Gone in the Night: Joe Clyde Daniels

The Sheriff’s Department in downtown Dickson, Tennessee, was quiet on the morning of the 4^th of April, 2018. At about 6:30AM that morning, however, a phone call came in from a local man named Joseph Daniels. He reported that his non-verbal, autistic, five-year-old son, Joe Clyde, had disappeared. Joseph said that he went to wake Joe up for school that morning at 5:20AM, only to find that he was gone. He and his wife, Krystal, searched their home and surrounding vicinity for about an hour, before they called police.

Joe Clyde Daniels was born on the 30^th of July, 2012, and from an early age is was apparent that he was different from other children. Non-verbal and eventually diagnosed with autism, he faced unique challenges. There were certain things that were difficult for Joe, such as loud noises, especially thunder which terrified him. At Centennial Elementary school, he was making progress with his speech-language pathologist.

After Joe was reported missing, the search for him began at the family home along Gerner’s Creek Road. It was apparent that Joe wasn’t in the home, so the search expanded outwards. Garner’s Creek Road was rural, just on the outskirts of Dixon, and was surrounded in fields and woodland.  Joe couldn’t have wandered into the town from the family’s home, but could have been anywhere in the nature that surrounded the road.¹

With their eyes scanning the vicinity, the detectives moved slowly and called out Joe’s name, well aware that they might not receive a verbal response. Every now and then, one of  the detectives would pause and listen intently for any sound that might lead them to Joe. As the hours passed, the search area was widened.²

Joe’s father, Joseph, went out in the car with Detective Sarah McCartney in search of him. Along the way, however, he mentioned something that struck the detective as strange. He said Joe had urinated on the floor the night before, but made it clear he hadn’t punished him. It was an odd statement to make and the detective made a note of it.³

As the search pressed on, detectives received a tip from a local man. He said that he saw a child walking along the side of the road not too far from the family’s home. This was at about 1AM – five hours before Joe was reported missing. However, he said he believed that the child was older than Joe, and didn’t think to call police at the time. This reported sighting gave way to a terrifying scenario. What if Joe was abducted after he left the family home?

Over at the family’s home, Joseph and Krystal were being cared for by members of the sheriff’s department, who described them as being exhausted and anguished.  They had been told by detectives that they couldn’t partake in the search because their scent could throw off the sniffer dogs.  Joe’s father, Joseph, spoke with News 2 over the phone, and said he was afraid that his son was “lonely, tired, scared and confused.”⁴

He referred to him as “Baby Joe” – something the entire family called him – and said that he had snuck out before. However, it was always during the day, and Joe would always be found nearby.  He never wandered off too far, and he certainly didn’t go into the dense forests that surrounded the family’s neighbourhood.

Joseph said  he believed that his son had seen them unlock their padlocked door, and was able to copy them. He suggested that Joe awoke in the middle of the night, unlocked the door and left. He and Krystal considered it possible that Joe left that night in search of his truck driver grandfather, who he was extremely close with.

But what happened to him after that was a complete and utter mystery.  However, it remained a mystery for only a few more hours until a shocking confession was made.  And the truth was much more horrific than anyone could have ever imagined….

Detectives had become suspicious of Joseph and the comments he made in the vehicle had lingered in their minds. He was brought in for questioning and vehemently denied any involvement in his son’s disappearance. However, after several hours, he seemingly had a change of heart and the conversation took a dark turn. He said that he never actually believed Joe was his biological son, and referred to him as “that boy.”⁵

He said he believed that Krystal had been cheating on him, and they had gotten into an argument the night that Joe disappeared. But that wasn’t the catalyst that set him off. He said he was awoken that night by his stepson, Alex, who said that Joe had urinated on the floor. According to Joseph: “I was just so angry with him.”  He said that he hit Joe with a closed fist several times in the head and a few times in the face.⁶

After he discovered that Joe was dead, Joseph said he drove him out to a field and disposed of him there. However, he then changed this version of events and said he threw him over a bridge into water. As he said, he chose to do this because his son “loved water.”  Joseph and detectives went out that night for Joseph to point out where he had disposed of his son’s body, but he couldn’t be found.

While the community was stunned by Joseph’s arrest, they were even more stunned when Joe’s mother, Krystal, was arrested on the 9^th of April. Detectives accused her of knowing that Joe was being abused and knew that he had been killed, yet failed to report it.  In fact, Krystal didn’t just know that her son was killed, she was there when it happened. Krystal told detectives she had heard Joe screaming the night before he was reported missing.⁷

Krystal said she went into his bedroom and found Joseph on top of Joe with a closed fist. Joe was motionless. She said that Joseph then swung at her, and told her that if she ever said anything, he would kill her.  Instead of protect her son, or call for help, Krystal simply left the room and went back to sleep. The next morning when Joe was reported missing, she never mentioned what she had seen.

As Joseph was charged with first-degree murder and Krystal was charged with aggravated child neglect or endangerment, the search for Joe pressed on. But now, the volunteers were searching for a body.

The prosecution and defence were preparing for the upcoming trial when Krystal recanted the statement she made about Joseph standing over Joe with a closed fist. Her incriminating statement was key to the prosecution, as there was no physical evidence in the case. There was only a missing boy and two confessions. In fact, Joseph himself had already recanted his confession which meant the prosecution’s case was going to be a struggle.⁸

The murder trial for Joseph Daniels began on the 3^rd of June, 2021, and he was standing trial separate from his wife, Krystal. District Attorney Ray Crouch laid out the prosecution’s case, telling the jury that Joseph admitted to slamming his son’s body onto a coffee table after he urinated on the floor. Defence attorney Jake Lockert said during his opening statements that the confession was coerced. He described his client as “mentally ill” and said that he was told by detectives that they weren’t going to stop the interrogation until he told them what they wanted to know.⁹

When Sheriff Jeff Bledsoe testified, he also admitted that there was no direct evidence that would indicate that Joe was murdered, or even dead. He said that the search efforts were very extensive and meticulous, and that every single tip they received was followed up on. However, there was no evidence that proved that Joe was dead.¹⁰

After he stepped down, the courtroom fell silent as Joe’s 11-year-old half-brother, Alex, took to the witness stand. He was going to serve as the prosecution’s lead witness, and he had a very disturbing story to share. Alex testified that he awoke Joseph after Joe urinated on the floor that night. Joseph came into the bedroom and beat Joe with his fists. After that, the brothers went back to sleep.

Alex was overcome with emotion, as he said that some time later, he awoke to the sound of a loud bang. According to the prosecution, this was Joseph beating Joe again, specifically, it was him slamming his body on the coffee table. Alex stayed in the bedroom for a few minutes before he went into the living room where he saw Joe lying on the floor. Alex testified that he witnessed Joseph carry Joe out of the back door.

He watched from the side of the house, but said that Joseph spotted him and threatened to kill him if he told anybody what had happened. Joseph told Alex to go back inside, but Alex said he continued to watch, and saw Joseph carry Joe down the drive, and down the road out of view. When he awoke the next morning, Joseph told him that his little brother had run away from home.

His testimony was followed by Morgan Bowen, a family advocate who was at the Child Advocacy Center when Alex was spoken to. She said that Joseph had taken Alex there, and that she had witnessed a very strange interaction. Joseph had put bunny ears behind his stepson’s head, and thenR asked: “How’s that for child abuse?”¹¹

This wasn’t the only peculiar thing that happened. She told the court that in their intake paperwork, the words “victim accompanied by” were at the top of the page. When Joseph read that, he became upset, and commented: “It’s not like I abuse my own children.”  He further commented that he hoped detectives would find “that boy” in reference to Joe.

Testimony was then presented about Joseph and Krystal’s relationship, with various messages presented. These messages showed that Krystal was planning on leaving Joseph in the days leading up to Joe’s disappearance. She had a new boyfriend, and had recently told him she had ripped up her marriage license. The prosecution rested and the defence opted out of calling any witnesses.¹²

The jury ultimately found Joseph Daniels guilty of the murder of Joe Clyde Daniels. They also convicted him of second-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, filing a false report and evidence tampering. Joseph Daniels returned to court on the 14^th of September to be sentenced.  During the hearing, probation and parole manager, John McGranahan, took the stand to talk about his pre-sentence report for Joseph.

These records included statements Joseph had made about feeling “lots and lots of anger” as well as thoughts about killing and threatening other people.  Joseph had said to the probation and parole manager. “I don’t remember a lot of it, but apparently I told someone I wanted to eat their face off.”  The report also included references he had made to planning to kill school peers, and bite people’s noses off.

He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 51 years. Krystal Daniels entered a no contest agreement just before her rtial was ready to begin.  She was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

While both Joseph and Krystal remain behind bars, Joe’s body still remains unrecovered. David Raddar, the director of EquuSearch Midwest said in April 2022: “A lot of areas have been covered, and yet here we still are, four years later, still looking for that piece of the puzzle that we so desperately need and want.”

For more information on this case, including 911 calls, and interrogation footage, our documentary is available below:

1. CBS – 11 WJHL, 4 April, 2018 – “TBI Issues Alert for Missing Boy”
2. Associated Press, 6 April, 2018 – “Police, Volunteers Search for Missing Boy”
3. The Advocate and Democrat, 7 April, 2018 – “Father of Missing Tennessee Child Charge”
4. CBS – 11 WJHL, 7 April, 2018 – “Father Confesses to Killing 5-Year-Old”
5. CBS – 5 WKRG, 7 April, 2018 – “Father of Autistic Boy Accused of Killing Son”
6. CBS – 17 WNCN, 9 April, 2018 – “Shock and Grief After Missing Boy’s Death”
7. CBS – 19 WHNT, 9 April, 2018 – “Mother of Missing Tennessee Child Arrested”
8. CBS – 3 WTKR, 13 February, 2019 – “Tennessee Mom Recants Critical Statement”
9. CBS – 3 WREG, 6 June, 2012 – “No Physical Evidence to Show Baby Joe is Dead”
10. CBS – 11 WJHL, 7 June, 2021 – “He Threatened that he Would Kill Me”
11. CBS – 19 WHNT, 2021 – “How’s That for Child Abuse?”
12. CBS – 19 WHNT, 10 June, 2021 – “I Ripped up our Marriage License”