Investigators searching home of missing teen’s adoptive parents

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Updated at 3:45 p.m.

The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office has asked the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to create an age-progression photo of missing teen Erica Lynn Parsons.
The photo previously released by authorities was taken when Erica was about 13 years old. She’s now 15.
A Sheriff’s Office spokesman says authorities don’t know when the age-progression photo will be available.
Investigators with the Sheriff’s Office, SBI and FBI continue searching the Miller’s Chapel Road home of Erica’s adoptive parents, Sandy and Casey Parsons.
The Sheriff’s Office said this morning investigators would conduct a news briefing after they finished searching the home and property. Now a spokesman says there will be no briefing and that “specific information regarding the nature of the search or results of the search will not be released in order to protect the integrity of an ongoing investigation.”
Erica was last seen in November 2011. She was just reported missing July 30.
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Updated at 3:16 p.m.
The next-door neighbor of the parents of a teenager missing since 2011 says she never saw Erica Lynn Parsons at the home being searched today.
Patti Miller said she’s been watching investigators from the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, SBI and FBI search the house and property at 218 Miller Chapel Road.
The search began this morning and continues this afternoon.
Miller said she’s seen investigators take a computer and papers from the home and search a garage apartment behind the house. She said they’ve also taken statements from neighbors.
Miller also said that investigators have taken apart a deck on the house.
Of Sandy and Casey Parsons, the adoptive parents of 15-year-old Erica Parsons, Miller said she feels she’s “more concerned about her whereabouts than they are.”
Miller said she hopes Erica Parsons is found alive, but fears the worst.
Erica Parsons hasn’t been seen in Rowan County since November 2011. Her older adoptive brother reported her missing July 30.

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Original article:
Investigators are searching the home of missing teenager Erica Lynn Parsons’ adoptive parents.
Erica Parsons, 15, has been missing since November 2011. She was just reported missing July 30 by her older adoptive brother.
Her adoptive parents, Sandy and Casey Parsons, contend she went to live with her biological grandmother in Asheville. Authorities say they haven’t been able to verify information given them by the parents.
Investigators with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, the state SBI and the FBI’s Charlotte Evidence Response Team are serving a search warrant this morning at the Parsonses’ 218 Miller Chapel Road home. WBTV, which has a helicopter in the area, says deputies are going house-to-house in the neighborhood, as well.
“A search of this type is a standard law enforcement technique, and in this case is one of many investigative tools being utilized in our efforts to locate Erica,” the Rowan Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Authorities said Erica’s adoptive parents initially cooperated but became “increasingly uncooperative” and after two days of questioning hired an attorney. They said the Parsonses had been untruthful with investigators.
The couple said they hired the attorney because the investigators’ questions turned into accusations. They said they let Erica go to Asheville to stay with her biological grandmother three times in late 2011. The third time, they say, she called and told them she didn’t want to come back to Salisbury.
The couple said they haven’t been in contact with Erica since around Christmas 2011. Casey Parsons said they tried calling a few times since then, but the calls wouldn’t go through. She said they never reported Casey missing or called Asheville police because they believed she was safe.
“To me, she’s still not missing. She’s not missing as far as I know who she’s with. I still believe she’s with Nan,” Casey Parsons said last week.
Erica’s biological mother is related the Parsonses and has said in published reports that neither she nor Erica’s biological father have relatives in Asheville. She’s also said that the woman who the Parsonses say Erica went to live with — Irene “Nan” Goodman — has been dead for several years.
Carolyn Parsons, the biological mother who now lives in Louisiana, told a Post reporter last week that she’d been asked by authorities not to give media interviews. She said she was coming to Salisbury early this week to speak with investigators. A Sheriff’s Office spokesman said this morning that hasn’t yet happened.
Sandy and Casey Parsons and their attorney, Carlyle Sherrill of Salisbury, were to tape an episode of the “Dr. Phil” show this week. The show’s website does not say when that interview will be aired.
The Post has left telephone messages with Sandy Parsons and Sherrill.
Erica is described as small for her age. She is believed to be about 4 feet 5 inches tall, 85-90 pounds, with a thin build. She has brown hair and brown eyes.
Authorities ask anyone with information about Erica Parson’s whereabouts to contact 1st. Lt. Chad Moose at 704-216-8687 or Investigator Clint Mauldin at 704-216-8710 with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office.

Sandy and Casey Parsons spoke with reporters last week. Videos of the interview are available on the Post site.
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