Guy Heinze Jr. was born in 1987, in Georgia, USA. He grew up in a working-class environment in Glynn County and lived with several family members in the New Hope Mobile Home Park near Brunswick. Heinze’s upbringing was rough, and he had brushes with the law as a teenager and young adult, mostly involving drug possession and minor offenses.

At the time of the crime, he was 20 years old, unemployed, and reportedly living in a crowded trailer with a large extended family, including his father, uncle, cousins, and friends. Many of those people would later become his victims. Heinze was known to police, but there was no history of violent behavior on record. Those who knew him said he could be short-tempered, and there were rumors of drug abuse, but no one suspected he was capable of mass murder.

On the morning of August 29, 2009, officers responded to a grisly scene at Lot 147 of the New Hope Mobile Home Park. Inside the trailer, they found seven bodies, all brutally beaten to death. Two more people were found alive but gravely injured — one of them, 19-year-old Michael Toler (Heinze's cousin who had Down syndrome), later died at a hospital, raising the death toll to eight. Investigators described the scene as one of the worst they'd ever witnessed. Victims had massive head trauma, and blood covered the walls and floors. The victims were members of Heinze’s own family and household. 

Heinze called 911, claiming, “My whole family is dead!” He was arrested the same day — not for murder, but for marijuana possession. However, investigators quickly suspected he was involved based on inconsistencies in his story, physical evidence, and signs of tampering at the scene. On September 4, 2009, Heinze was charged with eight counts of murder.

The prosecution claimed Heinze murdered his family during a drug-fueled rage, possibly tied to an argument or money. The weapon was never found, but prosecutors believed he used the stock of a shotgun or a similar blunt object. He was initially facing the death penalty, but in October 2013, he took a plea deal: he pleaded guilty to all eight murders in exchange for life without parole. During the trial, Heinze continued to claim his innocence, but the mountain of evidence — including DNA, bloodstains, and cell phone records — pointed firmly to him.