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>> reporter: molly, only 16 at the time, told police she'd spent the summer working for her uncle at his restoration business, servpro. and there she met one of his employees. a man named michael beard. tom told her to keep her distance. >> he never really wanted me around michael beard. he didn't want me, like, working with him. >> reporter: michael beard was no stranger to the family. >> he actually had done work at my sister's home. my sister would give his daughter charlie's hand-me-downs, clothes, toys. my sister would make lunch for him when he was there working at her home. >> reporter: while kelley was kind to beard, she told her sister she didn't always feel comfortable around him. >> i remember kelley, you know, not wanting to be home alone if he was there. you know, he -- he was civil. he was nice. but i' i don't think she wanted to be left home alone. >> reporter: now, molly told investigators that her uncle tom had recently fired beard. >> michael beard was fired
was he thinner than me? he was the same as daddy. and she says, "and the mask he had on is just like daddy's mask that he wears hunting." >> reporter: after the robber left charlie said she rushed to hug her mother and then knew there was one more thing to do, she had to go upstairs and take care of her 3-year-old brother. >> reporter: to the sheriff, the 7-year-old's story was both chilling and heartbreaking. >> it was a memory i'll have with me the rest of my life. it's one of those that takes a little part of you with them or with it. here's a little girl who does remind me very much of my own daughter. and she's working through, "i just watched mommy brutally attacked. it could be daddy. where am i? where does this leave me? >> reporter: but could it be true? did she really just see her father kill her mother? this had been a very bloody murder. and deputy dean swan had looked
>> nothing, you knew nothing. >> nothing. >> can one of you stay with him? that's the husband. >> reporter: one comfort, officers told the family that kelley's children were safe at a neighbor's house. they didn't mention what the eldest, charlie, had been through. >> she saw everything. and she saw it happen. >> reporter: steuben county sheriff jim allard interviewed the 7-year-old that night. he was astonished by her poise and bravery as she gave him the details of what had happened. >> her story begins that she was in her room playing on her tablet, and she said she heard, mommy, yelling run, charlie run, repeatedly screaming it. run, charlie, run. mommy got to her door and got the door closed. then she heard more commotion. she opened, went into the hallway, followed the commotion down the hallway to the steps and to the kitchen and observed mommy fighting with what she termed as "the robber."
why wouldn't you kill the person that you're disgruntled against? i mean, "i'm -- i'm angry at you, so i'm going to go kill your wife." >> reporter: but as a matter of procedure, the investigator asked beard for a dna swab and permission to look through his cell phone. >> he was very, very forthcoming. very willing, no problems. just very cooperative. >> reporter: while the state investigator was checking out the not-so-promising michael beard tip, sheriff's investigators had tom down at the station. detective donnie lewis said they still had questions. >> reporter: for the most part, it looks pretty good for tom. >> correct. >> reporter: this alibi is pretty strong. >> absolutely. i mean, the witnesses that see him at the poker game, we know where he was all night. >> reporter: that's not the end of the story, though. >> that is not the end of the story. >> reporter: not the end of the story because there was something investigators just couldn't get around, the daughter's story. her description of the killer, it powerfuevidence they couldn't ignore. and so just hours after the >>efendant was remanded in steuben county jail without bail. >> reporter: they arrested kelley's husband tom clayton and charged him with murder. >> reporter: how can you arrest him?
okay. >> reporter: it was tom's wife kelley. right away the deputy knew she'd been murdered. what did you see? >> the victim. there was blood, blood spatter on walls, ceiling. victim had blood pooling around her head. >> tom, where were you when this all went down? >> playing poker with my buddies. >> reporter: tom said he had just come home from a poker game to find kelley dead on the floor and his 7-year-old daughter, charlie, saying something about a break-in. >> i came home and my daughter said there was a robber in the house and she saw them. >> okay. come on out here, man. come out here. i want you to have a seat. you don't need to see that any more okay? >> reporter: his kids were home?
don't want to see her." >> was your first instinct that maybe there was some kind of a home invasion? >> yes, it was. >> some stranger. >> yes, it was. >> reporter: kelley's best friend got a call from kim's husband corey. >> and my dad drove me there. and by the time i got there, everyone was there. >> i just remember corey clenching, keep clenching his fists, and walking up and down the road the whole time. something's not right. something's is not right. something doesn't add up. and we were all just so confused. they wouldn't tell us anything. >> nothing, you knew nothing. >> nothing. >> can one of you stay with him? that's the husband. >> reporter: one comfort, officers told the family that kelley's children were safe at a neighbor's house. they didn't mention what the eldest, charlie, had been through. >> she saw everything. and she saw it happen. >> reporter: steuben county sheriff jim allard interviewed the 7-year-old that night. he was astonished by her poise and bravery as she gave him the details of what had happened. >> her story begins that she was in her room playing on her tablet, and she said she heard, mommy, yelling run, charlie run,
recognize. investigator donnie lewis took it from there. >> so what i did was i got the famber and put it into actually on my phone, anas soon as i put that phone number in there the profile that ps up is michael beard. >> reporter: michael beard, the ex-employee who'd been so cooperative with investigators. suddenly, he didn't seem so innocent. now police had to reconsider their theory of the crime. maybe it wasn't tom who'd beaten kelley to death. maybe his daughter's description of the killer was wrong. maybe it was michael beard she saw. >> this phone call, this is, like, the key. this is it. >> that's the first real connection that we had that put beard anything to do with the murder. that kind of just alerted us right off the bat as we need to go talk to michael beard again. >> he denied any type of involvement. he even denied receiving the phone call. they never talked.
>> i kind of, like, looked at my mom. and i was like, "yeah." >> reporter: molly, only 16 at the time, told police she'd spent the summer working for her uncle at his restoration business, servpro. and there she met one of his employees. a man named michael beard. tom told her to keep her distance. >> he never really wanted me around michael beard. he didn't want me, like, working with him. >> reporter: michael beard was no stranger to the family. >> he actually had done work at my sister's home. my sister would give his daughter charlie's hand-me-downs, clothes, toys. my sister would make lunch for him when he was there working at her home. >> reporter: while kelley was kind to beard, she told her sister she didn't always feel comfortable around him. >> i remember kelley, you know,
and then i said, how much did he weigh? does he -- was he heavier than me? was he thinner than me? he was the same as daddy. and she says, "and the mask he had on is just like daddy's mask that he wears hunting." >> reporter: after the robber left charlie said she rushed to hug her mother and then knew there was one more thing to do, she had to go upstairs and take care of her 3-year-old brother. >> reporter: to the sheriff, the 7-year-old's story was both chilling and heartbreaking. >> it was a memory i'll have with me the rest of my life. it's one of those that takes a little part of you with them or with it. here's a little girl who does remind me very much of my own daughter. and she's working through, "i just watched mommy brutally attacked. it could be daddy. where am i? where does this leave me? >> reporter: but could it be true? did she really just see her
repeatedly screaming it. run, charlie, run. mommy got to her door and got the door closed. then she heard more commotion. shopened, went into the hallway, followed the commotion down the hallway to the steps anto theiten and observed mommy fighting with what she termed as "the robber. she got up and pantomimed for me of a person standing over another person with an object in their hand, striking that person that was on the ground. and she described the object as a cylinder that the robber, as she kept calling him, used. >> reporter: she went on to give the sheriff a detailed description of the so-called "robber's" appearance. >> she described the person to me as a male wearing jeans and a dark shirt and a mask. and i officially asked her, you keep saying it's a man. how do you know it's a man? and she told me, "because of his eyes." and i said, well, what about his eyes let you know it's a man? she said, his eyes are just like daddy's. so then i stood up and i said, how tal was the guy? was he taller than me or was he shorter than me? she said, "he was same height as daddy." and i said, okay.