Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The SHOCKING Murder of a Georgia Mother - Joanna Hayes

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

This is the story of Heather Strube and Joanna Hayes

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Oh! Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four First Steps, now streaming on Disney Plus, we did PG-13. What time is it, Ben? It's Clubber Time! So one day, this woman is at the mall in the parking lot, and she's buckling her son into his car seat. And when she turns around, suddenly,

bam, there's a mustache man standing in front of her, and he's holding a pew-poo. And he blocks her from getting back into her car. And she looks into this man's eyes, and she realizes she's seen them before. She knows who this person is. And that is when he raises his pew-poo, and he fires. Now the woman, her name's Heather.

And unfortunately, Heather just happens to be in the middle of a divorce with her husband. This guy, Stephen, and embedded into the middle of this divorce is a custody battle over their one-year-old son. And this custody battle is ugly. It's real ugly. You can imagine they kind of hate each other. But one day, Heather and Stephen agreed to meet in the parking lot of the local mall so that he can hand over their son for the week. So she gets there and she takes her son from Stephen and he gets back in his car and he drives away. After he's gone, that's when she turns around and the mustache man is there in front of her with a pew-poo.

and he unalives her. Now, when this shooting happens, it's about 6 p.m. on a Sunday. So this parking lot is full of people, and plenty of them witness the shooting. So police, they get to the scene, and all the witnesses are like, this mustache man just went right up to her

and shot her, and it was crazy. There's even a little CCTV footage of the mustache man leaving the parking lot. So police, they aren't sure what to make of all this. Who was this dude with the mustache? So naturally, they bring in Stephen for questioning, because he was the last one to talk. to her. But Stephen couldn't have been the shooter. He had just driven away moments before. So they

interview all the witnesses from the scene, and they end up sort of Frankenstining together a police sketch of the suspect. But the suspect doesn't seem to fit the description of anyone they know. But that is when, bam, suddenly police get a tip. A trucker who was staying at a hotel near the mall, he says he saw someone scoping out the mall parking lot the day before the shooting, and that this person was using binoculars and that they were taking pictures. It was shady as fuck. But most importantly, this trucker said the shady person was driving a white Ford F-150. So police investigate, looking for any person in Heather's life who happens to drive a white Ford F-150.

And what do you know? They find someone. But it's the grandma. Steven's mother, Joanna. But we'll just call her Grandma. But what could Grandma have to do with the man who shot Heather? Well, police take trucker over to Grandma's house where the F-150 is parked outside. and they show it to him.

And he's immediately like, yep, that's the truck I saw. So of course, then police asked Grandma to come in for questioning. But Grandma's just like, nah, and she just doesn't go. But eventually they do end up talking to her a little bit, and she denies any involvement in any mall shooting. But she does say something interesting. In her conversation, she makes sure to tell police exactly what she's always thought about Heather.

She basically says that she thinks Heather was a terrible mother and that she's glad she's gone. So now police really think Grandma's somehow involved in Heather's death. But she won't really talk to them, and there's not enough evidence to arrest her for anything. Until... At some point, police get an idea. They call her son Stephen in again,

and they show him that CCTV footage they got of the shooter leaving the parking lot. And they're like, Stephen, could this person be your mom? And Stephen watches the footage? And he's like, oh shit, it is. Turns out that the mustache man who shot Heather wasn't a man at all. It was Grandma. While Stephen was in the middle of his custody battle, Grandma allegedly wanted him to get custody of his son so bad

that she put on a wig and a fake mustache and she dressed like a man and then she went to the mall parking lot and she shot her former daughter-in-law. So now Stephen is convinced that his own mom shot his former wife. And so police, they get him to a little. agree to call her and confront her while they record it. I just left the police station that they show me the videotape. It looks like you. It looks like you.

Bob, it looks like you. It looks like you. It looks like you. Why'd you do it? So anyway, police go and they search Grandma's truck, and they find fiber from a wig, and they find gunshot residue on her steering wheel. And they arrest her. Here's her mugshot.

And she ends up going to trial, and she's ultimately found guilty of unaliving Heather, and she's sentenced to life. And all this happened in Snellville, Georgia, so shout out to Snellville.