Teen boy kills parents with hammer then hosts a party

By the CNN Wire Staff

A Florida teen bludgeoned his parents to death with a hammer, stashed their bodies in a bedroom, then hosted dozens of people for a house party, police said Monday.

Tyler Hadley, 17, is in police custody, booked just before 5 p.m. Monday on two counts of second-degree murder with a weapon, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s website. Port St. Lucie Police spokesman Tom Nichols told reporters earlier that the teenage boy, who will be tried as an adult, was denied bond.

Around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Port St. Lucie Police Capt. Don Kryak said Hadley posted an invitation on Facebook, inviting friends to a party at his house.

Sometime after that, police said he used a 22-ounce framing hammer to fatally beat his parents — Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley — in the head and torso outside their master bedroom door of their Port St. Lucie home. He then dragged them inside the room and used “books, files, towels, anything that he could find inside the home to cover the bodies,” Nichols said.

Then the teenager proceeded to party.

Between 40 and 60 people turned up sometime after 9 p.m., according to police. Nichols said that “during the party and after the party, there was a rumor that perhaps Tyler had killed his parents.” But, while saying police wanted to talk to more partygoers, he did not indicate if anyone else saw the dead couple’s bodies locked in the master bedroom.

Police became involved after getting an anonymous tip, which led them to conduct a welfare check at the house around 4:20 a.m. Sunday.

Kryak said Tyler Hadley appeared “nervous” when law enforcement officers arrived, telling them his parents were out of town. They eventually found the alleged murder weapon lying between his parents’ bodies.

“The crime scene was certainly a merciless killing,” the police captain said. “It was brutal.”

Autopsies are being conducted on Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley, though police repeated that they believe both died from “blunt force trauma.”

Tyler Hadley had dropped out of St. Lucie Centennial West High School and later took classes at Indian River State College, Kryak said.

Nichols said police do not know why the teen, who has made “no incriminating statements,” may have killed his parents. There are no plans to charge anyone else in connection with the pair’s deaths.

“I’ve known Mary-Jo since she was in high school in Fort Lauderdale,” Charlene Moses, a family friend, told CNN-affiliate WPTV. “They are a nice family. The kids are always nice.”

Related posts:

1. 17-year-old boy ‘killed parents with a hammer’ as they ‘wouldn’t let him throw a party’
2. How Parents Can Help Their College Students Land an Internship
3. Political violence kills 14 in Pakistani city
4. Suicide bomber kills 7 in Pakistan’s northwest
5. Officials kill bear that bit teen

Tags: Florida, hammer, parents, party, teen boy

Category: U.S. News