When Robert Joyal was 18 and a senior in high school, his family moved from Houston, Texas to Gorham. Five months after moving to Maine, he decided he did not want to go to college as previously planned, and instead, moved into an apartment in Portland.
On April 4, 1998, Joyal went out with some friends to a nightclub on Forest Ave. and the group was involved in an altercation with Seiha Srey and a group of his friends. Both groups wound up at Denny’s on Congress St. and there was a further confrontation. Joyal was stabbed three times in the back and later died at a local hospital.
Police found the knife covered in Joyal’s blood. After interviewing 60 people, Seiha Srey was identified as a suspect after a 15-year-old girl told police that Srey had confessed to her. Other witnesses pointed to other suspects, but Srey was eventually arrested and jailed for two years before the charges were dropped due to weaknesses in the case.
Joyal’s mother, Faith, thinks that gang members may have told him to stab Joyal or they may have just told him to take the blame for the stabbing. Srey was shot and killed in a dispute over drug money in 2007.
While Portland police believe Srey was probably responsible for Joyal’s death, the killing was never prosecuted and they hope that “people who were once intimidated will come forward and speak to Detective Tully” now that 20 years have passed.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Jeff Tully at 874-8550 or text the keyword GOTCHA plus their message to 274637 (CRIMES).