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Murder in the Ozarks: The Death of Tommy Hope


            On April 28th, 2004, Cindy Christenson and Brian Norton went to check on their friend, Tommy Hope. Tommy was a single man in his late forties living in the small town of Camdenton, Missouri, nearby the Lake of the Ozarks. It was unlike Tommy not to be in contact with any of his friends, but the man hadn’t been seen or heard from in several days. With no answer at the door, his friends entered his home through a window. Once inside, his friends found Tommy dead.



            Tommy Hope was born in 1955 in Texas. Tommy, one of three children, had a rough childhood marked by abuse and neglect. He and his siblings were often left alone by their parents, leading them to eventually end up in the foster care system. Tommy experienced abuse and neglect in the foster care system throughout his childhood. When he became an adult, Tommy joined the United States military. He later described his experiences in the military negatively as well. He left the service in his twenties and began working various jobs to make ends meet. Eventually, he settled in Camdenton, Missouri.

            Tommy was very well known in the bar scene around his small town. He was also known to use illegal drugs. According to his friends, he often had small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamines. He wasn’t a dealer, but he shared the small amounts he had with friends often. He told his friends that he used the drugs to cope with the trauma he experienced throughout his childhood and during his time in the military.

            Tommy was described as friendly and jovial. He made friends easily, and sometimes engaged in inappropriate relationships. For example, in 2003 he had a young woman, Clara Rector, living with him for a time. Clara was married and her husband, Jason, had threatened Tommy to leave his wife alone and stop doing drugs with her. Clara was an addict who was self-destructing.

            Clara Rector was born in 1976 in California. Like Tommy, she had a rough childhood. She eventually was removed from her birth parents’ care and was adopted by a family living in Lake of the Ozarks. Clara had a supportive adoptive family, but her life would continue to take twists and turns. When she was nineteen years old, Clara married. She soon learned she was pregnant, but then tragedy struck. The young mother-to-be lost her husband in a car accident shortly after learning of her pregnancy.

            Dealing with the death of her husband and the stress of being a single parent, Clara began experimenting with drugs. She soon met Jason Rector. The two fell in love and often abused drugs together. Jason accepted her child as his own and the couple went on to have two more children. Eventually, Jason sobered up and urged his wife to do the same. However, by 2003 the twenty-seven-year-old Clara was consumed by her addiction.

            Clara found a friend in Tommy. The two would often use drugs together, something Clara could no longer share with her husband. At one point, she left her family and moved in with Tommy. Tommy was the victim of an assault in 2003. While I cannot confirm, it is believed to be by Jason as a result of his affair with Clara. Clara entered into rehab and returned home to her husband and children. However, in 2004, she relapsed. She began sneaking around with Tommy, continuing to abuse drugs.

            Jason learned of his wife’s relapse and that Tommy Hope was providing her with drugs. He was very open about his dislike for Tommy, admitting he was happy after the man’s death. A few days before he was last seen, Tommy told a friend that Jason was threatening him. Another friend said that Tommy was worried about owing someone money and allegedly told this friend that something might happen to him if he doesn’t come up with the money.

            On the morning of April 28th, 2004, Tommy’s body was found in his home. He was covered in his own blood, and it was apparent he had been there a while. The autopsy confirmed this, estimating his date of death to be April 24th or 25th. The cause of death was acute blood loss caused by eight stab wounds to the torso and a large laceration to his neck. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.

            Given the recent conflict with Jason Rector, he was considered the prime suspect. Upon interviewing him, Jason said that he was happy Tommy was dead. He explained that Tommy was providing his wife with drugs, interfering with his attempts to help her get clean. However, Jason vehemently denied being responsible for the death of Tommy Hope. He denied knowing anything about the murder. He also provided an alibi, his wife Clara. Clara was also considered a person of interest, but there was no evidence to connect either suspect to the crime.

            The investigation into Tommy’s murder eventually went cold after numerous leads were investigated. The detectives could not confirm the allegation that Tommy owed someone a large sum of money. Luminol was used in Tommy’s house to look for traces of blood. With the luminol, detectives found bloody footprints leading to a window. The window was likely the point of exit for the murderer. There were also prints found on the window frame, but they were not connected to anyone in the system at that time. The case went cold.

            The murder case remained cold for nine long years. While Tommy did not have much family, he was greatly missed by several friends in his community. Meanwhile, Clara had finally achieved her sobriety. Clara and Jason had saved their marriage and joined a fundamentalist Christian church in their community. Clara was an active member of her church and an author of a Christian blog. She detailed her previous struggles on her blog, writing about her Catholic upbringing and lack of self-control after her first husband’s death.

            “I searched high and low for the answer by trying different drugs and alcohol to the point that I became an addict and am still, daily, in recovery from addiction. I thought the love of men would fill the void, but promiscuity was not the answer. Everywhere I looked, everything I tried… nothing was able to fill the God-shaped space in my heart” Clara wrote on her blog. It seemed that Clara had finally found her answers and turned her life around. But appearances can be deceiving.

            In April of 2013, Jerry Sousley contacted the Camden County Sherrif’s office. Conflicted, the pastor of the local Baptist church felt it was time to involve law enforcement. For several months, Jerry had been trying to debunk the advances of a parishioner. However, the woman had become obsessed. He said the woman had sent him several sexually explicit messages. When he denied her advances, she became more persistent. He started getting similar messages on his windshield. He then found a notebook in the church that contained writings of a fictional sexual relationship between the woman and himself. Married with children, the pastor felt it was time to come forward to law enforcement in order to protect his family.

            Jerry also shared that during a counseling session, the woman, Clara Rector, had shared with him that she had once killed someone. According to the pastor, Clara had told him that when she was consumed by her drug addiction, she had left her husband and children to live with a man who provided her with drugs. She told the pastor that she had stabbed him and slit his throat in a drug fueled rage. Jerry said he had urged her to confess to police, but Clara declined to do so and threatened the pastor if he told anyone.

            On April 21st, 2013, Clara was arrested when she showed up at the church to see the pastor. She was charged with harassment and stalking, but detectives were eager to question her again about the murder of Tommy Hope. Shockingly, Clara quickly confessed to the crime. She recalled that on April 24th, 2004, “I snuck out of my house in the middle of the night because I really wanted to get high”. She said that she went to Tommy’s house, as he usually had drugs and was willing to share. However, since recently being threatened by Clara’s husband, Tommy refused to allow her inside.

            Clara admitted to crawling through the window but said once inside Tommy was friendly and willing to share the small amount of cocaine he had. After they used cocaine together, Tommy and Clara got into an argument. It is unclear what the reason for the argument was, but it is believed that Clara wanted more drugs and Tommy refused. Clara said that in a fit of drug-fueled rage, she grabbed a knife and jumped on Tommy’s back.

            Clara went on to describe the murder. She said first she cut Tommy’s throat. As she lay bleeding, she stabbed him eight times. She said she kept telling him that she hated him, and that he told her that he was dying. Eventually, Clara said she took the man’s wallet and fled the home through the window. When she returned home, her husband was awake and waiting for her. Clara told detectives that she confessed to Jason immediately and he helped her get rid of incriminating evidence.

            On April 24th, 2013, exactly nine years after the murder, Clara Rector and Jason Rector were both arrested. Clara was charged with first-degree murder while Jason was charged with felony tampering with evidence. However, the statute of limitations on Jason’s charges had expired and his charges were dismissed. On November 10th, 2014, Clara Rector was convicted of second-degree murder. She was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

            Prosecutors felt that had it not been for the drugs, Clara would have never hurt anyone. Detectives believed that she was relieved to finally confess to this crime. Those who know Clara believe that she had already transformed her life prior to her incarceration and do not believe she is a threat to the community. The prosecutor stated that he believes the sentence is appropriate, however some friends of Tommy do not agree with the short sentence. Clara was first eligible for parole in January of 2024, but she is still currently in prison at the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri.



            Clearly, drug abuse was a major contributing factor in this case. While many believe Clara had reformed her life, let’s not forget that her confession came to light after her pastor filed stalking charges against her. Gerry Rector, her father-in-law, stated that he was shocked by the stalking and confession to murder. He said that a drug relapse was responsible for the stalking. “Prior to that, you couldn’t ask for a better person. Methamphetamine changed all that. It’s like when you throw a rock into a pond- you create a lot of ripples” he said.

 

References

Snapped Season 29 Episode 15 “Clara Rector” Available to stream on Investigation Discovery

 
 
 

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