The biological mother of missing teenager Erica Lynn Parsons said she felt numb after hearing dogs detected the possible presence of human remains during two searches at a storage building in southern Rowan County.
Her worst fear, Carolyn Parsons said, is that Erica is not alive
“At the same time, if it is her, at least she’s not suffering anymore,” she said.
Erica hasn’t been seen in Rowan County since November 2011, but was reported missing July 30 by her adoptive brother, James Parsons.
Her adoptive parents, Sandy and Casey Parsons, have maintained they let a 13-year-old Erica go to Asheville to live a woman they knew as her biological grandmother, Irene “Nan” Goodman. Authorities and other relatives have said Goodman doesn’t exist and that both Erica’s biological grandmothers are dead.
Investigators with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, the State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI have conducted multiple searches at the Miller Chapel Road home where the Parsonses lived until recently and property on Sutton Road, where Sandy’s parents live.
During two searches at the Sutton Road home near China Grove, cadaver dogs alerted at a storage building that was used by Sandy and Casey Parsons, indicating what an investigator’s affidavit called the “possible presence of human remains.” On Nov. 14, investigators returned with another search warrant. They found no human remains, but removed a floor board and a jacket from inside the building.
The Nov. 14 warrant was just returned to the Rowan County Clerk of Court’s Office this week.
Sandy and Casey Parsons did not return messages seeking comment Thursday.
Carolyn Parsons, who lives in Louisiana, said by phone Thursday that the information contained with the latest search warrant is “hard to hear.”
She still hopes and prays every day that Erica is somewhere out there but just doesn’t want to come forward because she “doesn’t want anything to do with Casey and Sandy,” she said. And if that’s the case, she has a message for the teen.
“Erica if you see this, read this,” she said. “I have loved you from the very beginning. I love you now. They will not hurt you.”
She had strong words for the people she holds responsible for her daughter’s disappearance.
“I don’t have anything to say to them. You met with me to talk about giving my daughter back; 10 months and 15 days later my child goes missing. Be real, not psychotic nuts,” Carolyn said.
Carolyn said she doesn’t trust Casey and Sandy, but that “no parent wants to think that these people could do something, to think these people could kill somebody else’s child.”
Carolyn said she just wants to know what really happened to Erica, and she urged Sandy and Casey to speak up.
“Enough is enough, and it’s time to come forward and tell the truth,” she said.
The affidavit filed to support the Nov. 14 search also said investigators had begun to explore the possibility that Erica “may be deceased and her remains concealed at a yet unknown location.”
Investigators have never said publicly they suspected the teen might be dead. In response to questions about the warrant, Capt. John Sifford of the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office released a statement.
“The focus of our investigation hasn’t changed since the day Erica was reported missing, we are searching for a missing 15-year-old girl,” Sifford wrote.
William Parsons said little about the Nov. 14 search warrant and the details surrounding it.
He said investigators were nice and he had no problems with them being there. Parsons said he went inside his house, watched television and did chores while the search took place.
He said he had not been personally told about the findings of the latest search warrant, but had heard about it via the news. Parsons said he made one request of investigators: to let him know if they found Erica.
Investigators ask anyone with information about Erica Lynn Parsons to contact the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office at 704-216-8700.