Police: Florida teen killed parents, then had party
This photo provided by the St. Lucie county Sheriff's office on Monday, July 18, 2011, shows Tyler Hadley, 17, of Port St. Lucie, Fla. Hadley is accused of beating his parents to death with a hammer and then throwing a party. He is being held on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents, Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley. The bodies were discovered early Sunday morning after police received a tip.. (AP Photo/ St. Lucie county Sheriff's office)
This undated photo provided by the Port St. Lucie police shows Mary Jo Hadley. Hadley's 17-year-old son Tyler Hadley is accused of beating his parents to death with a hammer and then throwing a party. The bodies were discovered early Sunday morning, July 18, 2011 after police received a tip. (AP Photo/Port St. Lucie Police)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. >> A Florida teen is accused of posting a Facebook invite for a house party, killing his parents with a hammer and then hosting dozens of people while the adults’ bludgeoned bodies were locked in the master bedroom.
Tyler Hadley, 17, was expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday in Port St. Lucie. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley, who police believe were struck on their heads and torsos on Saturday, sometime after their son posted on Facebook to tell friends about the party.
Investigators believe the Hadleys were attacked outside their master bedroom and the bodies were moved into the bedroom and the door locked.
The teen was being held without bond at a juvenile detention center in Fort Pierce and it wasn’t clear whether he had an attorney.
Neighbors and some of Hadley’s high school classmates were shocked.
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"He just seemed normal, I didn’t think anything was wrong with him," Hadley’s friend, Johnna Izzo, told Miami television station WSVN.
Neighbor Raeann Wallace said she had known the family since before Tyler Hadley was born. "This is not the Tyler I remember. What happened? … He and his dad would be shooting hoops (in the driveway)."
On Saturday night, as many as 60 people attended the party in the community about 50 miles north of West Palm Beach, according to Port St. Lucie Police spokesman Tom Nichols. They were loud enough to prompt a noise complaint and a visit by police officers. When they arrived at 1:30 a.m. Sunday to warn about the noise, the party was already breaking up, Nichols said.
Then, police said, they received a tip that a slaying may have taken place. They returned to the home at 4:20 a.m., finding the bodies covered with towels, files, books and other household items, and the hammer between them.
The mother, 47, was an elementary school teacher. The father, 54, worked for Florida Power and Light. The Hadleys also had a 23-year-old son who lives out-of-state.
Autopsies were under way, but police said they believed they died of blunt-force trauma.
Hadley had attended St. Lucie West Centennial High School, according to police, but had not graduated. They said they did not know what the motive was.
