Holly Harvey (R) and Sandra Ketchum
will be tried as adults in the Monday stabbing deaths of Harvey's grandparents
in north Fayette County, law officers say. The two were arrested on
Tybee Island after fleeing in the dead couple's truck. Undated photo/Fayette
County
Sheriff's Department.
Middle-school
double murder suspects caught after fleeing to Tybee Island
“I’ve never seen it more cruel than this one,” Fayette County
Sheriff Randall Johnson said Tuesday of a particularly bloody double murder
of an elderly couple in their north Fayette retirement home.
Johnson said officers arrested a Flat Rock Middle School girl along with
her friend who authorities say participated in fatally stabbing the girl’s
grandparents.
Holly Ann Harvey, 15, and her friend, Sandra “Sandy” Ketchum,
16, were found at Tybee Island early Tuesday afternoon a few blocks away
from their abandoned getaway vehicle, said Johnson.
Ketchum had attended Fayette Alternative School until early last year, according
to a school official.
Harvey had a troubled relationship with her grandparents, neighbors said.
The girl had frequent arguments with the grandmother, neighbors reported.
The two will be charged as adults with two counts of felony murder and two
counts of malice murder for the deaths of Carl and Sarah Collier, both 77,
Johnson said.
With her mother in prison, Harvey was being raised by her grandparents at
their home at 226 Plantation Drive in the Newton Plantation subdivision,
police said. That’s the extreme northeastern tip of Fayette County,
within a mile of the Clayton County line.
That’s where the Collier’s bodies were found Monday evening, stabbed
multiple times, according to Sgt. Belinda McCastle of the Fayette County
Sheriff’s Department. The grandfather’s body was found in the kitchen
while the grandmother’s body, stabbed at least 15 times, was discovered
in the basement, according to news reports.
Harvey and Ketchum were spotted after a team of sheriff’s deputies
located Mr. Collier’s truck, a blue 2002 Chevrolet Silverado which the
two had used to flee the murder scene, police said.
Detectives were following up to make sure the girls weren’t involved
in any other crimes that could have been committed on the way to Savannah,
Johnson said.
“We don’t know if they pulled anything else,” Johnson said.
Harvey’s mother, identified only as Carla by authorities, is serving
time in prison on drug charges, police said.
Harvey attended Flat Rock Middle School last year and was due to be a freshman
at Sandy Creek High School this year, according to schools spokesperson Melinda
Berry-Driesbach.
Ketchum hasn’t attended school in Fayette County since February 2003
when she was in the eighth grade at the Fayette County Alternative School,
Berry Driesbach said. Prior to that, Ketchum was a student at Fayette Middle
School, she added.
Typically, students are sent to the alternative school for disciplinary
reasons.
Sheriff Johnson confirmed that Harvey has had brushes with trouble before,
but he declined to provide further details.
Johnson said he thought the crime was premeditated and that he was taken
aback at the nature of the killings.
The sheriff added that he had known Mr. Collier for over 40 years, and that
Collier was a county poll worker during elections and painted houses with
his son after retiring from Delta.
Johnson said he wasn’t sure if the suspects took money from the Collier
residence. Another news report indicated that authorities found nothing of
value missing from the home.
Mr. Collier was a former member of the Fayette County Board of Education,
serving from 1973 through 1978. The Colliers also attended Fayetteville First
Baptist Church.
Deputies went to the crime scene late Monday afternoon after a tip came
in from Spalding County to execute a house check on the residence, police
said.
Deputies received information that the two suspects had gone to a friend’s
house in the neighboring county and were attempting to clean themselves up,
presumably from blood splatter that remained from the assault, police said.
From there, the teen fugitives motored to the Georgia coast, where they were
caught.
Records indicated that deputies responded to the home July 10 to take a
missing child report but the child later was found. It could not be confirmed
by press time whether it was Harvey who was reported missing.
At press time Tuesday, it was not known how Harvey became friends with Ketchum,
police said.
Hazel Thompson, who lives a couple of doors down from the Collier’s
home, said neighbors had been talking about how Harvey “was always fighting
with her grandmother,” but she had no personal knowledge of that.
“It’s so sad because they were such a nice couple, you know,” Thompson
said.
Mrs. Collier was known for her “little yard sales” which featured
antiques and knickknacks. She was very well-liked, Thompson added.
“We always call her Granny,” Thompson said. “She was always
very pleasant.”
Rodney McDaniel, who lives on the other side of the Colliers down the street,
said the killings caught him by surprise because the neighborhood is quiet
and peaceful.
“Who expects something like to happen in the neighborhood?” McDaniel
said.
Teen
Suspects 
