Sounak Sengupta
‘Dateline: Bodies of Evidence’ podcast depicts how a young Texan couple conspired to commit insurance fraud by digging up a body and setting up a car crash in Georgetown, Texas, in June 2004. However, the elaborate plan was unraveled due to a diligent investigation, and the perpetrators were arrested and brought to justice.
Who are Molly and Clayton Daniels?
Clayton Wayne Daniels and Molly Daniels were a young married couple in June 2004, with two young children — a boy, Caleb, from another relationship and a little girl, Harley, she had with Clayton. His co-worker, Amy Birkenfeld, reminisced, “He was the love of her life. And vice-versa. She felt comfortable around him, and he loved her for who she was.” According to the episode, Clayton was an auto mechanic with little work lately, and he mostly stayed home to care for the two kids.
Friends and family reminisced about how much Clayton loved bikes — so much that he named his daughter “Harley,” as in Harley-Davidson. On the night of June 17, 2004, 23-year-old Clayton drove his Chevy Cavalier to his mother’s house. However, Molly was worried when he still hadn’t returned by morning, until her worst nightmare came true — the authorities found her husband’s body in a tragic motor accident. A car had left the road in rural Burnett County, Texas, and plunged down an embankment, ending up in a ravine in a ball of fire.
Clayton’s memorial service was held at his childhood town of Burnet, Texas, with his favorite song — Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird” — playing in the background as 100 mourners attended and signed the guest book. Meanwhile, reports stated Clayton and Molly were living week-to-week on her paycheck. Her colleagues decided to help the bereaving widow and her children by raising $1,000 to aid with the bills as Molly waited for Clayton’s $110,000 life insurance policy payoff.
Meanwhile, the investigators started questioning the horrible accident, with some even claiming it to be a deadly crime. Corporal William Talamantez of the Texas Department of Public Safety had seen hundreds of motor accidents in his career spanning two decades, and he recalled how “this one looked fishy from the get-go.” He claimed he found no tell-tale skid marks or other usual signs of a high-speed crash, and the dents on the vehicle were inconsistent with missing a curve and sailing down an embankment.
Though he had little physical evidence to prove his hypothesis, Corporal William theorized somebody had first killed the victim before stuffing him in the Chevy and rolling the car over the cliff. Soon, the investigators uncovered how people close to Molly harbored negative feelings toward Clayton, with her colleague, Amy Birkenfeld, describing him as “the troublesome type.” Even Molly’s sister, Melissa, stated she did not trust her brother-in-law as he gave her “the heebie-jeebies.”
Post-Conviction Lives: Clayton in Jail, Molly Released
Corporal William Talamantez’s theory found a supporter in Clark Dickenscheidt, a private investigator working for the insurance company that had sold Clayton the $110,000 life insurance policy a little less than two years before the death. Clark noted, “My biggest thought, at the time, was a possible homicide. It just sounded a little strange that he would drive right off the road and burst into flames.” His suspicions grew stronger after he interviewed Molly. He claimed she showed “absolutely no emotion,” which was a “red flag” to him.
Soon others began to notice the lack of emotion Molly displayed, with Amy claiming the widow asked her about “when an acceptable time to start dating” again was. Molly’s neighbor Jenna Panas had decided to help the struggling mother by volunteering to babysit her two children for lower rates, and she initially admired Molly’s grace. However, the babysitter was the first to notice another man around the Daniels household within weeks of the death. He was called Jake, and Jenna described him as “just trailer-trash.”
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers got embroiled in the probe in late June 2004 after the pathologist found no soot in the victim’s lungs, indicating he was already dead— and possibly murdered— before the car fire ever started. With the initiation of a bonafide criminal investigation, the investigators decided to get a DNA match analysis of the victim with Clayton’s mother. They obtained a DNA sample from the victim by opening the remains of a hip bone with a hacksaw.
By early December 2004, the DNA report came with a shocking twist — the charred body found in the ravine did not belong to Clayton Daniels. On December 3, 2004, the Texas Rangers tailed Molly and her male companion to a Taco Bell in North Austin. When the investigators entered the restaurant, they found “Clayton eating a burrito.” They found a fake driver’s license on him that identified him as Jacob Alexander Gregg, or Jake as he was known to the children and others in the neighborhood.
According to reports, Clayton had been charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child for raping his 7-year-old cousin in 1997. The girl came forward several years later, and he pleaded guilty in June 2004 and was sentenced to probation and 30 days in jail. The conviction meant Clayton would be registered as a lifetime sex offender. To save her family from the embarrassment and her husband from prison, Molly chalked up a plot of stealing a body belonging to 81-year-old Charlotte Davis from a graveyard in Pebble Mound and set up the car crash.
The couple looked to get a fresh start with the $110,000 life insurance policy. He pleaded guilty to arson, desecration of a cemetery, and insurance fraud in 2006. A Burnet County court sentenced him to 45 years for the three convictions to be served alongside the 20 years for probation violation on the aggravated sexual assault. According to records, the 42-year-old is serving his sentence at the Daniel Webster Wallace Unit in Colorado City. Molly pleaded guilty to insurance fraud, arson, and desecration of a cemetery and was sentenced to concurrent prison terms of 15 and 10 years. She has been released after serving her sentence.
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