When 41-year-old army wife and baseball mom Laverne Katherine “Kay” Parsons was found beaten to death inside her Grovetown, Georgia, home in March 2009, it left the community baffled. That’s because she was so caring, kind, and loving that no one could have ever imagined anyone even wanting to hurt her, let alone fatally attack her with a claw hammer as well as a baseball bat. It took investigators a few days, as explored in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Secrets on Hot Springs Drive,’ but they were ultimately able to identify the victim’s lead assailant as Rebecca “Becky” Sears.
Rebecca “Becky” Sears Was Kay Parsons’ Neighbor and Best Friend
Rebecca “Becky” Bowers Sears was reportedly a single mother of two boys from a previous union when she first came across Tony Sears, but the chemistry between them was undeniable. The duo thus began getting to know one another without much regard for external factors, soon leading to a full-fledged romance that became a promise of forever when they tied the knot. They subsequently settled in Grovetown, Georgia, alongside her two sons, Michael “Mike” Bowers and Christopher “Chris” Bowers, and then, blissfully, welcomed 3 children of their own.
Becky was very active, bubbly, and social in the local tight-knit community, so it came as no surprise when she made friends with Laverne “Kay” Parsons not long after her family moved in right next door. Both women were army wives, mothers, and ambitious young women, so they connected over several little things before deciding to start working together and working out together via Weight Watchers. In fact, by the time 2009 rolled around, they were the best of friends, essentially tied at the hip every single day at the place of their employment, at their kids’ baseball practice, or at group outings.
Rebecca “Becky” Sears Had an Affair With Her Best Friend’s Husband
Although Becky and Kay seemed like two peas in a pod, things changed around late 2008 when the former got into an intimate relationship/began an affair with the latter’s husband, David Parsons. According to records, the Healing Hands Physical Therapy Center employees and their spouses were playing tennis one day when the mother of 5 openly flirted with him after a mixed doubles match. Since she had been paired with the father of one and they lost, she reportedly said, “You know why I suck so bad at tennis is because you distract me out there,” which began a cycle of flirtationship.
David later told authorities they mostly kept their intimacy to their cars, but there were two times when they were physical inside the home he shared with his wife and their son, Derek Parsons. The couple often even exchanged little letters in secret, in which he made it clear he had started to fall in love, while she expressed her deep desire to leave everything behind and start anew with him. However, by the end of the year, he had decided to break up with her because he did not want to abandon his family in any way, shape, or form – in other words, he chose his wife Kay over her.
Becky came clean to her husband, Tony, about what had transpired a few months later, in February 2009, just for him to almost immediately contact Kay to ensure she wasn’t the only one left in the dark. What followed was both couples choosing to work on their marriages, friendships breaking apart, and the Parsons deciding to move, yet David and his ex-mistress reportedly remained in contact. As per David’s own account, they were keeping things platonic, but they slipped on the evening of March 24, 2009, while he was on a work trip in California, as they ended up having phone sex. He had no idea his wife would be beaten to death the very next morning.
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Rebecca “Becky” Sears is Currently Serving a Life Term in State Prison
It was on the morning of March 25, 2009, when Kay was found barely breathing in the garage of her home, with authorities suspecting a robbery gone wrong owing to the evidence at the scene. They quickly learned the Sears’ household right next door had reported a home invasion, too, as their place had also been ransacked, with pieces of jewelry, other valuables, and hard cash now missing. The hypothesis of a robbery thus grew stronger in their minds, yet with no clear leads, and given the brutality of the attack on Kay, they soon began wondering if there was more to the story. Officials looked into Becky’s eldest son, Michael, since he was among the first people at the scene, and David, owing to the extramarital affair, but a jailhouse confession is what broke the case wide open.
The former’s brother, Jerry Jacobs, was in holding at the time of the crime because of a parole violation, and he was the one to contact detectives when he heard of Kay’s murder on the local news. He told them they needed to look at his sister because she had once asked him if he or anyone he knew could kill her romantic rival and make it look like an accident, since she had no intention of giving up David. He then revealed that he knew for a fact she had also confided in her second-born, Christopher “Chris” Bowers, so that was another direction they could investigate because he was a “mama’s boy.” Therefore, when Becky called 911 the very next evening – on March 26, 2009 – to report a stranger had jumped out of the bushes and shot her outside her workplace, things became a lot more complicated.
She claimed he demanded money before shooting her once in the leg, but then suddenly fled without taking anything with a threatening remark of how he would aim for her face the next time. Thankfully, the bullet only grazed her, enabling officials to interview her a few times in the ensuing 24 hours, during which the truth about Kay’s homicide finally came to light. Becky confessed she had driven Chris to the Parsons’ home the fateful morning but had not instructed him to do anything, indicating it was almost a given that he would “take care” of Kay for her. She reportedly placed most of the blame on her son before also giving up the location of key physical evidence – a backpack full of Chris’ bloody clothes and all the stolen items from the two homes. In the end, on May 11, 2012, Becky and Chris both pleaded guilty to armed robbery, burglary, and murder, for which they were handed down life terms without parole plus an additional 20 years. Therefore, today, at age 58, she is incarcerated at the McRae Women’s Facility in Georgia, where she is expected to remain for the rest of her natural life.
