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00:00A fatal fall in a South Carolina mansion.
00:09Public safety communication, this is Amber.
00:12A woman came running out and said her husband fell down the steps and she thinks he's dead.
00:16She's hysterical. I think he might be gone.
00:19A life taken in a heartbeat.
00:23I couldn't speak. I had to hand the phone to my husband because I couldn't speak.
00:27It was not news that I was prepared to hear.
00:33Was it simply down to natural causes?
00:36She had said that he'd had a heart attack and collapsed and died at the bottom of the stairs.
00:42Or murder.
00:44I did not kill my husband.
00:57My brother Stephen DeVaya Clayton was born on May 1st, 1954.
01:16Stephen was always the biggest personality in the room.
01:18He was just full of joy and Stephen was just extremely gregarious.
01:25And he was the type of person that when you meet him, you automatically knew that you were friends with him.
01:33He was an accounting major at Florida State University.
01:36And from there, it became an interesting avenue for him to open physical therapy centers inside of hospitals and have them separately run.
01:49And so he began to do this with hospitals all around the country.
01:53My brother had great success business-wise.
01:58His dream was to retire at 40, but he was able to retire at 41 and start traveling and doing all the things that he wanted to do.
02:08And what Stephen Clayton wanted to do was inspire others to success.
02:13After Stephen retired, Stephen was a mentor to many young people and started out in college mentoring younger college grads.
02:25And from there, the mentorship relationship grew through college and then into business.
02:31And Stephen was with them all the way into their success.
02:35Stephen also liked to throw a party.
02:39Stephen loved to entertain people.
02:41And one of the days that was very special for him was the 4th of July.
02:45And he always had something very special planned.
02:49Live music at his house.
02:52Fireworks.
02:54He loved to entertain and he loved to have fun with people.
02:59And he's the kind of man that was always there for his friends.
03:04Stephen also cared deeply for his family.
03:07My dad passed away 11 months before William and I got married.
03:13And Steve not only walked me down the aisle, but he also served as my husband's best man.
03:18My dad told me, before he passed, to take care of my sister, to honour you, and he loved you very much.
03:33Despite Stephen's love for his family and friends, his own romantic life was far from perfect.
03:40He was married six times and a lot of that was because there was just no Stephen around to really keep the relationships together because he was travelling at least three weeks out of every month.
03:54So it put a little bit of a dent in some of his personal relationships, his marriages, et cetera.
04:01But in 2010, Stephen Clayton, now living in North Carolina, announced that he had met someone special.
04:09Steve said that he had met someone called Lana online through a dating app.
04:14Lana worked as a nurse and was originally from Oklahoma.
04:17She had kids from a previous relationship and she told Steve that she'd been an Air Force veteran and that she loved the outdoors.
04:25He loved her so much, he called her his Lana Sue from Oklahoma.
04:30And I think he wanted to make this the rest of his life.
04:37They were married in November of 2013.
04:40The wedding took place at their house in North Carolina.
04:46It was a beautiful ceremony outdoors, surrounded by Steve's beautiful gardens.
04:53Stephen was so excited to be marrying Lana.
04:56He felt that he had found somebody, a small town girl, that he was going to finally be able to settle in with for the rest of his life.
05:04Soon after, the couple moved to the banks of Lake Wiley in York County, South Carolina.
05:12It's a beautiful piece of property and it was right on the lake.
05:17And the home itself was just, it was very lovely, very colonial style in the style of Mount Vernon.
05:23It was the perfect property for Stephen to hold his legendary July 4th party.
05:30Every time 4th of July came around, Stephen was just in his element.
05:33And it was just going to be as grand an event as he always had every time he got people together.
05:44But after one event in 2018, Stephen wasn't his usual sprightly self.
05:50Steve starts to feel a little bit under the weather.
05:53He's just hosted all of these big July 4th parties he's known for, throwing these really epic bashes for it.
05:59But he's all of a sudden bedbound, feeling really dizzy, sick, really, really unwell.
06:07As he fell ill, he even stopped communicating with his beloved sister.
06:11The last time that Stephen actually replied to a message was on the 16th of July.
06:17And on the 17th of July, I texted him and he didn't get right back to me, which was very odd.
06:24And then I started calling and there was no answer.
06:28It was going straight to voicemail.
06:31Despite not hearing from Stephen, Rosie felt reassured that Lana was by his side.
06:36Lana was a nurse and that was the thing that made me feel the most confident about them being together.
06:43He had someone by his side who was trained to help in any sort of emergency situation.
06:49So to me, not hearing from him for a couple of days wasn't something that I was going to be concerned about.
06:55On July 21st, five days since Rosie had last heard from her brother, a motorcyclist was passing by the Clayton's mansion when all hell broke loose.
07:11Public Safety Communications, this is Amber.
07:13Yes, ma'am. I'm down at Lake Wiley.
07:16I was just riding by and a woman came running out and said her husband fell down the steps and she thinks he's dead.
07:21So we need an ambulance.
07:22Okay. And so the female flagged you down and said her husband fell down the steps?
07:27She said he had vertigo. She's hysterical. I think he might be gone.
07:36Within minutes, emergency services arrived on the scene with body cams, capturing shocking footage that would eventually be seen by South Carolina's chief prosecutor for York and Union County, solicitor Kevin Brackett.
07:50At the bottom of the main flight of stairs leading from the second floor down to the first, they found the body of Stephen Clayton.
07:59Given the position they found him in at the bottom of the stairs, it's quite possible that he fell some distance down the stairs and ended up at the foot of the stairs.
08:07In a situation like this, the emergency responders realized that heroic measures to try to restore life to Mr. Clayton would be futile, that he had been deceased for some time and there was no bringing him back.
08:22As her husband's body lay in the hall, an officer tried to calm a hysterical Lana.
08:34Ma'am, I'm Sergeant Day. I'm going to be here for just a little while until the coroner gets there and I'm transporting those things.
08:47When they asked her about him, she told them that he had been sick for the last several days,
08:57that he suffered from bouts of vertigo and that he had been bedridden essentially and that at about 11 o'clock that morning,
09:07she had left the house to go outside to do some yard work and when she came back an hour and a half,
09:13an hour and 45 minutes later, she found her husband at the bottom of the stairs.
09:17Ms. Clayton, you were outside, you were working outside?
09:22I was mowing the lawn real quick and when I came in, the first time I got it.
09:26I'm so sorry.
09:27I tried to feel blank underneath, but I tried to grab his face.
09:32As officers listened to Lana Clayton, Stephen's police officer nephew Nick arrived at the house
09:41after hearing of his uncle's passing.
09:44He heard the address come over the radio and immediately recognized it and so when he arrived
09:52there, my brother had passed away. He was dead on the floor in front of the stairs.
10:00The scene pointed to a tragic accident.
10:04The deputy coroner arrived to figure out exactly how Stephen had died.
10:09Initial signs suggested a fatal fall down the stairs, but the deputy coroner also noticed
10:30that Stephen's face had a grayish pallor and concluded his probable cause of death.
10:35Apparently, the coroner had seen a discoloration of his skin and immediately thought that it was a
10:42heart attack, a simple matter of him having a heart attack and falling down the stairs.
10:49When the deputy coroner offered to take Stephen Clayton's body to the morgue to run some tests,
10:55Lana made a snap decision.
10:57She indicated that she did not want an autopsy performed. She wanted to have him cremated.
11:02So she asked that he be taken to a local funeral home. She gave them the name of the funeral home
11:07and the body was removed at that point.
11:10Although Stephen's body was already on its way to the funeral home, there was still one close family
11:16member who had not even been informed of his death.
11:19Nick suggested and said, why hasn't Chris got here yet? And he came to learn Chris, who was the nephew
11:27of Stephen and very, very close, like a son to Stephen, had not even been called. So he told Lana,
11:34we need to call Chris. He needs to know.
11:37And when he said that to Lana, she went berserk. She did not want Christopher to be there. She did not
11:45want to notify Christopher. That was an outrage to Nick because he knew of their closeness.
11:53Even though Lana was very insistent that Christopher not be called, Nick did the right thing and he
11:58called Christopher immediately.
12:00When Christopher learned of Stephen's death, he relayed the sad news to Rosie.
12:05The first thing I heard, my nephew crying like a baby, saying,
12:11Uncle Steve is gone. Uncle Steve is gone. And I couldn't speak. I had to hand the phone to
12:20my husband because I couldn't speak. It was not news that I was prepared to hear.
12:26He was a very good person. And he was my best friend. And every single day, I miss him.
12:47After informing Rosie and the rest of Stephen Clayton's extended family in Florida about his
12:52sudden death from a heart attack, which may have led to a fatal fall down the stairs,
12:57Stephen's nephew, Chris, went to the family South Carolina home to be with his grieving family.
13:04Christopher arrived at the house. His wife met him there. And so he was coming to comfort Lana.
13:11And Chris continued to try to reassure her by saying,
13:15you don't have to worry about anything, Lana. Uncle Steve has everything written down in his will.
13:21And she immediately told him, there is no will.
13:28And this could not have been further from the truth.
13:32Not only did Christopher know about the will, Christopher had seen the will.
13:36It was so large, it was practically the size of a ream of paper.
13:41Lana continued to insist that there was no will.
13:45To the point that she became infuriated with Christopher.
13:49It was clear to them at that point, something was off. This wasn't right.
13:55And this need to be looked at further.
13:58You would imagine that having been married for five years, that Lana would be aware of the existence of a will.
14:04Especially, you know, when her husband is financially very successful.
14:08It does suggest a real disconnect between the family unit and Lana.
14:13And that kind of suggests either that they're both receiving different information,
14:17or that there's something else going on there that's kind of hidden beneath the surface.
14:21Thrown by Lana Clayton's denial of the existence of a will,
14:26Stephen's nephews went upstairs to check out his bedroom,
14:29where they found a shocking scene.
14:32In the bedroom, they see the bed is in disarray, the bed is filthy, there's vomit on the bed.
14:38The mattress is soaked with urine, so soaked that the urine has actually started to puddle
14:45beneath the mattress underneath the bed.
14:48The thing you have to know about Stephen is, is that he was an extremely fastidious individual.
14:54He was very clean. He would sometimes shower twice a day.
14:57To be lying in a pool of his own bodily fluids is not only an undignified situation for any human being,
15:06but it is absolutely not one that my brother would find himself in.
15:11The second thing was they couldn't find his phone anywhere.
15:15It wasn't in the bedroom, which also struck them as odd,
15:18because he was glued to his phone, and if he was bedridden for several days,
15:22his phone should have been right there next to him, but it wasn't.
15:25So things were really jumping out to Nick at this point.
15:28Why hadn't Lana called 911 herself?
15:31There were two phones in the house at the time.
15:34Why'd she have to run out onto the street asking someone else to call 911?
15:38It was also really strange that Lana didn't give Steve CPR herself.
15:43She was a nurse. She was medically trained to know how to do that.
15:46This was really unusual.
15:48Despite Nick's misgivings, the official verdict was that Stephen's fatal fall was caused by a heart attack,
15:56and no foul play was involved.
15:59This was not a suspicious enough situation.
16:01They felt that they could rely upon the coroner and the coroner's perspective that,
16:09because of his discoloration in his face, that this was clearly a heart attack,
16:15and that he had fallen down the stairs.
16:17So they had no reason to look further into it.
16:24Later that evening, Stephen's sister Rosie called Lana to ask how Stephen had gotten so ill,
16:30and why she hadn't heard from him in the days leading up to his death.
16:35I finally got a return call from Lana after having called her numerous times,
16:40and it was approximately 3 o'clock in the morning.
16:43And she was inebriated.
16:46She was angry, and she had no empathy for the fact that I had just lost my brother.
16:54She was livid that Steve's family members were letting her know that there was a will
17:02when she claimed that she knew for a fact that there wasn't.
17:08I asked her what was going on prior to this, and she told me that he had been feeling ill,
17:14and I asked her, where were you?
17:17And she said, I was out mowing the lawn.
17:20And I said, but aren't you telling me that he was violently ill?
17:24If he was violently ill, why were you outside mowing the lawn?
17:27And just as a knee-jerk reaction, she said, because he was being so needy.
17:35When I asked her why it was that I wasn't able to hear from him when I texted him or called him,
17:41she said somewhat nonchalantly, I'm not sure, maybe it's at the bottom of the lake.
17:47That almost made my heart stop, because I knew that my brother wouldn't be without a phone.
17:51That was a moment when I felt something was terribly wrong.
17:58As the call progressed, Rosie became even more shocked by what Lana Clayton was saying.
18:05Lana tried to tell me that Steve was a hardcore drug user.
18:10I know my brother, and he was not a hardcore drug user.
18:15The reason why she started to say what she said about the drug use is as an excuse to have him cremated right away,
18:21so it wouldn't be embarrassing to his family that they would find hardcore drugs in his system.
18:28There's now this accumulation of kind of unusual behaviors coming from Lana around the circumstances of this death,
18:34and it is driving this kind of wedge between her and the family.
18:39Later that day, after Rosie's early hours phone call, Lana also spoke to Stephen's nephew Chris,
18:47banning him and others from coming to the family house.
18:51She said only her children were allowed in the house.
18:54She didn't want family members there, and she said that there was going to be a memorial service at some point,
19:00and that's when I could come.
19:03Aside from keeping everybody in the family away, she immediately gave away all of his clothes.
19:09My brother had a really lovely collection of watches.
19:13None of that was found.
19:14My brother was a collector of art and sculpture.
19:18These things were also missing.
19:21Imagine my brother hadn't even been dead for 24 hours, and she's already getting rid of all the clothes.
19:28This doesn't make sense to me.
19:29This doesn't make any sense at all.
19:33Steve's sister Rosie was well within her right to be upset and confused by Lana selling off all of his property so fast.
19:39It is very unusual. It's very fast.
19:42And especially when he has other family members who might want to be involved in that process.
19:47On the other hand, you could say that actually this behavior is that of a traumatized woman
19:51trying to rid herself of the reminders of her husband that are surrounding her.
19:56So there are explanations, but it is still unusual behavior.
20:01Suspicious of Lana's behavior and the state of Stephen Clayton's bedroom,
20:06his nephews Nick and Chris decided to take action to find out if it was just a tragic accident or something more sinister.
20:13Could he even have been pushed?
20:16They wanted to get to the truth.
20:18They did not believe that Steve had died of natural causes,
20:23and they wanted to get a secret autopsy done before Lana got Steve cremated.
20:28Nick, of his own volition, went to the York County Sheriff's Office and laid out his concerns,
20:33told them why he felt something was wrong,
20:36and asked for their assistance in getting an autopsy.
20:40The coroner listened to their concerns and agreed that this was a case that merited further inquiry.
20:46So she directed that the body be retrieved from the funeral home,
20:50taken to the morgue, and ordered an autopsy to be performed on it.
20:53But Nick had one more request, and that was to run toxicology tests on Steve's blood.
20:59A toxicologist is a specific type of scientist who examines bodily fluids
21:05to determine the presence of foreign chemicals or foreign agents
21:10that may have also impacted or caused, brought about the death of someone.
21:15So a toxicology was ordered in this case, and blood was sent off to a toxicologist.
21:22While they waited for Stephen's body to be collected from the funeral home for the autopsy,
21:27his police officer nephew Nick decided to dig deeper into the circumstances
21:32surrounding his uncle's death.
21:35My nephew felt that it was imperative that we have as much information as possible
21:41and as quickly as possible.
21:44Nick called some contacts in the police department
21:47to try and get them to investigate what had happened, but he hit a brick wall.
21:51He then decided to hire a private investigator
21:54to look around into some of the circumstances surrounding Steve's death.
21:58The investigator found that Lana was trying to liquidate Steve's asset.
22:04They also found that she had a fire pit in her garden,
22:08and she had been burning various documents that belonged to Steve.
22:12Everything that was in my brother's filing cabinets,
22:15and there were two large filing cabinets,
22:17was all dumped into the fire pit.
22:20As the investigation continued,
22:25Stephen Clayton's autopsy results were released to police,
22:29including his nephew Nick.
22:31Steve's autopsy results came back and showed that he had had heart disease,
22:36which supported the initial theory that he had died of natural causes.
22:39But Steve's family would have to wait a lot longer for the toxicology report,
22:43which takes a lot longer to come back.
22:45Meanwhile, Stephen's body was returned to the funeral home for cremation.
22:50And on August 4th, two weeks after Stephen died,
22:54Lana held a private memorial service at the family home.
22:57There were a lot of Steve's mentees there,
23:01and Steve's closest friends were there.
23:03But there was just an air of something bizarre.
23:07Lana's behavior at the memorial was very out of the ordinary.
23:11She wore a red and white dress, sundress.
23:17She didn't act like a person who had just lost somebody that was dear to them.
23:24She didn't interact much with many of the guests.
23:27She only interacted with the neighbors.
23:29There were many of us that had a tremendous amount of suspicion,
23:33but there was absolutely nothing that we could do
23:35until the toxicology reports came back.
23:37About two weeks after Stephen's memorial,
23:42the report was finally released to Stephen's nephews, Nick and Chris.
23:47It revealed that he had the presence of a large amount of tetrahydrosaline,
23:54which is the active ingredient in Vizine in his system,
23:5868 nanograms per milliliter,
24:00which was a lethal load of tetrahydrosaline.
24:04Vizine is an eyedrop,
24:08but there are many different products that serve this purpose
24:12that have tetrahydrosaline in them.
24:14When you use eyedrops to get the red out of your eyes,
24:17that's the thing in the eyedrop that actually does the job.
24:21It's a vasoconstrictor.
24:22It takes blood vessels that are expanded and narrows them down.
24:26It does the same thing when you ingest it,
24:30and your blood vessels will constrict.
24:32It can make you sick by nauseating you.
24:35It can make you dizzy.
24:36It can make you pass out.
24:38And ultimately, it can kill you
24:40because your blood vessels are too narrow
24:43and your heart is working too hard
24:45to try to pump blood through tubes
24:47that have been narrowed by this drug.
24:48Using eyedrops appropriately,
24:53you would expect to find 0.38 nanograms per milliliter in the body.
24:59Stephen had 68 nanograms per milliliter,
25:03which is 1,000 times more than what you would normally find.
25:07Now the question arises,
25:09how did that tetrahydrosaline get into Mr. Clayton's body?
25:13And that is not something that would naturally occur.
25:16So somebody must have put it into him.
25:20The morning that the toxicology report became available,
25:23the phone rang, and it was my nephew Christopher.
25:27And through fighting back tears and anger,
25:32he screamed,
25:34she did it, she killed him, she did it, she killed him.
25:38The report really said that my brother had been murdered,
25:42that he had been intentionally poisoned.
25:44And I could barely speak with anyone
25:47because there was no way
25:49that anyone would want to cause that kind of harm
25:52to someone as kind and generous and loving as Stephen.
25:56It was initially believed that Stephen Clayton had a heart attack
26:09and potentially fell to his death at his South Carolina home.
26:14But a toxicology test on his blood
26:16shockingly revealed that he was actually killed
26:19by a lethal overdose of a chemical called tetrahydrosaline,
26:24also known as THZ.
26:27Commonly found in eye drops,
26:29THZ constricts blood vessels,
26:31causing severe nausea,
26:33extremely low blood pressure,
26:35and in Stephen's case, death.
26:37When that toxicology report came back,
26:42the police had something definitive.
26:45Up until that point, they didn't have much,
26:47but this report now showed that Steve had been poisoned.
26:52Police were now dealing with a potential murder.
26:56But did the poison alone kill Stephen?
26:59Or was he even poisoned and then pushed to his death?
27:04Investigators were determined to find out.
27:06On August 17th, 2018,
27:10the York County Sheriff's Office
27:12launched an investigation into Steve's death.
27:16Twelve days later, on August 29th, 2018,
27:20just over one month after Stephen died,
27:23his wife, Lana Clayton,
27:25was called to the York County Coroner's Office.
27:29The coroner in the Sheriff's Office agreed
27:31that the best way to conduct the interview
27:33would be just to bring her in
27:34for the purpose of discussing with the coroner
27:37the results of the autopsy and toxicology.
27:44The coroner in the Sheriff's Office
27:45did not want her to know
27:46that the Sheriff's Office was involved at that point.
27:49They didn't want to arouse her suspicions.
27:51So the police would not be in the room
27:54where the initial interview was conducted.
27:56They would be in an adjacent room monitoring
27:59and listening to what was going on.
28:02One of the most interesting features of the interview
28:05with the coroner
28:07was the fact that completely unsolicited,
28:12Lana volunteered that her husband used to put
28:15a couple of drops of Visine in his morning coffee
28:18to help keep regular,
28:20that he used that to sort of help him move his bowels each morning.
28:23Somebody one time told him a little revising
28:26with Elton Philobatham
28:27and he put like two drops in his coffee.
28:29This was not responsive to anything in particular
28:32at this point in time.
28:34She didn't even know
28:35that the toxicology report revealed what it did.
28:39In terms of human behavior,
28:41if you're volunteering information
28:43before being asked about it,
28:45it's often because you're implying your innocence
28:48because you don't believe this is information
28:50that can implicate you.
28:52So in this case,
28:53where Lana is volunteering information
28:55about the eye drops,
28:56that implies that she's trying to reassert her innocence
29:01and the innocence of this chemical
29:02being in Steve's system.
29:04Not long after Lana's admission,
29:07detectives entered the room.
29:08When the investigators entered the room,
29:20Lana barely flinched.
29:22It was as though she'd been expecting them to come.
29:24Somehow or other,
29:26there was a large amount of vising in his system.
29:29So that's what we're trying to get to the bottom of.
29:32I know he puts the vising in his coffee.
29:35He puts it in there every day.
29:38What do you know about it?
29:40What do I know about it?
29:42I know it makes sure you have diarrhea.
29:47Detectives began to pick holes in Lana's story.
29:50How could Steve have been putting these drops
29:53a vising into his coffee
29:55when she alleged that he was so sick and bedridden?
29:59It was at this point that Lana's tact totally changed.
30:03She then started to blame Steve
30:05and to attack his character.
30:07He can be really nasty, you know.
30:10Okay, what is nasty, Steve?
30:11He's really verbally abusive, you know,
30:16calling him names, calling him...
30:18Like what were you calling him?
30:19Oh, I don't know.
30:21Stupid.
30:21I don't know, just all kinds of things.
30:27I could see it escalating.
30:28It's a net making me nervous.
30:30But I can just, you know, try and stay on his way.
30:38In criminology, there's a theory
30:40called ideal victim theory
30:41that basically says that the more tarnished
30:44someone's character is,
30:45the less readily they're given status
30:48as a legitimate victim.
30:50Basically meaning that
30:51if someone has performed negative acts,
30:54the general population have less sympathy
30:56for them as a victim.
30:58And so I think this is Lana's attempt
31:00to basically reduce public sympathy for Steve
31:04so people stop looking into it so much
31:06and stop asking as many questions.
31:08The information she's providing
31:12about his character
31:12doesn't really move the needle
31:14on whether or not he was murdered
31:16or how he was murdered.
31:18All of that is irrelevant
31:19to the central question
31:20of how did that visine,
31:22how did that THZ get into his system?
31:25Right now, the death is suspicious of nature.
31:27There's only two people in the house.
31:29It was you and him.
31:31I know.
31:31Did you make his coffee for him?
31:33No, he made his coffee.
31:35Everybody keeps asking me, you know,
31:38about the coffee
31:40and I know they're wanting to know
31:41about the visine.
31:42I feel like you guys are, you know,
31:44doing your job
31:45and you're, you know,
31:46wondering if I killed my husband
31:47and I did not kill my husband.
31:51As the interview progressed,
31:53Lana became more and more aware
31:56that she was the focus of the interview
31:58and she was an object of suspicion
32:01and the interview there
32:03at the coroner's office terminated
32:04when she invoked a right to counsel
32:06and said she did not wish
32:07to answer any further questions
32:08without an attorney present.
32:13Later that day,
32:15investigators searched the Clayton's home,
32:18looking for eyedrops containing THZ.
32:22They would be looking for anything
32:23that had any visine residue in it,
32:26glasses, cups,
32:28anything like that
32:29that would help inform the investigation
32:32on the circumstances of this man's death.
32:35The police were able to find
32:37some visine in the house,
32:39not unusual amounts,
32:41but the bulk of the item seized
32:44revolved around digital evidence
32:46that would help give a better understanding
32:49of what had taken place.
32:52At about 6.15,
32:54Detective Motz,
32:55who had been at the coroner's office,
32:56arrived at the house
32:57and the search was concluding
32:59at about that time,
33:00shortly thereafter.
33:02While he was at the house,
33:03he was approached by Lana,
33:05who asked him
33:07if she could speak to him.
33:09He started a recorder
33:11and recorded the conversation
33:13that took place.
33:14I told him I wanted a divorce
33:18and so we've been, you know,
33:23just been cold in here
33:24and arguing and everything
33:25and after he had that incident,
33:29which he said it was vertigo
33:32and I was taking care of him
33:33and everything,
33:34but I was still so angry,
33:36angry with him
33:37and my girlfriend at work
33:39told me,
33:40you want to get even with somebody,
33:41you know,
33:42put Visine in a drink,
33:43it'll cause diarrhea
33:44and when I saw that Visine
33:46on the table,
33:47it just came back to me
33:48and I just took and squirted it.
33:50I don't...
33:50And what did you squirt it into?
33:52His water.
33:53Into his water?
33:54I did it.
33:59Lana admitted
34:00that she had in fact
34:01administered the Visine
34:02to her husband, Stephen,
34:04that she had been the one
34:05who gave it to him.
34:08It was very helpful
34:09that she admitted this,
34:10first because it resolved
34:12the issue of who gave him
34:14the THZ,
34:15but secondly,
34:16because it did so
34:17in a recorded fashion
34:18that would be
34:20incontrovertible in court.
34:24At that point,
34:25we had enough information
34:27and evidence
34:27to file murder charges
34:29against her.
34:32The police were set
34:33to arrest Lana
34:34for Steve's murder,
34:35but then they receive
34:36a call from one of her neighbours
34:38saying that Lana
34:39had been found unconscious.
34:41When the police go there,
34:43the gas has been left on
34:44and Lana is surrounded
34:46by sleeping tablets.
34:47after going to Lana Clayton's home
35:00to arrest her
35:01for the murder
35:01of her husband, Stephen,
35:03and finding her unconscious
35:05after an apparent suicide attempt,
35:08police rushed to save her.
35:11When they arrived at the house,
35:13they found her upstairs
35:14in the bed,
35:15unresponsive.
35:16They found suicide notes,
35:18apologizing for her behaviour.
35:20They were able to get her
35:21to the hospital.
35:22She was treated there.
35:23She was not in serious condition.
35:25After a few hours,
35:26they were able to take her
35:27to the jail
35:28and book her in.
35:29Lana's attempt
35:30at taking her own life
35:31really implies different things
35:33based on whether
35:34she's guilty or not.
35:35If she's innocent,
35:36then this is a woman
35:37who has experienced
35:38significant trauma,
35:40but if she's guilty,
35:42then this is someone
35:43perhaps trying to escape
35:44from the mess
35:46that they've created
35:47and don't seem
35:48that they can get out of.
35:50On August 31st,
35:52Lana was taken
35:52to York County Detention Centre
35:54where she was then charged
35:56with murder
35:56and tampering
35:57with a food or drug.
36:00News of Lana's arrest
36:02spread to Stephen Clayton's
36:04family and friends.
36:06If you ask me
36:07how I felt at that moment,
36:09for me,
36:10all the questions
36:10just kept getting bigger
36:12and bigger
36:13because at that moment,
36:15she became
36:15a real live monster,
36:17a monster capable
36:19of taking away
36:21a person who
36:23had represented
36:23so much good
36:24in my life
36:25and so much good
36:25in the lives
36:26of so many people.
36:29After her arrest,
36:31Lana continued
36:31to disparage Stephen.
36:33She continued
36:34to paint a picture
36:35of an abusive person
36:37and make herself out
36:39to be the victim
36:40of his abuse.
36:41She claimed
36:42that Steve
36:43had been emotionally
36:44and physically abusive
36:46to her,
36:46that he was
36:47a heavy drug user
36:48and that he had viewed
36:49child abuse images.
36:52But the toxicology report
36:54only showed
36:54that he had
36:55a small amount
36:56of marijuana
36:57and prescription
36:57to Mazepam
36:58in his system.
37:00And when investigators
37:01checked his computer,
37:02there was no evidence
37:03to support Lana's allegations
37:05that he had
37:06child abuse images.
37:07She started accusing him
37:09of being an abusive husband.
37:12So one of the things
37:13we wanted to find out
37:14was what the other women
37:16he had been married to
37:16had experienced.
37:18None of the wives
37:19that he had previously
37:20been married to
37:21ever indicated
37:22that he was abusive.
37:23They characterized him
37:24as a loving,
37:25caring husband
37:26and they said
37:27their time with him
37:27was some of the best
37:28in their lives.
37:29She said that he was abusive,
37:31but at the same time
37:32she would send me
37:32text messages saying
37:34how very much
37:34in love they were.
37:35So I think
37:38she was grasping
37:38at any sympathy
37:40that she could get
37:41from any person
37:42and none of it
37:45made sense.
37:50With Lana in custody
37:52awaiting trial,
37:53police checked
37:54through their records
37:55for any previously
37:56reported incidents
37:57at the Clayton home.
37:58There was only one
38:00when we did that,
38:02one incident
38:03that the police
38:04had been called out
38:05to the Clayton household
38:06and when we researched
38:08that incident report
38:09and read through it,
38:10the already bizarre case
38:12became even more unusual.
38:16What we came to learn
38:17after reading
38:18this incident report
38:19was that Lana shot Stephen
38:21in the back of the head
38:22with a crossbow
38:23in 2016
38:24at about 3 o'clock
38:25in the morning
38:26while he lay in bed asleep.
38:30Luckily,
38:30it only grazed him.
38:32When she was probed
38:33about this,
38:34officers said,
38:35had you had an argument?
38:36She said,
38:36no, everything was fine.
38:38Steve was just asleep.
38:39He corroborated that,
38:40said it was just an accident,
38:41so the case was closed.
38:43Steve's reaction
38:43to the crossbow incident
38:45throws into question
38:46Lana's account
38:47of him being violent
38:48towards her.
38:49The fact that he was
38:50so readily happy
38:52to let that slide,
38:54a really serious
38:54and significant incident.
38:56But then on the other hand,
38:57you do have to wonder
38:58if it was kind of
39:00representative
39:00of an extreme level
39:02of violence
39:03that was becoming
39:03quite normalized
39:04in their relationship.
39:06We were very shocked
39:07to find out
39:08that this had occurred
39:09a couple of years prior.
39:10The fact that we now knew
39:13that she had been doing this
39:15well prior to what she did
39:17to take his life
39:18was just another reason
39:21to feel sick
39:22in the middle of our gut
39:23because there were
39:25just too many situations
39:26where I would get
39:27a phone call
39:28from my brother
39:29after having tried
39:30to reach him
39:31for a day or two
39:32and he'd call me
39:33and say,
39:33you're not going
39:34to believe this.
39:35I was asleep
39:35for two days.
39:36I had the worst sunstroke.
39:38But now looking back,
39:40she was checking
39:41to see what was the dose
39:42that was going
39:43to take his life.
39:46The prosecution now
39:47had a very strong case
39:49against Lana Clayton.
39:50They had the toxicology report
39:52that showed
39:53those fatal amounts
39:55of vicine
39:55in Steve's bloodstream.
39:57They had been administered
39:58to him against his will.
39:59They then also had the fact
40:01that Steve had been bedridden
40:02for so long
40:03and his mobile phone
40:05had just gone missing.
40:06So the question becomes,
40:07why did she do this?
40:09Well, every woman
40:10that he'd ever
40:11been married to,
40:12he had a prenuptial
40:13agreement with.
40:14He was a very wealthy man.
40:16So we believe one existed
40:18with Lana as well,
40:19but that it was destroyed
40:21by Lana after he died,
40:23along with the will.
40:24If there's no will
40:25in South Carolina
40:26and you die without a will,
40:28everything you have
40:30goes to your spouse.
40:31She's the one
40:34who stood to benefit
40:35because she was going
40:36to be the sole beneficiary
40:39of his estate,
40:40and that's why
40:40she did what she did.
40:42Our options at this point
40:44was proceed on a murder charge,
40:46which, if that was going
40:47to happen,
40:48she would go to trial.
40:50And then the only other option
40:52was try to come to some sort
40:53of agreement with the defense
40:54that would expose her
40:56to what was the equivalent
40:57of life without having
40:59to go to trial.
41:00And we would spare
41:01the victim's family
41:02the rigors of trial,
41:04the trauma of going
41:05through this detailed
41:06description of what
41:07their loved one went through.
41:09We were not going
41:10to let this monster go free.
41:14And there was a great chance
41:16that she could have.
41:17We took the wise counsel
41:19of the people
41:20in the solicitor's office
41:22and decided that we would
41:25go ahead and accept a plea
41:26for voluntary manslaughter.
41:30By accepting a guilty plea,
41:31even of a lower-level offense,
41:33that means the family
41:34have secured that there
41:35will be some form of justice,
41:37whereas going to trial
41:38on a no guilty plea
41:40on a circumstantial evidence case
41:42means that they'd run the risk
41:43of there not being
41:44any justice served.
41:48On January 16, 2020,
41:51Lana Clayton pleaded guilty
41:53to voluntary manslaughter
41:55and tampering with a food
41:56or drug.
41:58Our objective was
41:59to secure a sentence
42:00that was tantamount to life.
42:02And ultimately,
42:03the judge concluded
42:05that a 25-year no-parole sentence
42:07was appropriate,
42:07so she will remain in jail
42:09until she's 73 years old.
42:13We'll never know for sure
42:15what took place in that house,
42:16but I believe that Stephen Clayton
42:19was poisoned over several days.
42:23It was clear that she had basically
42:25held him hostage,
42:28captive, using this chemical
42:30before he finally succumbed
42:33to the poison that was in his system
42:34and collapsed,
42:36perhaps falling down
42:37the last few stairs,
42:38landing at the foot of the stairs
42:40where he was found.
42:41This was a prolonged,
42:44torturous experience
42:45for Stephen Clayton,
42:47and a horrible one
42:48that she was the mastermind
42:52and architect for
42:53and wholly responsible.
42:57At court,
42:58Rosie and other members
43:00of Stephen's family
43:01were given the chance
43:02to read out their victim
43:03impact statements
43:04in front of the now-convicted
43:06murderer,
43:07Lana Clayton.
43:08There was a lot of pain,
43:10and at the same time,
43:12there was a feeling
43:14of such betrayal
43:17that I could have trusted somebody
43:19with the life of someone
43:21so dear to me.
43:23It was a ruse,
43:26the fact that she was
43:28a person trained
43:29in life savings.
43:30She used her training
43:32to cause another person harm.
43:35She stole him from me.
43:37And my heart pities
43:40the agony
43:42that she must have to face,
43:44not just in this world,
43:46but in whatever world
43:47is to come.
43:50But from my own brother,
43:51I learned
43:52to forgive.
43:56And I think that that's
43:57the only place
43:58that I've been able
43:59to find peace.
44:00Steve is going to be remembered
44:08by everyone who loved him
44:10for his joy
44:11and his laughter.
44:13Steve wasn't happy
44:14unless he was making
44:15someone else happy.
44:17And that joy
44:18is my brother's
44:19greatest legacy,
44:20the joy that he brought
44:22to so many people,
44:23and all of them
44:24think about him
44:25and pay that forward.
44:27to the world.
44:30And I think that's
44:30a part of the yard.
44:32I think that's
44:32a part of the yard.
44:32So it was a village
44:33of the yard.
44:35And the way
44:35of the yard
44:36to work.
44:37And the way
44:38that he lived
44:38and I knew
44:40would have to
44:40be comforted
44:40and get to
44:41so many people
44:42and I knew
44:42that he was
44:43a big part
44:43of the yard.
44:45And the way
44:45that he built
44:46was a place
44:47in the church.
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