Transcription
On this episode of Black Girl Gone, I tell the story of Le Joya McCoy, who was 31 years old when she was murdered in Monrovia, California, in June 2015. Le Joya was a devoted mother of two, a business owner. But behind the success and ambition, she was trapped in a cycle of fear, one that would ultimately turn deadly.
On June 9th, 2015, Le Joya sent one final message from her phone. A week later, her body was found inside her car. What started as a missing person's case quickly became something far more sinister. And as the investigation unfolded, police uncovered chilling details about a troubled relationship, growing fears of a stalker, and a pattern of abuse that pointed to a killer hiding in plain sight. This is Le Joya's story.
Monrovia, California, is the kind of place where people usually feel safe. It's a quiet city just outside of Los Angeles, and it's known for its tree-lined streets, family-friendly neighborhoods, and a strong sense of community. But in June 2015, that sense of security was shattered when 31-year-old Le Joya McCoy, a mother of two and a rising entrepreneur, suddenly vanished.
Le Joya wasn't the type of person to just disappear. She was a woman who balanced a busy life, running her own boutique while working for Los Angeles County. But a week after she was last seen, a grim discovery would confirm everyone's worst fear: Le Joya wasn't missing, she had been murdered.
Le Joya McCoy was born on July 17th, 1983. She packed into California, where she spent most of her childhood and was raised by her mother, Summer. She had two siblings, a brother Victor and a sister Le Geda. Her family said that she was a happy child. Her aunt told Dateline that she was outgoing, even at a young age, and it was clear that Le Joya knew what she wanted.
She attended Cleveland Elementary School and Wilson Middle School in Pasadena. Her brother told the Pasadena Star News that their family moved to Las Vegas for a period of time in 1997, but eventually, Le Joya came back to Pasadena, where she attended John Muir High School. As a teenager, she excelled in school and carried herself with the kind of drive that made it clear she was going places. She had dreams, big ones, and she wasn't afraid to work for them. In interviews with Dateline, almost everyone described her as ambitious, a go-getter whose determination had blossomed into a force that would carry her throughout her life.
After graduating from high school, Le Joya attended Long Beach City College before going to Cal State Los Angeles for her bachelor's degree. By her early 20s, Le Joya was focused on building her future. She was in college, balancing her studies with her growing ambitions, and like many young women, she also dreamed of love and eventually a family. It was during this time that she met Jose Turner, an aspiring actor and playwright. At first, their connection seemed promising, two young people finding their way in the world together. Eventually, they would go on to have two children, a boy and a girl. But as their relationship grew, cracks began to form, and what started as love would eventually turn into something far more complicated and dangerous. Although they never married, the couple stayed together for several years.
Now, Le Joya continued her journey for success. She went back to Cal State to get her master's degree in 2011. After finishing her master's, Le Joya began working for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Her relationship with Jose, however, had descended into chaos, and Le Joya was beginning to reach her breaking point. By 2013, the issues had escalated, and Jose had become violent with her.
According to court documents, in April, April 2013, Le Joya's aunt and uncle, who were living in Pasadena where Le Joya and Jose lived, said that on the night of April 7th, 2013, Le Joya showed up at their house in distress. She was hysterical, her face streaked with tears, wearing only a nightgown and no shoes. Her hair was "quote unquote" all over the place. She told them that she had run away from Jose, that she couldn't take it anymore. She had endured years of control and abuse, and that night, something in her had snapped. She was done, or at least she wanted to be.
Le Joya told her aunt that Jose had thrown her up against the wall. Her aunt said that she could see the bruises around her neck. Le Joya said that she and Jose had gotten into an argument, and that he had put her down to the ground and started choking her. She was able to get away, and she ran out of their apartment with Jose chasing her, but she managed to make it to her aunt and uncle's home, where she ended up staying the night.
The next day, her uncle went with her back to the apartment that she shared with Jose so that she could get some of her things, but Jose refused to give them to her. Her uncle wound up calling 911 to ask for help, and when the police arrived, they instructed Jose to hand over Le Joya's keys and purse, but he still refused, even after being told to do so several times by the police.
But after that incident, Le Joya moved out and eventually into her own apartment in Monrovia, California. Now, when she moved out, the relationship, in her mind, was over, and she wanted to do her best to co-parent the children. However, Jose did not want her to move on. He started to become increasingly more jealous.
In early June 2014, according to court records, Le Joya asked a male coworker and friend of hers to help her change the locks on her apartment. Around 9:00 p.m., after he had been there for about 30 minutes, Jose knocked on the door, demanding to be let in. His voice was filled with anger as he accused Le Joya of having a man inside and then threatened to "quote unquote" kick their butts. Le Joya was terrified, and she hurried around the apartment, double-checking that all the doors and windows were locked. Desperate to avoid a confrontation, she begged her coworker to hide in the bathroom. He refused at first, but Le Joya insisted.
It's unclear how Jose knew Le Joya wasn't alone that night, but one thing was for certain: he was watching her. His presence at her door wasn't a coincidence; it was a chilling reminder that no matter how much distance she tried to put between them, he was watching her.
In December 2014, court records state that Le Joya's mother, Summer, stayed with Jose for about a week. One night, around 2:00 a.m., she said she woke up to use the bathroom and noticed Jose sitting in the living room. He called her over, asking her to look at a photograph on Le Joya's Facebook. It was a picture of Le Joya sitting at a dinner table with another man, and Jose was angry. On two other occasions, he showed Summer similar photos of Le Joya with different men, each time growing more angry. Summer tried to reason with him, hoping to diffuse his growing resentment, but it was clear Jose wasn't letting go.
Now, while all this was going on, Le Joya was still trying to do her best to maintain a healthy co-parenting relationship with Jose, but he was making it difficult. They had shared custody arrangements where he would alternate weekends with the kids. Now, Le Joya eventually opened up a clothing boutique. She called it Joya in Monterey Park, California. She had always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and so it was no surprise to the people that knew her. Despite having a pretty successful career, Le Joya had dreams beyond her 9-to-5.
In October 2014, she met a man named Brandon, and they developed a friendship and decided to go into business together on a mobile app. A few months later, according to court records, in January 2015, the pair tried to date for a couple of weeks, but Le Joya's stories about Jose had scared Brandon off. The "crazy ex" was a bit too much for him to deal with.
In March 2015, Le Joya's friend Eva attended a makeup class at her boutique, and as the class wrapped up, Le Joya pulled Eva aside, and she confided in her about the things that Jose had done, the threats, the intimidation, the fear that never seemed to go away. Then she played a voicemail that he had left her. His voice had exploded with anger through the speaker, filling with rage, yelling, cursing, and vowing that their children would only be with him. He swore he would make sure that she had no contact with them, and then, with pure venom, he said that women like her deserve to go to hell. As the message played, Le Joya broke down into tears. The weight of his words was unbearable, and deep down, she knew that this wasn't going to stop.
A couple of months later, one night in May 2015, at around 1:00 a.m., Le Joya called Brandon. She was scared. Jose was outside trying to get in. She asked Brandon to stay on the phone with her, and when he urged her to call 911, she refused. She didn't want to cause problems for the kids. For 15-10 minutes, they stayed on the line until Jose finally left. At this point, it had been 2 years since Le Joya had ended things with Jose, and yet his behavior was only getting worse. People around her knew what was happening, but none of them knew just how far things would escalate. And Le Joya was scared. Victims often don't call the police out of fear that it will only make things worse.
On top of everything that was going on, Le Joya had begun to suspect that someone, most likely Jose, was hacking her Facebook account, and so she changed her password and her name to Camille McCoy, which was her middle name. Jose's behavior was making her more and more paranoid, and she really had every reason to be.
On the night of June 3rd, 2015, Le Joya was home discussing a business venture with her colleague around 10:00 p.m. She received a text message that immediately changed her demeanor. She became tense and seemed scared. Without explanation, she told her business partner to move to the living room, shut the shades, turn off the lights, and then she double-checked that the front door was locked. Her partner was confused and unsettled, and then they sat in silence for nearly 45 minutes. Eventually, Le Joya woke her children up and said that she would drive her partner home, but when they reached her car, she noticed that she had a flat tire. Alarmed, her business partner told her that he would just find a nearby hotel to stay in. But the next day, still shaken, he called Le Joya and told her that he was backing out of the business venture. What happened that night had scared him too much to stay involved.
The next morning, on June 4th, Le Joya texted her boss saying that she wouldn't be coming to work. She suspected that Jose had flattened her tire that night, and she was too afraid to walk her children to school alone. Instead, she planned to stay home with them and get her tire fixed. Not only was Jose stalking and threatening Le Joya, he was interfering in her business and her job. People were afraid to work with her, especially Ben. It's hard to imagine exactly what Le Joya was thinking and feeling during that time. I mean, besides being scared and frustrated, it's hard to know if she just thought he would eventually stop, or if she knew that ultimately he would do something to her.
Five days after her tires were slashed, on June 9th, 2015, Le Joya went to work. Around 8:20 a.m., she left at noon, returned at 12:45, and then left for the day at 5:00. She told her boss that she had an appointment with the Employee Assistance Program scheduled for that next morning. Now, that same day, at around 11:00 that morning, she sent a troubling text to her neighbor saying that she had a bad feeling that Jose might break into her apartment. She asked him to keep an eye on her place, and she noted that Jose was now driving an old white car.
Around 4:30, Le Joya spoke with her mother, Summer. She seemed really anxious and asked that her sister Le Geda come visit that day. When Summer suggested that Le Geda take a bus the next morning instead, Le Joya got frustrated. She really wanted her to come that day, but she paid for her sister's bus fare and arranged for her to arrive the following day at the Monterey Park bus station near her job.
Later that evening, Le Joya met her friend Bernadette for dinner at a restaurant in Monrovia. They talked and ate dinner, and then at around 10:00 p.m., they left the restaurant, and Le Joya headed home. At 11:20 p.m., Le Joya received a text message from her friend and former boyfriend Luther, asking what she was doing. Just 2 minutes later, she replied, "Home chilling, went out with my girlfriend after work." It was the last known message she ever sent. Le Joya was doing everything she could to move forward, to build a life for herself and her children, but no matter how much distance she tried to put between her and Jose, the fear never really went away. That night, she sent what would be her last known message, unaware that something terrible was just hours away. What happened after she got home left her family searching for answers and a community shaking.
In June 2015, 31-year-old Le Joya McCoy was living in Monrovia, California, with her two children. But on June 9th, she was seen and heard from for the last time. By the time she was reported missing, it was already too late.
On June 10th, 2015, Le Joya's younger sister, Le Geda, was scheduled to come into town on a bus. The day before, she had asked for her sister to come and stay with her for a little while. After Jose's behavior escalated, she was becoming more and more anxious, and she was afraid to be alone. That day, Le Joya's mom, Summer, took Le Geda to the bus station and then tried calling Le Joya multiple times to confirm that she was still picking her sister up, but Le Joya never answered or returned any of her mother's messages. Concerned, Summer decided to have Le Geda take the train from the bus station to Pasadena, where her uncle would pick her up. Now, it was just the day before that Le Joya was basically begging for her sister to come and visit, and now, knowing she was supposed to arrive that morning, she wasn't answering the phone. Something was wrong.
After being unable to reach Le Joya, Summer called Jose several times, but he did not answer her calls either. A few hours later, Jose finally called Summer back, but when she asked him if he knew where Le Joya was or if he had spoken to her, he would not answer her questions. As the hours went by, the people in Le Joya's life were becoming more and more worried. The children had been with Jose, but there was no sign of Le Joya. Not only had she failed to pick up her sister from the bus stop, she didn't show up for work or the appointment that she had that morning.
On June 12th, 2015, after no one had seen or heard from Le Joya since the 9th, her mom, Summer, contacted the Monrovia Police to report that she could not get in contact with her daughter. Her friend Bernadette and her supervisor at work also called police to ask if they could go and do a welfare check at Le Joya's apartment because she had not shown up to work for 2 days. Police told Summer that they would go over to her apartment and then they would give her a call back.
At around 7:00 p.m., officers from the police department went to Le Joya's apartment and knocked on the door, but there was no answer. After getting no answer at the apartment, one of the officers called Jose to ask him if he knew where Le Joya was. Jose claimed that the last time he heard from her was on June 5th or 6th when he dropped their children off at her home. He said that they had a previous arrangement for him to pick the kids up from the Boys and Girls Club and insisted that he didn't talk to Le Joya regularly. Now, when police called Summer back to inform her that there was no one at the apartment, she filed an official missing person's report. The mystery surrounding what happened to Le Joya was starting to deepen. Hours had turned to days, and the fact that she had not even attempted to call or check in with her family was alarming.
On June 5th, 2015, two detectives were sent back over to Le Joya's apartment. They knocked on the door, calling out her name, but there was no response. They then entered the apartment and made a chilling discovery: blood stains on the carpets, walls, and mattress in the master bedroom. The bed was stripped of its sheets and comforter, adding to the eerie scene. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the detectives immediately left the apartment and contacted the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Later that day, a criminologist joined detectives at the apartment and noted that there were no signs of forced entry. The kids' rooms, however, were in disarray. Doors had been pulled out, and there were clothes all over the floor. And Le Joya's purse, cell phone, and car were also missing. A forensic team was dispatched, and DNA was collected from the scene, including strands of hair that were on the headboard. Once the blood was discovered in Le Joya's apartment, this case went from a missing person's case to a potential homicide, and now the search to locate her intensified. But just a day after searching her home, their worst fears became reality. Le Joya had been found, but what they uncovered was a nightmare no one was prepared for.
In the early morning hours of June 16th, 2015, at around 4:30 a.m., a Monrovia Police Officer spotted Le Joya's car parked about a mile from her home. As he peered through the front passenger window, he noticed a blanket and a child's car seat partially covering the body of a deceased black woman. It was Le Joya, and she had been there for days. Witnesses said that the car had been parked there since at least Friday, June 12th. After making the gruesome discovery, the officer secured the scene and waited for backup to arrive. The car was then towed to the coroner's office, where it wasn't opened until it got there. Le Joya was found in the front seat of the car, and she was naked. Her knees were on the floor, with her body resting on the seat. Investigators were able to collect several pieces of evidence from the car, including fingerprints and DNA samples. When the autopsy was performed, the medical examiner determined that Le Joya had died from strangulation. She also had a stab wound behind her ear, but it was determined to be non-fatal. The discovery of Le Joya's body was devastating. Someone had murdered her in cold blood, and now detectives needed to find that person quickly.
For Le Joya's family, the news that she was dead was almost unbelievable. A woman with so much to live for was suddenly snatched away from them in a senseless act of violence. As the investigation into the murder began, detectives soon discovered the truth about Le Joya's relationship with Jose. Friends, family, and co-workers told police about Jose's behavior over the years and how Le Joya was afraid of him, and they weren't just her stories; people had witnessed firsthand Jose's explosive temper. After interviewing people close to Le Joya, it didn't take long for Jose to move to the top of the suspect list.
On June 29th, 2015, detectives executed a search warrant on Jose's car, and inside, they found a black briefcase on the back seat. And inside, they found a green notebook and a yellow piece of paper. The paper had written notes, and in his notebook, Jose expressed deep resentment and anger towards Le Joya, blaming her for his frustrations and claiming that she "quote unquote" needed to be held accountable and that he would "quote unquote" get great pleasure from tearing her apart. He wrote about being tired of her actions, feeling disrespected, and wanting revenge. His disturbing words made it clear that he saw Le Joya as an obstacle he needed to remove, even referencing a past conversation where she predicted that he would kill her. His writings revealed a chilling intent, fueled by control, obsession, and a dangerous desire for vengeance. The writings were damning and confirmed for police that their focus on Jose was right.
After speaking with one of the detectives, Jose agreed to give them a DNA sample. It would be the final straw. Jose's DNA was tested against blood samples found in Le Joya's apartment, and his DNA matched blood found on a light switch. His DNA also matched samples taken from under Le Joya's fingernails. The police had enough evidence to arrest Jose for murder, and on August 27th, 2015, Jose Turner was taken into police custody and charged with first-degree murder.
After his arrest, investigators searched his apartment, and in his bedroom, they found another note that he had written. Jose wrote that he needed to limit contact with Le Joya for the sake of his own sanity and their children's well-being. He claimed that she had betrayed their family and that no good would come from communicating with her. He emphasized prioritizing his safety and his children's safety and happiness, while vowing to stop engaging with Le Joya, portraying himself as the victim in their strained relationship. But he was no victim.
In 2017, Jose went on trial for Le Joya's murder. Several witnesses testified for the prosecution, including Jose's ex-girlfriend, who testified that like Le Joya, she had suffered abuse while with Jose. The defense tried to argue that the notes police found were part of some fictional story Jose was writing for a play he was working on. They also argued that the DNA found at the crime scene could have been put there at any time and wasn't enough to prove their client guilty. The jury wasn't convinced. Jose Turner was found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Le Joya McCoy was a woman full of ambition, love, and resilience. She was a devoted mother, a driven entrepreneur, and someone who was doing everything she could to build a better future for herself and her children. But despite her strength, she couldn't escape the danger that had been closing in on her for years. Her story is a heartbreaking reminder of how domestic violence can escalate and how the people who seem to love you the most can also be the most dangerous. Though justice would eventually be served, nothing could ever replace the light that was stolen from her family, her friends, and the life she was fighting so hard to build. May Le Joya McCoy rest in peace. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Threads.