Yler Hadley’s plan to murder his parents began with a joke. He engaged in dark banter with his friends. But the thought had taken root in the Florida teenager’s mind, and he could not shake it.
The troubled 17-year-old thought about his plan to kill for months. After that, on July 16, 2011, he did it.
At their home in Port St. Lucie, Hadley killed his parents Blake Hadley, 54, and Mary-Jo Hadley, 47, with a big claw hammer. While they were still bleeding on him, he texted and called his friends to let them know his parents were out of town and to come over for what turned into a wild house party.
The bodies of Hadley’s dead parents had been dragged into a closed-off bedroom while more than 60 people crammed into his house to drink, smoke, and party. Hadley was found guilty of the murders three years later and will spend the rest of his life in prison.
It is been more than ten years since the killings, but Hadley is finally speaking out about what was going through his mind when he killed his parents as a teenager.
On Sunday at 8 p.m., Court TV’s limited series Interview with a Killer will air an episode with his interview.
In an exclusive clip from Sunday’s show given to The Independent, Hadley tells investigative reporter David Scott that the teen and his friends came up with the idea to kill his parents as a dark joke while they were smoking weed and drinking beer.
He said, “I would sit there and think about it.” “And I feel like I grabbed it and would not let go.”
Hadley reached a stage where the plan was not funny anymore.
He said, “The thoughts did not go away.” “The thing would be done if I could just get rid of the thoughts.”
Hadley went up behind his mother, who was sitting at her desk, on July 16, 2011, and hit her with a big hammer. He was about to kill someone when his father walked in on him. Hadley then hit his father very hard.
As Hadley talked on Court TV, he remembered hearing his parents yelling and pleading for their lives, but he kept swinging.
When his dad asked him, “Why?” Hadley said he remembers telling his dad, “Why the f— not?”
Hadley said he was “detached” and in “some kind of psychotic state or trance” during the ordeal. He said that when he saw that they had blood on him, he felt “finality” and that “it was over” at that moment.
“I went into my bathroom and there was blood all over me,” he remembered. “There was blood everywhere.” I laughed at myself in the mirror, and then I went about having a party.
Hadley moved his parents’ bodies into the main bedroom and covered them with a bunch of different household items. He then cleaned for three hours before the party.
Later, some people who were at the party told police that they thought they smelled something strange. Some people saw blood in different parts of the house.
Hadley allegedly told one of his friends what he had done and then showed him the bodies at some point during the party. Hadley was caught the next morning after the friend called the police.
According to the authorities, the troubled teen’s lawyers showed signs of mental health problems, such as a receipt for a mental health center and a bottle of antidepressant medication.
But when Judge Robert R. Makemson gave the two life sentences, he said the crime was brutal, heinous, and planned. He also said Hadley lied about hearing voices and manipulated experts.
Police say Hadley would call himself “Hammer Boy” and sign autographs for other prisoners while he was in jail.
Hadley, who is now 30 years old, said he still does not know why he killed his parents in Sunday’s interview. Scott asked him about it.
He said, “I think it was to stop all of our pain.” “Other than that, I am not sure how to answer that.” I can’t. I am still not sure. That was the only thought that would not go away.