Who is Joel Guy Jr.?

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The man accused of killing, dismembering, and attempting to dissolve his parents in tubs of corrosive acid at a West Knox County home is Joel Michael Guy Jr.

Guy’s family members say they called him “Joel Michael," but none knew him well. His half-sisters described him as reclusive, telling the court on Monday they rarely saw him emerge from his room when he came to visit Knoxville.

Guy was born in 1988 and graduated high school in 2006.

Records show addresses associated with Guy Jr. include locations in Surgoinsville; Knoxville; Baton Rouge; Greenville, South Carolina and St. Charles County, Louisiana.

His father, Joel Michael Guy Sr. was originally from Surgoinsville, Tennessee, according to family members who testified in court. Guy Sr.'s plan was to retire from his civil engineering career to a new home in Hawkins County.

In 2016, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office reportedly told The Advocate that Guy Jr. was a student at Lousiana State University before he withdrew the previous year.

LSU was unable to release any information regarding Guy Jr.'s enrollment history or his area of study.

Guy Jr. had been living on his own in Baton Rouge for nearly a decade, records show. He had been registered to vote as a Democrat in Louisiana since 2008.

His parents kept Guy Jr.’s childhood belongings memorialized in a bedroom of their house on Goldenview lane. The room contained pictures of Joel as a child and a box of toys, including Ty Beanie Babies.

As Joel Sr. and Lisa prepared to retire, they decided it was time for Guy Jr. to become financially independent.

"[Our dad] said that Joel Michael was gonna be cut off and was gonna have to stand on his own two feet... Lisa agreed,” testified Angela Crane, Guy Jr.'s half-sister. She said the issue had been an ongoing family discussion.

Although the sisters testified they were very close with their parents and all frequently shared banter in a group text message, they said Joel Michael was not part of the group.

“I don’t think he ever knew my kid’s names," said Guy Jr.’s half-sister. She testified that he was behaving differently during the Thanksgiving holiday and even wanted to play with his younger family members.

A notebook recovered at the scene of the murders showed that Joel Guy Jr. had written an assessment of his parent’s assets. He allegedly wrote about his mother’s $500,000 life insurance policy, saying “With him gone it will be all mine.”