Hope, helplessness mingle at slain grandparents' funeral

<p>There was more confusion than anger Monday at the funeral services for an elderly couple allegedly stabbed to death by the granddaughter they tried to save from drugs.</p><p>Carl and Sarah Collier, both in their 70s, were reportedly killed last week by their 15-year-old granddaughter, Holly Harvey, and her female lover, 16-year-old Sandy Ketchum.</p><p>Naturally, the brutal slayings shocked this suburb south of Atlanta and the large Baptist church where the Colliers worshipped. But there was a sense, too, that the Colliers were willing to give their lives to reach out to their troubled granddaughter, whom they were raising while her mother served a prison term on drug charges.</p><p>Talking to nearly 1,000 mourners gathered at First Baptist Church of Fayetteville before the Colliers' side-by-side, closed caskets, the Rev. Glenn Stringham said the couple sacrificed their lives trying to help Harvey and Ketchum.</p><p>"I believe that even on Monday night, as blood streamed out of their bodies, that they called out to God, 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do,'" said the Rev. Glenn Stringham, a pastor at the church. "One day they will."</p><p>Harvey and Ketchum have been charged as adults with the Colliers' deaths.</p><p>Police say the girls were smoking marijuana in Harvey's room on Aug. 2 before Carl Collier confronted them, possibly about their drug use. Harvey is accused of planning the slayings, recruiting Ketchum to help stab her grandparents more than 15 times each so the pair could go to the beach, a trip the Colliers had refused to allow.</p><p>The girls took the Colliers' truck and fled to Tybee Island, on the Georgia coast. Harvey and Ketchum were arrested Tuesday after calling friends and telling them where they were. They have since been separated and placed on suicide watch.</p><p>Family members did not speak during the funeral, although Kevin Collier, son of Carl and Sarah, wrote a message in the program.</p><p>"No one could have ever guessed my loving parents would have gone to the Lord in this senseless way," he wrote. "I long to see them again, and have asked all the hard questions, but I know those answers are in God's hands."</p><p>That sense of helplessness dominated the service. A choir sang, "No matter what may come my way/ My life is in your hands," and three preachers talked about the confusion their killings leave behind.</p><p>"Our hearts cry out with one question: Why? Why here? Why now? There's one answer: Satan. ... We cannot blame God," said the Rev. John Glover, visiting from First Baptist Church of Atlanta, where the Colliers once worshipped.</p><p>After the service, mourners shared favorite memories of the Colliers. Sarah loved to sing, and Carl was happy to watch his bride in the church choir every Sunday. They both enjoyed camping, and drove to visit several presidential libraries. Church mission trips took them to Mexico City and Washington.</p><p>Don Harbin, a Tyrone resident who once worked with Carl Collier at Delta Air Lines, recalled a trip to Jamaica where the Colliers taught him and his wife how to water-ski.</p><p>"They were just super individuals," Harbin said.</p><p>Kevin Collier wrote that he was sure his parents were in a better place.</p><p>"My hope and desire is that your last memory of my parents today in that they are celebrating a new holy life _ together _ free from struggles here on earth," he wrote.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/8/163417