The murderer
http://www.freep.com/story/news/loca...pect/87486716/
Article about the girlfriend of the suspect
They are not releasing his name. But im reading Daniel Clay all over facebook.
http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fi...her-woman.htmlNEWPORT, Mich. -? Two Frenchtown Township women are reeling from the arrest Friday of a man who lived with one of them and is suspected of killing another woman.
Kelli Richter, who lives in the Frenchtown Villa manufactured-home community off Telegraph Road, told The Blade today her boyfriend, Daniel Clay, 27, was the suspect arrested by the Monroe County Sheriff?s Department in the ongoing 2014 homicide case of Chelsea Bruck, 22, of Maybee.
?It?s hard to believe you get to know someone and start falling in love, and he tells you he loves you. And next thing you know, he?s getting arrested for a murder,? Miss Richter said.
Miss Bruck was last seen alive leaving a Halloween party in the 3500 block of Post Road on Oct. 26, 2014.
Pieces of her Poison Ivy costume were located April 5, 2015, at an abandoned industrial site in Flat Rock, Mich., about 15 miles away. On April 24, her remains were discovered in a wooded area off Briar Hill Road near Carleton, Mich.
Miss Richter, who first met Mr. Clay about a year ago and has dated him for about a month, said she initially thought he was arrested for outstanding child-support warrants, and authorities did not give a reason when they interviewed her at length Friday afternoon.
While the Monroe County Sheriff?s Department will not name the suspect until he is arraigned Monday, Miss Richter said the details released and reported by news media later that day fit Mr. Clay?s arrest perfectly. Mr. Clay was booked into the Monroe County jail, where he remained today.
Sheriff Dale Malone said during a news conference Friday night that information from the Michigan State Police crime lab connected the suspect to Miss Bruck?s death.
The sheriff said the suspect was taken into custody at 2:55 p.m., matching the time at which Miss Richter?s home was surrounded by police who entered through an unlocked door and arrested Mr. Clay.
Miss Richter was not present at the time, but a visiting friend, Deanna Boring, was in the shower when authorities began pounding on the door. Miss Boring said Mr. Clay burst into the bathroom in a panic and told her he was going to prison.
?He would not answer the door,? Miss Boring told The Blade.
She heard police enter the house and take Mr. Clay to the floor in a bedroom. When Miss Richter returned home, the two women were kept separate and their cell phones were temporarily taken by police. Miss Richter approved a search, during which authorities removed several items from among Mr. Clay?s belongings.
?At the time, I didn?t know it was about Chelsea,? she said. ?Then they started finding things and it started freaking me out.?
Miss Richter said she cooperated completely with authorities and worked with them for about four hours while they searched the house and interviewed her and Miss Boring. While noting the detectives were kind and understanding, she remarked they asked very personal questions about her relationship with Mr. Clay.
?As soon as they left, I couldn?t breathe,? she said. ?I just broke down.?
Miss Richter said she never suspected Mr. Clay could have been involved in anything as serious as the Bruck case. He treated her well and is a good father to his two young sons, she said. She did not know him at the time Miss Bruck disappeared, and the couple had never discussed the case.
Sheriff Malone had said Friday night his department was confident the man responsible for Miss Bruck?s death had been captured. The suspect provided ?details that only the killer would know, as this information has never been disseminated to the public,? he said.
Miss Richter and Miss Boring said today they were second-guessing themselves and questioning everything Mr. Clay had said or done in their presence while they wait for the courts to sort things out.
Miss Richter in particular said she struggled with the shock as part of her hoped Mr. Clay?s arrest was all just a big mistake, while another part of her wanted peace for the Bruck family.
?I keep thinking about it,? Miss Richter said. ?If it was him, I?m glad for Chelsea Bruck?s family that they know and will get closure. I couldn?t imagine losing any family member. I hope it?s over for their sake.?
I'm hoping his girlfriend doesn't get slammed on social media because she is a victim of this as well and she seems genuinely shocked about his involvement in this horrible crime.
I'm glad they finally got him.
What a loser. Wanna be Illuminati
Daniel Allan Clay of Newport will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. at 1st District Court in Monroe, according to court records.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/loca...rged/87526820/
At the link there are photos of him during the arraignment.
He's been charged with second degree murder.
Last edited by Deviant Toaster; 07-25-2016 at 10:16 AM.
Lawyer for suspect in Bruck killing seeks competency test
http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/20...competent.html
Boohoo for you scumbag.MONROE — The lawyer for the Frenchtown Township man accused of killing Chelsea Bruck said in court today that his client is distraught and asked the court to order an evaluation to determine whether he is mentally competent.
During a probable cause conference this afternoon First District Judge Jack Vitale granted both motions from court-appointed attorney Russell Smith and ordered Daniel Clay, 27, be sent to the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ann Arbor for evaluation.
Mr. Clay was arrested July 22 and is charged with second-degree murder — without premeditation — in the slaying of Chelsea Bruck.
Mr. Smith said his client has been distraught while in jail and has been prescribed medication.
I can't imagine being the poor woman in the shower when this all went down. I imagine that to be a life altering event for his girlfriend and her friend, to be so close to pure evil and not know it.
Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups
He is a real pillar of the community.
Detailed article from 12/3 about the town itself and the events surrounding the incident. Didn't realize that she was from a town of 560 people?! That's ridiculously tiny. I didn't realize that the "party" they were going to was this huge event. I also didn't remember that she had been stranded without her phone, money or any way to get home, and started to walk an 8 mile walk home by herself when she got picked up by this scumbag. Her friends did her a great service there... Ugh.
Maybee’s wounds fresh 2 years after Bruck’s slaying
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/new...rder/94855570/
Maybee — After more than two years, purple ribbons still hang from town utility poles, sturdy pillars draped with heartbreak.
The strips, now faded, were there during a six-month search for a 22-year-old woman who vanished after a raucous Halloween party in 2014.
They were there when Chelsea Bruck’s badly beaten body was found under a clump of leaves and branches last year.
And they remained last month when the case against the man charged with killing her was moved to circuit court for trial.
These milestones of murder are foreign to Maybee, a farm town of 560 people in Monroe County. People just aren’t killed here, said residents.
“That was insane,” said Jo Ann Terrasi, owner of Jo’s Barber Shop. “We’re not used to it. This is a nice little town.”
When her two 20-something daughters go out, Terrasi finds her thoughts drifting to Bruck.
The death also preys on the mind of Lisa Milhan, who is preparing to open a cafe across the street from the barbershop.
No matter how slow business is, Milhan won’t allow employees to work by themselves. It would make them vulnerable to someone trying to do them harm, she said.
“We were all on our tippy toes, trying to absorb it,” she said.
Milhan and her daughter, Marquis, recently looked at photos spread over the counter of Curbside Caf? that they planned to hang on the walls.
Milhan said she continually pesters Marquis to call her whenever she returns home from going out. Marquis, 26, complained her mom still treats her like a little girl.
The person authorities say is responsible for the fear coursing through the community is an unemployed, high school dropout with a long string of misdemeanors.
Daniel Clay, 28, who is being held at the Monroe County Jail, is charged with open murder, which encompasses first-degree, second-degree and felony murder. No trial date has been set.
He declined to comment for this story.
As for Maybee, a welcome sign describes it as “The Best Little Town in Michigan.”
A hulking grain elevator looms over the two-block shopping district, where telephone poles are bedecked with not just purple ribbons but American flags.
Everyone seems connected to everyone else.
One of Terrasi’s customers is Bruck’s father. Milhan’s husband is a farmer who has helped the Bruck family with their 160-acre farm just outside town. Many residents use the bank where Bruck’s mother was a teller.
On Friday nights, seemingly the entire town gathers at the Little Brown Jug, whose daily special is hand-breaded walleye, lake perch and Alaska pollock.
The customers all know each other. Bruck’s sister, Megan, used to be a waitress there.
“It’s a tight-knit town where everyone is family,” said Matt McMahon, a customer at the Little Brown Jug. “Chelsea was everyone’s sister, everyone’s daughter.”
The night she went missing
In Monroe County, it was the party of the season.
Big Mike’s Annual Halloween Bash had a stage, fireball twirling, a 40-foot bonfire and prizes for best costumes.
Held at a farmhouse in Newport, it was more concert than party, featuring eight heavy metal bands with names such as Psychopathic Daze, Armageddon Awaits and Everything Must Die.
The yearly get-together was always popular, but the one in October 2014 drew a bigger crowd than usual, 600 people, witnesses said. It also was unruly, with several people kicked out for fighting.
“It was huge, a lot of new faces,” said Heather Brooks, a friend of Bruck’s who worked with her at Olga’s Kitchen in Monroe.
Bruck arrived around 11 p.m. The youngest of five children, she was outgoing and boisterous, said friends.
And she really wanted one of those costume prizes. She worked three weeks on her outfit, sewing leaves to a green vest. She was the Batman villainess Poison Ivy, who kills victims with a kiss.
Clay, who attended the party, also wanted a prize, but not for best costume, he later told police. He wanted to hook up with a woman.
He and a friend walked up to a group of people that included Bruck, said a member of the group, Jessica Pribyl. She testified during Clay’s preliminary exam on Nov. 2 that there was little if any conversation.
“She was always sweet and caring of everyone,” Pribyl told The News.
Bruck, who had been drinking cheap wine from a gallon-size bottle, walked into a wooden post, gashing her forehead and bridge of her nose, said witnesses.
After hurting herself at 12:45 a.m., she wanted to go home. But the friend who had brought her had already left. Another friend, who had Bruck’s phone and wallet, also had left. She asked several people for a ride, but they demurred.
Finally, around 3 a.m., she left the party by foot. It’s unclear where she was going. Her home was eight miles away.
As she walked along a dirt road clutching her purple wig, a car pulled beside her. The driver, Clay, asked whether she needed a lift, he later told police. She stumbled into his car.
Clay told police he and Bruck had rough sex and he accidentally strangled her.
But a medical examiner testified during the preliminary exam that Bruck had been beaten to death.
What’s more, the injuries were too severe to be inflicted by a fist, said Dr. Leigh Hlavaty, deputy chief medical examiner for Wayne County. A blunt object must have been used,
Bruck’s nose, jaw and eye sockets were broken, said Hlavaty. Two teeth were chipped.
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Clay told police he then drove around for 30 to 45 minutes. He dumped Bruck’s torn costume at an abandoned industrial site near Flat Rock some 15 miles from the party. He drove another six miles before dumping the body in a woods near Carleton.
The case against Clay
When Bruck failed to return home from the party, her family began to look for her. They were eventually joined by hundreds of volunteers who spent months searching woods, fields and waterways.
They blanketed Monroe County with 300,000 fliers asking for information about her.
The police also were busy, conducting 840 interviews and sifting through 1,000 tips.
Despite the searches and fliers and interviews and tips, police were stymied. One problem: Most people at the party were too drunk or high to assist in the investigation.
“You didn’t know who or what or why,” Marquis Milhan said. “You have a million questions.”
Police finally caught a break earlier this year.
In May, Clay and another man were arrested for accosting a woman in downtown Monroe, snatching her backpack full of tattoo supplies.
A new law allowed police to collect Clay’s DNA to see if it matched anything in the Michigan State Police database. The old law limited such collection to people charged with violent felonies.
The DNA matched material on Bruck’s black yoga pants, which had been discovered last year when police, acting on a tip, searched the Flat Rock industrial site.
Clay subsequently told police he was involved in the death but that it was an accident.
In July, he was charged in Bruck’s death. He also was charged with a sexual assault that had occurred in June.
He allegedly walked into the apartment of a Monroe woman, struck her in the face, yanked her off the couch by her hair and raped her, said police.
Kelli Richter, who had been dating Clay for a month at the time of his arrest, was stunned.
“It’s just crazy,” she said. “You think you know someone, but you really don’t.”
Real quality people there. I grew up in a Small Town that was enormous compared to 560 people and NOBODY would leave you stranded. EVER. It was against not only general code of conduct, it was just natural that you help your fellow townie. Even if you're a stranger and drunk off your ass. Especially when you're drunk off your ass, as a matter of fact.
A jury has found Daniel Clay guilty of felony murder Chelsea Bruck, a woman who went missing at a Halloween party in Monroe County back in 2014.
Clay was also found guilty of disposing of a dead body. He will be sentenced on July 13. Clay was found not guilty of first degree murder.
Jury selection began for Clay's trial on Monday, May 8, and opening arguments were on Tuesday, May 9. One week later, lawyers gave their closing arguments and the jury began deliberating at about 2 p.m. and took about three hours before reaching a decision.
Clay had been charged with open murder, meaning the prosecutor was not required to choose between first- or second-degree murder. The jury then determined the appropriate degree based on the evidence.
http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/loca...55022871-story
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