Ms. Hayward was killed in a Chester, Pa., hotel on Feb. 12, 2004. Since then, family and friends have done everything they can think of to bring her killer to justice - including e-mailing congressmen, writing a blog, talking to the police and hiring a private detective. Thus far they have all been vain attempts to find the man who killed Ms. Hayward, who was born and raised in Annapolis.
Cpl. Jennifer Crews-Carey, a city police spokesman and close friend of Ms. Hayward's sisters through middle and high schools, had the idea to set up a group on Facebook, a popular online networking site. The group is dedicated to finding out what happened to Ms. Hayward, 28.
"We realized it was a great networking tool," Cpl. Crews-Carey said. "We thought, what better way to try to get the word out to people?"
The hope is that someone - a worker at the hotel, or someone who might have been in the area that night - will see it and help the police get a much-needed lead on the case.
"You could be the piece of the puzzle we're looking for," she said.
The first night Cpl. Crews-Carey created the group, she reached out to about 2 million Facebook users by contacting people in other networking groups.
"If two of those people read it, that's two more people that know about it than before," she said.
The family is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to the killer's conviction.
In 2004, Ms. Hayward checked into a Days Inn hotel in the Philadelphia suburb after visiting her boyfriend, who was staying nearby for a work assignment. After checking in she left for a short time and returned at about 3 a.m.
A man followed her into an elevator.
Shortly after, she called the front desk and said she needed help. But the desk clerk didn't take any action, according to prior reports. Hotel staff found her dead in the room the next day. There were no signs of forced entry.
Ms. Hayward's sisters, who have been looking for her killer for years, said they hope the Facebook search yields more information. Neither sister lives locally, which makes it difficult to help with the case in Pennsylvania.
"It's to the point where you feel like your hands are just tied and there's nothing else you can do," said Dorothy Tissue, one of Ms. Hayward's sisters. "Somebody's got to know something. A murder just doesn't happen and nobody hears anything."
Her other sister Katherine Sheetenhelm also said it's hard to help with the investigation from out of town, but a tool such as Facebook can help span the distance.
"This person really thinks he's gotten away with the perfect murder," she said of her sister's killer. "Somebody knows something and it's got to weigh on them that a girl was murdered, a life was taken and nobody was accounted for."
Both women said their sister as a loving woman who doted on her five nephews.
Ms. Hayward graduated from Annapolis High School in 1993 and Salisbury University in 2002, where she worked through school as a nanny. She volunteered for the SPCA in Annapolis and at the county fairgrounds.
"She was always giving, and always had a big smile on her face. She loved her family dearly," Ms. Sheetenhelm said.
Anyone with information about Ms. Hayward's murder may call the Chester Police Department Detective Mike Palmer at 610-891-4704. Visit www.facebook.com and search for Joy Hayward under groups to check out the site.
If you encounter other problems, please email nlundskow@capitalgazette.com and include your name, username, and any errors or messages that are displayed. The more information you can provide, the better able we will be to assist you.
In order to post or vote on a comment, you must be signed in with a hometownannapolis account.
Take a look at a summary of Commenting Guidelines.
If you encounter other problems, please email nlundskow@capitalgazette.com and include your name, username, and any errors or messages that are displayed. The more information you can provide, the better able we will be to assist you.