trying to apprehend her after she allegedly raised her gun at them. She survived, but when she was asked about McLeod's murder, she told police Lewis orchestrated it, the district attorney's office said.
Pelzer also told police they buried McLeod at Arabia Mountain, but despite an extensive search with cadaver dogs in 2019, McLeod’s body was never found.
For individuals suffering from domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or click online here to view resources that can help victims.
