KY KY - Joyce Skees, 34, Louisville, 3 December 1996

The deceased employee, Mary Joyce Skees, was employed by appellant as an assistant vice president. On December 3, 1996, she finished work, changed her clothes, and went to her van, which was parked in appellant’s parking lot adjacent to its building. Just after she turned on the ignition, an unidentified man approached the vehicle and, apparently without provocation, shot and killed her.

Appellee subsequently filed a claim for survivor’s death benefits. The arbitrator dismissed the claim on the ground that Skees’ death was not work related.

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The murder of Joyce Skees is the Shively Police Department's oldest cold case. Skees’ family is hoping for a renewed push for tips 19 years after she was killed, hoping someone who knows what happened will finally come forward.

“It's complete disbelief,” Mark Clore said of his sister’s murder.

“She was shot, they ran. We were told that there were two people running from the scene,” sister Janice Farish said.

It was December 3, 1996. Joyce Skees, a sister, wife and mother to two young boys, was murdered in the parking lot of the bank where she worked on Dixie Highway in Shively. Her youngest son Ryan was only five years old.

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Joyce Skees, a mother of two, was murdered while outside a Shively bank 20 years ago on Dec. 3, 1996.

Her family says with the killer still not found it's hard to find closure, but they move forward by honoring her memory.

“Joyce was just very outgoing, happy, fun loving,” said Mark Clore, Joyce’s older brother.

“A lot of things can put smiles on your faces. A lot of the pictures and kind words and memories of her,” said Ryan Skees, Joyce’s son.

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“I don't think you really ever get closure. Because the memories are always there,” said Jordan Clore, Joyce Skees’ younger brother.

“The vengeance goes away. Maybe not all the way, but … I just want my sister honored,” Mark Clore said.

“I've still always gotten to look up to her as a role model and that's because I hear the stories and I get to hear the memories from my father, my uncles, my aunts, my grandparents. Even people I've met before that used to work with her could go on and tell me stories. They've never met be but still 20 years later they can still tell me stories. And there's never a bad story,” said Ryan Skees.

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