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NBC Dateline's episode that aired on June 24 revisited the brutal murder of Kelley Clayton, the wife of hockey player Thomas Clayton.
In September 2015, police officers from Steuben County, New York, received a frantic phone call from Thomas Clayton. The two officers who responded to the call walked into a gruesome crime scene at the Clayton residence.
Bodycam footage from one of the officers shows a horrific crime scene where 35-year-old Kelley Clayton lay bludgeoned to death.
The official synopsis of the Dateline episode titled The House in the Woods reads:
"A former hockey player discovers his wife murdered in their home. His young daughter says she saw a robber, but the killer's true identity turns out to be far more complicated. "
Who was Kelley Clayton?
Kelley Stage Clayton was raised in Elmira, New York, and in 1998 graduated as an honor roll student from the Elmira Free Academy. She also had an elder sister named Kim Bourgeois.
In early 2000s, Kelley Clayton met hockey player Thomas Clayton while he was still playing the game professionally. The couple dated for a while before getting married and had two children, a daughter named Charlie and a son named Cullen.
What happened on the night of Kelley Clayton's murder?
Thomas Clayton was playing a game of poker. However, when he returned, he called 911 when he found Kelley's body on the kitchen floor.
In a recording of the 911 call, Kelley Clayton's husband can be heard saying:
"Help me, help me, my wife — she's dead. I just got home. The kids were up and they said there was a robber in the house."
However, the most haunting part of the whole murder was the statement given by Clayton's daughter. The girl, who was 7-years-old at the time, told the Steuben County Sheriff Jim Allard that she had seen a man hurting her mother.
The child was later taken to a forensic investigator and a few hours later, she was taken to a room at the Steuben County Child Advocacy Center. During her interview, investigators clearly saw her mother's blood on the child's shirt.
She told Sheriff Allard and New York State police investigator Dianne Trickey:
“In the middle of the night, this guy came and started hitting my mom with like this pipe thingy.”
Donald Lewis, another Steuben County investigator, said Kelley Clayton died of blunt force trauma after being beaten with a fiberglass maul handle. The investigators also found that there had been no signs of forced entry or robbery at the Clayton house.
In her statement, the then seven-year-old said that she saw the eyes of the man who was hitting her mother, Kelley Clayton. The child noted that the man's eyes were very similar to her father's eyes.
It was this statement that led to the arrest of her father, Thomas Clayton later that day, on September 29, 2015 for the murder of his wife.
Who killed Kelley Clayton?
As investigators began looking in Thomas Clayton's alibi, they were approached by a woman who was also at the poker game that Clayton had attended. The woman told them that Claytonhad asked to borrow her phone to make a call just 90 minutes before he got home and made the 911 call.
Another piece of evidence that stacked up the odds against Thomas was that earlier the same year, he had doubled his wife's life insurance policy. Additionally, authorities also alleged that Clayton was romantically involved with other women and wanted out of the marriage. However, he allegedly didn't think divorce was an option.
During the investigation, detectives found that Clayton had hired Michael Beard, his former employee, to carry out the murder. Though Beard initially said that Clayton had promised to give him $10,000 to kill Kelley Clayton, he later changed his story.
In his new statement, Beard claimed that Clayton had only hired him to burn down his house as no one would have been home. However, according to Beard, when he reached the house, he found Kelley Clayton lying dead. He panicked upon seeing Clayton's body and ran from the house.
Who are Thomas Clayton and Michael Beard?
Thomas Clayton is a professional hockey player from Binghamton. He spent four seasons with the Elmira Jackals hockey team and a forward and joined the team later in their second season just after he graduated from Niagara University. He played hockey at Niagara University for four seasons, from 1998 to 2002.
At 35, Clayton retired from hockey and owned a fire and water damage restoration firm called Paul Davis Emergency Services of the Southern Tier. Later, Clayton became the project manager at ServPro, a similar franchise owned by his longtime friend Brian Laing.
The hitman hired by Clayton, Michael Beard, was a laborer who lived in Elmira Heights and worked for Clayton both at Paul Davis and ServPro.
He lived in an apartment that was owned by Clayton and was familiar with the layout of Clayton's home as well.
Both Clayton and Beard were found guilty for the first degree murder of his wife Kelley Clayton. They were both given a life sentence without a parole.
