When the police finally dug up the cellar floor of the old Victorian mansion, they didn’t need to open the container to know what they had found. The smell of death hung in the air, thick and unmistakable after months of being sealed beneath the concrete and dirt. They hauled out a large plastic tub, sealed with layers of foam and duct tape, and sent it to the medical examiner’s office. When the lid came off, the body inside was identified as Jamie Carroll, a man who had been reported missing for over six months.
His kneecaps had been crushed with a sledgehammer so he would fit inside the container. Jamie had been a bright, free-spirited young man from the coal country of Eastern Kentucky. He grew up in a violent home, especially after he came out, and his father beat him so badly at one point that he ended up in the hospital. He often ran away and hid inside the local school after hours.
Still, his childhood friends remembered him as confident, sweet, and full of life. He had a knack for talking to anyone, dreamed of becoming a hairdresser, and loved to show up at the grocery store in high heels. He was a free spirit who didn’t care what anyone thought. After graduating from beauty school, Jamie moved to Louisville and opened his own salon called Illusions.
It was his pride and joy. He made sure it was beautiful, with Marilyn Monroe posters on the walls and everything in its place. It was his escape, a center where his family and friends came to visit. He also built a name for himself on the local nightlife scene as a drag performer named Veronica Reed.
His friends described watching him perform as breathtaking. He could do backflips, handstands, and toss his hair without a care in the world. In 2009, Jamie met Joseph Banis, known as Joey. Joey had just gotten out of prison on drug charges and found Jamie online.
Jamie had turned to drugs early on and sold them on the side. They spent a night together, and Joey later described it as a blast. Joey was a drug user with a long criminal history, a bad boy who moved to Louisville from Virginia. In October of 2009, Joey met Jeffrey Munt.
Jeff was a successful IT professional who had previously worked at Northwestern University’s Office of Change Management as Director of Finance, earning around a quarter million dollars a year. He drove a BMW, drank expensive Voss water, and insisted his reports be done in a specific font. He was particular, and a little odd. Friends and coworkers found him strange—he spoke in a British accent at work to earn more respect, and he once bragged about using bolt cutters to steal bikes in college.
In 2008, Jeff purchased the Victorian mansion at 1435 South Fourth Street in Old Louisville, drawn to the history of the area and hoping to restore the house. Around May of 2009, he started working at the University of Louisville’s IT department. A few months later, Jeff found Joey on a dating site and invited him over. Within days, Joey had moved in.
Nobody could quite figure out what drew Jeff to Joey, but they became a couple, often referring to a man as “Jace. ”
In mid-December 2009, Joey and Jeff called Jamie over to the house for what they called “party and play”—a night of drugs and sex. It wasn’t the first time they had this kind of arrangement. After a long night, Jamie left to get more drugs.
What happened next is unclear, but when Jamie came back, he was stabbed multiple times and shot to death. Joey later described the moment. He said Jamie came back with drugs and money, and they started getting high again. Jamie and Jeff were in the bed, naked, with porn playing on the TV.
Before Joey knew what was happening, Jeff stabbed Jamie. Jamie jumped up, blood flying everywhere. There was a lot of yelling. And then, they had a body.
They dragged Jamie to the cellar and started digging. It took them almost three days to dig a hole deep enough. In between, they made a trip to a hardware store and bought a large plastic container, duct tape, and foam. They scrubbed Jamie’s body with mineral spirits to destroy DNA evidence and covered him in lime.
Jamie didn’t fit in the container, so they broke his legs with a sledgehammer and folded him in. They sealed the container with foam and duct tape, pushed it into the hole, covered it with dirt, and went back to their lives. They even brought a contractor into the cellar to discuss pouring concrete over the floor. The contractor later told investigators that both men seemed visibly anxious down there, especially in the area where Jamie was buried.
By the end of February 2010, Jeff had lost his job at the University of Louisville due to his drug use and poor performance. The couple’s relationship was turning sour, and their violent fights were captured on audio recordings. Jeff had also started making counterfeit money. Colleagues noticed burn marks on his hands, likely from bleaching smaller bills and reprinting them as hundreds.
In April 2010, four months after the murder, the couple took the fake bills to Chicago and stayed at the Hyatt Regency. Jeff tried to exchange a fake hundred with a doorman, who immediately noticed the bill felt like a tulip leaf and was wet. The doorman called the police. When investigators searched the hotel room, they found nearly $55,000 in counterfeit bills, a loaded Glock handgun, two other firearms, and two bottles of GHB.
Both men were arrested. Joey took the fall for the hotel room, telling police Jeff knew nothing about the drugs, the guns, or the counterfeit money. His bail was reduced, and Jeff came and got him out. They drove back to Louisville as if nothing had happened.
Almost two months later, on June 17, 2010, at around 9:30 p. m. , Jeff called 911 in a panic. He claimed Joey was kicking down his bedroom door and trying to kill him.
Jeff stayed on the phone with the operator, sounding terrified, until the police arrived and handcuffed Joey. But the moment Joey was in custody, he told the arresting officer something completely different. He said Jeff had killed someone and that there was a body buried in the cellar of the mansion. Joey claimed he had been asleep when Jeff took his wallet, phone, and keys, locked himself in the guest room, and staged the entire 911 call, even hitting the door himself with a hammer to make it look like an attack.
Joey also told investigators that Jeff had worked for the NSA and claimed to have carried out more than 35 secret assassinations. Jeff denied all of that. When detectives asked Jeff about the alleged body in the cellar, he said Joey had threatened to kill him and frame him for murder. But Detective Colin King wasn’t convinced.
He brought Jeff to the station for a formal interview while the rest of the team searched the mansion. They found blood in the bathtub drain and what appeared to be a bullet hole in one of the walls. Joey had also given them a hand-drawn map marking exactly where the body was buried. After hours of digging, investigators pulled out the sealed container.
When detectives reached out to Jamie’s mother, she told them she assumed he had turned himself in on his court case and was already in prison. The autopsy documented three downward stab wounds that damaged a major vein and caused hemorrhage, a gunshot wound to the neck, and crushed kneecaps. Toxicology showed high levels of methamphetamine and alcohol. Jamie’s friends were heartbroken.
His childhood friend Renice broke down in tears, knowing people would focus only on the gay angle and the drugs, and forget about the sweet boy who had friends and family. Both men were arrested and charged with first-degree murder, robbery, and tampering with evidence. Joey sat in jail while Jeff, who had a clean record, was placed under house arrest. Joey’s trial came first in February 2013.
His attorney opened with an unusual admission: Joey was guilty of tampering with evidence. He helped move and bury Jamie’s body. But he was not guilty of the murder. The defense pointed to physical evidence—the Glock used to kill Jamie and the other firearms seized from the Chicago hotel room were all registered in Jeff’s name.
A fellow inmate testified that Jeff had confided in him about the murder, admitting to being aroused by the killing, calling it “the ultimate high. ”
Jeff was the star witness for the prosecution. During his testimony, he blamed everything on Joey. But Jeff got combative on the stand, arguing with Joey’s attorney and trying to control his own cross-examination.
It didn’t make him look good, but he wasn’t the one on trial. After 219 pieces of evidence and more than 18 witnesses, the jury found Joey guilty. Joey waived the sentencing phase and reached an agreement with the Commonwealth, pleading guilty to being a persistent felony offender in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table. On June 12, 2013, Joey Banis was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He embraced his parents one last time before being taken back into custody. Jeff’s trial began in May 2013. His team of four attorneys spent two weeks dismantling the prosecution’s case. They argued that Jeff, a successful professional, had no reason to kill Jamie Carroll over $700.
The defense argued that whatever happened that night, it was all Joey’s doing. Joey agreed to testify against Jeff as part of his plea deal, taking the stand to say that Jeff was the one who stabbed Jamie. The prosecution also played a tape Joey had recorded of himself admitting to the murder while holding Jeff at gunpoint. But during Jeff’s trial, they showed additional parts of the video—parts where Jeff appeared completely calm for someone being held at gunpoint.
He directed the proceedings from off camera and was shown editing the video on his laptop afterward, saying he got exactly what he needed from Joey. The implication was that Jeff had orchestrated the entire video. The trial also experienced controversy when the prosecution sought permission to play a homemade adult video of the former couple, recorded after the murder. The defense objected, arguing that the prosecution only wanted to inflame the straight men on the jury.
The judge allowed it, and the jury had to watch an uncensored 12-minute video of the couple, where both men seemed high on drugs and spoke vulgarly to each other. The prosecution argued the tape showed a man who was anything but afraid. The defense countered by calling in a domestic violence expert to testify that Jeff showed signs of battered spouse syndrome. After a turbulent two weeks, Jeff was found not guilty of murder and facilitation of murder.
He was convicted of tampering with evidence and facilitation of robbery. Juror Stacy Huber from Joey’s original trial heard the verdict and was dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe how a jury could find him not guilty of murder. The autopsy had documented stab wounds to the neck.
Joey had claimed Jeff stabbed Jamie. Jeff had insisted Joey slashed Jamie’s throat, not stabbed. Only one person’s testimony aligned with the autopsy report, but it didn’t matter. On June 6, 2013, Judge Perry sentenced Jeff to three years for facilitation of robbery and five years for tampering with evidence.
He received credit for time served under home incarceration. He was released on parole in 2014. The only person who visited Jeff in jail was a friend named Linda Krauth. Jeff promised he’d tell her the whole story once he was out.
She picked him up, brought him back to Louisville, and took him to dinner at Red Lobster with his family. After that, he pulled away and went no contact with everyone. He never told Linda what happened. Linda felt completely duped, wishing in hindsight she had nothing to do with him.
Jeff moved to Baltimore, where he started working at a movie theater. There have been no public reports on his whereabouts since. It’s possible he is currently living under another name. When asked from prison in 2022 whether he was surprised that Jeff had disappeared, Joey said no.
He said it wouldn’t surprise him that Jeff could stay off the grid and build up a new identity. He said Jeff told him he did that type of stuff. Joey said he was disappointed because he was in prison for something somebody else did. As for the mansion at 1435 South Fourth Street, residents have described it as eerie ever since.
One neighbor claimed to have seen Jamie’s ghost near the property. Jamie’s story reached a wider audience through a book and a 2026 HBO documentary, Murder in Glitter Ball City. Jamie Carroll was buried at Halbert Cemetery in Printer, Kentucky. His friends and family gathered for a memorial at the local funeral home chapel in Martin on June 27, 2010.
Those who loved him remembered him as someone whose energy left a mark on everyone he met.
