Mark Edward Gardner was born on May 4, 1956, in the United States. Little is publicly known about his childhood, but by adulthood, Gardner had already developed a criminal background. Before the murders, he had been convicted of armed robbery and was on parole at the time of the killings. In addition to his prior record, there was an active arrest warrant for him out of Illinois, also related to an armed robbery charge. Gardner reportedly lived a transient and violent lifestyle. After his arrest, he would later attempt to claim that "demons made him do it", though the courts did not accept his insanity defense.

On December 12, 1985, Mark Edward Gardner brutally murdered three members of the Joyce family in Sebastian County, Arkansas. Joe Joyce had just returned home from a funeral, and his daughter Sara Joyce McCurdy, who was visiting for lunch while her husband was on Air National Guard duty, was at the house with her mother, Martha Joyce.

Gardner entered the family home, tied all three victims up, and suffocated them by placing tape over their noses and mouths. He used a wire coat hanger to strangle Martha, adding to the horror. Gardner then raped and murdered Sara. After the killings, he ransacked the home, stole jewelry, and fled in the family car.

When Gardner was arrested, authorities found some of the Joyce family's stolen jewelry in his possession. During questioning, he claimed to have also killed a man in New York, though that was never confirmed. At trial, Gardner's defense attempted to argue that he was insane, citing his statements about demonic possession, but the jury did not accept it. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death in 1986.

After spending over a decade on death row, Mark Edward Gardner was executed by lethal injection on September 8, 1999, at the age of 43.