fedfan4life
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The Charlotte Observer story here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article105048256.html has an excellent recap of the case.
Oh dear God.
The Charlotte Observer story here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article105048256.html has an excellent recap of the case.
I don't want to take any credit for breaking the news, but I think this deserves a post in the Breaking News Today on Websleuths thread.
Would anybody be be opposed to me posting there? :grouphug: for all of you wonderful people who have cared about & sought justice for Erica.
Poor little sweetheart. Failed by so many. RIP Erica and may your tormentors all burn in hell.
...Casey Parsons had always maintained that she gave Erica to the girl’s biological grandmother named “Nan” Goodman.
She had said during the investigation that Goodman lived in a white house with two chimneys, a long front porch and a horse pasture beside it, Marshburn said.
When Marshburn and his investigator, Marsha Ward, went to explore the area, they saw a dwelling that eerily matched the description: two chimneys, long porch and a pasture with a couple of horses.
Only one thing: the house wasn’t white; it was brown.
Marshburn said that Sandy Parsons’ stepfather, who lives in the residence, told him that Casey always liked the house “but she thought it would be prettier white.”
Not to take anything away from dear Erica, but for such as small (tiny) town, Pageland has been in the news a lot this past year. Erica's case was relatively local to me, and I am glad this child was found. I just grew up in Chesterfield county, and I'm flabbergasted of the crimes that make it to WS from this place I always felt so safe. It makes me wonder how many other crimes are in our back yards that we don't know about.
I want to end by saying Erica was never forgotten, and thankfully she may be laid to rest with the dignity she was denied in life.
According to the paperwork, investigators were told the Casey Parsons told a family member she "can't stand to look at Erica and she said she reminds her of Carolyn (Erica's biological mother) and she hates Carolyn."
The warrant said investigators were told that Casey brought Erica to stay with another family member and showed them bruises on the girl.
The paperwork said, "This family member state Casey Parsons said she lost control and beat her."
...
The warrant also said that investigators noticed Casey Parsons referred to Erica in the past tense when doing news interviews saying, "She was a teenager" and, "She was with her grandparent."
During the federal fraud trial of Sandy and Casey Parsons, there was testimony from James Parsons that every member of his family had physically abused Erica. James Parsons told the judge that Erica was routinely made to live in a closet and given dog food to eat, and that Casey Parsons once bent Erica's fingers backwards so hard that they broke.
He said Casey never took Erica to the hospital, but created a homemade cast for her hand.
“She would beat her with a belt if she didn’t listen,” James Parsons said. “Mama would bend her fingers back.”
James Parsons said that Erica would be beaten if she relieved herself while locked in the closet.
“Dad would hit her with his fist on top of her head,” James Parsons said of his father, Sandy Parsons. At one point, the girl developed a bald spot because of scabbing, he said at the time.
James Parsons told the court that the last time he saw Erica was in November 2011, when she was standing in a corner as punishment.
“She didn’t look too good, she looked like a zombie,” he testified. “She said she did not feel good. She said she could not breathe too good.”
James Parsons said Erica was gone the next morning, and he never saw her again.