In the summer of 2006, two years after Joy Risker’s bones were identified, three years after her killing, Sean Goff went on trial in San Diego.

For murder.

It was Deputy D.A. Matthew Greco’s very first murder trial.

Matthew Greco, deputy D.A.: There’s only two types of murders. There’s “Who done its?” and “What is it?”. And this was a “What is it?”

That is to say... was it murder at all?  Or was it an accident, or self defense? 

An experienced and wiley defense attorney, Greco knew, was standing by to argue those very things.

So the prosecutor went all out.

Greco: He planned it and he killed her.

All because he wanted total control over Joy’s life.

Greco: I thought he was the scariest defendant that I have ever seen.

Proof of that, claimed prosecutor Greco, was in the horrifying story told by those bones recovered from beneath the pile of rocks under the Palo Verde tree.

Greco (in court): So this was a stab wound directly to the heart?

Laura Fulgitini, forensic anthropologist: Yes.

The anthropologist testified that Joy had been savagely mutilated.

Fulgitini: My opinion was someone was trying to obliterate her face.

It was a litany of brutality.

Fulgitini: This mark right across the middle of the hyoid is not a natural feature of the bone, as if the implement was doing this (sawing motion on neck).

Greco: What would be the result if that hyoid bone was entirely sawed through?

Fulgitini: In essence you would end up decapitating the person.

How had Sean and Joy gone from happy couple to bones in the desert?

Prosecutor Greco was about to present some chilling evidence… that Sean had been methodically planning the murder for many months. 

Sean’s college friend, a writer, told about a brainstorming session the year before Joy’s death—they were working out the story plot for a book or movie.

Prosecutor: What was the subject matter you were discussing?

Leif Wright: It was how to have the antagonist in the movie or book watch forensic type shows on TV and learn how to commit perfect murder.

And the best ways to hide the body—

Prosecutor: Was there any discussion of putting the body in a place it would never be found?

Wright: Yes and yes. The ideas would be from television shows… like the FBI Files.

Prosecutor: Forensic Files?

Wright: Forensic Files and things like that.

And remarkably, weeks before Joy’s death, the friend testified, Sean foreshadowed his own motive for murder.

Wright: Essentially he said that it was not working out with Joy, that she was sloppy and lazy and that he was going to have to get rid of her.

Sean’s colleague testified that he was dissatisfied with Joy and had plans for her. Joy had very little time.

Victoria Mack: Two or three weeks to shape up or ship out.

Joy’s friends testified that Sean had always let it be known that if he and Joy ever split, he would keep the kids.

Prosecutor: Would you ever discuss hypothetically what would happen  what would happen if Joy left him?

Mack: Essentially, that he wouldn’t allow her to have the kids.

And one friend testified that Sean seemed to be building an excuse, in advance, to explain why Joy might disappear.

Trane, friend: He told me that he thought that she was the kind of person who would take off and leave and never look back again.

And as for those emails that seemed to come from Joy in the weeks after her disappearance, a forensic computer expert testified that they were all a digital deception—they had all been sent by Sean.

And then, a surprise:  the one witness who knew Sean Goff better than anybody, the one person who might be able to explain the man, the woman who, as a teenager, had become wife number one: Sheila, was now a witness for the prosecution.

So many questions—such as, why did she agree to his polygamist demands?

Sheila Goff: I felt I didn’t have a choice. I felt that this was God wanted us to do. And then it was either that or lose my son and the relationship I had with Sean.

Prosecutor: Now why did you believe you would lose your son?

Sheila Goff: I don’t know.

By now divorced from Sean, Sheila had put certain of his activities, that September of 2003, into a new context.

Like a curious shopping spree six days before Joy disappeared.

He had brought home with him a chisel, a hand saw, pick axe, sledge hammer, duct tape, plastic sheeting, a shovel, a cooler, butcher block, and butcher knife, among other things.

Prosecutor: Was he the kind of person that was had other who had hobbies like woodwork?

Sheila Goff: No.

Prosecutor: Plumbing?

Sheila Goff: No.

Prosecutor: Landscaping?

Sheila Goff: No.

Prosecutor: What was his level of being a handyman?

Sheila Goff: None.

All those items, argued the prosecutor, were part of a deliberately assembled murder and dismemberment kit.

And the weekend of September 19^th, with Sheila and the kids on a trip to Santa Barbara, he put his plan in motion.

He took Joy to an expensive restaurant for a $229 dollar last supper—Kobe beef.

At 8:36 that Friday evening, Joy called Sheila to say goodnight to her boys.

Prosecutor: Could you describe her tone?

Sheila Goff: Happy.

Prosecutor: Did she, on Friday the 19^th, sound like she was angry?

Sheila Goff: No.

Prosecutor: Upset?

Sheila Goff: No.

Prosecutor: Distressed?

Sheila Goff: No.

And later that night back at home, said the prosecutor, Sean stabbed Joy to death.

He sawed out her teeth and chopped off fingers that might identify who she was. He stuffed her body in a container in the back of a rented SUV. He drove five hours to the Arizona desert.

And buried her under a Palo Verde tree.

Sean called Sheila on Sunday as she was driving back from Santa Barbara.  He told her, she said, that he and Joy had broken up.

Prosecutor: Did the defendant tell you that Joy had cut herself?

Sheila Goff: Yes.

Prosecutor: Did he ask you to do something?

Sheila Goff: Yes.

Prosecutor: What?

Sheila Goff: Clean up.

And so, she did. She cleaned up the blood in Joy’s bedroom. And in the bathroom.

And when Sean finally arrived back home in that rented SUV, it was Monday. 

Sheila helped him clean out the dirt and debris and chose to believe his lie—that he’d simply gone for a long drive to deal with his grief at the breakup.

Sheila Goff: Because I really didn’t believe he would do something like that to our family.

It was a damning story with a villain right out of “The Silence of the Lambs.”

But was it true?  Was Sean really such a monster?

Now finally, after years of silence, the polygamist preacher would tell the story himself.

He’d killed her all right. But now he was about to say he had a very good reason.

Sean Goff: I saw her in the door. She had a knife.

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