Shelbyville, Ind.—
Court documents indicate a missing Shelbyville family found safe in Florida Wednesday, staged their disappearance. Shelbyville Police Chief Bill Elliot believes the motive may have been to protect their eldest son from the law. Joseph Guy, was serving house arrest until he deactivated his GPS monitoring device around the time the family took off.A probable cause for the 18-year-old indicated when police officers entered the family's home on May 10th, they saw a fake crime scene. The officer described the house as in "dissaray as if some sort of struggle had taken place."
Chief Elliot said investigators knew it was a setup.
"The situation had been staged and that lowered our concern for their safety," he explained.
Investigators found a reddish substance intended to portray blood along with Guy's home detention device, which was damaged on the floor. Guy faces trial in Marion County on a stalking charge. By tracking a pre-paid phone, detectives were able to locat the family in northern Florida Wednesday. Guy was arrested on a Shelby County escape charge and has waived extradition.
His father and mother, Robert and Debra Guy, and their toddler grandson Zachary are in good condition and expected to head home to Indiana.
"Helping him leave there could be charges but we don't anticipate that at this point," said Elliott.
The chief said his officers want to interview the family upon their return.
