MURDERED: Emily Schwartz Ferlazzo

a camping bus, an anniversary trip, and a horrific murder

Episode Transcript

(00:37):
Hello everyone, welcome back to The Victim's Voice.
I'm your host Lorelai. The case we are covering today
happened in October of 2021 and the five day trial finished up
in December of 2024. This case happened right around
the same time as the Gabby Petito case, so this one seemed
to be put on the back burner of most major media outlets.

(01:00):
This case, however, is eerily similar to Gabby's case in many
ways. Emily and Joseph Frolazzo were
van lifers like Gabby Petito andBryan Laundry.
They went on a trip to celebratetheir one year anniversary and
the night that they arrived, Joseph killed.
Emily then lived inside the van with her body for days,

(01:22):
eventually dismembering her. He admitted what he did to
police, but then later on tried to say it was self-defense and
pled not guilty. We are going to dive deep into
the case and look at the beginning of the relationship
all the way to that horrific dayin October of 2021.

(01:45):
At the time her life was tragically taken, Emily Jean
Schwartz for Lazo was 22 years old and looked forward to what
life had in store for her. She was born on July 25th, 1999
in Plymouth, NH. She was a beautiful, caring and
smart little girl who grew up tobe a beautiful, caring and smart
woman who also had a kick ass voice.

(02:08):
This girl could sing. I will post a clip on the
Victim's Voice Facebook page of Emily singing.
People that knew her said she would have had no problem
winning on a show like American Idol or The Voice.
She had an infectious personality that made everyone
who came in contact with her feel important and loved.
She truly cared about people andgave everyone the benefit of the

(02:30):
doubt. She tried to see the best in
everybody. Which is a great quality to
have, but it also leaves room for people with nefarious
intentions to take advantage of someone like Emily So who is so
caring of people, even people with troubled past and wants to
believe that they have changed and look for the best in them.

(02:52):
Emily loved anything that was bright and sparkly.
The things that made Emily happywere shopping at the mall,
turtles, her cat Oreo, and her dog Remy.
She always made time to hang outwith her best friend Lauren,
which typically involved bikinisin the summer at Hampton Beach.
She loved to go on adventures like camping trips to Acadia,

(03:14):
hiking, and rock climbing with her family and friends.
Her favorite thing to do in her spare time was to dress up and
volunteer at the New Hampshire Renaissance Fair.
During her school years, Emily was an avid participant in cross
country and track and field. After graduating from Concord
High School, Emily went on to earn her LNA license or licensed

(03:38):
nursing assistant. She was very proud of this
accomplishment and found much joy in caring for others.
Emily's dream, however, was to become a cosmetologist.
She wanted to help people with their self images, something she
herself struggled with from timeto time.
Even in her darkest moments, Emily's hope and determination

(04:01):
to survive shone brightly. She always persevered and fought
for what was right, and Emily knew no matter where she was in
life, she could always come backhome to her mom, Adrian, who was
her biggest supporter. In 2018, Emily's best friend
Lauren was a piercing apprenticeat a tattoo shop.

(04:23):
When the time came for her to start giving piercings, she was
nervous, so the owner of the shop, 38 year old Joseph
Furlazzo, told her to bring in some of her friends to practice
on. One of those friends was 19 year
old Emily. Emily and Joseph felt a
connection to each other immediately.

(04:43):
He said there was something magnetic between them.
A sort of euphoria, if you will.After Lauren finished Emily's
piercing and she had left, Joseph told Lauren that he felt
like Emily could be his next ex-wife.
How charming. Sounds like a real catch.
But Joseph ended up moving away to Maine, and both he and Emily

(05:05):
went on with their lives until the spring of 2020 when Joseph
moved back to Vermont. Upon returning, he gave Lauren a
call. He wanted to see how she was
doing with tattooing and piercing and also asked if she
wanted to hang out. Laurie met up with Joseph and
brought Emily along with her. Emily asked him to give her a

(05:26):
tattoo, which he happily did. The whole time he was tatting
her, Emily was flirting with him, at least according to what
he says. He took the opportunity to ask
Emily if she wanted to go on a motorcycle ride that evening,
and Emily said yes. After that ride, Emily and
Joseph were inseparable. They saw each other, or at least

(05:48):
talk to each other every day at this.
Point Emily lived in New Hampshire with her parents and
40 year old Joseph, who said he wasn't established at the time,
was couch hopping in Vermont, mostly with his friend Sarah or
his friend Spence. Emily still got to see Joseph

(06:09):
often when she came to Vermont and stayed with friends or got a
hotel room, which Joseph was thrilled with since it meant he
got to sleep in an actual bed during those times.
Their age difference raised a lot of eyebrows between their
friends and family, but to Emilyand Joseph, age was just a
number. They were madly in love and

(06:30):
nothing anyone said could stand in their way of being together.
After seeing each other for a couple of months, Emily and
Joseph decided they wanted to get a place together, so she
decided to apartment hunt and eventually found them an
apartment in Essex, which they moved into at the end of that
summer. Emily was the main breadwinner

(06:51):
out of the two. Shocker, right?
She worked long hours as an LNA at the University of Vermont.
While she was doing that, Josephwas doing his tattooing out of
the spare bedroom of their apartment.
In September, about a month after moving in together, Emily
decided to propose to Joseph. In a cute Emily kind of way.

(07:15):
She gave him a card that said will you marry me?
Check yes or no? Of course Joseph checked yes.
And just like their relationshiphad been moving at a fast pace
from the start, so did their marriage, which happened the
very next month, October 10th, 2020.
They got married on a dock with just Emily's friend Lauren and

(07:37):
Joseph's friend Teresa. Emily and Joseph's relationship
was like a fairy tale at first, a love at first sight, them
against the world kind of thing.But it wasn't long after they
got married that things started taking a turn for the worse in
their relationship. Emily had gotten a job at a
hospital as an LNA, but Joseph continued to carry on like he

(08:00):
did before they had met and moved in together.
He was no longer sleeping on friends couches, but he still
didn't work other than the tattoos that he did in the spare
room of their apartment where hesaid that Emily demanded to have
a camera to watch what he was doing.
But the main issue in their marriage.
Was that Joseph claimed that when they met he had been

(08:23):
polyamorous. He claimed Emily knew this but
had asked him to be monogamous. He said that he compromised with
her and that he would be monogamous with a polyamorous
clause. This meant, according to Joseph,
he would be monogamous until that ran its course and then
they would go on to a polyamorous relationship.

(08:47):
He believed that monogamy would only last so long and then they
would both find another person that they were interested in.
Some people get polygamy and polyamorous confused with each
other. The main difference between them
is marriage. Polygamy is a person being
married to more than one person,while polyamorous is having

(09:08):
multiple romantic sexual partners.
Emily was totally against the idea of having to share Joseph
with anyone else, nor was she interested in being involved
with anyone else herself. Joseph said he had told Emily
that he couldn't promise that hecould stay monogamous forever.

(09:29):
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being polyamorous as
long as the couple is in agreement with it and all of its
conditions. It's not OK when a 38 year old
man tries to make a 19 year old girl be involved in something
that she doesn't want to be involved in.
If Joseph was already in a polyamorous relationships before
he got together with Emily and that's what he wanted to

(09:51):
continue to be in, then that should have been one of the
first things that he and Emily talked about when getting to
know each other. Although they didn't take much
time to get to know each other. They started dating in August
and were married by October, butthere was still two months where
he could have found time to talkabout it.
I believe he knew she wouldn't want any part in it and he was

(10:13):
scared that if he mentioned it he would lose her.
So he waited until after they were married.
So Joseph told Emily he would stay monogamous for a while.
He still stayed in contact with people that he was in past
relationships with and even former quote UN quote fuck
buddies. All of which he tried to hide

(10:33):
from Emily. Which proves he knew what he was
doing wasn't acceptable since hewas not just in a relationship
but now married. During his trial, Joseph tried
to turn everything around on Emily, saying that she became
insecure and controlling. That she would question him
about who he was talking to and where he would go.

(10:54):
She would also go through his phone on a daily basis to check
and see who he had been talking to or interacting with.
Maybe he shouldn't have secretlybeen talking to past hookups and
Emily wouldn't have felt quite so insecure then.
This man had the audacity to claim that at first it was just
verbal, but that eventually Emily became physically abusive

(11:18):
to him. He said she would scream and
accuse him of things. Then she would punch him, slap
him, and throw objects at him. She didn't want him to be
friends with any of the women hehad been friends with for years.
Joseph said that he had been in abusive relationships before
where he had been the one getting abused and had learned
to just tolerate the abuse as tonot escalate the situation.

(11:42):
He stated that most of the womenin his life in the past had been
aggressive or abusive to him, ifyou will.
Maybe Joseph, it's the fact thatyou do things behind their
backs, like talk to previous fuck buddies, then act like
they're crazy when they confrontyou with it.
Maybe you gaslight them and act like they're imagining
everything until they actually think that they are the crazy 1.

(12:08):
When it came to who was abusing who, Emily's mom Adrian told a
completely different story. She had seen Joseph get physical
with Emily on more than one occasion.
Joseph also said during the trial that he suggested that
they go to a therapist, which they did.
He actually said that the therapist recommended that they

(12:29):
have pillow fights to keep them from being physical with each
other. I'm sorry, what therapist would
recommend that a couple hit eachother when there was supposedly
domestic violence already happening?
This guy is off his rocker. Then this fucking scum of the
earth had the audacity to say that he had thought about

(12:52):
divorcing Emily several times because she wasn't financially
responsible. This 41 year old man who was a
freelance tattoo artist who was couch surfing until he met
Emily, was saying that Emily, who was 22 years old and a
nursing assistant who worked full time and got them an

(13:13):
apartment, should have been morefinancially responsible.
This guy is unbelievable. The truth was, Joseph was a
piece of shit who loved to manipulate people and play the
victim, and it wasn't long before Emily got sick of his
bullshit. She moved back to New Hampshire
and stayed with her parents in April of 2021.

(13:36):
But a few months later, in September, Joseph came crawling
back, asking Emily to forgive him and to give him another
chance. So she did.
Emily wanted to see the good in everyone and give everyone the
benefit of the doubt, especiallyher husband, but this would
prove to be the deadliest choiceshe would ever make.

(13:57):
While staying on Emily's parentsproperty, Joseph and Emily
bought a small school bus that they were fixing up to live and
travel in. They named the bus Roman Rosie.
Joseph and Emily's first weddinganniversary was on October 10th
of 2021. They made plans for the weekend
of the 15th to not only celebrate their anniversary, but

(14:19):
to also visit with Joseph's sister Nikki, whom Emily had yet
to meet. A family reunion as Joseph
called it. Emily was excited to get away,
enjoy the autumn air and scenery, and to finally get to
meet Nikki. So on Friday the 15th, Joseph,
Emily and their dog Remington left in the renovated camper bus

(14:39):
and headed to Bolton Valley, Vt,a rural area near the Canadian
border. When Joseph and Emily arrived at
Bolton Valley, they parked Rosiein the parking lot of the Bear
Run condos, where Nikki and her boyfriend had rented an Airbnb.
They met out in the parking lot and according to witnesses,
Emily seemed happy and excited. At 8:13 PM, Emily sent her last

(15:03):
message through Facebook Messenger to her father to let
him know that they had arrived safely.
No one would ever see or hear from Emily again.
At 9:39 PM, Joseph sent his sister a message that said
quote, hey, we're going to take it the night to rest.
You still drink coffee. We'll see you tomorrow morning

(15:24):
and quote. They had planned to hang out in
the Airbnb with Nikki and her boyfriend to watch Netflix and
catch up a little, but for some reason Joseph and Emily decided
to stay in the bus. No one would see Emily the rest
of the weekend. For the next couple of days,
Joseph went around acting like nothing was wrong, even though
Emily was not with him. The next morning on Saturday,

(15:48):
October 16th, Joseph woke up, made some French pressed coffee
and texted his sister telling her that he couldn't sleep and
asked her if she wanted some coffee.
She said yes, so he brought Nikki and her boyfriend some
freshly brewed coffee to the Airbnb.
They asked Joseph where Emily was and he told them that she
decided to sleep in. Then he and Nikki went to have

(16:11):
breakfast at a restaurant and nearby Waterbury, Vermont, which
was only a 6 minute drive from Bolton Valley.
After returning to the Airbnb after breakfast, Joseph returned
to the camper van and drove to his friend Sarah's house in St.
Albans, Vt, which is north of Bolton Valley.

(16:31):
Sarah also noticed that Emily was not with Joseph and so she
asked him where she was, to which he replied that they had
gotten into an argument and so she had gone to visit some
friends. Joseph left the van at Sarah's
at this point and rode his motorcycle that he had stored in
Sarah's garage back to the Airbnb.

(16:52):
The rest of the day went on as normal.
When Joseph got back he gave hissister a tattoo.
Then that evening the three of them, Joseph, Nikki and her
boyfriend went out to dinner andonce again they asked where
Emily was because at this point they knew that she wasn't still
sleeping. So Joseph told them the same
story he had told Sarah, that they had gotten into an argument

(17:15):
that morning after he got back from breakfast and Emily had
left to go visit some friends. That night Joseph went back to
Sarah's house and slept all night in the bus.
The next day, Sunday, October 17th, Joseph went to brunch with
Nikki and her boyfriend. Once again, Emily was nowhere to

(17:35):
be seen. He told them that he hadn't seen
her since she left after their argument That evening, he went
back to Sarah's for a bonfire. One of Sarah's friends who was
there that night was a police officer.
This police officer was later questioned and she said that
everything seemed normal at the bonfire.
She said there was nothing off about Joseph's behavior and

(17:58):
there was no reason to suspect anything nefarious had taken
place. Everyone, including Joseph,
seemed to be in a good mood and having fun.
The police officer later stated that she didn't even know that
Joseph had a wife. Once again, Joseph slept in the
bus that night. The couple was supposed to drive

(18:20):
Roman Rosie back to Emily's parents home in New Hampshire on
Monday, October 18th. But instead of doing this,
Joseph grabbed his motorcycle and rode 3 hours back to New
Hampshire in the middle of October.
Most people wouldn't ride their motorcycle around the block in
October in Vermont in New Hampshire because of the

(18:40):
freezing cold temperatures, but Joseph rode for three hours.
When Joseph arrived at Emily's parents house at around 6:00 PM
on Monday evening, they were shocked to see Joseph by himself
on his motorcycle without their daughter or the bus insight.
Of course, their first question to Joseph was, where's Emily?

(19:04):
He told them the same story he had told Sarah and Nikki, that
they had gotten into an argument, but instead of Emily
was going to visit friends. He told them that Emily had
gotten off the bus somewhere along Route 2 and started
walking. He said he drove away, then
stopped at a gas station, turnedaround and went back to the

(19:24):
place where she had gotten off of the bus.
But she was gone. Emily's mom asked Joseph two
different times where the bus was.
The first time he told her it was in New Haven, Vermont,
getting worked on. The second time she asked, he
said it was at his friend's garage.

(19:45):
But Joseph didn't have time for all this chit chat about Emily
at the moment. He had more important things to
do, like take a shower, change his clothes and eat the dinner
that Emily's stepdad had cooked earlier that.
Evening. While Joseph was cleaning up and
getting his tummy full, Emily's family called the New Hampshire
Police and the Vermont State Police to report Emily missing.

(20:10):
Trooper Cody from VSP talked to Joseph on the phone while he was
still at Emily's parents house, and he told yet another story.
Joseph first said that Emily hadbeen with him and then said
something about getting an Uber.He said he hadn't had contact
with her since Saturday afternoon at around 12:30 when

(20:31):
she had asked him to drop her off in a parking lot.
He said she was wearing white sneakers, light colored blue
jeans and a long sleeve black shirt.
The trooper asked how come he just left.
Joseph said he went back but couldn't find her anywhere, so
he assumed an Uber had picked her up already.
The trooper had to ask Joseph twice if Emily had her cell

(20:54):
phone with her. The first time he ignored the
question but then said yes and that he didn't have it.
Joseph also told the trooper that the van was at the shop
getting an inspection. When the trooper asked what shop
it was at, Joseph stuttered around and said he didn't know
the name of it, but then gave him a location of a random shop.

(21:17):
Trooper Cody also asked him where he had gotten his
motorcycle from, to which Josephreplied that he had been
storming it at his friend Sarah's house.
Trooper Cody asked for the address of Sarah and Joseph gave
it to him. He asked if Emily had any family
near Bolton Valley and Joseph said no and told him that they

(21:37):
had been visiting his sister. Trooper Cody told Joseph if he
heard anything from Emily to lethim know and that he would be
getting back with him again later on that day.
Shortly after talking to TrooperCody, Joseph left Emily's
parents home. He told them that he had work to

(21:57):
do back in Vermont. The work that he had to do was
to finish some tattoos. Yes, you heard that right.
Instead of worrying about his missing wife, Joseph was worried
about finishing up some tattoos.I mean, priorities, right?
But Emily's parents felt something was not right with
Joseph and that he might have known more than what he was

(22:19):
letting on about Emily's disappearance.
So before Joseph left their house, Emily's dad had the
brilliant idea to convince him to turn on location sharing on
his phone so that they could share each other's location.
And Joseph, he was dumb enough to agree to do it.
Now while looking for Emily, they can also keep an eye on

(22:41):
Joseph's movements. Joseph didn't take his
motorcycle to go finish his workin Vermont this time.
He took his red Jeep Wrangler that had been sitting at Emily's
parents house while Joseph was on his way back to Vermont.
He had no idea that Trooper Codywas sending another trooper to

(23:02):
drive by Sarah's house. Cody had a feeling that Joseph
had lied about the bus being in the shop for an inspection, and
his feeling was right. There was the bus sitting in
Sarah's driveway. Joseph, in the meantime, arrived
at his friend Spence's house in Vermont around 11:15 PM that

(23:22):
night. He asked Spence to come with him
to pick up the bus from Sarah's house and move it to Spence's.
Joseph told him that it needed to be moved that night and could
not wait until the morning. Spence thought this was odd, but
Joseph was his friend and he wanted to help him out.
So. Both men climbed in Spence's
Honda Civic and headed to Saint Albans to get the bus.

(23:46):
Spence didn't know Sarah, so Joseph was giving him directions
to get to her house. Spence later said that Joseph
didn't seem to be himself on thedrive to get the bus.
He said he seemed kind of distant and lost in his own
thoughts to ask Joseph if there was something wrong and why he
was being so quiet, but all he would say was that he wanted to

(24:08):
get to the bus. So they sat in the car in an
awkward silence, finally reaching St.
Albans around midnight. As they drove down Sarah's
street, they saw flashing lightsand three or four squad cars
around Sarah's house. There were also several officers
standing near Joseph and Emily'sbus.

(24:28):
Alarm bells went off in Spence'shead, so he looked over at
Joseph and asked him what the hell was going on.
Joseph's response was to tell Spence to drive past Sarah's
house to the end of the dead endroad and turn around and go past
the house again. Spence asked him again what was
going on and Joseph just sat there quietly, looking straight

(24:51):
ahead. But Spence wasn't giving up so
easily. He asked Joseph one more time
what was going on and why were there police officers around his
and Emily's bus. Joseph's response was that there
was a lot going on and that he wished he could see his
grandmother. Joseph then told him that Emily

(25:12):
was back at the van and not formed in the pit of Spence's
stomach when he asked the next question.
Was Emily alive? Joseph looked at him with a
blank look on his face and said no.
Spence then asked his friend if he had hurt Emily, to which
Joseph replied yes. Spence wanted no part of

(25:37):
whatever Joseph had done, but atthe same time was scared that
Joseph might do something to himif he didn't do as he wanted.
He was acting fidgety already and kept saying that he didn't
want to go to prison. Spence knew he had to get Joseph
out of his car. He didn't want to be involved in
this shit. So he drove a little further,
then stopped and knew he had to take the chance.

(26:00):
He told him to get out of his vehicle.
Joseph got out of Spence's car without saying a word and
started walking down Route 36 immediately.
Spence called 911 and reported everything Joseph had said,
including the part about Emily being deceased in the bus.
Dispatch relayed this information to the officers that

(26:22):
were on the scene at Sarah's house.
Because of this new info, officers were allowed to enter
the van to do a protective sweepin case Emily was injured or
needed help. As the officers entered the bus,
they noticed that although it did look lived in, there wasn't
any sign of a struggle or that afight had taken place.

(26:44):
There wasn't anything broken or knocked over.
It was a little cluttered, but that was it.
The officers let out a sigh of relief, thinking that whoever
had made that call to 911 had been wrong, that Emily wasn't
inside the camper deceased. However, it was then that one of
the officers went and opened thebathroom door.

(27:08):
On the floor of the shower were.Several black trash bags stacked
on top of each other. The officers couldn't
immediately see what was inside as they had all been shut
tightly with knots. One of the officers lifted the
bag on top to make sure Emily wasn't underneath the bags.
He later stated that the bag seemed very light.

(27:28):
He opened the bag and found pillows and sheets.
They opened one of the other bags and the smell was so
overpowering that the officer almost vomited inside the bag.
He made a gruesome discovery. There were body parts.
Someone had been dismembered. In fact, 5 of the 8 bags

(27:49):
contained body parts. They wouldn't know for sure who
it was until the medical examiner did an autopsy, but
with everything they already knew, they could only assume it
was Emily. The vehicle was then towed to

(28:11):
the Saint Albans State Police barracks as evidence.
A detective from the Major Crimes Unit, Sergeant Boris,
have been trying to locate Emily, initially through her
Facebook account and her and Joseph's cell phone data.
Emily's phone had last pinged near the place that she and
Joseph had been staying in Bolton Valley, and her Facebook

(28:31):
had last updated at 10:14 PM on Friday, October 15th.
Forest also responded to the Saint Albans Barracks that night
since there was a chance that Emily had been murdered and this
would now go from being a missing person to being a
homicide. While all of this was going on,
other members of the Vermont State Police were looking for

(28:52):
Joseph. They were searching on and
around Hwy. 34, the area where Spence had kicked Joseph out of
the car. On the afternoon of Tuesday,
October 19th, around 14 hours after the 911 call had taken
place, Detective Sergeant Nolan located him.
Nolan had stopped at a Maples Fields gas station to get lunch

(29:16):
and it just so happened that Joseph was also there buying
himself a drink. He must have been parched after
his long 14 hour walk. At 2:00 PM that day.
He was brought to the Saint Albans State Police barracks and
put into an interview room wherehe sat and waited for Detective
Boris to arrive. When Boris arrived, he read

(29:38):
Joseph his Miranda rights and asked him if he wanted to talk.
Joseph said yes, but that he washungry and cold.
So the baby boy was given a doughnut and a blankie and
that's when he spilled his guts.He said he was sure that they
had already talked to his friendSpence, so there was no use
beating around the Bush. That's when he immediately,

(30:00):
within one minute, started telling Boris his version of
what had happened. And this is only Joseph's
version. He said that when they arrived
that Friday in Bolton Valley, Emily had become berserk and
psychotic, so he had shot her twice in the head.

(30:20):
According to Joseph, tensions were running high as soon as
they settled into the bus that Friday evening.
He said that both he and Emily were drinking vodka and Red Bull
and that she had become hostile for no reason.
She was lying on the couch in the bus and started complaining
that the candles that Joseph hadlit were too bright.
Emily started saying. Hurtful.

(30:41):
Things to Joseph and talking about a dilemma that she had.
What this dilemma was, no one knows, but it sounds like a
bunch of bullshit to me. She then showed Joseph a long
note that she had typed out on the notes app on her phone.
Joseph began to read it, but then Emily deleted it before he
could finish, saying that she just didn't want to talk about

(31:04):
it right then. Joseph said he was confused and
felt uneasy about this. He said that he told Emily that
if she didn't want to be there, then don't, that she was free to
leave if she was that unhappy. But was she though?
Joseph said that's when Emily started throwing an absolute fit

(31:25):
and was cursing and yelling at him.
Of course, Joseph didn't yell orcurse back.
He stated that he was on vacation and was going to enjoy
it whether Emily did or not. So he turned on music, got
himself another drink, and danced away the evening with
Remy, their dog. But this didn't help anything

(31:46):
when it came to Emily. I'm sorry but this makes no
sense at all to me. Emily becomes mean and
aggressive and completely pissedoff over some candles and some
dilemma she is supposedly havingthat she mentions right as their
vacation is starting but then doesn't want to say what it is.
All of this after everyone said she was so happy and excited to

(32:08):
be there. But once again, sweet little
Joseph doesn't argue back, but instead turns on some music and
starts dancing with the dog. I don't believe any of this crap
for a SEC. Joseph said.
After this, things escalated even more and as he was blowing
out the candles, which should have made Emily happy if she
didn't want them went in the 1stplace, she suddenly grabbed one

(32:32):
of them and started hitting Joseph in the neck, arm and
maybe his chest, though he can'tremember exactly.
And if this is true, I don't blame Emily at all.
She is pissed off. Most likely it's something
Joseph did or said and he wants to act like her feelings don't
matter. Instead of acknowledging
whatever had happened, he wantedto dance around the camper like
a dumbass. Joseph then says that he managed

(32:56):
to wrestle the candle away from Emily and put it back on the
counter. However, the violence didn't.
Stop. Emily then started hitting and
kicking him. During this she even kicked
Remy. He said that he eventually was
able to restrain Emily by holding her arms down and told
her we're not your punching bag.Joseph said at this point he

(33:19):
wanted to put some space betweenhimself and Emily, so he took
Remy out for a walk. But when he came back things
were still the same and the fighting continued where it had
left off. Emily told Joseph to fuck off
and then elbowed him in his genitals.
Now remember, this is all according to Joseph.

(33:40):
Joseph said that he didn't say anything at all when Emily told
him to fuck off, but when she elbowed him in the genitals, he
did say something. Now most people would yell or
cuss when they get hit in their private parts, but not Joseph.
His response was to yell no morehitting while hitting her with a

(34:00):
throw pillow. I guess that therapy really paid
off. Eventually things calmed down,
or so it seemed. They stopped fighting and Emily
lay down in the bed and started scrolling through her phone.
But now Joe Cool was sitting on the couch and he was stewing.
After about 10 minutes went by, he got up, went to the closet

(34:24):
and grabbed his Glock, and then he jumped on top of Emily.
He put a throw pillow over her head and shot her twice.
Then Joseph proceeds to yell andcurse at Emily's lifeless body
saying are you fucking kidding me?
And why in the hell would you dothat?
Why would she do what she is theone that got shot twice in the

(34:48):
head while lying in bed scrolling through her phone.
He then shut off her phone. When the detectives asked why,
he said that she wasn't going toneed it anymore.
Joseph then picked up Emily and put a trash bag over her head so
blood wouldn't get everywhere. He then put her lifeless body in

(35:08):
the shower. After all of that, Joseph went
on with his life as normal the rest of the weekend.
He put new linens on the bed after flipping the mattress
over. He had coffee and breakfast with
Nikki, went out to eat for dinner on Saturday, went to a
bonfire that night, and in between all of these normal
activities, he was stabbing Emily's dead body and

(35:31):
dismembering her over a four dayperiod while he still slept on
the bus. Even with this confession to the
police, Joseph pleaded not guilty when asked a jury to
exonerate him. The audacity is flying high with
this guy. Even though he admitted to
killing Emily while she was lying in bed, he now wants to

(35:55):
waste taxpayers money on top of putting Emily's family through a
trial where they're going to seeand hear about all of the
gruesome things that he did to their daughter.
His trial would begin December 6th of 2024 and on December
11th, the 4th day of the trial, Joseph testified in his own
defense. If you would like to watch this

(36:16):
shit show, Grizzly True Crime covered the trial and has a
playlist for each day. Let's talk about Joseph's
testimony at the trial. His story changed once again.
He was now claiming that he shotEmily in self-defense.
He told the jury the same story of how the fight had started.

(36:37):
That he had told the police, thestory about the candles and her
hitting him with one, how he told her no hitting as he hit
her with a pillow, and then he had started dancing with the
dog. You know all that bullshit.
However, he changed the part about Emily lying down in the
bed, playing on her phone and minding her own business when he

(36:58):
jumped on her and shot her for no reason.
Now he says that Emily looked athim and said that's it, you're
dead. As she reached her hand under
her pillow and pulled out of hergun.
She then started pushing her body up and coming toward him.
Joseph stood there in fear, saying no, no, no, but Emily

(37:20):
just kept coming toward him. Then suddenly Joseph grabbed his
gun. Meanwhile, Emily is coming
closer and closer. Mind you, they are in a little
bus. She must have been moving really
slow if it takes her this long to reach him.
This is when Joseph holds up hisgun and shoots Emily twice in

(37:42):
the head. He said he was very afraid and
he knew that Emily was going to shoot him if he didn't shoot.
Her. He said he was scared for his
life. During the trial, Joseph was
asked why he lied to people all weekend about where Emily was.
He stuttered around for a minuteand then the answer he gave was
strange. He said that his grandmother

(38:04):
wanted to give up her home and move into assisted living.
He said that he and Emily were going to go to Pennsylvania to
make that process happen. He said if he had told people
the truth, then the police wouldhave been called and he would
have been detained. Therefore, he wouldn't be able
to help his grandmother get her life together.
This was what he was worried about when he had just taken his

(38:27):
wife's life. I mean, it's good he wanted to
help his grandma, but I'm sure she could find someone else to
help her besides her murderous grandson.
He testified that he wanted to continue with the plans that he
had, even though what happened made it impossible.
He can't even say it. He says what happened like it
wasn't a big deal, like a littlemishap during his day.

(38:50):
What happened was you murdered your wife, stayed with her body
for four days, and during that four days you not only stabbed
her deceased body 18 times, but you also dismembered her.
He was then asked a great question that we all were
wondering. Why didn't he just go back to

(39:11):
Pennsylvania to get his grandma situated instead of hanging
around all weekend? He once again stuttered around
as if he was thinking of an answer.
He then said he took the opportunity to hang out with his
sister that he hadn't seen in years.
Remember the whole time he was hanging out with the Sissy, his
wife was dead in the bus and eventually dismembered by this

(39:32):
gem of a husband? When Joseph was asked if he
remembered stabbing Emily, he said no.
When asked if he remembered dismembering her body, he said
he had one memory and that was cutting into her leg with a
knife, but he said he had to stop because it made him sick,
nauseous and vomiting. When asked if he just got sick

(39:55):
once, he said no, that he drank and got sick multiple times, but
that he didn't remember any other part of that incident.
That incident. That incident was that you shot
your wife twice in the head, stabbed her 18 times postmortem,
and then dismembered her. Is the jury supposed to find him
not guilty because he doesn't remember the quote UN quote

(40:17):
incident? But then I guess he got over his
nausea and vomiting because he finished dismembering her and
then put her body parts into eight different trash bags.
But of course, he doesn't remember any of that.
The defense's argument was that he killed Emily in self-defense

(40:38):
after a fight over candles that caused Emily to go psycho, and
that he didn't tell police the whole story when he was
interviewed by them because he didn't remember much of the rest
of the weekend, including when he stabbed and dismembered
Emily. According to his attorney, he
was tired and hadn't ate for days at the time of the
interview, even though we know he went out to breakfast and

(41:00):
dinner with his sister over thatweekend.
And when he drove to Emily's parents house to get his Jeep,
he stopped and made a big bowl of spaghetti that Emily's dad
had made. So he did eat.
The prosecution's account of events sounds much more
believable that Joseph and Emilygot into a fight.

(41:23):
But it wasn't about candles, it was because Emily found out that
he had brought her to the condoswhere his ex-wife lived, took
her there for their first anniversary.
They then started arguing about the fact that Joseph didn't want
to be monogamous, and that's when Emily told him that she was
done, that she didn't want to bewith him anymore.

(41:45):
Then she rolled over and went tosleep, leaving Joseph to Stew in
his anger. Then he went to the closet,
grabbed his gun, put a pillow over Emily's face and shot her
twice. After that, he stabbed her with
three different knives, once in the heart, 8 times in the
abdomen, and nine times in her back.

(42:07):
He then put her in the shower and stayed with her body all
weekend until Sunday when he dismembered her.
He used a handsaw to remove Emily's head, arms, and legs.
He put her body parts in eight different trash bags and put
them in the shower where they were later found by law
enforcement. It only took the jury 5 hours to

(42:29):
find that Joseph was guilty. They rejected the second degree
murder and manslaughter charges and found him guilty of first
degree murder. Many people have wondered if
Emily was for Lazo's only victim.
Well, it looks like the answer is no.
After the story came out about Emily, another girl came forward

(42:53):
25 year old Brooke Friend. According to the Burlington Free
Press, Joseph Forlazzo and Brooke friend had gone on a few
dates in 2018. On one of these dates, Joseph
drug sexually assaulted and threatened to kill Brooke.
She reported the incident to lawenforcement, but the prosecution

(43:15):
declined to file a. Case because of a lack of
evidence. She also tried to get a
restraining order against Joseph, which would have also
prevented him from being able tobuy a gun, but the judge denied
it. The gun he used to kill Emily
was bought after this incident. Had the judge not denied the
restraining order, he wouldn't have had that gun the night he

(43:38):
killed Emily. It's Joseph's stepmother, Young.
He Lim for Lazo, was also murdered in October of 2009 and
it has never been solved. Joseph Forlazzo's father, Joseph
Forlazzo Senior, told police he had returned to his home from
grocery shopping after midnight on the night of the murder and

(44:00):
discovered the body of his wife in their apartment.
She had been stabbed multiple times and we know Joseph Junior
likes to stab. It seemed that Joseph Belazzo
Senior was into some shady things.
He owned a massage parlor in Reading, PA that had been raided

(44:21):
by the police in May of 2009. Police arrested multiple women
on charges of prostitution, including a female relative, a
young He Limbs, who reportedly worked as the massage parlors
manager. Law enforcement are unsure if
Young He's murder is related to this business.

(44:42):
Burlazzo Senior had been questioned, but the case went
cold in the wake of Emily's murder.
Law enforcement is now looking in to see if Burlazzo Junior
could be involved in his stepmother's murder.
On April 25th, 2025, Joseph Burlazzo was sentenced for

(45:03):
Emily's murder. Even though the jury had found
him guilty of first degree murder, his defense attorneys
asked the judge to only give him15 years, which is what he would
have gotten if the jury had onlycharged him with the lesser
included charge of manslaughter.They basically said forget about
what the jury said. They also said that Joseph could

(45:25):
be rehabilitated and if he was ever given the chance to live in
the free world again, he could reinstate his tattoo business.
Well, he just wants to get out of jail and pretend Emily never
existed and go back to his own old life.
They believe that because he hadno previous charges or a

(45:46):
previous record that the court should be lenient on him.
As if saying what he did to Emily didn't matter as long as
he had no prior convictions, he shot her twice, stabbed her body
18 times, including through the heart, then dismembered her.
Isn't that enough? The prosecution, on the other

(46:08):
hand, asked the judge to give him the maximum, which is 50
years to life because of the fact that he wasn't remorseful
and still was not taking responsibility for his actions.
In fact, while incarcerated waiting to be sentenced, Joseph
received a disciplinary action for hitting on a female
correction officer. Apparently, he propositioned

(46:31):
her. He called her Pumpkin and asked
her for her phone number. This guy thinks he's some kind
of ladies man. The audacity is real.
Also, this man had the audacity after murdering their daughter
to try to keep Emily's mom and dad from getting Remington the
dog that he had shared with Emily.

(46:52):
He had his friends, the Langs hold on to Remington stating
that he had the dog for two months before he and Emily got
married. After going through a bunch of
red tape and going to court, herparents finally were able to get
Remington back, but by then her name had been changed.

(47:13):
It doesn't surprise me that Joseph would pull that kind of
shit, but shame on the Langs forputting Emily's parents through
that when they were grieving theloss of their daughter.
Wilmington was Emily's baby and they wanted the dog to help them
feel close to their daughter. How can people be so spiteful
and vindictive? The prosecution also tells the
court they are seeking a maximumbecause of the fact that he

(47:36):
tried to have his confession thrown out and put Emily's
family through a painful trial. He tried to say that the police
treated him poorly during his interview, so much so that he
gave a false confession. Obviously, from seeing the
interrogation, it was evident that Joseph was treated with the
utmost respect. The loser was given a doughnut

(47:58):
in a blankie, for fuck's sake. The prosecution stated that
Joseph even tried to say that itwasn't his signature on the
Miranda waiver. Also, the prosecution stated to
the court that they found what Joseph did on the witness stand
to be appalling and an aggravating factor in the case

(48:19):
for making the comment that he wanted to make Emily his next.
Ex-wife to using the term chopping it up when talking
about hanging out with his friends.
Yes, he did that. If you haven't seen his
testimony, you have to watch it.I will share the link on my
Facebook page. When he testified, he continued

(48:40):
to lie and try to paint Emily ina bad light.
He tried to say that Emily was abusive even though it wasn't
cooperated by any evidence. He tried to say that Emily
agreed to a polyamorous relationship as a way to explain
cheating on Emily. He knew that Emily did not ever
agree to be in a polyamorous relationship.

(49:01):
The prosecution told the court that Joseph was a predator that
used his tattooing business to find young girls who are
troubled. He would make them feel safe
until they weren't. He met Emily when she was 20 and
he was almost 40. She was working through sexual
assault trauma at the time. 4 different girls who had met

(49:21):
Joseph threw tattooing when theywere teenagers and he was in his
30s. They wrote character.
Statements in his defense. He had relationships with each
of them outside of tattooing them.
The prosecution tells the court that Joseph had the audacity to
disagree with Emily's mom's victim impact statement and

(49:43):
actually tried to prevent her from reading it.
The judge told the court that hedidn't believe that Joseph could
be rehabilitated and that he wasa danger to society.
He didn't believe that Joseph had been truthful or credible.
During his testimony, he said that Joseph had taken no
accountability for his actions and that it wouldn't be giving

(50:06):
Emily the justice that she deserves to only sentence him to
15 years. The judge reminds the defense
that Emily is the only victim inthis case after very emotional
victim impact statements from Emily's mom and dad and a video
of Emily beautifully singing thesong Hallelujah, which I will

(50:27):
post on my page. Joseph's lawyer read the
character statements written on his behalf that no one cared
about. She then started showing on the
projector different photos of newly tattooed women's body
parts. When the judge asked what he was
looking at, Joseph's attorney said that he wanted the court to

(50:50):
see some of Joseph's artwork. Seriously, You murder your wife
and you want to show off your tattooing skills to the court?
Or was he jealous that they showed the video of Emily
singing and he felt like he wanted to the court to see his
talents? This guy and his attorney or

(51:10):
something else? After they get done with show
and tell the judge hands down his sentence.
Joseph is sentenced. To 42 years to life, which means
he won't be eligible for parole until he is about 86 years old
and still then there is no guarantee he will even get out

(51:31):
then. It's very unusual for a parole
board to grant parole the first time there is a hearing, and
because of the nature of his crime and the fact that he
doesn't take accountability, it is very likely they will never
grant him parole. But I mean, even if they did, he
will be in his late 80s anyway. So I think it's safe to say that

(51:51):
he will never get out and that Emily finally got justice.
I hope that her parents can now find some kind of peace.
For photos from this case, checkout the victim's voice on
Facebook and Instagram and come back next week for a new case.
Until then, stay safe and peace out.