A Killer Who Turned Victims into Commodities

A Troubled Beginning

Metheny's early life was marred by hardship and instability. Born into a family of six children in the small town of Essex, near Baltimore, he endured a childhood overshadowed by neglect. His father was absent and struggled with alcoholism, leaving his mother to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. According to his mother, Metheny enlisted in the Army at 19, but after his service, they lost contact—a detail that adds to the mystery surrounding his formative years.

Post-military life saw Metheny taking on various blue-collar jobs, including stints as a truck driver and lumberyard worker. It was a modest existence, but one that took a dark turn in 1994 when his personal life unraveled dramatically.

The Catalyst for Revenge

Living in South Baltimore with his girlfriend and their six-year-old son, Metheny often spent long stretches on the road due to his job. One day, he returned home to find both his girlfriend and son gone. Struggling with drug addiction, his girlfriend had left with another man, presumably taking their child into a life on the streets.

Consumed by rage and desperation, Metheny embarked on a frantic search for his missing family. He scoured halfway houses and frequented areas known for drug activity, including a particular bridge where his girlfriend was known to buy and use drugs. It was beneath this bridge that Metheny's quest for answers took a deadly turn.

The First Murders

Instead of finding his girlfriend, Metheny encountered two homeless men he believed had information about her whereabouts. When they failed to provide any leads, his anger erupted violently. Armed with an ax, he murdered both men in a fit of rage. Moments later, he noticed a fisherman nearby who might have witnessed the brutal act. Determined to leave no witnesses, Metheny killed him as well.

Panicking, he disposed of the bodies by tossing them into the river. The murders were initially seen as crimes of passion, triggered by the personal turmoil in his life. However, they marked the beginning of a much darker path.

An Unsettling Escalation

Metheny was arrested for the murders but was released after 18 months in jail due to lack of evidence—the bodies had not been recovered. Free once more, his vendetta morphed into something more sinister. No longer solely fixated on finding his girlfriend, Metheny began targeting vulnerable individuals—sex workers and people experiencing homelessness.

In a departure from his previous methods, he brought his victims to his home, a small trailer located on the property of the pallet company where he worked. There, he dismembered them, storing parts of their bodies in Tupperware containers in his freezer. The remains he couldn't preserve were buried in a shallow grave on the company lot.

A Disturbing Enterprise

What Metheny did next elevated his crimes from horrifying to almost unimaginable. He mixed the flesh of his victims with a blend of beef and pork, forming the mixture into patties. Setting up a small barbecue stand by the roadside, he served these patties to unsuspecting customers.

"I opened up a little open-pit beef stand," Metheny later confessed. "I had real roast beef and pork sandwiches. The human body tastes very similar to pork. If you mix it together, no one can tell the difference."

Customers never suspected that the savory sandwiches they enjoyed were anything other than ordinary meat. Metheny took a perverse pleasure in this deception, effectively turning his victims into commodities and involving the public in his crimes without their knowledge.

The Downfall

Metheny's gruesome activities might have continued unchecked if not for the escape of a potential victim. In 1996, Rita Kemper managed to flee from Metheny's trailer and reported him to the authorities. Her testimony provided the breakthrough police needed.

When officers arrived to arrest Metheny, they braced for resistance from the physically imposing man known for his temper. Instead, he offered a detailed and unsolicited confession, revealing the extent of his crimes with a disturbing lack of remorse. "I'm a very sick person," he told them, recounting the murders and his methods with unsettling candor.

Justice and Reflection

During his trial, Metheny remained unrepentant. He openly declared, "The words 'I'm sorry' will never come out, for they would be a lie." He expressed only one regret: not being able to kill his ex-girlfriend and the man he blamed for his son's disappearance.

Initially sentenced to death, Metheny's sentence was later commuted to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. He spent the remainder of his years in prison, where he died in 2017 at the Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland.

A Legacy of Horror

The story of Joseph Roy Metheny leaves a haunting legacy. It forces a confrontation with uncomfortable questions about the societal conditions that can foster such extreme violence. Neglect, substance abuse, and a lack of support systems are threads woven throughout his life story.

Moreover, Metheny's crimes highlight the vulnerabilities of certain populations—sex workers and those experiencing homelessness—who are often unseen and unprotected. His ability to operate unnoticed for so long underscores the need for greater attention to those living on society's margins.

While the full extent of Metheny's crimes may never be known—he claimed to have killed 13 people, though authorities could only confirm three—the impact of his actions remains indelible. His story serves as a grim reminder of the depths of human depravity and the dire consequences that can arise when rage and neglect go unchecked.

This article is a sobering exploration of a true crime that shook Baltimore and continues to resonate as a cautionary tale about the consequences of unchecked anger and societal neglect.