Human remains, found on Tuesday, September 27th, in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, are confirmed to be those of missing teen Erica Parsons.
According to a release from the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office they obtained leads in August of 2016 that Erica Parsons was “more than likely deceased.” On September 27, the release states, the remains were located. They were then sent to the NC Medical Examiner’s Office and were identified as the young girl.
ERICA PARSONS WAS REPORTED MISSING IN 2013
Erica Parsons was reported missing from Rowan County in July of 2013, by her adoptive brother, Jamie Parsons. But she (Erica) had reportedly not been seen for two years prior to that. Her brother said she had not been seen since November of 2011.
Jamie Parsons told investigators he asked his parents, Sandy and Casey Parsons, who reportedly adopted Erica at birth, where Erica was and they said she had gone to Asheville to live with her grandmother.
He added that he has not seen Erica since.
ERICA PARSONS ABUSED IN THE HOME
It was during this initial interview that Jamie Parsons said Sandy and Casey routinely abused Erica, both mentally and physically. He told investigators that the pair continued to receive checks on behalf of Erica long after she had disappeared.
He reportedly said his parents had “killed Erica and buried her in our backyard.”
The backyard was the subject of multiple searches since Erica’s disappearance was reported. The latest was in 2015 after the current homeowner cut down a tree and found small bones. They were not human bones.
Sandy and Casey Parsons denied the allegations of abuse and accused Jamie of lying.
In a 2014 interview, Jamie Parsons recanted the abuse claims and said he didn’t see anything actually happen to Erica and only told investigators that because he was worried about his younger siblings.
SO WHO AND WHERE IS THIS GRANDMOTHER?
Since Erica Parsons’ disappearance, her adoptive parents have maintained that she went to live with her biological grandmother in Asheville.
Investigators were told that they took Erica to live with her biological grandmother, Irene Goodman, in 2011. They told investigators that their biological daughter, Brook, went with them to Asheville, to drop Erica off. She, however, stated that she did NOT take such a journey and had not taken Erica anywhere with her parents.
The Parsons could not give investigators contact information for Goodman, but Casey Parsons told them she’d contacted her through Facebook. However, she was not able to do that.
It was determined that Irene Goodman did not exist. According to investigators, Erica’s real biological grandmother died in 2005.
ERICA PARSONS HOME IS SEARCHED
After Erica’s disappearance, local investigators and the FBI agents conducted several searches of the Parsons’ home.
In August of 2013, investigators removed dozens of items from the home, including a plastic bag with JonBenet Ramsey magazines and a JonBenet book, with notes inside about remodeling a house.
The warrant says there was drywall cut and removed from a closet area with red stains. The section was tested for blood, the warrant states. Investigators also took baseboards from the closet with red stains.
STRANGE WAY OF TALKING
Rowan County investigators noted that the Parsons held interviews with the media wherein they constantly referred to Erica in the past tense.
These same investigators also noted that when her true, biological mother spoke of Erica, she spoke of her daughter in the present tense.
While executing the search warrant, investigators say they found a pair of Arizona jeans with red stains. They also took swabs and samples from sections of the home and removed sections of carpeting and drywall.
A week later, investigators released another set of search warrants after they searched a red wooden storage building at another location that belonged to Erica’s adoptive father, Sandy Parsons.
According to the warrants, investigators seized a video tape, pieces of a vacuum cleaner, teeth, a hammer and school records.
In addition to finding photos and books about the death of JonBenet Ramsey inside the Parsons home, the new warrant states that investigators also found material on the “South Carolina Susan Smith case.”
CASEY AND SANDY PARSONS ARRESTED
Nearly a year after Erica Parsons was reported missing, her adoptive parents were arrested in Fayetteville, NC on dozens of fraud charges.
The couple, who had moved to Fayetteville in August of 2013, after Erica’s disappearance made national headlines, were arrested by federal agents and charged with 76 counts of fraud-related crimes.
According to the fraud indictment filed against the couple, from February 2010 to August 2013 Sandy and Casey Parsons committed tax fraud, mail fraud, theft of government funds, identity theft and engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the government.
The indictment alleged the Parsons received government funded adoption assistance, Medicaid, Social Security, and Food and Nutrition Services benefits for a dependent that did not live with them and used the mail to commit the fraud.
The indictment also alleged that Casey Parsons fraudulently used the identities of other persons as dependents and used other false information when preparing federal tax returns.
THEY KEPT CASHING THE CHECKS
When Erica was reported missing, Jamie Parsons told investigators that Sandy and Casey continued to receive, and cash checks, from the state of North Carolina. The checks amounted to a little over $600 per month.
The Parsons’ attorney, Carlyle Sherrill, admitted in October 2013 that his clients did receive the checks, but said that they had a right to since they were the legal caregivers for Erica Parsons.
THE PARSONS ARE SENTENCED TO PRISON
Several months after their arrest Casey Parsons pleaded guilty to 15 federal charges: one count of conspiracy to defraud the government, five counts of mail fraud, four counts of aiding in the preparation of a false tax return, four counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
She was sentenced to 120 months in prison; 3 years supervised release; $41,814.00 in restitution; and a special assessment of $1,500.00. She is scheduled to be released Jan. 3, 2024.
Casey’s husband, Sandy, was found guilty in November 2014 of one count of conspiracy to defraud the government, one count of aggravated identity theft, one count of false statement to a government agency, twenty counts of theft of government funds and twenty counts of mail fraud.
He was sentenced to 96 months in prison; 3 years supervised release; $14,062.00 in restitution; and a special assessment of $4,300.00. He was scheduled to be released in March 2022.
THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED
Sandy Parsons, the adoptive father of Erica Parsons led investigators to his daughter’s body this week.
Under the watchful eye of prison guards, Sandy Parsons pointed to a shallow grave in a heavily wooded area off Blair Hendrix Road.
The guards that were with him took Sandy into the woods and within a minute they were coming back out. Sandy was crying.
A cadaver dog indicated the spot where Erica Parson’s body was discovered and, within 30 to 45 minutes, investigators began finding evidence.
Bones were recovered at the scene and positively identified as the remains of Erica Parsons.
Sandy Parsons’ mother and step-father live within two miles of the crime scene. Parsons’ step-father was contacted. He said that they did not own the land where Erica Parsons’ body was found, but said they rent a house nearby. Sandy Parsons’ step-father said that his stepson would visit a couple of times a year, particularly for holidays. Occasionally, he added, Erica Parsons was with him. He (the step father) had personally not seen the girl (Erica Parsons) since 2008 or 2009.
credit – msn
