Welcome back to the Path Went Chile for part two of our series on the unsolved disappearance of Joey lynn Offit Robin, do you want to catch everyone up on what we talked about in our previous episode. Well, this case took place in July of two thousand and seven in the small town of Sikesville,
Pennsylvania. Joey lint Off It was thirty three years old, but because she has developmental disabilities, she was described as having the mind of a fourteen year old, so that often made it very difficult for her to navigate through life at times. At this point, she had child run one from a previous relationship, but her last two children were with a guy named Alexis Broland, who was described as being her on again, off again boyfriend because they kind
of had an a rocky relationship. Joey had recently given birth to a six week old infant son named Lex, and at the start of July, Alexis, as well as Joey's mother, we're looking at looking after her other two
children so she can spend some time alone with Lex. But on July the twelfth, their house caught fire and alex was found dead in the bathtub and was burned beyond recognition that they cannot determine its exact cause of death, but Joey in her car were missing from the scene, and a few days later, her vehicle was found sixty miles away in State College, Pennsylvania, and it was parked at an apartment complex where Joey and Alexis had previously lived,
though the way the car was parked led her loved ones to think that she was not the person who actually drove it there. And what was strange is that the last confirmed sighting of Joey took place on July the third, nine days before the house burned down, and no one could confirm having seen Joey
or Lex alive during that nine day window. In fact, Alexis claimed that he visited the house numerous times throughout the week, and what made things even odd is he claimed that Joey's car kept disappearing and reappearing in the driveway as if someone was moving it out, but he could not be certain if it was actually Joey, So at first there speculation the baby Joey killed Lex and then ran off in a panic, but there has been no evidence to suggest
that she's still alive, so we think that someone else is responsible for the death of lex and subsequently disposed of Joey's body. But there's no one who's ever been named as a suspect or person of interest, and no one has ever been able to figure out what actually happened which led to her disappearance. So if you look up any discussions about this case online, you'll see that quite a few people have expressed her suspicions about Alexis Brolind, Joey's on again,
off again boyfriend and the father of two of her children. On the surface, might seem like a logical conclusion, as they definitely had a rocky relationship, but if you watch the Disappeared episode about this case and see Alexis's interviews, it's hard to picture him being involved, as I personally believe he does come across as sincere. Remember he not only lost Joy but a six week old son as well, and I do think he sounds genuinely broken up
when he's talking about it. The way the episode frames it, you get the impression that Joey was to blame for many of the issues in the relationship. Joey's mother and sister are also interviewed, and you get the sense that they got along fairly well with Alexis and never give off any vibes that they suspect him. The only time the episode casts any suspicion in Alexis's direction is when it shares the circumstances of his polygraph test, which seemed pretty odd to
me. According to Alexis, the first time he took the polygraph, he was told he did well, but I'm not sure if that means he was specifically told he passed. But when police approached Alexis about taking the polygraphic agen, they told him he did not pass the first time around, so on
the advice of his family, Alexis declined to take it. One of the detectives who was interviewed on the show says that while Alexis was initially very cooperative with the investigation, he has become a bit less cooperative as time has gone on, but they still don't have any reason to consider him a suspect. Well, as I'm sure you know, polygraphs are not considered to be reliable, so I really do not blame Alexis for not wanting to take one again
if he failed the first time. Around. Why did they not tell him that to begin with? It's almost like investigators were making some sort of attempt
to trip Alexis up. So I'd be very reluctant about taking a polygraph under those circumstances, even if I was completely innocent, as would I. I remember when I was telling Rebel about these wrongful conviction cases, right, and that you think these things don't happen in our justice system, and that you know it would take someone getting really mixed up in the justice them to ever be accused of something they didn't do. And now I have him completely terrified
of everything. He's like, okay, so if I ever get pulled over, what do I do? And I don't take a polygraph? And I need an attorney? And like it's oddly funny how scared he is, but it's real, right, And I think over time, when you have given so much of yourself, Alexis is remarried, right, he has tried to continue a life without his baby, without Joey. I think sometimes you do have to distance yourself. And I do think it would feel like, Okay, I did what they asked me to do. They told me I passed
it. Then they said I didn't, which police are allowed to do even if you did pass it right, and trying to get you, like you said, to trip up or say something because you know you think what they're telling you is true. And so I don't blame Alexis for saying I did what you asked. I have been supportive, I have been open. It's been how many years, I'm moving forward with my wife. He also, I'm assuming raising Joey's baby, that's his correct I think so, yeah,
because technically he is the father of that child. I mean Joey's eldest daughter, because she was from a previous relationship, was probably being raised by her mother, Sherry. But I'm assuming that Alexis got custody of the younger daughter. Yeah, I would absolutely think so, unless Alexis and Sherry decided it was best for the baby to stay with her big sister. But but yeah, so I don't find any suspicion, is what I'm trying to say.
With Alexis saying I'm going to be a little less open to you at this point, I feel like you might have lied to me. I feel like you're not always open with me, and I've been cooperative and it's time for me to move back. I wouldn't take a polygraph test from them. I don't know. I'm sorry, even if from the jump, I wouldn't. But after they were like, hey you passed, good job, and then conveniently later on they're like, actually you didn't pass, It's like, well,
what is it. I can't trust you to be giving me accurate information, So why am I going to bend over back when I'm not legally obliged to do so, especially after he was open and did provide this information.
And I think this is exactly why people who are like, Okay, I'll take a polygraph, but it needs to be from an independent examiner at a different location, because police can do anything they want with that information, and it is very subjective, so they can look at you, like Ashley said, and be like you failed even though you pass, in order to try
to trip you up. So just don't ever take a polygraph. While the Disappeared episode mostly paints Alexis in a positive light, what's particularly interesting is that they make no mention of some of the unsavory accusations that Joey made against him. As you'll recall, Joey spent two and a half years in an Internet group for single mothers and made some pretty unsettling posts which did not give off a flattering portrayal of Alexis, as she claimed he was a felon and former
drug addict who had the potential to harm her. Joey also said she had gotten a protection from abuse order against Alexis and alleged that his son from a previous relationship was sexually abusing her oldest daughter. Well, the disappeared episode doesn't mention this stuff at all, and quite frankly, we have no idea if it's true. Yes, I know, this is a TV show and it
could have been slanted to make Alexis look better than he really was. But let's not forget that Joey's family also participated in the episode, and if they made similar accusations about him, they were not included in the show. In two thousand and six, Joey posted that her daughter had been removed from her home because of abuse at the hands of Alexis's son, so she had to
fight to get her back. Well, it is true that Joey's daughter was taken from her that year, but it was actually for something Joey did her own mother, Sherry Hallett, confirmed that she was granted temporary custody of the children because Joey had been communicating with a potential sexual predator online and Sherry feared
for the children's safety. Sherry said that Alexis was the one who brought the tower attention in the first place after he intercepted some disturbing emails, and Joey had to be dragged away from the police and handcuffs because she threw a violent fit over the whole thing. So this sounds like the teenagers I'm raising. That's basically what this is. Okay. So the reality is that teenagers will create stories that fit their narrative, and a narrative that gets them what they
want allows them to avoid being accountable for things. So when Joey is making a mistake, instead of saying, yeah, actually teach me how to be a better mom. Right, you're right. That probably wasn't smart. Wow, I didn't know that. Thanks for pointing that out. Now I'm embarrassed. You know, instead of taking these opportunities when people are really saying, like, you've got to stop, You've got to help yourself and your kids.
She starts to point that she's a victim and that everyone around her is the bad guy. Her mother alexis right, So it's easier to say, oh, wait a minute, I'm the one being attacked, shifting the blame, shifting the focus to other people. I don't buy the stuff she posted online about Joey or about Alexis because when you look at the type of group she was in, this wasn't on her public Facebook page. This wasn't to her mother, this wasn't to any friends as she has. This is to
a group of single women who were all coming together for support. And I can see those pages turning into like a one upper like I'm in a widows group and I had to leave it because I was like, jeez, you like you want to do a little better than the girl before you to be in a worse position, do you know what I mean? And to bring attention to you, And so I think that could be kind of what's going on here. She made five hundred and twenty five posts in two and a
half years. That is a lot to strangers, to tell them about sexual abuse, to tell them about physical abuse, to tell them about legal troubles. It seems like an unsafe and immature way to get attention from these other mothers and to have them say, oh, your situation's really bad, oh sweetheart, like I'm so proud of you, and walking away saying, huh, I feel better about myself, right, instead of having to look in
the mirror and say I've messed up and I need to do better. Actually, when you consider that she was saying a lot of these accusations against Alexis after he brought those emails to the attention of Sherry and got her children taken away. So it's almost like I'm going to project here. I'm going to get angry and say that Alexis did all these bad things so that I don't have to look in the mirror and look in my own culpability and why my
children were taken away. Oh my goodness, if I could tell you what my teenagers have told other people when they didn't get their way, It's like, God, yeah, that did not happen, right like that. Everyone knows that did not happen. But it's easier. It's an easier route to say you are bad. I'm being attacked by people, I'm being hurt by people, instead of just saying like, yeah, I could probably do better.
I'm sorry about that. I agree. I think there is some kind of escalation and like one upmanship, and you get into a group like that, and if somebody's trying to look for attention, that would be one way to garner it. But I do have a question for you, Robin, because this seems like it's an easier thing to kind of pass through and maybe figure out if there's any accuracy to the statement. Is that is Alexis a felon? And was he an addict or did he have a substance use disorder?
I can't say with one hundred percent certainty. I don't know about the substance abuse disorder, but I did find someone post online that they did find like a criminal record for Alexis in his past. So but I'm guessing it was like a long time ago, maybe before he even had any of his children, and I don't think he's gotten to any trouble with the laws since then. So, I mean, there may be some truth in those statements, but perhaps Joey is just kind of escalating them and making up a bunch
of stories about him to add to it. The best lies always have some truth to them, that is true. I bet there is a basis of like they were fussing, there was a very unhealthy dynamic. But did it go to that extent. I just I don't think so. I just don't think that that is what was happening. And remember she was also seeking that attention elsewhere online. I think for Joey, Joey struggles with an intellectual disability, and I think that's a really important factor in this case. When you're
looking at her behavior, she's finding friends quote end quote. She's finding people who think she's pretty, that thinks she's a good mom, that thinks she is a strong woman, and she's doing that with a facade of the woman sitting in front of the computer and people don't know her. And so I think she needed that, she needed the attention and to be somebody different online. That's what got her in trouble with her mom and Alexis in the first
place. And I bet the mom's group was not that different. She was doing that same kind of search for acceptance and getting to be someone she's not like running away from the problems and being important to people, even though she was very important to the people around her. But she's seeking that quick approval
from these people that don't know who she is. Okay, I just did a Google search on Alexis Brolin. As you probably know, My Trail Went Cold episode came out in twenty nineteen, and I just found out that in June of twenty twenty, he was indicted for being involved in a methamphetamine ring. So Alexis has has had some legal troubles in the past few years, but none of this took place before Joey went missing. That's interesting. Yeah, I was trying to look up if he had a prior criminal record.
Didn't find out. Well, he does have a criminal record, only it's very recently, so he might actually be in prison right now as we're recording this. So could this mean that none of the stuff Joey was posting about Alexis in her online group was true. Well, we can't one percent prove or disprove anything Joey said, but if she was lying, I would not be over surprised. We really hate to say something like that about a missing
victim. But let's not forget that Joy was a thirty three year old woman with the mind of a fourteen year old, going online and spreading false rumors about someone they're angry with. Sounds exactly like the type of thing an immature fourteen year old would do, Like Ashley has said, one detail which makes most doubt the veracity of Joey's claims is that she specifically posted that Alexis's son
was abusing her five year old daughter. But these posts were made in two thousand and six, when her two daughters would have been eight and one year
old, respectively, so the math doesn't add up. We'll also add that there's a threat about this case in the web Sluice forum, and in twenty fourteen, one of the posters there claimed that they performed an online docket search for every court in Pennsylvania and found no record of Joy ever having filed a protection from abuse order against Alexis. Again, we hate to accuse Joy of lying, but no one from her family or law enforcement has ever publicly confirmed
any of these accusations made. Regardless of whether these claims are true or not, that doesn't mean we completely rule out Alexis as a suspect, but we'll get back to him in a little while. I don't think you can rule anyone out here. You know, we talked in episode one that there's just too many unanswered questions like where was she, when did she disappear, when
did the baby die? How did that happen? We can't provide alibis and airtight excuses for people when we don't know what we're looking for, Like what are we actually trying to account for here? So unfortunately Alexis Sherry, everybody else's is going to They're going to remain a suspect. Now what I do in my gut, now that we're talking about this, I am very concerned about who she was speaking to online. She got caught with that one man
who was propositioning her for pictures and pornography. We don't know if that was continuing after that. We don't know who she gave her address to. So I don't think that we can rule out, just like we can't rule out
anything else. I don't think we can rule out a stranger getting to quote know her on the internet and really being someone who wanted to target her right, who got her to open up about things, allowed them to see she's a very vulnerable person, and they went this is going to be an easy target. For now, we want to address the theory that Joey could have
been responsible for the death of her newborn son, Lex. There's been a lot of speculation that she may have been suffering from postpartum depression, and sadly, postpartum depression has played a role in some cases in which mothers have killed
their children, such as Andrea Yates. During his Disappeared interview, Alexis expressed his own belief that Joey might have had postpartum depression and was taking medication for it, but investigators said they could not find any documentation, such as pharmaceutical prescriptions to support this theory. But even so, it's definitely possible that Joey
could have still been suffering from it without being officially diagnosed. Of course, if Joey was responsible for Lex's death, that doesn't necessarily mean it was murder, as it could have been accidental. The last time alex has claimed he saw Joey, he was angry about her giving the baby a bath inside a dirty sink, And since Lex's body was found inside a bathtub, what if his death was an accidental drowning. Given her immaturity, it's reasonable to assume
that no matter what happened, Joey would have panicked and reacted badly. She could have cut off all contact with everybody to avoid taking responsibility for what she did, which is why no one could get a hold of her for an entire week. In fact, even if lex to come to sudden infant death syndrome and Joey was not even at fault, she still may have reacted the same way. For sure, she absolutely could have reacted the same way.
What is interesting is we've got to remember too, this is a newborn baby. So things like Joey bathing the baby in a sink. Depending on the size of the sink, that makes it easier to fill it with water and lay the baby in the sink and not have to support them as much, right, Like, maybe it's a smaller sink and you can actually prop the
baby up against the side. And then if she moved to a tub, babies can drown and what is it two inches of water, right or an inch of water if their faces is submerged or they fall into the water. So I could see a fourteen year old kid who's a parent walking away for a second, you know, like getting on the phone, checking her email, doing something, where then she turns around. It takes sixty seconds to, you know, like lose a kid, so I could see something like
that happening. I, as a responsible, grown, fully stable woman, have done a couple of things that you actually go, oh, my God, like thank god nothing happened, right, Like I remember putting Reggan in the middle of the bed and she had never rolled over before, and I'm like, oh good, that gives me, you know, five minutes to go change my clothes and brush my hair, and I'm singing to her, and next thing I know, she learned to roll over and fell, you
know, like, thank God she didn't get hurt. But there's little things like that as a mother that you do and you go, thank you Jesus for watching out for her, like, wow, learn my lesson there, you know, you learn through mistakes, and especially if I was had a fourteen year old mentality, I might make decisions that put my baby at risk
without me knowing. So I don't see it being impossible that Joey could have been responsible for Lex's death, or like you said, it was a sudden infant death syndrome situation where she panics possibly puts the baby in the tub with cold water to see if it would wake it up. I mean millions of explanations. We don't know the body was so charred. I believe you guys told me there was no way of knowing what had happened to that little one. Yeah, exactly. We don't know how Lex died, but they did
were able to confirm that he was dead before the fire started. Do you think that if there was water in the lungs and it wasn't drowning, that they would have been able to figure that out because the charring shouldn't have affected the lungs, right, or maybe just the amount of decomposition that had happened they have affected it. I think all of it, All of it would
have been really hard. I feel like they would have been able to say, like the lungs were halty, like I feel like they could have documented some details if certain parts weren't. If you look at like autopsy pictures of the Waco remains, oh yeah, it doesn't even look like a human being. Do you know what I mean? And what you could tell from that? I have no idea. I'd also like to note I'm a damn good
mom, even though I let my kid fall off the bed. After I said it, I was like, oh oh, you're a great mom. I don't think anyone's doubting that. I think everybody makes mistakes, right, Oh my gosh. Yes. So. The last confirmed sighting of Joey took place on July the fifth, where a neighbor walked past her while she was pushing a stroller. He claimed she wouldn't acknowledge him and could not be certain
that a baby was inside the stroller. Well, some people have taken this as an indication that Lex may have already been dead by this point, and the trauma caused Joey to have a complete mental breakdown and go into a daze, which is why she was pushing an empty stroll around. But it's worth noting that just because the neighbor said he did not recall seeing a baby in
the stroller does not necessarily mean it was empty. For all we know, he simply could have missed Lex, and this sighting doesn't have any real significance. The problem is that, due to the condition of Lex's burned body, investigators were unable to determine his exact cause of death, though they were pretty certain that Lex was already deceased before the fire started. Regardless, even if
Joey killed her child and had a complete breakdown. Would she really had been capable of committing arson by spreading gasoline around the house and setting it on fire to cover up the crime. And if she fled the scene in her own vehicle, why leave her purse behind? She didn't leave on her own at least not for long. Okay. I think the pushing the baby stroller,
that's a stretch. If I have been walking down the sidewalk going to work and someone has said good morning, and it doesn't really register with me, I'm walking up and I'm like, wait a minute, I'm pretty sure I just ignored, you know, my friend down the street. Sometimes you're thinking about something, you are kind of consumed with an idea, you're soaking in the things around you, and you just simply don't acknowledge or respond to people.
I think that's possible. Maybe she didn't like the neighbor, Maybe she felt unsafe and had just been chastised about talking to strangers. You know. Also, you forget how tiny a newborn baby is. I remember having Reagan and watching her grow up, and I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, and then I held my niece, who is new a new baby,
and I'm going, was Reagan this small too? Like, yeah, Reagan was three pounds smaller than her, you know, And I'm like, what, they're so small, And so if she's in a carrier, in a you know, in a baby carriage, depending on the way that the little setup is, you may not see the baby, right. There could be a little blanket over them and you don't see them. They're they're so
small. Yeah, I definitely think this is an example of a witness who just saw something mundane and then when he found out about a week later that the baby turned up dead, he was just looking at the situation a lot more ominously. And I think the fact that she didn't acknowledge this person, I don't think it's a red flag either. If I don't have my coffee, there'll be somebody saying hello to me on the street in the morning. It happened to me just yesterday. They're like, hey, hey, somebody
in my building. And it took like three hats to me to be like, oh hi, because I'm so lost in my own thoughts and I'm not caffeinated yet, and so I just have like one track focus, like get the dog out, get him to go to the bathroom, walk them around,
and you know, go home and then have my coffee. And so I could see how maybe she was just in her own thoughts or like doing her own thing, and maybe just didn't even hear it, because sometimes if you're focused on something else, your other senses don't seem to be quite as acute. There has been speculation that the truth lies somewhere in the middle, as Joey may have been responsible for Lex's death but then became a victim at
the hands as someone else. For instance, if Alexis went over to the house and found out that Joey had killed their son, he might have gone into a rage and killed her. He then proceeded to set fire to the place to destroy evidence, and disposed of Joey's body somewhere, then abandoned her car at another location to give off the impression that she went on the run.
Or perhaps Joey caused Lexi's death and turned to someone else for help, but this person proceeded to take advantage of Joey and killed her before burning down the house. The problem with latching onto any theory in particular is that the timeline of events in the week prior to Joey's disappearance is very confusing, but let's start at the beginning. The last confirmed sighting of Joey is from July fifth, a full seven days before the fire, and no one can be
certain if she was even alive during that entire time period Before that. The last time anyone recalled speaking with Joey was on July third, when she had an argument with Alexis over giving Alexa bath in a dirty sink. After that, Alexis and Joey's family made numerous attempts to contact her over the next several
days, but claimed they couldn't reach her. If you believe Alexis is a perpetrator, then you could assume that he killed Joey on July third, and his story about the argument is a lie, or perhaps there are some remnants of truth to it. But the real story is that Joey accidentally drowned lex while bathing him, and this prompted Alexis to kill her in a fit of
rage. That is definitely a possibility. I thought about that, like, you know, you're not taking care of the baby, and look at what you just did, and I'm so angry with you, But think about this. She's frustrated with Alexis. Maybe she doesn't want her mom to know something has happened. Remember, she has all these quote friends online. I know her Internet had been disconnected, but I'm wondering, did she have a way
to communicate with people? Did she have phone numbers, you know, for people that she had met online, And did she call one of these quote friends to come help her and comfort her and come up with a plan. And they said, this is the moment, this is where I go and I get this girl. I'm not taking her away from her kid or kids already deceased, and I'm just going to hide all this evidence and take her with me. I mean, that's a good question. I mean I don't
really have much information about her friendships at that time. Like we know she communicated a lot online that I don't know how many actual flesh and blood friends she had in the area, particularly since she hadn't been living in Sykesville all that long. And I know that they checked her Internet activity didn't find anything suspicious. So I don't know who she would have had the opportunity to meet with, who would have been willing to help her and possibly harm her.
There could have been sex offenders in the area. There could be some unknown perpetrator that she could have been exposed to prior, who maybe she had kind of started a friendship with or was just familiar with, and they're the one that did her harm. There could be all of these unknown variables that just are infuriating because we don't know anything about her circle besides Sherry, and besides Alexis and this mom group, single mom group. Who else was she in
contact with, besides her nurse. It is really frustrating because there's just so much that we don't know here. So if you believe the sighting from the neighbor is accurate, then that means Joey was still alive for at least two more days after her fight with Alexis. However, part of me wonders if the neighbor may have gotten a date wrong and that he actually passed by Joy
pushing a stroll or on another day prior to July the fifth. The only reason I question this is because Alexis claimed that he tried to get a hold of Joey several times on July the fourth, but she never returned his calls. They had originally planned to visit Alexis's grandmother for a Fourth of July fireworks celebration. And even if Joey was still angry with Alexis, you think she might have still been inclined to attend this get together rather than completely ignoring him.
But then again, if something happened with Joey and lex on July the third or the fourth, this might explain why she never got back to Alexis and was seen walking through the neighborhood in a possibly disoriented state on the fifth. Yeah, she could have been struggling and kind of scrambling to figure out what do I do? How do I fix what happened? And I would not be surprised if she didn't reach out to a stranger posing as someone she
could trust for help. I also, I mean, I think there's eyewitness. We know eyewitness sightings are not really reliable. I think it would be very bizarre that that would stand out so much that I remember the date, I remember what was happening. I do think this neighbors trying to be helpful, but they're simply giving their best estimate of when and what they saw.
It's after this when things got really weird, as both Alexis and a nurse from the Home health agency visit to Joey's house on multiple occasions over the course of the next week, and got no answer at the front door. Even if Joey still didn't want to speak with Alexis, you would think that she would answer the door for her scheduled depointment with the nurse, since this was
free medical care for her child. But the discovery of the raw hamburger being on Joey's kitchen counter after the fire is a pretty ominous sign that something went horribly wrong during this time period, as the presence of Meggett seemed to indicate that it had been sitting there since some time between July third and fifth.
None of these visits to Joey's home took place until the fifth or after, so the logical conclusion is that something happened with Joey prior to this, and most disturbingly, poor lex may have been lying dead inside the house for an entire week before the fire department arrived. Now, most of the evidence seems to suggest that there was no activity at the house that week, since the mail kept piling up on the front door, and each time Alexis and the
nurse looked side through the window. Lex's baby seat and diapers remained in the same place. However, the most perplexing aspect of this mystery is the apparent disappearance and reappearance of Joey's Saturn coup so weird. Somebody got into her car and moved it back and forth, supposedly right they drove it, they went somewhere, yet no one is seen Joey. And what's so sad is that
a hindsight's twenty twenty. But had this nurse been concerned enough to call the police, had Sherry thought something's wrong, I'm gonna call the police right there, she supposed to have this baby by herself, she'd be opening the door. If someone at the doctor's office when she didn't show up, said like, hey, just checking in, Like anyone know what's happening. It would have taken one person to call the police, and they might not have been
alive. But at this point, when the house hasn't burned down, we might have at least been able to find Lex and see what had happened. And then maybe Joey is still alive and in a desperate situation, a desperate decline or injured or something like that, and they would have been able to go in. It's so sad. Not anyone's fault. I'm not blaming anybody at all, but man one person to ask for a wellness check. What
would the police have found in that home. I'm also wondering if the reason that perhaps Alexis and Sherry, who kept calling her several times it didn't get
an answer. They may not have wanted to involve the police because of the past illegal trouble with Joey where she had her kids taken away from her, because of her interaction with the creeper online, and they're probably thinking, Okay, if we call the police prematurely and it turns out there's nothing wrong, she could potentially get into trouble and Joey's probably going to throw a fit and
get mad at me. So I think they may have been trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and hope that she'll finally get back to them over the course of the next few days, but tragically it never happened. That's genius, because you're right. Remember it's not just that she gets mad at them. Remember she got arrested, didn't she She gotten a fuss with the law Enfersman agents who responded to her home that one time. And so there does come that decision as a parent, like do I go through that
again? Do I risk that she's going to react in a way that police are not trained to deal with mental health issues. They're not really trained to deal with people with intellectual disabilities. So Sherry saw how it went with the police the first time, and Alexis knows that too. Yeah, I definitely think that could have played a role. So let's recap the strange happening surrounding
Joey's car. According to Alexis and the nurse, the Saturn Cooper was parked in front of the house on July the fifth and sixth, was missing on the seventh, returned on the eighth, was missing again on the eleventh, but was confirmed by other witnesses to be parked outside during the early morning hours of the twelfth, approximately one hour before the fire, And of course it's
subsequently turned up in State College three days later. So does the disappearance and reappearance of the vehicle prove that Joey was still alive from julya fifth until the twelve, Well, if Joey was dead that entire time, and someone else killed her, why would the perpetrator move the saturn back and forth from the house on multiple occasions. Luminol testing found no trace of forensic evidence in the vehicle to suggest foul play, so I'm not so sure if anyone used Joey's
car to transport or body somewhere. We technically only have Alexis's word that the car was gone on the seventh, but the nurse was able to corroborate that
it was missing on the eleventh. If you believe Alexis is behind this whole thing, then you can assume that he moved the saturn back and forth in order to give off the false impression that someone else was responsible for what happened, Perhaps as constant phone calls, visits to the house, and interactions with the nurse were nothing more than a charade in order to faint concern for Joey.
After all, it does seem convenient that Alexis would wait an entire week to file a missing person's report and finally get around to visiting the police only hours after Joey's house was set on fire. That is super suspiciou We also know that the car was located at an apartment complex sixty miles away where Alexis and Joey used to live, and so there is a known connection to that. You don't randomly pick an apartment complex sixty miles away and say, WHOA,
what are the odds that they would dump the car there. Someone knew that that was an important place. It was a known place of familiar place for Joey and Alexis. Also, that car was backed into a parking spot, perfectly parked, The seat was leaned back and indicated that there was a larger person driving than her five three frame. So that car, how there was no forensic evidence in it, I do not know, because we know
that that car housed somebody who knows something about Joey's disappearance. Those are the two biggest question marks for me to make me think, well, maybe Alexis is responsible because the person that dump the car there had to have known about that place, and what are the chances that some stranger is going to be able to extract that information from Joey, that they would even think to ask that, and that they would also go and drive sixty miles to that specific
location. It just seems counterintuitive that it would be somebody who was unknown or just you know, maybe casually known to Joey. And then the timing, like, what are the chances that after a week has gone by, you still haven't filed a missing person's report. This is not only Joey, it's also little Lex. It just seems like, Okay, a day goes by, a couple days go by, and I see the protecting of Joey for a very short period of time from law enforcement and whatever ramifications could come up.
But the fact that he waited a week is pretty concerning. And then oh, just by coincidence, it seems to be just after the place is torched and potentially any forensic evidence that maybe left behind. It just it feels
a little off to me. But on the other hand, it makes me wonder if Alexis did this, why would he choose that apartment complex, Like, wouldn't you want to draw attention away from yourself and just maybe leave it in a random location and not something that thinks whoever left this here has inside knowledge about Joey's life. I mean, I guess that only works if they wanted to give up the impression that Joey parked the car there, which is
certainly possible. But again, if you can't have any proof that she's still alive, then that ruse isn't going to work. So do you think it could have been one of Alexis's friends who knew about the couple and maybe had some desire to her Joey or manipulate Joey or something like that, And because she is angry at Alexis, maybe one of the only people she knows is a friend of his or an acquaintance of theirs, and calls for help and
that's when they decide she's now vulnerable. Someone knew about the department compics, and I'm with you, Alexis is not completely dumb, you know. Would you really drive it to an apartment complex you shared with her and be like,
Oh, that's so weird, it's in my old apartment. It seems more like they were set up the question though, So if this is say it was Alexis, and say it took him a whole week to come up with how he was going to dispose of this evidence and try to construct a theory if he was trying to make it look like Joey was responsible, for Alex's death, and he wanted to make it look like she ran away and she was going to like, you know, dump her vehicle somewhere and then
kind of go from there. He might not have thought how that was going to affect him. Adversely, the you know, the vehicle being dumped there, how it could have been tied to him. He may have just thought, like, she has a disability, she's going to go to a familiar place. This was a familiar place for her, and so that's why she left the vehicle there. Oh yeah, that makes sense because I don't think
he was criminal mastermind. I mean, if he was the one responsible for this, it took him a week, and he was moving the car back and forth and wasting so much time because he probably didn't have any idea what to do and was trying to formulate a plan. And the fact that we found out just recently that he was indicted in a methamphetamine ring several years later shows that he's probably not the brightest guy in the world. That's fair.
However, it must be said that investigators looked into Alexis' movements throughout that week, and his story did seem to check out. Phone records showed that he called Joey numerous times, and witnesses backed up his claims that he visited her house on multiple occasions. Even if all this stuff was a charade in order for Alexis to divert suspicion away from himself, it doesn't sound like police found any noticeable holes in his story or red flags to indicate that he was lying
about anything. You might recall that Alexis left a note for Joey the last time that he visited the house, on July eleventh, informing her that if she did not contact him by the follow gay, he would go to the police. This note was found at the scene when the house caught fire. Though, if you believe alexus Is guilty, you could infer that he wrote this in order to make himself look like a concerned boyfriend and provide an excuse
for why he didn't go to the police until after the fire. However, if another person was responsible for what happened to Joey, they could have returned to the house and found Alexis's note and learned that the police were about to become involved. In response, the perpetrator decided to commit arson and set fire to Joey's house in the middle of the night in order to destroy potential evidence. But if someone else did this, who could it have been. I
think it has to be someone who she met online. I don't know. But then how would they take her car to that place. They wouldn't know that place unless she had mentioned it. Why, right, I don't know the car at the apartment complex links it back to Alexis, either directly or indirectly someone who knows Alexis and Joey. That is a very weird space. I could see where you guys were saying Alexis could have parked it there,
saying, hey, Joey fled, Joey went to this familiar place. But I the note being seen because it feels like this person was existing in her space. They were driving her car, they were, you know, kind of going back and forth in kind of this chaotic manner, saying what am I going to do with these bodies at this point? And that letter that says we're about to call the police. I never even thought about that.
That could have absolutely caused someone to go no, no, no, no, no, Now is the time I'm going to destroy the evidence and get rid of Joey. I could see it either way though, Like it could be that why they looked into Alexis' alibi and he was known to have been there, you know, people saw him. Was he also moving the car?
Was that part of it too? Was he putting up these notes because it was part of, you know, this grander plan to eventually just those of the evidence and to point the fingers that maybe she ran away or whatever the case, that somebody else did this. I could definitely go either way that he's responsible and this was a big plan, or that he was just very unfortunate and it just looks guilty because of where the car is discovered,
you know, and Jules, you said something really powerful before. You're like, he seems so genuine and like so heartbroken over the loss of his baby. Yeah, what if he you know the scenario where you said he walks in Joey has you know, accidentally killed the baby or the baby has tied and he's it's so mad at her because he's been warning her like you clearly don't know how to parent or you're not being a good mom, and he
snaps and kills her. I could see it being one of these things where even like not consciously wanting to go there to hurt her, but reacting and snapping and then having to cover his tracks. He would still have a deceased child who he is now grieving, right, so that emotion could be very raw and very real, And even for Joey, he could be like, shoot, I didn't mean to kill her, like I hit her or pushed her or something like that. I did not mean to kill her and could
feel incredible remorse. And that would make sense where the apartment complex comes into play. Sixteen miles away, in the car's part, he would be making the right moves, calling, leaving the note, and oddly showing up to report her as they're confirming her house has been burned down. It's all very weird. Had he gone eight hours earlier to the police department, they would have arrived in an unburned you know, a non fire scene. And so
it does cast a lot of suspicion on Alexis. But it has to be someone to me who's linked to Joey and or Alexis, because there's too much knowledge, too many things that say that person was invited into this home and
things went bad. Yes, the alternate possibility is that when Joy was living at that apartment complex, if she became friends or acquainted with someone during that time there, and that person still kept in touch with her or knew where she lived, and then it could have been like a lazy thing where it's like this person commits the crime and then drives back to his own apartment complex
where he's still living and leaves the car there. But I'd like to think that police did look into the tenets of that apartment to see if any of them had any connections to Joey. Well, it's very tempting to believe that Joy might have been harmed by someone she met on the internet. Remember, there was already one documented case of Joey interacting with the guy she met online who convinced her to send him photographs of herself and was attempting to lure her
into doing pornography. Since Joy was described as being a naive and trusting person, she could have made herself an easy target for a sexual predator had potentially crossed pass with someone who murdered both her and her infant son. But the main problem with this theory is that Joey's Internet service was cut off at her
house a month before her disappearance due to non payment. Sure, Joey still could have met someone online before that, but investigators did check her hard drive and didn't find any evidence that she'd recently been interacting with anyone who might have taken advantage of her. Of course, that doesn't rule out the possibility that Joy met someone offline who did her harm. It could have been as something as simple as a dangerous stranger knocking on her front door and enjoy being so
trusting that she let them into her house. One detail were unclear on is whether there were any signs of forced entry at the residence. When Alexis visited the house throughout the week, he claimed he could go inside because the place was locked and he didn't have a key. But of course, when the fire department was summoned to the scene, I'm sure they probably forced their way inside and made it a lot more difficult to determine if there was a prior
break in. If there were any more confirmed sightings of Joy and Lex in the week preceding the fire, I might be more inclined to think this was the work of a random perpetrator who entered the home set fire to the play and abducted Joy from the scene inside her own vehicle before disposing of her body. However, the fact that Joy was missing for an entire week and may possibly been dead that entire time leads me to suspect this crime was a lot
more calculated and personal in nature. It had to be personal. Who else would know about the apartment complex. I know that's so silly, like it seems like such a small detail, but to me, her car being placed there is critical. It means someone had a conversation with her, that that place mattered, that she had once been there, that it was a place
of familiarity. It could not just be a person off the street who has no connection to Alexis and or Joey, because they would not know about that location unless they forced Joey to drive somewhere, which I think is a very rare possibility. Then it has to be someone who knew them. I think it could be a person from the internet, because oftentimes think back, this is a teenager functioning online. This is the way she mentally works. She's
about fourteen. It would be very common for a teenager to say, oh, you're so nice, you made me feel so good. This is my phone number, let's talk, and to have that person call you. So now you have a direct phone number, you don't need the Internet, and you can confide in them and talk to them throughout the night and have them tell you how great you are. Traffickers and predators, they will wait weeks and months and build a relationship with someone to come and hurt them. Right,
it doesn't have to be this quick process. So I could see them getting that kind of information and saying, oh, I'll be able to stage it at this apartment. But I mean, you guys aren't wrong. Alexis becomes this person who it makes the most sense, but there's a lot of questions that make it impossible to really point a light at Alexis and say, oh, wait, you had something to do with it. We just don't
know. I agree with you, Ash. I also don't think it's a coincidence that Joey's abandoned Saturn was found parked an apartment complex in State College where she lived four years earlier. Like this could imply that Joey drove there herself, but the way the driver's seat was positioned and the uncharacteristic way that she neatly backed into that parking space. It created a lot of suspicion that Joey
did not leave the car there. So the alternate explanation is that the Saturn was deliberately abandoned at that location in order to give off the false impression that Joey drove there. But how many people would have known that Joey once lived in that particular apartment complex, like we keep asking, well, this is another detail which might point to the obvious suspect, like, ashe just said, being Alexis, since he and Joey once lived there together. But there
are issues with this theory. Granted, I can't account for Alexis's whereabouts during the time period Joey went missing, and I don't know how thoroughly police looked into his alibi. But State College is about an hour and a half drive from Sikesville and an hour's drive away from Alexis' home in Clearfield. So if Alexis drove the Saturn all the way to State College to abandon it, how
did he get back home? Genius point? I don't know, But I love when we're talking and we're saying, you know, the police cleared him or weren't able to clear him? And we don't know where he was. We don't know when to ask him where he was. He needs to tell us where he was for ten days or eight days. And if that's the case, even I wouldn't be able to be cleared in something because I can't recall twenty four seven what I was doing, where I was and have proof
for that. So there's the police will never be able to account for anybody's story who's linked this case because I don't know is it Monday? I need to know where you were? Is it Monday through Wednesday? I need to know where you were, Is it you know, Friday? Like I am very confused as to what I even asking you to tell me about. It's unclear when exactly Joy's vehicle wound up in that apartment complex parking lot, but one of the residents was certain they saw it there on July the thirteenth,
and possibly as early as the twelfth. We have witnesses who could confirm it was parked outside Joy's house at around three am on the twelfth, and Alexis's whereabouts are accounted for later that same day because he went to the police station
to file a missing person's report before he was informed about the fire. So assuming that the eyewitness sighting of the Saturn being in State College on the twelfth is accurate, that means Alexis would have had to set fire too Joy's house in the middle of the night, driven her car sixty five miles to the apartment complex to abandon it, and then somehow traveled forty miles back to Clearfield
before he went to see the police later that day. I mean, it's theoretically possible, but Alexis either would have needed an accomplice to give him a ride back home, or he somehow secured alternate transportations such as a taxi without leaving a paper trail. And even mind, this guy was also watching over two kids at the time, one of whom was Joyce to a year old daughter. So how exactly could Alexis have done all this traveling around without anyone
noticing he was missing? But I guess the big question is who else besides Alexis knew about the significance of that apartment complex. I don't know. Every time I leaned towards Alexis being the most likely perpetrator, I started thinking about how everything would have played out, And there's just so much that doesn't fit. I think we can do this with a lot of cases where you say, I'm going to give you a name and then you tell me how they could be linked to this. Right, is it possible, Yes, it
is possible. It's Sherry, it is possible, it's Alexis. It's possible it was a stranger. But when you center on somebody, right, like, so, if we're talking about could this be Alexis, oh my gosh, like I'm doing the same thing you're doing, Robin, I go like, yeah, Alexis looks very suspicious. A lot of things fit Alexis. But then you're right if you're open, which is what a lot of wrongful
conviction cases or cases that don't get solved. It's because there's a refusal to open your eyes to the other side that there's also factors that don't quite fit. And I'm okay with that. Right. That means I can't roll him out, but I can't really point the finger at him either. It's important to keep your eyes on both sides of the story. Alexis pros that he did it, cons that he did it. That's the right way to investigate
a case. So often we don't see that you'll have someone target, let's say Alexis in this case, and at the end of the day, I can't solve this case. But you also didn't open your eyes up to any other possibility, right, You've got such tunnel vision that you ruined the case. So I'm doing the same thing. Every time you'll talk, I'm like, yeah, that fits Alexis, and then we'll talk a few more minutes and I go, yeah, there's no way Alexis could do it. So
I think that's the best way we could be talking about this story. In all respect to Alexis, if he's innocent, your name needs to be discussed, and in all respect to Sherry in the only if he's guilty, his name needs to be discussed. Yeah, this is definitely the part that bothers me the most about Alexa's being involved. Is just trying to figure out how he would have done it and wound up at this location and made it back home, Like who would be watching over his kids while he does all this.
I'm sure someone would notice if he disappeared in the middle of the night and took an unexplained road trip, And I'm thinking that police probably checked in to try to find out his whereabouts, like where he was on this particular night. So I'm thinking that if there were more holes in his story, then the police would have said So I'm just going to play devil's advocate for
a second here. We know that he's been indicted on this methamphetamine ring, so and we also thought that it was possible that he wasn't addict and that there were some drugs in his past. So perhaps he did have some friends that were more on the dodgy side, and maybe they would help him do
a favor like that and they wouldn't speak to law enforcement. It is a potential that that scenario could have played out because we don't know when this all happened and what days the car was moved, if he was brought back, or if he was maybe picked up. Maybe a friend followed behind him was like, Hey, I need to ditch this vehicle. You know, no questions asked, you know, just don't talk to the police, don't tell anybody you were here, and at the time, maybe somebody else was watching
the kids. It's just we don't know how well the police went into Alexis's circle and asked different people questions to basically corroborate the alibi that he gave. Yes, we know that he put those notes on the door and that those parts of his alibi checked out, But because of that, do we think that all other parts don't need to be investigated. It's just difficult when we don't know exactly how deep they went into proving or disproving the alibi exactly.
I mean, back in two thousand and seven, I had no idea if Alexis would have had any criminal associates. But now that I find out he was indicted for a meth ring in two twenty, I'm now double thinking, like maybe he knew some sketchy characters back then who would have been capable of assisting him and covering up a crime. You also have to remember that if Alexis was responsible for murdering Joey, he also might have been responsible for killing
his own six week old infant son. And even if Joey was the one who killed the child and Alexis reacted by killing her, he still would have to go through the process of committing arson and setting fire to a house with his son's body inside, which is incredibly cold hearted. Whatever issues Alexis might
have had with Joey. He already had a two year old daughter with her, so what motive would he have to get rid of alex If Alexis was guilty, I can see him feigning concern for a few days by making a bunch of phone calls and visiting Joey's house a few times to pretend to look for her. But why keep up the charade for an entire week? If there was crucial evidence in the house that needed to be torched, why wait
that long to do it. Alexis probably would have made himself look less suspicious if he had just set fire to the house immediately after Joey was killed. And it's pretty remarkable he could keep the whole thing up without being caught Nettie lies or substantial holes in his story. You're also going to have to remember that if he were responsible for I don't think he would have killed his baby.
I really don't. I could easily see that Alexis would walk in the baby is deceased from like we talked about, maybe sudden infant death syndrome, maybe drowning in a tub. I could see him snapping and killing Joey.
But could he exist that entire week, knowing his baby is lying in a tub, like not doing anything, not wrapping that baby up, not loving on that baby, not trying to get that baby somewhere else, right, Like, could he really be so callous as to his own blood and baby is sitting there and he just lets the baby rot in this tub and then lights the baby on fire. Like all of that seems like such disrespect in like a lack of love for that baby. So that's another reason why I'm
like, could he really do that? And could he walk out of that house and not show any signs of grief when he just found an infant child? I don't that just would be really, really tough. He'd have to be one of the most pathological, narcissistic human beings, but they exist. Yes, I wouldn't be curious to know, like reactions from other people who are around alexis that particular week, Like did his son notice any red flags?
Did any of his relatives noticed that he seemed really upset and grieving or did he just come across as someone who legitimately had no idea what's going on? Because yeah, if your baby was killed and you decided to murder your spouse just to cover the whole thing up, it be very difficult to keep
like a facade of being normal for an entire week. Overall, I think I lean more towards an unknown third party being responsible for what happened, But since the investigation has never uncovered any potential suspects, I have no idea who this third party could be. I say this quite often when I analyze cases like this on podcasts, but I can't help but think there's one crucial piece of the puzzle missing in this story, which would shed a lot more light
on things I don't know. I hate to accuse a missing person of being responsible for something like this, but part of me still wonders if Joey did cause Lex's death accidentally or otherwise and turned to someone else for help, but this person subsequently killed her and disposed of her body. The only thing I am certain about is that Joey is no longer with us, But until her remains can be found, I think this one is destined to remain a baffling
mystery anyway. The website Joey's family launched about her case is still up at fine Joey dot org, though it hasn't been updated since twenty fourteen. But if you happen to have any information about her case, they have a tipline you can call at one eight seven seven four four zero Joey. That's one eight seven seven four four zero five six three nine, Or you can contact the Pennsylvania State Police at eight one four three seven one four six five two.
That's eight one four three seven one four sixty five two, Jules. Actually, any final thoughts on this case? Uh, it's such a sad, tragic, frustrating case because we know nothing. We don't know the cause of the baby's death, we don't know where Joey is, we don't have her body returned. What's really like everyone knows us by now. So it's but it's so important for me to say that Joey's not that different from anybody else that is in our life. Right, any one of us could make
bad decisions that put us in risky situations. A lot of mothers find themselves overwhelmed. Within these are people without intellectual disabilities, just overwhelmed and exhausted and don't know how to really parent in a healthy way. And Joey is not only really accomplishing a lot by being independent and living on her own. She's raising three children, my goodness, with a mental capacity of a fourteen year
old. That is a miracle that she is raising these kiddos. Any mother messes up, any mother makes bad decisions, and so it takes one bad decision to lose your child, right, and one mistake to lose your baby. So even in the event that Joey was in some way responsible, or there was a sudden infant death syndrome case, I would panic too, right, And I can see where someone who has a fourteen year old mentality would reach out and beg someone for help, and maybe she turned to the wrong
person to help her and they took advantage of her. That seems like something Joey had dealt with quite often, right, trusting the wrong people, needing to be loved and validated, and wanting to feel useful. And it could have been one person that she crossed the wrong path and she lost her life. My heart breaks for Sherry. I want Joey's body home so badly so it can be laid to rest next to her child. I think that would
make incredible progress in the grieving process for everyone. But at this point it's one of those where because there's so many question marks. How do you ever rule in or out somebody in this case. Yeah, that's pretty much my closing thoughts as well, is you really can't know either way. I tend to lean towards it as somebody that is known to her, just because of
the location of the car being at that apartment building sixty miles away. But whether or not Alexis is involved, like I think, we've examined both sides and I really can't say for sure. I just believe that it is somebody
within her circle that knew her and then knew about this apartment complex. It's just so heartbreaking because it's really heartbreaking because both of Joey's other children that she one of them which she shared with Alexis, and then the other one which had another father, the nine year old, both of them grow up without a mother, but they also grow up without getting to know little lex and that is so heartbreaking and also heartbreaking for Sherry. And if alex isn't involved,
that's really heartbreaking for him as well. So there's just so much sadness and so much grief and trauma associated with this case that I really hope to God if anybody knows anything that they will come forward and give information to law enforcement so that all of the people that love Joey and little Lex can have some answers in this case. Yeah, this is one of the more puzzling missing persons cases of the modern era, and I am kind of surprised it's
not more well known. I mean, it was on Disappeared, which has done a lot of high profile missing persons cases, such as Moura Murray, but this isn't one of their cases that is talked about that often, and it should be because there are technically two victims here, because yeah, Joey who has gone missing, and we have her son, Lex, who was killed in a fire, and we still don't know the connection between them, like could Joey have killed Lex herself? And did someone else kill her in
response? And just the fact that there are no theories in this case which make any sense whatsoever, Like we've come up with a lot of reasons to be suspicious about Alexis possibly being involved, but at the same time, there are a lot of things that go against it where you just can't figure out
the logistics of how he could have pulled this off. And it's just such a bizarre saga, and like Jules just said, Joey had two other children, and it's kind of remarkable to think that sixteen years have passed, so they're both technically grown adults, and they have no answers about what happened for their mother or their baby brother who they never got a chance to know.
So it is just such a heartbreaking case, and I think the best way to solve it is just for someone who knows something to come forward, because we have a case with no evidence left behind and no answers and two victims that definitely need justice. Robin, do you want to tell us a little
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