Transcript for Manhunt begins for brutal killer of mother of two: Part 2
I got a female, mid-30s, early 40s. Her face is completely beaten in. Husband’s story right now, kids are home with mom. Husband is claiming he was out playing poker. Came home. Kids said, “Daddy, there was a robbery.” Reporter: 35-year-old mom of two Kelley Clayton has been found bludgeoned to death in her own home in the secluded, picturesque community of Caton, New York. It’s a grisly scene. Deputy Dean swan is the first to arrive. . Blood on the wall. Looks like a face plant in the wall. Blood everywhere, where the victim was, in the kitchen. I believe it was an extreme struggle. She fought to the end. We’re going to need all investigators. Homicide. Reporter: Awaiting backup, he’s got a hunch. He’s convinced this was no robbery. I just want to make sure there is no forced entry anywhere else. I didn’t see any. It was a typical home, nothing was out of place, nothing rummaged through. In the office, a desk with paperwork on it. Nothing on the floor, nothing like that. There was nothing. Reporter: The deputy’s gut instinct tells him this is a domestic incident gone bad. I’m wondering if he got domestic with her. She face planted. Boom. Then he puts her out in the kitchen. In her face, you can see how her face is beat in. Is there a suspect? Husband. I thought he was lying to us. I was not buying his story at all. Reporter: He quickly begins questioning the Clayton’s neighbor, Derek Almy. Okay, you don’t know of any troubles between anybody here, him and her, or somebody else and them or anything? Not really, no. No domestics you know of in the past? No. Was he upset? Oh, my gosh, indescribably. He said it’s gruesome in there. Did he have any blood on him when he came over? Did he change his clothes ever? Here? No. No, okay. Reporter: Almy doesn’t know it yet, but deputy swan is taking a hard look at his neighbor, Tom Clayton. Fidgety, anxious and muttering after the discovery of his wife’s body. I’m gonna Pass out. Well, sit down then. Come over here and sit down. I keep sitting down and getting back up. My daughter saw it. My daughter saw my wife. Okay. Reporter: Clayton has also called Kelley’s sister Kim to break the news. My phone rang at 12:49. “Kim. Kim. Kelly’s dead.” I said, “What?” “Kelly’s dead.” And I just remember pacing back and forth. Pacing, like, “What?” I just couldn’t make sense of it. And I remember getting clothes on, and I remember it was raining and it was cold. Reporter: Soon, relatives and friends are all alerted to the tragedy. I get up to her street, on her road, and I don’t see any — it’s pitch black. Country road, pitch black. No lights. Go over a hill, still black. Go over another hill and it’s lit up like Christmas. Just tons of lights. Family coming. You’re going to have to stop them. And I just remember hearing Kim screaming. Oh, god! I remember running to the ambulance expecting to find them working on my sister. And I am like, “Is my sister in there? Where is my sister? Where is my sister?” Where’s my sister? Reporter: Was Tom distraught when you saw him? How did he appear? All I remember is that his head was down in his hands. I couldn’t hear him. I also couldn’t get near him. Reporter: That’s because Thomas Clayton, the once minor league hockey player who was used to instigate fights on the ice, is now headed to a different kind of penalty box. A police interrogation room. Something I’ll never forget. I’m backing out of the driveway, trying to avoid all of the emergency vehicles. Clayton just kind of out of the blue says, “Well, you know where I was, because my truck has a gps on it.” Which obviously kind of threw a flag. I didn’t ask you where you were yet. But he made sure he threw that out there. Reporter: Clayton pens a statement declaring, “I did not hurt or kill Kelley” and requests an attorney. Was he wondering who could do this? Why somebody would do this? No, he wasn’t. That was another thing that struck me as odd, is that he wasn’t really concerned. He could mention not one suspect or possible suspect of who might want to harm his wife or his family. Not one person that he could think of that would want to do harm to them. Reporter: Meanwhile, an all-out investigation is under way. You can see a very heavy police presence was there early in the day. Reporter: Police on the hunt for clues. Tire tracks, footprints, anything that might lead to the killer. We knew that someone had went out the back of the house towards the pond. We had a dog that had tracked something out to the pond. We eventually drained that pond looking for evidence.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
