Man 'burned alive' as body found 'without head' – but then the chilling truth unravels
When police received reports of a burned-out car that had belonged to a local named Clayton Daniels, they were immediately suspicious. The discovery of a horribly burned corpse in the driving seat raised further concerns. However, it was the intense blaze that eventually revealed a startling twist in the investigation.
A couple of years previously, Clayton had met and married single mother Molly Daniels. Despite her family's animosity towards the 23-year-old biker, Clayton appeared to genuinely bond with her young son Caleb, embracing him as if he were his own flesh and blood.
The couple went on to have their own baby, a little girl that motorcycle enthusiast Clayton proudly named Harley. But Clayton had a dark past, and one of his misdeeds would come back to haunt him – driving him to a shocking and grotesque crime.
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Podcaster Annie Elise says that Clayton, often known as Clay, had a ferocious temper, especially when it came to road rage. She explained: "Many people thought that Clay wasn't exactly a catch. He was angry, he didn't have a job, he didn't ever seem particularly interested in getting one, and he also had a criminal record."
"It was mostly for theft and other minor offences but then he also had one very big issue," Annie says. "Clay was convicted of assaulting his cousin in a sexual way when she was only seven years old.
"The assault had happened before Molly met him, although Clay didn't exactly volunteer the fact that he had done it. It took seven years for the victim to go to the police and to talk about what her then 16-year-old cousin had done to her.
"So in 2004, all of those years later, when Clay probably thought that it had all gone away, he learned that he was being charged with aggravated assault."
To the utter disgust of the victim's family, it emerged that Clayton was facing a minimal sentence for the violent sexual assault amounting to just one month behind bars, followed by 10 years' probation.
With so many people bearing a grudge against Clayton, police looked closely at the circumstances of the "car accident" on June 18, 2004 that had apparently claimed his life.
"The fire had burned so hot that it melted parts of the vehicle," said Garth Davis, a former Texas Rangers investigator. "That's very unusual."
It was the intensity of the fire that first made investigators suspect that this was no ordinary car accident.
Corporal William Talamantez of the Texas Department of Public Safety was one of the first officers on the scene, and described the sight that greeted him: "The car was burned up where I couldn't even tell what color the vehicle used to be. The wheels were melted. The tyres were gone. And the person inside? Just 12 pounds of ashy stump remained. I didn't see a head, and both legs were gone."
He described it as one of the worst accident scenes he'd ever attended, but jewellery and other items found in the wreck were enough for Clayton's family to positively identify the body.
Annie explained: "The police thought that they were looking at a homicide situation. The running theory was that somebody killed Clay beforehand then they put his body in the car and then somehow they crashed it. That would explain the lack of any blood or other bodily fluids in the car, so this now had them asking who had killed Clay."
This theory appeared to be confirmed at Clayton's funeral, when a number of people suggested that the world was a better place without him.
Meanwhile, someone new had entered Molly's life. While she waited to cash in the $110,000 life insurance policy her husband had taken out a couple of years earlier, Molly was struggling financially.
However, the bright spot in her life was a new man named Jake, who appeared to have moved in with Molly and the kids, despite her insistence that he was "just a friend."
Annie says police began to look into the mysterious Jake. She explained: "Jake became a new suspect. The police thought that there was a good chance that Molly and Jake had started their relationship well before Clay died and that they conspired together to get rid of Clay so they could be together."
The startling revelation hit the police when they brought in Molly's new boyfriend for questioning. Despite his darker hair and beard, Jake was the spitting image of Clayton. The supposed "murder victim" was very much alive.
It was soon revealed that Molly and Clayton had concocted the grim plot together. Annie said: "The two of them figured that he would get his life insurance policy cheque. Then they would be able to move the family to Mexico...the plan was that in Mexico Clay could get face-altering plastic surgery so that nobody would be able to recognise him."
Yet, if it wasn't Clayton's body found in the car, then whose was it?
Upon interrogation by the police, Molly crumbled and directed them to the unmarked grave of 81 year old Charlotte Davis, who had passed away around six months prior to the "car crash".
Janine Mather, ex-Lt. Deputy of the State Fire Marshal's Office, shed light on why the fire had burned with such intensity, sparking initial doubts among investigators: "The body had been embalmed," she said. "Embalming fluid is highly flammable."