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

Tyler Hadley wanted to throw a party. When his parents said no, he killed them — and invited dozens of friends over while their bodies lay hidden in the master bedroom.

The then-17-year-old beat Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley to death with a claw hammer inside their Florida home on July 16, 2011. 

Then, after dragging their bodies into the bedroom and covering them with household items — linens, books, picture frames and towels — he spent nearly three hours cleaning the blood, according to his 2024 televised interview on Court TV’s Interview with a Killer series.

That night, Hadley posted on Facebook: “Party at my crib tonight… maybe.” More than 60 teens showed up — most had no idea his parents were lying dead just down the hall.

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

In the Court TV interview, Hadley recalled the moment it all became real.

“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 as 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 pleading 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 what he’d done. 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 even recalled him saying that 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 started as dark humor. He and his friends had been sitting around one night drinking beer and smoking weed, he said, when the thought first surfaced.

“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, he said, the plan was no longer a joke.

At some point during the party, Hadley pulled aside his best friend, Michael Mandell. He told him what he had done. Mandell didn’t believe it — until Tyler unlocked the master bedroom door and showed him 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.

There, they found the Hadleys’ bodies in the bedroom and arrested Tyler on the spot. A blood-covered hammer lay between the victims’ bodies, per CBS News. 

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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,” per 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.