FILE 558 / 28 December 2024 / 70 MIN / express

Helping Mom With Murder

Grovetown, GeorgiaListen

The town

N ↑Town centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

grove town georgia ... this is eastern georgia near the south carolina border, about 20 minutes to augusta ... this is in columbia county about 0:04:05

History, in brief

Town note

In the 1860s the town was known as Bel-Air.

about 0:04:46

1881

It was officially incorporated as a city on January 1st, 1881.

about 0:05:02

1808

The name came from the Old Grove Baptist Church, founded in 1808.

about 0:05:10

Town note

The post-Civil War poet Paul Hamilton Hayne lived at Copse Hill and asked the US postal service to establish the Grovetown post office.

about 0:05:35
All 6 history facts

Town note

In the 1860s the town was known as Bel-Air.

about 0:04:46

1881

It was officially incorporated as a city on January 1st, 1881.

about 0:05:02

1808

The name came from the Old Grove Baptist Church, founded in 1808.

about 0:05:10

Town note

The post-Civil War poet Paul Hamilton Hayne lived at Copse Hill and asked the US postal service to establish the Grovetown post office.

about 0:05:35

Town note

Wealthy people from Augusta kept summer homes in Grovetown before they discovered Hilton Head.

about 0:05:59

Town note

The Roseland Hotel became the Eagle hotel in the 1880s.

about 0:06:16

The figures, as told

Money

Median home value$279,300
Median household income$63,860
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2024

Population

"15,608"

Comparison: "about 3,000 twenty years earlier". No direction stated.

As told in 2024 about 0:04:05

Median household income

"$63,860"

Comparison: "about $69,000 nationally". No direction stated.

As told in 2024 about 0:04:18

Median home price

"$279,300"

Comparison: "lower than the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2024 about 0:04:27

Sale price of Hot Springs Drive

"$316,500"

No direction stated.

As told in 2024 about 0:13:45

The reviews

3.3 / 5 · average of 3

5 stars

“A woman who moved from a small city in Mississippi five years earlier has no regrets; a positive, diverse environment where she has learned new things and had more opportunities.”
about 0:06:23

3 stars

“If you enjoy medium town living this is the place: within the suburbs of Augusta, small enough that families know each other, big enough for dinners and theatres.”
about 0:07:05

2 stars

“The city tries to be progressive with bike lanes and tidy parks and the sheriff controls traffic for schoolchildren, but the regular people are snobby and rude and the drivers are maniacs.”
about 0:07:40

In Georgia

Closest episodes

  1. Murder At Scary BridgeModoc, South Carolina · 17 June 202130 km / 19 miShow on map
  2. Evil Came To PlayMilledgeville, Georgia · 2 March 2024104 km / 65 miShow on map
  3. Two Sides Of One StoryEatonton, Georgia · 21 March 2019111 km / 69 miShow on map
  4. A Deadly LoveRutledge, Georgia · 18 July 2024131 km / 81 miShow on map
  5. Saving It For LaterTownville, South Carolina · 20 June 2019139 km / 86 miShow on map

The story

Grovetown is a small town in Columbia County in eastern Georgia, about twenty minutes from Augusta and close to the South Carolina border, with a population of around 15,600. The couples played mixed doubles tennis together, the boys played on the same baseball teams, and both women worked at the Healing Hands Physical Therapy Center.

Kay Parsons was born Laverne Katherine Sanner in Connellsville, Pennsylvania in February 1968, one of seven children. She graduated from Laurel Highlands High School, married David Parsons, a career soldier who later worked as a contractor, and in 1997 they had Derrick. Neighbours described her as an adventurer with a sense of humour, a baseball mother who went to all of her son's games.

A contractor who arrived at 8.45 found the glass in the back doors broken, blood spattered inside and the house in disarray, and called the police from outside. Deputies found Kay on the garage floor, still alive but severely beaten about the head. She was taken to the Medical College of Georgia Hospital and died that afternoon of head trauma. A gold necklace and a watch had been taken from her body, and outside the house police found a baseball bat and a claw hammer, both with blood and hair on them. The house next door at Hot Springs Drive had been burgled as well, and the first theory was that Kay had come home in the middle of a burglary.

He told her that if she did not have his money it would be her face; she turned to run and he fired, grazing both her legs before running towards the woods. A .22 casing was found at the scene.

Phone records showed that the affair, which she said had ended in February 2009, was still going on.

Michael, the older son, was questioned but ruled out after he admitted lying about his whereabouts because he had been using drugs. He then called his mother, who picked him up in the truck; he changed his clothes in the car and put the bloody clothes in a backpack.

Kay Parsons is buried at Sylvan Heights Cemetery in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The case was retold in a 2017 Investigation Discovery documentary and in the 2023 novel Hot Springs Drive.

The case

Murder of Kay Parsons

Victims

Kay Parsons (41). born Laverne Katherine Sanner in Connellsville, Pennsylvania; occupational therapy assistant at Healing Hands Physical Therapy, army wife and baseball mother

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 28 December 2024.

Accused

Accused

Outcome

Other people

David Parsons. Kay's husband, a retired soldier working as a contractor; having an affair with
Derrick Parsons. Kay and David's twelve-year-old son
Renee. sister, who helped Tony with the boys and moved with them
Vick Hawk. defence attorney for and
Richard Daniel Starrett. serial rapist, the county's previous death penalty case nearly 25 years earlier

The timeline

  1. February 1968 Kay Sanner is born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania to Arthur and Mabel Sanner.about 0:11:33
  2. 1997 Kay and David Parsons's son Derrick is born.about 0:12:46
  3. February 2009 later says her affair with David Parsons ended this month.about 0:33:27
  4. March 25, 2009 hides in a room at his mother's house, waits for Kay Parsons to leave, then breaks in through the back door with a hammer and stages a burglary upstairs. (Parsons house)about 0:37:22
  5. Thursday, March 25, 2009 Kay Parsons drops Derrick at school and returns home a little before 9 a.m. (Parsons house)about 0:16:41
  6. March 25, 2009, 8.45 a.m. A contractor arrives, finds the back glass doors broken and blood inside, and calls the police from outside. (Parsons house)about 0:17:07
  7. March 25, 2009 Deputies find Kay Parsons severely beaten but still alive on the garage floor. (Parsons house)about 0:18:09

Places and phrases

N ↑Town centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode