Teenage girls arrested for stabbing deaths of grandparents

<p>Two teenage girls wanted in the double stabbing deaths of one of the girl's grandparents were captured along the Georgia coast Tuesday.</p><p>Fifteen-year-old Holly Ann Harvey and her friend, 16-year-old Sandra Ketchum, face murder charges for using a kitchen knife to kill Harvey's grandparents, Carl and Sarah Collier, both 77. They were found dead Monday night at their suburban home in Fayette County, about 15 miles south of Atlanta, authorities said.</p><p>Police apprehended the teens at a Tybee Island beach house, said Fayette County Sheriff Randall Johnson. They will be returned to the county Wednesday, where they will be charged as adults with two counts each of felony murder and two counts of malicious murder.</p><p>The sheriff said the teens' pickup truck was found a couple of blocks from the house where they were arrested, and there was some evidence of the killings in the truck. He would not elaborate.</p><p>"They had hooked up with some local boys they had met on the beach last night who had given them shelter," said Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan, chief investigator for Fayette County. "They had no clue they (the girls) were involved in a homicide."</p><p>Ketchum surrendered peacefully, but Harvey tried to escape from her handcuffs, Jordan said.</p><p>Police haven't said what caused the quarrel between the girls and the grandparents.</p><p>"Our investigation indicated they were doing this for freedom and so they could be together," Jordan said.</p><p>The Colliers were stabbed repeatedly with a large knife after 6 p.m. Monday, sheriff's Sgt. Belinda McCastle said. Carl Collier was found in the kitchen, and Sarah Collier was in the basement.</p><p>Harvey had been living with her grandparents, McCastle said.</p><p>The Colliers were "hardworking, everyday churchgoing people" who had a lot of friends, Johnson said.</p><p>"I knew they had some problems with the granddaughter," Johnson said. He said he believes the killings were premeditated and that the girls had behavior problems.</p><p>"I think they just had conflicts with people in general," Johnson said.</p><p>On Tuesday, the Collier's white-brick ranch house and front yard was surrounded by yellow police tape, spanning from the curbside mailbox to a telephone pole and neighbor's trees. Three officers were seen walking around the property and inside the house, which had a small American flag hanging outside the front door.</p><p>Neighbor Neoma Gaskins, who lives two doors down, said the Colliers had lived at the house more than 30 years.</p><p>Carl Collier was a retired Delta Air Lines maintenance worker who painted houses and Sara Collier was a homemaker, Gaskins said. She said she knew of some family problems with Harvey and her grandmother.</p><p>"Sarah had told her Sunday school class they were having trouble with Holly," Gaskins said.</p><p>Rudolph Berthoud, a retired New York City police officer who lives near the Colliers' house, said he never expected to see a crime scene like this in his quiet neighborhood.</p><p>"I lived with crime all my life, but it's always been on the outside," he said. "If you live enough, it catches up with you."</p>

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