Last October's brazen daytime high-set-the-loove was shocking. Now, nearly a year out, there are still critical questions to be answered. Where did they go? And second, where did they come from? In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day, like you've never heard them before, through the eyes of the people who live them.
On the pavement, I saw something shiny. You did see the crown. Yes, exactly. High-set-the-loove, a new series from ABC Audio, available now ad-free on Amazon Music. 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 was 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-door 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 is the big application of your emergency. Tell me when my office and somebody came out to my other trees and he shot me. Okay, do you know where you're getting at? Uh, my leg. Okay, I don't want to be in there. Okay, I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm looking at you.
Becky Sears. This was really strange, two crimes within a very short time of each other. Well, police were struggling to put the pieces together. Was there a serial attacker? Or 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? I have a 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 Cape Harrison 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 Augusta, Augusta, Georgia is where the masters displayed. And so I know the town, I know the area, and this is sort of suburban town USA. I did it. Wonderful communities. The kind of place where attacks and killings just don't really happen.
Yeah, they don't. And so the first thing I thought was something's a miss here. And the other thing I thought to ever really struck me, so I live in the suburbs, this is after living in the cities of Philadelphia, 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 they've 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,
and they think either a crime of passion or some sort of connection to the victim. 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, said 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 of a distance, 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, Kay Carson 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 groups on this 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 Kay Carson, which made this whole situation all the more shocking because Kay Parsons, from 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 when we're out there on these shoots. Sometimes it works out so we can actually go and see where it happens. 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 was talking to, he said in the moment, he and his partner were there trying to save Kay'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 clear the area. And then also tend to Kay. He said it was one of the most chaotic and 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 dramatic 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 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 is what you said in the piece was it wasn't so much a clue at the time as it was a red flag. 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 Kay Parsons in 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 gonna get away from authorities. What would this attacker have done under that theory that they saw at that moment would be okay, I attacked this person. I injured Kay 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 Kay being somebody that everybody looked up to in the community. 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 also not necessarily for suspicion, but just trying to figure out the picture. So they found that Kay Parsons, she had at the time a young son and Becky Sears also had a young son. Kay had one child. Becky had
five. A couple of them were living with her in their house along with her husband Tony. Kay had husband David and her one son. And these two couples were very friendly. Becky and Kay were very close.
Becky helped Kay 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. It was a real closeness. So I'm assuming that at least initially authorities, as they're discovering
information about the searses about Kay Parsons, they're starting to figure, hey, was this some way targeted because at first Kay is attacked. And then someone robs Becky Sears's home. It didn't quite make sense, but they're trying to put together that picture. 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 Kay 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 Kay. So she came this 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 just
was all kind of consoling. And I was out there and I mentioned to her, I said, I just hope that they find out who did this. 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'd that make you feel? I was a little shocked,
but I was trying not to read into everything. We were all in traumatized still. But later, I kept thinking that's not a normal thing for somebody to say. They weren't worried about 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 something didn't 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, 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 they leave your family alone. That didn't make
sense to me. All right, that is pretty strange, right? That was I mean, I 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 the 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 is on high alert. People are wondering if 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, 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. Okay. And Becky is like, I'm
worried about my family. It just didn't add up to Michelle and keep in mind, 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 show is sponsored by Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID on June 25th, 2011.
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2020 episode that you may have seen that just aired. The case of Kay Parsons who was brutally attacked rushed to a hospital in 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 Kay'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.
Oh, I don't know if he shot me if he missed me. There's a hole in my boot. Don't be what happened. I would leave him on office. Go into my truck and he came out and he chased me back to store it and he shot me. Did he say anything for you? He said if he didn't get his
money the next time it would be my face. So two women best friends attacked within two days and they happen to live next door to each other. Ryan as you said things were not adding up and police are sort of like 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 Sears getting shot and a man saying if it's doesn't have his money it's going to be her face. This is when police are starting to think
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 a loss in the beginning. Nothing is being much revealed but then there's an unlikely tipster.
This was really pretty shocking. Becky's half 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 a like the 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 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. He just 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 them 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 you've been talking to Becky, we got to look at them a whole lot closer. And of course, you know, 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. Ryan, hearing a mom essentially like bring her own son into a heinous crime like this, what do you make of it? You're Becky doing this and even you hear the officers and you heard in our program hearing the officers talking about what she said about him. It just might
be like I can't even picture it. I mean, I guess it's a source, but I just can't believe it. What do you think? I think I was shocked. I think our audience was shocked too. You just do not expect
that 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 Kay 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 at first the thought is Christopher did it,
but once they start unpacking everything, that's one of the death penalty part gets heightened. The way they see it breaking down is Becky is the mastermind. She and Chris are very close. So she gets, she hatches a plan and she gets Chris involved in it. She goes and picks up Chris from his house. She drops him off from the early morning hours. He's supposed to wait until the kids go
to school. So the kids aren't her, meaning not only Kay's kid, but Becky's kids. So everybody's out and then he jumps the fence, attacks Kay and then leads. Then he goes and robs or stages a robbery at Becky's house to make it look like it's not a crime of passion. It's some burger 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 don't have this and even set 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 and I, as I said, do so many of these stories and we hear all the motives and people always think they're going to commit the perfect crime, right? They're going to be able to sort of 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 jailhouse letter that Becky wrote to Chris from behind bars just weeks after their arrest. We're going to actually share it with you. You'll be the first people to hear it. So don't go anywhere. Fallen in my lap is huge. FX is the lowdown.
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FX is the lowdown, now streaming on Hulu. Welcome back to 2020, the after-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 were charged in this crime. And I think we had a certain reaction to it.
Becky and Chris both under arrest charged with a brutal murder of Kate 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. And 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. It went about three years. For this to finally happen. Why did they go for so long? Do you think they were 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. No, I want to back up just for a second, because there was one thing prosecutors were missing in this case. There wasn't 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 on K. So their thought was, Chris did the attacking,
but where's clothes were the evidence? Where 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 the same as 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. The 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 cop 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. I mean, you didn't get to hear it on Friday night's episode. But Ryan, you got a copy of that letter. Can you give us a sense of what it says? Deborah, hold your breath with us. 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 and 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 a fair 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 have to say a lot of times we do these cases. I spend a lot of time thinking about the victims and the people associated with the victims 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, 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 K's family to hear. But I tell you
that we're going through that neighborhood just even talking to people randomly that we didn't get on camera. You got the sense that not only was 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 most you can hope for in any of these communities that experience these tragedies. Ryan, as always, 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 also 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.
Did you know that if your spouse goes missing and you don't tell anyone? That's not necessarily a crime. That surprising fact is at the heart of the brand new season of Bearbrook, the critically acclaimed true crime podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio on your host Jason Moon. In this season, Bearbrook investigates another New Hampshire mystery, a Christmas tree farm with dementia, vanishes. His wife never reports him missing. Can he still be
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