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Teens to face trial as adults

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Two teenage girls accused of violently stabbing one’s grandparents to death in their north Fayette home Aug. 2 have been indicted on murder charges.

The indictments were unsealed Wednesday, charging Holly Ann Harvey and Sandra Ketchum with two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder and one count of armed robbery.

The indictment by a Fayette County grand jury means the girls will face trial for the deaths of Carl and Sarah Collier, who were taking care of Harvey at the time of their death because her mother was in prison serving time on drug distribution charges.

The Colliers tried to keep Harvey and Ketchum,Êwho were lovers,Êapart, police said. That was part of the motivation for the killings, according to Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan, chief detective for the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department: that they wanted to be “together forever.”

Harvey is touted as the mastermind of the crime, writing the words, “Kill, Keys, Money and Jewelry,” on her arm as a checklist. But Ketchum, who is cooperating with authorities, also took part in the stabbings, police said. When Harvey chased her grandfather up the stairs to where she ultimately killed him in the kitchen area, Ketchum stabbed Mrs. Collier in Holly’s basement bedroom where the struggle began, police said.

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

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. The maximum possible sentence is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The armed robbery charge stems from the taking of Mr. Collier’s 2002 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, which the girls used in their escape.

Local deputies were notified that the girls had stopped at a friend’s house in Griffin, their clothes soaked in blood, and Harvey admitted to the friend that they had just killed her grandparents, police said.

The girls were caught less than a day after the killings when police tracked them to Tybee Island where they had stayed overnight in a home with two boys they had met on the beach, police said.

Ketchum, 16, attended school in Coweta County last year and Harvey, 15, was enrolled at Sandy Creek High School this year as a freshman, school officials said.