‘It was a nightmare,’ man says after finding his mother murdered in Parker County yard
Russell Barrington started to get worried when his mother didn’t answer her telephone one evening in August.
By Aug. 7, Barrington was in a panic as he drove to his mother’s home in Parker County after he had repeatedly called her and she had failed to call him back, something she would never do.
And Barrington’s alarm only intensified when he walked into his mother’s mobile home, and noticed stains on the floor that appeared to be drag marks.
The marks led outdoors, and that’s when he saw the body of his mother, Shirley Weatherley-Barrington, wrapped in plastic.
“It was a nightmare,” Barrington, of Granbury, said this week in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Authorities would later determine that the 72-year-old Parker County woman had died from a gunshot wound to her chest.
A murder warrant has been issued for the arrest of her husband, 73-year-old Clayton Ray Strong, who had not been taken into custody as of Friday.
Authorities have not released any information on a motive, but Parker County Sheriff Russ Authier said that deputies had been out to the home on domestic calls involving Strong in the past.
Barrington also said that his mother had kicked Strong out of their home several times during domestic disputes, but she always allowed him to come back.
Barrington believes his mother was killed on the morning of Aug. 5, and he had talked to her on the telephone just before the homicide. She told Barrington that once again she had kicked her husband out, but Strong had called her.
“She told me, ‘I just can’t kick him out. I’m not that type of person’,” Barrington said. “She told me not to tell anyone, and he would be gone by in the morning.”
On Aug. 5, Barrington’s son drove by Weatherley-Barrington’s home and Strong’s truck was gone. Barrington tried calling her, but she never answered.
Barrington found his mother dead on Aug. 7.
“I’m talking about it because I want him found,” Barrington, said referring to Clayton Strong. “She was terrified of him.”
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Shirley Weatherley-Barrington and Clayton Strong married in March 2017, just months after the death of his previous wife, Betty Strong. Her death also was a mystery, according to family members of Betty Strong.
The marriage of Weatherley-Barrington and Clayton Strong was a reunion of sorts. She was his girlfriend back when she was 13 years old, but the two broke up in junior high, her son said.
“It was puppy love,” Barrington said. “But she never got over him.”
The two went their separate ways, but they reconnected on social media in 2017, conversing several times.
Weatherley-Barrington even traveled several times to Milton, Florida, where Clayton Strong lived, and eventually married him during one of her journeys to Florida.
When they returned to Parker County, Weatherley-Barrington had her former husband, who she had been caring for, move out of their home, and she and her new husband traveled across the country on several occasions, her son said.
“She finally called me one day and said to come over and meet him (Strong),” Barrington said. “The first time I saw him, I thought, ’He’s a short fella’. I shook his hand and there was no grip. Something just didn’t feel right.”
For the next several years, Barrington said, his mother was isolated from the family, and he had to call before coming over to their Parker County home.
“The visits were rushed, never a relaxed encounter,” her son said. “She was always nervous.”
Barrington later learned from his mother that she was physically restrained from leaving her home.
“She called police a time or two, but they never had enough to arrest him,” Barrington said.
At some point, Barrington was contacted by Amy J. Belanger of Castro Valley, California, the oldest daughter of Betty Strong who told him about the family’s campaign to seek answers in their mother’s death.
Betty Strong’s family told Barrington that they thought Clayton Strong was enacting the same pattern of isolation and abuse against his new wife, even showing them the website that Betty Strong’s family had created seeking justice in her death.
“She just defended him,” Barrington said, referring to showing his mother the website and telling his mother about Betty Strong’s family.
Family members of Betty Strong have said Clayton Strong had targeted her in a financial fraud romance scheme and used abuse and isolation to control her before she died in Idaho in December 2016.
Initially, Betty Strong’s death was ruled natural causes based on what Clayton Strong told authorities. Clayton Strong told the coroner his wife had no other family besides him and she had been sick with Parkinson’s disease for years.
But an Idaho official told the Star-Telegram that authorities were working to change the ruling on her cause of death to “could not be determined.”
Clayton Strong also had Betty Strong’s body cremated.
“Betty had unknowingly opened her door to a predator,” according to a statement from Betty Strong’s family on their website seeking justice for her. “By December 2016, she was dead under suspicious circumstances, 2,500 miles from home, leaving her large and loving family in grief and trauma.”
Since early August, Clayton Strong has been on the run from authorities.
Strong could be anywhere in the United States, Barrington said, noting that when he did a background search on Strong he found dozens of addresses for him.
Strong is described as roughly 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing approximately 200 pounds and having silver/white hair and a mustache. He is known to wear glasses.
He is believed to be driving a primer gray extended cab 1996 Chevrolet pickup with a paper Texas buyer’s tag.
Anyone with information should contact the Parker County Sheriff’s Office at 817-594-8845, or Parker County Crime Stoppers at 817-599-5555, or tip411 by logging onto parkercountyheriff.net.
Crime Stoppers will pay up to a $1,000 reward for information leading to Strong’s location and arrest.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 12:43 PM.
