Dark Downeast - The Murder of Robert Joyal Part 2 (Maine)

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

His fresh start was cut short. Robert Joyal’s life ended in the middle of a chaotic scene. Though dozens of witnesses stood watching, some even participating in the violence that April night in 1998, Rob’s case remains unsolved. His family is still waiting.In part 2, Marc Joyal-Myers describes the frustrations of the narrowly focused investigation and what he’s doing to support not only his own family, but also others who may fall into the same cracks of unsolved homicides and missing persons cases in Maine.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/robertjoyal2Follow @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.

No matter what somebody's faults are, no matter how much Rob got in trouble, whatever fight he got into, however he bought weed or skipped class, nobody deserves that fate. His fresh start was cut short. Robert Joyle's life ended in the middle of a chaotic scene. Though dozens of witnesses stood watching,

some even participating in the violence that April night in 1998, Rob's case remains unsolved. His family is still waiting. People saw what happened, and obviously somebody committed this crime. We still don't know exactly what happened there. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is The Unsolved Case of Robert Joyle, Part 2, told by his little brother Mark Joyle Myers 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, 98, and 99, do you have any

information about Robert Joyle's murder? Anyone with information is asked to please contact the Portland, Maine Police at 207-874-8550 or the anonymous tip line at 15-year-old Seha Srei was charged with the murder of Robert Joyal and ordered held without bail until his trial. Srei came to the United States with his family from Cambodia as refugees when he was seven years old. If convicted of Robert Joyal's murder, Srei faced a possible sentence of life in prison. The primary evidence against Seha Srei included witness statements. As reported by the Bangor Daily News, a 15-year-old girl testified at a

district court hearing. Her name is part of the public record, but I've chosen not to use it because she was a minor at the time. This 15-year-old witness said at the hearing that she talked to Srey on the phone just hours after the fight, and he told her he'd stabbed someone three times in the back during a brawl earlier that night. Another key witness for the prosecution was a man from Lowell, Massachusetts named Tana Ork, who said he was there in the parking lot that night and claimed to have actually witnessed Seha Srei stab Robert Joyle. Seha's defense lawyer, notable Maine attorney Daniel Lilly,

whittled away at the prosecution's case. Two months after Seha was ordered held without bail, Lilly came forward with what he called new evidence that would reveal his client was not responsible for Robert Joyle's death. The evidence listed in the motion filed in Cumberland County Superior Court by Lilly included documents with information about two men who claimed they knew who killed Robert Joyle, and it wasn't Sehas Ray. The Associated Press reported that one of those men was held in a Georgia jail at the time for violating probation and accused of robbery and burglary in Portland. The other man could supposedly present people

who witnessed the stabbing and who saw the murder weapon in exchange for immunity in his own case and dismissal of any potential charges against him. Lilly accused the Attorney General's office of ignoring this evidence to protect the case they'd built and argued that they were more concerned with closing the case

than finding the actual person responsible. Lilly is quoted in the Portland Press-Herald saying, The attorney general has essentially stuck his head in the sand. It's a thought that crossed Mark's mind, too. I think there were opportunities that were missed because they wanted to solve the case more than they wanted to know the truth. Lilly was able to use this new evidence to schedule a new bail hearing so Seha could await trial outside of the jailhouse. By December of 1999, Srey had been held without bail for 18 months. As the trial date approached, the Assistant Attorney General requested it be postponed so they could continue their

investigation. Although they publicly spoke of their confidence in the evidence that pointed to Srey as the guilty suspect, it seemed the prosecution still needed time to solidify their case. The trial was postponed, and Srey was granted bail. But the trouble for the prosecution only grew. The earlier statements that largely held up the prosecution's case proved unreliable. In an earlier videotaped interview with the 15-year-old girl, she asked the investigator if they had any idea who did it, if they knew who

was responsible for Rob Joyle's murder. This muddled her earlier testimony because if she claimed Seha Srei told her he was responsible, why was she asking investigators? The other witness, Tana Org, initially told investigators that Srey was the killer and he witnessed the stabbing, but he later retracted his story and said the killer was someone else. But then his story flipped again back to the original statement that it was Seha Srey who stabbed Robert Joyle. In December 1999, Cumberland County Superior Court Justice Roland Cole considered another request from the defense. Tana Ork, the key prosecution witness, should be banned, they said. Sray's defense attorney, Daniel Lilly, accused the prosecution of hiding documents from the defense until just days before the original trial date.

Those documents detailed Tana Ork's back-and-forth testimony and flipped stories. That inconsistency in Ork's story would have been crucial to the defense illustrating the unreliability of a key witness against their client. But Tana Ork ultimately wouldn't testify at trial anyway, because there wouldn't be a trial for Seha Srei at all. Two days before he was set to go to trial on March 1st, 2000, the Attorney General's Office dismissed the murder indictment against Seha Srey without prejudice. Without prejudice meant that Srey could still be re-indicted if the prosecution's case got stronger. Srey told reporters that he felt bad for the Joyal family, that police led them to believe he was the killer, and quote,

I felt bad what happened to their kid, unquote. Before the charges were dismissed, but after he was released on bail, Seha Srey tried to enroll at Cape Elizabeth High School. Because of the potential interactions with witnesses at Portland and Deering High Schools, Seha couldn't go back there, so Cape was the next option. Dozens of Cape Elizabeth parents protested, citing the potential to distract and disrupt other students if Srey was in class.

Others feared he was a danger. Cape Elizabeth to Maine locals is known largely for its mansions on the water's edge, a famous Portland head lighthouse, the main route for beach-to-beacon road race, and its wealthy population. According to U.S. census data, the median household income in Cape Elizabeth is over $123,000. In Portland, just a few minutes away, that median household income is about $60,000. The controversy of Ceja's blocked enrollment made headlines, with the Boston Globe even covering the story. Town manager Mike McGovern stated, quote, people like to pick on Cape Elizabeth, but any town would have difficulty dealing with the issue

of taking an accused, indicted murderer into its school system, end quote. Seha Srei received private tutoring until the charges were dropped, and then went on to attend school in Camden, Maine. In May of 2002, Seha Srei was arrested on other charges, burglary and criminal mischief after a break-in on Halloween night. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to serve two years of a five-year sentence

plus six months on unrelated weapons charges. In 2007, Seha Srei died in a shootout with another man. He was 25 years old. I even, I'm so conflicted with Seha because he was also a kid from a screwed up background. Now, I don't condone anything he did. I don't. But it doesn't mean that it's not sad. I dislike Seha a great deal, even just his involvement at all. Even if he was just taking the blame away from somebody older. And he was just falling on the sword, so to speak. That hurts. And I won't forget that.

But it doesn't mean that I don't find it really sad. That he got mixed up in all that world. And he ended up dying. He got shot in a drug deal. His parents lost their son. And I may feel a certain way about the people that hurt my brother that night, but there are families behind that, that deal with that pain. And it doesn't forgive. It doesn't mean that somebody is not guilty or somebody doesn't deserve to go to jail if they hurt somebody. But I wish we had a little bit more perspective sometimes and just recognize how sad it is that somebody lost their dad or their mom or their son or their teacher, their mentor, their neighbor. These things affect all of us.

Mark Joyal Myers has had years to process how the case against Seha Srei fell apart and consider what could have happened in his brother's case if investigators had widened their scope. The case with Seha fell apart pretty quickly. And looking back, you go, wow, we missed so many opportunities to go explore other options. I think there were a lot of missed opportunities, a lot of mistakes made in the investigations and the handling of the case and mistakes by us, not out of maliciousness but out of naivete. What do we know? We don't know. We're not lawyers, we're not detectives. We're four people. We just came up from Texas in a small little town where no one knows us. And the police shielded us from the world outside to help us

navigate through this. And I guess hindsight's 20-20, but they didn't figure out what happened. And you can't get that time back. There's only one constant in every single unsolved case I've researched. The family. Those who loved and still love the human who was missing from their lives as the result of violent crime and disappearance. It's the families who keep the memories and these cases alive. The detectives that worked on the case have since retired. The next set that came in, they retired.

There's two new officers assigned to his case who admittedly haven't looked at it. It's frustrating when you find out how little the police know about something like that. They're never going to be able to truly walk the walk my family has, but I would at least like them to follow behind us. I'd at least like them to try going down that road every once in a while. And it seems like sometimes they just drive right by you. It took years for Mark to say his big brother's name.

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'm sure I said it once in a blue moon, but I avoided it because it was so raw. And 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 I also, I look at an opportunity to let people in on that stuff that's hard to tell. Because sometimes I feel like people only know what they've been told. And so if all they hear is that you're 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? What does it mean to grow up without a family member? And I hear all the time, people go, oh, I thought that case was solved or, or they kind of imply like, well, that happened years ago. And I think about all the, whenever I see somebody on the TV nowadays, when somebody else loses a family member or somebody goes missing, it hits me on another level. And I have a better appreciation for what families go through. And I feel like it's part of my duty to air that stuff out. Now, Mark is a prominent, important voice for his brother

and for other families who still await answers in unsolved homicide and missing persons cases. When Mark reached out to me to share Rob's story on Dark Down East in April of 2021, it was immediately, beautifully clear that he is committed to using his voice, his energy, and his time to help those navigating what he is still walking through these 23 years later. I also know that crime happens every day. And I think that's why it's so critical to get it right. And I hope with whatever podcasts I can do or whatever family I can talk to

or whatever town meeting I can show up to and tell my story or whatever, I want to do it to bridge that gap for the next family and make it that much easier. And I don't want Rob to have died completely in vain. Part of bridging that gap is his work with the Maine Cold Case Alliance, a nonprofit organization that supports families of unsolved homicides, missing persons, and questionable deaths in the state of Maine.

They work with the Maine legislature to improve Maine laws to help families. I work with a group called the Maine Cold Case Alliance, and I was just talking to somebody today. It's like 264 or 265 unsolved homicides in Maine. And I'm glad that Rob made it to the 6 o'clock news because I see a lot of cases that when I look at that list, there's no media coverage. And I don't know if it was because Rob was a white kid in a quaint little town. I

think that story was palatable to media. So I think they had an interest in that. But my Rob that made it to the news, it's like you give the narrative to them. They control it. And so Rob is my brother no more. He is the 18-year-old joyal kid that died at Denny's, and he is the victim that Dan Lilly is trying to get his client, whatever. And for all the police work that was done, I think there were some steps that were missed along the way. I think some opportunities that we found out later that they didn't pursue as hard as maybe we would hope they would. But when you're in it,

you have no idea. You kind of just have to go with it. And you don't know what your rights are. You don't know what your options are. Marcelli Ann Nicholas, a California college student whose life was stolen by her ex-boyfriend in 1983. A week after her murder, the suspect was released on bail. And that suspect confronted Marcy's parents in line at a grocery store. They had no knowledge of his release. The justice system has no obligation to keep families informed. From that incident, Marcy's Law became an initiative to give rights to the surviving family members whose loved ones were lost to violent crimes. As noted on the Marcy's Law website, while those accused of crimes have more than 20 individual rights spelled out in the U.S. Constitution, the surviving family members of murder victims have none. When it passed in November 2008, the California Victims' Bill of Rights Act of 2008, known as Marcy's Law,

became the strongest and most comprehensive constitutional victims' rights laws in the United States. Mark said in a video supporting Marcy's Law for Maine, quote, looking back and seeing how careful everyone was to give the suspect in the case every opportunity to make the right decision, I think my mom and dad should have had those rights, I thought about it recently. So, Seha potentially kills somebody. He pays for a lawyer, or is given a lawyer, that advocates for him, that listens to him, that does whatever is in his best interest.

The prosecution works for the state. They don't work for our family. And the police work for the state. And they work with the prosecution who works for the state. So a victim's family doesn't get the same type of support that other characters in the equation get. Marcy's Law is not yet a part of Maine's Constitution. Before Marcy's Law can be considered by voters, the Maine legislature must approve it with a two-thirds majority in the Maine House of Representatives and in the Maine Senate. Once approved by the supermajority in the legislature, the question would then appear on the November ballot. The work to add Marcy's Law and victims' rights to the Maine state constitution

continues. I signed the petition and you can too. Go to mainvictimsrights.com. I don't know that I'll ever know what happened to Rob. I really, I doubt that I'll ever learn everything about it. But to honor him. I want to do what I can. If it's not helping to solve Rob's case, I want to fill in some of these cracks that my family fell into. I remember Rob bringing me over to play video games at his friend's house and he's bragging to them about how good I was. I was like seven years old with a bunch of like

14, 15 year olds and I kicked their butts in Mortal Kombat. My brother was like, yeah, he's awesome. I'm telling you, this kid is a natural. He can do anything. You should hear him play the drums. Like, he just, he wanted to brag about me. He made me feel so special. And I look back and I look around and I'm like, wow, those are some big shoes to fill. But I am really lucky that I got that time with him. And it hurts to think about this whole thing but

I also realized that there were things he did for me that live on and that are still with me and lessons I'm still learning and he only had 18 years on this life and on this earth and made a profound impact on me. I'm sure as I go through life, I'll have more of those aha moments, just remembering how great he was. For Mark, that's the legacy of his big brother Rob. It's not the challenges, the rule-breaking, the details of his death.

If you take anything from Robert Doyle's legacy, let it be this. My heart would be happy if somebody heard this, and when their son came home from school or from hanging out with their friends, they just said, hey, just, I love you. Or, I don't ask you enough how you're doing. I know that's corny, but little things like that make a big difference. And there are opportunities for all of us to learn from stories like this.

And Rob would have asked how I was doing. So I want to make sure that other people know that. And I want his spirit to live on, to protect the little guy, to be loyal to your loved ones, to have a sense of humor. Don't be afraid to call up your younger sister and say, hey, I love you. Just thought you should know. Because it means something. Robert Joyle's case is still unsolved. Anyone with information is asked to please contact the Portland Maine Police

at 207-874-8550 or the anonymous tip line at 207-874-8584. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Source material for this case and others is listed at darkdowneast.com. Mark, I owe you the biggest thank you for your trust in telling your brother's story. And thank you for the work you do for all families who are navigating what you continue to walk through to this day. Your strength is breathtaking, and I've learned so much from you. Follow Dark Down East on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, you know the drill. And you can find Dark Down East on Facebook and Instagram and now Twitter.

I want to encourage you to honor Robert Joyal's legacy. Reach out to your brother, your sister, a family member, a friend who feels like family, someone you haven't spoken to in a while, and ask how they're doing. Tell them how much they mean to you. It's what Rob would do. 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.