Teen’s Parents Said No to a Party — So He Killed Them and Invited 60 People Over with Bodies in the Closet

Tyler Hadley wanted to throw a party. When his parents refused, he killed them — then invited dozens of friends over while their bodies remained hidden in the master bedroom.

The 17-year-old attacked Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley with a claw hammer inside their Florida home on July 16, 2011. Afterward, he dragged their bodies into the bedroom, covering them with household items like linens, books, picture frames, and towels. According to his 2024 televised interview on Court TV’s Interview with a Killer series, he spent nearly three hours cleaning the blood.

That night, Hadley posted on Facebook: “Party at my crib tonight… maybe.” Over 60 teens showed up, unaware that his parents lay dead just down the hall.

Some guests later told police the house smelled unusual. Others noticed blood in different parts of the home.

In the Court TV interview, Hadley recalled the moment the reality hit him.

“I went into my bathroom, and I was covered in blood, everywhere,” he said. “There was blood all over the place. And I laughed at myself in the mirror and then went about my business of having a party.”

Hadley told investigators he struck his mother from behind while she sat at a computer. His father ran in, horrified, and asked, “Why?”

“Why the f— not?” Hadley said he responded.

He described entering a dissociative state — “this sort of psychotic state or trance” — and said he remembered hearing his parents screaming and begging for their lives. But he kept swinging.

After the murders, Hadley locked the family dog in a closet, hid his parents’ cell phones, and attempted to erase evidence of his crime. He later admitted to taking ecstasy beforehand and said he felt detached during the attack.

According to police and court testimony, Hadley told friends in the weeks leading up to the killings that he planned to kill his parents. One friend recalled Hadley saying he wanted to host a party afterward because it had “never been done before.”

In the 2024 interview, Hadley told Court TV’s David Scott that the idea of killing his parents began as dark humor. He and his friends had been drinking beer and smoking weed one night when the thought first came up.

“I would sit there and think about it,” he said. “And I think I latched onto it and didn’t let go of it.”

“The thoughts didn’t go away,” he added. “If I could just relieve myself of the thoughts, then it would be done.”

Eventually, the plan stopped being a joke.

At some point during the party, Hadley pulled aside his best friend, Michael Mandell, and confessed. Mandell didn’t believe him — until Tyler unlocked the master bedroom door and revealed the bodies.

“I come up to the [master bedroom] door. The party’s going on over here, and I turn the door knob,” Mandell told ABC News. “I looked down, and I [saw] his father’s leg against the door… My eyes popped up, and I said, ‘Oh my, he’s telling the truth. He did it. This is real.’”

Mandell called the police, and Port St. Lucie officers arrived early the next morning.

They found the Hadleys’ bodies in the bedroom and arrested Tyler immediately. A blood-covered hammer lay between the victims, per CBS News.

In March 2014, Tyler Hadley pleaded no contest to two counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole. During the hearing, Judge Robert R. Makemson called the crime “brutal, heinous and premeditated,” according to CBS.

Prosecutors noted that while in prison, Hadley began calling himself “Hammer Boy” and signed autographs for other inmates, per CBS.

In the 2024 interview, Hadley said he still couldn’t fully explain why he did it.

“I think it was to stop all of our pain,” he said. “And other than that, I can’t answer that with any clarity. I can’t. It’s still not clear to me. It was just that one thought — that kept on going.”

Hadley, now 31, will be eligible for a sentencing review in 2039, per the Treasure Coast Newspapers.