Relatives of missing Rowan Co. teen questioned by investigators

By Mark Becker

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. —The relatives of 15-year-old Erica Parsons spent Friday answering questions from investigators about the missing teen.

Investigators interviewed at least two family members, Robin Ashley and her mother, about the 15-year-old’s disappearance.

Investigators said Erica Parsons was gone almost two years before her adoptive parents reported her missing.

Channel 9 asked Erica’s aunt, Robin Ashley, if she knew why she was there.

“Just to meet, just for an interview,” Ashley said.

That interview would include what she knows about her sister and brother-in-law, Casey and Sandy Parsons, and what she might know about Erica’s life at their home southwest of Salisbury.

The Parsons couple told detectives that they let the girl go to a relative’s house for the holidays in 2011 and she refused to come home.

Legal documents raise new questions in missing teen case

But after the interview, Robin Ashley and her mother told Channel 9 they wished they had pushed for answers sooner.

“We’re just here because we want justice for Erica and that’s it,” said mother Shirley Stone.

Stone wouldn’t tell Channel 9 what investigators asked them or what they told them.

But with her granddaughter missing and her own daughter now at the center of the investigation, she feels like she has lost on both counts.

“We’ve lost two family members and one was just a little girl,” Stone said.

On Thursday, Channel 9 learned within the past two years Rowan County sheriff’s deputies have been called to the Parsons home seven different times.

In August 2011, deputies were called to the home for a domestic-violence incident while a 3-year-old child was inside the house.

In 2012, authorities said someone at the home filed a missing-persons report, but not for Erica.

And twice this year, deputies said they went to the home for more domestic-violence calls.

CASE TIMELINE:

February 2010 – 16-year-old James Parsons arrested for biting younger brother

August 2011 – Domestic violence call involving 3-year-old child, court records show, charges later dismissed

November 2011 – Erica Parsons last seen by grandparents

2012 – Missing-persons report filed for Erica’s adoptive sister, Brooke Parsons

July 2013 – Erica Parsons reported missing by James Parsons