00:00:03
[theme music] NARRATOR: A fatal fall
in a South Carolina mansion. A life taken in a heartbeat.
00:00:27
- I couldn't speak. I had to hand
the phone to my husband because I couldn't speak.
00:00:33
It was not news that I
was prepared to hear. NARRATOR: Was it simply
down to natural causes?
00:00:40
- She had said that
he'd had a heart attack and collapsed and died
at the bottom of the stairs.
00:00:46
NARRATOR: Or murdered? [theme music] ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
My brother, Steven Del Valle Clayton,
was born on May 1st, 1954.
00:01:19
Steven was always the biggest
personality in the room. He was just full of joy. And Steven was just
extremely gregarious.
00:01:29
And he was the type of person
that when you meet him, you automatically knew that
you were friends with him.
00:01:38
He was an accounting major
at Florida State University, and from there, it became
an interesting avenue for him
00:01:47
to open physical therapy
centers inside of hospitals and have them separately run.
00:01:53
And so he began to do
this with hospitals all around the country. My brother had great
success business wise.
00:02:02
His dream was to retire at 40,
but he was able to retire at 41 and start traveling
and doing all the things
00:02:09
that he wanted to do. NARRATOR: And what Steve
and Clayton wanted to do was inspire others to success.
00:02:18
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
After Steven retired, Steven was a mentor
to many young people
00:02:23
and started out
in college mentoring younger college grads. And from there,
the mentorship relationship
00:02:31
grew through college
and then into business, and Steve was with them all
the way into their success.
00:02:39
NARRATOR: Steven also
liked to throw a party. ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE: Steven
loved to entertain people,
00:02:46
and one of the days that
was very special for him was the 4th of July
and he always had
00:02:51
something very
special planned, live music at his house, fireworks. He loved to entertain and he
loved to have fun with people.
00:03:03
And he's the kind
of man that was always there for his friends. NARRATOR: Steven also cared
deeply for his family.
00:03:12
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
My dad passed away 11 months before William
and I got married,
00:03:16
and Steve not only
walked me down the aisle, but he also served
as my husband's best man.
00:03:23
- My dad told me
before he passed to take care of my sister. To honor you, and he
loved you very much.
00:03:37
NARRATOR: Despite Steven's love
for his family and friends, his own romantic life
was far from perfect.
00:03:45
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE: He
was married six times, and a lot of that was
because there was just
00:03:49
no Steven around to really keep
the relationships together, because he was traveling
at least three weeks out
00:03:57
of every month, so it put
a little bit of a dent in some of his
personal relationships,
00:04:02
his marriages, et cetera. NARRATOR: But in 2010,
Steven Clayton, now living in North
Carolina, announced that he
00:04:10
had met someone special. AMBER HAQUE: Steve said that
he had met someone called Lana
00:04:16
online through a dating app. Lana worked as a nurse and was
originally from Oklahoma.
00:04:21
She had kids from
a previous relationship, and she told Steve that she'd
been an Air Force veteran
00:04:27
and that she loved
the outdoors. ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
He loved her so much, he called her his Lana
Sue from Oklahoma,
00:04:34
and I think he wanted to make
this the rest of his life. They were married
in November of 2013.
00:04:46
The wedding took place at
their house in North Carolina. It was a beautiful ceremony
outdoors, surrounded
00:04:53
by Steve's beautiful gardens. Steven was so excited
to be marrying Lana. He felt that he had found
somebody, a small town
00:05:03
girl that he was going
to finally be able to settle in with for the rest of his life.
00:05:09
NARRATOR: Soon
after, the couple moved to the banks
of Lake Wylie in York County, South Carolina.
00:05:17
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE: It's
a beautiful piece of property, and it was right on the lake,
and the home itself was just--
00:05:23
it was very lovely,
very colonial style, in the style of Mount Vernon. NARRATOR: It was the perfect
property for Steven to hold
00:05:30
his legendary July 4th party. ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE: Every
time 4th of July came around,
00:05:36
Steven was just in his element,
and it was just going to be as grand an event
as he always had every
00:05:43
time he got people together. [theme music] NARRATOR: But after
one event in 2018,
00:05:51
Steven wasn't his
usual sprightly self. AMBER HAQUE: Steve starts
to feel a little bit
00:05:56
under the weather. He's just hosted all of these
big July 4th parties. He's known for throwing these
really epic bashes for it,
00:06:03
but he's all
of a sudden bedbound, feeling really dizzy, sick,
really, really unwell.
00:06:11
NARRATOR: As he fell ill, he
even stopped communicating with his beloved sister.
00:06:15
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
The last time that Steven actually
replied to a message was on the 16th of July.
00:06:21
And on the 17th
of July, I texted him and he didn't get right
back to me, which was very odd.
00:06:28
And then I started calling
and there was no answer. It was going straight
to voicemail.
00:06:35
NARRATOR: Despite not
hearing from Steven, Rosie felt reassured that
Lana was by his side.
00:06:40
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
Lana was a nurse, and that was the thing that
made me feel the most confident
00:06:45
about them being together. He had someone
by his side, who was trained to help in any sort
of emergency situation.
00:06:53
So to me, not hearing from
him for a couple of days wasn't something that I was
going to be concerned about.
00:06:59
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: On July 21,
five days since Rosie had last heard
from her brother,
00:07:07
a motorcyclist was passing
by the Clayton's mansion when all hell broke loose. [suspenseful music]
00:07:40
NARRATOR: Within minutes,
emergency services arrived on the scene
with body cams,
00:07:45
capturing shocking footage
that would eventually be seen by South Carolina's
Chief Prosecutor for York
00:07:51
and Union County,
Solicitor Kevin Brackett. - At the bottom of the main
flight of stairs leading
00:07:58
from the second floor
down to the first, they found the body
of Steven Clayton. Given the position
they found him
00:08:05
in at the bottom of the stairs,
it's quite possible that he fell some
distance down the stairs
00:08:09
and ended up at the foot
of the stairs. In a situation like this,
the emergency responders
00:08:16
realized that heroic measures
to try to restore life to Mr. Clayton would
be futile that he
00:08:23
had been deceased
for some time, and there was no
bringing him back. [tense music]
00:08:32
NARRATOR: As her husband's
body lay in the Hall, an officer tried to calm
a hysterical Lana.
00:08:55
- When they asked
her about him, she told them that he had been
sick for the last several days,
00:09:01
that he suffered from bouts
of vertigo, and that-- that he had been
bedridden, essentially, and
00:09:08
that at about 11
o'clock that morning, she had left the house to go
outside to do some yard work.
00:09:15
And when she came back
an hour and a half, an hour and 45 minutes
later, she found her husband
00:09:19
at the bottom of the stairs. NARRATOR: As officers
listened to Lana Clayton. Stevens, police officer, nephew
Nick arrived at the house
00:09:45
after hearing of his
uncle's passing. ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE: He heard
the address come over the radio
00:09:51
and immediately recognized it. And so when he arrived there,
my brother had passed away.
00:10:00
He was dead on the floor
in front of the stairs. [somber music] NARRATOR: The scene pointed
to a tragic accident.
00:10:08
The deputy coroner
arrived to figure out exactly how Steven had died. NARRATOR: Initial
signs suggested
00:10:29
a fatal fall down the stairs. But the deputy
coroner also noticed that Steven's face
had a grayish pallor
00:10:36
and concluded his
probable cause of death. - Apparently, the coroner
had seen a discoloration
00:10:42
of his skin
and immediately thought that it was a heart attack. A simple matter of him
having a heart attack
00:10:50
and falling down the stairs. NARRATOR: When
the deputy coroner offered to take
Steven Clayton's body
00:10:56
to the morgue
to run some tests, Lana made a snap decision. KEVIN BRACKETT: She
indicated that she did
00:11:02
not want an autopsy performed. She wanted to have
him cremated, so she asked that he be taken
to a local funeral home.
00:11:09
She gave them the name
of the funeral home and the body was
removed at that point.
00:11:14
NARRATOR: Although Steven's
body was already on its way to the funeral home,
there was still
00:11:19
one close family
member who had not even been informed of his death. KEVIN BRACKETT: Nick
suggested and said,
00:11:26
why hasn't Chris got here yet? And he came
to learn, Chris, who was the nephew of Steven
and very, very close,
00:11:32
like a son to Steven,
had not even been called. So he told Lana, we
need to call Chris.
00:11:39
He needs to know. ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
And when he said that to Lana, she went berserk.
00:11:46
She did not want
Christopher to be there. She did not want
to notify Christopher.
00:11:51
That was an outrage
to Nick because he knew of their closeness. Even though Lena
was very insistent
00:11:58
that Christopher not be called. Nick did the right
thing, and he called Christopher immediately.
00:12:04
NARRATOR: When Christopher
learned of Steven's death. He relayed the sad
news to Rosie.
00:12:10
- The first thing I heard
my nephew crying like a baby, saying, Uncle Steve is
gone, Uncle Steve is gone.
00:12:20
And I couldn't speak. I had to hand
the phone to my husband because I couldn't speak.
00:12:28
It was not news that I
was prepared to hear. He was a very good person,
and he was my best friend.
00:12:39
And every single
day I miss him. [somber music] NARRATOR: After
informing Rosie and
00:12:52
the rest of Steven Clayton's
extended family in Florida about his sudden death
from a heart attack, which
00:12:57
may have led to a fatal
fall down the stairs, Steven's nephew Chris
went to the family's
00:13:02
South Carolina home to be
with his grieving family. ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
Christopher
00:13:08
arrived at the house,
his wife met him there, and so he was coming
to comfort Lana.
00:13:14
And Chris continued to try
to reassure her by saying, you don't have to worry
about anything, Lana.
00:13:21
Uncle Steve has everything
written down in his will. And she immediately told
him there is no will.
00:13:29
[tense music] And this could not have
been further from the truth. Not only did Christopher
know about the will,
00:13:37
Christopher had seen the will. It was so large,
it was practically the size of a ream of paper.
00:13:44
Lana continued
to insist that there was no will, to the point
that she became infuriated with Christopher.
00:13:54
KEVIN BRACKETT: It was
clear to them at that point something was off. This wasn't right, and this
needed to be looked at further.
00:14:01
- You would imagine that having
been married for five years, that Lana would be
aware of the existence
00:14:06
of a will, especially
when a husband is financially very successful. It does suggest a real
disconnect between the family
00:14:15
unit and Lana. And that kind
of suggests either that they're both receiving
different information,
00:14:20
or that there's something else
going on there that's kind of hidden beneath the surface.
00:14:25
NARRATOR: Thrown
by Lana Clayton's denial of the existence of a will. Steven's nephews went upstairs
to check out his bedroom,
00:14:32
where they found
a shocking scene. KEVIN BRACKETT:
In the bedroom, they see the bed is in disarray.
00:14:38
The bed is filthy. There's vomit on the bed. The mattress is soaked
with urine, so soaked
00:14:45
that the urine has
actually started to puddle beneath the mattress,
underneath the bed.
00:14:52
The thing you have
to know about Steven is that he was an extremely
fastidious individual.
00:14:57
He was very clean. He would sometimes
shower twice a day. - To be lying in a pool
of his own bodily fluids
00:15:04
is not only an undignified
situation for any human being, but it is absolutely
not one that my brother
00:15:13
would find himself in. KEVIN BRACKETT: The second
thing was they couldn't find his phone anywhere.
00:15:17
It wasn't in the bedroom,
which also struck them as odd because he was
glued to his phone,
00:15:23
and if he was bedridden
for several days, his phone should have been
right there next to him,
00:15:27
but it wasn't. AMBER HAQUE: So things
were really jumping out to Nick at this point.
00:15:31
Why hadn't Lana
called 911 herself? There were two phones
in the house at the time.
00:15:37
Why she had to run out
onto the street asking someone else to call 911. It was also really
strange that Lana
00:15:44
didn't give Steve CPR herself. She was a nurse. She was medically trained
to know how to do that.
00:15:49
This was really unusual. NARRATOR: Despite
Nick's misgivings, the official verdict was
that Steven's fatal fall
00:15:57
was caused by a heart attack
and no foul play was involved. ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
This was not
00:16:02
a suspicious enough situation. They felt that they could
rely upon the coroner, and
00:16:09
the coroner's perspective that
because of his discoloration in his face, that this
was clearly a heart attack
00:16:17
and that he had fallen
down the stairs. So they had no reason
to look further into it.
00:16:25
[reflective music] NARRATOR: Later that evening,
Steven's sister Rosie called Lana to ask how
Steven had gotten so ill
00:16:34
and why she hadn't heard
from him in the days leading up to his death. - I finally got
a return call from Lana
00:16:41
after having called
her numerous times, and it was approximately
3 o'clock in the morning.
00:16:46
And she was inebriated. She was angry, and she had
no empathy for the fact that I had just
lost my brother.
00:16:57
She was livid that Steve's
family members were letting her know that there was a will.
00:17:06
When she claimed that she knew
for a fact that there wasn't. [tense music] I asked her what was
going on prior to this,
00:17:15
and she told me that he
had been feeling ill, and I asked her,
where were you? And she said, I was
out mowing the lawn.
00:17:23
And I said,
but aren't you telling me that he was violently ill. If he was violently
ill, why were
00:17:28
you outside mowing the lawn? And just as a knee
jerk reaction, she said, because he
was being so needy.
00:17:36
[tense music] When I asked her why
it was that I wasn't able to hear from him when
I texted him or called him,
00:17:44
she said somewhat
nonchalantly, I'm not sure, maybe it's at the bottom
of the lake.
00:17:50
That almost made my heart stop
because I knew that my brother wouldn't be without a phone.
00:17:56
That was the moment when I felt
something was terribly wrong. [suspenseful music]
00:18:02
NARRATOR: As the call
progressed, Rosie became even
more shocked by what Lana Clayton was saying.
00:18:08
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE: Lana
tried to tell me that Steve was a hardcore drug user.
00:18:14
I know my brother and he was
not a hardcore drug user. The reason why
she started to say
00:18:20
what she said
about the drug use is as an excuse to have him
cremated right away, so it
00:18:25
wouldn't be embarrassing
to his family that they would find
hardcore drugs in his system.
00:18:31
- There's now this accumulation
of unusual behaviors coming from Lana around the
circumstances of this death,
00:18:38
and it is driving
this kind of wedge between her and the family. NARRATOR: Later that day after
Rosie's early hours phone call,
00:18:46
Lana also spoke
to Steven's nephew, Chris, banning him
and others from coming to the family house.
00:18:54
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE: She
said only her children were allowed in the house. She didn't want
family members there,
00:18:59
and she said that
there was going to be a memorial
service at some point, and that's when I could come.
00:19:06
Aside from keeping everybody
in the family away, she immediately gave
away all of his clothes.
00:19:12
My brother had a really
lovely collection of watches. None of that was found. My brother was a collector
of art and sculpture.
00:19:21
These things were also missing. Imagine, my brother hadn't
even been dead for 24 hours,
00:19:28
and she's already getting
rid of all the clothes? This doesn't make sense to me.
00:19:33
This doesn't make
any sense at all. - Steve's sister Rosie
was well within her right
00:19:38
to be upset and confused
by Lana selling off all of his property so fast. It is very unusual.
00:19:44
It's very fast,
and especially when he has other family members
who might want to be
00:19:48
involved in that process. On the other hand, you could
say that actually this behavior
00:19:53
is that of a traumatized
woman trying to rid herself
of the reminders of her husband
00:19:57
that are surrounding her. So there are explanations, but
it is still unusual behavior.
00:20:04
NARRATOR: Suspicious
of Lana's behavior and the state of Steven
Clayton's bedroom, his nephews
00:20:09
Nick and Chris
decided to take action to find out if it was
just a tragic accident
00:20:15
or something more sinister. Could he even have been pushed? They wanted to get
to the truth.
00:20:23
- They did not
believe that Steve had died of natural
causes, and they wanted to get a secret
autopsy done before Lana
00:20:30
got Steve cremated. - Nick, of his
own volition, went to the York County
Sheriff's Office
00:20:35
and laid out his
concerns, told them why he felt something was wrong
and asked for their assistance
00:20:41
in getting an autopsy. The coroner listened
to their concerns and agreed that this was a case
that merited further inquiry.
00:20:49
So she directed
that the body be retrieved from the funeral
home, taken to the morgue,
00:20:54
and ordered an autopsy
to be performed on it. - But Nick had
one more request, and that was to run toxicology
tests on Steve's blood.
00:21:03
KEVIN BRACKETT: A toxicologist
is a specific type of scientist who examines bodily
fluids to determine
00:21:10
the presence
of foreign chemicals or foreign agents that may have
also impacted or caused brought
00:21:16
about the death of someone. So a toxicology was
ordered in this case, and blood was sent
off to a toxicologist.
00:21:23
[tense music] NARRATOR: While they
waited for Steven's body to be collected from the
funeral home for the autopsy,
00:21:30
his police officer
nephew Nick decided to dig deeper
into the circumstances surrounding his uncle's death.
00:21:38
- My nephew felt that
it was imperative that we have as much
information as possible and
00:21:44
as quickly as possible. AMBER HAQUE: Nick called
some contacts in the police department to try and get
them to investigate
00:21:51
what had happened,
but he hit a brick wall. He then decided to hire
a private investigator
00:21:57
to look around into some
of the circumstances surrounding Steve's death. The investigator found
that Lana was trying
00:22:04
to liquidate Steve's assets. They also found that she had
a fire pit in her garden,
00:22:11
and she had been burning
various documents that belonged to Steve. ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
Everything
00:22:17
that was in my brother's
filing cabinets and there were two
large filing cabinets,
00:22:21
was all dumped
into the fire pit. NARRATOR: As the investigation
continued, Steven Clayton's
autopsy results
00:22:30
were released to police,
including his nephew Nick. - Steve's autopsy
results came back and
00:22:37
showed that he had had
heart disease, which supported the initial
theory that he
00:22:41
had died of natural causes. But Steve's family
would have to wait a lot longer for the toxicology
report, which takes
00:22:47
a lot longer to come back. NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Steven's body was returned to the funeral home for
cremation, and on August 4th,
00:22:55
two weeks after Steven died,
Lana held a private memorial service at the family home.
00:23:01
- There were a lot
of Steve's mentees there, and Steve's closest
friends were there,
00:23:07
but there was just an air
of something bizarre. Lana's behavior at the memorial
was very out of the ordinary.
00:23:15
She wore a red and white
dress, sundress. She didn't act like a person
who had just lost somebody
00:23:25
that was dear to them. She didn't interact much
with many of the guests. She only interacted
with the neighbors.
00:23:32
There were many of us that
had a tremendous amount of suspicion, but there
was absolutely
00:23:37
nothing that we could
do until the toxicology reports came back. NARRATOR: About two weeks
after Stevens memorial,
00:23:45
the report was finally released
to Stevens nephews, Nick and Chris. - It revealed that he had
the presence of a large amount
00:23:55
of tetrahydrozoline, which is
the active ingredient in Visine in his system 68
nanograms per milliliter,
00:24:03
which was a lethal load
of tetrahydrozoline. Visine is an eye
drop, but there are many different products
that serve this purpose that
00:24:15
have tetrahydrozoline in them. When you use eye drops to get
the red out of your eyes,
00:24:20
that's the thing in that eye
drop actually does the job. It's a vasoconstrictor.
00:24:26
It takes blood vessels that are
expanded and narrows them down. It does the same thing
when you ingest it
00:24:33
and your blood vessels
will constrict. It can make you sick
by nauseating you. It can make you dizzy.
00:24:39
It can make you pass out. And ultimately,
it can kill you, because your blood
vessels are too narrow
00:24:46
and your heart is
working too hard to try to pump blood
through tubes that have been narrowed by this drug.
00:24:52
Using eye drops
appropriately, you would expect to find 0.38
nanograms per milliliter
00:25:00
in the body. Steven had 68 nanograms
per milliliter, which is 1,000 times more than
what you would normally find.
00:25:10
Now, the question arises,
how did that tetrahydrozoline get into Mr. Clayton's body?
00:25:16
And that is not something
that would naturally occur. So somebody must
have put it into him.
00:25:23
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
The morning that the toxicology
report became available, the phone rang, and it
was my nephew Christopher,
00:25:30
and through fighting back
tears and anger, he screamed. She did it. She killed him.
She did it.
00:25:40
She killed him. The report really said that
my brother had been murdered. That he had been
intentionally poisoned.
00:25:48
I could barely
speak with anyone because there was no way
that anyone would want
00:25:54
to cause that kind
of harm to someone as kind and generous
and loving as Steven.
00:25:59
[somber music] NARRATOR: It was
initially believed that Steven Clayton
had a heart attack
00:26:11
and potentially
fell to his death at his South Carolina home. But a toxicology
test on his blood
00:26:19
shockingly revealed
that he was actually killed by a lethal overdose
of a chemical called
00:26:24
tetrahydrozoline,
also known as THZ commonly found in eye drops. THZ constricts blood vessels,
causing severe nausea.
00:26:35
Extremely low blood pressure,
and in Steven's case, death. AMBER HAQUE: When that
toxicology report came back,
00:26:45
the police had
something definitive. Up until that point,
they didn't have much.
00:26:49
But this report now showed
that Steve had been poisoned. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Police
were now dealing
00:26:57
with a potential murder. But did the poison
alone kill Steven? Or was he poisoned and then
pushed to his death?
00:27:06
Investigators were
determined to find out. [suspenseful music] - On August 17th,
2018, the York County
00:27:14
Sheriff's Office
launched an investigation into Steve's death. NARRATOR: 12 days later,
on August 29th, 2018,
00:27:23
just over one month
after Steven died, his wife Lana Clayton
was called to the York
00:27:29
County Coroner's office. - The Coroner
and the Sheriff's office agreed that the best way
to conduct the interview would
00:27:35
be just to bring her in for
the purpose of discussing with the Coroner the results
of the autopsy and toxicology.
00:27:46
- The Coroner
and the Sheriff's Office did not want her to know
that the Sheriff's office
00:27:50
was involved at that point. They didn't want
to arouse her suspicions. So the police would
not be in the room
00:27:56
where the initial
interview was conducted. They would be
in an adjacent room, monitoring, and listening
to what was going on.
00:28:05
One of the most
interesting features of the interview
with the Coroner was the fact that
completely unsolicited,
00:28:14
Lana volunteered
that her husband used to put a couple of drops
of Visine in his morning coffee
00:28:21
to help keep regular, that
he used that to help him move his bowels each morning.
00:28:32
- This was not responsive
to anything in particular. At this point
in time, she didn't
00:28:37
even know that the toxicology
report revealed what it did. - In terms of human
behavior, if you're
00:28:44
volunteering information
before being asked about it, it's often because you're
implying your innocence,
00:28:50
because you don't believe
this is information that can implicate you. So in this case where Lana
is volunteering information
00:28:57
about the eye
drops, that implies that she's trying
to reassert her innocence and
00:29:03
the innocence of this chemical
being in Steve's system. NARRATOR: Not long
after Lana's admission,
00:29:09
detectives entered the room. AMBER HAQUE: When the
investigators entered the room,
00:29:22
Lana barely flinched. It was as though she had
been expecting them to come. - Detectives began to pick
holes in Lana's story.
00:29:53
How could Steve have been
putting these drops of Visine into his coffee when
she alleged that he
00:29:59
was so sick and bedridden. It was at this point that
Lana's tact totally changed.
00:30:05
She then started to blame Steve
and to attack his character. [tense music] - In criminology,
there's a theory
00:30:42
called ideal victim
theory that basically says that the more tarnished
someone's character is,
00:30:48
the less readily they're given
status as a legitimate victim, basically meaning that
if someone has performed
00:30:55
negative X, the general
population have less sympathy for them as a victim. And so I think this is Lana's
attempt to basically reduce
00:31:04
public sympathy for Steve. So people stop looking
into it so much and stop asking
as many questions.
00:31:13
- The information
she's providing about his character
doesn't really move the needle on whether
or not he was murdered
00:31:19
or how he was murdered. All of that is irrelevant
to the central question of how did that Visine, how
did that get into his system.
00:31:54
- As the interview progressed,
Lana became more and more aware that she was the focus
of the interview
00:32:01
and she was an object
of suspicion. And the interview there
at the Coroner's office
00:32:06
terminated when she invoked
her right to counsel and said she did not wish
to answer any further questions
00:32:11
without an attorney present. [somber music] NARRATOR: Later that
day, investigators
00:32:18
searched the Claytons
home looking for eye drops containing THZ. KEVIN BRACKETT: They would
be looking for anything that
00:32:26
had any Visine residue in it. Glasses, cups,
anything like that, that would help inform
the investigation
00:32:35
on the circumstances
of this man's death. The police were able to find
some Visine in the house.
00:32:42
Not unusual amounts
but the bulk of the items seized revolved around digital
evidence that would help
00:32:50
have a better understanding
of what had taken place. [tense music] At about 6:15.
00:32:57
Detective Moats, who had
been at the Coroner's office, arrived at the house,
and the search was
00:33:01
concluding at about that time. Shortly thereafter, while
he was at the house, he was approached
by Lana, who asked
00:33:09
him if she could speak to him. He started a recorder
and recorded the conversation
00:33:15
that took place. [tense music] - Lana admitted that she
had, in fact, administered
00:34:04
the Visine to her
husband, Steven, that she had been the one
who gave it to him.
00:34:09
[tense music] It was very helpful that
she admitted this first, because it resolved the issue
of who gave him the THZ,
00:34:17
but secondly, because it did
so in a recorded fashion that would be incontrovertible
in court.
00:34:27
At that point, we had
enough information and evidence to file
murder charges against her.
00:34:34
- The police were set to arrest
Lana for Steve's murder, but then they receive a call
from one of her neighbors
00:34:41
saying that Lana had
been found unconscious. When the police go there,
the gas has been left on
00:34:47
and Lana is surrounded
by sleeping tablets. [soft tension music] NARRATOR: After going
to Lana Clayton's home
00:35:03
to arrest her for the murder
of her husband Steven, and finding her unconscious
after an apparent suicide
00:35:09
attempt, police
rushed to save her. - When they arrived
at the house, they found her upstairs
in the bed, unresponsive.
00:35:19
They found suicide notes
apologizing for her behavior. They were able to get
her to the hospital.
00:35:25
She was treated there. She was not
in serious condition. After a few hours, they were
able to take her to the jail
00:35:31
and book her in. Dr. HONOR DORO
TOWNSHEND: Lana's attempt at taking her own
life really implies
00:35:35
different things based
on whether she's guilty or not. If she's innocent,
then this is a woman
00:35:40
who has experienced significant
trauma, but if she's guilty, then this is someone perhaps
trying to escape from the mess
00:35:49
that they've created and don't
seem that they can get out of. AMBER HAQUE: On August 31st,
Lana was taken to York County
00:35:56
Detention Center, where she was
then charged with murder and tampering with a food or drug.
00:36:03
NARRATOR: News
of Lana's arrest spread to Steven Clayton's
family and friends. ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
If you ask me
00:36:10
how I felt at that
moment, for me, all the questions just kept
getting bigger and bigger.
00:36:16
Because at that moment she
became a real live monster, a monster capable
of taking away
00:36:25
a person who had represented
so much good in my life and so much good in the lives
of so many people.
00:36:30
[soft tension music] - After her arrest, Lana
continued to disparage Steven. She continued to paint
a picture of an abusive person
00:36:40
and make herself out to be
the victim of his abuse. - She claimed that
Steve had been
00:36:46
emotionally
and physically abusive to her, that he was
a heavy drug user. And that he had viewed
child abuse images.
00:36:55
But the toxicology
report only showed that he had a small amount
of marijuana and prescription
00:37:00
temazepam in his system. And when investigators
checked his computer, there was no
evidence to support
00:37:07
Lana's allegations that
he had child abuse images. KEVIN BRACKETT: She
started accusing him
00:37:12
of being an abusive husband. So one of the things
we wanted to find out was what the other women
he had been married to
00:37:19
had experienced. None of the wives that he had
previously been married to ever indicated that he was abusive.
00:37:26
They characterized him
as a loving, caring husband, and they said their time
with him was some
00:37:30
of the best in their lives. - She said that he was
abusive, but at the same time
00:37:34
she would send me text messages
saying how very much in love they were. So I think she was
grasping at any sympathy
00:37:43
that she could get from
any person, and none of it made sense. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: With Lana
in custody awaiting trial.
00:37:56
Police check through
their records for any previously reported
incidents at the Clayton home.
00:38:02
- There was only one
when we did that. One incident that the police
had been called out
00:38:07
to the Clayton
household, and when we researched that
incident report and read through it, the already bizarre
case became even more unusual.
00:38:19
What we came to learn after
reading this incident report was that Lana shot
Steven in the back
00:38:24
of the head with a crossbow
in 2016 at about 3 o'clock in the morning while
he lay in bed asleep.
00:38:30
[subtle dramatic music] AMBER HAQUE: Luckily,
it only grazed him when she was probed about this.
00:38:37
Officer said, had
you had an argument? She said no,
everything was fine. Steve was just asleep.
00:38:42
He corroborated that,
said it was just an accident,
so the case was closed. - Steve's reaction
to the crossbow incident
00:38:48
throws into question
Lana's account of him being
violent towards her, the fact that he was so readily
happy to let that slide.
00:38:56
A really serious
and significant incident. But then,
on the other hand, you do have to wonder if it
was kind of representative
00:39:03
of an extreme level
of violence that was becoming quite normalized
in their relationship.
00:39:08
- We were very shocked to find
out that this had occurred a couple of years prior.
00:39:13
The fact that we now knew
that she had been doing this well prior to what she
did to take his life
00:39:21
was just another reason to feel
sick in the middle of our gut, because there were just
too many situations where
00:39:30
I would get a phone
call from my brother after having tried to reach
him for a day or two,
00:39:35
and he'd call me
and say, you're not going to believe this. I was asleep for two days.
00:39:39
I had the worst sunstroke. But now looking back,
she was checking to see what was the dose that
was going to take his life.
00:39:49
AMBER HAQUE: The prosecution
now had a very strong case against Lana Clayton. They had the toxicology
report that
00:39:55
showed those fatal amounts of
Visine in Steve's bloodstream. They had been administered
to him against his will.
00:40:02
They then also had
the fact that Steve had been bedridden for so long,
and his mobile phone
00:40:07
had just gone missing. - So the question becomes,
why did she do this? Well, every woman that he'd
ever been married to he
00:40:15
had a prenuptial
agreement with. He was a very wealthy man. So we believe one existed
with Lana as well,
00:40:22
but that it was destroyed
by Lana after he died along with the will. If there's no will
in South Carolina
00:40:30
and you die without
a will, everything you have goes to your spouse. [tense music]
00:40:36
She's the one who stood to
benefit because she was going to be the sole
beneficiary of his estate,
00:40:42
and that's why she
did what she did. Our options at this
point was proceed on a murder charge, which,
if that was going to happen,
00:40:51
she would go to trial. And then the only
other option was try to come to some
sort of agreement
00:40:56
with the defense
that would expose her to what was
the equivalent of life without having to go to trial.
00:41:03
And we would spare the victim's
family, the rigors of trial, the trauma of going through
this detailed description
00:41:09
of what their loved
one went through. - We were not going to let
this monster go free.
00:41:17
And there was a great
chance that she could have. We took the wise counsel of
the people in the solicitor's
00:41:24
office and decided
that we would go ahead and accept a plea
for voluntary manslaughter.
00:41:33
- By accepting a guilty plea,
even of a lower level offense. That means the family
have secured that there
00:41:38
will be some form of justice. Whereas, going to trial
on a no guilty plea on a circumstantial
evidence case
00:41:45
means that they'd run the risk
of there not being any justice served. [tense music]
00:41:51
NARRATOR: On January
16th, 2020, Lana Clayton pleaded guilty
to voluntary manslaughter and
00:41:58
tampering with a food or drug. KEVIN BRACKETT:
Our objective was to secure a sentence that
was tantamount to life,
00:42:05
and ultimately,
the judge concluded that a 25 year no parole
sentence was appropriate,
00:42:10
so she will remain in jail
until she's 73 years old. We'll never know for sure
what took place in that house,
00:42:19
but I believe that
Steven Clayton was poisoned over several days. It was clear that
she had basically
00:42:29
held him hostage, captive,
using this chemical, before he finally succumbed to the poison
that was in his system
00:42:37
and collapsed, perhaps falling
down the last few stairs, landing at the foot of the
stairs where he was found.
00:42:46
This was a prolonged, torturous
experience for Steven Clayton, and a horrible one that--
00:42:53
that she was the mastermind
and architect for and wholly responsible. [subtle dramatic music]
00:43:01
NARRATOR: At court,
Rosie and other members of Steven's family
were given the chance
00:43:05
to read out their victim
impact statements in front of the now convicted
murderer, Lana Clayton.
00:43:11
ROSIE CLAYTON-LESLIE:
There was a lot of pain and at the same time, there
was a feeling of such betrayal
00:43:20
that I could have trusted
somebody with the life of someone so dear to me. It was a ruse.
00:43:29
The fact that she was a person
trained in life savings, she used her training
to cause another person harm.
00:43:38
She stole him from me. And my heart pities, the agony
that she must have to face.
00:43:47
Not just in this world, but
in whatever world is to come. [dramatic music] But from my own brother,
I learned to forgive.
00:43:59
And I think that that's
the only place that I've been able to find peace. [dramatic music]
00:44:10
Steve is going to be remembered
by everyone who loved him for his joy and his laughter.
00:44:16
Steve wasn't happy unless he
was making someone else happy. And that joy is my brother's
greatest legacy.
00:44:23
The joy that he brought to so
many people, and all of them think about him
and pay that forward.
00:44:30
[dramatic music] [theme music]