Sign-In
Cart
The Empty Grave: A True Story of Murder, Small Town Secrets, & A Family's Fight for Justice
Hardcover
Biographies GeneralDeath & Dying
ISBN13: 9781966235118
Publisher: Joy Brunner
Published: Aug 20 2025
Pages: 350
Weight: 1.40
Height: 0.94 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The Empty Grave tells the true story of Corey Wood's murder and his family's relentless pursuit of justice in a small Texas county. Angelina County, nestled in the piney woods of deep East Texas between Houston and Dallas, has long been plagued by corruption, greed, and violence-accepted as the norm for as long as anyone can remember. What was uncovered during the search for the truth reveals a level of inhumanity that defies both basic decency and the moral values preached in the heart of the Bible Belt-by people who, on Sunday mornings, sat in church. This story is about exposing the truth and holding those responsible accountable for the harm they caused in pursuit of their own selfish interests.
Joy Marshall Brunner was born on December 4, 1957, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to parents from Huntington, Texas. As a Navy child, she spent her early years traveling across the United States until her father retired and the family settled in Houston during her high school years. She married her high school sweetheart, the father of Corey and Darci, after he returned from Marine Corps boot camp. They lived in Hawaii and California before finally settling in Huntington, her hometown and his sportsman's paradise.
The marriage ended, but Joy stayed in Huntington to raise her children. Life moved forward. Corey graduated in 1995, Darci in 1996, and Jenson was born in 1997. Later, Joy married a man from Switzerland, Jenson's Dad. For a time, their home was full of love, laughter, and peace. Together they ran two businesses, and Joy worked as a cosmetologist and owner of her own salon.
Then came September 1999.
The murder of her son Corey shattered their lives. What followed was a painful journey through grief, silence, and corruption in a small East Texas town where people filled the church pews on Sunday mornings but lived by another code the rest of the week. The Empty Grave is a raw and personal account of loss, strength, and the relentless pursuit of justice in a place where truth was buried, and silence was expected.
1 different editions
Also available
The Empty Grave: A True Story of Murder, Small Town Secrets, & A Family's Fight for Justice
Brunner, Joy
Paperback
Also from
Brunner, Joy
The Empty Grave: A True Story of Murder, Small Town Secrets, & A Family's Fight for Justice
Brunner, Joy
Paperback
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Trump, Mary L.
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Hardcover
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Kinney, David
Wittman, Robert K.
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover