Joy Patricia Hayward was 28 when she died after a stay at the Days Inn in Chester, Pennsylvania. She had driven from Annapolis to visit a boyfriend on temporary assignment; after a heated argument the night of February 11, 2004, she checked into a sixth-floor room at about 1:38 a.m. and left the hotel for roughly 90 minutes. She returned around 3:00 a.m., spoke briefly with the front desk clerk, and was seen followed into the elevator by a Black man in his early thirties.

Shortly after reaching her room, Joy called the front desk to say she had a situation and needed help; the line went dead and no assistance was sent. Her body was found in the bathtub by housekeeping around 4:00 p.m.; investigators estimated she had been dead about 12 hours and listed cause of death as asphyxiation. The room appeared relatively undisturbed: beds made, clothes folded, an ice bucket with water and two brands of cigarette butts. Both her cell phone and her boyfriend’s phone were missing. DNA from the scene matched an unknown Black male and a composite sketch was released; at one point a man answered Joy’s missing phone when her sister called but hung up.

Who in the Chester or greater area remembers seeing a man matching that description near the Days Inn on February 12, 2004, or has information about the missing phones or the cigarette brands found in the room?