One victim identified; where are other two people Janesville man says he's killed?
JANESVILLE (WITI) -- Clayton Courtney -- the Janesville man who claims he has killed three people made his first appearance in court on Tuesday, May 6th. This, on the same day Janesville police identified a body discovered near a Rock River bridge on Monday.
Britney Cross
The body has been identified as belonging to 21-year-old Britney Cross of Edgerton, Wisconsin.
Officials say Cross was reported to be an acquaintance or girlfriend of Clayton Courtney.
Cross' death is now deemed a homicide. An autopsy has determined she died due to blunt force trauma to her head.
Officials said on Tuesday that their investigation has revealed that Cross and Courtney were together near Traxler Park in the late afternoon or early evening hours on Sunday, May 4th.
The body of Cross was located early on Monday, May 5th.
Courtney is the lone suspect in the Cross homicide.
Courtney appeared in Rock County court via video on Tuesday afternoon.
He is officially facing six charges -- two of them felonies (including attempted homicide) for an attack on his best friend and roommate Michael Clark on Sunday night, May 4th.
When police responded to the apartment building Courtney shared with Clark, Clark's pregnant girlfriend, and the couple's two young children (ages four and six) on Sunday, they found Clark had suffered a near fatal stabbing wound.
“We went to be around 9:30, 10:00 and we just kept hearing banging noises. The kitchen torn apart, cabinet doors pulled off — blood everywhere. He tried to stab me in the chest. I turned and he got me in my tendon at one of my arteries. “When he came in, he was just full of mud. He kept saying that he killed three people and he was going to kill me," Clark said Monday.
Clark said Courtney even threatened his pregnant girlfriend.
“He was talking about cutting the baby out because she was going to get him arrested. That’s when I really, like, I didn’t care if I hurt him or not,” Clark said.
Clark says he’s been friends with Courtney for 15 years — and let him move in when he needed some help.
He says he never expected what happened on Sunday evening.
“I let him move back in for a month of two — just to help pay the bills and to help him out. Maybe he was just high or drunk or what — but that was not Clayton who came home last night,” Clark said.
"I can tell you that we believe that he had taken alcohol and cocaine," Janesville Police Chief David Moore said.
Chief Moore says Courtney's admission that he had killed three people -- and statements that he was going to drink and do drugs with a woman under a bridge are what led police to Britney Cross' body.
"We can place Mr. Courtney together with the victim at the time that we believe the death occurred," Chief Moore said.
Chief Moore says Courtney has not spoken with law enforcement officials since his arrest.
"Upon apprehension, he immediately asked for his attorney by name -- and that pretty much concluded our conversation with him," Chief Moore said.
Chief Moore says Courtney was driving a blue Dodge truck that has damage to the back of it leading up to Cross' death and the attack on Clark.
Janesville police are asking for the public's help in this case.
"We`re still very interested in tracking Mr. Courtney`s activities over the last number of days," Chief Moore said.
Police continue to investigate Courtney's claim that he has killed three people.
"We`re encouraged that there`s been no report of a missing person or suspicious circumstances in the last day-and-a-half. But to suggest that we`re not resolute with our investigations, no we`re continuing forward," Chief Moore said.