CLOVER, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say a South Carolina woman has been charged with murder after killing her husband by putting eye drops into his water for several days. 
 
 York County deputies said 52-year-old Lana Clayton confessed to investigators after an autopsy uncovered a high amount of tetrahydrozoline in her husband's body. 
 
 The chemical is found in over-the-counter eye drops such as Visine. 
 
 Authorities say 64-year-old Stephen Clayton was found dead July 21 in the couple's home in Clover. 
 
 Arrest warrants and the statement from deputies didn't give a motive for the alleged poisoning. 
 
 Lana Clayton also is charged with malicious tampering with a drug product or food. 
 
 Jail records did not indicate if she had a lawyer. ||||| A York County wife was charged with murder Friday weeks after her husband died because investigators found that she poisoned her husband, police said. 
 
 Lana Sue Clayton, 52, was arrested Friday for the killing of Steven Clayton, said Kevin Tolson, York County Sheriff. 
 
 Lana Clayton confessed to surreptitiously poisoning her husband’s water with a chemical called tetrahydrozoline over a three-day period from July 19 to July 21 until he died, arrest warrants in the case show. 
 
 Lana Clayton worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Charlotte, according to her Facebook page. 
 
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 Steven Clayton, 64, died July 21 at his upscale waterfront Island Forks Road home on the South Carolina shore of Lake Wylie. But a toxicology report from Steven Clayton’s autopsy found that he had been poisoned with the chemical that is usually used in over the counter eye drops and nasal sprays. 
 
 Poisoning can happen when the chemical is swallowed or ingested, according to The United States Library of medicine website. 
 
 Lana Clayton also is charged with malicious tampering of food, according to police. 
 
 Steven Clayton was found in the foyer of his home after what appeared to be a fall down the stairs. 
 
 Police have not released a motive for the crime. Lana Clayton has no prior criminal record in York County or anywhere in South Carolina, according to South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division records. 
 
 Legal action concerning Steven Clayton’s estate after his death has already been opened with his wife appointed personal representative for Steve Clayton’s estate, according to officials with the York County Probate Court. It remains unclear what effect the arrest of Lana Clayton for murder will have on the probate action or how Steven Clayton’s estate will now be disbursed. 
 
 The couple lived in a house owned by Steven Clayton and valued at $822,000, according to county records. The lot next door to the home, also owned by Steven Clayton, is valued at $385,000, records show. 
 
 The home is a copy of the famous George Washington Mount Vernon estate that Steve Clayton lovingly restored, said Ken Sanford, a Lake Wylie friend. 
 
 Sanford, who knew both Steven and Lana Clayton, said he was “in shock” over the news that Lana Clayton confessed to killing her husband. 
 
 “I am just stunned,” Sanford said. 
 
 Lana Clayton “seemed like a sweet lady,” Sanford said. “Steven was very proud of her accomplishments.” 
 
 Lana Clayton worked in nursing for the VA in Charlotte, Sanford said. 
 
 Steven Clayton, a Florida native, retired after founding, owning and operating a company called Physical Therapy Resources. The company had branches around the United States, according to Steven Clayton’s obituary. 
 
 Clayton was known for his generosity with children and other causes. Clayton, a former wrestling coach, mentored children in sports and other ways over the years. 
 
 Steven Clayton also was a member of the Lake Wylie Pilot editorial board, before the weekly community paper closed at the end of 2016. 
 
 Lana Clayton’s arrest stunned Frank Keefe, owner of the Bagel Boat in Lake Wylie where Steven Clayton regularly ate a hot pastrami sandwich and was loved by all. 
 
 “I am absolutely in a state of shock,” Keefe said Friday afternoon. 
 
 At Steven Clayton’s funeral in July, dozens of people spoke about his generosity, Keefe said. 
 
 “This is just stunning,” Keefe said of Steven Clayton’s wife being charged in his death. 
 
 The arrest of Lana Clayton for murder is the second spousal arrest in a homicide involving a York County couple in less than a month. On Aug. 14, former cop James Baldwin of York was charged with the murder of his wife, Judy. 
 
 Baldwin, a former York Police Department officer, is accused of beating his wife to death in Chester County in 2016, then covering up the crime. Baldwin claimed his wife died in a car crash on the way to a hospital after a fall from a ladder while hanging Christmas ornaments, but was charged after police investigated Judy Baldwin’s death for more than a year. 
 
 Lana Clayton has not yet appeared before a magistrate. Because she is charged with murder, Lana Clayton can not be issued a bond and will remain in jail. 
 
 It is unclear if she has hired a lawyer. 
 
 Check back for updates on this developing story. ||||| July 3, 2016 - Shanynthia Gardner has been charged with the stabbing deaths of four of her young children: (left to right) Dallen Clayton, 7; Tallen Gardner, 4; Yahzi Gardner, six months; Sya Gardner, 3; and Sahvi Gardner, 2. Dallen survived the attack and alerted a neighbor. (photos from Facebook) 
 
 By Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal 
 
 More than two days after authorities accused a mother of slashing the throats of her four children, family members remained mystified Sunday about what led to the tragedy. 
 
 Shanynthia Gardner, 29, is charged with killing four of her five children shortly before 12:30 p.m. Friday at 7449 Southern Hill Drive in the Greens of Irene apartment complex. 
 
 "The lady who committed this crime is not the lady I know, the lady I had a child with," said Detrail Clayton, whose 7-year-old son with Gardner managed to escape the carnage that day. "I just feel like she was going through something. When the doors close, you never know what a person is going through. It's an act of evil. I don't know what she's got into." 
 
 When Shelby County Sheriff's Deputies entered that apartment, they found a haunting scene. The youngest child, 6-month old Yahzi, was dead in a baby carrier in the living room, with her sister, 3-year-old Sya, next to her. In a nearby bedroom, deputies found Sahvi, 2, lying on a mattress and her 4-year-old brother, Tallen, on the floor next to her. 
 
 Their half-brother and Detrail Clayton's son, 7-year-old Dallen, ran out of the apartment and found a neighbor, who helped alert authorities. 
 
 All four children had "severe throat lacerations" while their mother had "superficial cuts to her neck and wrists," according to an affidavit. Dallen was apparently uninjured. 
 
 "I loved them. They were most dear to my heart," said Eleanor Snodgrass, Shanynthia's mother and a resident of Madison, Alabama. 
 
 Gardner is charged with four counts of first-degree murder associated with aggravated child abuse and various charges of child abuse and neglect. She is due in court Tuesday morning; no bond has been set yet. 
 
 The question no one seems to be able to answer is why a woman with no criminal record in Shelby County would suddenly commit such a crime. 
 
 Clayton and his mother, Sonya Clayton, both said they'd never seen any hints of mental illness or violence in Gardner, someone they've known for more than 15 years. 
 
 "No. No. Not at all," Sonya said. 
 
 However, Gardner has shown signs of erratic behavior before. On March 16, 2015, she left work early, got the kids and drove nearly 100 miles to Corinth, Mississippi. Why she went to Corinth is unknown; she has no family there. She was brought back home. 
 
 Then, around 9 p.m. two days later, Gardner told her husband she was going for a run. She did not return, and Martin Gardner filed a police report about 4½ hours later. About an hour later, police found Shanynthia Gardner in the St. Francis Hospital emergency room. 
 
 Gardner's husband told police that she had been stressed and was having problems at work. She once worked as a part-time ALSAC employee at an off-site call center in Cordova, although it was not clear when she worked there. ALSAC is the fundraising arm of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. 
 
 "She also has been feeling that someone is trying to harm her and her family," the police report says. Martin Gardner could not be reached for comment for this story. 
 
 Clayton, 32, and Shanynthia Gardner met while she was still in middle school, he said Sunday. She was his cousin's best friend, and their relationship started as friends, too. But by the time she went to Kirby High and he was enrolled at Fairley High, the relationship evolved. 
 
 "Wonderful, sweet young lady. Very talented. She was an aspiring singer. She was very good at songwriting and had a voice. She was into modeling, anything that was in front a camera," Detrail Clayton said. "She was a lovely lady. I don't understand what's going on right now." 
 
 Dallen was born in November 2008; Clayton and Gardner never married. But Clayton had two other children from another relationship, his family said, and Gardner began raising them, too. 
 
 "She raised two of my children while we were together," Clayton said. "I felt safe with her before (Dallen) was even on this earth." 
 
 Added Sonya Clayton: "Shanynthia helped raise them, she was in their life. ... She loved kids. She loved being their mom." 
 
 But after Gardner and Clayton broke up, Martin and Shanynthia married in September 2013. That, both Claytons said, was when Gardner changed. 
 
 "They had a good relationship for a while until Shanynthia met Martin. You know how people do when they get in another relationship. They get mean," Sonya said. 
 
 Although Clayton never had custody of Dallen, he said, he had been able to visit his son after the breakup. Gardner suddenly put a stop to that, however, and the last time Detrail saw his son was in November 2014. 
 
 "I started seeing a difference. I wasn't even allowed to be in my child's life. It was a bunch of chaos, really. If I made any attempts to call or reach out, it never ended well," he said. "It changed drastically." 
 
 Sonya now wonders if the Gardner marriage was in trouble, if something like that led to the killings. 
 
 "I think her and Martin was breaking up. I don't know. I think they might've been breaking up or something was going on with their relationship. She knew something was wrong and she was going to be stuck with five kids," Sonya said, stressing again that this was just speculation. "I believe she wanted to end her life, I do. And she didn't want to leave those kids here." 
 
 Reached Sunday, Martin Gardner's parents declined to speak about what happened, but did say they would release a statement later this week. His uncle, however, said he was unaware of any divorce plans. 
 
 "Oh no, I don't think it was nothing like that," Leon Gardner said. "All I know is the conclusion I could come to was she had a mental problem all at once. It just hit her all at once. I don't know of her being sick or anything at no time. She just snapped. That's all I can know."
– Authorities say a South Carolina woman has been charged with murder after killing her husband by putting eye drops into his water for several days, the AP reports. York County deputies said 52-year-old Lana Clayton confessed to investigators after an autopsy uncovered a high amount of tetrahydrozoline in her husband's body. The chemical is found in over-the-counter eye drops such as Visine. Authorities say 64-year-old Stephen Clayton was found dead July 21 in the couple's home in Clover after apparently falling down the stairs, the Herald reports. Arrest warrants and the statement from deputies didn't give a motive for the alleged poisoning. Lana Clayton also is charged with malicious tampering with a drug product or food.