They Took Her Into The Woods Then BRUTALLY TORTURED Her in the Most Gruesome Way
There’re people that uh think the Parsons should have already been hung on the square and uh Rival, in other news this afternoon, the adoptive parents of a North Carolina teen found dead years after being reported missing. Happy birthday to you. Erica’s adoptive parents are both charged in the child’s death and could face the death penalty if found guilty.
Casey Parsons, the adoptive mother of Erica Parsons, admitted to killing the little girl. She’ll now spend the rest of her life behind bars. I can’t tell you why. I don’t know why I let it happen. I did and I’m sorry. Sorry. I didn’t have a steady home. I didn’t know how to steady y’all. Had I known then what I know now, I would have risked it.
I would have took her to a a different place than a home. Rowan County, North Carolina, in the United States, a young man walked into the sheriff’s office Macy with his uncle. His name was Jamie Parsons and he was there to report his younger sister, Erica Parsons, as missing. But, this wasn’t a recent disappearance.
Erica hadn’t been seen for almost 2 years. The last time Jamie remembered seeing her was back in November of 2011. His uncle, Scott, stood beside him and explained that he’d heard different stories over the years about where Erica might be, but he hadn’t seen her himself in a very long time, either.
Erica was a quiet, withdrawn girl. She was 13 years old at the time of her last confirmed contact and somehow she had vanished for years without a single official missing person report ever being filed. Erica was born on February 24th, 1998 to her biological mother, Carolyn Parsons. Later on, her aunt and uncle, Casey and Sandy Parsons, who already had other children, including Jamie, legally adopted her.
While speaking with officers, Jamie said he had asked his parents many times where Erica was and why she no longer lived in the house on Miller Chapel Road. Each time, he was told the same thing. Erica had been taken to Asheville to live with her biological grandmother, a woman named Irene Goodman, who everyone called Nan. That explanation already felt off.
But, as the conversation continued, things became a lot more disturbing. Jamie told police that his parents had repeatedly abused Erica both physically and emotionally. And, even after she disappeared, Sandy and Casey continued receiving social assistance payments in Erica’s name, around $600 a month, despite the fact that she no longer lived there.
Investigators’ next step was to speak directly with Sandy and Casey Parsons. They flatly denied Jamie’s claims of abuse. According to them, Jamie had been kicked out of the house after an argument with his mother and, out of anger, made the whole story up. They insisted that in 2011, Erica moved to Asheville to live with her biological grandmother.
They also claimed that their biological daughter, Brooke, traveled with them during that move. But, when police spoke to Brooke, she said she never went anywhere with them. So, the question became unavoidable. Who was telling the truth? And, more importantly, where was Erica? Casey told investigators that she stayed in touch with Nan Goodman through Facebook, but she couldn’t provide any current contact information.
Not a phone number, not an address. And, she couldn’t even show her own Facebook page, even though, according to her, this woman was caring for a child she was legally responsible for. The deeper investigators dug, the more bizarre the story became. They soon discovered that Erica’s biological grandmother had actually died back in 2005, more than 8 years before Erica was officially reported missing and more than 6 years before she was last seen.
Later, authorities would say that a person known as Nan may not have existed at all. Carolyn, Erica’s biological mother, said Erica had no biological relatives living in that area. At the same time, the attorney representing Sandy and Casey suggested that Carolyn herself should know how to find the missing child.
Nan came into Casey and Sandy’s lives through Carolyn, he said. She’s the one who introduced Nan to them and she likely knows who Nan really is. Carolyn shut that down immediately. Nan and Irene don’t exist, she said. There are only two people who know the truth and they’re the same two people who will never tell it.
The truth, she added. Later on, Casey would claim she had been misled, that the woman Erica was supposedly taken to was an impostor. By that point, the story had become so tangled and unbelievable that no one could tell where reality ended and fabrication began. The day after Erica was officially reported missing, the two youngest children were removed from the home.
And, just a few days later, on August 6th, 2013, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office announced that Casey and Sandy were not cooperating with the investigation. Six days after that, Carolyn returned from New Orleans to speak with police. She later said she had received updates about Erica through Facebook, but the last time she personally saw her daughter was January 5th, 2011.
“I think about that visit all the time,” she said. “It just replays in my head over and over. My whole body feels numb. As a mother, as a person, as a family member, I keep hoping and praying that she’s alive somewhere, that she’s out there and that one day she’ll come back.” About 2 weeks after Erica was officially declared missing, during search efforts, the street was shut down.
One neighbor told reporters, “One police officer showed up at first,” the neighbor said, “and then, before you could even blink, there were probably 25 or 30 patrol cars lined up.” Police officers searched the family home multiple times and checked the backyard of the family home over and over again, but they didn’t find anything clearly significant or suspicious there.
About a month after Jamie reported Erica missing, the FBI stepped in and joined the search, working alongside local law enforcement. The family home was searched repeatedly. Search warrants executed in August of 2013 showed that dozens of items were taken from the house. Among them was a plastic bag filled with magazines about JonBenét Ramsey, as well as a book about JonBenét Ramsey that contained handwritten notes inside notes related to home repairs.
JonBenét Ramsey was a 6-year-old girl whose body was found in her own home on Christmas Day in 1996. That case remains unsolved to this day and continues to draw intense public attention. The search records also noted that a section of drywall was cut out and removed from inside a closet because of red stains found on it.
Baseboards from the same closet were taken and sent for forensic testing. In addition, a pair of jeans with red stains was collected from the house. About a week after that search, new warrants were made public, this time following a search of a storage unit owned by Sandy. From there, investigators seized vacuum cleaner parts, a videotape, school records, a hammer, and teeth.
Those warrants specifically referred back to the earlier search, noting that investigators found no evidence that Erica Parsons was still living in the house or that her bedroom or any personal living space belonging to her even existed there anymore. Basically, there were no signs, you know, that she had been part of that home for a long time.
Law enforcement said that everything they had gathered pointed to one conclusion. Casey and Sandy knew Erica was never coming back. Another major focus of the investigation centered on claims that Casey and Sandy continued to receive benefit payments issued in Erica’s name even after she no longer lived with them. Because of that, officials requested a warrant to examine their financial activity more closely.
In the affidavit supporting that warrant, investigators stated, “It is believed that the continued desire to use funds, benefits, or financial assistance intended for the care of or on behalf of Erica Parsons led to a delay or a complete failure to report Erica Parsons as missing in a timely manner.” One thing was undeniable.
The family really was receiving money intended for Erica and that financial angle clearly needed a much deeper look. Working together with the FBI, investigators were able to trace the bank accounts used by Sandy and Casey. Those accounts were held at Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and SunTrust Bank.
Erica had been adopted through the state foster care system and had special needs, which meant the family was legally entitled to receive more than $600 a month from the Department of Social Services for her care. The couple’s attorney explained that they were technically allowed to keep receiving those payments because they were still Erica’s legal guardians and officially responsible for her care.
But, then another question immediately came up. So, why wasn’t police ever notified? According to the attorney, Casey and Sandy didn’t consider Erica missing because, as they claimed, they had left her with her biological grandmother. Whenever Casey and Sandy appeared in the media or gave interviews, law enforcement watched closely, listening carefully to every word.
And, one detail stood out right away. They spoke about Erica in the past tense. In contrast, when Carolyn spoke to the media, she talked about Erica in the present tense. In an interview with WBTV on August 5th, Carolyn said, “She is my biological daughter and I want everyone to know I still love her.” Despite that, the couple continued to stand by their story.
Sandy Parsons said, “There have been times when she’s been seen relatives recently called and said they saw her at a recreation area.” Reporters pushed back saying, “Why don’t you call the police? Don’t wait. Don’t call us. Call law enforcement.” “The only thing I want right now,” Sandy said, “is for Erica to call home, say she’s okay, and for me to get my two little ones back.
Nobody seems to understand that there are two small children in this situation who want to come home.” She was referring to the two youngest children who had been removed from the home the day after Erica was officially reported missing. Casey and Sandy were trying to regain custody of those two children. They were scheduled to meet with representatives from the Department of Social Services and eventually a judge would decide whether the children could return home.
As investigators dug into the couple’s background, they learned something else troubling. Social Services had already been involved with this family in the past. Family members had previously filed multiple complaints with the Department of Social Services or DSS raising concerns long before Erica was ever reported missing. Before we move on, let me take just a few seconds to speak directly to you.
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A DSS had investigated allegations of abuse involving Erica. At that time, no violations were found and officials stated that the girl did not appear afraid of her guardians. By then, investigators had already spoken with a large number of people including family members, but Casey flatly denied every accusation.
“My entire family is lying,” she told investigators. “My mom told my kids to say all of these things.” The family’s attorney backed that up saying, “These claims shouldn’t be treated as proven facts.” He insisted the couple was doing everything they could to find Erica while, according to him, other relatives were just making stories up.
Casey Parsons homeschooled the children. Representatives from the North Carolina Department of Non-Public Education said standardized test results and attendance records had been submitted, but they couldn’t confirm whether those records specifically applied to Erica. When Casey was asked again about the claim that Erica was living with her biological grandmother, she said she had been contacted by an unknown woman through Facebook, but that account was later deactivated.
Over time, that woman seemed to disappear entirely. Her phone number was disconnected. The couple even appeared on the Dr. Phil show. And later, Casey told him they had never actually been to that woman’s house, they had only seen photos of it. Casey also told reporters that they allowed Erica to visit that home and that eventually, Erica simply didn’t want to come back.
At one point, Casey even found a girl on social media with the same name as Erica and contacted the Rowan County Department of Social Services claiming that this was their child living in Greensboro. There were a lot of different versions, but none of them really made sense.
Investigators checked multiple databases looking for anyone using Erica’s social security number or attempting to obtain a driver’s license or other official documents in her name. They found nothing at all. According to Casey, Erica met with Carolyn at a Whataburger in 2011. Carolyn said that after that meeting, Casey told her Erica no longer wanted to see her.
By this point, the case had clearly shaken the local community. On August 23rd, neighbors organized a nighttime vigil near the house praying for any good news about Erica. Billboards went up across the area and on August 26th, Casey and Sandy once again gave interviews to the FBI.
The very next day, Casey and Sandy loaded their belongings into a truck and left the area reportedly to avoid intense media attention. When reporters spoke with Sandy’s stepfather, he said Sandy visited him a few times a year and only sometimes brought Erica along. He admitted the last time he saw the girl was around 2008 or 2009. This case wasn’t just strange, it was incredibly complex.
A vulnerable young girl had vanished and it felt like no one truly knew where she might be. But investigators were certain of one thing, people don’t just disappear without a trace. Carolyn organized multiple vigils in support of Erica explaining, “I believe that the more places we hold these events, the more we can spread Erica’s name, her story, and her face.
” On January 16th, 2014, a judge ruled that the children who had been removed from the home could not be returned to their parents and would instead remain in the care of an aunt. Later, those children were also removed from that home due to what were described as serious behavioral issues.
Even as the investigation continued, no solid information about Erica’s whereabouts ever surfaced. On January 30th, 2014, the FBI announced a reward of $25,000. The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office added its own reward and Sheriff Orton said the organization Prevent Child Abuse Rowan contributed an additional $5,000. By that point, nearly a year had passed since Erica was officially declared missing and that’s when a major development finally happened.
Armed federal agents forced their way into the Parsons home. Casey and Sandy Parsons were arrested and charged in Fayetteville, North Carolina with 76 criminal counts for offenses investigators say were committed between February of 2010 and August of 2013. The charges included theft of government funds, mail fraud, tax fraud, conspiracy to defraud the government, and identity theft.
According to investigators, the couple had been illegally receiving government money in the form of adoption assistance, Medicaid benefits, Social Security payments, as well as food and nutritional support all for a dependent who, in reality, was no longer living with them. It was also alleged that Casey fraudulently used other people’s personal information listing them as dependents and provided false information when filing federal tax returns.
Because of all 76 counts related to theft and fraud, law enforcement kept the couple under strict supervision. They were placed on electronic monitoring and required to regularly report to a pre-trial supervision officer assigned to the case. One of the conditions of their release on bond was that they remain strictly within Eastern North Carolina and comply fully with the law.
The trial was expected to begin soon. During the fraud trial, the judge heard testimony from several family members including Jamie, Casey, and Casey’s sister, Robin. The scope of the case was massive and as the hearings went on, deeply disturbing details began to surface about what Erica had allegedly endured.
Casey’s sister, Robin, testified that she had been asked to take care of Erica for several months so Casey wouldn’t kill her. She said Erica often had visible bruises and injuries and she added that Casey couldn’t even look Erica in the face. Jamie expanded on that testimony describing how Erica was forbidden from using the bathroom, forced to eat dog food or food taken from the trash.
She was starved, made to drink water from a dog bowl or from the bathroom sink. She was completely isolated from family life and her fingers were intentionally broken. Erica was locked inside a closet and if she had no choice but to relieve herself there, she was brutally punished. She was never allowed to sleep in a bed, she never had one.
She was forced to sleep on the floor. Jamie also recalled an incident where Casey pressed Erica’s hand against a hot stove causing a burn. He admitted that he himself, along with other children in the house, participated in the abuse of Erica starting when she was 5 years old and continuing until he was 16. Jamie said that once he broke her arm and after that, he decided he would never lay a hand on her again.
His sister Brooke told a detective that their mother sent the children to Walmart to buy first aid supplies so they could make a homemade cast for Erica’s arm. That was done instead of seeking proper medical treatment for what was a serious and painful injury. Relatives later said Erica’s arm showed signs of healing incorrectly.
While testifying, Jamie said his mother ordered his siblings Sadie and Toby to pull Erica’s hair if she didn’t want to play with them. He stated that Casey encouraged the children to abuse Erica and that he often saw his mother hitting her. If Erica didn’t obey, she was beaten with a belt.
Jamie also said that Sandy punched Erica on the top of her head. Jamie testified that Erica developed a bald spot on her scalp, an area where wounds repeatedly opened and healed from the beatings. 12-year-old Sadie, the youngest child in the family, said she tried to secretly bring Erica food. She explained that Erica was locked either in a closet, in their mother’s bathroom, or in Brooke’s room.
Sadie also said that one time Casey choked Erica so hard that she couldn’t breathe. If Erica ever received a gift, once the person who gave it left, the gift would be taken and given to her brother Toby or her sister Sadie. In a statement read by the District Attorney, it was revealed that Sandy once said no one would ever find Erica because Casey was smarter than the FBI.
The horrifying details just kept coming. About a week before Erica was last seen, her siblings said her eyes were sunken. She looked gray, exhausted, with open wounds that were oozing. Jamie said that the last time he saw her, she looked like a zombie. She told him she felt sick and that she couldn’t breathe properly. According to Jamie, his mother’s response was simple and cold, “I don’t care. Go back to that corner.
” The next day, Jamie said when he woke up, his parents were gone. They didn’t return until later that day. When they came back, he noticed Sandy was silent and looked like he was about to throw up, while Casey appeared completely calm. When Jamie asked where his sister was, he was told she was with her grandmother.
Commenting on Jamie’s testimony, prosecutor Anand Ross Swamy said, “Erica is no longer alive,” he said, “and there was an agreement between Casey Parsons and her husband not to report her death.” Sandy’s attorney pushed back on the accusations, arguing that poor or improper parenting by itself is not a criminal offense.
A large portion of these allegations are based on the testimony of Jamie Parsons, the attorney said. Jamie explained that in February of 2013, he spoke with his maternal grandmother, Shirley, and told her that he hadn’t seen Erica for a long time. After that conversation, another 5 months passed before he officially went to police to report her missing.
This already bizarre case became even more complicated when Sandy’s brother Scott told investigators that Jamie was a pathological liar. Shirley, Casey’s mother, said the last time she saw Erica was sometime around the holidays at the end of 2011. She recalled that when Erica was 6 years old, she noticed bruises on the girl’s buttocks and a black eye.
According to Shirley, Casey blamed Jamie for those injuries. Shirley said that she and her husband, James, wondered at the time whether Casey was abusing the child, but ultimately pushed those concerns aside. In her statement, Shirley also said that she once witnessed Casey choking Erica. James grabbed his daughter’s arm and as Shirley put it, reprimanded her.
The couple was shocked by what they saw and left shortly afterward. And added that Erica had visible injuries on her hands, which supported Jamie’s claim that Casey would bend Erica’s fingers backward to quote, “Put her in her place.” Robin also noticed that Erica’s fingers appeared deformed and suspected they may have been broken.
Casey, however, claimed it was arthritis. Robin testified that Casey frequently hit Erica and forced her to stand in a corner. Photographs were submitted to the court as evidence, images showing Erica standing in a corner on five separate occasions. The picture became even more painful. When Erica was younger, she called Casey and Sandy mom and dad, but Casey said she didn’t like that and forbade Erica from using those words.
From that point on, Erica was only allowed to call them by their first names, Casey and Sandy. Janet, Sandy’s stepmother, described an incident when the family went on a beach vacation and left Erica behind at home. According to her, the girl was told not to let anyone know she was there and was forced to hide. William, Janet’s husband and Sandy’s father, found Erica alone in the house.
“I always felt like Erica was treated worse than the other children,” Janet said. Even though this trial technically wasn’t about Erica’s disappearance and focused on fraud charges, all of this testimony painted a dark and deeply troubling picture, and still more witnesses continued to come forward. Later on, a woman named Amy Miller testified that she and her husband had hired Casey as a surrogate mother after meeting her through a website dedicated to surrogacy.
“She seemed like the perfect person to carry our child,” Amy said. “She came across as genuine, simple, grounded, deeply religious, and the fact that she had adopted Erica so she could keep her in the family, that honestly felt like a really noble thing to do.” She also said that Casey talked about Erica all the time.
They agreed to pay Casey $10,000 a month, money that, according to Casey, was supposed to be donated to her church as a charitable contribution. But then Casey said she needed a washer and a dryer, so the first payment and every payment after that was sent directly to her instead. Later on, Casey told Amy that the baby she was carrying had died.
She changed her phone number, changed her email address, and told Amy that she needed to move on with her life and that she had no right to have a child. That wasn’t true. Casey had not lost the baby. The child was born alive and healthy. The Parsons later tried to sell the baby to Robin for $110,000, claiming that the Millers no longer wanted the child.
Robin managed to find Amy online. Law enforcement got involved and Amy was able to get her baby back. “She went from being a loving, kind woman to someone absolutely terrifying and cruel,” Amy said. “I know how manipulative they are. I know what they put my family through. It was pure hell.” Eventually, Casey pleaded guilty to five counts of mail fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, one count of conspiracy to defraud the government, four counts of wire fraud, and four counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of false tax returns. She was
sentenced to 120 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, ordered to pay $41,817 in assessed a special court fee of $1,500. Sandy was later found guilty on 20 counts of theft of government funds, 20 counts of mail fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, one count of making false statements to a government agency, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the government.
The jury deliberated for less than 5 hours and found him guilty on 43 counts. He was sentenced to 96 months in prison, 3 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution totaling $1,624,300. Taking into account everything that came out during the trial, especially what Erica had endured, the judge made it clear during sentencing that the evidence showing Erica was no longer alive was compelling and undeniable.
“You and your husband did something truly horrible to her,” the judge told Casey. “I have sentenced nearly a thousand people and I cannot recall another case that affected me this deeply. You made a decision to get rid of her. You covered up your evil act. You are morally bankrupt.” He also said he accepted nearly all the testimony describing the abuse Erica suffered, finding the statements from family members to be credible.
The judge added that he found the testimony from government officials convincing as well and described the nature as sinister. He stated that the story about Erica supposedly living with some mysterious woman named Nan was poorly fabricated and deliberately false. The judge said Erica was a defenseless little girl who simply wanted to be loved.
“Over the years I’ve sentenced thousands of people,” he said to the couple, “but no case I’ve ever handled has been as disturbing as this one.” After the fraud sentencing, Casey’s sister Robin spoke to WBTV. “I wish she had gotten more,” she said, “but it’s more than I expected, so in a way I’m satisfied. I feel like this is justice for Erica.
If they’re not going to charge them with murder, and I believe they should, then this is at least some form of justice for Erica, not full justice. She deserved more.” 12 years for the other? Um, even though he says he has no reasons to believe my child to be alive, I will go ahead, as hard as this is for me to say, I have not made any inclinations one way or the other since this report came out.
My heart, my gut, and my soul tell me my child is no longer alive. But I want media, everybody who supports, loves, and prays for Erica and myself to understand that does not mean I give up. That does not mean I quit searching. That does not mean that I want anybody to give up. Until there is a body, until the DNA or whatever for sure comes from the FBI that she is passed away, don’t give up looking.
Don’t give up praying. Don’t give up hope. After the sentencing phase was over, Casey’s mother, Shirley, said she believed that testimony related to Erica should never have influenced the punishment at all. “I don’t think the court should have considered anything involving Erica when deciding the sentence,” she said, “at least not until there’s some kind of proof that something actually happened to her other than Jamie’s words.
” Later on, Jamie walked back his statements about abuse. He explained that while he was deeply worried about his sister, he wasn’t a direct witness to something happening to Erica himself. That reversal became yet another unsettling twist in a case that was already incredibly tangled and confusing.
Sandy later filed an appeal asking for a reduced sentence, but the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear it. Casey also appealed, but the fourth circuit denied her request as well. The people who had been searching for Erica, though, had no intention of stopping. Two local residents, Shannon Moss and W. Rogers, reached out to K9 Specialties, an organization run by a man from Illinois that specializes in finding missing people using trained search dogs.
“We don’t want people to forget,” U. Rogers said. “She’s still missing. She hasn’t been found. We have to find her, no matter how hard this is. We need to come together here in Rowan County and find her. I didn’t know her personally before, but I do now, and this has become personal for me. She needs to be found.
She’s a human being. If something truly horrible happened to her and she was just thrown away like trash, she’s not trash. She’s a little girl. She deserves to be found and I’m not giving up.” Robert T. Larson traveled to Rowan County and organized several search operations using his dogs. All of these people came together and gave every bit of energy they had over that weekend trying to find Erica, he said.
If I had to work with anyone, it would be these people. These search teams were not part of any official law enforcement operation, but authorities were notified about the planned searches. Unfortunately, none of them led to answers. We’re not just looking for a deceased Erica, W. Rogers emphasized. We’re looking for a living Erica, too.
We’re not giving up. We’re checking everything we possibly can. The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office reached out to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and requested an age progressed image of Erica. It was released soon after in the hope that it might spark recognition in someone who may have seen her recently, if even the smallest chance remained that she was still alive.
Five years had now passed since Erica was officially reported missing. Brooke, the oldest daughter of Casey and Sandy, eventually agreed to speak with the FBI. Up until that point, she had been standing by her parents, but what she shared turned out to be genuinely disturbing. She said there was a time when her mother forced Erica to stand outside on a hot day barefoot until blisters formed on her feet.
According to Brooke, Erica’s skin looked unnatural and there were open wounds all over her body. A few months later, Brooke went to visit her father in prison and it was during that visit, finally, that investigators got the break they had been waiting for. Uh Sandy told her he was ready to help police find Erica. Rowan County Sheriff Kevin Orton said that after speaking with Sandy, investigators were finally able to find what they had been searching for all along.
According to him, Casey claimed that on December 17th, 2011, Erica had supposedly taken her own life. He said the body was poured over with bleach to try to mask the smell. After that, it was placed into plastic bags and then into a storage container. Later that same day, they went to a holiday party like nothing had happened.
The next day, December 18th, Sandy said the couple drove to Pageland, South Carolina, where he began digging a hole. They removed the remains from the container. Casey took Erica’s clothes off and little Erica was buried in a shallow grave. According to Sandy, they threw the container and the clothing away afterward.
He also said that his wife told him to let her handle the Nan story, you know, to keep that version going. The skeletal human remains of Erica Parsons were discovered on Tuesday. Law enforcement sources telling our NBC affiliate WCNC that her remains were found in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, some 40 miles southeast of Charlotte.
Now, Erica was last seen in 2011 when she was just 13 years old, but family didn’t report her missing until 2013, nearly a year and a half later. Sandy Sandy led investigators to a specific stretch of wooded land. That was the place. In a shallow grave there, the remains of Erica Parsons were finally found.
That day in South Carolina was incredibly hard on all of us, Sheriff Kevin Orton said. I’ve seen a lot of seasoned officers over the years and even they struggled to get through it. According to him, the officers escorting Sandy walked him into the woods and in less than a minute, they came back out. Sandy was crying. County Sheriff Jay Brooks said that members of Erica’s family came to the burial site and many of them couldn’t hold back their tears.
Erica’s aunt, Teresa Goodman, said officials told her that a deal had been made with Sandy. She also mentioned that she had previously searched that same area with a private investigator, but back then, nothing had been found. I’m grateful that the family who cared about her was able to get at least some sense of closure, she said.
The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office deserves the highest respect, Sheriff Brooks added. They put in thousands and thousands of man-hours on this case. You can’t go through something like this and not stop to think. When you leave here today, call your kids. Detective Chad Moose received a call from Casey Parsons.
She told him she had important information to share. Casey said that Erica had talked more than once about wanting to die and that later on, she supposedly found her lying on a blanket on the living room floor. According to Casey, she rolled Erica over, but there was no movement at all. She claimed that Erica had taken her own life.
Over time, several different versions of that story started to surface about how exactly Erica had supposedly died. Casey said they placed Erica’s remains into a container and that Sandy instructed her to pour bleach over the body. Bank card records showed that bleach was purchased at Walmart on December 5th. Casey also admitted that she had bent Erica’s fingers backward, though she denied breaking made it very clear that didn’t mean, in her eyes, that he wasn’t responsible or that any blame should be lifted from him.
He stood behind her and backed every single lie that came out of her mouth, Carolyn said. We’ve learned her adopted parents, Sandy and Casey Parsons, will be charged with first-degree murder. The Parsons have always denied they had anything to do with the disappearance of the little girl.
Sheriff Kevin Orton, who announced the indictments here today, said there were times during the investigation he thought this day would never come, but he did because he said investigators never gave up. We just did not want to leave a little girl out there. We want to bring her home. Now, the Parsons will be brought back to Salisbury to face charges in her death.
There are people that uh think the Parsons should have already been hung on the square and uh you know, they’ll have their day in court and we’ll let the the jury decide their fate. According to the indictment, Sandy and Casey Parsons were charged with first-degree murder, felony child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, felony concealment of a death, and obstruction of justice.
The charging document stated that Casey and Sandy knowingly and intentionally dismembered and destroyed the human remains of Erica Lynn Parsons using various methods including the removal of body parts and other acts meant to destroy the remains. Sheriff Kevin Orton explained it this way. This weighed on all of us, he said.
I’ve been doing this job for 30 years. Some of my investigators have been doing it even longer and we all felt it if we didn’t find her and eventually bring charges, it would feel like a complete failure in our careers. This case sat on us like an incredible burden and we’re very proud of where we are now.
He added, this was an extremely difficult case. There were times when we hoped to find Erica alive, then times when we hoped to find her remains and now we’re ready to move forward and take this case to court. It’s been a long road to get here. We wanted to make sure every I was dotted and every aunt was crossed.
He also noted that he was glad the charges were filed just one day before what would have been Erica’s 20th birthday. All right. Well, in other news this afternoon, the adoptive parents of a North Carolina teen found dead years after being reported missing, well, they will have separate trials. Sandy and Casey Parsons face multiple charges including first-degree murder.
Their 13-year-old daughter, Erica, was last seen in 2011, but she was not reported missing for another 2 years. Sandy Parsons led authorities to that girl’s body in South Carolina in 2016. Casey Parsons is set to stand trial in April of 2020. A trial date for his wife has not yet been set. Today should have been Erica Lynn Parsons’ 21st birthday.
Instead, her biological family gathered at her gravesite in China Grove. Erica Parsons, allegedly murdered by her adopted parents back in 2011. Now, they both sit in jail waiting for their trials. A lot has happened in the past year in this case and the family says that makes today a little different than years past. Happy birthday to you.
It’s a milestone for almost everyone, your 21st birthday, but for little Erica Parsons, she’ll never get to experience that. I should be getting off work, going home, getting dressed, taking my sister out for her very first drink. Sunday afternoon, family and friends gathered here to place flowers and gifts. I cried all the way up here.
For Erica’s biological mother, Carolyn, she says this birthday’s a little different considering what we’ve seen happen in the past year. The [snorts] fact that a court date was set for Casey, even though it’s in 2020, has a huge impact on how I feel about things being done. A trial date was set this month for Casey Parsons.
Casey and Sandy Parsons, Erica’s adopted parents, are both charged in the child’s death and could face the death penalty if found guilty. And two main family members are sitting where they deserve to be, I hope, for the rest of their lives. But those two were not the focus today. Erica is everybody’s angel. Erica is everybody’s story.
Erica’s life and story had traveled across the nation impacting some that never even met the little girl. As long as we’re breathing, Erica’s never going to be forgotten again. For the family, this day is difficult every year. It’s Erica’s day. Mhm. And she deserves every bit of this and more. And as they wait for justice, they tell me they feel Erica’s presence often, not just here at her grave.
But she’s not here. Mhm. You can spend time with her wherever you are, wherever you’re going. At first, Carolyn insisted that the defendants should receive the death penalty, but over time, she changed her stance. I want them to spend every single day for the rest of their lives in prison, she said, making it clear how she feels.
She called them evil and described them as monsters. Are you in fact guilty? Yes. Casey Parsons, the adopted mother of Erica Parsons, admitted to killing the little girl. She’ll now spend the rest of her life behind bars. Casey Parsons pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder and felony child abuse. There was so much emotion inside of that courtroom today as Casey Parsons admitted that she is guilty of abusing and then murdering her adopted daughter, Erica Parsons.
Of course, this admission is shocking since Erica Parsons was reported missing in 2012. Casey and her husband, Sandy, have denied having anything to do with that disappearance. At this point, it appears that Sandy Parsons will still have to stand trial for the charges against him. We’re going to get much more information from the district attorney inside right now.
We’ll bring you the latest later. Back to you. Casey Parsons pleaded guilty to the charges of child abuse and murder. The court sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole. I can’t tell you why. I don’t know why I didn’t stop I did it. I’m sorry. Sorry. After years of denial, Casey Parsons openly admitted she abused then murdered her adopted daughter, Erica Parsons.
I didn’t have a steady home. I didn’t have a steady job. Had I known then what I know now, I would have risked it. I would have took her to a different place than a group home. Today, prosecutors shared testimony from Erica’s sibling who said Erica was choked, beaten, and neglected by Casey and Sandy. Erica always smelled bad.
His mom didn’t let her take a bath. Erica had a lot of cuts and bruises and black eyes from mom hitting her. Casey offered an apology before the judge sentenced her to life in prison with no parole on that murder charge. And I want to say I’m sorry to God and to Erica. She also admitted that many family members reached out to her trying to help her with Erica, but she said she pushed them away and eventually murdered that little girl that she was supposed to protect.
She said family members tried to step in and protect Erica. My parents and my sister reached out to me numerous times to help me. Numerous. Um I pushed them back. I would lie constantly to them. In addition to that, she received consecutive sentences for several other charges, felony concealment of a death, felony child abuse causing serious bodily injury, and felony obstruction of justice.
When all of those sentences were added together, they amounted to an additional 23 years. My My name is Carolyn Parsons. I am Erica Lynn Parsons’ biological mother. I’ve said all along that Casey deserved life in prison versus the death sentence. I still 100% agree with that because their life in prison living her life in prison living will be worse than any death sentence she could ever get.
I know as far as having her other children participate, I just cannot seem to understand how. I don’t know why. But she did the one thing I wanted her to do. She at least said something. I don’t know that I believe that she is sorry. I don’t know that I believe that I didn’t mean to. Some of it I had heard. Some of it I hadn’t heard.
I still completely believe that Casey Stone Parsons has no heart. She has no soul. She is a body that is just there. She is an individual who just functions. The only thing Casey gets is what Erica doesn’t. She gets to live. But in return for living, she [snorts] will probably be in solitary confinement. And every time she gets out, she gets to listen to people talk about her. Listen to people whisper about her.
She gets to wonder, “Am I going to make it back to my cell tonight?” But when that judge made that last statement, that last statement was, “And you cannot be around children.” Yeehaw! Casey loses her rights to watch her grandkids grow up. What an incredible final end for her. Four months after Casey entered her guilty plea, Sandy did the same.
He pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction of justice, child abuse, concealment of a death, and second-degree murder for his role in Erica’s death. Sandy was sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in prison. He will not be eligible to even ask for parole until he is 82 years old. Parsons appeared in court this morning pleading guilty to murder and other felony charges.
People might forgive me. I know [snorts] God has. But I’m never going to forgive myself for doing what I done to Erica. Things Erica’s gone through. And I failed her as a dad. Attorneys argued Sandy was manipulated and controlled by his wife, Casey. They said it was Casey who committed most of the abuse against Erica, locking her in a closet, starving and severely beating the girl.
They say one day Casey told Sandy that Erica died and manipulated him into covering it up, burying her body in a South Carolina field, and lying to police for years. Sandy Parsons’ role, as I stated, was substantially less than that of Casey Parsons. There is literally no evidence that Sandy Parsons personally intended to kill or seriously injure Erica Parsons.
They asked the judge for leniency in sentencing. Rather than the near 80 years he could have received, the judge sentenced him to a maximum of 43 years. Erica’s biological mother was in court today as well, getting to tell Sandy what she thought of him. I stand by what I have said from day one, which is I used to love you, now I hate you. And he got to hear that today.
Uh Sandy’s attorney read letters in court from the two youngest children. In those letters, they wrote about how much they loved their father and how badly they missed him, saying he had never abused them. Psychologist Dr. Claudia Coleman evaluated Sandy twice and also testified during the hearings.
She said he was passive, struggled to make decisions on his own, and that Casey was clearly the dominant force in the relationship. According to her, Casey threatened to take the children away from him if he didn’t do what she wanted. Dr. Coleman stated that in her opinion, Sandy did not want Erica to die and showed genuine remorse.
Sandy told her that he didn’t fully understand the extent of the abuse Erica was suffering. The district attorney strongly disagreed. Prosecutors said Sandy saw the violence and at times participated in it. They emphasized that Sandy was an adult in that household, not a victim, not a rescuer, and that he deserved the harshest possible punishment.
Carolyn said Sandy’s sentence felt like a slap on the wrist to her. She stressed that he had choices and could have acted differently. She also pointed out that members of both Sandy’s and Casey’s families could have spoken up when they saw signs of abuse. The judge placed Sandy in the same category as his wife. While he described Casey as the mastermind behind what happened, he said Sandy followed her lead, took part in the crimes, and had what he called a distorted mindset.
While in prison, Sandy received two disciplinary violations, one for possessing a non-dangerous contraband item, and another for possession of a weapon. In the end, after the involvement of numerous law enforcement agencies, thousands and thousands of man-hours, extensive searches, and hundreds of witness interviews, the case of Erica Parsons was finally brought to a close.
The dedication and persistence of everyone involved in the investigation were undeniable. “This was never about the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, or the SBI,” Sheriff Horton said. “The only reason for all of this was Erica.” He added that everyone understood that as painful and frustrating as the process was, they had to move carefully and build the case step by step to make sure it was solid.
The easiest thing would have been to give in to public pressure and charge someone right away,” he said. “But that would have been irresponsible.” District Attorney Cook added, “We have to have the courage to be a voice for those who don’t have one. Monsters who abuse and brutalize children are among the worst in our society.
There are very few things more cruel than gaining a child’s love and trust then making that child feel unwanted, unloved, and unsafe. Knowing how much suffering Erica endured in such a short life, never even feeling the comfort of her own bed, and realizing that all of this was done by the very people who were supposed to protect and care for her, it’s almost too painful to even think about.
” He continued, “Maybe the only positive thing to come out of this is that the monsters responsible for this crime are exactly where they belong.” Carolyn said, “I gave Erica up because I believed she’d have a better life. I didn’t have a stable home. I didn’t have a stable job.” She called Erica a gift, one that millions of people would have wanted.
“I just want to know why, and I’ll never know that. Hearing these charges, looking them in the eye, and realizing that I trusted them to raise my child, hoping they’d give her a better life than I thought I could, that’s unbelievably painful. All right, friends, that’s where we’re going to leave it for today. Honestly, I truly appreciate you being here with me on YouTube.
Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other. Stay safe, stay curious, and thank you for listening.
