The After Show: Murder Next Door

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Now in your filial order. Adi, Utis, Fiala. Hello, everybody. Welcome to 2020 The After Show.

I'm Deborah Roberts and as always, it's good to have you with us as we take a second look

at our 2020 episode from this past Friday night. And we like to take you behind the scenes, share some details that maybe we didn't get a chance to get to because there's only so much we can fit in our program on a Friday night. But today on the After Show, you will hear some details that you did not hear. Many of you saw this story.

It happened in suburban Georgia, a woman by the name of Kay Parsons, a 41-year-old mom and wife, was found brutally beaten in her own garage. She was clinging to life. She's rushed to the hospital and later she died on March 26, 2009. Now, oddly, the next day, another bizarre crime

Kay's best friend and next to her neighbor, Becky Sears, was shot in the leg as she was leaving her job at a physical therapy center. She actually managed to call 911 herself. Take a listen. I guess the 911 has to take that location of your emergency.

Totally, my office and so they came out. Somebody had to use any shot at me. Okay, did you know where you did it? I'm not lagged. This was really strange to crimes within a very short time of each other.

Well, police were struggling to put the pieces together. Was there a serial attacker? Was there some other explanation for these back-to-back crimes involving two women who happened to know each other? Well, of course, it's 2020 and it turns out the truth here is stranger than fiction.

And we're going to jump into all of those details with correspondent Ryan Smith, who reported on this story and can give us more about the exclusive interviews, which he included in the piece. And also, as I said, share some information that you didn't necessarily learn about on Friday night, including a stunning letter

that was written from jail from someone who was at the center of all of this. You're going to hear it all for the first time here on this podcast.

“But in the meantime, Ryan Smith, hey, Ryan, how you doing?”

Dad, we're great to talk to you. Thanks for having me. I'm doing good.

It's always great having you on 2020 because you bring such a great viewpoint to these stories.

I mean, you're a lawyer in addition to being a great storyteller. And I always love hearing your reaction when these stories are presented to you. In this case, tell me a little bit about what struck you when you heard about the mysteries surrounding the K-Parson story. What was your first thought about it?

What really struck me about this is when I heard the word "growth town" Georgia, which is where this took place. I knew it because I knew of a gust of, a gust of Georgia's where the master's is played. And so I know the town. I know the area and this is sort of suburban town, USA.

I directly wonderful communities. The kind of place where attacks and killings just don't really happen. Just don't happen. Yeah, they don't. And so the first thing I thought was something's a mis here.

And the other thing I thought, Deborah, that really struck me. So I live in the suburbs. This is after living in the cities of Philadelphia and New York City for most of my life. I live in the suburbs. And one thing that occurs to me, living out here, is you know your neighbors.

You talk to your neighbors, but you don't really know them. You don't really know what goes on behind closed doors. And this is a case where what was going on behind closed doors makes a very, very big difference. Because it just goes to show that what you see on the outside

isn't always what's going on on the inside.

Right. Let's go back then to March of 2009. You have a woman Kay who's found in her garage. Her contractor notices that her home has been broken into and calls police. They find her in her garage in a pool of blood.

This woman has been bludgeoned. She's clinging to life. Apparently it'd been hit with either some kind of a blunt object. They would later say a hammer and a baseball bat. When you think about the nature of a crime like that

and put your legal hat on for me because sometimes that tells an investigator something as opposed to a gunshot wound, right? Or somebody who was stabbed, maybe in some kind of a heat of the moment when somebody's beaten to death like that.

“That usually says something to investigators, doesn't it?”

It really does. For investigators, a lot of times they look at a scene like that, Deborah.

It's just an initial thought because authorities have to look at cases like this

“and sort of go with their initial gut and go from there based on the evidence.”

But you look at a situation like this. I've covered hundreds, sad to say, hundreds of killings and tough crimes and beatings. And a lot of times I find that if it's with a gun or something's resistance, that tends to suggest a little bit of a distance in terms of the relationship. Someone who's doing something but they can't close up attack someone or they're not close up

attacking someone. In this particular case, K Parsons was attacked with a hammer that appeared to be brought to the scene. And then after using the hammer, the attacker then grabbed her son's baseball bat and continued to brutally assault her with this bat. And so that to me suggests a level of heinousness, a level of gruesomeness that you don't often see.

But more than that, someone who was in the moment passionate and somehow was connected and had some sort of special hatred for K Parsons, which made this whole situation all the more shocking because K Parsons, for everybody we talked to, was a pillar of the community, everyone loved her. Her family was well known, everyone got along with her.

So it just didn't add up from the very beginning for authorities. And you actually, and the team had a chance to have access to the crime scene oftentimes and we're out there on these shoots. Sometimes it works out so we can actually go and see where it happened, sometimes it doesn't. But in this case, with one of the first responders, you were able to take a look.

What was that like for you?

Because it's always chilling to me to see where something so horrible happened,

even if it was years before. The heinousness of the crime becomes all the more vivid. And let me just say also, the first responder who I was there with talking to, he said in the moment he and his partner were there trying to save K's life trying to help her. But then also, they were worried that the attacker was still in the house.

So they're trying to hear the area and then also tend to K. He said it was one of the most chaotic, conflicting moments he had ever experienced. Yeah, and sometimes these people aren't accustomed to this kind of thing, either so it's even more traumatic for them because they don't get these kinds of crimes. Well, let's talk about Becky, then who is her home is burglarized.

She's a shot and is attacked the next day. So initially police aren't sure what to make of this. And then there's blood on the handle of the back door. And so the whole idea of what happened to her was it. What you said in the piece was it wasn't so much a clue at the time as it was a red flag.

Because she's her best friend and that's a little bit strange. Yeah, this whole thing from the very beginning was just a little bit vexing for authorities. So the thought the police had was okay. The attacker attacks K Parsons and whatever sort of fit of rage. Maybe trying to commit a robbery.

And then heads to the Sears home trying to commit a robbery. And then escapes.

Here's what doesn't make sense about that, Deborah.

If you attack somebody that brutally and you're attacking them and beating them within an inch of their life, what most attackers and killers do is they flee immediately, sensing what they've done. I'm going to get away from authorities.

“What would this attacker have done under that theory that they saw at that moment?”

Would be, okay, I attack this person, I injured K to the point that she's almost dying. And now I'm going to go and rob someone else. It just didn't add up. I told the agree with you. It doesn't add up.

So police are initially probably thinking these things like this is really bizarre. I mean, but then again, it could be somebody on some wild tear. So then you start digging, of course. And police begin to do this too in the very beginning, the two families. What's the connection, what do they like?

And give us a sense of what they were finding out about these two families. Because you present, as you said, in the piece about K being somebody that everybody looked up to in the community, what were peace, what were police discovering early on about the connection between the two families?

So the first thing you do, if you're authorities, you start looking into everyone and not all,

not necessarily for suspicion, but just trying to figure out the picture. So they found that K Parsons, she had at the time a young son. And Becky Sears also had a young son. K had one child, Becky had five, a couple of them were living with her in their house, along with her husband Tony.

K had a husband David and her one son. And these two couples were very friendly. Becky and K were very close, Becky helped K get a job at the clinic that she worked at. So these two were really good friends, their kids played together. And there was a real relationship between the families.

There was a real closeness. So I'm assuming that at least, initially authorities, as they're discovering information

“about the sears is about K Parsons, they're starting to figure hey, was this some way targeted?”

Because at first, K is attacked. And then someone robbed Becky Sears' home. It didn't quite make sense, but they're trying to put

Yeah, well in your piece, you of course start talking to folks around these families. And one thing that was really intriguing was your conversation with Michelle Amerson. And she tells you about a strange conversation that actually happened with Becky. After K had been killed, let's take a listen to a part of it that you didn't get a chance to hear on Friday night.

“Tell me what it was like when you first saw Becky after K?”

So she came just very shortly after, and she came out. We walked out to our back porch and we all were sitting around talking. She was hugging on Michael and you know, just, we was all kind of consoling. And, you know, I was out there and I mentioned to her. I said, you know, I just hope that they find out who did this, you know, and she looked.

And she said, I don't care if they ever find out who did this. She said, I care that they leave my family alone. And how did that make you feel? I was a little shocked, but, you know, I was trying not to read into everything. We were all in traumatized still, but, you know, later I kept thinking,

“that's not a normal thing for somebody who say they weren't worried about, you know,”

that we still had a dangerous person out that could get to any of us.

Was confused why she would say something like that, but that was my first intuition that,

you know, something that all go together at that point for us. Why did you feel that way? I don't know, because how could you say you didn't care, you know, if everybody, you know, everybody else, you just had your best friend injured and she has passed away. And then you're just saying, you don't care as long as I leave your family along, that didn't make sense to me.

All right, that is pretty strange, right? That was, I mean, it had to strike you as pretty strange. I mean, it blew me away, because here's, and there's a couple things that everybody has to understand about this story, Deborah. The first thing is, all of this is happening really fast.

I'm talking about within days. So when Kate Parsons is first attacked,

the entire neighborhood. In fact, most of the entire town is on high alert.

“People are wondering, is someone walking through the streets attacking people?”

Am I in danger? Is my family in danger? So when Michelle is having this discussion with Becky Sears, she's like, man, I hope they catch this guy. I hope they find or whoever it is. I hope they find whoever did this, because I'm worried about me. I'm worried about everyone. I'm worried about what happened with Kate. And Becky is like, I'm worried about my family. It just didn't add up to Michelle. And Kevin, mine, Deborah, Michelle and Becky were friends. They had sons who played together.

So on teams together. So this was completely out of the blue. And Michelle is kind of like, wait, your family? I mean, what about the community? Like, why would they be looking at your family? That didn't add up well. We're going to have to take a break in a second. So don't go anywhere. But as you said, Becky was mysteriously shot in the leg here. And then she's making these very odd comments. When we come back, we're going to play a little bit more of that 911 call. And also,

more about Becky's story. Because that's where everything started to change for police. You're going to hear a little clip that you haven't actually heard from something that hasn't been revealed before. And it changes everything in this case. So don't go anywhere. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. May is mental health awareness month. And that means it's a good time to check in on yourself. So take a moment and ask yourself how you're feeling.

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and counting. Head over to bombas.com/20 and use code 20 t-w-e-n-t-y for 20% off your first purchase. That's billmbs.com/20 and the code t-w-e-n-t-y at checkout. Welcome back to 2020 the after show everybody. I'm here with Ryan Smith who reported on our latest 2020 episode that you may have seen that just aired. The case of K Parsons who was brutally attacked rushed to a hospital on the morning of March 25th and then dies the next day from her injuries.

Ryan and I have been sort of unpacking all of this and this is kind of where it all gets kind of interesting. Police get a 911 call from K's best friend Becky who was shot. You heard a little bit

of that 911 call. We're going to play a little bit more.

Did he say anything for you? He said if he didn't, it isn't funny. The next um, it would be not safe. So two women, best friends, attacked within two days and they happened to live next door to each other. Ryan, as you said, things were not adding up and police were sort of a casting a wide net

“looking at all kinds of folks in the very beginning. Yeah and they're like where did that come from?”

This Becky series getting shot and a man saying if it's not if it doesn't have his money, it's going to be her face. This is when police are starting to think is there's someone trying to attack people. But one thing they do is they sort of look at Becky, but they're just at this point trying to cast a net and figure out what's going on. You got two robberies, somebody getting shot in a place where things like this just don't happen. Obviously police are

and um, a loss in the beginning. Nothing is being much revealed, but then there's an unlikely

tipster. This was really pretty shocking. Becky's have brother Jerry calls police with some critical

information about her. Yeah. Deborah, can I just say that in a case like this, this is about as unlikely as scenario that could ever happen. Police can't make this up. You just literally can't write it. They don't write this in Hollywood. This is a situation where it's a couple days after and this is major news. The attack on Kay that she had been murdered, that she had been killed and Becky's brother Jerry is in jail on a minor traffic offense and he's watching this

on television. He calls police and says, hey, I want to talk to you about something. Okay, fine. That's Becky's brother makes sense. Let's talk to him. He says that Becky was having an affair with Kay's husband, David Parsons. This blows police away for a bunch of different reasons. Then he says Becky also talked to him, talking about Jerry, about different ways that he might get rid of someone, like trying to cut somebody's breaks, asking about different options.

So much going on, but for police, this breaks everything wide open because it's like, now it makes sense. And the people we've been talking to, Becky, we got to look at them all up closer. And of course, you and I've seen this in other stories that we've done. I mean, it's one thing, though, for them to be having an affair, doesn't necessarily connect her to the crime, but then police call Becky in for an interview. And you include it part of that interview

in your piece. Let's play part of it that you didn't hear on Friday night. Let's take a listen.

“And that's what he said he used to hang it where he was. He hit the glass on the back door”

and then it didn't break. And so he had to hit it again. And he wouldn't stop. And he didn't say what he did why he was in there. And he didn't say where he went or where he was at when she got a home. And the next thing he said was that she tried to go out of the garage and he pushed the garage but to close the garage. The keeper from escape. Yes. And then he hit it with the bat and then he had to push her up against the motorcycle. Ryan, hearing a mom essentially like bring her own her own

son and to a heinous crime like this, which make of it. We hear Becky doing this and even

about him. It just wasn't mine. I can't even picture it. I mean, I guess it's someone instead of

“the source. But I just can't I can't believe what do you think? I think well, I was shocked. I”

think our audience was shocked too. You just do not expect that, you know, from a mom. So then within days of each other and you and I talked about this, I mean, this thing happened pretty quickly too. Within days, you know, Chris and Becky are arrested charged with four specific counts related to the killing of K Parsons. And the district attorney is going to seek the death penalty, which they don't do lightly. You know that as a lawyer. Tell me a little bit about the

nature of this crime and how they the prosecutors were thinking that this all played out to lead them to that point that they're going to go after the death penalty. Yeah, this is very

interesting because it first thought is Christopher did it. But once they start unpacking everything,

that's one of the death penalty parts gets heightened. The way they see it breaking down is Becky is the mastermind. She and Chris are very close. So she grits. She hatches a plan and she gets Chris involved in it. She goes and picks up Chris from his house. She drops him off in the early morning hours. He's supposed to wait until the kids go to school. So the kids aren't her. Meaning not only K's kid, but Becky's kids. So everybody's out. And then he jumps the fence, attacks K and then leaves.

Then he goes and robes or stages a robbery at Becky's house to make it look like it's not a crime a passion. It's some burglar attacking the neighborhood. And then he goes and runs into the woods, calls his mom Becky. She comes and picks him up. Now there's a couple different elements of this. He's got evidence on his clothes. He's got blood on him. She helps him clean up. So for authorities here, this is a classic death penalty case. And it's really hard to bring these cases for prosecutors.

But they look like this and even said at the time, this was one of the most gruesome crimes

“they had ever seen. When you have a case like this that shocks the conscience, you have to go”

for the highest possible penalty. You know, you and I, as I said, do so many of these stories.

And we hear all the motives. And you know, and people always sort of think they're going to

commit the perfect crime, right? They're going to be able to sort of, you know, throw police off the sentence. It just never happens. Well, as I said, there are parts of the story that we are revealing here on the podcast that you all are getting a chance to learn about that you didn't see Friday night. And when we come back, so don't go anywhere Ryan, you don't either because we've got that jail house letter that Becky wrote to Chris from behind bars just weeks after their arrest. And we're going

to actually share it with you. You'll be the first people to hear it. So don't go anywhere. I'm Stanley Tucci, and I want to invite you on a journey through the country that I love. Italy. Join Stanley Tucci for a new season. You're a good cut-out, babe. Of National Geographic, Tucci and Italy. All right, should we eat? National Geographic, Tucci and Italy, and all new season is now streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu.

Welcome back to 2020, one of the actors show. I am going through the details of last Friday, night's program with correspondent Ryan Smith, who reported on it for 2020. And we have been talking about just how mind boggling this story is. And particularly for us as parents,

“because this does involve a mother-son duo who are charged in this crime. And I think we had a certain”

reaction to it. Becky and Chris both under arrest, charged with the brutal murder of K Parsons, who was supposed to be Becky's dear friend. And now Becky and her son Chris are facing the

possibility of the death penalty. Ryan, as a lawyer, you know, it's not always easy for

prosecutors to make these decisions, because they've got to prove these cases. So they're going for the death penalty. But over the course of time, this doesn't happen. Becky and Chris actually strike a plea deal, which avoided the death penalty for both of them. But it took a while, what about three years for this to finally happen? Why did it go for so long? Do you think they would just sort of waiting for their best option? I mean, they could have been in court and

convicted quickly. You're absolutely right. But you know what, Deborah, and I can't speak to what was actually in Becky and Chris's mind. But I can tell you this, especially with respect to Becky, I can say this. A lot of times, in cases like this, that I've seen, once trial gets real close, and you're facing death, things get real, like really real. So my sense, at least for prosecutors, right before trial, or right around the time,

Becky comes forward and says, Hey, I've got information about this case. Now, I want to back

a lot of evidence. See, part of the problem was they never found the clothes or any of that stuff

that was involved in the attack one case. So their thought was, Chris did the attacking, but whereas clothes were the evidence were the fingerprints. There was very little of that. She was able to say to them, I know where the bloody clothes are. I know where the DNA is. It's in my mom's house in a book bag, in a backpack. So they go, they get the clothes, it has the DNA on it. They go to Christopher. They say, we got your DNA. He says, I'm going to

plead to and right there death penalty is off the table. And some people may be listening to this and say, Well, that's not fair. I mean, they did this heinous crime. They admitted to it. It should still be the death penalty. What a lot of times prosecutors will do is that is such a long and arduous process that prosecutors want to spare the family and the loved ones of the victims, all the pain of going through all that by saying, Look, they're going to be behind bars for the

rest of their lives. So that is a better result than going five, 10 years down the line and seeing what happens with the death penalty. Yeah. Yeah. But these two did finally copped to it and they were sentenced to life without parole, as you said, back in 2012. Well, as I mentioned earlier, we did actually have access to an emotional letter that Becky wrote to her son. I mean, it's somewhat emotional, but also somewhat matter of fact. And you didn't get to hear it on Friday

nights episode. But Ryan, you've got a copy of that letter. Can you give us a sense of what it says? Deborah, hold your breath for this because this is, and you know this is like, we do these cases, especially when someone's behind bars. We try to talk to them. We try to get information about what they're saying to each other or writing to each other. And it's really hard to get. But here we get this letter and just you got to hear this. This is Becky

writing to Christopher. Here she is, dear CB, that's talking about Christopher. Hey, baby, how are you doing? Not too good. I'm sure. I'm sorry that you have been dragged into this mess. I don't even know how

“it happened. I guess you should have gone to your job that day instead of coming to my office.”

I wouldn't blame you if you hated me. I know I let you down. I let all of you down. I miss you in the baby so much. It's driving me crazy. I hope you know how much I love you. It was nice to finally get to see you yesterday. I hope you heard me when I said, I love you too. I caught your kiss. Did you get mine? All of the girls keep saying, man, he is so fine. She's like, I guess you should have gone to your job instead of coming to my office as if he might have convinced her that he wanted

to do this when he doesn't have a dog in the fight, right? He's not having an affair with David, Becky here trying to connect with her son yet also throwing him under the bus. It is just something

I have never even thought of as a parent. Do you think that her, I mean, we didn't have the

benefit of a trial to be able to sort out all these details, which we would have learned more. Do you think it was just sort of the age old? Let me get rid of the wife and then I can have the

“husband that I'm having the affair with? I do. And I think that even David had talked to police”

about how he broke it off, but also David had continued having interactions with her after he said he broke it off and even when Kay was attacked, Becky was the first person she called when he was trying to find Kay and couldn't get to her. Well, as you said, you know, we didn't get a chance to know more about it because there was no trial. Our team did reach out though to Becky and to Christopher with the hopes of hearing from them. Neither agreed to do an interview, but he

Chris actually did send along this statement that says, in part, I've never revisited the crime

scene in my head until recently. I couldn't handle it. It's so dark, but it's a place I know I have to go to if I want to be able to live with myself. And I want to be able to live with myself someday. A person is dead because of actions I took. So, you know, I mean, again, it's not dripping with remorse, but he clearly recognizes that he's got to acknowledge that he did something pretty terrible. You know, I just have to say a lot of times when we do these cases,

I spend a lot of time thinking about the victims and the people associated with the victim's case son, which is what it should be really about when we're talking about the crime. Yes. And this what Christopher says here reminds me of what a lot of people who have been convicted of crimes

“sometimes do, which is they separate themselves from the situation. I think one of the most interesting”

things about what he says here is I've never revisited the crime scene in my head until recently. So, um, um, case relatives, they revisit that in their head every single day, probably. Christopher has the benefit of being able to say I haven't done it until recently, kind of indicating it would have been so hard for me. That is probably something that is very difficult for a case family to hear. But I tell you, Deborah, going through that neighborhood,

just even talking to people randomly that we didn't get on camera. You got the sense that not only with this neighborhood, always going to be affected by what happened to K, but the K will always be remembered as somebody who touched their life in a positive way. Well, that's the the most

great connecting with you. We're going to have to find time to see each other. Yes, soon, soon,

“can't wait and great talking to you. As always, you too, so great to talk to you. Well, thank you”

all so for being with us today. And for just once again, revisiting one of our stories,

you can watch, of course, our 2020 episodes on Friday nights on ABC. And you can stream episodes

“like this one on Disney Plus and Hulu. Thanks for being with us, everybody. Take care. Have a good day.”

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