Holly Harvey and Sandra Ketchum Murder Grandparents

Holly Harvey and Sandra Ketchum were two young killers from Georgia who would murder Holly’s Grandparents

According to court documents Holly Harvey and Sandra Ketchum were involved in a relationship and Holly’s Grandparents did not approve and demanded that their Granddaughter end it. Instead the two teens would plot a way to stay together by eliminating the elderly couple

On the day of the murder Holly Harvey and Sandra Ketchum would stab the Grandmother first and when the Grandfather tried to help his wife he was stabbed in the chest. The elderly couple, Carl Collier, 74, and his wife, Sarah, 73, were each stabbed multiple times causing their deaths

Holly Harvey and Sandra Ketchum would then steal Carl Collier truck. The pair would be arrested the next day

Holly Harvey and Sandra Ketchum would be sentenced to life in prison

Sandra Ketchum Current Information

YOB: 1988
RACE: WHITE
GENDER: FEMALE
HEIGHT: 5’03”
WEIGHT: 131
EYE COLOR: HAZEL
HAIR COLOR: BROWN

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: PULASKI STATE PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: LIFE

Holly Harvey Current Information

YOB: 1989
RACE: WHITE
GENDER: FEMALE
HEIGHT: 5’01”
WEIGHT: 188
EYE COLOR: BLUE
HAIR COLOR: BROWN

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: ARRENDALE STATE PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: LIFE

Holly Harvey And Sandra Ketchum Case

Two teenage girls accused of stabbing one of the girls’ grandparents to death pleaded guilty Thursday to murder during a court hearing, ending a case that garnered national headlines. Holly Harvey, 15, was sentenced to two life sentences in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of malice murder. Because of her age, she was not eligible for the death penalty. She will not be eligible for parole until after she serves 20 years in prison.

Sandy Ketchum, 16, who has been described as Holly’s lover, was sentenced to serve three life sentences to be served consecutively. At the end of her hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes, Fayette County Superior Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell sentenced her to three life sentences for murder and armed robbery, to be served concurrently — meaning she could be eligible for parole in 10 years.

During the court proceeding, the girls spoke about the stabbings, and the blood, which Harvey said felt like a bucket of hot water. Carl Collier, 74, and his wife, Sarah, 73, were each stabbed multiple times Aug. 2 inside the couple’s house in north Fayette County.

The girls then allegedly fled in the Colliers’ truck and were arrested the next day in Tybee Island. As part of her plea, Harvey detailed how she killed the couple. For half an hour, she choked back sobs and spoke softly as she recounted the killings to Fayette County Superior Court Judge Pascal English. Harvey and her friend had stayed out all night and spent the morning of the killings listening to music in the basement bedroom of her grandparents’ north Fayette home.

That was when Ketchum suggested stealing the grandparent’s truck “to get something to calm us down,” Harvey said. “‘We’ll have to kill them to do that,”‘ Harvey said she responded. “But I didn’t mean nothing by that,” she told Judge Pascal English. Ketchum suggested hitting them in the head with a lamp, and then suggested getting a knife, Harvey said. “I got the biggest knife I could find out of the kitchen,” she said, adding that they practiced stabbing a mattress to see if the knife was sharp enough. When the grandparents came downstairs to get a suitcase, Harvey said she stabbed her grandmother. “My eyes were closed the whole time,” she said.

Her grandfather then pinned her down and Harvey said she stabbed him in the chest. She pursued him as he ran upstairs and tried to call for help, pulling the phone out of the wall, Harvey said. “He grabbed the knife and I thought he was going to stab me,” Harvey said, adding she took the knife from him and started attacking him. When the judge asked Holly Harvey why she did it, the teen said, “For Sandy,” and added, “So that we could be together.”

Judge English asked Holly Harvey after sentencing her if 20 years in prison “was a good deal” for killing her grandparents. She answered no. When he asked what she thought should happen to her, Harvey replied, “I think I should be dead.” The judge muttered, “We both agree on that.” Ketchum’s hearing was much shorter. She was not forced to detail the crime because she was immediately cooperative with authorities, showed remorse and was prepared to testify against Holly Harvey at trial — factors which justified a lighter sentence, Prosecutor Scott Ballard said during her hearing.

Outside the courthouse, Tim Ketchum, her father, said she did the right thing. “I can’t explain it. I’m not that type of person,” he said. “I didn’t raise her to be that type of person. I want to say to the community I’m very sorry this happened.” The teens had faced two counts of felony murder, two counts of malice murder and one count of armed robbery. The maximum sentence the girls could have received was life in prison without parole. The girls were to be tried as adults in the killings.

Holly Harvey had been living with her grandparents while her mother served a prison term. Police said the girls were lesbian lovers and killed the Colliers because they disapproved of the relationship and refused to let the girls go to the beach together. The girls were arrested 17 hours after the slayings at a beach house on Tybee Island, about four hours away. Police say they found a sort of to-do list scrawled in ink on Harvey’s arm: “kill, keys, money, jewelry.”

Holly Harvey and Sandra Ketchum Murder Grandparents

Where Are Holly Harvey And Sandra Ketchum Now Video

Holly Harvey and Sandy Ketchum: The Teenage Lovers Who Murdered Their Grandparents

Kill, keys, money, jewelry.

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.

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.

Background: From No Rules to Baptist Rules

Growing up just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Holly Harvey never had any rules or discipline – she was allowed to do what she wanted, when she wanted. That all came to an end in the spring of 2004 when Holly’s mother went to prison. Holly was forced to move in with her conservative Baptist grandparents, Carl and Sarah Collier, who immediately put rules in place.

By the summer of 2004, Holly was feeling like a caged animal. She met 16-year-old Sandy Ketchum in juvenile detention, and the two began a romantic relationship. Both girls had histories of drug use, truancy, and defiance.

The Plan

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.

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.” “She wished for everyone to suffer the way she suffered,” the investigator said.

The Murders: August 2, 2004

Harvey stabbed her grandmother first and then struggled with them both before Ketchum emerged from her hiding place to help. When the grandfather escaped from the room, Harvey cut the phone line in the house and chased him down. Carl Collier died in the kitchen; Sarah Collier died in the basement. Both were stabbed more than 15 times.

The girls had smoked marijuana just before the killings. They also had attempted to get some guns by calling friends they had met during their times in juvenile detention centers.

Flight to Tybee Island

The girls fled in the grandparents’ sport utility vehicle. 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.

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. “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,” the lead investigator said.

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.

Arrest and Charges

Two teenage girls arrested on Tybee Island for killing one of the girls’ grandparents have pleaded guilty to the crime. Holly Harvey, 15, and Sandy Ketchum, 16, killed Harvey’s grandparents near Fayetteville.

While Harvey has not cooperated with investigators, Ketchum has been helpful. The investigator said that Ketchum strictly “was in it for the love.” “I believe the evidence at trial will be that the motive was to gain freedom and be able to stay together forever.”

Guilty Pleas and Sentences

Holly Harvey and Sandy Ketchum, two 15-year-old teens, were convicted of murdering their grandparents in 2004 and sentenced to life in prison without parole for 20 years. Both were tried as adults in Fayette County Superior Court.

The case became a textbook example of teen parricide driven by perceived oppression and young love, frequently featured on Investigation Discovery, Snapped, and true crime podcasts.

Where Are They Now? 2026 Update

As of 2026, both women remain incarcerated in Georgia state prisons. Following the 2021 Supreme Court rulings on juvenile life sentences, both became eligible for parole consideration after 20 years, meaning their first parole hearings occurred around 2024-2025.

Neither has been released publicly, and both maintain low profiles under their married names in prison records.

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Holly Harvey And Sandra Ketchum Video