We as students as 18 to 25 year olds 10 minutes from us just got word that four kids were brutally murdered in their beds while they were sleeping I I didn’t believe it for sure I mean it didn’t make any sense see if she was okay she obviously didn’t ever respond it was
In the morning a college town going from shock to fear to International headlines we’re on the ground here in Idaho with all new reporting the most complete picture yet it turns out that one of the survivors came face to face with the killer have you been able to draw any connections we
Do think that he possibly followed them on instram if he’s the guy everyone’s been talking about him as this if he’s a great Mastermind he was a criminology student he was so smart based on what we saw in that affidavit it would appear he wasn’t a
Very good criminal the shock of being in class with the alleged killer there’s no real way to suspect that your ta would do it he didn’t ever give like really good grades before it and he only gave good grades after it if it’s not Brian CER who is it This is a story that has captivated the nation the man who stands accused of murdering four University of Idaho students showing up to court with scratches on his face just yesterday this is state of Idaho versus Brian cerg but this all started November 13th 2022 with a 911
Call and what they understand from the caller is that someone is unconscious police are dispatched and find something far more heinous KY gulas Madison Mogan San kod and her boyfriend Ethan chin were found stabbed to death in their off-campus home the were stabbed with a knife but no weapon has
Been located at this time no one could understand why would anyone want to kill these four students you’re all in fight or flight we have no idea what to do we have never had a situation like this in our community this doesn’t happen in Moscow Idaho there’s no indication about who did it
Why the person did it growing fear in that Idaho College town where four students were brutally murdered many this morning are questioning the police assurances that everybody’s safe when the story broke the national media descends on this small college town that at this point is gripped with fear we
Didn’t know if someone was just breaking in houses if they were targeting college kids we believe this was an isolated targeted attack on our victims we do not have a suspect at this time and that individual is still out there we were all scared we just didn’t feel safe you
Felt like you had no choice but to leave oh absolutely yeah my mom she was waiting for me in the airport and I just ran to her arms I think I really hit everyone hard and we were all just shocked it’s been a month now since four students were murdered in
Off-campus housing more than 5 weeks into that investigation there’s still limited answers days were going by weeks were going by but then a break in the case man has been arrested in connection with the murders of four University of Idaho students police say the alleged killer studies criminology at Washington State
University this man was in our community and we were told that we were safe are you kidding the allege killer Brian cobg lives just 10 mil away from the crime scene while authorities are searching for answers in the small town of Moscow Idaho Moscow it’s nestled in the poo and uh the poo is this sea of rolling wheat Hills that just goes as far as the eye can see this is the wheat Capital the poo this area produces more wheat than just about anywhere in the country when
You drive in it says Moscow Idaho the heart of the Arts we honor creativity we know it’s important Moscow is full of art and Culture part of what makes Moscow such a Vibrant Community is that there’s a college right in the heart of the city you have one of the top ranked schools in all of the state the University of idahoidaho idah the University of Idaho is known as the home of the Vandals so tailgating is
Huge obviously for the Games every fall to Spring there’s about 15,000 new faces that come through I tell our students this all the time when you go away in the summer it’s like well everyone take a deep breath because traffic calms down things are quieter and they come back and it’s lovely
Chaos the University of Idaho is well-known academic Ally but it’s also the choice for many in the state to attend because of the life on campus there’s the fraternities there’s the sorties angry grow kayy gonzalves and Madison Mogan were both ins sororities at the University of Idaho and the now
Roommates have been childhood best friends they met in the sixth grade and pretty much from that day forward they did absolutely everything together first dates first boyfriends graduated high school they had their first heartbreaks together haly was 12 13 years old they’re blasting Taylor Swift in the basement you know comforting each other
One of the other roommates was a young woman named Zanna kod she was a junior and she belonged to the same sorority as Madison Mogan there was one night it had snowed and we see sled and we just went flying her smile was contagious her biggest joy in life was
To be happy and to make others happy Zanna had started dating a freshman named Ethan chapen in the spring of 2022 and he spent a lot of time at the girls House Santa and th were two peas in a pod they were goofy they both had a beautiful smile they were both Kind this is Main Street Moscow Idaho great restaurants bars and shopping that attract students from another nearby University just 15 minutes away Washington State the much larger University is just to cross the Idaho line in pulman Washington there is definitely a crossover with the two universities really it’s not two
Separate communities here we’re all one big Community when you want to get a good meal you go to Moscow it really is like the hub for shopping food entertainment often you’ll leave the bars and you’ll go to the grub truck and you’ll end your night with your mac and
Cheese and then you go home home it is an extremely safe place to live people don’t worry about locking their doors locking their cars Moscow hadn’t had a homicide in more than 7 years it was definitely a very happy place and like feeling very safe I guess is the biggest Thing a place where four young lives with so much promise we’re just starting out you would never imagine that those lives would come to such a terrifying End this is the start of the school year there’s that young optimism that this at the beginning of every school year on every college campus in America you can just imagine the sparkle of life for these young people a group of girls whove known each other a long time have
Found a perfect house just off campus it’s a three-story house it’s got six bedrooms and three bathrooms there was a really tight bond that all those roommates had with each other these girls posted their whole lives to social media and in those videos you can see just how much they love each Other to know Kaye was to love Kaye some of their friends have asked we not use their last names Kaye she was like the protector if we needed honestly anything she would just do it I remember I had like a professor I was having a hard time and she’s like Katie sit down
I’ll call the DAT for you I’ll draft the email we’ll figure it out she was in everyone’s Corner she was the voice for people who didn’t have the voice if I had one or two words to describe Maddie may it would be just an angel she just made me
Proud when I would meet somebody Maddie was the first thing I would tell someone about I say oh I have this daughter and she’s so smart and beautiful and funny and she’s just the the thing that makes me happiest in in Life tell me about Zanna and Ethan as a couple we didn’t think Zanna would ever get a boyfriend and when she met Ethan I remember her telling me hey I have got a little crush on Ethan and he was just such a fun person to be around my first
Impression of Ethan was he’s just this huge dude that you wouldn’t really approached but as soon as you really got to know him you realized that he’s like one big teddy bear Whenever there would be a party we’d be singing country Songs Fall In Love by Bailey and that was one of the first songs that Ethan and I had memorized together we sing it together so the house is just a Stones throw away from campus the school year it kicked off and the house on King Road was bustling the
Neighborhood nickname was frat lantis it’s a culdesac and people that are a part of sororities or fraternities live in these houses away from the actual campus all the roommates were in sororities it’s a very popular area for students to live and it’s very social there’s always people interacting on
Those streets at all hours house is unique it’s three levels there are two bedrooms on each level definitely an older home creaky and noisy so you can’t really walk anywhere without everybody knowing it it was very homey it felt like a very nice first home for these girls and their Newfound Independence
There’s this neon sign in the house that says Good Vibes it almost seemed to be a house rule Maddie was very girl Maddie loved pink everything Maddie sent me pictures of her room and it was all pink of course she loved wearing pink she had pink cowboy boots were probably her
Favorite thing to wear for her 21st birthday everyone had to wear pink one person had it wasn’t quite the right shade of pink and then uh they heard it from her Kaye had a dog a little mini golden doodle named Murphy Murphy was like the
Love of her life she it was like Murphy became her child it was funny cuz it was like her step into like adulthood Kaye posted this video on Tik Tok dancing with her treasured Pet the home has been the known house for parties for a long time that’s why I think Kaye and Maddie were so excited to move into that specific home together because it’s been that home for as long as I can remember there was one night when a gathering there resulted in Neighbors calling
Police on September 1st the police received a noise complaint at the house there’s footage of the three officers who go there the kids give them a runaround the cops respond to this uh by taking their liquor and dumping it the police came back to address the
Noise which they said was still too loud this time Zanna came to the door it was always friends of Ethan that would go over friends of Santa friends of Kaye and Maddie there was never anybody who shouldn’t have been There the semester is well underway and some of the girls had big plans for after they graduated key worked very hard she always did summer school and picked up the most credits that she could and Kaye actually was to graduate in December she had been working an
Internship but it was going to evolve into a paid job and she would be moving to Austin Kaye was going to be starting an entire new adventure that’s pretty her like was very ambitious and she was always setting goals after college Kaye was going to move out of state Maddie wasn’t quite
Sure where she was going to be but um yeah they were going to be a part that was going to be the first time since sixth grade that they would be living in different areas that was going to be hard this semester both Maddie and Zanna were juggling their schoolwork with jobs
At a local restaurant called The Mad Greek according to a post on her sister’s Instagram Zanna turned in an English essay on November 7th and in it she wrote about having just seen a show with all of her friends and she wrote it was amazing getting to experience one of
My favorite songs with some of my best friends while they were all enjoying life that is one of the most important things you can do in life enjoy the ride not the Destination just 5 days after Zanna turned in that essay she and her boyfriend and her roommates were heading out for a night on the town and early some of the last moments of their lives were caught on video Saturday November 12th is a last home game for the University of Idaho vandals football
Team this was a big day for the students it was the last home game of the season And everybody converged on Main Street for some laps and some fun University of Idaho actually lost their game that night but as the vandals say win or lose there’s always booze the last football home game is just wrapped up and everyone is out it’s the kind of night that college
Students who work hard all week live for it is the night to celebrate earlier in that day Kaye Gonzalez posted this photo to Instagram it was of her and her roommates and Ethan chapen and she wrote one lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every
Day Kaye she seems like her usual bubbly saw she was actually at my apartment um and we were just kind of like hanging out for game day um and she was also with her roommates at that time too for Kaye though there was something Weighing on her mind and she had
Confided in her parents about it she felt that someone in the town had been watching her did Kaye ever talk to you about now a potential stalker she did she did sometimes she would contact us and say you won’t believe this guy was following me around I felt
Weird I’m pretty sure she did not report it it was never used like hey I have a stalker like this ongoing thing she goes I went through the self checkout I noticed this person in the self checkout kind of behind me this is she like
Record him she did not I think she was just like I got to get the heck out of here so that night Kaye and Maddie head off to the corner Club bar one of the most popular spots in town There’s Nothing strange about the fact that Kaye Gonzalez and Madison
Mogan were hanging out at the corner club that night you probably find half of Moscow like going to the game going to the corner club that was like routine and then to go home to get home late it’s pretty normal typ difficult yeah you know week nights I think she
Was studying and and being a good girl but uh yeah she would let her hair down a little bit on the weekends they were at the corner Club from 10:20 until about 1ish in the morning Ethan started Saturday night out with his sister Ethan was one of three triplets they all attended UI
Together they’re always together and you know that that family is so close they’re so tight net Ethan went to a party with his sister she had her sari party and he was her date it was called the Betty’s ball just a bunch of students getting together and mingling and and having a good
Time Ethan and I were both at the Betty’s ball that night he spent the beginning part of that night at the ball with his sister which was part of the sorority that was hosting the the formal dance shortly after that Ethan then meets up with Zanna back at his fraternity at Sigma
Kai they were having a great time at that party it was totally a normal thing to see Ethan and Zan having a great time just hanging out with each other dancing singing University of Idaho is a very Greek University and the housing where the party takes place at the sigma Kai
It’s a party house if nothing had happened that night you’d say well this is fun we live in a world where there are cameras everywhere so we know a lot about where Kaye and Maddie were that night and at what time welcome back from that point they
Stopped by what’s known as grub truck and Kaye and MD are seen on video from the truck’s live streaming camera thank you than it’s a food vendor truck that’s parked on Main Street downtown a lot of people stop by there on the way home to get a taco or a burrito or something
Like that and then just keep on moving and these are their last moments and that’s what makes it so poignant all these videos I found tremendously affecting to see you the these last moments that’ll never be relived again this was just them being them not even knowing that they’re being filmed
Maddie’s I could just tell just by her body language that she was she was dead definitely feel pretty good that food truck video kills me because just knowing that what they were about to go home too and they had no idea and they were so happy Kaye and
Maddie get carbonara this the sort of thing you want to have to absorb all the alcohol at night of drinking they catch ride back they grab the order they go Kaye called for a ride service cuz they had been drinking as for Ethan and Zanna they leave that party at Ethan’s frat and
Head back to the house on King Road it’s a quick walk 3 or 4 Minutes by 2: a.m. everyone’s home Ethan and Zanna Kaye and Madison and their two other roommates are all settling in for the night and so everyone’s in there and yet still this is being young their night goes on they’re on the phone Kaye started making phone calls late at
Night which is not unusual for college students she called her exboyfriend multiple times remember there’s three stories to the house Kaye and Maddie were together in Maddy’s room on the third floor kayle’s dog Murphy was alone in kayle’s bedroom just down the hall Ethan was staying over that night in zanna’s room
Which was on the second floor one of the other roommates in the house also Al on the second floor and one in a bedroom on the first floor so I think around three they probably called it said all right I’ll just sleep with you then Maddie I think that they ate their pasta
And they probably got in bed together like they had so many other Saturday nights everything was so normal in that home on King Road nobody could have imagined it was about to become a house of horror for University of Idaho students were found dead on Sunday police say it
Was a targeted attack near the University of Idaho Sunday November 13th becomes the day that the people of Moscow Idaho will never forget officers responded to a call here on King Road just south of c three police cars went screaming up the street with lights and Sirens I’m going
They never use lights and Sirens what the hell is going on now it’s 11:58 a.m. on a Sunday and a 911 call comes in that’s very confusing we still don’t know who made the 911 call that day but we do know that the 911 operator spoke to multiple
Individuals on the phone what they heard in the 911 call was discussion of like a friend being unconscious it was not Apparent at the time that the call was about for murders so when the police roll up to this house they’re probably thinking this is somebody who had too
Much to drink they have no idea what they’re about to walk into people who spoke with them in the aftermath of of what they encountered shared this with me that the officers confronted a sea of Silent students the officers hear one word dead when the lead Sergeant goes into
The house he later told people how that high smelled Blood Rose up in his nostrils and it it took him back whether you’re a rookie cop or a seasoned cop there is nothing that could prepare law enforcement for what they would see in this house this is a brutal crime scene
These these victims were not shot they were stabbed to death the brutality that occurred at the different levels of this residence it’s just unheard of this is a brutal weapon they wern’t stab WS you they were like large punctures but at that point in time no knife could be found what was baffling
To police they say is that it didn’t appear that there was any forced entry it doesn’t appear that any of the victims had been sexually assaulted the town and soon the whole world comes to know that there are actually two survivors in this house how is it possible that four people could be
Killed in one house and yet have two people in the house survive these violent attacks live to tell the story of what happened in there with a killer on the loose you cannot be too careful the university sends out something called a bandal alert basically a warning to everyone in
The community so they sent out a vandal alert notifying students to shelter in place so I think a lot of people were kind of shocked and you know confused about what was going on unfortunately one of the victims is my very best friend and when I got the
Vandal alert that there had been a homicide on campus on King Road I called her three times she didn’t answer I text her four times she didn’t answer just the worst news you could ever possibly imagine you know I just kind of went num for about 30 minutes it’s just not something that
Like you can comprehend in that moment we were just very like shocked like oh my God like okay it’s an accident let’s not panic you know and I remember texting Kay see if she was okay she obviously didn’t never respond it was in the morning the growing mystery and growing fear in that Idaho College town where four students were brutally murdered so this local homicide bursts onto the
National scene there’s frustration with police and fear in the community everybody knows young people that go to college this could be anybody’s kid at any school in the entire country at the moment the police are saying very little have they shared any of that information with you no they really haven’t shared
Too much with me I I’ve had very general questions to them and they got their cards close to their vest they’re they’re not sharing much of anything as horrible a crime has affected all of us the families the University of Idaho Police hold a press conference and this
Is the first time they released any information to the public about this heinous crime but it was vague and limited that individual is still out there we cannot say that there’s no threat to the community and as we have stated please stay vigilant people in the community were scared word is
Starting to spread authorities have no suspect they’ve released very little information I got to Moscow as quickly as I could and people were still in shock but the fear was palpable just like everybody else in town I was it’s kind of embarrassing to say but I started locking my
Door a lot of the students on campus we all went home yesterday or today just because we don’t really feel safe how how could you convince people that they’re safe that’s the trick you can’t and among all that worry people are asking questions one of which is why
Did it take so long for that 911 call to come in you know we don’t know why that call came in at noon and not um in the middle of the night um would have we loved for that to have happened yes I really feel for the victim’s families it
Seems like they’re really unable to grieve because they just they have no CL clure they don’t know who could have done this the motivating factors of this person uh were pain and fear and that was one thing that I could control is to not grant that satisfaction um this
Individual doesn’t get to see how he hurt me when you have somebody this evil it’s going to take some serious Force to U hunt this guy down you either get him off the street or you’re going to have another family that has to go through this initially they didn’t think it
Would be difficult to solve they’re speculating the suspect had gotten away without leaving a trail of blood they had no idea where this investigation would ultimately Le who could have done this and then a lead something that drives the case in a whole new Direction it was a solemn day here in Moscow a campus ordinarily packed with students and energy quiet and empty moscow’s always been a very safe community in some ways this took our innocence in the days and weeks following the murders the community in Moscow Idaho is reeling so
They’re processing this loss through a series of memorials and vigils on campus and off- campus this time we’re going to watch a video slideshow Zanna was such a light in my life and so many others she was a person I could relate to the most and she knew and
Understood me more than anyone Eddie and Kaye were each other every day she was one of ours her just heartbroken once the parents came on stage and started talking about Maddie Kaye Ethan and that’s when the tears started flowing they went to high schools together then they started looking at colleges they
Came here together they eventually get into the same apartment together and in the end they di together in the same room in the same bed that’s the two of us there we are When We Were Young those are the last photos that we ever got to take together so sweet
Today we’re here to honor The Life and Legacy of our son and brother Ethan chapen one of the most incredible people you’ll ever know the police turned to the public and the other students several times asking for help we ask anyone with any information related to what happened to get that information to
Us even if you don’t believe it is relevant now the chief has asked for help so there’s a gas station not far from the house where the mot took place and one of the attendance at the gas station takes it upon herself to start reviewing old videos she finds just at
The time that the murders possibly occurred she finds a white car zipping down the road and she sends this into the police and then on December 7th police announced that they’re looking for a 2011 to 2013 white Hyundai Elantra we have information of a white vehicle that
Was in the area during the time frame of the homicide we are just wantan to talk to the individuals who are in that vehicle we’re trying to pull any surveillance footage from people’s cameras doorbells whatever they could find they go to a local apartment complex and they get more video footage
And lo and behold between 4: to 4:25 a.m. and this white car is seen on the streets just at that time this could be the person who’s getting away because there’s no other reason really for that car to be in in this area at this time
Of night to be speeding like that the Hyundai alantra was great news so now police are focusing on a specific car at the same time that’s a common car there are what 22,000 that they have to look at it’s still a long ways away from buttoning Up
The case the search to track down that car has no limits for a while people were thinking it was this abandoned car in Eugene and it is just the wrong car it has no ties to this case at all the mood suddenly turns to Des spair again 16,000 tips over 250 interviews and
Still no murder weapon no suspects still searching for the owners of a 2011 to 2013 white Hyundai Elantra days and weeks have passed and it appears there’s been very little progress made in the investigation into this quadruple homicide people are starting to openly question will this killer ever be caught it is
Disconcerning that there is somebody out there who’s done such a horrible thing and they haven’t been caught ever since this happened I’ve had this sensation of like somebody’s watching me somebody could be after me it’s ludicrous that they have absolutely nothing nothing we need to find this person or person
Now with the lack of information coming from police so-called cyber sleuths on the internet began making claims that they had cracked the case everyone can play detective everyone can go online and everyone now can put together a theory it becomes not just slanderous now becomes something much more vindictive these people with these
Platforms hurling baseless accusations at at members of the community had recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend cyber sleuths not only falsely accused him of being involved in this horrifying murder but they also reveal details about his private life kait’s family is firmly standing behind that boyfriend I know for an absolute fact
That he is not a suspect he’s not suspicious he is 100% innocent in this we have a University of Idaho Professor who’s having to sue a tick tocker out of Texas because this person is continually blaming her as being involved with the homicides police have publicly cleared both the ex-boyfriend and the professor
Of any involvement in this case the holidays com and go the new year is approaching and there’s no resolution the public and victim’s families at this point still have more questions than answers still no suspect no weapon and no motive but they are planning to work through
The holiday to get this killer off the street we do have a lot of information and we’re not releasing specific details because we do not want to compromise this investigation it was really hard not knowing everything that was going on with the investigation but I never lost
Faith that uh that someone would get caught then seemingly out of thin air just days after Christmas a miracle the police were telling me things maybe a day before the public would know them and he said Ben this is the day that we’ve been waiting for the arrest of a 28-year-old man in
Pennsylvania in connection with the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students I start cursing up a storm I saw his monk shot and just about fell on the floor those who knew the alleged murderer stunned by his Arrest we were robbed from our best friends and I would give Anything anything at all to just hear zanna’s laugh see Ethan’s beautiful smile you see kayle’s radiant big gorgeous eyes and madd’s sweet personality one more time we’re here in Idaho where murder suspect Brian cerg was in court just yesterday killing with a knife is up
Close and personal I want to get back at somebody for something if he is the killer he seems to be someone who is trying to create the Perfect Crime things he said to me is will always love you guys even if we stop talking one day
So at the time it was really endearing and now it’s kind of creepy tonight all new details we know that Kaye had some defense wounds Kaye F back yes she did I’ve read thousands of probable cause documents in my career and this one blew
My mind I mean I was stunned at how much evidence they had so there’s Bombshells that hav’t dropped all of the wi like why why why For 7 weeks the entire community of Moscow Idaho has been holding its Collective breath waiting for some answers or some resolution locals Whispering maybe it’ll go cold maybe they’ll never find the person or the people who did this we knew inves gor were working on it but beyond that all
We could do is hope for closure just before New Year’s Eve the police have finally broken their silence there’s news and it’s big what the big story on Action News tonight is a major break in the murder of four Idaho college students the arrest of a 28-year-old man in connection with the
Brutal murders of four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in their beds more than a month ago at about 2:00 a.m. on December 30th 2500 M away from the scene of the murder SWAT teams are breaking into a house in eastern Pennsylvania to make an arrest a
Break in the case that has gripped this nation police arresting a suspect PhD student Brian cerg he’s facing four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary this was finally proof to the families that investigators had been working the entire time on this this was a big step
Forward in hopefully the beginning of healing for a lot of people in this community the university the families and uh and bringing Justice For Those victims I never lost faith that somebody would be caught I just was definitely worried about how long it was going to
Take I mean it was a huge weight that got lifted but at the same time I knew that for the rest of my life there was going to be someone’s face that I was going to have in my head but I think I just have to be more focused
On the fact that we caught someone to find out you was our neighbor it was like f those who knew the alleged murderer left stunned by his arrest Brian cobber was one of my regulars I’ve been cutting his hair since July and the first time I was ever contacted by Brian
Was through voicemail hi my name is Brian would you be able to give me a haircut tomorrow by any chance my last appointment with him was December 2nd at 1:45 p.m. it’s crazy to find out I interacted with this person I touched this person’s hair I made this person
Look and feel good about themselves I saw his mug shot and just about fell on the floor I was just questioning everything and I hopped on Tik Tok and made a video I used to be friends with Brian cob I am just an absolute shock now after Brian cerg is arrested and in
Custody in Pennsylvania everybody wants to know who is this guy briyan koberger is a 28-year-old PhD student he grew up in eastern Pennsylvania he has two sisters his father worked as a maintenance worker and his mom was in the school system as soon as they said that he was
Ed in Monroe County I realized that he would have had to have gone to my high school cobber attended Pleasant Valley High School in his home state of Pennsylvania now looking at his yearbook photos you can see for a time he’s considerably heavier set Brian was an overweight kid growing up people would
Make fun of him he’s right there and you can see he he is a lot heavier there than we see him now and there’s his name Brian cober my interaction with with him was never one-on-one or direct it was always at a party or whatever and his
Demeanor at these places was always more or less withdrawn I did reconnect with him very very briefly in 2017 at my friend’s wedding he was kind of not very social he kind of kept to himself I just told him how proud I was of him because he
Was going to school for criminal justice a fascinating twist in this case is that Brian cober is a PhD student in criminology Brian coburger attended the sales University and he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and then in 2022 as seen in this video of his commencement he graduated with a
Master’s degree in criminal justice when Brian cober was studying at Del sales University he conducted a Reddit survey for an academic research project during which he asked people for their psychology during the commission of a crime so one of the specific questions that Brian carer asked in the survey was
The following quote before making your move how did you approach the victim or Target please detail what you were thinking and feeling it raises the very disturbing possibility that Brian cober did this because he wanted to see and feel what it was like to kill people and this is
Something I guarantee that law enforcement and the prosecutors from all in this case are spending a lot of time on right now Brian coburger travels to pulman Washington in a summer of 2022 to start working towards his PhD at Washington state where he continues his studies in criminology and ends up being a
Teacher’s assistant for some of the professors once the name did come out I think it was obviously a big shock for the whole WSU community and everyone here when I first saw his picture and its name it took me a second to realize
Who it was I was like oh that was my ta he was the TA for my criminal justice 420 class which was criminal procedures Brian cger was pretty quiet he didn’t really talk too much he kind of didn’t really look at us directly and he just seemed really kind of awkward seeing
That he’d been arrested on suspicion um was definitely shocking he did leave one longer comment on my final paper which mean good luck in my career in law enforcement with the hindsight of the crimes that he’s been alleged of it’s definitely Eerie knowing that he was wishing me good luck in law enforcement
We received an email from the ch on our campus saying that he was now a former PhD student here at WSU you feeling there’s been a lot of talk about him studying criminology but if he’s the guy and the authorities are right he wasn’t actually a very good
Criminal at all at this point he has been injected into the center of what will be the largest case in recent memory in this country now the prime suspect Brian cobber is in custody everybody wants to know how did police track him to Pennsylvania and what a story that Is the vigil was a really big Event And it just was a really somber day everyone was really quiet in the aftermath of the Idaho student murders the community family and friends are just trying to make sense of this horrific tragedy the police had to face the pressure not just of their local community but of the entire world
Watching this case frustration and worry over the unsolved murders of four students from the University of Idaho prior to this Arrest A lot of people in the community feared that this was a crime that was never going to be solved you know I think a lot of officers
Worked their tails off and we we put our foot down and we said hey this happens a lot of times but we’re not going to let it happen here we’re going to we’re not going to let this case go cold we can’t make a stand everybody is very aware of their
Surroundings right now they are and really they should um at this point and there’ll be a resolution to this to this investigation do you have to remember that leading up to this we were kept in the dark because they were building a case news and the murders of those four students at the
University of Idaho Police moments ago saying they are now looking for a vehicle what police were keeping from the public was that on November 29th a Washington State University officer had discovered the white Elantra parked in a student apartment parking lot the car came back as registered to Brian cerer
And when police looked at the registration in the photo attached they realized the driver had bushy eyebrows they discovered that his car had been previously registered in Pennsylvania 5 days after the murders with his registration set to expire he then registers his vehicle in Washington state this is our highest priority it
Will remain our highest priority while authorities were searching for a killer Brian koberger was heading home for the holidays cobber thinking he’s going to have a white Christmas in Pennsylvania I had learned that Michael cerg had a plane ticket out to Seattle on December 11th they had planned that
Michael would fly out for the holidays and they drive back cross country together so they would have left on the 13th it’s not uncommon for people traveling across the country to road trip with a friend or a parent and make their way back home authorities tell ABC news that law
Enforcement tracked Brian cober’s movements as he made his way across the country on December 13th the vehicle they were driving was captured by a license plate reader in llama Colorado and he takes a little circuitous route two days later in Indiana police body camera footage shows Brian coburger
Being pulled over for following too close to another vehicle how you doing how yall doing today good good take a look at your driver’s license real quick and like good is this your car okay cool where you Headed well coming from WSU you can really see his eyes look surprised you have to wonder if he knew something was up okay I I’m having a hard time hearing it because of the traffic so you’re coming from Washington State University and you’re going where oh oh
Okay so sure yall work at the University there okay but do me a favor don’t follow too close Okay a short time later an Indiana State Trooper pulls them over again for tailgate he was pulled over twice so I mean Brian cerg is a really bad driver I’m not
Going to give you guys another ticket or warning if you just got stop in both instances they’re let go with just a warning yeah a longes according to authorities surveillance video shows Brian cber vehicle in albrightsville Pennsylvania on December 16th once coburger is back in Pennsylvania they police are keeping him under
Surveillance they’re watching everything he does they see when he goes out at night uh taking the garbage in the house and putting it in a neighbor’s house creating a picture that this could be our suspect Just Before Dawn December 30th a Pennsylvania SWAT team raided the family home of 28-year-old Brian coburger and
Arrested him in connection to the murders of the four University of Idaho students last night detectives ARR a 28-year-old Brian Christopher Colberg multiple windows that were broken i b multiple Doors Mr Colberg was taken into custody without incident these guys were smart they played it well they played I
I wouldn’t play poker with the chief of police right now 4 days later ran cobber is is in a Pennsylvania courtroom before a judge and he waves his extradition Brian’s extradition hearing his entire family was there his mother was obviously upset Brian had turned around one time he said
I love you to his mother now to the suspect accused of brutally murdering four Idaho college students agreeing to be sent back to Idaho Brian coburger is escorted across an Airfield he is Shackled and he will be taken to face charges he sat down in the courtroom and
It was terrifying you just felt sick to your stomach this is stsus ring seber mer I couldn’t take my eyes off the family I was in so much pain for them when they read individual charges um you know and hearing Kay’s name and murder in the first degree just again
And just so surreal one of the things that you said to me Steve right away was I’m going to be in court he’s going to have to look me in the eye mhm unfortunately he never even looked back I mean not even he didn’t turn around
And look at you in court no I’m not going to give him satisfaction at an empty courtroom he’s going to he’s going to have to deal with one of the gonz offic is there every single day he picked the wrong family do you understand yes count Ryan believes that he’ll be exonerated I
Think it’s important to understand he is presumed innocent until proven Otherwise that affidavit was the key to getting an inside look in what we’ve all been wondering this whole time I was reading an end I I just cried until I I fell asleep that night it was a a horror show really there’s going to be lots of parts of this case that are
Going to be surprising to to most so there’s bomb shells that haven’t dropped I I we are not done yet court documents reveal how authorities were able to identify Brian corber as the suspect the documents shed new light on the investigative process the morning after Brian cerg is
Back on Idaho soil authorities unseal that arrest affidavit revealing what they think happened inside that house the night of the murders and the evidence that led to his arrest I was reading it out loud to my family when we received it and I got to
About the seventh page and I I just I broke down and I just I just cried until I I fell asleep that night I still haven’t read the rest of it I’ve read thousands of probable cause documents in my career and this one blew my mind the affidavit in this case begins
At 400 p.m. 12 hours after the murder with Corporal Brett Payne of the Moscow Police Department arriving at the scene and he takes the reader through each level of the house as officer pan approaches the first bedroom he sees a body which turns out to be Zanna carod also in the room
Deceased is her boyfriend Ethan chapen he proceeds upstairs to the third floor and he stops at kayle’s bedroom where her dog Murphy had been found earlier in the day by First Responders officer Payne moves on to the second bedroom on the third floor Maddy’s room officer Payne writes as I
Entered this bedroom I could see two females in the single bed in the room both consalvas and Mogan were deceased with visible stab wounds who would be capable of that kind of savagery there’s a tan leather knife sheath but no knife and it’s in bed right next to Maddie it’s incredibly significant that
Police find the sheath a cover to a knife in the bed next to Maddie it’s it’s called A Kar it has a marine Insignia on it which implies that it’s a combat knife a serious knife is this the cover to the murder weapon there is no filler in this
Affidavit there is a tremendous amount of information and you can literally hang on every single word it zeros in on a critical 25 minutes between 4: and 4:25 a.m. according to the affidavit the two surviv roommates confirm that the five housemates and Zan’s boyfriend Ethan were all home by 2
A.m. at 4:00 a.m. Zanna gets a door Dash delivery and based on what police retrieve from zanna’s phone they believe that she was still awake and on Tik Tok at 4:12 a.m. at approximately the same time as zanna’s 4: a.m. door Dash order is received one of the surviving
Roommates wakes up that roommate whom the a the David describes by the initials DM tells police that she woke up because she thought that she had heard Kaye playing with her dog a short time later DM said she heard who she thought was consolis say something to the effect of there’s someone
Here DM told police that she opened the door peaked outside but didn’t see anything she opened the door a second in time because she believed she heard crying from zanna’s room something really chilling at least when I read it was DM told police that she heard a male
Voice saying it’s okay I’m going to help you but when did she hear that was it before or after 4:12 a.m. we don’t know the next time stamp in the affidavit is at 4:17 that’s when a nearby security camera picks up what sounds like voices some whimpering and then a
Thud also a dog can be heard barking repeatedly starting at 4:17 a.m. I mean your mind is racing and what made the dog bark just then she looked out a third time she saw a man dressed in black wearing a mask covering his nose and mouth she described him to be 5’10
With bushy eyebrows and an athletic but not muscular build this man walked past her towards the backsliding glass door and she stood in a quote Frozen shock phase she told authorities at that point she locked her bedroom door so now authorities know that they’re looking for a tall Slim Man all
Dressed in black who exited the house through the sliding glass doors and then the Hunt is on officers respond to a call law enforcement is still looking for evidence at that point police engage in what’s known as a video canvas hoping to find something on surveillance camera
That might give them a clue as to who this person might be authorities identify a white sedan in the area starting at 3:29 a.m. this was not a vehicle that drove by at a random time of the night there were three passes of this vehicle and ultimately the fourth
They see the same car come back at 4:04 a.m. looks like it’s either trying to park or turn around that car is seen again around 4:20 in the morning departing the Kings Road area at a high rate of speed an FBI forensic examiner identified that white sedan as a 2011 to
2016 Hyundai alantra that’s why Moscow police issued that bolo request asking other law enforcement to be on the look out for that white Hyundai alantra 4 days later two police officers at Washington State University make the same Discovery and they find a 2015 white Hyundai Elantra uh which is registered to Brian
Cober as police are digging into to Brian cerg they find that he had two recent traffic stops and one of those encounters involved him providing a phone number to the police officer now they’ve got a cell phone that they can that they can do a search war on and now
They can start looking for the location of that cell phone in relation to the time of these murders his comings and goings before during and after the killing are tracked according to the affidavit this cell phone data shows at 2:47 a.m. Brian’s phone is no longer at his home and then suddenly stops
Reporting information to the tower which means it’s either an airplane mode it is Off the Grid or it has been turned off almost exactly 2 hours later at 4:48 a.m. the phone again registers back on the grid and appears to be moving away from Moscow Idaho to pulman Washington
According to the affidavit less than 4 hours later that cell phone is on the move again and between 9:12 and 9:21 a.m. it appears to return to the area of the King Road residence before the police are there which is absolutely billing the way that the authorities
Were able to connect the car to the cell phone records to the crime scene back to Brian cerg it’s a very powerful affidavit the affidavit essentially lays out what we call critical mass where eventually all of the clues start stacking up the video surveillance cameras the cell phone pings the
Physical description all of it starts to come together but authorities are about to reveal a detail hiding in plain sight that seems to connect Brian CER directly to this murder scene the Idaho state police crime lab team and forensic team have been in and out of the crime scene the FBI is
Joining The Manhunt for the killer as investigators returned to the crime scene looking for any new evidence that could shed light on the mysterious killings in crime scene investigation one of the most important things that they’re looking for is DNA was there any DNA Left Behind from that perpetrator
And when there has been an incredibly violent intimate crime like this it’s virtually impossible not to leave DNA behind what they’re looking for can vary it could be blood semen saliva or even a single hair it could be touch DNA just a few skin cells and it can be just a tiny
Amount of DNA one of the challenges with this house is that a lot of people lived in the house and a lot of people were in and out friends visiting so it’s like a soup of DNA but remember remember that tan leather knife sheath that had been left
Behind in the bedroom that would be a huge clue for investigators so obviously glove wearing CSI people are picking this sheath up they’re preserving it so as not to damage or destroy any potential DNA they enclose it it gets sent to a crime lab where they will do everything in their
Power to connect it to a killer would have swabbed different parts of it including that button and on that button they found a single Source male DNA sample that’s really important because that ties it back to just that one Male if they run it through cotus which is the big database of criminal DNA and there is no match that tells them that the Killer is likely not a previous offender investigators then have the option to upload the suspect’s DNA profile to a public database and see if they can get
A hit on a relative they may have been performing parallel investigations where they started the investigative genetic geneology very early they would have gotten their match list and started building trees you’re looking for common ancestors in those trees so you can piece back together the tree of this unknown perpetrator
But investigators in idah Hill already had a head start start on who their suspect was because of that white 2015 Hyundai Elantra and that was Brian cober according to the affidavit the cops have a name of a suspect they have a car and they’ve tracked the suspect and his dad back to
Their home in Pennsylvania and they’re under surveillance the next step is to find a way to match the DNA that they have in their possession police now know that Brian is back home in Pennsylvania with his family for the Christmas break so the FBI and the other
Authorities get a search warrant to grab the family trash bag legally you have abandoned your trash or your DNA when you throw it away and Most states allow for your trash to be picked up by law enforcement and search they’re looking for items in the trash bag that can be swabbed for DNA
And those items like cups tissues anything that your mouth would have touched like a soda can a pop bottle those items are then sent back to the state lab in Idaho for analysis the trash is processed and boom there is a match the DNA on the sheath
Matches is DNA found in the family trash they were able to confirm that the DNA from the trash was very likely from the father of the individual who left the DNA behind at the crime scene the match to the dad is a home run for investigators because he shares 50%
Of the suspects DNA which means this is a 99.999% chance that the DNA found on that knife sheath belongs to Brian cober so you add all this great circumstantial evidence which is very powerful to this incredible DNA statistic and that DNA is the Smoking Gun this Gibs police as seen in the
Probable cause affidavit everything they need to get in and get this guy in cffs once they get Brian and custody they do the old cheek swab taken directly from primary suspect and that definitively tells the police they’ve got their guy at that point all the rest of the DNA analysis and investigation becomes
Irrelevant what’s important is getting that exact match being able to say the chances that this individual is the one that left their DNA behind at the crime scene are one in say 300 trillion and that’s an astronomical probability so how could Brian cober’s attorneys mount a defense against those
Odds even after Brian cober’s dad is seen in images posted by the dailymail.com picking up the pieces after that SWAT team raid on their family home in Pennsylvania University of Idaho students are bracing themselves to return to campus it was definitely a decision coming back to Moscow rather
Than imp past I know I was like it’s going to be hard no matter what and it’s going to be just overwhelming even with the suspect Behind Bars there’s a new sense that life on campus will never be the same there’s a little sense of relief now
That they have a person in custody but I’m still locking my bedroom door which is something I’ve never done in the Past yesterday’s status Hearing in this Idaho Courthouse was requested by Brian coworker public defender an Taylor and given the sheer volume of evidence and complexity of this case it’s no surprise she told the judge she needs more time to prepare her def defense we are going to ask the court to set preliminary
Hearing out into June Mr cerg have you had enough time to speak with Miss Taylor about your decision to wave your right to a speedy preliminary hearing yes images from the hearing show that coburger has a number of cuts on his face the sheriff says they’re from
Shaving ABC can also report that there’s extra security watching cober at all times the judge has imposed a gag order prohibiting lawyers or investigators from publicizing any details about this case you’re balancing the rights of Mr Colberg and the Public’s right to know and that’s a delicate balance but one
That has to be maintained in pursuing a fair trial despite what authorities say is convincing evidence of guilt a resolution in this case is likely years away the defense is going to pump the bricks in a huge way what they’re going to want to do is create as much distance
As possible between the horror of this case and the ultimate presentation of evidence in front of the jury there is a mountain of information and evidence that has to be presented and developed provided to the defense tested by them this is a long road to Justice I think that what we’re going to
See next is there will be a not guilty plea entered by Brian cober and his defense team which point the discovery process begins I fully expect Mr cber to continue to plead not guilty I think a trial is extremely likely in this case they will either take it to a grand jury
For indictment or they’ll do what’s called a preliminary hearing and order to establish the probable cause that Brian cober more likely than not committed these crimes and yet there are a number of questions in this case that may have direct impact on whether coworker is found guilty or innocent of
The charges against him the burning question for me is why why kill these four students and why them what was it about them is there a connection between Brian cerg and these four students there’s a shoeprint that hasn’t figured into the case as of yet but will
That be more important down the road we will see we also don’t know what happened to the murder weapon where is can it be Found motive is a question that everybody has in a case like this but it’s important to remember that motive is not actually an element of the crime often times we don’t know what motivated a human being to take the life of another human being and we don’t have to prove it as
Prosecutors there are so many questions about this case and perhaps one of the biggest points that really does not make sense to people is how is it possible that there could be a Survivor who saw the killer face to face how is it possible the real question for me is
Going to be what’s his defense I would expect that as the prosecution tries to put all the pieces together the defense will try and attack each piece separately attack the cell phone data attack the car evidence attack the DNA evidence the significant issue with the sheath DNA is that it’s transfer or
Touch DNA that DNA can remain on there for a significant period of time what they will likely argue is that it could have been transferred it could have been on there for a long period of time that perhaps Brian gave that knife sheath away and someone else could have
Transported that to the crime scene if it’s not Brian Colberg who is he Brian specifically said that he’s eager to be exonerated implicitly meaning that he’s innocent of the crime after reading the Affidavit of probable cause I do believe there are obviously holes in the prosecution case at this
Time in response to this tragedy the coburger family has released this statement first and foremost we deeply care for the four families who have lost their precious children we will continue to let the legal process unfold and as a we will love and support our son and
Brother while much of the attention has been focused on Brian cerer and the allegations against him friends and family of the victims are seeking special ways to honor those taken from them we felt like that was a really really significant opportunity for us to to honor our friend This is a roll up your sleeves Community we were really raised to help each other out tulips are iconic for scad Valley and because of our geography and our climate we can grow amazing tulips Ethan was on our parking lot crew and he was also out in the field and he
Was so great at his job because he’s a big guy always smiling I mean I never saw him not smile Ethan was a standup guy just such a genuine person there was not an ounce of bad in the guy he was one in a million he’s one of those
People that’s like you feel like you’ve known him forever and then we came up with the idea that we could name a tulip after him so we made a mix and named it Ethan smiled and you know I immediately thought of him standing smiling in a tulip Field we felt like that was a really really significant opportunity for us to to honor our friend Ethan Chen’s family sent a statement to 2020 saying that it’s incredible to see the new scholarships organized by the University of Idaho and the Sigma fraternity in Ethan’s name in addition
His love of basketball inspired a new nonprofit these actions are a testament to his incredible character and will continue to honor Ethan’s Legacy now and in the future Ethan and Zanna really painted the perfect picture for what a relationship should look like Zan and Ethan they were in The public’s eyes and
My eyes almost a perfect match I’ve never met someone like Zanna before usually people keep their guard up when you first meet someone and Zanna she never batted an eye it was all right you’re in my life and you’re going to see The Good the Bad the Ugly Zanna had
Her most fun when she was surrounded by her friends or family that’s where she shined the brightest just one of the best people to be around with Zanna came Ethan with Kaye came Maddie that was her sidekick best friend ride or die I wouldn’t even call them
Best friends because I had best friends and I have never had a relationship like theirs like they were sisters they were the friends that everybody aspired to be they were definitely put on the planet to be together and to be best friends something special about Kaye is that she
Was really really really loyal anything would happen Kaye was a call away and she was very very protective of those that she loved Maddie was so much fun to be around she was so many people’s best friend Maddie’s father said that their family always bonded over music and from
Now on there is one song that will always make him think of Maddie Angel by Sarah mclin the lyrics really are touching and uh that’s what reminds Me a lot of dads refer to their little girls as their Angels but Maddie actually had angel wings tattooed on her arm and this is a picture of her first tattoo she got these little angel wings I’m even going to go in with my sister and we’re going to get that tattoo
Together I think next week and it’ll be my first tattoo also these were for amazing people that just had the biggest hearts loved those around them and loved each Other keeping their memories alive and of course there are still so many questions to be answered in this case and we will stay on this tragedy in Idaho every step of the way in the meantime that is our program for tonight I’m David M from all
Of us here at 2020 in ABC news thank you for watching good night we don’t tell people we love them often enough and if you learn anything from this you don’t know how much time you have Ever 911 help me help me my wife she’s dead so tell me about that night September 28th 2015 you were on duty yep was on duty in R up there I just ended up feeling something drink so you weren’t really prepared for what you about to find no okay where she at
Oh oh okay one day you wake up and the Music Stops and the rugs pulled out and these poor kids went to bed and woke up and they had lost everything I got a female mid-30s early 40s her face is completely beaten in she definitely fought for her
Life and her children’s life she fought to her last breath to save their life family and friends are mourning the loss of the mother of two my daughter said there was a robber in the house and she saw them and she said she saw the man
Kill mommy he came in went my mom’s room and started hitting her she hits seen her mother killed beaten to death everyone says the same thing this could happen in my town this could happen to me well yes yes it Can in the Southern Tier of New York we border on Pennsylvania it’s kind of a rural Area we have the finger legs here when you look at them on a map it looks like someone placed their hand on the on the Topography of this area and pressed them in and that’s what was left was the Legs summertime is it’s a very big tourist area we got a lot of people to come through and stay at the lake also hit our wineries when the weather gets cold and the days get shorter there’s a little less to do Out outdoors and I think when
The Jackal are arrived in 2000 it really gave the community the town something to Rally around on those winter nights Jackal played in the united Hockey League about two steps below the NH chionship they were Superstars everybody was in awe over these these guys agitator award goes to Tom Clayton
Clayton coming back at him you could say Tom Clayton was a local celebrity Tom was uh chippy uh aggressive his job was to go out there and instigate trouble he would you know slash other players he would just try to get them agitated to the point where
They would draw a penalty get one of their top guys off the ice for 2 minutes 5 minutes you know it’s it’s a job done guys want to fight someone just like when you’re a little kid and you get so mad you just want to fight you
Know Clayton is most certainly one of the jackal’s biggest antagonizers on and off the ice you might remember a certain shaving cream incident was that Clayton Tom’s personality off the rink was the exact same he was aggressive he was sure of himself he and some other Jackal wear a bar and he got up on a bar and he stripped down to nothing and danced in front of the bar there was
Kind of a scuffle that ensued over some of those clothes that went missing some punches were thrown I think definitely was an embarrassing moment for the team and they would say oh that’s just Thomas when he would walk into a bar what was that like he would have a herum
Of girls following him I mean he didn’t have to buy a drink anywhere he went he wouldn’t have to pay for dinner and one of the women who caught Tom Clayton’s eye was Kelly Stage she was my little s we actually lived West almyra my father was the fire chief there for many years Kelly was definitely outgoing spontaneous sassy definitely sassy didn’t put up with Anything she loved music we would drive around in the car we ride and listen to music and sing as a young woman Kelly loved hanging out with her friends and she loved country music so they would often head to Nashville to party at the Country Music Awards Festival she loved Luke Bryan was unlike anything we had experienced you know we just lived it up for maybe a week what were her hopes and dreams as a young woman well she had initially gone to school to become a teacher and she came home and then she’s like I’m moving to Vegas I don’t want to
Be a teacher we were all we were all like really and they like packed their car drove across country and she moved to Vegas she cocktail waitress she also did a little bit of modeling out there I have a picture of her I love this where
She has a 30 lb feather headdress on and she absolutely was the girl who didn’t want to have regrets and I don’t think she did so she did that and then she wound up back here she came back here to visit for Christmas and we went to a
Alyra jackals hockey game and that night is when she first saw Thomas Clayton he got checked into the boards and his helmet flies off and my sister’s like holy cow he was good-looking and she went out that night to a bar after the game with her best friend
Andy he was sitting at the bar and I asked him do you have a girlfriend and he said uh who are you asking for he said not me he said the blonde she’s unbelievable what was it about him that attracted such attention he was smooth
He tried to make you feel like you were the most beautiful girl in the room he was a good time but sometimes took things too far I loved him as a brother he just was I hate to say it he was obnoxious and he loved to make people uncomfortable he
Would say things that were inappropriate maybe in front of me and I would often say to him Tas I’m her mother don’t talk to me like that and he’d think of it was funny and then everybody would just say oh that’s Thomas she loved him and defended him and told
Everybody that that’s just Tom one year after Tom and Kelly married Tom was injured and his hockey career came to an end we’re not here for a long time we’re here for a good time you know and you can only play pro hockey for so
Long then you have to go to the real world and get a job you know work 9 to5 after he retired from hockey he started a remediation company through a flood or something they could come in and fix your home cleanup Crews tell me that the work has really just begun Clayton even
Made the local news with his new business after there was a disaster and his company was hired to do the cleaning up and the houses are going to be demoed and back filled and they’re going to be pretty much bacon lots and the homers are going to decide whether they want to
Rebuild or not he was soon in charge of running a serve pro franchise the fire and water cleanup gen at 1800 Ser Pro like it never even happened Thomas was actually a fairly successful businessman another big change in their life children first came a little girl they
Called Charlie followed 3 years later by a boy named Cullen she loved being a man she did everything for those kids I thought they were an ideal family they did everything together were they happy she was very happy and as far as I knew he was happy too my sister truly truly
Loved him were they doing well financially as a family they had purchased a home that Kelly absolutely loved and life appeared to be wonderful for Kelly Tom Charlie and Colin but then one night Tom Clayton comes home late from a poker game and makes a horrifying
Discovery help me help me my wife’s dead the 911 call was pretty Eerie he had just found his wife is she breathing it on nothing no trust me trust me okay is she Beyond CPR yes to you’ll see you’ll see when I get here and what police did see when they
Arrived shocked even veteran investigators Yeah 911 help me help me my wife she’s dead we’ll get help to you as quick as we Can so tell me about that night September 28th 2015 you were on duty yeah was on duty um I’m patroling it was I believe a little after midnight when we got the call to show youing to the man Ro what do you understand the call is about um the call came in as a woman down a medical situation how long has she been down I don’t know I don’t know I just got home deputy sheriff Dean Swan drove me along the route to the crime scene it
Was his new body camera that documented every minute that night what’s location 2 two I’m on Whiskey Creek almost to Gan now what were you thinking something was wrong I just had a got feeling something’s wrong close and when you pulled up to the scene what was the first thing you
Noticed when I pulled up to the scene I saw a gentleman at the front door now this was the neighbor this was the neighbor Y how you doing hey what’s going on um time just came I’m the neighbor he just came and got me out of bed I could
See he was visibly shaking I could see there was something wrong okay what happened his wife his wife is in okay so I entered the home anybody else in the house Tom just you got theid the neighbor’s house okay where’s she At he’s directed to the kitchen and when he saw the scene it must have taken him back who oh okay the victim lay dead on the kitchen floor her head bashed in she was hit with some kind of heavy object come on out here I want you to have a seat
You don’t need to see that anymore okay it was gruesome there was blood spatter pretty much everywhere P where were you when this all went down with my bu okay she was home alone I came home and my daughter said there was a robber in the house and she saw
Them okay come on out here man so the officers brought him outside the house the trauma level of interviewing him in a house where his wife has been killed would just be too much that water yeah we’ll get you water take it easy Bud take it easy we were just trying to get
Him to sit down try to take some deep breath and try to calm down you’re not in trouble okay I’m just going to give you have a seat so we can talk to you all right he had checked his clothes and His Hands let me see your hands real
Quick man you ain’t hurt or anything okay good okay for any sign of struggle or blood or any other evidence that would indicate he was part of this and found thatone come talk to me over here for a second the only one I had actually talked to after that was the neighbor Mr
Aly was just off to the side with a look of complete shock he say anything to you about anything I tell he knocked on the door he asked my wife if we would take the kids he said there come with me quick I got in the truck and he flew back over
Okay any problems here have you ever seen any problems here I haven’t okay Officer Swan knew he had a crime scene so the first thing he had to do was make sure there were no more suspects in the house and no one who could possibly be in danger or in
Distress we got to clear this house I’m going to go this way just cover me I’m going to go upstairs I got to go up and clear it so I got blood on the wall Blood on the stops looks like she was attacked in bed whenever you search a building and just
Go from room to room you don’t ever pass a door I got to clear over here the kids rooms are over here this one’s clear let me check this last room clear there’s blood all over she’s been dragged Blood on the wall blood with a
Hole in the wall looks like a face plant into the wall all right I’m going to get a paramedic come in and verify nobody I mean nobody comes in unless you see me first or I get a supervisor here Deputy Swan brings in a paramedic but sadly it’s really just a formality
At this point you follow me and just stay I’ll show you where stuff is try to stay to the right here a little bit her face is complete yeah oh my God yeah her face was basically destroyed it was one of the more brutal scenes I’ve ever seen in my career
To know that there’s a person out there capable of that that’s not in custody at that moment in time was all hands on deck everyone involved we’re going to need all investigators I’m a say soon after dialing 911 Tom Clayton had called Kelly’s Sister Kim Kim Kim
Kelly’s dead I said what I don’t know she she’s dead somebody broke in she’s dead here they come going to have to stop them Kelly’s sister showed up very soon after we established a perimeter with K’s mom it was all crime scene tape all over her whole property this was lit up like
A Christmas tree sge family coming I remember running to the ambulance expecting to find them working on my sister she was very upset when she couldn’t see her sister and I said no that she doesn’t look like she did in life you don’t want to see her I just remember hearing Kim Screaming I didn’t know how she died I didn’t know what happened to her I didn’t know where she was and I just wanted to go to her and I wanted to hold her but I I couldn’t when the coroners van left with the body they asked if they could pray
Over the body as it was being loaded we finally got to say a prayer for her when they took her away as the night wears on investigators are combing through everything for evidence no murder weapon turns up but they do find suspicious tire tracks they were really just
Investigating a robbery at that point it was a robbery gone bad I just want to make sure there’s no forc entry this a random killing at a house in the middle of the woods and they start digging and they don’t have to dig too deeply to start getting some real answers
I got a female mid-30s early 40s beaten to death the assault initially took place on the second floor up in the master bedroom blood all over and looks like she was attacked in bed Kelly Clayton was struck there she jumped up she ran down the hall first to her children’s room
There’s blood in the kids’ room you could tell that she had went to Charlie’s room and actually we’re pretty sure shut the door and tried to keep this Intruder outside the children’s room she definitely um fought for her life and her her Children’s Life Blood
On the wall blood with a hole in the wall proof suggests that she was shoved down those stairs cuz her hip and buttocks area slammed into the side of the landing leaving a hole there’s blood all over she’d been dragged then down the stairs through the kitchen it looks
Like maybe she ran around the island in the kitchen I mean it was a it was a long battle and on the kitchen floor where he clubbed her to death striking her in the face the last moments of her life were absolutely horrific one theory is that the reason
She went downstairs was to take the Intruder away from the children she fu to her last breath to save their life now police have got to figure out who that Intruder is they’ve already got one big lead based on something Tom Clayton had already told
Them you came home when the kids were up and they said there was a robber in the house when the police arrived there didn’t look like there was any forced entry the side doors open that doors open no forced entry on people okay we checked the safe we checked her jewelry
There was no sign of of theft at all you don’t beat people to death if it’s a Robbie could you strike somebody could you shoot them sure I think that was kind of the perspective was okay we have no evidence of a robbery so what do we have as investigators dig deeper into
That puzzle Tom Clayton is outside the house pacing back and forth nervously just take some deep breaths and stop try to stay calm well sit down then come on over here sit down as the family members arrived Thomas was up by one of the police cars
Was Tom distraught when you saw him what did how did he appear all I remember is that his head was down in his hands I couldn’t hear him I also couldn’t get near him I saw him sitting inside the crime scene he did not a knowledge me here their sister their
Daughter their friend his wife is dead and it didn’t sit well it didn’t look right I’m wonder if he had atic weather she to see how her face has beat when you see that kind of damage especially to someone’s face uh it tends to lead
You to a crime of passion it tends to make you believe that it was someone that was known to the aggressor only thing I can think he was domestic she hit here boom gone he’s trying to cover it up now this had the earmarks of a domestic violent dispute
Thomas Clayton had an alibi he said that he was at a poker game he couldn’t have possibly have committed this crime claiming he was out playing poker came home kid said Daddy there was a robbery and when Deputy Swan questions neighbor Derek Aly for a second time he doesn’t
Have anything suspicious to report did you know these guys real well at all yeah we’ve been neighbors for a while okay you don’t know of any troubles though between anybody here him or her or somebody else in them or anything I really know he was really
Upset my God he was okay did he have any blood on him that you saw when he first come over did he change his clothes ever when he were here with him here yeah no no okay and remember Tom Clayton brought his two young children over to Derek Al
House right after he made that 911 call Charlie and cullin stayed at Tommy’s while Derek went back to ca’s house with Thomas clay Colin was three Charlie seven and these poor kids went to bed and woke up and they had lost everything life as they knew it was
Gone in the midst of this hate is crime the world goes on that morning before the community understood what had happened the School Bus shows up I remember the school bus driving by when finally in the morning and they were going to stop at the end of the
Driveway to get Charlie and I remember all the little kids like looking looking at the window you know looking for Charlie but little Charlie is down the street and about to play a big role in this investigation that’s because it turns out she’s the only eyewitness to her mother’s murder
Daughter’s okay talk to him more here in a minute okay Charlie had witnessed the entire brutal murder of her mother she had seen her mother killed yes beaten beaten to death she described Kelly’s last breaths a seven-year-old yes and now Charlie is sitting down with investigators about to tell them
Everything she saw can you tell me what he he was wearing jeans a black BR shirt and a mask and what Charlie tells them next immediately changes everything I I I couldn’t believe it can never imagine the horror of hearing that one of your children was brutally Beat to Death ever investigators are
Trying to piece together those last minutes of Kelly Clayton’s life that’s when the investigators took Mr Clayton back to the state police barracks and Painted Post and started interviewing him he was visibly upset he wasn’t crying he was just kind of excited he said he had left work went to
A place for gymnastics that he eventually went home was home briefly and then he went off to play poker and that he discovered a Kelly upon his return yeah we asked him several times if he had killed his wife Kelly and he absolutely denied any involvement at all in
It while they’re talking to Clayton at the crime scene investigators are beginning to hear Rumblings about a possible eyewitness and at the same time Sheriff Allard is talking to Clayton 7-year-old daughter Charlie at a neighbor’s house I walked into the residence and uh just kind of sat down and started talking to
Charlie and we just started a little chat and uh I said you know what did you see she told me that a man was hurting mommy and mommy was yelling run Charlie run in her room she hears her mother yelling run Charlie run her mother actually got
To her bedroom doorway and may have like actually taken a step inside Charlie follows the fight Charlie had told that she had seen somebody hitting her mother with she described as a like a white stick and she kept saying he did this and he did
That and and so finally I said how do you know it’s a he and she said his eyes look just like Daddy’s those three little words eyes like Daddy opened a Pandora’s Box and that had to have turned this investigation for sure onto Thomas Clayton that was a chilling moment for me and I knew that at that moment in time before we went any further I needed some help in this
Interview you get to teach me how to tell police do the best they can to make the space comfortable for the seven-year-old child there are blocks in the Room well Charlie do you know why we brought you here today okay we’re going to have to talk a little bit about last night okay or ask question that you’re not certain about or that you don’t understand can you let me know okay all right she’s lost her mother she’s not
With her father so she’s with some strangers at this point being interviewed and you kind of got to treat these this kind of witness obviously with kid clubs so one of the key factors in interviewing children is that you have a professional child interview or
With you because it’s a real art do you know what the truth and a li is what’s the truth it means it really happened in our lives that it didn’t happen right right very good so soart 2020 obtained this video from authorities of Charlie’s interview with investigators she tells them that her
Dad put her to bed and then left to go play cards with some of his friends and in the middle of the night uh this guy came my mom was like this pipe thingy can you tell me more about that um there was blood everywhere um on my door on the floor
Not in the carpet and I thought she was dead when she was L on ground and Daddy was out play cars we were basically alone for like like 20 minutes then he came home then he like cuz he saw my mom She appears not to really know what’s happened to her mother she appears detached she’s not emotionally distraught she’s not crying so here’s a 7-year-old girl that saw one of the most traumatic things you’re ever going to see in your life and she’s a smart girl super smart girl and I think her mind
Was trying to work through it and figure out what did I just see remember what the thing looked like that he was hting M pip how did the the and what did you see after that she sort of suffering I with and I leg okay and where was mom when you down in
The kitchen with my first thought Charlie has the most beautiful blue eyes most beautiful eyes and all I could think of was what those eyes saw could have been my dad he looked really like he looked like my dad what did he look like your dad the mask and
His you SE your anybody wear that mask before I did the anything probably not say anything because what if it was my daddy we could we could recognize his voice everything was just like Daddy and and then she looks at me she goes but it couldn’t have been Daddy because then who would
Take care of us after answering questions for Sheriff Allard Charlie now has a heart breaking one of her own it’s about my mom like where is she at and she hasn’t comprehended that her mother’s dead right then she wants to know where her mother is like how is
Monty you know we know we need to find it out for you okay I said I don’t know sweetie I knew at that time obviously but she needed to be with family when she learned that now was police Officers no doubt Charlie’s statement is damning but there’s one little problem when police talked to Thomas Clayton he said he was at a poker game in a nearby town and when they looked into it Tom sat here the last night that he that he played his Alibi was true
There was an eerie atmosphere because of this horrible brutal mysterious murder at the house in the middle of the woods family and friends are mourning the loss of the mother of two while police continue their investigation at the home a lot of people were struggling to come
To grips with this beautiful mother of two who br toally murdered back in 2018 I spoke with one of the State Police investigators who interviewed Thomas Clayton in the early morning hours after the murder was his thinking this was a a burglar this was a somehow a robbery
Correct and the robbers is the one that committed the murder did that seem consistent with what you have seen over the years with how a lot of robberies turn out no that was a a brutal murder that was not a robbery we were basically telling him that your daughter is
Pointing the finger that you that you were the robber Thomas said things during the course of the next hour or two that raised some red flags you were looking at the blood spatter she was hit numerous times you don’t beat people to death if it’s a robbery perhaps maybe killing
Kelly was the real goal he just wasn’t acting as a normal person would if they just discovered their wife uh br murdered a little more composed he was definitely calmer than I would say a normal person would be he wasn’t agitated was he confused and wondering
Who could do this why somebody would do this he couldn’t mention one suspect who might want to harm his wife or his family and there was something else that raised big suspicions his initial call to 911 at first he sounds so frantic he’s like it almost seems like he’s
Hyperventilating when he’s talking to the 91 operator I’m take my kids I’m going to take my kids how long has she how long has she been down I don’t know I don’t know I just got home but that 911 call remained open and then all of a
Sudden when he believes that no one is listening his whole tone changes it’s not frantic he’s very calm and very quiet spoken was it a robber it appeared that he was suggesting to the children to perhaps talk about a robbery they asked about it you have to look at the
Circumstantial stuff like what does his daughter say what does the crime scene look like how was the person killed all of those things in this case would suggest that this is a domestic homicide after being questioned at the New York State Police Barracks Thomas Clayton was arrested and charged with
The murder of his wife this description from Charlie of this asent look looking like her daddy eyes mask clothes he gets charged largely based upon Charlie’s words a mother of two is dead and now her husband is charged with the murder Thomas Clayton was arraigned in Kon town
Court Tuesday on a second degree murder charge for the death of Kelly Clayton so your sister has been brutally murdered and now your brother-in-law is being charged with her murder how did you even begin to fa this you you can’t this is a part of your family and now he’s
Charged with killing one of my most favorite people in the entire world it’s awful this is someone I loved as a brother and one day you wake up and everything that was safe and normal and life is it’s just the music staffs and their hugs pulled out while authorities suspected early on
This could be a domestic dispute Thomas Clayton had an Alibi Thomas Clayton’s Alibi was that he was playing a Monday night poker game at the home of Greg and Linda Miller a place he would go most Mondays this is where we played poker on Monday evenings every Monday at 7:00 where did Tom it Tom sat here the
Last night that he played and I would be the bank over here what’ you think of him lucky Tom mhm Tom was very likable very flirtatious but overall you got along with him well you got along great so take me back to September 28th 2015 his mind was not into poker you
Could tell usually he maybe jokes around a lot more and there was nothing none of that he was doing a lot of texting on his phone he was there until the game broke up and Greg Miller recalled that Thomas left his home at about 12:15 for the 10 to 15 minute ride
Home at what point did you hear that there had been a tragedy at the Clayton home the next morning in the 6:00 range there’s someone knocking at the door and he says you had a poker game last night I says yes he says guy that you know as
Hockey puck was here Tom Clayton I go yes he was and then he says Tom went home last night and found his wife murdered what are you thinking you hear that Kelly was killed I was numb I was like they I think he talked to us and I
Didn’t even know what they said and I said there’s no way Tom could do anything like this I said there’s no possible way so you’re looking at the wrong guy Thomas Clayton wanted the police to get off of him stop looking at him and look elsewhere check the GPS of my truck I
Got a solid Alibi and the GPS records from his work truck confirm Clayton’s Alibi he didn’t get back home until around 12:35 a.m. 911 he called 911 at about 12:38 he was not present at the time Kelly Clayton was murdered clearly police knew they still
Had a lot of work to do they’ve now charged Thomas Clayton with the murder of his wife even though he had a rock solid Alibi is it possible police have arrested the wrong man and police discover there was another person in the house open the
Door walks in and get the shot on my life this was a case of Rage a brutal murder in a home set in the woods to find this mother of two who’s in her mid-30s but she fought Charlie had witnessed the entire brutal murder of her mother she had seen
Her mother killed a 7-year-old could have been my dad but he looked like he looked like my dad how did he look like your dad a mask and his shoes up until that moment we thought that Tom and Kelly had this loving almost perfect relationship Thomas had an airtight now
Life how did you do it is it possible police have arrested the wrong man you called us why walks in and get the shock of my life I see her l on the floor they need to get to the bottom of it who went into that house who bludgeon
Elly Clayton to death and why the man accused of killing his wife in their Kon home back in September appeared in court today Clayton remains out of jail after posting bail in October Clayton pleed not guilty to second degree murder after Thomas gets bailed out he ends up cleaning the house
Himself from the murder of Kelly and he stays living in that house we know that within a month or two of this horrendous crime he was having sexual fling with a with a woman we found that Thomas had been dating women even before the murder of Kelly but
Certainly after the murder of Kelly as well he goes and gambles at the B Ada in Atlantic City he’s living life definitely not the life of a morning husband he didn’t seem to be profoundly upset that his wife was deceased after the crime he continued to profess his
Innocence he called me and he had just said you know that it wasn’t him he loved her he never would do anything like that to hurt her lucky Miller says she remembers having an uncomfortable runin with Thomas Clayton at a local casino I came down the escalator I hear
Lucky lucky he’s like hi lucky he goes I didn’t do it so he pleaded his innocence with you too mhm I I didn’t do it you know I was going to take her away and a second honeymoon and I’m like Tom I don’t know what to believe as police
Begin been interviewing all kinds of people close to Thomas Clayton a name comes up Michael beard Thomas Clayton and Michael beard knew each other for at least five years I learned that he was a jack of all trades for Thomas Clayton and he’ been to Clayton family home to do jobs there
Occasionally Mr beard and Byron pitz my colleague Byron Pitts sat down with Clayton’s former employee Michael beard anytime SU need to come up and he called me I would go fix that you like his go-to guy if he needs something done his handyman how would he describe he
Described me as being a reliable worker now I’m the first one he called if he needed someone to stay longer he knew I would stay longer first then last to leave Michael beard worked for Thomas Clayton initially he was hired to work for Clayton’s cleaning service they were
Going in clean homes that were flooded or after a fire he became Thomas go-to guy his handyman if uh you have water damage uh at your home as a result of a hurricane or flood insurance company might hire Ser Pro send them to your home I would come in and cut the
Drywalls pull up the rugs anything that got infected by the water that was there we would just basically get removed one of the extraordinary things about Michael beard is how incredibly ordinary he is he had children in South Carolina he also had child in Upstate New York he
Was a primary bread winner he was living paycheck to paycheck and so when he met Thomas Clayton this local sports hero who had a business he thought his life was changing for the better I would work hard for him he would give me a little rewards like he
Brought me a bicycle because one job where we was working at I ended up catching a cab so I told him like I couldn’t afford the cab every day to get to this job so the deal was to him was if you brought me a bite I to pay that
Back I would just have to work hard for it I said well you know I’m doing that already and one day he came back with a bicycle how would you describe your relationship with Tom Clayton how would you character my relationship was more of a work relationship I never hung out
With him after work or nothing like that tell me about his wife Kelly what was she like she was pretty cool person it’s been a few times where she went to go pay bills or something and the kids didn’t want to go so she asked if I mind
Watching them for her until she come back hey that give me time to quit working plus I’m getting paid so you know we was pretty cool and how would you describe the kids Charlie and Cullen beautiful respectful smart intelligent so you knew them and they knew you very well I basically seen them
Grow up Thomas Clayton also owned the building where beard lived with his family so Thomas Clayton Ellen was he your boss he was your landlord correct he had to pay Thomas Clayton $1,000 month rent Thomas Clayton was kind of like his Lifeline he depended on him for
Not only work but also for where he lived when there was no work to be done there was talk that what Thomas would do is make sure that beard was employed my sister had made lunch for him when he did work on their home my sister gave hme down clothes to his
Children financially beard dependent on him I was say basically like his a man but just a couple of weeks before Kelly’s murder Clayton fires his aan there were accusations that beard had been drinking on the job I remember my daughter coming to me saying mom Tom just told us he fired Michael
Beard and I remember us going you know to the investigator and giving them that name when they said you were fire did did you you push back did you say I’m not drink on the job it’s not true I spoke in my defense there was no proof
Of me drinking on the job I mean I do drink but I don’t drink on the job what state did it leave you in you lost your job I was basically in broke this was a guy who was living hand to mouth paycheck to paycheck when he
Had a job now without a primary job a man who was struggling is now really beginning to struggle and to make matters worse he’s now behind on the $1,000 a month rent that he owes Thomas Clayton according to beard that Thomas had started eviction proceedings against
Him and he had to move out police go and talk to Michael beard and they ask him where he was that night and he said it was a tragedy that Kelly had died but that he was home that night initially we pick him up uh we take him to the
Barracks he denies any involvement with the murder he says that he uh had been at home the night of the murder drinking the entire night and never left the house after talking to police lucky Miller begins replaying the night of that poker game back in her mind and after rethinking every second she
Remembers something he walked up and asked me if he could borrow my phone I’m like yeah sure when he handed you the phone back did he seem bothered or no he just put it on the table he goes thanks lucky and he went back downstairs so you thought nothing of it nothing
After she has that memory that he borrowed her phone she immediately checks to see who he called and look at the phone I’m like there’s nothing and she’s yelling at me you got to look at my phone and she’s shaking like this I instantly thought the worst lucky Miller who host poker nights
With her husband Greg has just had a major Revelation that Thomas Clayton asked to use her cell phone when his seemed to be working fine this was on the night of the murder and look at the phone I’m like there’s nothing no evidence of a phone call and she’s
Yelling at me get your glasses you got to look at my phone she’s shaking like this and I look I go no he didn’t use any phone call she goes no he used my phone I go then he deleted him she goes you can delete phone numbers I go yeah
You can delete phone numbers she goes I didn’t know you could delete phone numbers we determined through her records that Tom had used her phone that he had actually had a conversation with that person then deleted it from Mrs Miller’s phone at the time you could
Plug in a phone number to Facebook and it would spit up the account please find out that the suspicious call that was made was Michael beard beard had just been fired from Clayton’s company and he was also renting from him so the two men were connected Michael beard was from my
Knowledge what I would call A Gentle Giant he was a a man with a very physical presence softspoken kind and often desperate financially you have a Justified reason to call Michael wi are you deleting the calls and why did you not just use your own cell phone Matt
Lambert who is a state police investigator was familiar with Mr beard from work in the city of almyra after the phone records came forward uh Matt went back out and talk to Mr beard again so we picked him up at his house on Grand Central LA uh in almyra at that
Point and drove him to the state police barracks and Painted Post I discuss uh the findings that we had with him um he denies any involvement with the murder he says that he had been home the night of the murder drinking with his wife the entire night and never left the
House my name is James vaugh I was an investigator for the New York C State Police I was a polygraph examiner back in 2018 investigator V showed me the area where he performed that Li detector test on beard polygraph chair polygraph chair that’s the same chair he was
Sitting in so we decide that a polygraph is the best course of action determine what exactly where we stand with this guy if he’s telling the truth if he’s lying because we don’t really have a lot to go on at that point how did he handle the um polygraph he deny his all
Involvement he was deceived for that point we began a more intense more pointed uh interrogation Holly Barrett was a Michael Beer’s partner they lived together in this apartment owned by Thomas Clayton they had to interview her once they were looking at Michael beard they separated them and they were
Talking to them hly was frustrated with Michael beard because they were in financial troubles him being not having a job and apparently her job not being quite enough to keep the family afloat they had been fighting and he left around 11:30 and then he came back like
An hour and a half later that fits in with getting a call from Thomas at 10:53 Holly also says something that actually really Cracks the Case Thomas Clayton had approached Michael beard about burning his house out for $10,000 so in the other room they’re interviewing Michael obviously he
Doesn’t know she’s actually telling that he was gone for a period of time my boss came into the into the interrogation with that information said Michael we know about the $10,000 he throughout the entire interview became more and more emotional started exhibiting signs of like nervousness like his stomach was was
Growling signs that in my experience are very typical of somebody that’s guilty of something and just kind of waiting and stressing about the truth actually coming out and he kind of put his head down and I was close to him sitting in front of him and I was like Mike is
$10,000 the reason that you killed Kelly and he kind of paused for a second then responded yeah that’s why I did it it’s a surprising twist for investigators beard making a full confession to murdering Kelly Clayton as another job for his boss he didn’t even get any
Money up front I mean he he he was going to go do this on the promise from Tom Clayton that he’d be paid $10,000 in a sign written confession be lays out all the grizzly details of the plan he wanted me to go to the house
Kill Kelly then light the house on fire he said the kids would be at her sister’s house there was also gas in the garage he wanted the cars to burn also so that he could collect insurance money and why did he do it Beard’s explanation is pretty simple I needed the
Money he was supposed to set the house on fire why didn’t he do that I think the the the jde itself was more brutal than he he had anticipated and he he said in his words that he got scared then another man comes forward and along
The way you know he says I’m at to kill a [ __ ] does this story point to a more Sinister plot it was shocking to see somebody would be driven this far to make plans like that every day you find out more and more and now you find out he is a monster a Sociopath after the murder of Kelly and even now the community just really got behind the stage family in support of Kelly purple ribbons were tied around utility poles and fence pose every time you saw a purple ribbon you knew what it was for they were all over the
Area Michael beard is behind bars Clayton has made bail but both of them are still under investigation Clayton’s children are staying with Kelly’s Sister Kim frankly the well-being of those children was first and foremost have a good day okay they will see purple ribbons and they’ll say oh
Purple for Mama purple for Mama that’s all they know the Jackal don’t exist anymore but on the last hockey game that they had they held a benefit we’re honoring the family of Kelly’s agage and here comes Kelly’s children all of the money raised is going to go towards the Kids it’s been a while since Kelly Clayton’s murder and investigators are trying desperately to offer answers to a shaken Community beard has just signed a confession admitting to being offered $10,000 to set the Clayton house on fire which never happened but he has admitted to kill killing Kelly Clayton and the
Police investigation goes on at some point later in the evening it became obvious that he was becoming distressed that’s when we basically went out back of the barracks and I gave him a cigarette they became very emotional started Crying and said I could take you to the murder Weapon there was a piece in the house that matched the mall handle that was found off the side of the road here so you knew that was your murder weapon corre once that was found the mall is like a sledgehammer but there’s no actual Sledgehammer head on it so it’s
Just a handle and he used that he used that to kill her it was positive for DNA of Kelly Clayton and blood still on the murder weapon there were shards of that same handle at the scene in addition Michael beard is now offering to take investig
To two more pieces of evidence that tie him to the crime he did provide the keys to the house that Tom Clayton gave him and the clothes that he wore the night of the homicide so they have been thrown over in this area yeah bloody clothes yeah they had
Blood Mark blord is a friend of Michael beards and Michael beard actually called him that night to see if he’d come along and be a lookout blanford agreed but he says he really didn’t know much about what was going on he just sat in the truck that’s me about doing a
Job I’m thinking maybe it might be some type of drug deal something as we start riding out time about the job just getting was Grand pay you 500 all right and along the way you know he says I’m actually kill a [ __ ] I do I’m saying this fish but there’s no street light
Fish but and he went walking down the street I said 15 20 minutes pass he comes back he said nobody was supposed to be there the kids are supposed to be at the grandmothers this all you mention he didn’t tell me that he it was in the house beard was then arrested for
Murder beard confesses to the murder tells him where the murder weapon is tells him where the bloody clothes are buried but adds a critical detail the reason he did was because Tom Clayton offered him $110,000 to kill his wife but it beard is the perpetrator what about Charlie saying that the
Intruder looked like her dad after further interviews of Charlie and further analysis the person that was in there he had a mask on so we’re pretty sure that when she says well it looks like Daddy it was more of the clothing he had on looked like Daddy I observe no
Dece in the state that she gave I believe it was true in her mind when she told it and as she related it the focus shifted from Thomas Clayton doing the crime himself now it became a murder For Hire Clayton was all about money there was a substantial life
Insurance policy that Tom had on Kelly we determined throughout the investigation that it had actually been recently uped a year before Kelly’s death Thomas Clayton doubled the family’s life insurance policy his life insurance policy was increased to $2 million Kelly’s was increased to $1 million he couldn’t get divorced because
It would cost him too much money which he had mentioned it would cost him too much because Kelly would take everything when I found out the true scope of what we were dealing with it was shocking to see somebody would be driven this far to make plans like that investigators came to the
Conclusion that Clayton not only wanted to kill his wife but wanted to kill his kid kids too he was going to set the house on fire with Kelly and the children in the house that’s correct this is a coldblooded attempt to remove your own wife and children from this Earth Thomas
Clayton denies this allegation I don’t think Thomas Clayton cared that the children were in the house when his wife was to be murdered that was callous on his part but ultimately I chose not to indict for the attempted murder of the children so your sister has been brutally murdered and now your
Brother-in-law is being charged with her murder with her murder how did you even begin to Fathom this I stood there as her matron of honor and smiled and watched her marry him now you find out he is a monster a sociopath with Beard’s confession prosecutors are thinking we’ve got an airtight case here
Then he recants and now they’ve got a mess he recants before the trial is supposed to start actually it wasn’t me what evidence can you point to that shows that you’re innocent with Beard’s confession prosecutors feel pretty confident they’ve got an airtight case he leads police to his own evidence
In this crime the bloody clothes that he wore that night to the murder weapon that he used but then just before the trial beard recants and now prosecutors have got a mess on their hands he says I didn’t kill Kelly he says he was there
That night he says he was there to set the house on fire but Daddy got scared backed out and then he looks up and there’s a mysterious figure who was already there at the house handed him a murder weapon so which is it this doesn’t happen often in broadcast journalism Michael beard
Called us he wanted to tell his side of the story exclusively to 2020 you called us why Because the actual story need to be heard versus to what you heard and what they wanted you to know my initial impressions of Michael beard Pleasant enough well spoken uh bright and he had conviction
About what he thought was true financially what what state did it leave you in you lost your job I was basically in broke at some point did Tom Clayton come to you with a proposal no not a proposal of anything like the way they portraying it to be
Okay well tell me what happened it was just a proposal of ask me if I wanted to take this sad job there is something that beard maintains is true that he went to the Clayton home on the night of the murder he says that a job came up last minute
And that Clayton asked him to help and why is all this happening so late at night doing a 24/7 restoration comp calls could come in at any time you’d gone to his house this late night I’ve been to his house late 3:00 in the morning so I goes down there I get the
Key open the door walks in and get the shock of my life I see her lay on the floor and I get scared from that point which not using it for an excuse but I never caught 911 that night why not I wanted to get out of that situation I had
Walked into something that had nothing nothing to do with me did you know she was dead I never checked her I didn’t I didn’t expect to walk into what I had walked in to you’re a grown ass man when you walk in and you see a woman dead on
The ground or at best unconscious on the ground blood everywhere and you don’t think to offer her assistance this is someone who you know right that that you’re cool with cool with her and her children and you don’t think to a sister put yourself into my shoes I’m a black man in the
Middle of a white neighborhood in the middle of the night where a white woman’s laying dead on her kitchen floor I didn’t want nothing to do with that and I’m sorry okay now this is in lman term is a signed confession that’s where they ask
You about the crime yes when I got to the kitchen she was following me about five or six steps behind me I turned around and struck her again and that’s when she went down those aren’t my words prior to that statement they came and they laid down
The whole scenario to me on what I supposedly had done so the more resistance that I gave them my family starts to come in and play with this so I’m telling them if you keep my family out of this I said you can say whatever you want to say and
I’ll deal with it that in my opinion would not be helpful to an interview to threaten them people need to give confessions voluntarily in order for them to be believable uh in in my experience so you signed this confession yes admitting to killing Kelly through them yes I
Wouldn’t want to coers a confession from somebody that didn’t do it just morally it’s wrong like I wouldn’t I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I did so you signed this you go to trial yes we interrupt this programming to bring you breaking news Michael beard has been
Found guilty on all charges in the death of Kelly stage Clayton last year Michael beard was found guilty of one count of first-degree murder he was sentenced to life without parole what evidence can you point to that shows that you’re innocent in the victim’s hands is the DNA of an unknown
Source doesn’t match my profile on the victim’s clothing again the DNA that does not match my profile so how is it that Kelly Clayton fought for her life with Michael beard when you got someone else’s DNA on her whose DNA is do know I don’t know in fact
Authorities do say that the DNA on Kelly’s clothing was likely from her son or her husband not beard but the DNA sample found under her fingernails wasn’t sufficient to either identify or exclude anyone including beard the fact that there may or may not have been other DNA on Kelly Clayton really to me
Has no no bearing on this case whatsoever when Kelly Clayton ran down the hall we found her palm prints on the door and mixed in with that blood we found Michael Beard’s profile his DNA was in that blood SWOT that was recovered from that bedroom door police say you let them to the
Murder weapon they said I led him to the murder weapon they also said I gave a confession the mall handle was examined we believe that beard was wearing gloves at the time of the crime that would eliminate his DNA on it but it was Kelly Clayton’s as the interview continued
Beard told me something new and unexpected but what I did see was someone else down there who it was I couldn’t tell you at that point in time cuz I never seen a face I’m sorry so so you’re saying you you did see someone there yes well I seen somebody in the in
Like coming out of the house once I once I went in the house someone else was coming in okay how close was he to you basically about this distance right here and so you guys were close enough to each other to touch each other I’ve knocked them down getting past
Him how could you leave out that kind of detail that seems so significant that’s when at least from my perspective his version of what happened seemed to begin to fall off the rails a little bit we got to this point here and he said this is the area so the murder weapon he
Discarded up here yes those details that he gave to police he uh threw the keys into this small Creek combined with all of the physical evidence from the scene there was no way I think for a jury to say that there was any reasonable doubt that it couldn’t have been Happ you were
Hired you were the hit man you killed her and uh uh that s there’s three sides of every story your side my side and the truth I’m not sure the story that Michael beard told me seemed to live on the side of the truth Michael beard in
Some ways told us the story in which he was both the hero and the victim the evidence was really overwhelming that Michael beard had actually killed Kelly Clayton the question was what evidence was there that Tom Clayton actually hired Michael beard this case really became all circumstantial we don’t have a Smoking Gun 12 jurors will decide the fate of Thomas Clayton Clayton is accused of hiring Michael beard to kill his wife Kelly Clayton opening statements are set to begin tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. Tom Clayton’s trial was a very big trial for our County the courtroom was packed every day not
Just with Kelly’s family and Tom Clayton’s family but people who knew them he was a local celebrity of types and not only that but Kelly was well known throughout the community too I think that’s where a lot of this media attention came from it was a long and in-depth trial
There was more than 75 Witnesses Tom showed up to court almost no emotion I’d say Tom was cool calm and collec every day when he walked into court he would never realize that he was on trial for his wife’s murder that could be because Thomas Clayton knows that the case against him
Isn’t exactly a slam dunk with Michael Beard’s recantation the prosecution realized that cannot use him as a witness this case really became all circumstantial we don’t have a Smoking Gun we have to build our case piece by piece that’s when the real investigative War comes in in proving that everything he originally
Said was true the prosecution had to show that there was this ongoing relationship before and after the murder the night of the murder and close in time but at that time we had enough documentation in the recoveries and the statements made by other people so blanford testified we event allowed him
To plead to a lesser crime in exchange for his cooperation the evidence was really overwhelming that Michael beard had actually killed Kelly Clayton the question was what evidence was there that Tom Clayton actually hired Michael beard and there really wasn’t any evidence the cell phone records turned
Out to be very pivotal in investigation sigh of zedex Corporation that’s what broke the case the geolocation data zedex specializes in taking large amounts of big data and Visually mapping it once we got C involved he was able to track where the phones were by using the C Towers so in this particular
Case we took all 67,000 points and we combined them together on a map synced by date and time the phones really provided a timeline of interaction of planning it showed the number of times that Michael beard and Thomas Clayton interacted leading up to the murder it corroborated everything our 14 15
Months of Investigation had uncovered and most telling a pair of phone calls made on the exact day that Kelly Clayton was killed the first one from a used car lot that had no connection to Thomas Clayton there’s an incoming call to Michael beard from Eminem Auto Michael
Beard doesn’t own a vehicle so there’s a kind of a question there of why Eminem Auto would call him again he’s equipped with with his own phone but he’s claiming I got terrible cell phone coverage so he asked to use their phone so who does he call using their phone he
Calls Michael beard in looking at Tom Clayton’s phone we can actually put his device in the parking lot of Eminem Auto when this call is made to me it’s circumstantial evidence of a guil of guilt he’s trying to hide his TRS he probably didn’t realize police methods the investigative methods to extent that
They can recover evidence from phones and then hours later Clayton makes a second call to beard from somebody else’s phone that’s right lucky Millers at that poker game and this is basically the the go call beard shortly after that phone call drove out to Clayton’s home had committed the
Murder there was no evidence as to the content of those calls and s’s testimony uh was uh skewed in trying to make much more of those calls I think it’s important to look at the Cooperative data we know Michael beard received a phone call from Eminem AO the Verizon
Phone records puts Tom Clayton at Eminem AO and when we look at all this known information the phone records align with it it was very well planned out as a matter of fact according to Michael beard two weeks prior there was a dry run they had set up that Tom would
Either be out of town or at least away from the house when it occurred so Tom would have an alibi he took steps that he thought would cover him used a serpro truck with a GPS so it would show where he was that night Clayton even arranged for beer to
Use a borrowed truck that nobody from the neighborhood would recognize we do see on the video tom leaves with one vehicle with the surf pro vehicle and Michael beard leaves with the red truck which is ultimately used in the murder and after he returned the truck to Surf
Pro he rode home on his bike it’s a pattern that clearly shows that Michael beard and Thomas Clayton did this together there’s no direct proof that Tom Clayton engaged in a plot with beard to Kill Kelly there was no record of any payment even if there is evidence
Linking Clayton to beard and potentially to the crime what was the motive why would Clayton want to have his wife killed the motive uh was to get rid of Kelly he didn’t want to go through a divorce he wanted money substantial Insurance monies and part of our proof of trial
Was to show that he indeed engaged in extramarital Affairs testimony from one of the women who claims to have had an affair with Thomas Clayton even the insurance agent he ended up having an affair with her the women the multiple Affairs that he was having right under
Kelly’s nose my nose I never heard of an affair ever there some of the women that we called it trial talked about Thomas Clayton and his relationship with Kelly did say that Thomas would say bad things about Kelly he was telling them about her she’s lazy she wants to go to Every
Concert there is and she spends all my money she only works one day a week and it’s like she’s mother you’re your kids crying out loud yet he didn’t want a divorce he had mentioned to me divorce was never going to be a possibility cuz she would take him to the cleaners was
His words it’s a distraction the question isn’t whether it was right that Tom Clayton had affairs question is did he do this crime but would the jury see it that way all eyes have been on the Thomas Clayton murder trial for several weeks now the former hockey player’s fate is
In the hands of the jury nobody knew what to expect but after just about 6 hours of deliberating they came back with that verdict breaking news out of stuben County Court Thomas Clayton guilty on both first degree and second degree murder charges I think that there was a
Absolute sense of relief the people that were responsible for taking Kelly’s life were held accountable we did it we did it the family of Kelly walked out of courtroom they were sobbing but almost tears of joy because of the fact that Justice was delivered I told my sister from the
Night she was murdered that we would not stop fighting for her at his sentencing Clayton is given life in prison without parole and he doesn’t go quietly he delivered a profanity laced just rant about how the jury got it wrong screaming at the top of his lungs
That he didn’t kill his wife everyone in the the courtroom was shocked first and foremost I am extremely proud and honored to call Thomas my son in a statement to ABC News Clayton’s family says their support for him is unwavering and they pray that the justice system will write this incredible
Wrong one of the most memorable moments of the sentencing was when a statement was read by Kelly’s sister statement was from Kelly’s daughter Charlie actually wrote a letter on her own that she loved her mom she loved her dad but that her dad was a coward because he made Michael beard
Kill mommy what a heartbreaking statement these children have now lost both of their parents was Michael beard a victim of Thomas Clayton I believed that Thomas Clayton was a white privileged man he used Michael beard Michael beard would do just about anything for money for his family do you think Thomas Clayton set
You up hands down I would say so yes in this small community so many lives have been changed forever do you still play poker here no we haven’t played poker here since that evening lucky says nobody comes in the house anymore nobody so this table’s basically closed
Done it’s hard for me in this small town to go places people say things to you that can trigger you I can’t imagine for these kids to grow up and this is the only way people know them the children are in the custody and care of Kelly’s sister and it’s my understanding that
Both kids are thriving Kelly spent a lot of time here and Kelly would also bring her children here when you come here what do you I feel Comfort when I come here I don’t feel sad and Colin calls it my mommy’s mom’s Ben you took her life not her
Light and her light will shine for ever through Charlie through Cullen through me forever and we’ll be okay both Thomas Clayton and Michael beard have exhausted their appeals and are serving life sentences Clayton declined our request for an interview that’s our program for tonight thanks so much for watching I’m Deborah Roberts
From all of us here at 2020 and BC News good night
source
