Saturday June 14th, 2025 11:03AM

Girl accused of stabbing grandparents had 'kill' on to-do list

By The Associated Press
<p>Kill, keys, money, jewelry.</p><p>Those words were written as a to-do list on 15-year-old Holly Harvey's arm when she was arrested the day after her grandparents were stabbed to death in their suburban Atlanta home.</p><p>The girl recruited her 16-year-old lesbian lover to help her kill Carl and Sarah Collier because the grandparents, who Harvey lived with, had ordered her to stop seeing her friend and stop using drugs, the lead investigator in the case said Thursday.</p><p>Police described Harvey as "stone cold" and a "manipulator" who convinced Sandy Ketchum to sneak into the house late Sunday and wait in hiding with a knife under a bed until the grandparents were lured into the bedroom and attacked Monday night.</p><p>Harvey stabbed her grandmother first and then struggled with them both before Ketchum emerged from her hiding place to help, said Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.</p><p>When the grandfather escaped from the room, Harvey cut the phone line in the house and chased him down, Jordan said. Carl Collier, 74, died in the kitchen; Sarah Collier, 73, died in the basement. Both were stabbed more than 15 times.</p><p>The girls had smoked marijuana before the killings. Jordan said they also had attempted to get some guns by calling friends they had met during their times in juvenile detention centers.</p><p>Investigators found a poem that Harvey had written in which she described how depressed she had been and that she cried herself to sleep. The poem contained the line, "All I want to do is kill."</p><p>"She wished for everyone to suffer the way she suffered," Jordan said.</p><p>The girls fled in the grandparent's truck. Police tracked them through the night as they made phone calls to friends, telling one they were on Interstate 16 heading for the Georgia coast.</p><p>When the girls were arrested at the home of two boys they had met on Tybee Island, Harvey laughed at each of the more than 25 arresting officers.</p><p>"She was callous and cocky. She is the coldest and most heartless individual I've ever interviewed. It almost made her giddy to know we had brought that many people to arrest her," Jordan said.</p><p>While Harvey has not cooperated with investigators, Ketchum has been helpful, Jordan said. He said that Ketchum strictly "was in it for the love."</p><p>"I believe the evidence at trial will be that the motive was to gain freedom and be able to stay together forever," he said.</p><p>Police found three bloody knives they believe were used at the killing as well as the girls' bloodstained clothes when they made the arrest. One knife was in Ketchum's pocket, the other two were wrapped in a towel in the grandparents' vehicle.</p><p>The girls are being held at separate youth detention centers. The two will be tried as adults on charges including felony murder, malice murder and armed robbery.</p><p>They made their first court appearances Thursday. They were escorted into court together, wearing bulletproof vests with their hands cuffed in front of them. Both sniffled as the charges were read.</p><p>As deputies led Harvey out of the courtroom, she glanced back for one more look at Ketchum.</p><p>"Her world has been turned upside down. She still appears to be in shock," said Judy Chidester, Harvey's court-appointed defense attorney. "She's acting like a scared 15-year-old, which is exactly what she is."</p><p>A couple of Ketchum's friends arrived at the courthouse to show their support.</p><p>"Sandy's not that kind of person. She had to be pressured into it," said 17-year-old Missy Shepherd. "I just can't see Sandy doing this on her own. She was in love with Holly."</p>
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