Joseph "Joey" Bartlett was the son of Sam Bartlett, the mayor of Shepherd's Glen. He and his father were descendants of one of the town's four founding families, the Bartlett family. As decreed by the pact made with the Order's god to protect Shepherd's Glen from the curse of Silent Hill, Joey was sacrificed and buried alive (known as vivisepulture) to appease God. In the Grand Hotel's atrium, his father's memory of him as well as his guilt over his son's murder manifests into the demonic Sepulcher, who kills Sam Bartlett and attempts to kill Alex Shepherd.