Woman Took in Troubled Teen Because She Believed in Second Chances — Then He Tried to Kill Her

Grace Spulak, an attorney who represented children and young people in New Mexico, said she became a foster parent after seeing what she viewed as failures in the foster-care system. She believed older children, particularly teenagers, needed a home and another chance. When Clayton, a pseudonym, came to live with her, she tried to provide that. Eight months later, however, he ran away without warning.

Three months after his departure, someone broke into Spulak's home, and she was found unconscious on her bedroom floor. She woke in the hospital with no memory of what had happened. Spulak said she suffered extensive brain damage after her brain was deprived of oxygen. Nearly a year later, she said investigators told her they had found Clayton's DNA among evidence connected to the incident.

In her 11 September 2026, essay for The Cut, Spulak recounts what happened, Clayton's subsequent conviction and why, years later, she says she cannot forgive him, choosing instead to find a way to live with the aftermath.

She Tried to Give Him a Stable Home

When Clayton came to live with her, Spulak tried to make him feel at home. She bought him new bedding, furniture, and curtains; added him to her car insurance; and logged his driving hours so he could obtain his provisional licence. She also gave him his own key, according to her account.

However, Spulak said she began noticing behavioural problems. Clayton repeatedly lied to her. His school attendance also became a concern, with two Fs and notes about his poor attendance recorded at the end of the semester, despite his insistence that he had attended classes. She said she viewed the problems as issues she could work through and did not want to become another foster parent who asked him to leave.

Eight Months Later, Clayton Ran Away

According to Spulak, Clayton ran away after living with her for eight months, leaving a note saying he had gone to find his father in Texas. Three months later, someone dismantled the spare-bedroom window in the middle of the night. Spulak later recalled waking in hospital with no memory of what had happened. 'Someone broke into your house and attacked you,' an ICU resident told her. Her mother had found her unconscious on her bedroom floor, her face wrapped in duct tape.

Spulak said doctors diagnosed her with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, meaning her brain had been damaged after being deprived of oxygen. She spent weeks in hospital and at a physical rehabilitation centre, working to regain movement and coordination. She later described feeling as though she had been given 'a new body, an ill-fitting suit,' writing that her limbs moved slowly and that her speech had become difficult.

DNA Evidence Led Investigators Back to Clayton

Almost a year later, the detective assigned to the case asked her to come to the sheriff's department and showed her evidence from the investigation. According to Spulak, a burgundy T-shirt had been wrapped around her home's kitchen knife and left in the middle of her living room floor. She said the detective told her the shirt was covered in Clayton's DNA.

Clayton was subsequently arrested and charged with kidnapping, aggravated burglary, aggravated battery, and breaking and entering. He pleaded not guilty and testified that gang members had forced him at gunpoint to break into her home and attack her. The jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Spulak Could Not Forgive Him

Spulak said she once believed forgiveness would have come easily to her. 'Before I was attacked, I believed I would have found it easy to forgive in a situation like this,' she wrote.

The experience changed how she understood forgiveness. She compared the word to the yellow therapy putty she used during rehabilitation, stretching it until it became 'nothing but translucent strings.'

In 2021, she learned about a juvenile-justice reform bill pending in the New Mexico Legislature that could make Clayton eligible for parole after five years rather than 16. She said the possibility triggered severe panic and caused her to lose days of work. The legislation eventually passed in 2023. Spulak recalled that one of the few legislators who returned her calls urged her to consider forgiveness, while the subject repeatedly came up during legislative hearings.

She ultimately found a different way forward: something closer to acceptance. She returned to work and played the cello again while continuing to live with the lasting effects of the attack.