A mom vanished after her nightshift at a bar. Cops now say the man she was seeing is her killer
A Mississippi man with a history of domestic violence arrests is in custody for the murder of a mother-of-two who went missing over the weekend.
Brett Huntley Keel, 37, of Pass Christian, Mississippi has been charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of 38-year-old Joyce Gomez, a woman he had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with, according to authorities and her friends, The Sun Herald reported.
Gomez was last seen around 10:52 p.m. on Friday night, at 100 Main Street in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, Pass Christian police said in a news release.
She was with Keel, Gomez’s co-worker Chris Langer told WLOX. That night, Gomez had worked at The Whiskey Bar in downtown Pass Christian before she was seen getting into a truck with Keel after her shift.
Langer described Gomez as a “great cook” who was “always smiling, always joking about something.”
He said she had plans to start a dessert food truck and that she would give out samples of her Tres Leches to the patrons at the bar during her shifts.
The night she vanished, Keel, who Langer said Gomez had dated in the past, showed up at the bar, but “nothing seemed weird or anything,” he said. He told her goodbye when they left after her shift and it was the last time he saw her.
When Gomez never showed up at the home she shared with her elderly father and her two children, Langer said he knew something was wrong.
“I kind of had a feeling that she was gone,” he said. “Typically, a mother of two doesn’t just up and disappear — doesn’t decide to leave on their own volition. Yes, it does happen occasionally, but usually something else has happened. If she didn’t go home with her dad there and her two kids, then it was not her choice.”
Gomez’s father reported missing on Saturday.
On Sunday, Gomez’s body was found by deputies near a dirt path in a wooded area off West Wittman Road, according to Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer. A cause of death is not yet know, he said.
On Monday, officials with the Pass Christian Police Department announced that Keel had been arrested Saturday night on an unrelated charge and now faces charges of murder and tampering with evidence in the death of Gomez.
Keel has a history of arrests dating back to 2006, according to court documents reviewed by The Sun Herald.
He served time on a slew of misdemeanor charges of vandalism, malicious mischief, and disorderly conduct, as well as misdemeanor and felony domestic violence and drug-related convictions.
