september 17th. and then kelley was murdered the, like, night of the 28th, 29th. so it wasn t long at all. reporter: was it possible that beard was angry about losing his job and that kelley s murder was some kind of revenge? molly went through her cell phone and her facebook contacts and gave investigators beard s address. i gave that to them. and they were just like, okay, thank you. reporter: the steuben county sheriff s office needed all hands on deck and called in the new york state police for assistance. i was contacted by investigators the day of the homicide. reporter: investigator matt lambert was assigned to run down the michael beard lead. reporter: what did you know about michael beard s background? he actually was a pretty well-respected employee until september 17th, when when tom had fired him. reporter: why did tom fire him? stealing from jobs and drinking, i think, on the job and that he fired him on the 17th because there s maybe some complaints
reporter: investigator matt lambert was assigned to run down the michael beard lead. reporter: what did you know about michael beard s background? he actually was a pretty well-respected employee until september 17th, when when tom had fired him. reporter: why did tom fire him? stealing from jobs and drinking, i think, on the job and that he fired him on the 17th because there s maybe some complaints from other employees at servpro. reporter: so there s some issues there? right. reporter: but beard was polite and cooperative when the investigator knocked on his door. we said, hey, can you, you know, take a ride with us up to the barracks. and he said, yeah, just let me let my wife know. reporter: and he already knew what it was about? we told him that we want to talk to him about the the homicide of kelley clayton. reporter: the investigator asked beard where he was the night of kelley s murder. he said he was home except for a beer run. he actually ki
did that seem odd to you? that did seem odd. he denied having any type of conversation. he said he didn t even remember receiving it, and he wouldn t have answered a call that wasn t that he didn t know the number. reporter: and when investigators looked at beard s phone, there was no sign of a call from linda miller s cell. it had been, uh, erased. he explained that away by saying that he, the night before, had to recycle his minutes on his phone. it was a little bit suspicious to me. did you start to come down really hard on him? like, i don t we re not buying your story? it wasn t hard. it was more like i was trying to say, let the truth out, because he was having physical like, his stomach was rolling. and i was saying, mike, just let the truth come out. let it come out. it wants to come out. let the truth come out. it s not adding up. you got to stop. you hear your body right now. your body s telling you that you re not telling the truth. just get it out. r
michael beard was fired september 17th. and then kelley was murdered the, like, night of the 28th, 29th. so it wasn t long at all. reporter: was it possible that beard was angry about losing his job and that kelley s murder was some kind of revenge? molly went through her cell phone and her facebook contacts and gave investigators beard s address. i gave at to them. and they were just like, okay, thank you. reporter: the steuben county sheriff s office needed all hands on deck and called in the new york state police for assistance. i was contacted by investigators the day of the homicide. reporter: investigator matt lambert was assigned to run down the michael beard lead. reporter: what did you know about michael beard s background? he actually was a pretty well-respected employee until september 17th, when when tom had fired him. reporter: why did tom fire him? stealing from jobs and drinking, i think, on the job and that he fired him on the 17th because there
he denied having any type of conversation. he said he didn t even remember receiving it, and he wouldn t have answered a call that wasn t that he didn t know the number. reporter: and when investigators looked at beard s phone, there was no sign of a call from linda miller s cell. it had been, uh, erased. he explained that away by saying that he, the night before, had to recycle his minutes on his phone. it was a little bit suspicious to me. did you start to come down really hard on him? like, i don t we re not buying your story? it wasn t hard. it was more like i was trying to say, let the truth out, because he was having physical like, his stomach was rolling. and i was saying, mike, just let the truth come out. let it come out. it wants to come out. let the truth come out. it s not adding up. you got to stop. you hear your body right now. your body s telling you that you re not telling the truth. just get it out. reporter: while investigator lambert was speaking