Body found in crashed truck near Newton was missing person Jonathan Clayton, husband says

The body found in a crashed pickup truck in Harvey County was Jonathan L. Clayton, a former Kansas Department of Commerce official under investigation over suspicions he embezzled federal pandemic relief funds, Clayton’s partner confirmed Monday.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in a Sunday night news release that it was investigating a fatal crash involving a pickup owned by Clayton near the interchange at I-135 and U.S. 50 near Newton, known locally as “the Peabody exit.” Harvey County Sheriff’s Office received a call at approximately 2:45 p.m. Sunday from a property owner who found a 2011 Chevy Silverado crashed on his property.

The KBI said a man’s body was found inside the truck but added “positive identification remains pending.”

Christopher King, Clayton’s partner and a member of the Peabody City Council, told The Eagle on Monday that Clayton was identified based on the contents of his wallet and items he had on him. He said it appeared that Clayton had crashed the day he went missing and had been in the truck for three weeks.

“It’s a very steep ravine, and he hit a tree, and it was a very steep ravine there by the highway, so a bunch of us drove right past it,” King said.

King said he hopes an autopsy will shed light on Clayton’s cause of death.

“Investigators suspect the vehicle was driven off the road, where it crashed into a tree,” the KBI said in its news release.

No other details about the circumstances of the crash were released. The KBI, Harvey County Sheriff’s Office and Kansas Highway Patrol are all participating in the investigation.

Clayton, 42, was last seen Aug. 3. He had been working as the interim Peabody city clerk when news of past felony convictions in Pennsylvania began to spread locally and his handling of American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds came under increased scrutiny.

Clayton previously pleaded guilty to theft and forgery in Pennsylvania stemming from his misuse of an employer’s credit cards to bolster his and his partner’s fledgling theater company. He was sentenced in 2018 to five years probation and was ordered to pay $210,000 in restitution.

In Kansas, Clayton had worked as director of economic recovery at the Kansas Department of Commerce, a position that involved overseeing programs involving millions in federal pandemic aid. The agency has said it didn’t know about his felony convictions when it hired him, originally as a regional project manager.

More recently, grants overseen by Clayton in Peabody and Mullinville had come under scrutiny.

The Kansas Department of Commerce earlier this month went to court to obtain a temporary restraining order preventing the Mullinville Community Foundation from spending roughly $211,000 in grant funding.

“KDOC has been advised that Defendant’s secretary treasurer is the subject of a missing person report and has been alleged to have embezzled funds from Defendant,” the affidavit said.

Clayton disappeared the same day that he and his husband were served in a debt collection lawsuit, according to court documents.

Newton Medical Center is suing the couple, seeking $335.95 plus interest, one of what King described in a previous interview as several surprise unpaid bills that have surfaced since Clayton’s disappearance.

Clayton had been listed on the KBI’s missing person’s page. As of Sunday night, his page was no longer listed.

The circumstances surrounding Clayton’s death are sure to be part of the investigation after state and local officials and journalists received a pre-scheduled email from his account on Aug. 8. The email said “this message is only being provided after my death, I pray that those named below may be reviewed for any participation in my untimely demise.”

Clayton claimed in the email that his disappearance was related to his role in a “scheme” to steer pandemic aid toward pre-selected awardees at the direction of Lt. Gov. David Toland, a Democrat who is also the Kansas secretary of commerce.

Clayton also alleged that Toland ordered him to be on the board of directors for the Iola Theatre Association, which Toland also served on until last year, and to fundraise for the restoration of the historic theater in Toland’s hometown during work hours at the Commerce Department.

The Kansas Department of Commerce has not directly responded to Clayton’s allegations. A spokesman said the agency “has been made aware of allegations of misconduct against a former employee in connection to activity that occurred after they left state employment.”

“We are reviewing the matter to determine what, if any, impact the alleged activity may have to the agency or community partners,” Commerce spokesman Patrick Lowry said last week. He added that due to the ongoing investigation, “we will have no further comments at this time.”

Additional allegations have surfaced since then.

The Kansas Department of Commerce is suing the Mullinville Community Foundation to claw back a $425,398 BASE grant awarded in 2022 after the foundation failed to file various reports accounting for the spending. At the time, Clayton was overseeing that grant program for the state of Kansas and working as the secretary treasurer for the Mullinville Community Foundation.

One day after the cryptic email went out, Clayton’s replacement as director of economic recovery, Erin Starr, filed an affidavit in Kiowa County District Court saying that the Kansas Department of Commerce “has been advised that (Mullinville Community Foundation’s) secretary treasurer (Clayton) is the subject of a missing person report and has been alleged to have embezzled funds from (Mullinville Community Foundation).”

The $150 million BASE grant program ((which has been rolled out in two phases) comes from a large pool of federal ARPA funds distributed to Kansas under the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program. Since receiving the money, the Community Foundation has “failed to report, cooperate with KDOC, or otherwise respond,” court records show.

The Kansas Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to questions about the Mullinville Community Foundation award on Monday.

Last week, The Marion County Record reported that the Mullinville Cemetery Board was missing about $70,000. Clayton was a member of the board, which is funded by property taxes in Kiowa County.

King said he does not know if Clayton had any role “what’s being investigated in Mullinville.”

As recently as last week, King said he believed Clayton was still alive and potentially eluding authorities. He now says he believes Clayton’s death was an accident.

“It tracks with an accident,” King said. “It looks like he, you know, hit that curve (that) he drives way too fast. He texts. He’s used to traveling around the state, but he’s almost run off that same curve before with a friend a couple of weeks before (he went missing). He was on his phone and she said they almost went right into that same place, and she had to take his phone away from him and say, ‘Watch the road!’”

“Or it could have been some kind of health issue,” King said. “But we don’t know anything solid for sure. At this time, I’m waiting for KBI to get back to me and let me know.”

The Kansas City Star’s Jonathan Shorman contributed reporting.