Murder of Joann Lee Tiesler

On October 7, 2001, American nurse Joann Lee Tiesler, 30, was raped and stabbed to death in her home in Cherry Log, Georgia, by William LeCroy Jr., her neighbor and a former U.S. soldier. LeCroy, who was also a sex offender, had broken into Tiesler's house while she was out shopping, waited for her to come home, then bound, sexually assaulted, and stabbed her to death. He was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on October 11, 2001, while attempting to flee to Canada in Tiesler's car. He was sentenced to death in federal court in 2004 and executed by the federal government on September 22, 2020.

Background
Joann Lee Tiesler was an employed nurse in the state of Georgia. Born in Tennessee, she attended Franklin High School in Franklin, Tennessee, where she also played for the girls' soccer team. Upon graduation she attended Berry College in Rome, Georgia and obtained a master's degree at Vanderbilt University. As a family nurse practitioner, she was able to obtain work in the National Health Corps. During her work from 1999 to 2001, she successfully treated numerous patients who mostly lived in the cities of Blue Ridge and Ellijay.

Murder
On Sunday, October 7, 2001, Tiesler and her fiancé visited her native Tennessee in the city of Chattanooga, where they visited a shopping center. After completing their shopping, both returned to their respective homes. None of her friends heard anything from Tiesler for the rest of the day, but the next morning, Monday, October 8, when she failed to show up for an appointment, one of her friends decided to pay her a visit. At approximately 10:30 am, the friend discovered Tielser's dead body. Police were called and the subsequent investigation revealed her vehicle, a 1996 black Ford Explorer, was missing from her driveway. She had been bound with cable wires, raped, and stabbed numerous times. In addition a .32 caliber pistol she owned was also missing from the home.

Investigation
Investigators quickly established their prime suspect, William Emmett LeCroy Jr., a local sex offender who lived a few houses away from Tiesler. Evidence emerged that revealed LeCroy had been spying on Tiesler with binoculars. In an examination of LeCroy's background authorities learned that he joined the United States Army at age 17 but had been discharged after going AWOL. After the army he became known as a recidivist, having perpetrated numerous crimes in and out of jail which eventually landed him federal custody for burglary and child molestation. He had been released from a federal prison a month before Tiesler's murder. He was also known for obsessing over witchcraft. While at large, police alerted the public of LeCroy and considered him "extremely dangerous".

Arrest
On October 11, Canada–United States border police were doing routine vehicle inspections at a border entrance area in Minnesota. Authorities checked the license plate of one vehicle, a Ford Explorer, and they successfully matched the license plate to Tiesler's missing car. Following this, LeCroy, the one in the car, was arrested. Federal authorities soon arrived in Minnesota. While in custody in Cook County Jail in Grand Marais he confessed to killing Tiesler, describing what he did in detail; LeCroy told authorities he struck Tiesler with a shotgun, bound, raped, slashed her throat open and stabbed her numerous times in the back, eventually leading to her death, before stealing her car. He also told the FBI that he was attempting to cross the Canada–United States border to hide out in Canada to avoid murder charges.

At one point, LeCroy claimed he thought Tiesler was his old babysitter who molested him, but due to Tiesler being one year younger than him, that claim proved to be unlikely. Since LeCroy had stolen Tiesler's car shortly after killing her, he was indicted in a federal court of carjacking (18 U.S.C. § 2119). According to the law, if a carjacking results in the death of one of multiple persons, it could lead to a life sentence or a death sentence for those responsible.

LeCroy's trial and execution
The trial began in early 2004. LeCroy's attorneys admitted early on that he did kill Tiesler, but argued the murder was not preplanned nor fit the profile of a federal crime. They stated that it would have made more sense to have LeCroy tried in the state of Georgia rather than in federal court, as they argued the case did not fit the qualification for the federal carjacking statute, which had been passed in 1992. They maintained that, given LeCroy's background of robberies, that he was simply burglarizing Tiesler's home when she unexpectedly walked in, and that the sexual assault, murder, and carjacking were not done with premeditation. Prosecutors supported their claim that LeCroy had deliberately planned out the rape and murder, given evidence of him spying on her through a neighboring house, and in the days leading up to killing her he had bought cable wires which he used to tie her up. In March, a grand jury convicted LeCroy on all counts. On March 10, he was sentenced to death.

His attorneys argued for sympathy towards LeCroy's family, as his brother Chad, a Georgia State Trooper, was murdered during a traffic stop in 2010, and they claimed executing LeCroy would only add to their suffering. On September 22, 2020, after president Donald Trump rejected a last-minute stay of execution, LeCroy was executed by lethal injection at USP Terre Haute in Terre Haute, Indiana. His execution was the sixth that year conducted by the federal government. LeCroy had originally requested KFC for his last meal, however, it was denied, as he was told that the bones in the chicken presented a security risk. He then asked for Pizza Hut as his last meal, which was approved.

Memorial
In 2002, Tiesler's mother Janie Wells constructed an outdoor classroom and memorial garden in Bowie Nature Park in honor of Joann.