On November 12, 1966, a day that began with the mundane errand of a salon visit, turned into a scene of unimaginable horror for Joyce Faye Sellers, a 27-year-old mother. Joyce had taken her two young daughters to the Rose-Mar College of Beauty in Mesa, Arizona. What should have been a routine outing descended into terror when an 18-year-old man named Robert Benjamin Smith entered the salon armed with a.
22-caliber revolver and other weapons.
Without any apparent motive, Smith herded seven people, including Joyce and her children, into a back room. There, he ordered them to lie on the floor in a circle and began methodically shooting each person in the head. In a final act of maternal protection, Joyce Faye Sellers attempted to shield her children from the gunfire. Tragically, her three-year-old daughter, Debra, was killed alongside her. Her infant daughter, Tamara Lynn, was wounded but survived, protected by her mother's body. When Joyce showed signs of life after being shot, Smith proceeded to stab her with a hunting knife.
The tragic event claimed the lives of five people in total, including three other women: Carol Pope Farmer, Glenda Sue Carter, and Mary Olsen. The operator of the beauty school managed to escape and alert the police, who arrived within minutes. Robert Benjamin Smith surrendered to the officers without resistance, admitting to the shootings. He was immediately taken into custody at the scene of the crime.
