Dark Downeast - The Murder of Robert Joyal Part 1 (Maine)

Episode Date: August 23, 2021

UNSOLVED MAINE HOMICIDE, 1998: Marc Joyal-Myers was 11-years old when he lost his big brother, 18-year old Robert Joyal. More than two decades have passed since that night in April 1998 when someone ended Rob’s life in a Portland, Maine parking lot.Now, Marc is a voice for the brother he lost who can no longer speak for himself. Marc is also a voice for the hundreds of other victims and families whose lives are upended by violent crime.This is the unsolved case of Robert Joyal, part 1, told by his little brother, Marc Joyal-Myers.Anyone with information is asked to please contact the Portland Maine Police Detective Jeff Tulley at [phone] or the anonymous tip line at [phone].TAKE ACTION: darkdowneast.com/robertjoyal View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/robertjoyalFollow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-caseDark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.

For about 10 years, I couldn't say his name. I just said my brother or him. I couldn't even say his name. Like, I avoided it because it was so raw. Mark Joyal Myers was 11 years old when he lost his big brother, 18-year-old Robert Joyle. More than two decades have passed since that night in April 1998, when someone ended Rob's life in a Portland, Maine parking lot.

Now, Mark is a voice for the brother he lost who can no longer speak for himself. Mark is also a voice for the hundreds of other victims and families whose lives were upended by violent crime. At this point in my life, it's not that there's not grief because I still feel hurt and I still feel sadness. But what I've learned as I've gotten older is that the best thing I can do to honor Rob and to maybe take some of the weight off somebody's shoulders down the road is to be honest and upfront and open about what this actually means. What does it mean when somebody is murdered? I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is The Unsolved Case of Robert Joyle, Part 1, told by his little brother, Mark Joyle Myers, on Dark Down East.

Robert Joyle's case is still unsolved. Many witnesses chose not to come forward, but it's been 23 years. Gorham High School and Deering High School classes of 1997, 1998, and 1999, do you have any information about Robert Joyle's murder? Anyone with information is asked to please contact Portland, Maine Police Detective Jeff Tully at 207-874-8550 or the anonymous tip line at 207-874-8584. Mark Joyal Myers might be an adult now,

but when he talks about his big brother Robert Joyal, you can hear that admiration and pride that he's felt for his charismatic, funny, athletic older brother since he was just a kid. He loved being around people and making them laugh. And my brother could make friends with anybody, which I always just really looked up to him in that regard. He was cool. You know, he always had a girlfriend. He was always hanging out with his football buddies. He just always had stuff going on. He was such a, he had such a good little thing going. I was kind of the opposite. I was really shy and introverted. And in a way, I kind of lived vicariously through him. And as a little brother, it was just so like, wow, this guy is awesome. He is so cool. girl on his arm and he's got the game football under his other arm and people are high-fiving but what was so cool about him was that on top of all of that he always found time for me and

whether that meant just coming and sitting in my room with me or asking me if I wanted to go kick the soccer ball or throw the football outside or join him playing video games. Like he just always was OK with me being there. They were seven years apart, but Mark always had a place by Rob's side. He wanted to make sure that I knew I was a part of him and a part of his life. And now that I'm older, I look back and I just felt like our relationship was so unique in that way. And he wanted to share that with me. And there is nothing cooler than having your big brother show up for any reason. I remember one of my birthday parties. We had it at this place called Mr. Daddy's and it was sort of like jokers. Rob came by and somebody was like a Mr. Joyal and I was like eight and they

were like your older, Robert is outside and he would like to give you his gift or something like that. And I was like, my friends were like, wow, this is cool. So I went out and I, he like brought me over to his car and he gave me a CD that was parental advisory and I wasn't supposed to have it. And he was like, I know you wanted this. And mom and dad said, no, so just don't make a big deal of it, but happy birthday. And my friends were like looking out the window and I'm in my brother's car and he's giving me a CD, like a naughty CD with cuss words in it. And it just made me feel like a king. That was who Rob was for me. Mark was a toddler when their family moved from Cape Cod to Houston, Texas. It was a different

environment for all of them, but it was also a great opportunity for his father's career. They made the most of the Texas way of life while they were there. Especially Rob. We were New Englanders. And we were a little bit kind of fish out of water. Rob definitely was like, okay, I'm a Texan now. I'll do it. He was Texan through and through. He loved it down there.

Football and Texas go hand in hand, and Rob embraced the sport. I think football was so good for Rob. I think he was, you know, he was kind of a short guy, but he was tough. So what a great way to, like, get that out of your system than to play football. He had made it to varsity as a running back, and they have, like, three different varsity teams. Football in Texas is a whole different beast. I would see games at like Gorham High School and people would be like, wow, this is crazy.

There's like 100 people here. And I'd be like, yeah, that's crazy, guys. In Texas, it was like, I don't know, it just felt like a professional football game. It was insane. Off the field with the roaring crowds and bright lights, Rob continued to test his boundaries. First, it was breaking curfew, and then skipping a class, then skipping a whole day of classes.

They found marijuana in his car. Rob got in a fight. The somewhat typical teenage acts of rebellion and rule-breaking had its consequences. Rob just started to get more and more in trouble with these little things. And I think it just kind of escalated. And by his sophomore year, I believe he got caught with pot, I think. And they said, look, dude, you're getting in fights, you got busted with pot, we're going to send you back down to the JV team

and you got to work your way back up. And I don't know if it was ego or what it was, but I think Rob just felt like, no, I'm not doing that. And he didn't want to put in the effort, I guess.

Or maybe he had lost interest in that. Maybe he had gotten everything he wanted from football. I don't know. But once they kind of kicked him off the team and said, you're going to have to work your way back, I don't think he had a lot of interest in that. That's when Mark remembers the changes in his big brother. I remember a time when I was outside and Rob was probably 16. And I was playing outside and he had a couple friends and they were playing basketball, but I didn't really know them.

So I was kind of keeping some distance and a car rolled up and stopped in front of our house and Rob signaled to his guys to like give him a second and he went up to the window and I could see him talking to this person and the guy pulled out a gun and pointed it at Rob. And so I hid because I was eight. I was petrified. I didn't know what was going on. And I just saw my brother kind of just stand there and keep talking to him. And the kid had the gun pointed at him and then he put it back in his car and then he drove off and Rob turned around and like shook it off and kept playing basketball. And I found out later that my parents had some suspicions that Rob maybe was getting into some gang related activity. We don't know, but we had instances like that from my memory. And years later,

when we start talking and putting together those stories, it just kind of, all our eyebrows kind of raised a little bit. Robert Joyle's challenges in Texas had their family thinking a return to New England might be the best way to reset and regain footing. A new start for all of them. We found this little city named Portland. And it just reminded us, I think there were so many qualities in it that reminded us of the Cape. So that kind of piqued my parents' interest. And they found a place in Gorham, this old farmhouse in this quaint little town

next to a picturesque postcard-looking city by the water. And it was quiet and peaceful and there was foliage and there was seasons and weather. And it was New England. And it was, it could have been ours. It was our spot. My grandparents had Cape Cod. My aunt and uncle had Vermont. And the Joyal Myers clan was going to have Maine. The brothers daydreamed over photos of their new home.

I remember kind of looking around, you know, at those pictures and envisioning that lifestyle. And Rob used to talk to me about how cool it was going to be to like set up a football field in the yard. Because in Houston, we had a very small yard. When you played football, you played out in the street, which was dangerous. So the thought of like having a big side yard at your house and maybe we could even get a dog it was so cool and so we used to sort of dream up these plans and then there would also be this part of me that was like I can't wait to just hang out with my big brother and like play football with him in our yard and like it just was so it just seemed so fun and new and fresh and peaceful. We needed to reset and Maine just looked like the utopia we were looking for.

Sometimes, though, when hazy daydreams come to life, they don't match the pictures in your head. We got to our house for the first time, and the yard didn't look as big as it did in the picture. And the pictures that my dad was showing us were in black and white. So then all of a sudden it was weird to see this house in color and to go inside and it smelled not bad. It just had its own smell. And it's sort of a microcosm for our whole experience. It just seemed like it was a little different. And some of the nuance wasn't quite what we expected. Rob didn't settle back into New England life and his new high school as smoothly as anyone hoped. Being the new guy at school was tough. Rob's class at Gorham High School was much smaller

than in Texas and many of the kids had been together their entire lives. Breaking into those tightly woven social circles as a senior wasn't going to be easy. Still, Rob was Rob from the very first day. Rob was having snow fights on the first. Nobody even knew who he was, and he was throwing snowballs around in the parking lot at the high school and just trying to make people laugh. He made some friends, but Rob would never really get the chance to find his place. I think there were a lot of people that didn't accept him, and I don't think he had enough time to show all of himself to everybody. Mark still smiles at those parts of Rob that not everyone had the privilege of seeing.

So we moved to Maine and I was reading this book called Shiloh. There was a beagle and the beagle lived at this mean old guy's house. And this kid ends up saving the dog and they become best friends. And I love that book. And so we moved to Maine in November and December 19th is my birthday. And so my parents gave me some gifts and then said, your next gift, we have to go somewhere for it. So we get in the car.

My brother and I were in the back seat. My dad was driving. My mom was in the passenger seat. And the radio's on, whatever. And Rob starts singing. And he starts going, New Shiloh, I love that Shiloh, picking up a Shiloh. And my mom's going, Rob, shut up.

Rob, Rob, stop. And he was like, oh, yeah. Sorry. Gotta love that Shiloh. And she'd be like, Rob, stop it. And so then I'm like, now my spidey sense is going off. Something's up here. And every song that came on, Rob changed the lyrics and was talking about Shiloh.

All of a sudden I thought, is there a possibility that we're getting a dog? My dad says, here we are. And he turns the wheel and we pull into a driveway, the garage door open. And in the little pen was a beagle. It was our first family dog. And Rob was the most excited. And he sang the whole way there and he he couldn't be like he want again wanted to toe that line like how far can I go with this before mom pulls over the car he was so happy he wanted to tell me so bad he was holding on to that secret. And it was just, he couldn't wait because he loved me being happy. And that selfless quality of him is something that I always think about. And it still resonates quite a bit. Rob's tendency to toe the line, or ignore the line altogether, moved with them from Texas to Maine.

Nearly spilling the beans of his little brother's birthday gift was one thing, fueled by innocent excitement, but other times, the rule-breaking was severe. Mark remembers the loud, angry fights between Rob and their parents. After, Rob would always come to find Mark and apologize. Rob could sense that it worried and frightened his little brother to hear the yelling. He promised things would get better. But it seemed that as much as Rob wanted to change, the tension lingered and the fights continued. So he pushed my parents really far.

And our whole extended family was split. What do we do about rob like here's this smart kid who's got all these things going for him but is making some really dumb choices and it's just kind of spiraling out of control when he's getting older like so there was like part of the family that was telling my mom, like, I think you need to kick him out. And there were other people that were like, that's the worst thing you could do. And he pushed my dad to the point where my dad said, yeah, it's, you got to move out. We can't do this. You're not respecting

anything, any rule that we put in place. You're living at our home and you're doing everything you can to rock this boat and you're not taking it seriously. It's time. When his mother found that Rob had stolen some checks from her, it was the final straw leading to a difficult choice. Rob moved out, first staying with friends and then with his girlfriend and her mom. Rob's mother would drop off groceries and check in on him. And Rob checked in on his little brother, Mark. As a little brother, that totally sucked. And I was so bummed that he wasn't living with us. And Rob knew that I felt like that. So in typical Rob fashion, he made sure to make me part of his life. In April of 1998, Rob found an apartment of his own with a roommate. That's when Mark realized that his big brother's move was for good.

I remember being somewhat upset by him moving, but also excited because he was building it up for me. I remember he came home. He came back to the house as soon as I got home from school that day so that he could hang out with me and said, I want to play basketball with you. And we made a bet over like a quarter. Whoever wins this game gets the quarter or whatever. So in typical Rob fashion, he let me win, but barely. And he made me feel like I earned it. Not like he just, oh no, I missed another shot.

I guess Mark wins. It was like, no, he was sweating. And he was like playing good defense on me. And he's, you know, good thing I didn't bet you any more money. Here's your quarter, you know, that sort of thing. And I still have that quarter. Never got rid of that. Mark remembers every detail of that afternoon.

But I remember that day, too. He was like, I know this stinks, but I'm going to get settled in, and then you're going to, like, come help me get unpacked and everything. And just think how cool it's going to be to have a place where you can come hang out with me. So in my mind, I was like, yeah, it stinks that he's moving, but hey, maybe this will, I'm just going to embrace it. Maybe this will be kind of fun. Maybe there's something to it. And so that night we all said our goodbyes and my mom and I had done grocery shopping and got him like 3000 bags worth of groceries. And I gave him the baseball cap that he used to steal from me. And that was like my gift to him. I said, I know you I know how much you love this hat, and I want you to have it. And we were upstairs and he gave me a big hug and we told each other how much we loved each other.

And I stayed upstairs and I remember looking out through the bedroom window and he and my dad were talking out by the Ford Bronco that my brother had got. And they shook hands and then they hugged. And I thought back to all the times when they were fighting and yelling and all of a sudden my mom was packing groceries for him and he was being friendly and funny and he's hugging my dad and it just seemed like we were on the up and up. I couldn't wait to go to sleep so that I could wake up and just hang out with him. I woke up the next morning and my parents were kind of like right there and said, Hey, we need you to sit down for a second. In my head, you got to remember all that positivity that was like overflowing this huge weekend ahead of me

with hanging out with my big brother at his new apartment. And my parents said, we need to tell you something. And I got it in my head that they were going to tell me we were going to Disney World. And I remember trying to hide the smile. And then I kind of read the room and it was not definitely not

going to Disney World I think, I don't know if it was my mom or dad, I don't even remember but somebody said we're just going to tell you the way they told us Robert got into a fight last night and he was stabbed and he died.

My whole world just collapsed and I remember that sinking feeling like physically in my body, like, everything just disappeared. And I couldn't even hold myself up. I just felt weightless. How could a new beginning with a perfect goodbye and a promise to see his little brother the next day unravel into such a sudden, tragic loss? What happened to Robert Joyle after he pulled out of his parents' driveway? The Joyle-Myers family grasped at whatever police could tell them, trying to make sense of it all. It was Friday night, April 3rd, 1998. Rob wanted to celebrate his new apartment with friends and his girlfriend, and so their evening started at Club Metropolis, a former popular 18-plus dance club on Forest Avenue in Portland, Maine. According to a letter to the editor published on

July 31, 1997 in Casco Bay Weekly, co-owner Thomas Manning wrote that Club Metropolis was his way of giving back to the community, bringing choice to the patrons of Portland's Old Port, and with its massive dance floor and spacious lounge areas, it was, quote, exactly what Portland wants, unquote. It was later shut down after a massive raid and drug bust. But in 1998, Club Metropolis was open and bumping. It was also a frequent stop for Portland police. It was sort of known as a place where people bought and sold drugs. Like, I think there was a lot of activity like that there. And that's why the police were there

that night. They were sitting in the parking lot because they had heard of all this drug activity. So I think they were there to bust people. The later investigation revealed that Rob and three friends got into an argument with a group of people at Club Metropolis. Newspaper reports from that time say it was over a girl. But Mark told me it was possibly in defense of Rob's girlfriend, who reportedly told Rob that she'd been raped. It got pretty tense in this club. We don't know everything about it. We knew that at one point, I think Rob's girlfriend said,

it's getting really hot in here. You need to get out of here. Like, these guys are stirring. They're getting weird. You got to get out of here. He and his group of friends left the dance club and drove to Denny's on Congress Street. By then, it was 1 or 1.30 a.m. on Saturday, April 4th.

They got out of their car, and I guess immediately a rush of people started pouring out of their vehicles and coming up to my brother and his friends. And they had bats and pipes. And then somebody from the crowd just came out and punched Mike in the face. And if you know Rob, you know how loyal he is and how much he hates watching people get walked over. Rob was fearless. And he threw himself into the mix to try to protect his friends and to fight back. They were so outnumbered because it sounds like there were maybe like six or eight of them against 30, 40, 50 people.

As the fight escalated, police sirens wailed. It was chaos. So as people started to get in their cars and drive away and scatter, a couple of Rob's friends started to look around like, whoa, what just happened? We got to get out of here. Where's Mike? Where's this person? Where's Rob? And they saw Rob had his, I think somebody had pulled his shirt up over his head to kind of neutralize him. And then somebody had stabbed him three times in the back. And so they went, they saw him and there was blood and he was covered in blood and he was coughing up blood and he stumbled on them. They tried giving him CPR and the cop got there and called for backup, but it was mayhem. Robert Joyle lay on the ground. He'd been stabbed multiple times with a 10-inch knife. Rob died at the scene.

23 years later, Mark and his family still don't have a full picture of what happened in the parking lot that night. The investigation started with Club Metropolis. Police officers were there keeping an eye. Again, it was known to be a spot for drug deals and other activities, and so police presence was proactive. A lot of how they figured out who got into what car and so on and so forth and who was in the getaway cars was information that they picked up when people started to drive out of the parking lot of the Metropolis and go to Denny's, and they were able to grab some license plates and start putting

names to faces and so on and so forth. Though dozens of witnesses saw what happened, getting a clear story out of them wasn't simple. People saw what happened, and obviously somebody committed this crime. We still don't know exactly what happened there. And part of that is because everybody changed their story. Nobody wanted to tell why they were there, what they were doing, how they got there, how they knew certain people. Portland police did learn that some of the teenagers involved had possible ties to local gangs. We later found out that there was a Portland branch of a gang called the Tiny Rascals Gang, and some of them were in Portland. Most of them were from Lowell, Massachusetts, and even Atlanta,

Georgia. When I see Facebook posts from the Portland police about how good they are, how safe our city is, and how little gang activity there is, I also remember what they said to us in our living room, which is the exact opposite. There is a gang problem in Portland. They were worried about it. They told our family Rob was killed by a gang. They then went on the news and said, Maine doesn't have a gang problem. There's no gangs in Maine.

A week later, on April 10th, 1998, then-Police Chief Michael Chitwood told the Associated Press that they were working on evidence and probable cause to secure an arrest of a suspect, but they were coming up just a little short of having enough for the warrant. The knife, assumed to be the murder weapon, along with another knife recovered from the scene, were tested for blood types, prints, and DNA. But witness statements would be

key in tying the investigation together. But getting those witnesses to come forward proved challenging. Meanwhile, Mark and his family dealt with the wave of media coverage, all while coping with the loss of their brother and son. When somebody tells you, okay, your brother's dead, you can process so much. But when you see his picture on TV, on the news, when they say his name, 18-year-old Robert Joyle was stabbed to death last night, you feel loss over and over. And I think that's one of those things that you don't really know until you know it, until you've been there. I still feel like there are moments in my life when I'm learning about loss. I remember we were going to go to dinner one night. And again, we were just so shaken up. Like, what do you do?

Do you make lasagna? Do you go for a walk? Do you throw the baseball? What do you do? So I think we just decided we were going to go down and get a pizza or something somewhere. And about an hour, I think, before we left, the police called and said, we officially got somebody. And just to let you know, they're going to be showing his picture on the news.

On April 17th, Chief Chitwood announced that the prime suspect in the stabbing death of Robert Joyle was a 15-year-old boy whose name was not immediately released because he was a minor. The suspect was being held at the Maine Youth Center on charges related to the case. That suspect's name was eventually revealed in court. 15-year-old Seha Srey was charged with the murder of Robert Joyle. I remember seeing Seha's face for the first time and how chilling that was. And again, just experiencing that loss again, like an extra layer to the onion of loss. It just, you kept peeling back those layers and it just kept hitting you.

Seha Srei pleaded not guilty, and a judge ruled that Seha would be charged as an adult, given the violent, aggressive, and willful stabbing and murder of Robert Joyal. Chief Michael Chitwood commented on the status ruling, saying, quote, It was a cold, calculated murder. These kids need to start paying heavier consequences for these violent acts. This is a step in that direction, unquote. Srey hired notable Maine attorney Daniel Lilly, and as he awaited trial held without bail, Lilly built his defense, pulling at the threads of the case until it unraveled. In the next episode of Dark Down East... I think there were opportunities that were missed

because they wanted to solve the case more than they wanted to know the truth. Unreliable witnesses, changing stories, apparent new evidence. Robert Joyle's case seemed plagued with challenges and missteps from the start. They add a suspect and charges filed, but his case wouldn't be that cut and dry. Robert Joyle's story continues in part two. The more we keep Rob's name open and in the air, the better chance we'll have of knowing what happened to him, but the better chance we'll have of just putting a spotlight on this type of event and what can be done.

And just remember that when you see a story like that there's a family there's life there's missed opportunity there's so much in there and and don't know if you hear rob's story just it's not just a murder it's an incredible human being who I think we all really missed out on getting to know Rob. Robert Joyle's case is still unsolved. Anyone with information is asked to please contact Jeff Tully at 207-874-8550 or the anonymous tip line at 207-874-8584. You never know how big that little piece of information can be to somebody. It can be everything. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Source material for this case and others is listed at darkdowneast.com.

Mark, thank you for trusting me with your big brother's story. Follow Dark Down East on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and all podcast platforms. For photos and more information on this case and others, visit darkdowneast.com and follow along on Facebook and Instagram at Dark Down East. Dark Down East is now also on Twitter at Main True Crime. I want to encourage you to take action in Robert Joyle's case. Go to darkdowneast.com slash Robert Joyle to download and share the flyer created by Mark. I'll also link to the Robert Joyle Unsolved Murder in Maine Facebook page so you can easily like and follow. As a thank you for taking action, you can enter the giveaway for a Dark Down East mug.

Go to darkdowneast.com slash robertjoyal for the flyer, the Facebook page, and the giveaway, ending Monday, September 6, 2021 at 12 Eastern. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and homicide cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.