Years after her disappearance, Erica Parsons' parents charged with murder

Almost seven years after their adopted 13-year-old daughter was last seen alive, Sandy and Casey Parsons face murder charges in her death.

Erica Parsons was reported missing by a relative in Rowan County in 2013. The relative told investigators she hadn’t seen Parsons since November 2011.

Parsons’ adoptive parents told authorities she went to stay with relatives in the Asheville area, and it took until September 2016 until her remains were found in South Carolina.

Authorities were long suspicious of Sandy and Casey Parsons.

"It's been a long time in coming," Rowan County Sheriff Kevin Auten said in announcing that the couple would face charges of first-degree murder, felony child abuse inflicting serious injury, felony concealment of a death and felony obstruction of justice.

Both are already serving federal prison sentences for fraud related to Erica's disappearance. They were convicted in 2015 of continuing to cash checks from Medicaid, Social Security and food benefits issued for the child.

Testimony at their trial revealed a pattern of abuse, and Erica's autopsy found she had multiple "blunt force injuries over a prolonged period, and the growth deficit and low bone density are consistent with malnourishment."

In the week prior to her disappearance, Erica's siblings described her as looking grey with sunken eyes, smelling bad with open, oozing cuts, very weak and complaining of not being able to breathe, the autopsy report said.

Jamie Parsons, biological son of Sandy and Casey Parsons, testified at his parents' trial that he, his siblings and his parents regularly abused Erica, including locking her in a closet.

The Parsons adopted Erica – her biological mother was a relative – when she was a baby. She lived with the family in Salisbury from 2000 until the time of her death.