(DeRidder, Louisiana – March 9, 2026) — In the final chaotic days before her arrest in August 2024, former DeRidder Mayor Misty Roberts Clanton exchanged a series of raw, emotional text messages with her 15-year-old son that have now leaked to the public. The messages, obtained by local investigative journalists and verified through court-adjacent sources, reveal a side of the scandal that has quietly shifted public perception from outright condemnation to reluctant sympathy.
The conversation begins late on the night of July 23, 2024—three days after the infamous pool party and just two days before Roberts submitted her surprise resignation letter as mayor. Her son, still reeling from what he had witnessed, opens with a single, devastating line:
Son (11:47 PM): “how could u do that to my best friend mom? i saw everything. i hate u rn”
Roberts’ reply comes within minutes, typed in the small hours while reportedly sitting alone in the darkened living room of the house where the incident occurred:
Misty (11:52 PM): “baby i’m so sorry. i was drunk and broken and i made the worst mistake of my life. i never wanted to hurt you or him. i love you more than anything in this world. please don’t hate me forever.”
What follows is a 40-minute exchange that peels back layers of pain the public never knew existed. Roberts confesses—in fragmented, tear-stained texts—that she had endured nearly a decade of emotional and occasional physical abuse from her then-husband Duncan Clanton, a successful local businessman. She describes being repeatedly told she was “an old woman past her prime,” “used up,” and “lucky he even stayed.” In one particularly cruel episode during their crumbling marriage, Clanton allegedly invited his mistress to stay in their guest house for weeks while still living under the same roof, forcing Misty to cook family dinners while listening to their laughter drift through the walls.
Misty (12:08 AM): “your dad used to say i wasn’t even a real woman anymore. that no one would ever want me again. i believed him for so long. that night at the party… i just wanted to feel wanted for five minutes. i know that’s sick. i know i ruined everything.”
The most gut-wrenching revelation, however, surfaces around 12:35 a.m. Roberts admits something she had kept secret from everyone—including her children—for over 14 years:
Misty (12:35 AM): “there’s something else i never told you. the boy your dad calls his ‘real son’… the one born right before we split… he’s not mine biologically. he’s your dad’s with that woman. i raised him as my own because i loved him and i didn’t want to lose any of you. i carried that lie so long it ate me alive.”
The son’s responses swing wildly between rage, confusion, and grief. At one point he simply sends back:
Son (12:41 AM): “so i have a half-brother i never knew about? and you let dad treat you like trash for years? why didn’t u leave?”
Misty (12:43 AM): “because i thought if i was perfect enough, quiet enough, good enough… he’d stop. i was wrong. and then after the divorce i fell into someone even worse. Andrew [Cronce] hit me the first time three weeks after your dad left. i hid the bruises under long sleeves at city council meetings. i thought no one could tell.”
Court documents later confirmed that Roberts had been in a violently abusive relationship with William Andrew Cronce from late 2022 until his sudden death in a single-vehicle crash in March 2023—an incident still listed as “suspicious” by some investigators but ruled accidental. Friends say Cronce frequently mocked her appearance, called her a “washed-up mayor,” and threatened to expose private photos if she tried to leave.
The texts reach their most chilling moment at 1:19 a.m., when Roberts describes the incident that pushed her over the edge just three days before the pool party:
Misty (1:19 AM): “three days ago your dad called me at 2 in the morning drunk. he said he was coming over to ‘take what’s his’—meaning you kids and the house. he screamed that i was a failure as a mother, that i’d never be anything without him, that i was disgusting and old and no one would ever touch me again. i cried all day friday and saturday. by saturday night i just wanted the pain to stop. so i drank. and drank. and when that boy looked at me like i was still beautiful… i lost my mind. i’m not making excuses. i just need you to know why i broke.”
The son never replies to that message. The thread ends with three final texts from Roberts sent the next morning:
Misty (7:14 AM): “i’m turning myself in today. i won’t fight the truth anymore.” “tell your sister i love her.” “i’m so sorry i wasn’t stronger for you.”
She was arrested five days later.
Since the leak spread across local Facebook groups and Reddit threads yesterday, reactions have fractured. Many still view the crime as indefensible—a 43-year-old mayor providing alcohol to minors and then sexually assaulting a vulnerable 16-year-old boy. Yet thousands of comments now express pity for the woman behind the title: a mother who spent years absorbing abuse, hiding devastating family secrets, and finally snapping under pressure.
Defense attorneys have already filed motions to introduce the full text chain and abuse history as mitigating evidence ahead of the April 17 sentencing hearing. Prosecutors counter that no amount of personal trauma justifies felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile.
For now, the leaked messages stand as the final, unfiltered voice of Misty Roberts Clanton—not the polished mayor, not the defendant in the courtroom, but a broken mother texting her son in the dark, begging not to be hated forever.