The Truth of High School Athlete Jarret Clark's Death and it's Mystery for Six Years
It was Mother’s Day morning, 2006, in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Eric and Tammy Slater woke up that day and started getting ready. They had made family plans that day to celebrate at Tammy’s mother’s house. As the morning began to tick away, the two became worried. Their son, 18-year-old Jarret Clark, had not yet returned home.
Jarret has been described by everyone who knew him as a kind and sociable young man. A stellar athlete, he had graduated high school just a couple of days earlier and was looking forward to entering the military later in the summer. Like many of his peers, he spent the Friday and Saturday after graduation together partying and making memories, enjoying one of their last few days all together as a class. His parents knew he was attending one of these parties and anticipated him being out most of the night of May 13th, but as more of the Sunday morning drifted away and calls to his phone continued to go to voicemail, their worry grew only stronger.
According to Oxygen, when Jarret did not come back by the end of that Sunday, his parents started searching for him and any information on where he could have gone. They heard from his ex-girlfriend that Saturday night, he joined a group of other teenagers at Wahoo Campsite, a well-known wilderness and camping location in their area. The others he went to the Campsite with, Brandon Hargrove and girlfriend Courtney Manzer, Brandon’s sister Dayana Hargrove, Anthony Wallen, and Wayne Humphrey were not his typical crowd, but they were thought to be kind and respectful.
On May 15, Jarret’s parents along with numerous other groups joined together to begin searching Wahoo Bay after a rumor spread that Jarret had gotten into a fight that night at the Bay. While searching, they found one of Jarret’s shoes in the forest, and theories on what could have happened to him began to develop. The running thought at first was that after fighting with the group about something (other theories on that to come later), he might have wandered off and gotten lost in a drunken state. In days later, however, that theory would be called into question.
On May 19, Jarret’s body was found floating in Fort Gibson Lake. According to Fox 23, the autopsy by the Oklahoma Medical Examiner found signs of physical trauma to his body, but they were unable to determine if it was caused by a beating by another person or from impacts in the water. They also found his lungs filled with water, which determined that he was alive when he entered the water.
It wasn’t until 2012 that more information about Jarret’s death and the forces surrounding it came to life. When reexamining the toxicology report, the previous idea of his drunken state having caused his death was thrown out because his blood-alcohol content was extremely low. Also, from examining the body and it’s belongings, investigators found traces of plants and vegetations on the front side of his socks, along with finding pieces of his clothes in the environment that matched the signs of his body having been dragged, according to Fox 23.
Additionally, when reinterviewing many of the group members that were there that night, people’s stories continued to change and key information did not line up. From some of the now adults, the story was that the fight started because Jarret stole some of Brandon’s marijuana, which became a random new piece of information to the plot of events.
According to Oxygen, later in 2012 Wayne Humphrey, one of the group involved at the time who was now serving a prison sentence for burglary and embezzlement, came forward telling that he, Brandon, and Anthony Wallen got into a fight with Jarret where they beat him quite severely. The cause of this fight was later revealed to be Brandon’s jealousy as Jarret was acting flirtatious with Courtney and she was reciprocating. In the jealous anger, they beat him, and then another witness near the group attested to watching a truck dump something large into the water off the boat ramp, and that truck belonged to Courtney Manzer, who had Dayna Hargrove's help.
In 2014, after recovering all this new evidence and putting the pieces together, the group was charged with 1st-degree murder. In the end, most of them would take a plea deal for lighter sentences and much lesser prison times. Brandon Hargrove, the possible instigator of this beating and attack, was never charged, as he died in 2008 from a car accident.
Jarret Clark’s future was just beginning, with an exciting career and loving family inspiring him, but unfortunately, he ended up in a bad place with some people without his best interest at heart. At least now, his fate and story are known.
