Kay Parsons was found severely beaten in her garage on the morning of March 25, 2009
Credit: Thomas Poteet & Son Memorial; Grovetown Police Department
NEED TO KNOW
- Suburban mom Kay Parsons was found brutally beaten in her garage on March 25, 2009
- What looked like a robbery ended up being a violent attack by her neighbors
- The twist-filled true story is the subject of a new 20/20 episode, “Murder Next Door”
Laverne "Kay" Parsons was a Little League mom who was found brutally beaten in her home in what at first looked like a burglary gone wrong.
It was later revealed that Kay's murder wasn't a random act of violence, and instead was a plot devised by her neighbor, Rebecca "Becky" Sears. Sears had been having an alleged affair with Kay's husband, David Parsons — and manipulated her son, Christopher, into murdering Kay.
The unbelievable true story is the subject of an episode of 20/20, "Murder Next Door," which premiered on May 15.
Here's everything to know about Kay Parsons' murder.
Kay Parsons was a 41-year-old mother
Credit: Thomas Poteet & Son Memorial
Kay, 41, lived on Hot Springs Drive in a quiet neighborhood in Grovetown, Ga., with her husband, David Parsons, and their 12-year-old son, Derek.
Next door lived Kay's friend, mother-of-five Rebecca, whom she worked with at Healing Hands, a physical therapy center, per a 2015 Dateline episode.
On the morning of March 25, 2009, contractor Mitch Cozart arrived at Kay's home on the street to do some maintenance on her back door. However, the glass had been broken. When Cozart walked back onto the street, he encountered one of Rebecca's children — who claimed his house had been broken into, as well.
Cozart called 911, and within minutes, authorities arrived.
She was found severely beaten in March 2009
When the authorities arrived at Kay's house, they found blood splattered across different rooms, including the living room, hallways and garage, per Dateline.
"It looks like the homeowner came home and surprised a burglar in her house and a struggle ensued where she was beaten," investigator Jimmy Edmunds told Dateline. "You could tell there was more beating going on in the garage. There were blood splatters on the walls. She was already bleeding before she got to the garage."
It was in the garage where authorities found Kay in a pool of blood. "She was beaten so severely, you couldn't recognize her," Edmunds said.
But Kay still had a heartbeat, so she was rushed to the hospital.
Kay's husband, David, was away on a work trip, but rushed back home when he was told what happened to his wife. Later at the hospital, it was determined her injuries were too extreme for her to survive, so she was taken off life support, per Dateline.
Next door, authorities found blood smears that appeared to be from Kay's house. Rebecca's house looked like it had been looted too, but there was no sign of forced entry, per Dateline.
Rebecca was having an affair with Kay's husband, David Parsons
Two days later, Rebecca's brother Jerry Jacobs — who had been incarcerated in the county jail for a minor traffic accident — alerted authorities that he had a potential break in the case, according to a 2023 episode of the ID series Mother, May I Murder?. When Edmunds interviewed Jacobs, he told the investigator that Rebecca and David had been having an affair.
Rebecca and David had been having a "passionate relationship" for a little under a year, per Mother, May I Murder?. After Rebecca decided she wanted to tell her husband about the affair, David ended their relationship.
Investigators had been suspecting that Rebecca's son, Michael, had been a part of the plot. But in a police interview, David told authorities that Rebecca had revealed the affair to another one of her other sons, Christopher.
"We were able to discover that it was a really strange mother-son relationship between Rebecca and Christopher. Everybody called him a 'mama's boy,' but it was to a different level," Edmunds said in Mother, May I Murder?.
Authorities then called in Rebecca and Christopher for interviews. While Christopher initially denied being involved, Rebecca immediately confessed to having "made Christopher think" that she wanted him to harm Kay.
"I didn't want him to harm anybody and I made him think that he did," Rebecca said in a police interview shown in Mother, May I Murder?. "He was convinced that he was helping me."
According to ABC News, the morning of the attack, Rebecca took her other kids to school. When she returned home, she found Christopher with blood on his face, and he told her he "took care of everything."
Christopher had beaten Kay to death with a hammer and baseball bat. He then staged a burglary in his mom's house, per Mother, May I Murder?.
However, Edmunds later called Rebecca the "mastermind" behind the plot.
Rebecca and Christopher pleaded not guilty
Credit: Grovetown Police Department
Rebecca told the police that Christopher's bloody clothes were in a box in the attic of her mom's house, per Mother, May I Murder?. Once authorities retrieved the box filled with evidence, they were able to link Christopher with Kay's murder.
According to The Augusta Chronicle, Rebecca and Christopher pleaded not guilty to murder, armed robbery and burglary charges.
Rebecca and her son were sentenced to life in prison
In May 2012, Rebecca and Christopher offered negotiated guilty pleas during their sentence hearing, according to The Augusta Chronicle.
They were both sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Read the full article here
