Erica Parsons

Case background and investigation

Erica Parsons was born in February 1998 and was raised from infancy by Sandy and Casey Parsons, relatives of her biological mother, who formally adopted her in 2000, according to Wikipedia's summary of court and news records. The family lived in Rowan County, near Salisbury, North Carolina.

Authorities said Erica was last seen by people outside the household in November 2011, when she was 13. According to the Salisbury Post's account of later court proceedings, she died on December 17, 2011, and her body was taken to South Carolina and buried in a shallow grave. No one reported her missing until July 30, 2013, when her adoptive brother Jamie Parsons went to the Rowan County Sheriff's Office. Her adoptive parents told investigators she had gone to live with a grandmother; CBS News reported that the sheriff later said the name and relationship they gave were not correct.

While the search continued, federal prosecutors charged the couple with fraud for continuing to collect adoption assistance and other government benefits after Erica was no longer in the home. Casey Parsons pleaded guilty to 15 federal counts and was sentenced to ten years. Sandy Parsons was found guilty at trial in 2014 and sentenced to eight years, according to CBS News.

On September 27, 2016, investigators from the sheriff's office and the FBI located skeletal remains in a rural area near Pageland, in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. The Salisbury Post reported that Sandy Parsons's cooperation led them to the site. The remains were identified as Erica's days later. The medical examiner ruled that she died of homicidal violence of undetermined means and documented malnutrition and multiple fractures in different stages of healing, the Salisbury Post reported.

A Rowan County grand jury indicted both adoptive parents on February 19, 2018, on charges of first-degree murder, felony child abuse, concealment of death and obstruction of justice. On August 2, 2019, Casey Parsons pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and the related charges and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. On December 17, 2019, Sandy Parsons pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, child abuse, concealment of death and obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to between roughly 33 and 43 and a half years. In court he acknowledged having turned a blind eye to the abuse, according to the Salisbury Post.

Both state sentences were ordered to follow the federal terms. The Salisbury Post reported in November 2023 that Casey Parsons had completed her federal sentence and was beginning her life term, and that Sandy Parsons was already in state custody with a projected release date in 2057.