Detectives returned to a Lesage home after witnesses offered information that helped shift the early investigation toward Joshua Deel.
LESAGE, W.Va. — Minutes before dawn on July 21, Joshua Deel called 911 and reported that he and his family had been attacked, according to a criminal complaint. Hours later, after detectives returned to the home, interviewed witnesses and examined the scene, authorities accused him of killing the three relatives found inside.
The change from reported victim to murder defendant is central to the case now pending against Deel, 39. Cabell County authorities charged him with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his former wife, Shawn Deel, and her children, Abigale Sloan, 18, and Dekota Sloan, 16. He later waived a preliminary hearing and remained in the Western Regional Jail without bond, sending the case toward consideration by a Cabell County grand jury. The charges remain allegations, and no conviction in the July 21 killings has been reported.
Dispatchers received Deel’s call shortly after 4:55 a.m., the complaint states. Deputies were sent to a residence in the 200 block of Hickory Grove Road, near Hardesty Lane and 9 Mile Road. Inside, they found Deel face down in the living room near the front entrance, covered in blood, according to the complaint. Deputies then cleared the residence and found a young man and an adult woman toward the back of the home and a young woman in a bedroom. All three had suffered multiple stab wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities later identified them as Shawn, Abigale and Dekota.
The first public description from Sheriff Doug Adams reflected the uncertainty of those opening moments. He said four people had been involved in a stabbing, three were dead and a fourth had been taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center in stable condition. Deel was transported by Cabell County EMS while accompanied by law enforcement. Investigators described his injuries as superficial. Adams said the event appeared isolated to the residence and that officials did not believe there was a threat to the wider community. At that early stage, authorities had not announced an arrest.
What happened next separated the initial emergency response from the homicide investigation that followed. At about 5:30 a.m., detectives were told by dispatchers to return to the Hickory Grove Road address, according to the complaint. Once back at the residence, they spoke with people who said they had been outside getting ready for work around the time of the 911 call. Those witnesses reported hearing Deel yelling profanities at a woman. They said they could also hear the woman, but that the sounds from her gradually diminished and eventually stopped, according to the complaint.
Investigators then began comparing those witness accounts with what Deel told authorities. The complaint says he gave multiple statements that detectives considered inconsistent. At one point, he claimed an unknown masked person had fled through the front door after the family was attacked. Investigators have not publicly released a complete transcript of Deel’s statements, and the complaint represents the prosecution’s version of the evidence at the charging stage. What authorities did make clear was that they ultimately rejected the account of an unidentified intruder and focused the investigation on Deel.
Detectives also learned about a confrontation inside the home the night before the killings. According to the complaint, Deel acknowledged putting his phone beneath a bedroom door and attempting to take photographs. One of the victims came out and confronted him. The complaint records Deel as saying, “It’s not going to happen again.” Investigators alleged that the three killings followed that dispute. Authorities have not publicly identified a more detailed motive, and the available court reporting does not establish exactly how much time passed between the confrontation and the violence reported shortly before 5 a.m.
Cabell County sheriff’s investigators and West Virginia State Police spent much of July 21 processing the residence and interviewing people connected to the case. After investigators consulted Cabell County Prosecuting Attorney Jason Spears, the sheriff’s office announced that Deel would be charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He was arraigned at the hospital and later placed in the Western Regional Jail. Authorities said the charging decision was based on evidence found at the residence as well as the investigation, although the complete evidence file has not been made public in the reports reviewed.
The allegations involved a household in which the relationships were complicated but publicly documented in broad terms. Joshua and Shawn Deel were divorced, according to local reporting, but investigators said Shawn and her two children were still living in the same residence as Joshua at the time of the deaths. Early reports repeatedly described Shawn as 39, while a family-posted memorial later gave a birth date that would have made her 38 when she died. Because of that discrepancy, her age is not treated here as settled. There is no similar dispute in the reviewed reporting about Abigale being 18 or Dekota being 16.
While investigators worked to establish a timeline, relatives and classmates began describing who had been lost. Abigale had graduated from Huntington High School in the spring of 2026. Dekota was preparing to enter his sophomore year there. Their father, John Sloan, told WSAZ that Dekota “never met a stranger” and said there was nothing he would change about either of his children. A friend of Dekota told the station that the two had gone swimming together the day before the killings, underscoring how abruptly an ordinary summer day gave way to the fatal events at the house.
Shawn was also connected to the local school system. Huntington High officials said she worked for Cabell County Schools and had graduated from the school herself. School statements described Abigale as kind and determined and Dekota as someone who brought smiles to those around him. Officials arranged counseling support as the deaths affected students and employees across the district. The two siblings were remembered at a funeral July 30 and later at a candlelight vigil in Huntington. Shawn’s funeral was held the following day.
The same July 30 date brought an important development in the criminal case. Deel waived his right to a preliminary hearing. That meant the prosecution did not have to present its probable-cause case at that hearing before the matter advanced. WSAZ and West Virginia MetroNews reported that the case was headed to a Cabell County grand jury. Deel remained jailed with no bond. The waiver was procedural; it did not establish that Deel committed the killings and did not replace the prosecution’s burden to prove the charges if an indictment is returned and the case ultimately reaches trial.
Reporting surrounding that hearing also disclosed an earlier conviction. WSAZ said court records showed Deel had received a 30-year sentence for first-degree robbery in a case from 2011 involving a Huntington business. The earlier case included an accusation that he used a knife while forcing an employee to open machines containing money. WSAZ said it asked state corrections officials how much of the 30-year sentence Deel served and why it ended before 2026, but the station had not received an answer when it published its July 30 report. That history is separate from the current prosecution and cannot be used by itself to determine guilt in the new case.
More than a month after the killings, the public record still leaves substantial gaps. Authorities have not released a full forensic reconstruction, and no reliable later report reviewed through Aug. 27 confirms whether a grand jury has acted. The identities of the victims, the early-morning call, the witness accounts described in the complaint, the three murder charges and Deel’s hearing waiver are established parts of the public record. The broader questions — including the prosecution’s complete theory and the evidence a jury may eventually hear — remain for the criminal process to address.
Author note: Last updated August 27, 2026.