Late April 2012, Isle of Wight County, Virginia: a welfare check at a 100-acre Carrsville farm was prompted when nurse Sandra Joyner, 58, failed to report for her hospital shift. Officers found Sandra inside the home, dead of massive blunt force trauma. Her husband, 62-year-old Joseph Joyner, was missing from the house. A search of the property located Joseph in a wooded area; he had been shot in the head at close range with his own gun and his body appeared to have been dragged into the woods.

Investigators focused on the couple’s son, 37-year-old Joseph Charles Jay Joyner Jr., noting his prior assault and battery conviction and reported involvement in drug activity. A witness said they saw a man matching Jay’s description throw an object into the Blackwater River; a subsequent river search recovered a handgun thought to be the murder weapon. Jay was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, denied bond, and in February 2013 entered an Alford plea, acknowledging prosecutors likely had enough evidence to convict; he was sentenced to four life terms.

Are there readers who knew the family or who have information about the farm, the river, or events from late April 2012?