Joyce Sturdivant

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

You chose to hit play on this podcast today.

Smart choice.

Progressive loves to help people make smart choices.

That's why they offer a tool called AutoQuote Explorer that allows you to compare your progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies.

So you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you.

Give it a try after this episode at progressive.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates.

Not available in all states or situations.

Prices vary based on how you buy.

Hey, it's Stephanie Gomolco with Oxygen.com.

When I'm running a marathon, I have enough to worry about.

My hydration, to my time, to how my knee is feeling.

The last thing I need to worry about is blisters.

Thanks to Bombas, that hasn't been an issue.

Don't let bad socks and blisters stop you in your tracks either.

Bombas make slides, socks, and seamless essentials to keep up with however you pace your days.

Bombas offers sweat-wicking blister fighting and impact cushioning socks.

You can also order Bombas abroad.

That's right, along with the U.S., they now ship internationally to over 200 countries.

Head over to bombas.com and use code Snapped for 20% off your first purchase.

That's B-O-M-B-A-S.com, code SNAPT, at checkout.

She was a devoted wife living in the lap of luxury.

They were rolling in the money.

I'll give them that one.

He was a stock car racing star who fell hard for the pit crew beauty.

I think he really loved her, and I think she really loved him.

Who's always holding hands, hugging and kissing, and all of that, you know.

But when police receive a harrowing 911 call, oh, God, I'm so blood.

And discover the former racetrack champion dead under mysterious circumstances, investigators suspect there's more to this couple's love life than meets the eye.

Something just doesn't smell right.

He told her she was crazy.

Then I've heard drugs, too.

As detectives race to find a killer, they encounter a tightly wound web of lies, conspiracy, and a string of potential suspects around every turn.

Very few times in my career have I actually had the opportunity to talk to a sociopath as it was one of them.

She was going to take care of it herself.

I couldn't understand it.

I still don't.

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008.

It's been a relatively quiet afternoon for the emergency dispatchers in Robinson, Texas, a small suburb on the outskirts of Waco.

But at 5.23 p.m., a caller caller in distress prompts an unexpected change of pace.

EMS, what is the address of your emergency?

My lap and he's laying in a pool of blood.

Looks like somebody's been in here.

Okay.

Is he breathing?

Oh, oh, God, he's so.

Okay, well, I'll have some help on the way.

I'm gonna stay on board with you until they get there, okay?

Yes.

When police arrive, the hysterical woman from the 911 call guides them into the house.

The woman identifies herself as Joyce Sturtevant and directs officers to the master bedroom.

Lying face down on the bed is her husband, Joe Sturtevant.

He was lying like he was sleeping and had an apparent gunshot wound to the back.

There was stippling powder burn, so it was a fairly close range shot.

Did not see any shell casings or anything of that nature.

As officers take a closer look, they notice a second wound.

He was shot in the back of the head.

To me, that was the most telling wound because it was blood everywhere.

With obvious signs of a homicide, police hope some answers lie with the woman who called 911.

Joyce Sturtevant was born Joyce McMullen in 1945 in Waco, Texas.

The McMullens were well-to-do, and Joyce was the baby of the family.

So she was kind of like the spoiled one of the whole family.

Even though she was a very pretty woman and kept herself really nice, she had that tomboy side to her that didn't mind getting dirty.

She liked cars and she knew everything about a car.

It was her affection for cars that led Joyce into the arms of her first love, a local race car mechanic named Joe Sullins.

They met on the drag, went out a couple of times, and then they hooked up.

They got married.

By her mid-20s, Joyce and her husband had two children, and together they ran an operation building stock cars for some of the best drivers on the Texas dirt track circuit.

My dad did build cars, race cars.

If he was underneath the hood of one, she was there with him.

No matter what it was, she loved it.

She loved the speed of it.

The Adriano one.

One of the drivers Joyce's husband worked with most was a slightly older man by the name of Joe Sturtevant.

Mom, dad, and Sturdivant became all friends to the racing end of it, back when he was driving my dad's car.

From a young age, Joe was enamored with the ladies.

But at 18, he was forced to settle down when his girlfriend got pregnant.

She was only 15 when they married.

They had to get married, and I can remember our daddy marching him down, you know, you got this girl in trouble, you're going to marry her, and he did.

But they didn't stay married very long.

He left his first wife and kids.

Joe had an eye for the women.

There's no getting around that.

But if there was one thing Joe loved more than the ladies, it was racing cars.

He was good on asphalt, but dirt was his game.

He'd walk out in the track and he'd pick up the dirt and he'd feel of it and roll it around his hands and he'd walk around.

and he'd walk over and tell his brother what to do to the car.

He was the best I ever seen him.

On the track, he was tough.

He was tough.

He won a lot of championships.

He was an aggressive driver.

If he lost one time to you, he wasn't going to lose a second time.

But in the early 1970s, when Joe locked eyes with the beautiful tomboy who was working on one of his race cars, he knew he'd met his match.

Joyce was a real strong-headed person.

I think that's why he was attracted to her.

And I think she was attracted to him.

He was a good-looking guy.

And as the saying goes, one thing led to another.

She was a very pretty woman, Joyce was.

Very pretty.

Despite Joyce being married to one of his close friends, Joe couldn't resist her allure.

It was during the last six months of my mom and dad's marriage is when it all fell apart.

Because she was sneaking around meeting Stardivant.

So dad followed him and caught him right then.

And he told Stardivant, then you could have her.

With their passion for each other running in the red zone, Joe and Joyce married in January of 1973, shortly after her divorce from Joe Sullins was finalized.

They were a very good team.

They got along together.

I never saw a heifer have a crossword with one another, ever.

Joe brought Joyce into the fold with his auto business called Sturtevant Auto Transmissions.

Trading on Joe's fame as a driver and Joyce's ability to balance the books, Sturtevant Transmissions was a bona fide success.

Joyce run the office at the shop.

She took in the money, took it to the bank and all of that.

You know, and Joe, he run the shop, but she ran the office.

Joyce helped build that business as well as Joe did.

Joe may have started the business, but I don't think without Joyce, it would have been as successful as it was.

And the happy couple didn't mind enjoying the fruits of their success.

She'd see something, say, oh, look there, Joe, ain't that?

That's nice, that's nice.

Well, the next day it'd show up at the house, he'd go buy it for her.

They were rolling in the money.

With a solid financial footing, Joe and Joyce were determined to build their dream home.

Joe told me it was 50 acres.

He had it surveyed, and he put the house in the middle of it because he didn't want the neighbors.

It was a huge house.

It was really, really a nice, nice home.

Joyce and Joe needed all the space they could get since they were also raising Joyce's children from her first marriage, Tina and Little Joe.

Joe was a good dad to them.

Sometimes I think he wasn't a good dad to his other children.

So he was a good dad to these kids.

Whatever those kids wanted, Joe bought for them.

Little Joe tried to drive a race car a little bit.

He had the best he could.

He wasn't what Big Joe was.

And Joe, he put little Joe to work as one of his employees.

And of course, he expected more out of him than the other people that worked for him.

By 2000, Joe decided to hang up his helmet, giving up dirt track racing to focus full-time on the transmission business.

But after a couple of health scares, Joe decided to step back from the auto shop too.

Joe

had some health problems.

Joe had had bypass surgery.

As his health situation changed,

he was kind of glad to take his hands off of that operation.

And Joyce was still running the books, and she was still collecting the money, and that aspect of it never changed.

He was happy to leave her to run that way.

As Big Joe was stepping down or diminishing his involvement, then Little Joe saw that opportunity to try to become more involved in running it.

It was very rare for Joe to come anywhere near the transmission shop since he'd retired.

He was enjoying his retirement.

They had a lot of happy times.

It was good.

But in 2008, the Sturdivant family's perfect life is turned upside down when Joe is found dead in his bedroom.

He had been shot while he was asleep.

When he went to bed that night, he never woke up.

Coming up, investigators will soon discover there's more to this deadly scene than meets the eye.

Year prior, there was a home invasion there where actually Mr.

Sturtevant was assaulted.

68-year-old 68-year-old Texas stock car racing champ Joe Sturtevant has been shot to death in the master bedroom of the dream home he shares with his wife Joyce in suburban Waco.

He was very cold at the touch.

He had been there for a while.

He was stealing his underwear.

Appeared that he had never gotten up that morning.

Some of the drawers had been left open as if they had been rifled through that sort of thing.

And then, of course, it was horrific the way that he was shot.

And so that caught our attention.

As detectives process the scene, they realize they've been to this residence before, just one year ago.

I was called out to the Sturdovet home on a home invasion.

Supposedly, somebody had come to the home while Mr.

Sturnevit was sleeping and attacked him.

He awoken with a black male trying to choke him in the bed.

began fighting with him.

Last thing he remembered was some being hit over the head with something.

The bedroom was in disarray you could tell there'd obviously been a good fight there

there was blood all over the the floor according to joyce she was hit over the head and had been knocked out temporarily while this fight was taking place with joe

it appeared to be a break-in and these guys attacked big joe seemed to make sense that it was just a random burglary joe kept money in the house a lot of money in the house and

I think

him talking about it to people,

it probably got around to some undesirable people.

Thankfully, Joe and Joyce survived that attack.

But unfortunately for Joe, this time he wouldn't be so lucky.

This just could have been a second attempt of a robbery or a burglary.

that had gone bad.

They had a gun safe.

There was a wrench found there.

There was some keys found there.

We did notice that there were an ice pick and like a meat fork in front of that.

Like if someone tried to pick the door,

we had no reason to suspect anything different than a couple of guys tried to break into his house and rob him.

To unravel the mystery, detectives start with Joe's wife, Joyce.

She tells police her husband had still been asleep when she'd left the house that morning.

Joe was still in bed, according to her, and she had gone to work and it was just a normal day.

She spent eight hours at work and when she came home, she found her husband shot and killed in his bed.

And

she called 911.

She was just very cooperative.

There was no reason to suspect Joyce.

Knowing that at any time she could leave, We made the decision to go ahead and take her clothes into evidence.

Joyce turns her clothes over to the investigators and grants them permission to conduct a thorough search of the couple's property.

She gave us consent to search the house, looking for a murder weapon or any type of evidence that

would assist us.

As CSIs process the house for additional clues, detectives ask Joyce to come down to the station to see if she can help shed light on what might have led to Joe's murder.

You normally get home around

5:30 or Anywhere from 4.30 to 5.30.

Did you notice anything

out of the ordinary when you came home or everything looked like he was back home just like a normal day?

Yeah,

when I went into the house, I noticed the utility room.

Okay.

Okay, the utility room and the kitchen

had grass all stowed in there.

And drawers were open like he'd been dealing for something.

He had open a drawer and he'd just jerk everything out and throw it up on the counter

I'd come along behind pick it back up and put it back up

and I'm hollering at him for getting grass

oh

I'm cussing him because he's late

I'm sorry I just had that cussing him he didn't he didn't do it.

And

I went around the corner, back there,

he was still in bed.

And I thought first he had

another heart attack.

He was in an awkward position, so I went over to the bed

and shook him the covers.

And he didn't do anything.

And so I reached up a little further and shook him again.

So I I put my hands on him

and try and roll him over.

And I was shaking him and he wasn't coming away.

That's when I call him 911.

But could Joe's murder have any connection to the robbery a year earlier?

They took the money.

Okay.

Did he carry a wallet?

Okay.

Did not carry a wallet.

Okay.

He just carried his money in a rubber band and wrap it up and like a half sandwich and put a rubber band around it.

That was his money for it.

How much cash did he normally keep on him?

He probably had anywhere from $500 to $5,000.

I never knew what he has.

Joyce explains that two handguns, a watch, and some of her jewelry are also missing.

A butterfly

is

pink.

Not bright pink, it's a pale pink.

Okay.

Like the wings are outlined in a little small balance.

I've got the blue.

I've got the blue.

Despite signs that point to a robbery gone awry, detectives know it's highly unusual for a thief to strike the same place twice.

We immediately have to look at our victim,

maybe

enemies that he may have had, reasons why somebody would want to murder Joe.

He hasn't said anything or mentioned anything about any trouble with anybody or anything like that.

Can you think of anybody

that would want to harm him

for any reason?

Joe was real proud.

He had trouble with somebody or something, but I may not find out about five, six months until he took care of it himself.

Following Joyce's interview, robbery still seems the most likely motive.

But as CSIs continue to process the scene, they uncover additional evidence that seems to call that theory into question.

Normally in a burglary situation, if you're going to open drawers,

you're going to dump the contents out.

There were some of the drawers in the dresser that appeared to have just been opened.

Detectives also noticed something odd about the gun safe.

Not many people would use a pipe wrench to try to get into a safe.

And if this wasn't a real robbery attempt, maybe that first home invasion wasn't either.

Whoever tried the first time, maybe it was more than a home invasion.

Sounds like they were maybe trying to kill him then

and succeeded this time.

In her interview with police, Joyce told detectives that she didn't know anyone who would want to kill her husband.

But as investigators question others familiar with Joe, they uncover an entirely different story.

Cases such as these in smaller communities, you get a lot of people call in.

A lot of them are rumors, but we record all these calls, all these tips, receive some information that Mr.

Sturtevit may be involved in

some type of drug trafficking.

It was also said at one point that he was involved in gambling.

As police dig into the drug angle, they receive a new lead, one that suggests another, equally salacious motive behind Joe Sturtevant's murder.

Joe was accused of, back then it was sexual misconduct.

As much as I'd love to hold on to summer for as long as I can, I get excited for fall by thinking about my wardrobe.

Cozy sweaters, layering my scarves.

Quince nails it with luxury essentials that make your capsule closet effortless, easy, and always so stylish.

Think chic cashmere wraps or cotton sweaters.

The best part, with Quince, everything is half the cost of similar brands.

They work directly with top artisans and cut out the middleman to give you luxury without the markup.

One classic I've been using every day since I got them is the Bally Polarized Sunglasses in green.

They're great for road trips, pumpkin patches, or early mornings.

I don't want to risk my eyesight for style, so I'm glad Quince offers polarized frames in a cute style.

I've also been eyeing the Italian leather laptop backpack for a while.

I might just have to check out my cart right after this.

Elevate your fall wardrobe essentials with Quince.

Go to quince.com/slash snapped for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.

That's q-u-i-n-ce-e.com/slash snapped to get free shipping and 365-day returns.

Quince.com/slash snapped.

Streaming now on Peacock.

We sell toilet tissue and local newspapers.

That is in order of quality.

From the crew that brought you the office.

My name is Ned Sampson.

I am your new editor-in-chief.

Comes a new comedy series.

Have you read this paper?

Uh-huh.

It sucks.

But we are going to make it better.

Meet the underdog journalists.

I hope it's not too disruptive to have me shake everything up.

Don't be so self-decaded.

With major issues.

Oscar.

Oh, God.

Not again.

The paper.

Only on Peacock.

Streaming now.

Former Texas race car driver Joe Sturtevant and his loving wife Joyce were living a dream life together.

But on the 8th of October 2008, Joe was found dead in his home.

Joe was known to keep cash around,

always had guns.

He always was known to keep a large amount of cash on him.

Our main initial thought was that someone had attempted to rob the house.

But as investigators speak to others in the tiny town of Robinson, another possible motive for the crime comes to light.

Cases such as these and smaller communities,

you get a lot of people call in.

We document and record all these calls, all these tips.

receive some information that mr.

Sturdovic may have been involved in some type of drug trafficking.

You hear the rumors he was transporting narcotics or he was only digging it in cash and he's got it buried out here.

We heard a lot of that.

We talked to close family, friends, and associates, and never once did we ever get any credible information that that was true.

If the murder is not related to drugs, Joe's friends and family informed police of another possible motive tied to Joe's well-known affinity for women: jealousy.

He had a lot of affairs.

So, this could have been one of angry husbands husbands or boyfriends.

However, the condition of the crime scene suggests the killer was someone more familiar to Joe and his pair of hyper-vigilant watchdogs.

The house was basically secure.

There was no evidence of any break-in.

Whoever did this

was able to get in the house without alarming the dogs.

They had bitten some of the rescue personnel that were trying to come in,

barked continuously.

For them not to wake Joe up, it had to be some way that the dogs knew.

With nowhere else to turn, investigators decide to take a deeper look into Joe Sturtevant's past.

That's when Joe's stepdaughter, Tina, comes forward with some new eye-opening information.

Joe wasn't a saint.

Back in the 70s, he was indicted.

He was accused of molesting a family member.

That was an incident involving Joyce's daughter, where Joe was accused of sexual misconduct.

He had molested me since I was five years old.

When we pressed charges, other people started coming forward.

I wonder why three of my best friends never wanted to come back over or spend the night.

And that was why.

Although others came forward with accusations of abuse, Joe adamantly denied these charges.

And through it all, Joyce stood by him.

Joyce took Joe's side over the daughter back then.

She chose him over me, and I'm your daughter.

She chose his side.

She made her decision.

She's my mom.

I love her.

It's just hard to forgive her.

Despite the severity of the accusations, Joe managed to avoid any jail time.

When I pressed charges, of course, I had to go before the grand jury, and they indicted him.

And

they arrested him.

But he makes bond.

And was ready to go to trial that day.

And

he made a plea bargain.

So he got 10 years' probation with the fine.

Which to me wasn't nearly enough, but

he's the one that's had to answer for it.

He had a past that we had to look at all those avenues and any possibilities that could have something come up over years of a grudge.

But in speaking with Joyce's daughter, Tina, it's clear to investigators that she had nothing to do with her stepdad's murder.

The daughter really hadn't had any contact with Joyce or Joe for, you know, 20, 30 years at that point.

Those type of leads you have to look into, especially in a circumstantial case.

You don't ever want to leave any rabbit trails unlooked at.

It was ruled out pretty quick.

Someone would give us a name and we would look into that and, you know, we'd be able to pretty quickly exclude them simply due to the fact that either they were out of state or, you know, there was no obvious contact there

for several years.

But if stepdaughter Tina or Joe's other victims aren't responsible for his death, is it possible that stepson Little Joe is responsible?

After all, Little Joe had put in years of work at his stepfather's auto business.

Maybe he decided that it was finally time to get what he thought he deserved.

I always thought that little Joe had something to do with it.

I think he did not work a whole lot.

I think he and Joe had not parted ways, but I think Joe had gotten enough of Little Joe not working like he should.

And I think Joe was fixing to cut the money off.

And I think Little Joe got mad at Big Joe.

Quite frankly,

I thought it might have been Little Joe.

Now, of course, we didn't have any evidence on Joe other than he was very familiar with the layout with the dogs.

But I believe the detectives also checked out and he had an alibi.

So

my thought

was wrong.

And there was no one else that we could focus in on.

With no other leads and no physical evidence tying a suspect to the crime, the case comes to a standstill.

Then, on October 13th, 2008, police get a phone call that changes everything.

Out of the blue, we've gotten a call from the jail.

One of the supervisors out there said that they had someone in jail that had some information about

the murder and they wanted to talk to us.

An individual whom calls himself Cowboy Tate.

The informant was actually in there on a non-payment of child support, never asked for anything in return for his information.

I heard his name on the news while laying the steel like that's who is murdered, right?

Kirk.

I was approached about that shit back in the summer.

He starts telling us that he was approached by a blade that he knew.

They were hanging around at some apartment complexes in Waco.

They hang out at a different pool, drink beer, and she had been asking him if either he would or if he knew of someone who would murder someone for money.

Cowboy Tate tells detectives that the woman's name is Deborah Dietrich.

This is the first investigators have heard of Deborah Dietrich.

Could she be one of Joe's jilted lovers?

What What cowboy Tate reveals next will steer the investigation in a whole new direction.

When you look at the big picture,

what they say makes perfect sense in the context of what has happened here.

She pointed him out and said, that's the man that we need murder.

You know, he was mean to her and treat her like shit.

It's been nearly a week since Joyce Sturtevan's frantic 911 call hurled investigators into the baffling case of her husband Joe's murder.

But now, detectives have finally received a break.

They had someone in jail that had some information about

the murder and they wanted to talk to us.

The man who goes by, Cowboy Tate, tells detectives a woman named Deborah Dietrich approached him with a proposition.

She actually took him to a parking lot across from Joe Sturtevant's favorite cafe.

She pointed him out, Joe Sturtevant and the vehicle he was driving, and said, that's the man that we need murdered.

She thought I would have been a badass man.

I told Gibby out of it.

I swear to God, I thought I told Gibby out of it.

And he told her she was crazy, and he actually placed a phone call to Waco Crime Stoppers, waited for Waco police to show up.

They were tied up on calls, and in the process, the informant got scared and went back to work.

Detectives question why Deborah Dietrich might have wanted Joe Sturtevant dead.

That's when Cowboy Tate drops a bombshell.

According to him, Deborah wasn't hiring a hitman for herself.

I know for a fact his wife had it done.

That's why I heard, you know, he was mean to her and treat her like shit.

Joyce had convinced Deborah that she was being abused by Joe and mistreated, and that the only escape that she had was to get rid of him.

You know, I wasn't surprised.

We all knew that if something ever happened to Joe, it was one of two things.

It was either a jealous husband or Joyce.

Armed with this game-changing revelation, police need to track down Deborah.

Conducted surveillance on the apartment complex when she was coming home.

Approached her, introduced herself,

asked her if she'd be willing to talk to us.

And she agreed, and she actually followed us out here to the police department.

According to Deborah, she'd gotten to know Joyce after she delivered parts to the auto shop.

They developed this friendship, and I guess Joyce must have felt like, you know, it was a pretty close relationship.

So Major has been taken care of.

What did you mean by taken care of?

Just

Dave.

Talk to Cowboy.

Cowboy tell me now, David.

You don't know what you're getting into.

You don't want to see me today.

him.

Just leave it alone.

Did you talk anybody else?

I dropped it.

Okay.

Then how did it come up again?

She kept on

asking me.

Deborah says that's when she reached out to another man named Carlos, an acquaintance of cowboy Tate.

Then I met Carlos.

What did you say to him?

Ask him if he knew me

to have people that could take care of somebody.

Yeah.

Deborah encountered these guys out at her apartment complex and they got to know each other and she felt like they could carry the plan out.

They wanted, you know, cash.

They wanted $20,000.

Debbie told us when she approached Joyce

about the money, She said, I've got these rings and they're worth a whole lot more money than that.

Okay.

She hands the rings to you and says, here's the payment for them to kill my husband.

Did she say anything else?

And you agree and do it.

But according to Deborah, the two hitmen took Joyce's jewelry, but failed to live up to their end of the bargain.

They never did the job, so basically they just, you know, they ripped off.

Joyce and Debbie at that point.

Debbie said when she told Joyce about it, you know, she got pretty upset.

I guess she was going to take care of it herself.

Take care of itself and then

do it herself.

She was going to kill him herself.

At that point, we were feeling real confident.

You know, we were getting to a point where we were able to confirm stories.

We had the jail informant, which helped us corroborate that.

On October 16th, 2008, police track down one of the alleged hitmen, Carlos Garcia.

He tells us that Debbie had approached him and a friend of his about killing somebody, and they thought she was crazy.

We never intended to kill anybody.

We were just going to try to roll Debbie.

After speaking with Carlos, detectives are eager to once again talk to Joyce Sturtevant.

But before they get that chance, a call comes in from Deborah Dietrich, who says she has more information she wants to get off her chest.

She came in and her conscience just told her she needed to come let somebody know.

She was going to do it when I was still laying in the bed.

Because she was going to shoot me.

And she would think to come to work and not even know anything.

And she would go home and she'd be the one to find him.

She said she was going to ransack the house.

Make it look like somebody broke in.

Here's something else too.

She just told me she's tried to have hang him in her mouth off once before.

Did she tell you when she'd done this?

Or when that happened?

She just said a year ago.

According to Deborah, the home invasion in 2007 was Joyce's first attempt at killing Joe.

She says that one of the men involved in the attack is a friend of hers named Ali Mohammed, who went by the nickname Doc.

I went to Doc's house.

His initial response was, well, I wondered how long it's going to take y'all to come talk to me.

It was almost like it was a relief to him.

He had known the Sturtevants for many, many years.

What Joyce had been feeding him was that Joe had been abusing her, both verbally and physically.

But was Joyce Sturtevant truly a victim of abuse?

Detectives aren't so sure.

We looked into that.

We found no indication, no reports where the police had been called.

Doc was just, you know, whatever Joyce told him, he pretty much would believe.

He needed money.

He was in a money bind.

And so she loaned it to him.

But according to Doc, even after getting paid, he still wasn't up to carrying out Joyce's hit on Joe.

He was not healthy enough to climb the fence and go in there and fight Joe.

So he got a friend of his, Chris Chapman, tells him to

rough up the guy and kill him.

Chapman was the one who went into the house at 07 and assaulted Joe Sturtevant.

Mohammed provided him with a knife and then a gun to go in and teach Mr.

Joe Sturtevan a lesson.

In the end, Joe woke up right before the attack, and he was the one who taught Chapman a lesson.

He said when he got in the house, Joe Sturtevant got the best of him.

He was actually scared Joe Sturtevant was going to take his life, and he was lucky to have fled the house alive.

Now, investigators have multiple reports detailing Joyce's murderous plans.

But with no proof of abuse at the hands of Joe, what other motive could Joyce have to have him killed?

When questioned further, Mohammed reveals a key piece of information about his relationship with Joyce.

We learned that he had been actually selling prescription pills to Joyce.

In talking with Ali, she was taking a a lot of the pills a day.

She would do just about anything

to satisfy her addiction.

To corroborate Mohamed's story, police sit down with Joyce's son, Little Joe, and his wife to see if they can shed some light on the Sturtevant's family life.

For the last 10 years, she's been embezzling from the company on a regular basis, sometimes to the tune of $3,000 and $4,000 a week.

She was buying quite a few pills.

There were some people there at the shop that i'm sure she was giving money to financial records of his transmission shop were not good

they owed a lot of back taxes had a lot of debt and

seriously doubt joe startovet knew about that

she just depleted the business of money

And that was her only way out was to kill him.

Other than control of the business, control of the money, she got $92,000

life insurance.

Little Joe also confirms that the abuse allegations are a lie.

Was your dad abusive to your mom?

Shout out.

They had arguments back and forth, but he was not ever physically abusive.

Despite the circumstantial evidence pointing to Joyce as her husband's killer, investigators still don't have the smoking gun.

that places her in the room with Joe at the time of the murder.

We obviously didn't have the murder weapon,

lacked a lot of physical evidence.

The persistence in the case was very important.

These guys were persistent.

It was a lengthy process.

After over two years searching for something substantial, detectives finally uncover a crucial piece of evidence obtained in the original investigation.

In reviewing the overall evidence that was found initially at the scene, the detective had had enough insight into taking her clothes.

However, because Joyce was not initially a suspect, her clothes remained untested until February 17th, 2011.

We got a lab report from the Texas Department of Public Safety indicating that there was gunshot residue on Joyce Sturtevant's jacket.

Coupled with the circumstantial evidence, the gunshot residue gives detectives the ammunition they need to charge Joyce with Joe's murder.

On On March 16th, 2011, they arrest her at the Sturtevan Auto Shop.

She couldn't believe that we were arresting her.

You know,

it had been so long, she thought she'd gotten away with it.

Joyce is charged with capital murder and attempted capital murder.

Her bail is set at $1 million.

This didn't match what I had seen in the past.

I didn't see the dark side of her.

I mean, it was hurtful.

She's my mom, but

everything was still a shock.

If Joyce Sturtevant's arrest was shocking, her trial would be a full-blown circus, with Joyce herself in the center ring.

As soon as the cross-examination started, it was like the other Joyce came out.

By March of 2011, after evading prosecution for nearly three years, Joyce Sturtevan's murderous plot to kill her husband Joe has finally caught up to her.

All the evidence pointed to Joyce Sturtevan.

When the trial begins on November 28th, 2011, prosecutors pace jurors through the day.

They say Joyce finally pulled the trigger.

She got up at the same time she normally doesn't.

But instead of telling her husband goodbye that morning,

she shot him.

And I believe after she shot him, at that point, I believe that's when Joyce Durtevant realized he wasn't dead.

She thought that she had killed him when she shot him in the back.

What we believe happened was that he was still breathing and what she heard was a gurgling when she went back in

and finished him off and that's when she shot him in the back of the head to finish the job.

She just went to work and acted like nothing ever happened.

It takes a pretty cold person just to be able to pull that off.

When it's their turn to counter, Joyce's defense team sticks to her original claim that Joe was the victim of a robbery gone awry.

They also double down on the assertion that Joyce was a victim of abuse and then call Joyce to the stand to tell the jury her story.

She took the stand and played the frail, you know, walking up there with a cane and my poor husband was killed and, you know, and I, I'm the one who found the body and tried to really play up the sympathy.

But her testimony can't explain away the gunshot residue that proves she fired a weapon.

Nor can it eliminate the sworn testimony of everyone Joyce tried to enlist in the murder of her husband.

Witnesses are very important, and without a lot of physical evidence, you're going to rely on a lot of the testimony from these people.

And when their stories all come together and the story is all the same, it's definitely exciting for your case.

On December 2nd, 2011, the jury returns with their verdict.

The judge read the verdict.

We, the jury, find the defendant.

He kind of hesitated, and then he said, guilty of murder.

I did not see really any reaction from mom whatsoever.

And they took her away.

They assessed punishment at 30 years on the murder.

and 15 on the attempted capital murder.

At her age, at 67, she'll spend the remainder of her life in the penitentiary.

Though most people in this small Texas town are convinced Joyce pulled the trigger, not everyone agrees about why.

I do think probably she got hooked on painkilling drugs and she just depleted the business of money.

I truly believe she had finally had enough.

With everything that had gone on through the years, when you get tired enough of something, something's gonna snap.

Joyce Sertivant will be eligible for parole in 2026.

She will be 81 years old.

All co-conspirators were granted immunity for their testimonies against Joyce.

For more information on Snapped, go to oxygen.com.

How hard is it to kill a planet?

Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.

When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

Are we really safe?

Is our water safe?

You destroyed our top.

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

We call things accidents.

There is no accident.

This was 100%

preventable.

They're the result of choices by people.

Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.

Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.