On the evening of July 24, 2018, 26-year-old Joe Rayner was found dead from a single gunshot wound on Rabbit Run Lane in Madison County, near Flora, Mississippi. The county coroner pronounced him dead at the scene. Rayner was a white male.

Investigators arrested 54-year-old Guy Wesley Creel and charged him with Rayner’s murder and with being a felon in possession of a concealed weapon. Neighbors told reporters Creel’s home had a history of disturbances and gunshots, and the shooting was reported to have occurred at Creel’s residence. Creel was held at the Madison County Detention Center without bond.

At trial in Canton, the jury acquitted Creel of first- and second-degree murder but convicted him of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The motive for the shooting has not been made public. Did anyone in the Flora area know Rayner or have information about tensions at Creel’s home?