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Teen murder case goes to grand jury

Indictment would send suspects on to trial for killing grandparents

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

A Fayette County grand jury was presented with evidence Tuesday as sheriff’s detectives and prosecutors seek murder indictments on the two teenage girls accused of killing Carl and Sarah Collier in their north Fayette home Aug. 2.

Since their arrest the following day in Tybee Island, Holly Ann Harvey and Sandra Ketchum have remained in jail without bond, each charged with two counts of felony murder and two counts of malice murder for the violent stabbing deaths of the Colliers, who were Harvey’s grandparents.

Harvey was staying with the Colliers at the time while her mother served time in prison on marijuana charges, police said.

Prosecutors want the pair to be tried as adults, but they will not be eligible for the death penalty if found guilty, according to Georgia law.

It will not likely be known until later in the week whether the grand jury indicts Harvey and Ketchum. The indictments will remain under seal at the Fayette County Courthouse until they are opened by a superior court judge, at which time the results will become public record.

Police said Harvey, who had written the words, “Kill, keys, money, jewelry,” on her arm prior to the homicides, was the mastermind of the killings.

Harvey and Ketchum lured the Colliers into Harvey’s basement bedroom by smoking marijuana laced with cocaine, ultimately sparking the deadly confrontation, police said.

A possible motive for the crime was because Harvey and Ketchum, who were romantically involved, wanted to be “together forever,” but the Colliers forbid Ketchum from visiting their granddaughter at their home, police said.

Ketchum stabbed Sarah Collier to death in the basement while Harvey chased her grandfather up the stairs to the kitchen where she ultimately took his life with multiple stabs, police said.

Detectives also noted that phone lines to the residence had been cut, perhaps before the deadly assault took place.

Ketchum is cooperating with police; she and Harvey have been kept at two different juvenile detention facilities so they can’t have any contact with each other.

Ketchum, 16, attended school in Coweta County while Harvey, 15, would have been a freshman at Sandy Creek High School this year.