This Case Changed North Carolina. The Disturbing Story Of Erica Parsons | True Crime Documentary

This was not only a bizarre case but an extremely complex one. A vulnerable young girl, and apparently, nobody had any clue where she was. But there was one thing that the investigators did know: People do not just vanish.

The 30th of July 2013, Rowan County, North Carolina, in the United States of America. A young man and his uncle walked into a police station. Jaime Parsons was there to report his little sister, Erica, missing. But this was not a recent disappearance; Erica hadn’t been seen in almost 2 years. He last saw her in November 2011. His uncle, Scott, was with him and said that he had heard various stories about where Erica was, but he hadn’t seen her either. A young girl described as quiet and shy, who was 13 years old when she was last seen, had been gone for that long and, up until now, had not been reported missing.

On the 24th of February 1998, Carolyn Parsons gave birth to a baby girl named Erica. Not long after, Erica’s aunt and uncle, Casey and Sandy Parsons, parents of other children including Jaime, would adopt her. When Jaime talked to the officers, he said he had asked his parents where she was and why she wasn’t at the house on Miller Chapel Road. They explained that they had taken her to Asheville where her biological grandmother had lived, a woman called Irene Goodman, known as “Nan.” This story was bizarre, but as he continued to talk, a very disturbing picture was being painted. Jaime said that his parents had been both physically and mentally abusive towards Erica, constantly. Not only that, but even after she had gone missing, Sandy and Casey had continued to receive checks on Erica’s behalf, totaling around $600 a month, even though she was no longer at the property.

The next thing for the officers to do was to speak to Sandy and Casey Parsons. They both vehemently denied Jaime’s story of them being abusive. They said he had been told to move out of the house after a fight with his mother and he had made it up as a result. They were adamant that in 2011, Erica had gone to live with her biological grandmother in Asheville. They said that Brooke, their biological daughter, had gone with them. This wasn’t what Brooke told the investigators; she said she hadn’t gone with them. What on earth was the truth? And more importantly, where was Erica?

Casey told the investigator she had contacted Nan Goodman via Facebook but was not able to give them any current contact information for her, even though she was allegedly caring for a child that Casey was the legal guardian of. She also couldn’t show them her Facebook page. The more the investigators dug, the weirder it all became. Erica’s biological grandmother had actually died in 2005. This was more than 8 years before she was reported missing and more than 6 years since she was last seen by anybody. Investigators would later say that this “Nan” didn’t actually exist at all. Carolyn, Erica’s biological mother, said that Erica had no biological relatives living in that area. The lawyer who was representing Sandy and Casey at the time then hinted that Carolyn should know how to find the missing child.

“Nan came to Casey and Sandy through Carolyn. That’s who brought Nan to them and probably knows who Nan is.”

But Caroline hit back at these claims.

“Nan and Irene don’t exist. The only two people that know the truth are the only two people that won’t give the truth,” she said.

Casey would later say that she had been tricked and that the woman Erica had been taken to live with was an impostor. This extremely unusual story was getting weirder and weirder by the day, and nobody knew what the truth was. The day after Erica was reported missing, the two youngest children were removed from the home. And just a few days later, on the 6th of August 2013, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office said that Casey and Sandy were being uncooperative with the investigation. 6 days later, Carolyn returned from New Orleans to talk to the police. She later said that she had received updates about Erica via Facebook but hadn’t seen her since the 5th of January 2011.

“I think about the visitation pretty much all the time. It plays over and over and over again in my mind,” she said. “My whole body just went numb. I mean, as a parent, as a person, as an individual, as a family member, I just keep hoping and praying that she’s alive somewhere, that she’s out there somewhere, that one of these days she’s going to come forward.”

 

As the searches were carried out, 2 weeks after Erica was reported as missing, the street was closed off. One neighbor told news reporters:

“One police officer showed up and the next thing you know there was probably 25 or 30 cars there. They’re walking around the house.”

The backyard of the family home was looked at multiple times, but nothing of note or interest was found. A month after Jaime had reported her as missing, the FBI were drafted in to help in the search with local law enforcement, and searches were conducted several times of the family home. The search warrants that had been returned in August 2013 revealed that dozens of items had been taken from the house, which included a plastic bag with Jean Ramsey magazines and a Jean-Benet Ramsey book with notes inside about remodeling a house. Jean Ramsey was, of course, a 6-year-old girl found murdered in her own home on Christmas Day in 1996. It is a case that remains unsolved and continues to be discussed and talked about today. The search warrant also said that a section of drywall from the closet had been cut out and removed, as there were red stains on it. The baseboards from the closet had been removed and sent off for testing. A pair of jeans also with red stains were taken out of the house.

A week after the search, another set of search warrants were released after they had looked into a storage building owned by Sandy. Removed from here were pieces of a vacuum cleaner, a videotape, school records, a hammer, and teeth. These search warrants referred to the original search, saying:

“During that search, investigators failed to locate any evidence of Erica Parsons still living here or any evidence that her room or personal living area remained in the home.”

The police said that the evidence that was found all indicated to Casey and Sandy knowing that Erica was not going to be coming back. Another area that needed to be looked into was the allegation that Casey and Sandy had continued to receive money for Erica even though she wasn’t living with them. Officials applied for a warrant relating to the finances. In the application for the warrant, it stated:

“It is believed that the continued desire to utilize the funds, proceeds, or financial assistance intended for the care or benefit of Erica Parsons resulted in the delay or outright denial to report Erica Parsons as missing in a timely manner.”

One thing was clear: The family had definitely been receiving money for Erica and this financial aspect needed to be looked into more closely. Working with the FBI, investigators were able to track down the bank accounts used by Sandy and Casey. These were held with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and SunTrust Bank. Erica was adopted through public adoption…

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. Sandy’s lawyer read letters from the youngest children where they talked about how much they loved their father and missed him, adding that he never abused them. Psychologist Dr. Claudia Coleman evaluated Sandy twice and she also testified at the hearing. She said he was passive and had trouble making decisions by himself, adding that Casey had been the dominant one in the relationship and that she had threatened to remove the children from him if he didn’t do as she told him. She said that, in her opinion, Sandy hadn’t wanted Erica to die and had expressed remorse. Sandy had told Dr. Coleman he wasn’t aware of the extent of the abuse that Erica was suffering, but the district attorney said he was able to see the extent of the abuse and had exacted some of it. The DA emphasized that Sandy was an adult in that home, adding that he wasn’t a victim or a hero and deserved the maximum sentence possible. Caroline said that Sandy’s sentence felt like a slap on the wrist and that he had been able to make his own choices. She also said that Sandy and Casey’s family members could have said something when they saw the signs of abuse. The judge put Sandy in the same category as his wife, saying that although he believed her to be the brains behind the plan, Sandy had gone along with it and participated in it, adding that he had a twisted mind. While in prison, Sandy has received two infractions, one for possessing non-threatening contraband and one for possession of a weapon.

Finally, after the involvement of so many law enforcement officers across various agencies, thousands upon thousands of man-hours, extensive searches, hundreds of witness interviews, the case of Erica Parsons was finally closed. The dedication and the commitment shown by those investigating was absolutely incredible. It was never about the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office, the US Attorney’s Office, the FBI, the SBI. No individual except Erica, Sheriff Orton said. Those involved knew that, as frustrating as it was, they needed to take their time and build their case brick by brick so that it had the most solid of foundations.

“The easy thing to do would have been to cave into public pressure to immediately charge someone, which would have been irresponsible,” said District Attorney Cook. “We must have the courage to be a voice for the voiceless.”

The monsters who abuse and mistreat children are amongst the worst in society. There are few things more cruel than having the love and trust of a child and making that child feel unwanted, unloved, and unsafe. Knowing how much Erica suffered in such a short life, not even knowing the warmth of having her own bed, and knowing that this happened at the hands of those who were charged with protecting and looking after her, is just too sad to think about. Perhaps the only positive thing to come from this is that those monsters responsible in this case are exactly where they belong.

“I gave up Erica for what I thought would be a better life. I didn’t have a steady home; I didn’t have a steady job,” said Caroline. She referred to Erica as a gift that millions of people would love to receive. “I just want to know why, and I never will. To hear those charges and look them in the face and to know that I trusted them to raise my child better than I thought I could… that hurts.”