A Georgia woman who opened fire on police during a high-speed chase in Rockdale County, Ga. is accused of stabbing her domestic partner to death in a motel room.
Joyce Marie Lewis-Pelzer, 42, was arrested after she stabbed the woman to death at a Motel 6 in Conyers, Ga. on Tuesday. Lewis-Pelzer is also a suspect in the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend (pictured top) who went missing 7 years ago.
Police say deputies returned fire when Lewis-Pelzer shot at them during a high-speed chase that reached speeds of 110 miles per hour. The chase ended in Turner County.
Conyers police say Lewis-Pelzer was heading to Florida after she fatally stabbed her domestic partner in the motel room.
A statewide alert helped a state trooper spot her car and he attempted to make a traffic stop but she kept going.
It took two PIT maneuvers to disable her car and stop her after she fired at least one shot at deputies, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Lewis-Pelzer is currently recovering from her injuries on an inmate ward at a south Georgia hospital.
The Motel 6 stabbing victim has not been identified pending notification of next of kin.
Lewis-Pelzer is a suspect in the disappearance of ex-girlfriend Shawndell McLeod, of Lithonia, pictured above, who went missing 7 years ago.
Authorities believe Lewis-Pelzer abducted McLeod from the Lithonia home she shared with another woman in September 2011.
McLeod, 35, had taken out a restraining order against Lewis-Pelzer two months before she went missing.
McLeod was abducted at 5 a.m. as she left her home on the way to her job as a nursing home cook, according to WSB-TV.
Police believe Lewis-Pelzer had an accomplice.
“It was more than one person because I don’t believe one person could have taken her and then taken the car, too,” said Detective Henry Guest.
Police later spotted the car, a 2011 Nissan Versa, abandoned behind a Cleveland Avenue rowhouse. A male person of interest was detained but released from custody.
Lewis-Pelzer has multiple domestic violence arrests in both DeKalb and Fulton Counties, according to WSB-TV.
McLeod’s body has never been found. Her mother, Badicea McLeod, says a day has not gone by that she doesn’t think about her daughter.
“Every day I ask God to give me the strength, the courage and the understanding,” she told Channel 2 Action News in 2017.
“I come off the bus and I say, ‘Shawndell, where are you? Come home,'” Badicea McLeod said.
