Dateline – Who was Thomas Clayton and what do we know about his crimes? Details from The House in the Woods, explored

As narrated in the Dateline episode titled The House in the Woods, Thomas Clayton was Kelley Clayton’s husband, and was found guilty of hiring Michael Beard to kill his wife on September 29, 2015. Both the culprits in the gruesome murder were sent to prison for life in 2017.

The synopsis of the Dateline episode reads as:

"A former hockey player discovers his wife murdered in their home. His young daughter says she saw a robber, but the killer's true identity turns out to be far more complicated."

Dateline – Who was Thomas Clayton and what do we know about his crimes? Details explored

As reported by Dateline, the fate of the Clayton family changed on the night of September 29, 2015, when a shocked Thomas Clayton called the police after finding the body of his wife, unconscious and bloody.

The police didn’t find any witnesses other than Kelley’s daughter, Charlie, who had seen a masked man. Charlie told the police that the man looked like her father due to the mask and his clothes, and Thomas was arrested for the murder.

Thomas had met Kelley while he was still a hockey player and played for a local team called the Elmira Jackals. They got married and had two kids, while Thomas retired from hockey and began working in the field of home restoration after catastrophic events like floods and fires, and joined ServPro as a project manager.

Arresting Clayton did not solve the murder case, as Dateline reported that Clayton had an alibi, but another person, Michael Beard, came into view during the investigation. When police questioned him, he revealed that he was hired to kill Kelley and would get a sum of $10,000 for committing the crime.

However, evidence connecting him to the murder of Kelley Clayton was unmissable, as Beard's DNA was found on the murder weapon, as per a report published by Star Gazette on November 1, 2018.

Dateline– Thomas and Michael went on trial

As per Dateline, the trial of the two culprits began in 2016. During the trial, it came to light that Thomas had fallen out of love with Kelley and was having several extramarital relationships, but was not keen on divorcing her. Although both Clayton and Michael were found guilty by the jury and sent to prison for life, they haven’t admitted to murdering Kelley.

Thomas says that he has no involvement in it, while Beard changed his story and says he was only hired to burn the house, and when he went to the house, Kelley was already dead.

They were both sent to prison in 2017, with Michael serving in Clinton Correctional Facility and Thomas in Sing Sing Correctional Facility, in New York.

The Dateline episode includes interviews with Kelley’s family as well as the investigators who helped solve the case.

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Also Read: Dateline: Shining Star—5 harrowing details about Chiquita Tate's murder, revisited

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