PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - Neighbors knew Tyler Hadley as a polite and respectful teen who played basketball with his father in the driveway and built forts of junked wood as a child, not as someone who could kill his parents and throw a party while their bodies lay tucked beneath towels and other items in a locked bedroom.
The 17-year-old made his first court appearance yesterday after being charged in the killings of his parents, Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley, whom authorities say he bludgeoned with a hammer Saturday before hosting a party for dozens of friends. A motive remains unclear.
In his brief appearance via video conference from jail, the teen glanced downward and calmly replied, “No, sir,’’ when asked by the judge whether he had a lawyer or any questions. He was ordered held without bail and appointed a public defender.
His politeness was baffling to Tom Bakkedahl, the prosecutor who later viewed the bodies of Hadley’s parents as they underwent autopsies.
“His demeanor in court was not consistent with what I saw at the autopsy,’’ Bakkedahl said of the parents, whose heads and torsos were maimed in the attack.
“It’s absolutely horrific,’’ Bakkedahl said. “The injuries were just massive.’’
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