MS murder suspect used acid on girlfriend’s body after killing, authorities say
Brett Huntley Keel used acid to try to destroy the remains of former girlfriend and Florida native Joyce Gomez after he allegedly shot her to death in a domestic violence murder, according to Harrison County prosecuting attorney Herman Cox.
Police believe Joyce Gomez fought for her life in the attack, based on the amount of blood evidence scattered about the living room area at the home where Keel lived on Cedar Road in Pass Christian, Cox said. Though Keel’s mother owned the home, she did not live there.
Gomez and Keel met at The Whiskey Bar, where Gomez worked as a bartender. Keel was a customer there, and the two maintained an on-again, off-again relationship. At the time of her death, she had a protection order in place against him.
Gomez left her job at the bar shortly after 10 p.m. on May 2 and was spotted with Keel in downtown Bay St. Louis later that night, at around 10:52 p.m.
Gomez’s father, Orlando Gomez, reported that she was missing the following morning, on May 3, because she had not returned home. When he called the police, he told them Keel was a former boyfriend of his daughter and that the pair had reconnected recently.
Harrison County sheriff’s deputies found Gomez’s remains in a wooded area off a dirt path on West Wittman Road in Harrison County the Sunday after she disappeared. Authorities found her on the property where Keel often hung out with the property owner’s permission,
Other evidence collected in the case tied Keel to the killing, including a suspected blood-stained white shirt and shoes found in his truck, along with other human blood inside a front door panel.
Additional testimony about other evidence linking Keel to the crime did not come out Wednesday after he waived his preliminary hearing in the courtroom at the Harrison County jail. Justice Court Judge Nick Patano kept Keel’s bond in place and bound the evidence over to a grand jury for indictment.
The judge kept Keel’s total bond set at $1.5 million on charges of first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence for trying to destroy evidence, including Gomez’s remains. He remains jailed in Harrison County on those bonds, along with an additional $10,000 bond on an unrelated simple assault case in Hancock County.
When Pass Christian police first confronted Keel, he had just driven up to his home in Pass Christian, and authorities found the blood evidence there. Police recovered additional blood evidence inside and outside the house.
Keel claimed he had been a patron at the Pass Christian bar the night Gomez went missing. After Gomez got off, Keel said he picked her up, and the pair went to downtown Bay St. Louis.
From there, he said he drove her to the beach at Brown Avenue in Pass Christian and dropped her off. The investigator, Capt. Ryan Henry said in a criminal affidavit that Keel claims he dropped Gomez off there, that she walked home, and that he drove home.
Keel remains jailed in Harrison County on a total bond of $1.5 million. In addition, he has a $10,000 bond in Hancock County from an outstanding warrant for assault there. Before that, Keel had been in and out of custody for misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence and other crimes.
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 6:00 PM.
