Murder With My Husband - 130. Mary Jo and Blake Hadley - The Deadly House Party

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everybody welcome back to our podcast. This is murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Muralin and I'm Garrett Muralin and he's the husband and I'm the husband. Wow being in our own set has never felt so good. I was just thinking that as I was talking into the mic. Like it just feels so good to be here. I just like it sounds good. It sounds better. I know vibes are never the same unless we're in our own set. It's always a little bit hard. So I'm glad to be home. I'm glad to be recording here. You know, it's hard.

Starting point is 00:00:30 I feel like it's hard to find a really good podcast studio too. We're just superior. Apparently. Our basement studio is just superior. Our basement studio is just where it's at. Just feel so comfy down here. It's just dark. It's moody like Why does everyone want to be so happy in their set? There's cords everywhere

Starting point is 00:00:50 Yeah, but you can't see well, okay, you can see some of them Just this big white charger cord down my legs, but you know, it's a podcast and it sounds good. That's all that matters true Reminder that patreon and apple subscriptions get bonus episodes and also ad free episodes. So if you want to check that out, go ahead. And with that, I think we're ready for your 10 seconds. So for my 10 seconds, there is actually a blooper that we're going to post on Instagram, Facebook, everywhere. So if you're curious, you can check it out. It was from a bonus episode a couple of weeks ago.

Starting point is 00:01:23 And all the time people ask Garrett do you still hate it Garrett do you still hate it you can go check that booper out that'll probably answer a bunch of questions it's nothing bad but I think it's pretty funny I won't go into too much detail other than that and I also did get a new desk oh yeah Peyton and I went and picked out a desk so we actually ended up getting a just a big table and making it a desk. Yeah, because every day Garrett and I work side by side, I mean, it's, you know, his desk. But I've started going in there to do my research too. So we needed something a little bit bigger. So we got, we upgraded from our little small college desk.

Starting point is 00:02:01 We did. I've had that desk forever. Forever. Football season started. Chargers won the first game. Marked my words, chargers will win the Super Bowl this year. So Peyton and I are looking forward to that. And we will be going to the Super Bowl game. We are? Yes, we are. I'm just planning ahead.

Starting point is 00:02:19 I'm speaking it into existence. Manifesting. And I'm manifesting it. OK, OK. And on that note, let's hop into a new episode. All right, our case sources are Rollingstone.com, New York Times.com, ABCNews.go, archive.tcpom.com, PalmBeachPost.com, Telegram.com, CBS News, WPBF.com, all that's interesting.com, Tributes.com, Port Saint Lucie, Police Department, Incident Reports, Redfin, and Google Maps.com, tributes.com, Port Saint Lucie, police department, incident reports, redfin

Starting point is 00:02:46 and Google Maps.com. True crime cases grab a hold of the public for all different reasons. We have O.J. Simpson, whose reason is very obvious. He was a famous football player whose wife was murdered. We have Lacey and Scott Peterson, a pregnant wife goes missing, the husband's alibi is fishing where her body is eventually found, it comes out that he's having an affair, this case had every piece of the puzzle. We have Chris Watts, the fascination with this case probably comes down to the fact that

Starting point is 00:03:17 a seemingly normal husband could murder his own two babies and then the immediate aftermath be caught on camera. But sometimes, there are cases out there with the most mind-boggling details that never make national headlining news. You might have heard of it before, but if not, it leaves you wondering how have I never heard of this. And for me, today's case was one of those. How did this happen and I had no idea? Today we are going to be discussing 17 year old Tyler Hadley and how he brutally murdered his own parents in his home hours before throwing a huge high school house party, his parents,

Starting point is 00:04:01 dead bodies in their bedroom down the hall the whole entire party. Okay, I've heard of this one. Oh, no, my Okay. So obviously our episode today surrounds the Hadley family. So let me break down all of the members for you. We have father Blake Hadley and mother Mary Jo Hadley. Blake and Mary met in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, dated and then fell in love. After marriage, they moved together

Starting point is 00:04:29 to Port Saint Lucie for two reasons. One was Blake's job was there and he was tired of the commute and the other was to be closer to Blake's parents. So Port Saint Lucie, Florida, is described by the New York Times as a sleepy place with a population of 150,000. It's 40 miles north of West Palm Beach, Florida, and has been noted as Florida's safest

Starting point is 00:04:52 city for over 100,000 residents. I think Port Saint Lucie is described as sleepy because it seems like there is not much to do there besides go to work and then go home. Because of this, residents have to get creative during their free time, and their city is sometimes actually known as pot-saint-lucy because of the high marijuana and also the prescription drug use that goes on there. So Blake Hadley, who was 54 at the time of our story in 2011, worked for 30 years at the nuclear power plant called Florida Power and Light in Port St. Lucie, Florida. After moving from Fort Lauderdale to Port St. Lucie as a married couple, Mary

Starting point is 00:05:31 Joe became an elementary school teacher where she worked up until the time of our story. Forty-seven-year-old Mary Joe was a beloved teacher in the school district and loved heavily by all of her students. After beginning their life together, Blake and Mary Jo decided to grow their family eventually having their first son, Ryan Hadley. Five years later, their second son and main character in our episode, Tyler Hadley, was born. Now, by 2011, Ryan had actually graduated and moved out of the family home six weeks earlier to North Carolina to be with a girlfriend. So at this point, it's just mom, dad, and 17-year-old high school student Tyler Hadley living at home in Port St. Lucie. The Hadley's home was a modest three-bedroom

Starting point is 00:06:17 1500 square foot house built in 1988. Looking at images from Google Maps, the house looks like a smallish one-story house. There are no sidewalks in the neighborhood across the street is swampy forest land that still has never been developed to this day. Next door on the left to the Hadley home is an undeveloped lot and to the right is a one story house with extra space between it and the Hadley house, which is a little weird because the rest of the neighborhood kind of seems cramped, but I think because the way the lots figured theirs is kind of farther from every other house. A short distance east of the Hadley home is Swampland and St. Lucie River.

Starting point is 00:07:01 Now according to testimony from family, Blake and Mary Jo had a model marriage of 25 years and were loving parents. They had gone through your typical good times and bad times as an average family, but things were going well. They really did love each other. Life was going well. They just needed to get their second son off out of the house and to college now. As a young child, Tyler Hadley was normal. He was distinctive looking tall and skinny six foot one and 160 pounds by the time he hits high school. According to the Hadley's next-door neighbor who had known Tyler since he was born, Tyler was friendly and polite and never seemed to be the source of any problems. Tyler would

Starting point is 00:07:43 even house sit her home while they went on vacation. And the Hadley's neighbors noted that Tyler and his father Blake often spent nights shooting hoops in their driveway. And many times happy sounds could be heard from the Hadley's having fun in their backyard pool together.

Starting point is 00:07:59 And see, these are the cases that confuse me. Because it just seems. Because how does everything seem, I seem, it's just life. I mean, that's just what happens, I guess, but it seems beyond normal. And then to, I mean, what you explained at the beginning is going to happen, that just, that confuses me. I don't understand. Right.

Starting point is 00:08:19 It feels like you have your all-American average family in this all American average neighborhood and According to everyone they just seem fine like everything seems normal So how are we going to get to where we get exactly? So as we know there is a lot more that happens behind closed doors and although to people on the outside Tyler had least seemed like a normal teenage kid He had actually exhibited some weird signs since 10 years old. After an argument with his mother at the age of 10, Tyler had le showed up to a friend's home and vowed to kill his parents. And I mean, 10 years old

Starting point is 00:08:57 that really doesn't mean much. But according to Rollingstone.com, when Tyler was a young teen, he and some other boys started a fire in the river park wildlife Preserve by lighting up a couch that they doused in gasoline. So also according to ABC news when Tyler Hadley was 15 His family said that they began to see a change in him. He started skipping school He was kind of hanging out with the wrong crowd getting on drugs. Tyler Hadley's aunt, Cindy Hadley, told 2020, we knew he was using marijuana. So like for sure, he's like dabbling into this. I mean, there's worse drugs you can be using. And I feel like there's worse things you can be doing granted, you know, skipping school and all that. But it doesn't give the signs of, oh, he's a killer

Starting point is 00:09:42 to me. Right. According to Rollingstone.com, Tyler had always been kind of quiet and difficult to read, but now, as he was getting older and entering high school, he seemed eccentric, unpredictable, troubled. He had a bizarre personality really hyper at times, but then would quiet back down. He always would try to kind of pull a crowd. And I think we kind of know people

Starting point is 00:10:05 like this in the middle of a school lesson. He would just start laughing. He would just blur out stuff. Once in the middle of biology class, he started moving loudly. Yeah, just craving attention. And I mean, we always had those class clowns. Like this is very, I think every school has people like this. But I think, although this kind of seems like normal teenage rebellion, I know that sometimes as children we can get involved in the wrong crowd and make dumb choices. But as time went on, things got worse. Tyler's behavior really began to affect the Hadley home. At one point, he was convicted of burglary, so it was going from, you know, at first he's just getting trouble

Starting point is 00:10:42 at home and now he's getting in trouble with the law. Other neighbors described how a silence descended over the Hadley property once Tyler entered high school because you could just tell that this normal family that things had kind of just been averaged for was now Tyler was shifting the atmosphere. By the time he was 17, Tyler's problems had grown even more severe. His parents had gotten him on antidepressants and they tried various mental health and substance abuse programs, including outpatient drug rehabilitation, but Tyler clearly continued using drugs. They'd even gotten

Starting point is 00:11:16 him appointments with a psychiatrist to try and help, but it was no use. Do you know if he was using anything outside of marijuana? Yeah, so I mean, later on in the story, we see that he was using anything outside of marijuana? Yeah, so I, I mean later on in the story, we see that he uses some harder stuff than marijuana, but nothing like there were no sources that said cocaine or heroin or anything of that nature. Okay. Tyler actually continued hanging out with other juvenile delinquents at school, despite the fact that his parents were urging him to get better friends. And then he was still a seemingly quiet boy until he would have these random outbursts,

Starting point is 00:11:47 causing more punishment at school. So now he's getting a trouble at school at home and with the law. And it's now 2011. Blake and Mary Jo Hadley are living life working but are clearly struggling with their youngest son. Some chalk it up to Teenage Rebellion, but no one would have guessed what was about

Starting point is 00:12:05 to happen. Tyler Hadley was best friends with a boy he grew up with in his neighborhood named Michael Mandel, now according to Michael himself. At some point before July of 2011, in between junior and senior year, Tyler came home drunk one night and Mary Jo, his mother, disciplined him by taking away his phone and his car. Now, after this, Tyler told Michael that he wanted to kill his mom. And we will actually. So this does seem weird, right? This is. Yeah, that's very weird. I would never go to my friends and be like, I'm going to kill my mom. Okay, I know I've never said to my friends, I'm gonna kill my mom. You might have complained.

Starting point is 00:12:47 We've been like, oh, my parents are being annoying. But I've never said like, I'm gonna kill my mom. Right. But according to sources, we are actually going to continue to see this become a common occurrence. Tyler reportedly mentioned killing himself or his parents many times, both out loud

Starting point is 00:13:06 in conversation and in written text messages to his friends. After this, in late April 2011, Tyler Hadley was arrested for aggravated battery. Apparently he got into a fight at a friend's house given that he already had a record. He was sentenced to a week at St. Lucie Jail, followed by two weeks of house arrest. So again, we're now escalating above kind of your average teenage rebellion here. After this, Mary Jo admitted Tyler to new horizons, which is a mental health clinic. Mary Jo told co-workers, she was worried that Tyler might hurt himself. I mean, the situation had just what do you do at this point? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:46 As a parent, what do you do? But she did tell friends and coworkers she wasn't afraid Tyler was going hurt other people just that he might try to hurt himself. And after Tyler returned home from this health clinic, both Mary, Joe and Blake, his parents were pleased to notice that he seemed to be kind of getting better. Maybe they had gotten over this rough patch.

Starting point is 00:14:08 Maybe this was just growing pains. Things were finally calming down at the Hadley home after years of trouble. And Mary Jo even told friends that she felt like, quote, Tyler was over the hurdle. She claimed she was so happy about Tyler's improvement and really felt like he was getting back to himself. This would be really hard as a parent. Oh. Just to have it.

Starting point is 00:14:30 It's just hard. Right. I mean, think of the trouble you caused your parents. And it's not like either of us were getting arrested or, you know. You don't know that. Okay. No, I'm just getting done. You know, like we had our typical, we caused issues, but I think to be getting in trouble with the law,

Starting point is 00:14:47 or you know, as a parent being worried about your child's mental health, this is a really hard thing to go through. And I think more and more parents go through it, and it's more common than we think. Yeah. Okay, you guys, we are getting into an ad. I know you guys have both heard the story

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Starting point is 00:16:57 So the next weekend, Tyler went to a family reunion in a Georgia cabin traveling there with his father and grandfather. And things seem to go good at this event as well. But unbeknownst to Tyler's parents, things were actually not well. Things were about to turn deadly. Tyler was about to turn deadly. So two weeks before this family reunion, while Mary Jo was confiding in her friends about

Starting point is 00:17:24 the relief she was feeling when it came to Tyler's behavior. Tyler was on his own hanging out with his friends and according to these friends it was during this that Tyler randomly blurted out in the middle of a conversation again that he wanted to kill his parents. I don't understand. Now and it must be weird enough that the friends are bringing it up. Well, they don't bring it up until after. Because again, this is not abnormal behavior for Tyler at this point. You can only cry wolf so many times before people stop taking you seriously.

Starting point is 00:17:58 And Tyler had talked about killing his parents many times before. So as one of those things where his friends were just kind of like, oh yeah, that's just Tyler being Tyler talking about wanting to kill his parents. But it was what Tyler said afterwards that was new to this typical conversation. Not only did Tyler say he wanted to kill his parents, he said he wanted to kill them and then have a huge party afterwards. He told his friends, nobody's ever done that before, thrown a huge party with the body still in the house. Oh my gosh. So his friends are like, yeah, cool, dude, whatever. Like this, you always talk like this. I mean,

Starting point is 00:18:37 this whole party aspect is new, but this is kind of what you do. But little did they all know in that moment, Tyler was actually confessing to them what he was going to do. But little did they all know in that moment. Tyler was actually confessing to them what he was going to do. He had just confessed to his friends exactly what he had planned for his parents in just two short weeks. So very detailed information about the events of July 16th to the 17th 2011 are included in an article by Nathaniel Rich in Rolling Stone. So I'm going to be including many details from this well-researched article in our story,

Starting point is 00:19:11 so I just wanted to give him credit right off the bat. I will say, though, there is an overwhelming premise in this article that extreme boredom from living in Port St. Lucie, such a boring place, was a major contributing factor to what happened. And this theory is not accepted by everybody. In fact, much is reported both in Rolling Stone and in the New York Times about the fact that there was nothing for teenagers to do in Port St. Lucie, other than do drugs and commit crimes, which explains the high amount of young criminals

Starting point is 00:19:46 there. As written in New York Times, teenagers and young adults here complain of having little or nothing to do, so marijuana and prescription drugs and parties often fill the void, the teens and their parents have said. Now I will say, I kind of grew up in a place where the funnest thing to do on a Saturday night was go to the mall for the billionth time or meet up in a parking lot and play music and talk. We didn't have cool fun malls to choose from theme parks, beaches, or fun activities. And I still didn't murder my parents.

Starting point is 00:20:16 So although I understand that kids can become creative when they're bored, I still don't think it's an excuse for a party. Oh, no, not at all. And so I think that the fact that they harp on, you know, that this is why is a little extreme. Now, I do have to point out though that the teenagers involved in this story do seem extra heartless and cold. So take what you will from both sides of the argument and keep all of this in mind as

Starting point is 00:20:42 you hear the details of the case. So what do you mean by the teenagers? Do you mean him and his friend? I mean him, particularly him, his friends, the people who come to the party, every single teenager that is going to be involved in Tyler's life from July 16th to July 17th, 2011, the behavior does seem weird. But also, anytime we've covered a teenager case on this podcast, the behavior seems extra-calus. It seems extra-cold. It seems extra-heartless. So, I mean, I think sometimes teenagers can just have underdeveloped brains

Starting point is 00:21:16 and they just go along with what people are saying. So, I mean, I'm giving you both sides of the spectrum and you can choose for yourself. So, on Saturday, July 16, 2011, at 1.15 pm, Tyler Hadley posted on Facebook, party at my crib tonight dot dot dot maybe. Tyler's acquaintances knew that Tyler was often in trouble with his parents, and that they never allow him to have a house party. He was kind of known for having these parents who were constantly worried about him. So they didn't believe he was actually

Starting point is 00:21:48 going to be having a party at his house. One, texted him asking if it was really happening. And Tyler wrote back, don't know man, I'm working on it. Now typically, when friends say they are working on throwing a party, you assume that they are attempting to convince their parents to say yes, or trying to figure out if the parents will be out long enough to sneak everyone in and out during the time of the party. But as we know, when Tyler texted his friends that he was working on it, he wasn't meaning that. Tyler was actually figuring out if he could do it, if he could actually go through with

Starting point is 00:22:24 murdering his parents and then throwing a rager with their corpses inside of the house. So four hours later, at 5 p.m., Tyler took some ecstasy. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to go through with his murder plan unless he was on drugs.

Starting point is 00:22:39 Now tripping, Tyler had Lee made his way out to the family garage while his unsuspecting parents sat inside. He found a hammer in the garage and it was later described as a 17 inch framing hammer. Now, I think the fact that, you know, okay, we're about to get a little graphic because you're gonna hear how he does it. So if you don't like that skip ahead. But I think the fact that Tyler decided to use a hammer is also what adds to the bewilderment of this case. That's insane. I think hammering someone to death, let alone your parents, is so bad.

Starting point is 00:23:14 Like that is so much worse. I could be wrong, but that is just a personal pain. There's so much to dissect that we're not going to really get there. Obviously, but he has to be sociopath. He has to feel absolutely nothing. Right, I mean, I think we shouldn't go around diagnosing someone if we don't, but it does kind of feel like he's exhibiting signs, right?

Starting point is 00:23:33 Oh, 100% How could you hammer your parents to death? Like it just doesn't. Unless something's wrong. Yes, something's obviously wrong. Right. So the details of the murders come from Michael Mandel, whose Tyler's best friend that we talked about earlier.

Starting point is 00:23:49 And this is the description of what Tyler told him happened the night of the party, and he tells him this after the murders. So the physical evidence seems to cooperate Michael's account. So police agree with what Michael tells them. After finding the hammer in the garage, Tyler made his way inside to find his parents' cell phones, which he then took in hid so they wouldn't be able to call for help when he murdered them. At this point, Tyler's mother is working at the

Starting point is 00:24:15 family's computer, her back facing the room. Tyler sneaks in the room and stands behind his unsuspecting mother for five minutes, contemplating what he's about to do. He's holding the hammer down by his side. Who is this recount coming from? His friend, his best friend. Okay, because I'm just trying to decide how do you stand behind some for five minutes without the thing? Okay.

Starting point is 00:24:40 I mean, I'm sure I'm just wondering how exaggerated that part is. The account is going to be exaggerated in multiple parts. Just trying to wrap my brain around it. Yeah, so just to clarify, her back is facing him because she's at the computer. So she is distracted. But yeah, when I was researching, I was kind of like, how could he stand there for five minutes and she would know this? A long time.

Starting point is 00:25:01 I stand behind you for like two seconds and I turn around. Right. But if you're distracted, it does take a little bit longer. So after having time to stop, to turn around, to just go back to his room, put the hammer down, give the cell phones back and not go through with this. Tyler decides to commit first degree murder. He walks up behind his mother and suddenly hits her in the back of the head with the claw side of the hammer. She screams out why as he continues hitting her over and over again. Oh, I can't. That makes me sick. Right. So hearing his wife's screams, Tyler's

Starting point is 00:25:38 father rushes into the room from the bedroom. According to CBS News, him and Tyler lock eyes before Tyler then begins chasing his own father with the hammer through the house all the way to the primary bedroom where he then starts beating his father to death with the hammer as well. Oh my gosh. Tyler's father also screamed why and Tyler screamed back why the F0? He used the claw end of the hammer to repeatedly strike his father killing him too. And I know this is so brutal and so awful and it breaks my heart. I can't wrap my head around hammering your own parents to death.

Starting point is 00:26:17 How many blows does that take? Like I'm just heartbroken that these are their last moments. He is absolutely not in the right frame of mind. He's insane. I don't know how else to really like what other words to really use. After confirming both parents were in fact gone, Tyler then spends the next three hours cleaning up the blood and gore. This is not a clean crime scene.

Starting point is 00:26:41 So it's going to take a while to clean this up because again again he chose such a messy way and a brutal way to do this. After this Tyler dragged both of his parents bodies into their bedroom. So I'm a bit confused here because the case sources make it seem like both parents were killed in the kitchen, but the prosecutor on the case made it seem like Blake Hadley the father was already dead in the bedroom because he chased him to the bedroom. Either way, it's a minor detail. It doesn't really matter in this gruesome case. After both bodies were in the primary bedroom, Tyler then used towels and Chlorox wipes to try to clean up there, which he then threw on top of the parent's bed. Now Tyler actually told a friend at the party that he was surprised how long the cleanup took. That was something he noted, which again, I'm only giving you

Starting point is 00:27:31 these hard-to-heared details to go to where what is going through this killer's head. I wonder what the friends were thinking when he was telling them this. We'll get there. Okay. So, Tyler then threw all of the incriminating evidence in the primary bedroom. Anything that had blood on it, anything he just picked it up and put it in the primary bedroom. And he piled all sorts of objects on top of his parents' dead bodies so that they wouldn't be found. This includes broken dishes, a can of coffee, towels, pillowcases, a coffee table, like he's basically building a pyramid of stuff on top of them. Once he was done cleaning up, he took a shower and got ready for the second part of his

Starting point is 00:28:15 plan, having a bunch of teenagers over to his house to party while his parents' bodies were down the hall. At 8.15pm that night, after killing his parents, Tyler posted on Facebook, party at my house hit me up. A friend questioned, what if your parents come home, Tyler's response, they won't trust me.

Starting point is 00:28:37 After this, Tyler goes to an ATM. He picks up some friends to come back to his party and reportedly he flashes about $5,000 in cash to them. And I'm saying this because you're using your parents' cards to go get money so you can throw this huge party. And this is what's important to you, like you just killed your parents. After you just killed them, cleaned it up.

Starting point is 00:28:58 It's awful. It makes, I can't wrap my mind around it. Well, we never can, We never can in these cases. The party began at about 9 p.m. According to the article in Rollingstone.com, Tyler is wearing quote, a long black t-shirt, black dicks,

Starting point is 00:29:15 and black Nike Air Force high top sneakers. Now almost no one who attended the party the night of the murders, actually new Tyler. Again. So that's what my question was gonna be, was he popular? Like did people know him a lot? Was this party something? Like Norton, what I'm trying to say.

Starting point is 00:29:34 Right. So no, he was kind of a loner who hung out with a rougher crowd. I mean, in the sources, they call him the druggy crowd, which I don't love that word, but this is the vibe he's going for. Sorowd, which I don't love that word, but this is the vibe he's going for. So sources say, because there wasn't much to do this Saturday night, everyone ended up at this party, but no one even really actually knew Tyler. That well, maybe they knew of him, but they didn't know him. Okay. So party goers claimed, Tyler seemed a little anxious at the party,

Starting point is 00:30:03 or at least as anxious as you can be while on ecstasy. It was clear to everyone that Tyler was definitely rolling at this party, like he was gone. His eyes were large and white, his pupils were expanded, and he kept rubbing his hands together, nor visibly clenching his fists, like people could tell he was on drugs. Eventually, word got out about the party, and by midnight more than 60 people were inside of Tyler's house. Some of the activities at the party included beer pong on the kitchen table, putting out cigarettes on the walls inside of the home and peeing on the neighbor's lawn, like you

Starting point is 00:30:34 would do at a high school party. Initially, Tyler told the partyers not to smoke inside the house, but then he changed his mind and said, never mind. Everyone come in and everyone smoke. He gave different accounts of where his parents were. He said they were in Orlando. He also said they didn't live there. He said, Oh, no, this is my house. I don't have parents. So everyone at the party is kind of like, Okay, this dude is weird. Like why is his story not adding up? I feel like his well decomp is pretty fast as far as the smell of decomp.

Starting point is 00:31:07 Well, remember he did pile them under a bunch of stuff. That's right. Tyler just did not seem concerned with the huge mess that was developing inside the house, which party goers kind of noted. His concern reportedly had more to do with the noise level. He kept telling people, keep it down, keep it down. I don't want the police to come. I wonder why. I wonder why Tyler Hadley doesn't want the police in his house.

Starting point is 00:31:29 According to Rollingstone.com, a large crowd had gathered around the beer pong table, and the table was directly next to the family computer where kids took turns playing songs on YouTube. So that's where they are playing music from. According to sources, a party goer, cued up with caliphas, no sleep, and a couple of tracks from a little Wayne mixtape called tune cheese back and racks. All of this while Tyler's parents were dead, brutally murdered just down the hall. And I'm only telling you what music is playing so you can, I can set the scene. You have little Wayne blasting from the computer while his parents are literally down the hall dead Do you know in relation to when

Starting point is 00:32:13 Project X came out it's 2011. I don't know when project X came out Well, then I'm going to look it up real quick. All right. It looks like it came out March around in March 2012 Which is just interesting because I don't know. I guess I thought he maybe got the idea from there's this movie called Project X. It was this big, huge high school party movie. It came out when I was a senior in high school and then everyone started throwing these huge parties and it was just, it was this big trend that was going around. Right. So at the party, everyone's just kind of noticing that Tyler's, you know, a little high, but also he's known as being a drug user. So people aren't like, don't think this is that out of the normal.

Starting point is 00:32:50 However, Tyler begins making comments to people at the party as time goes on. The state's attorney's office interviewed at least 20 people who attended the party. And according to WPBF.com, according to witness statements, Tyler had told a guest that he was going to prison for 60 years

Starting point is 00:33:08 because he did something bad earlier that night. Another witness said that Tyler Hadley claimed that, quote, something crazy is going to happen in the next week. Another person said Tyler told him he would rather die than go to prison. Tyler tells a friend, Mark, privately at the party, dude, I did some things tonight.

Starting point is 00:33:26 I might go to prison. I might go away for life. I don't know, dude. I'm kind of freaking out right now. By 12.30 a.m., Tyler asks two party goers named Mark and Ashley to drive him to a nearby gas station so he can replenish the dwindling supply of beer. Quote, Tyler gave a wad of $20 bills to Mark, who was 21, and asked him to buy four cases of beer while they waited in Mark's car. Tyler mentioned Ashley that

Starting point is 00:33:51 his father had died. Mark's 21? Yes, they're, well, I mean, yeah. I don't find that to this out weird because 17. Okay, I mean, I don't know. Anyway, keep going. I will say I had older people at parties at my high school. I Think maybe it's just a little I feel like 21 of the college like you're gone and go somewhere unless you're home town Don't you? Yeah, I guess I Lest your hometown junkie who buys the bear for the call for the high school Maybe just because I feel old now that seems old but I'm sure it's not that big with you. I think I feel old now that seems old but I'm sure it's not that big of a deal. I think stereotypically it's a little strange but also who might have judged.

Starting point is 00:34:28 I was also going to say it's interesting because it seems like he shows compassion and worry and worrisome for like his friends though. Like it seems like he cares about his friends. So how I said it earlier he's a sociopath but it seems like he actually cares about his friends right. I don't know it just seems like he actually cares about his friends, right? I don't know. It just seems like he has his group of friends he likes. Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 00:34:49 I, okay. So I get what you're saying, but looking at it from a different lens, just for, you know, to play devil's advocate, maybe he doesn't care about his friends. Maybe he cares about himself having friends. True. Maybe it's more for personal gain, like he doesn't want to get in trouble. He wants to make sure he's popular. He wants to make sure he has friends. True. Maybe it's more for personal gain. Like he doesn't want to get in trouble. He wants to make sure he's popular. He wants to make sure he has friends.

Starting point is 00:35:09 Okay. I don't know. So when Tyler tells Ashley that his dad has died, Ashley, who doesn't know Tyler very well, just assumes he means that his father had passed away a long time ago. So she's like, okay, but he literally just told someone that his dad died.

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Starting point is 00:37:17 door. But so they noticed it, but they didn't think anything of it. At this point in the party, the house is a disgusting mess. And the police would later find that the primary bedroom was the biggest mess of all. But the house that the party was covered in food, sticky substances, one party goer noticed a sticky, thick brown substance from under the kitchen table. Now, I'm including all of these witness statements to get across that one.

Starting point is 00:37:42 Tyler was alluding to multiple people that something bad had happened, but no one cared to push the subject. And number two, there might have been blood or evidence of a crime at the house everywhere, but because the party was getting wild, no one really noticed. Like if you're at a party and you see a brown stain, you might just think, oh, it's beer. Oh, people are getting messy. Also, if you don't really know the guy Maybe he just has a messy house around 1 a.m Tyler tells his best friend Michael Mandel that he needs to talk to him privately

Starting point is 00:38:12 Tyler takes Mandel outside so they can talk where he tells him that he killed his parents before the party So he takes his best friend outside and says dude. I killed my parents before I before I hosted the party Okay Mandel didn't believe him but Tyler insisted he had done it and says if you look I killed my parents before I hosted the party. Okay. Mandel didn't believe him, but Tyler insisted he had done it and says, if you look, there's signs all around the house to prove it. He tells Mandel to look in the driveway and to notice that both of his parents' cars are still there, so where are his parents?

Starting point is 00:38:38 Tyler also shows him a bloody footprint in the garage. Mandel, still at this point, is in disbelief. Oh my gosh, at this point, I'd be freaked out. I think you're just like, no, dude, you didn't. There's no way. I'm going home. So Tyler decides to lead his best friend to the primary bedroom.

Starting point is 00:38:53 According to TCPOM.com, Mandel said, quote, I opened the door. I saw bloody sheets piled everywhere. I saw broken pictures with blood on them. I looked down and I saw a leg. Mandel said Tyler told him he thought the devil possessed him and that's why he did it. Oh my gosh. So to me this just feels like bragging. I don't like I don't think this is guilt. I think this is a hundred percent him trying to be like dude I did it look around. Notice the signs.

Starting point is 00:39:19 Yes, but also the whole like the devil possessed me thing. I kind of think he's just trying to already make excuses because he knows he's gonna get caught. So maybe he's trying to make excuses for how he can get out. Yeah. So Tyler at this point then gives Michael Mandel the whole detailed account about the murder that we talked about earlier. And Tyler also tells Mandel at this point

Starting point is 00:39:44 that he'd taken the X-C pills before committing the murders, which is how we discover that. And despite all of this, Mandel hears Tyler tell him about his parents and then goes, okay, they go back in the party and they continue partying for at least 45 minutes. That is not real life. So Michael Mandel just saw Tyler's dad's leg in the bedroom, saw the blood, saw everything, heard the detail account, and then said, okay, let's go back to the party. Ben, for the doubt, maybe he's just in complete shock

Starting point is 00:40:18 and does not know. I mean, that's kind of a crazy situation. Again, to add even more bewilderment to the situation, Michael Mendel then takes multiple selfies with Tyler at the party, which we will post on our social media, after Tyler just confessed that he killed his parents, they take pictures together at the party. And these pictures kind of become a statement piece

Starting point is 00:40:42 in the case because it's like, hey, they just, he just confessed to murder and now we're just going to continue on like things aren't happening. At around 2 a.m., there are false rumors of another party in town. So the party goers start leaving. Tyler runs outside after them to see where they're going. He's panicking. He wants everyone to party at his house.

Starting point is 00:41:00 He'd finally been able to throw a party. He had a killer's parents to do it. A bunch of the cars made so much noise peeling out of the party that one of the neighbors finally calls the police. Two officers from the Port St. Lucie Police Department quickly responded to the Hadley home. However, the police get there, they notice everyone's leaving the party so they just decide to leave as well.

Starting point is 00:41:21 Tyler claims he considered committing suicide at this point, but I don't know how we will know if this is true or not. It could have been something he said to fake grief and sorrow, so I don't know if we'll know. On July 17, 2011, after leaving the party, Michael Mandel decides to make an anonymous call to crime stoppers telling them everything Tyler had told him and showed him essentially turning in his best friend like it's been his best friend since childhood, but he's like, I've got to tell someone. So he calls crime stoppers.

Starting point is 00:41:52 An officer from the port, St. Lucie Police Department prepared an incident report which contains details about the police activity and the investigation from the morning hours of July 17th. The following information primarily comes from this report. Based on the anonymous tip from Michael Mandel, that Tyler had killed his parents and put their dead bodies in their bedroom. Two police officers were dispatched to the Hadley House

Starting point is 00:42:17 at 4.24 a.m. Tyler posts for the last time on Facebook around this time, party at my house again tomorrow hit me up. Apparently, despite considering to take his own life, he also wanted to host another party the next evening. By 4.40 a.m., the police officers are outside the house in response to Mandel's call. They parked nearby and approached the house on foot

Starting point is 00:42:41 where they see three cars parked in the driveway. They run the plates. One comes back to Tyler and the other two come back registered to his parents. The officers notice a light on inside the house and through a large bay window out front, they could see the shadow of someone walking around, back and forth, back and forth. One of the officers peeked in through the blinds and saw a white male walking around inside. At this point, the police knocked on the front door of the Hadley home, but no one answered despite the fact that they had literally just seen Tyler walking inside. About five minutes

Starting point is 00:43:12 later, the light inside of the house goes off. The police knocked a second time, and they also request for backup. But before the backup units arrive, Tyler opens the front door. The police didn't know if he was holding a weapon behind his back so they asked him to show his hands and when he did they decided to handcuff him. They then asked Tyler if any other adults were inside the house, he says, no. A lot of this part is redacted so we can't actually see what Tyler responded but it's pretty evident. At this point officers ask Tyler if they can go inside the house, if anyone else is home, again he says no. Officers go inside anyway to make a welfare check based on the tip.

Starting point is 00:43:51 And what they described as Tyler's unusual behavior and appearance, they noticed that the house was a huge mess. And in total disarray and they immediately checked two of the bedrooms, which were also a mess, but nothing was there. Then they went to the door of the primary bedroom and tried to open it, but it was locked. Police made their way back outside and asked Tyler who's room it was, and if he had a key to get inside. He responded that it was his parents' room, and that he didn't have a key.

Starting point is 00:44:16 He tells the police that his parents are a way on vacation. Walking back through the home, an officer noticed what appeared to be blood on the baseboards and on a wood-colored hutch outside of the bedroom door. So another officer then arrived who turned the door with enough force that he was able to finally get it open. I can't even explain to you what Tyler had done to the primary bedroom. I kind of talked about it earlier, but I had no idea what it looked like until I saw the actual photo of it. The only way I can think to describe it to you guys is like watching an episode of Hortars. It's just going to say that.

Starting point is 00:44:51 It looks like that, except if you look closely, there's blood stains on everything. So why? Why would he do that? That makes, that doesn't make sense. I think it goes back to number one, the frame of mind he's in, number two, he's a teenager. I mean, a lot of times in these teenage killings, we see them just like... Do weird stuff. Weird stuff, like trying to maybe even pretend they didn't do it.

Starting point is 00:45:15 Like, oh, if I just, it's such a child toddler-like thing to do. If I just throw a bunch of stuff on top of it, it'll go away. Yeah. The problem will go away. So to describe it for you, there are dining room chairs upside down on top of it, it'll go away. The problem will go away. So to describe it for you, there are dining room chairs upside down on top of dresser drawers and the coffee table all on top of the bed. It's covered in so much stuff you can't see the floor once inside of the primary bedroom and taking in the scene and after moving the furniture, clothing and other

Starting point is 00:45:42 household items that were blocking the way, the officers eventually found the leg belonging to a male adult, piled like laying underneath all of this stuff. It was cold to the touch. The leg was still attached to the rest of Blake's body, but it's the first body part that was visible under the mess. After moving a calendar that was thrown on the floor, the officers then found an arm belonging to another dead body. Again, the arm was still attached to the rest of Mary Jo's body. At this point, the officers secured the house and a detective arrived and took control of the murder investigation. The murder weapon, a bloody claw hammer, was found on the floor between the dead bodies of Tyler's parents. The police arrest Tyler

Starting point is 00:46:24 and take him to police headquarters for questioning. The police also obtained a search warrant for the house. Now the autopsy was very graphic, but to sum it up for you, Blake Hadley suffered 39 blows from the hammer. Oh my God. And Mary Jo suffered 36. Three years later, on February 13, 2014, Tyler fills out in signs a written felony plea from where he pleads no contest to two counts of first-degree murder, essentially pleading guilty and Tyler Hadley will not go to trial. In mid-March 2014, the courts held a two-week sentencing hearing which included testimony from family, friends, and experts.

Starting point is 00:47:04 So basically, families coming in saying, please give him the max sentence and his defense is saying this is why he shouldn't be given life in prison. Give me a break. The defense fought that Tyler was in a depressive episode during the murders, but experts claimed someone in a major depressive episode typically wouldn't be communicating with friends online, driving around, and partying, but Tyler was more likely showing precursors of anti-social personality disorder. So they're like, it's not that he wasn't, he was in a clear frame of mind.

Starting point is 00:47:36 It's just that he wasn't in a depressive episode. He's clearly showing signs of anti-social personality disorder. Again, something's not right here. The police interviewed some of Tyler's cellmates in preparation for the sentencing. One said that Tyler was acting like a celebrity in jail, signing autographs with the phrase, it's hammer time. No way.

Starting point is 00:47:58 And calling himself hammer boy. Oh, he 100% is a serial killer, right? Like something's not right. Like he 100% what have done this again? Yeah, I just I'm so kind like he likes killing. Yeah. And an inmate said that Tyler told him he never been abused by his parents. So when sentencing comes, they say, Oh, well, Tyler was also his parents were really harsh on him, but he told his inmate, no, no, no, no, no, my parents never did anything to me. I just, I'm that cool. I'm that cool.

Starting point is 00:48:28 I'm just that bad. And again, this doesn't seem very remorseful, which is why I'm including it. It kind of feels more like he's keeps giving excuses for what he's done. Depressive episodes are real, I will say, and they can lead to unexplainable behavior. But one wouldn't typically then go on to act like this as well if the murders had been done in a depressive episode. On March 20, 2014, the judge pronounces the sentence. Three years have passed since the murders, and Tyler is now 20 years old. Tyler Hadley was a juvenile at the time, so the death penalty isn't an option. The judge spends 40 minutes providing

Starting point is 00:49:05 his reasoning and sentences Tyler to two life terms in prison. Two years later, in 2016 Michael Mandel, Tyler's bestie who turned him in, is convicted for stealing a gun. He violates probation and goes to jail. In 2018, Tyler Hadley was successfully granted a resentencing hearing, but the new judge just resentances him to the same two life sentences. There will be an automatic review of the life sentence after 25 years. This just happens for a minor whose sentence to life. This period starts from the time Tyler was first arrested in 2011. So the aftermath of this case is that Blake Hadley's brother, Tyler's uncle, was in court for the resentencing

Starting point is 00:49:49 along with the other family members. He told media that they hoped they would never have to go through this again and a life sentence is correct as far as they are concerned. They want Tyler Hadley put away for life. According to CBS News, Ryan Hadley, Tyler's older brother said his parents were awesome. They never abused him. I forgot he had an older brother. I just totally forgot

Starting point is 00:50:10 about that whole part. And he said that Tyler was a pathological liar. He says, my brother is a pathological liar. My parents were great. There was nothing to even cause this at all besides Tyler himself. So Ryan Hadley actually wrote a book about his parents murder and about his own grieving process. Writing the book he said was therapeutic and helped him cope with the enormity and horror of his brother killing his parents. The title of Ryan's book is a thousand fireflies living in the aftermath of my parents murders. We have linked Ryan's book in our episode notes and it would be a great way to support

Starting point is 00:50:45 the victims family and also give voice to the only remaining innocent member of the Hadley family. And I'm sorry I'm getting choked up, but Ryan Hadley has to live with the fact that his brother took his parents' lives. I'm so sad that victims' families have to go through this every single time we sit down to record an episode. Ryan said, I decided to write the book because I thought my story could help other people who are going through something similar, which that sentence alone is devastating.

Starting point is 00:51:15 Ryan said he's learned to deal with opposing realities such as being angry at my brother for what he did, but still loving him and caring for him. Ryan Hadley wasn't able to reestablish any relationship with his brother until he knew Tyler would spend the rest of his life in prison. Since then, Ryan Hadley has gone to the prison to see his brother three times. Completing the book was cathartic for him, he said, quote, I find when you relive the story, it is painful, but what you've done and survived, there is relief in it.

Starting point is 00:51:47 Ryan Hadley said, I can't focus on this one event in my life and let it consume me or define who I am. And that is the story of Blake and Mary Jo Hadley. Such a brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal story. Heartless, devastating. Probably one of the most brutal stories I've heard. I just can't wrap my mind around it. And again, it goes back to,

Starting point is 00:52:11 why do people do the things they do? He was showing, it's just the fact that he's still bragging about it. And he obviously, I mean, had no emotions towards it. Which is scary. It's scary that that exists. So that's out there because who knows how many people he would have killed, right? Right.

Starting point is 00:52:32 My heart just hurts for the victims, for Blake and Mary Jo, who are real people in this episode. My heart hurts that their own son took their lives and that they knew. They knew it was their son. I just it's unfair and no one should have to go through that. So today I really want us to think about Blake and Mary Jo and Ryan. If you want to go get his book again it's linked. I would highly suggest it. Think about

Starting point is 00:53:00 them today. Keep them in your hearts. Keep them in your thoughts. That's what we can do. That's what we, as true crime listeners, can do. This is what we can do for the victims. Thank you guys for caring. Thank you guys for listening. And we'll see you next week with another episode. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye. you

Murder With My Husband - 130. Mary Jo and Blake Hadley - The Deadly House Party

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