Detective Garland Lindwood Joyner, 39, was found face down in Warwick Creek on March 18, 1984, with a single gunshot wound to the chest. He was a 14-year veteran of the Portsmouth Police Department when he died; the stream where his body was recovered runs along the Gates–Chowan county line in North Carolina.

Authorities initially ruled the death a suicide, but that finding troubled his family and colleagues. In 2014 previously undisclosed evidence prompted a reopening of the file and the death was reclassified as a homicide. At the time he died, Joyner was reportedly working on an investigation into a gun-smuggling operation. His wife later said he had gone to meet men who had threatened her and their teenage daughter, and a friend said he had been meeting someone tied to the long-running probe.

No arrests have been made and the identity of whoever killed Detective Joyner remains unknown.