Everything Worst Roommate Ever Leaves Out About K.C. Joy

Blumhouse Television’s Worst Roommate Ever does a decent job covering the events surrounding Maribel Ramos’ murder, but leaves out some details about her roommate and killer, K.C. Joy. Police began investigating the disappearance of army veteran and CSU student Maribel Ramos when she failed to show up to several important events, and her body was found about two weeks later. They arrested Kwang Chol “K.C.” Joy soon after, and Worst Roommate Ever – now on Netflix – dives a little into who the killer really was.

Ramos and Joy met when he answered her Craigslist ad for a roommate in Orange, California. Over the next 18 months, they became friends, but Ramos’ sister said in Worst Roommate Ever that K.C. Joy wanted more than friendship. After a heated argument about rent, during which Ramos told Joy he had to move out of their apartment, Ramos was declared missing. Orange County Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons said, “If he couldn’t have her, no one was gonna have her.”

K.C. Joy was the police’s prime suspect from the beginning, but at first, they had no solid evidence against him. That changed when a surveillance team managed to capture Joy searching the internet for satellite images of a remote location where police soon found Ramos’ body. He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Worst Roommate Ever ends there, but here’s everything the Netflix series leaves out about K.C. Joy.

K.C. Joy’s Life Before Meeting Ramos

Worst Roommate Ever doesn’t cover much about K.C. Joy’s life before meeting Ramos, perhaps because not a lot of information about his background exists. The Netflix documentary reveals that Joy had moved to California from Tennessee after his life there had somewhat imploded. He had lost his job, his parents had passed away, and he’d gotten into a heated disagreement with his sister over inheritance money. When Worst Roommate Ever contacted Joy’s sister, she explained that he had an awful temper, which scared her so much that she got a restraining order against him. Joy had no remaining connections to other people when he first met Ramos. He did not appear to have any friends, and his social life in California mainly consisted of tagging along to events she invited him to.

K.C. Joy had moved to the United States as a young kid, and traveled around the country several times before ending up in California. Worst Roommate Ever mentions that Joy had previously lived in Tennessee, and Whitepages also lists previous addresses for a “Kwang Chol Joy” in Mississippi and Missouri. If K.C. Joy’s temper was truly as bad as his sister claimed, then it’s possible he moved around so much to escape bad situations he had put himself in. His sister still appears to live in Knoxville, Tennessee.

K.C. Joy Wanted A Retrial

K.C. Joy pleaded “not guilty” at his trial, and has continued to maintain his innocence to this day. During the trial, he wrote letters to the judge and to news outlets arguing that there wasn’t any real evidence against him. He pleaded for a retrial instead of an appeal, saying (via MEAWW), “They searched my apartment about seven times. No DNA. No fingerprint. No signs of foul play or anything.” Police had indeed struggled to find any physical evidence that directly tied him to the crime, explaining the problem of missing information in Worst Roommate Ever; it was only after Joy proved to have specific knowledge of the body’s location that police were able to make an arrest. Both Ramos’ family and the court were unmoved by Joy’s pleas, and his requests for a retrial were denied. He remains incarcerated at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, California, and will be eligible for parole in February 2023.

K.C. Joy’s Defense Claimed Ramos May Have Been Suicidal

Another detail about the trial that Worst Roommate Ever leaves out is that K.C. Joy’s legal defense claimed Mirabel Ramos may have been suicidal. Since the body’s location was the main piece of evidence against him, Joy’s defense attorneys pressed that there was no proof he actually committed the murder, and Ramos herself could’ve been responsible for her death. They declared (via NBC Los Angeles) that Ramos was prone to paranoia. The Netflix documentary reveals that she had previously called 9-1-1 to say she felt unsafe after an argument with her roommate, and had since been sleeping with a machete to protect herself. The defense also tried to suggest that Ramos had a drug or alcohol abuse problem; she was drinking the night of the phone call and could’ve been a danger to herself. They argued she might have died of a medical condition or even killed herself, leaving K.C. Joy to dispose of the body afterward in a moment of panic. His lawyer added, “The crime that will be proven here is improper disposal of a body.” However, the court obviously disagreed.

Ramos’ Cause Of Death Was Never Determined

Adding to the difficulty investigators had definitively connecting the crime to K.C. Joy in the Netflix show was the lack of conclusive evidence on Maribel Ramos’ cause of death. Her body was found in Modjeska Canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains almost two weeks after she disappeared, and it had decayed so much by that time that it had to be identified using dental records. The level of decomposition made it impossible to determine how Ramos died. Worst Roommate Ever suggested the possibility that since there were no signs of a struggle — other than the scratches on K.C. Joy’s arms — Ramos may have been smothered in her sleep. Barbed wire was also present on the scene where her body was found, but it’s unknown how long it had been there and whether or not it had any connection to her death. Sadly, no one will ever know for sure how exactly Ramos died.

K.C. Joy Is Writing A Book

Worst Roommate Ever leaves out that K.C. Joy is writing a book. K.C. Joy told Eyewitness News that he is writing a book about his experiences called Suspect, Guilty Until Proven Innocent. The title’s play on America’s presumption of innocence principle suggests the book will criticize the country’s justice system while further reiterating his plea of innocence. At his sentencing, he stated, “Family wants me to apologize, which I cannot apologize for something I haven’t done.” Little information about the project exists, but the book will likely go into detail about Joy’s version of events around the time of Ramos’ death, which he has had plenty of time to finalize. Joy might use the book to emphasize the fondness he felt for Ramos, diving deeper into their friendship while they lived together than the Netflix documentary series covered.

It’s also possible, however, that Worst Roommate Ever‘s K.C. Joy will have softened on his stance of denying any guilt and decide to incorporate aspects of his legal defense’s arguments — mainly, that being the one to dispose of Ramos’ body didn’t necessarily mean he was also the reason she was dead. It’s unlikely, though not impossible, that the book will finally include some sort of apology to Maribel Ramos’ family.

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