130. Mary Jo and Blake Hadley - The Deadly House Party
55:04 Share

You guys, most weight loss plans are one size fits all. They don't take into account each person's individual needs, but Noom builds personal plans that can meet your individual needs. Noom takes into account dietary restrictions, medical issues, and other personal needs to build a plan that works for you and is built for your psychology and your biology,

meeting you where you are. And you guys, I actually have been using Noom Weight and it truly feels personalized to meet my lifestyle. What I love most is that Noom doesn't restrict what you can eat and it actually doesn't shame you when you choose to treat yourself. Noom's personalized program has felt more sustainable than other more restrictive weight loss programs.

Noom Weight uses psychology and biology, and that's why they say losing weight starts with your brain. The program helps you understand the science behind your eating choices and why you have cravings and actually helps you build new habits for a healthier lifestyle. So stay focused on what's important to you with Noom's psychology and biology based approach. Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com. Today, Noom has helped more than 5.2 million people lose weight.

All right, you guys, we are jumping into an ad and I wanted to let you know that listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.

Listening can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall well-being. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exception, along with popular podcasts and exclusive Audible Originals. All-in-one, easy app.

You guys, since becoming an Audible member, I've found it so easy to fit more stories into my day. Recently, I've actually been listening to Twilight on audiobook and it's been a game changer during my daily walks.

So there's more to imagine when you listen. New members can try Audible now for free for 30 days with your first audiobook included. Visit audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500. That's audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500 to try Audible free for 30 days.

Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. 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 feel 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. 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 feels 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. 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. A 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. And it's

All the time people ask, Garrett, do you still hate it? Garrett, do you still hate it? You can go check that blooper 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, yep. 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. We did. I've had that desk forever. Forever. Football season started.

Chargers won their first game. Mark 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. I'm speaking it into existence. Manifesting. And I'm manifesting it. Okay, okay. And on that note, let's hop into a new episode. All right. Our case sources are Rollingstone.com, NewYorkTimes.com, ABCNews.go, Archive.TCPalm.com, PalmBeachPost.com, Telegram.com, CBS News, WPBF.com, AllThat'sInteresting.com, Tributes.com, Port St. Lucie, Police Department, Incident Reports, Redfin, and

and GoogleMaps.com. True crime cases grab a hold of the public for all different reasons. We have OJ 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 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' dead bodies in their bedroom down the hall the whole entire party. Okay. I've heard of this one. Oh, my. Just kidding. Okay.

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 to Port St. 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 St. 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 city for over 100,000 residents. I think Port St. 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 St. Lucie 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 Jo became an elementary school teacher where she worked up until the time of our story. 47-year-old Mary Jo 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 Hadleys' home was a modest three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot house built in 1988.

Looking at images from Google Maps, the house looks like a smallish one-story house. What year is it again? 2008.

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. 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 even house sit her home while they went on vacation.

And the Hadleys' 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 Hadleys having fun in their backyard pool together. And see, these are the cases that confuse me. Because it just seems... Because how does everything seem... I mean, 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...

That just, that confuses me. I don't understand. Right. 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 Hadley seemed like a normal teenage kid, he

he had actually exhibited some weird signs since 10 years old. After an argument with his mother at the age of 10, Tyler Hadley showed up to a friend's home and vowed to kill his parents.

And I mean, at 10 years old, 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 to me. Right. 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 all

we kind of know people like this. In the middle of a school lesson, he would just start laughing. He would just blurt out stuff. Once in the middle of biology class, he started mooing loudly like a cow. Yeah, just craving attention, basically. 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. Totally. 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 in trouble 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 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 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 causing more punishment at school. So now he's getting in 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 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... What?

So this does seem weird, right? 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 going to kill my mom. You might have complained. I've been like, oh, my parents are being annoying. But I've never said like,

I'm going to 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 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 coworkers she was worried that Tyler might hurt himself. I mean, the situation had just, what do you do at this point? As a parent, what do you do? But she did tell friends and coworkers she wasn't afraid Tyler was going to hurt other people, just that he might try to hurt himself.

And after Tyler returned home from this health clinic, both Mary Jo 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. 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 claims she was so happy about Tyler's improvement and really felt like he was getting back to himself. And this would be really hard as a parent.

Oh, just to have... 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... Yeah, you don't know that. Okay. No, I'm just kidding. No. You know, like we had our typical... Yeah. We caused issues. But I think to be getting in trouble with the law 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.

Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms.

and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI-powered all-star. Peyton and I love Shopify. We have been using it for, I mean, I've been using it for six years now, so many years, and it's amazing. It just keeps getting better and better with more updates. It's easy to use. It's user-friendly. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US, and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklyn, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries.

Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash husband.

Okay, you guys, shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall can be a challenge, but I'm telling you right now, my Quince products that I have, my Quince clothing items are my go-to staples in the fall. They make it so easy. They have timeless, high quality items. I use their silk skirts. I literally wear them in so many ways with boots, with tights, with a sweater, with a crop top.

They have cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops, so much more. And the best part is that they are priced so well because they partner directly with top factories. So they cut out the cost of the middleman and then they pass the savings onto you. So you are literally getting cashmere sweaters for $50.

I just got a cashmere sweater from Quince that I am going to be wearing. I also have a pair of their linen pants. I'm actually just going to pair them together. I will post it on my social media and you will see it. So make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash husband.

For free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. You guys, if you want free shipping, make sure to do quince.com slash husband. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash husband to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash husband. They have the cutest clothes. You need to go check it out. 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 the relief she was feeling when it came to Tyler's behavior, she was

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. 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. And Tyler had talked about killing his parents many times before. So it was 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

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 you always talk like this. I mean, 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. He had just confessed to his friends exactly what he had planned for his parents in just two short moments.

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. 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, it's

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 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

And I still didn't murder my parents. So although I understand that kids can become creative when they're bored, I still don't think it's an excuse for poor behavior. Oh, no, not at all. And so I think that kind of 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 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 friend's

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 callous. It seems extra cold. It seems extra heartless. So,

I mean, I think sometimes teenagers can just have underdeveloped brains 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 16th, 2011 at 1.15 p.m.,

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 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, you know, 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 throw.

do it if he could actually go through with 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.

Now tripping, Tyler Hadley 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 going to 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. Insane. I think hammering someone to death, let alone your parents, is so bad. Like that is so much worse. I could be wrong, but that is just a personal opinion. There's so much to dissect that we're not going to really get there, obviously, but he has to be a 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,

to feel like he's exhibiting signs, right? Oh, 150%. How could you hammer your parents to death? Like it just doesn't. Unless something's wrong. Yeah, something's obviously wrong. Right. So the details of the murders come from Michael Mandel, who's Tyler's best friend that we talked about earlier. 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

So the physical evidence seems to corroborate 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 and 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 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 someone for five minutes without...

- Okay, without them noticing. - I mean, I'm sure, I'm just wondering how exaggerated that part is. And I'm sure the count is gonna be exaggerated in multiple parts. - Right. - Just trying to wrap my brain around it. - Yeah, so just to clarify, her back is facing him 'cause 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 wouldn't notice? - It's a long time. I stand behind you for like-- - Two seconds and I turn around. - Two seconds and you're like, "What?" - 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.

Oh, I can't. That makes me sick. Right. So hearing his wife's screams, Tyler's 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 F not.

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. 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. So it's going to take a while to clean this up because 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 Clorox wipes to try to clean up there, which he then threw on top of the parents' 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 these hard to hear 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 plan, having a bunch of teenagers over to his house to party while his parents' bodies were down the hall.

At 8.15 p.m. 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.

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. It's awful. It makes, I can't even, I can't wrap my mind around it. Well, we never can. We never can in these cases. Yeah.

Oh, okay.

So that's what my question was going to be. Was he popular? Like, did people know him a lot? Was this party something like, you know what I'm trying to say? 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 druggie crowd, 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. Right.

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, 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, nervously clenching his fists. Like people could tell he was on drugs. Okay.

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 would do at a high school party. Initially, Tyler told the partiers 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 as well, decomp is pretty fast as far as the smell of decomp.

Well, remember he did pile them under a bunch of stuff. Oh, that's right. 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.

wonder why Tyler Hadley doesn't want the police in his house. 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 were playing music from. According to sources, a partygoer queued up Wiz Khalifa's No Sleep and a couple of tracks from a Lil Wayne mixtape called Tune She's Back and Raxx.

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 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 Project X came out? It's 2011. I don't know when Project X came out. Hold on. I'm going to look it up real quick. All right. It looks like it came out 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. 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 Hadley told a guest that he was going to prison for 60 years 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 witness said that Tyler Hadley

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. 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 partygoers 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 to Ashley that his father had died. Mark's 21? Yes. Well, I mean, yeah. I don't find this that weird because- And he's 16? 17. Okay. I mean, I don't know. Anyways, keep it 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, there's a college, like you're gone, you can go somewhere. Unless you're a hometown junkie. Yeah, I guess so. Unless you're a hometown junkie who buys the beer for the high school parties. Maybe just because 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 am I to judge? 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 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 has this group of friends he likes. Oh, yeah. Okay, so I get what you're saying, but looking at it from a different lens just 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. 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. Hola. Como esta? Hola, como estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain and live there for the rest of your life.

I made that up. I went off the ad. Let me go back to the ad read. The best way is to uproot your entire life. Drop your... Oh. You literally followed the ad. I didn't read the rest of that. Drop yourself in the middle of a new country and figure it out from there. I just want to let everyone know that's what I did. But... That's what I did. It worked. If you're not ready for that, you can still learn a new language the next best way, and that is with Babbel. See...

Speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the science-backed language learning app that gets you talking. Wasting hundreds of dollars on private tutors is the old school way of learning a new language. Babbel's 10-minute lessons are quick and handcrafted by over 200 language experts, ready to get you talking your new language in three weeks because talking is the key to really knowing any language.

Designed by real people for having real conversation, Babbel gets you talking. You guys, I actually use Babbel to brush up on Spanish when we travel. I love it. It is so easy. And then I can actually kind of keep up with what's going on. And with over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award-winning language courses are backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee. So there's no pressure. Buy Babbel and travel.

Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at babbel.com slash husband. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash husband spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash husband. Rules and restrictions may apply. Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work. You still aren't sleeping, you still hurt, and you're stressed out. That's what you're doing.

That's how it was for me, so I cleared out my cabinet and reset my health with CBD from CB Distillery. CBD Distillery's targeted formulations are made from the highest quality clean ingredients, no fluff, no fillers, just pure effective CBD solutions designed to help support your health.

In two non-clinical surveys, 81% of customers experienced more calm, 80% said CBD helped with pain after physical activity, and an impressive 90% actually said they slept better with CBD. I have personally used CBD before to help me sleep. I used to have a lot of trouble sleeping and I couldn't figure out what to do to help. And honestly, CBD did help. And if that's something you're struggling with, yeah.

Give it a try. Check it out. If you struggle with a health concern and haven't found relief, make the change like I did to CBD Distillery. And with over 2 million customers and a solid 100% money back guarantee, CBD Distillery is the source to trust. You guys, we have a 20% discount to get you started. So if you've ever wanted to do CBD, now is the time. Visit CBDistillery.com and use code husband for 20% off. That's CBDistillery.com.

One partygoer was selling pills at the party for a dollar each. Someone else was selling marijuana. And one of the partygoers noticed that the primary bedroom door was locked, but that there was a smear of something, quote, like oily black paint coming from beneath the door. 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 at 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, 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.

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 hosted the party. 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? 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.

According to tcpalm.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.

So to me, this just feels like bragging. I don't like I don't think this is guilt. I think this is 100% him trying to be like, dude, I did it. Look around. Notice the signs. 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 going to 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 that he'd taken the ecstasy 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. No freaking way. 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 detailed account. And then said...

Okay, let's go back to the party. - Benefit of the doubt, maybe he's just in complete shock and does not know. I mean, that's kind of a crazy situation. - Again, to add even more bewilderment to the situation, Michael Mandel 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 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. He'd finally been able to throw a party. He had to kill his 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 respond to the Hadley home. However, the police get there. They notice everyone's leaving the party, so they just decide to leave as well. 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 17th, 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.

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 at 424 a.m. Tyler posts for the last time on Facebook around this time, party at my house again tomorrow hit me up. Oh my gosh. Apparently, despite...

Considering to take his own life, he also wanted to host another party the next evening. Yeah.

The officers noticed 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 later, the light inside of the house goes off. The police knock 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. Interesting.

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 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 whose 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. He tells the police that his parents are away 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. 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 Hoarders. I was just going to say that. It looks like that. Except if you look closely, there's bloodstains on everything. So...

Why? Why would he do that? 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. 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. 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 household items that were blocking the way, the officers eventually found the leg belonging to a male adult pile 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 and take him to police headquarters for questioning. The police also obtain 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 gosh. And Mary Jo suffered 36.

Three years later, on February 13th, 2014, Tyler fills out and 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 ex-partners.

So basically, family's 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.

more likely showing precursors of antisocial personality disorder. So they're like, it's not that he wasn't, he was in a clear frame of mind. It's just that he wasn't in a depressive episode. He's clearly showing signs of antisocial 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. And calling himself hammer boy. Oh, he a hundred percent is a serial killer, right? Like something's not right. Like he a hundred percent would have done this again. Yeah. I just, I'm so good. 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. My parents never did anything to me. I just I'm that cool. I'm that cool. 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 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 20th, 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 his reasoning and sentences Tyler to two life terms in prison. Good.

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 resentences 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 who's sentenced 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 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 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 the victim's 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. 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.

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 Blake.

Why do people do the things they do? He was showing 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, that it's out there because who knows how many people he would have killed, right? Right. My heart just hurts so

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. 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 wanna go get his book, again, it's linked. I would highly suggest it.

Think about 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. And I hate it. Goodbye.