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Holly Ann Harvey, 15, is directed to a seat at a preliminary hearing Thursday. The almost-9th grader is charged with fatally stabbing her grandparents. Photo/John Munford.

Sandra Ketchum, 16, appears before a Fayette magistrate judge on double murder charges Thursday. Photo/John Munford.

Friends knew of killing plot, but dismissed likelihood until suspects called after the killings

Teen killers asked if it had been on the news yet as they fled to Tybee Island

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitenNews.com

Sarah and Carl Collier died a violent death in their north Fayette home Monday because their granddaughter Holly and her girlfriend Sandy wanted to be “together forever,” according to Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department.

A law officer displays two knives that may have been the murder weapons found in the stolen pickup truck after the girls' arrest on Tybee Island. Photo/Fayette County Sheriff's Department.

Jordan said Sandy Ketchum had been forbidden from visiting Holly Ann Harvey at the Collier’s home, and he also confirmed that Holly and Sandy were romantically involved.

“I will tell you that I believe the evidence at trial will be that the motive was to gain freedom and to be able to stay together forever,” Jordan said.

Sandy sneaked into Holly’s basement bedroom Sunday night, and she hid under Holly’s bed when the grandparents came downstairs of the Newton Plantation home to confront Holly over the smell of marijuana wafting from the basement, Jordan said.

That’s when the deadly struggle began, the chief detective said.

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.

“At some point during that confrontation, Holly stabbed her grandmother with the knife,” Jordan said. Sarah Collier was 73; Carl Collier was 75.

As the Colliers pinned Holly down on the bed, Holly shouted at Sandy, “Why aren’t you helping me?” Jordan said.

Sandy, who is cooperating with police, then came out from beneath the bed and jumped into the fray, using a knife she had hidden with her, to take part in fatally stabbing Sarah Collier, Jordan indicated.

Mrs. Collier was still alive when Holly chased her grandfather upstairs as he tried to escape the melee, Jordan added.

Mr. and Mrs. Collier were stabbed at least 15 times each, Jordan said, choking up as he described details of the bloody crime scene.

“I believe Sarah [the grandmother] was stabbed many more times than that,” Jordan said, noting that he had not yet seen an autopsy report.

Holly and Sandy telephoned friends about the killings and asked if they had seen information about it on the news, Jordan said. The “friends” were mostly people Holly and Sandy had met while at a Regional Youth Detention Center, Jordan said.

“Once these friends learned they had actually done this, they were no longer on their side,” Jordan said. “... Kids started to tell their parents what was going on. We had a lot of informants in the first few hours.”

At the crime scene, Jordan said he found a poem with Holly’s belongings that “talked about Holly’s depression and that she cried herself to sleep at night.”

Holly and Sandy were both on suicide watch at separate juvenile detention facilities Tuesday evening, Jordan said.

It is not known if Holly was on medication to possibly treat depression, but a bottle of prescription medicine was found with her when she was arrested, Jordan said.

Holly, 15, would have been a freshman at Sandy Creek High School this year after attending Flat Rock Middle School last year, school officials said.

Sandy, 16, last attended the Fayette County Alternative School in 2003 and previously attended Fayette Middle School, officials confirmed.

Investigators believe Ketchum lived in the Brooks area, but those minor details haven’t been ironed out as the investigation continued Thursday, Jordan said. Det. Ethon Harper is the lead investigator on the case, Jordan added.