True Crime with Kimbyr - Mother & Daughter Murdered After Visiting The Local Carnival: Part 2

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

In Part 2 of this heartbreaking case on True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha explores the disturbing discoveries that followed the disappearance of Angela Hyke and her daughter Ashley Lucas. As police dig deeper, a web of dark secrets, suspicious behavior, and shocking evidence begins to unravel. Who was the last person to see them alive? And could someone close to them hold the answers? This chapter uncovers the emotional toll on the family and the community, as the search for justice intensifies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did he already have a pet name? Especially one like back rub clay? I didn't want to say it, but I couldn't help but think, well, this man was giving Angie a back rub. What other reason could there have been? So they asked around town. Was there a clay that lived in Cresco?

If so, the man wasn't this clay, not back rub clay. And unfortunately, by the time the officers uncovered this information, that fair had already left Cresco. The only stay in town, maybe a week or so at most, and they couldn't rely on asking any of the workers if they knew someone by that name, because perhaps he wasn't a patron, but instead, an employee.

And then the detectives learned that the fair was operated by Evans United Shows, and they weren't about to let this clue go cold, so they were determined and they drove 20 miles to the next town where the carnival workers were setting up their next event. And they began questioning workers, hoping they were going to find a lead, asking everyone, do you know someone named Clay, their persistence finally paid off. Some workers started to say, yeah, wait a minute, I do know Clay.

Does he look like this? Does he have glasses? Does you have this kind of hair? And finally, they were able to piece together that his name was Clay Irwin Thomas, a 24-year-old carnival worker that had been camping at the Cresco Fairgrounds, along with the rest of the carnival crew. Now, they said he hadn't been working for the carnival long, but they did give a description.

The carnival came to Howard County on June 24th, and Clay passed through Cresco around July 8th when the fair left to the next stop, which was the same time Angie and Ashley went missing. And from her diary entry, we know that she came in contact with Clay before the carnival left. Considering he was a ride operator for the Tiltowirl, the detectives speculated that they probably met

when Angie and Ashley rode on the ride, and they got to talking. But the way that Angie wrote about Clay, It seemed like she thought the encounter was flirtatious, and detectives questioned Angie's friends about a guy named Clay. And a couple of them said, yeah, she did tell us about a guy named Clay, but she didn't go into detail about what kind of relationship they had where they met, only that they were hanging out.

Clay apparently gave Angie and Ashley free rides on the Tilda Whirl on June 24th, and she and Clay must have hit it off. That's all they knew, Except that Angie had mentioned she wanted a vacation. She really needed one. She needed time to get away, time off. But they kept thinking she still wouldn't have left without telling anyone. And she would not have taken off with some random guy

that she just met, especially a Carney. I hope that doesn't offend anyone, but that is the way he was described, a Carney passing through. Detectives want to speak to this clay guy, but workers mentioned they hadn't seen him in quite a few days. The last time they recall seeing him, was actually around when they were leaving Cresco. They think he left the fairgrounds on his bike

and then returned a few hours later driving a car. That was interesting because Angie had a car that was missing. So they pressed the workers for more information. Was Clay with anyone? Was he alone? Was he with a woman and her daughter, perhaps? But they said, no, I don't think so. But they did recall Clay looking for his wife,

Bobby Joe. Yeah. This man was married. And that fact confused detectives. Clay's wife, Bobby Joe, worked at the merry-go-round. So then they were thinking, perhaps that's the ride that Angie and Ashley went on, or maybe they went on both or all of them. Somehow they all came in contact because the worker said,

Bobby Joe and Clay were always together. But if Angie knew he was married, there is no chance. She would have been writing about him in her diary, hanging out with him. But the fact that Angie's neighbor said, he saw her car backed up into her driveway, not the way she usually parked it. And there was a woman inside,

but it didn't look like Angie. Detectives now think it might have been Clay and Bobby Joe who were driving Angie's car. So did they steal it? Was Angie and Ashley with them that morning? Did they go willingly? And where are they now? To find out the detectives put out another

bulletin. This one was to be on the lookout for Clay and Bobby Joe Thomas and the gold 1997 Grand Prix. And as the hours went by, anxiety was raising even more. Can you imagine? Can you imagine your friend was totally gone? Her daughter gone. She told you she met someone. You find out she met him at the carnival. And even her best friend said, oh, that's probably why she didn't tell me that she met him at the carnival because she knew I'd probably be judging about it. That's what Lisa said, her words. can't imagine because it's so out of the ordinary. And now you're thinking, did her car get stolen or did she end up going with these people?

So Agent Jim Wirtz from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation joined forces with local police. He had Angie's phone records examined and he found out that she received a phone call on Sunday night at 10.15 p.m. So that was the day everyone last saw her. And that's pretty late. And it came from a telephone booth,

so we're talking pay phone, in Cresco. That was odd, but it did point towards someone that wasn't from the area, so maybe Clay. Just solidifying the assumption that she met up with him that night. So Agent Wentz also walked a block away from Angie's house to her local bank, and he wanted to see her bank statements in person and look for any activity. There was nothing unusual. But he was able to keep tabs on them, but everything was silent until suddenly out of nowhere, it wasn't. One week, After police began their search for clay,

a check was cashed or attempted to be cashed in Wichita, Kansas. Now that immediately raised red flags. Angela couldn't possibly have been in Kansas willingly, could she? That's what they were thinking. Well, then there was activity on one of her credit cards in Wichita as well. So to Kansas, they went. It didn't take long before they confirmed their worst suspicions. The handwriting on that check was not Angie's.

Fortunately, this particular story, had recently upgraded their security cameras after experiencing a bunch of burglaries. So they installed these crystal clear surveillance cameras and Kansas police reviewed the footage. They went through it meticulously. They were pausing and pausing as they went through. And finally, they saw a familiar face appear on the screen.

It was Clay Thomas. The straight blonde hair and a bowl cut exactly how they were told he was described. He was wearing the glasses. and he was trying to cash Angie's check, as if it were his own. And he wasn't alone. He was standing beside a blonde woman who was identified as his wife, Bobby Joe Thomas. But what was even more disturbing is that Angela's Grand Prix that was missing was plainly visible

in the store's parking lot on camera. But despite the clarity of this footage, investigators don't see any trace of Angie or Ashley. So now it leaves them with the question. That's incredibly terrifying. at this point. If Clay and his wife were here, then where is Angie and her daughter? Why this was so disturbing is because these people were driving her car, clearly trying to use her check and her debit card. That's not good. Those are not good signs. And it wasn't long until Andy's Gold Grand Prix was reportedly seen parked outside a local apartment complex in Wichita, Kansas. So they ran the address

and it came back to being Clay Thomas' older brother's apartment. And by this time, they completed a background check on Clay Thomas, so I think it would be a good time to mention what they found. They began digging right into his past, and they uncovered disturbing patterns. 24-year-old Clayton Thomas' history was far from clean. He was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, and he'd spent his life entangled with law enforcement. Petty theft, drug offenses, battery charges, second,

crimes, burglary, attacks against his own family, his mother and brother, and even his stepfather. Clay's rap sheet was long and troubling. It painted a picture not of someone who simply made some mistakes, but someone capable of true violence. He even attacked a corrections officer. Further investigation revealed another layer to Clay's complicated story. A serious car accident that happened five years earlier, and it had reportedly caused last brain issues. They found out the defense attorneys in past cases that he had frequently leaned on this fact, arguing that it impacted his judgment and his impulse control and even caused brain damage. But detectives in those other cases hadn't been convinced. And the ones in Angie's case were

skeptical as well. It seemed like many people made excuses for Clay, including his own mother, Dorothy Roe Burge. Clay was one of five children. Clay was only a young boy when his mother got a divorce from his father and ever since then, Dorothy said she played the role of mom and dad, doing her very best to try to raise all of her kids. But since middle school, Clay was getting into trouble. That's why she decided to move out into what she referred to as the country. A more rural area called Atchinson outside of Kansas City near the border of Kansas and Missouri. Atchison's quiet environment might have seemed like an opportunity for a fresh start. The town's slower pace and tight-knit community could have offered them a sense of being anonymous,

and a chance to rebuild or a chance to hide from prying eyes. But it didn't stop Clay. He was arrested that same year for shooting a gun. And of course, his mother had an excuse for the 13-year-old. She said, he tried to shoot a squirrel out of a tree in town. He didn't know that you couldn't just fire a weapon in city limits. Huh. And how would a teen be taught otherwise?

Maybe a parent would teach them? And why was a 13-year-old allowed to have a gun? Okay, maybe that was normal in rural areas? Well, that year, the state took away Dorothy's youngest child from her. I don't know the details, but I know it must have been serious. She said that changed her family. And by the time Clay was 15, he was getting into more trouble. He graduated to burglarizing businesses and even getting into fights.

And he was even cited with disorderly conduct. And this went on for years. And by the time he was 19, he had that car accident. But of course, according to his mother, It wasn't his fault. Not at all. Because he wasn't even driving. Dorothy explained, one of his friends was driving and he was going past the speed limit and he was also drinking. And he ended up slamming into a boat and a trailer that were being pulled away from the Missouri Riverboat ramp. Wow. And she said her son was lucky to survive. Well, unlucky for his future victims. Unfortunately.

Not that I would wish death on anyone, but just wait. His mother said that, that he had the mentality of a 14-year-old as a result of what she referred to as brain damage. He wasn't Dorothy's only son to have issues, though. She explained to her older son, Lee Thomas, who was 30 years old, was still living with her because he needed care around the clock. Because she said he had the mental level of a nine-year-old still drawing with crayons and coloring books.

But he would still laugh and smile when his mom talked to him. Officers in the Aachenton area knew Clay Thomas very well, As a matter of fact, Clay even bragged to a reporter once that he had been in every cell in the Attson County jail more than once. It's not really something to brag about, but okay. And at this point, it's July 17th, present day 2001. Detectives look, and they find out that Clay has an outstanding warrant for a parole violation, so they know that they can arrest him for that

if he's inside his brother's apartment. And he was, along with his wife, Bobby Joe. At this point, only Clay is taken into custody. He and Bobby Joe had spent the last week hiding out at Clay's Brothers' apartment, and now he was being transported to the Sedgwick County Jail, and his wife would be asked to come in for questioning. The biggest question was, where is Angie and Ashley? The detectives called Angie's ex, Ashley's father, Bert,

and let him know they found Clay Thomas, but they hadn't located Angie and Ashley. And Bird's heart dropped. He said he had a bad, feeling in his gut and he felt like this was not gonna end well. It just sounded hopeless. Angie's card clearly been stolen by this man and he had a lengthy criminal record and she and her child were missing. It just added to his worst nightmare. He felt like they were never gonna come back. But you still want to hold on to hope,

right? You still want to pray that they're gonna be okay but it just wasn't looking good. Actually detectives were looking for bodies. The likelihood that Angie and Ashley were just waiting around somewhere unharmed was slim. And they were now fielding tips from the town of Atkinson, and they were asking residents if anyone heard or seen anything suspicious in the last few weeks, especially involving a gold Grand Prix and someone matching Clay's description. They were also reaching out to Clay's family, mainly his mother, Dorothy, to see if she had spoken to her son. They knew they were close.

They'd also reached out to Clay's employer, Evans United Shows, who was co-owned by by husband and wife Tom and Nancy Evans from Pittsburgh, Missouri. The business had been in their family since 1947. Let's talk about that first, because I'm sure at least one of you's thinking, why was this guy who had a criminal record working near children or working at all? Don't they require background checks?

Well, when investigators reached out to Nancy Evans, she said she was stunned to find out about Clay's arrest. That to me meant that she must not have done her research. She described him as a clean-cut model employee, and she would never knowingly hire someone that she thought was dangerous. And I wanted to say, lady, it's not about what you think. It's about the facts. But her words exactly were, quote,

we are a place where families should be able to come and feel safe, end quote. Exactly, Nancy. That's why detectives are questioning your business practices. Nancy said she was unaware Clay had a criminal record, that our company does not do criminal checks. It does, however, check driving records since some of the employees have to drive around expensive equipment. Well, I'm glad that that's a big priority.

But what about people's lives? Is there a price tag on that? Clay had only been working for the fair for about two months before Ashley and Angie went missing. So it didn't take long for this man to show his true colors. Nancy also said that many employees don't stay very long. They're transient. And that's why she's,

wasn't surprised that Clay and Bobby Joe didn't come back after the Howard County Fair. That was the nature of the business. But now tips were coming in from Atkinson, and there were only a couple houses on a place called Pawnee Road way out in the middle of nowhere, close to the Atchinson State Fishing Lake. So anyone that lives out there would notice if a person or a car is out of place. And once the news got out about the Gold Grand Prix, a homeowner near the The lake called in and said, not only did they see a gold car come down the rural dirt road a couple weeks ago, but they noticed a horrid stench coming from the woods ever since.

And it's only gotten stronger. Now this tip sent search crews out to that area on July 19th. It was just after midnight right in the middle of a thunderstorm. They spoke to another neighbor nearby, Sunny Moran's. She lived close to the woodline, and she confirmed that she noticed the smell, But she told detective she didn't think twice about it. She just figured that an animal had died out there. Search and rescue teams began walking down

this rarely used dirt road connected to a farmer's property near the lake. It was a worded area and the smell got stronger and stronger. It was undeniable. It was the smell of decomposition. And then they saw them. Two badly decomposed bodies just left on the side of that dirt road, not even buried, but left out in the elements. And it was evident that they had found the remains

of Ashley and Angie Hike. The climate, it being hot and being humid, and right near the lake and the thunderstorm, it caused more rapid decomposition. But it was clear who these individuals were, a mother and daughter, the pair missing from Cresco. There was a cloth ring on Angie's finger, and there was a watch on Ashley's wrist.

And they were later, to be belonging to both of them. So this was a tentative identification. And then Burt got the call that no one wanted to receive. He remembered picking up the phone and being told that the police needed him to come down to the station. It could only be bad news, he thought, and he was right. He said the chief of police was already crying before he said anything,

so we knew they were already gone. And when the words finally did come out that Angie and Ashley had been murdered, It was just heartbreaking. It made no sense. It was unbelievable. There hadn't been a murder in Cresco in over 40 years. And these two, they were undeserving of such a fate, completely innocent people.

Angie's aunt Karen Hyde was in disbelief. She said, that was my sweetheart and my sweet pee. I cannot believe this happened. And no one could. The entire community was just shocked. Why? That was the biggest question. And detectives believed that Clay Thomas would have that answer. He was still in custody, of course, and officers didn't hesitate to bring him in for an interview and grill him about what he knew.

They asked him if he ever heard of a woman named Angie. And he admitted he met Angie and her young daughter at the Howard County Fair on June 24th. He said they chatted while Angie and her daughter stood in line for the Tiltowirl, which he was manning. Manning. He also admitted to giving them free rides and getting Angie's phone number that day. He said that he met up with Angie that week and they had a date at her house when her daughter was at her father's place. He also admitted to seeing Angie again on the night of Sunday, July 8th. But he was adamant that he left on his bike later that night and both of them were alive and well. As soon as he was informed that their bodies had been found, he asked for an attorney and he would not

say another word. And by now, the bodies had been transported to the medical examiner's office in Topeka, Kansas for an official identification and an autopsy. Meanwhile, Joseph Ascovic, the attorney for Howard County, had all eyes on him. He was standing in this crowded courtroom later that day, and he told the community the news. There were about 100 people in attendance wondering if Clay Thomas would be charged with murder. But that was still pending because the investigation was still going on. And then there was his wife, Bobby Joe. She was at the station in Kansas and she was being questioned. And they were hoping that she was going to be truthful

and know exactly what happened to Angie and Ashley. The community was actually outraged that Bobby Joe was just walking free and not under arrest. Because after all, she was in that video surveillance of Clay cashing one of Angie's checks. She was in the car driving around with Clay. She had to have known what he had done. There was no way she was innocent in all this as far as the residents were concerned. But the detectives explained they had to prove that.

At that point, they didn't even know how Angie and Ashley had died. But the attorney told them that he would begin the process of getting Clay charged and extraditing him back to Iowa. He said if Clay was responsible, they have no idea what the motive would have been. But his theory was that Angie and Ashley were killed at Angie's home and then put into the trunk of her car, which is why it was backed into her driveway on the morning of July 9th. The DCI agents and the crime scene technicians were still out where the bodies were found, found and they were sifting through the area looking for any additional clues or evidence. And even Bobby Joe's brother-in-law came to speak out. His name was Tim Kaya and he was married to

Bobby Joe's sister. He said he was appalled by the entire situation. He told reporters that the investigators told him they weren't going to charge Bobby Joe because she was cooperating and we're going to get to that. But she was cooperating. She was speaking with police that very day. The attorney responded and said that they were just getting started with this case. It was far from over, and it was a very sad and emotional day. But they had Clay in custody, and that was the positive part. He wasn't going anywhere. So now let's go to 25-year-old Bobby Joe,

because I'm sure you're wondering, what did she tell the investigators? Well, first of all, obviously when they spoke to her, they told her, you know what? We have you in the surveillance camera. We know that you were in possession of Angie's vehicle. Clay admitted he was with Angie at her house on Sunday night. There was a neighbor who saw you and your husband outside of Angie's home that morning between 5 and 6 a.m. So they would have brought that to her attention immediately and let her

know that the evidence was piling up against her. So of course, somebody is going to think to themselves, I don't want to get in trouble, I better get my story straight. They also use an emotional angle and they tell Bobby Joe that this is a mother and a daughter, that their family just wants answers about what happened to them. And can you imagine if this was your own family? They do this to try to to build rapport and to play to that person's emotions. And at first, Bobby Joe said she didn't know anything about them, but they pressed her and they showed her more evidence. Because she knew she was caught in a lie

that at least she knew something, she started to speak. She said, okay, I was in the car that morning. That was me. She had the blonde hair. The neighbor saw her. Didn't look like Angie. Remember all that? And then, of course, she was inside that store on cameras. so it matched her description.

They knew it was her. She said, Clay came and picked her up from the fairgrounds early that morning with the gold car. Bobby said she was caught off guard. She wanted to know where he got the car and he said, jump in. And she asked him, where are we going? And he wouldn't answer her.

He seemed like he was anxious and he was in a rush and she started questioning him more. And that is when he put his hand around her throat while he was driving with his other hand and he basically told her to shut up. And if she said anything else, he was going to hurt her. And then he just kept driving. And at that point, he was smoking a cigarette.

And she just kept questioning about where they were going. And that's when he removed a cigarette lighter from the car. And he burned her with it. I know you're probably thinking, why didn't this woman jump out of the car? And I saw some articles that I was reading about this case where people were being interviewed and they thought about the fact that she stayed in the car,

didn't run away, They must have stopped between Iowa and Kansas. Like, why didn't she get out and tell anyone? They thought she was lying. But other people mentioned the fact that she could have been scared. She might have really thought that he would harm her. I mean, he did apparently just kill two people, right? Whether she knew about that at this point, we don't know.

But she did have a burn on her arm, which she showed the detectives. And clearly, this was somebody who has escalated their behavior to the point where they had done other things in the past and she knows he's violent and now he might have killed people. It doesn't usually happen out of nowhere. So we know in these kind of situations there was probably DV was a toxic relationship

and people are scared to leave. They're afraid of the consequences and Bobby Joe was in tears at this point. She said that he told her that she was going to have to help him with bodies. She didn't want to, but she did. She helped him pick up the bodies from inside the house

and put them inside of Angie's trunk. And then they just fled the area and they drove all the way to Kansas. The investigators wanted to know where they went next. And Bobby Joe said, they actually stopped by Clay's mom's house, which was interesting. They wanted to know why, and Bobby Joe said, well, they needed a shovel because Clay was going to bury the bodies. After they retrieved the shovel, they went down to the lake, they dug a shallow grave, and they put them inside.