"I've never seen it more cruel than this one," Fayette County

Sheriff Randall Johnson said Tuesday of a particularly bloody double murder

of an elderly couple in their north Fayette retirement home.

Johnson said officers arrested a Flat Rock Middle School girl along with

her friend who authorities say participated in fatally stabbing the girl's

grandparents.

Holly Ann Harvey, 15, and her friend, Sandra "Sandy" Ketchum,

16, were found at Tybee Island early Tuesday afternoon a few blocks away

from their abandoned getaway vehicle, said Johnson.

Ketchum had attended Fayette Alternative School until early last year, according

to a school official.

Harvey had a troubled relationship with her grandparents, neighbors said.

The girl had frequent arguments with the grandmother, neighbors reported.

The two will be charged as adults with two counts of felony murder and two

counts of malice murder for the deaths of Carl and Sarah Collier, both 77,

Johnson said.

With her mother in prison, Harvey was being raised by her grandparents at

their home at 226 Plantation Drive in the Newton Plantation subdivision,

police said. That's the extreme northeastern tip of Fayette County,

within a mile of the Clayton County line.

That's where the Collier's bodies were found Monday evening, stabbed

multiple times, according to Sgt. Belinda McCastle of the Fayette County

Sheriff's Department. The grandfather's body was found in the kitchen

while the grandmother's body, stabbed at least 15 times, was discovered

in the basement, according to news reports.

Harvey and Ketchum were spotted after a team of sheriff's deputies

located Mr. Collier's truck, a blue 2002 Chevrolet Silverado which the

two had used to flee the murder scene, police said.

Detectives were following up to make sure the girls weren't involved

in any other crimes that could have been committed on the way to Savannah,

Johnson said.

"We don't know if they pulled anything else," Johnson said.

Harvey's mother, identified only as Carla by authorities, is serving

time in prison on drug charges, police said.

Harvey attended Flat Rock Middle School last year and was due to be a freshman

at Sandy Creek High School this year, according to schools spokesperson Melinda

Berry-Driesbach.

Ketchum hasn't attended school in Fayette County since February 2003

when she was in the eighth grade at the Fayette County Alternative School,

Berry Driesbach said. Prior to that, Ketchum was a student at Fayette Middle

School, she added.

Typically, students are sent to the alternative school for disciplinary

reasons.

Sheriff Johnson confirmed that Harvey has had brushes with trouble before,

but he declined to provide further details.

Johnson said he thought the crime was premeditated and that he was taken

aback at the nature of the killings.

The sheriff added that he had known Mr. Collier for over 40 years, and that

Collier was a county poll worker during elections and painted houses with

his son after retiring from Delta.

Johnson said he wasn't sure if the suspects took money from the Collier

residence. Another news report indicated that authorities found nothing of

value missing from the home.

Mr. Collier was a former member of the Fayette County Board of Education,

serving from 1973 through 1978. The Colliers also attended Fayetteville First

Baptist Church.

Deputies went to the crime scene late Monday afternoon after a tip came

in from Spalding County to execute a house check on the residence, police

said.

Deputies received information that the two suspects had gone to a friend's

house in the neighboring county and were attempting to clean themselves up,

presumably from blood splatter that remained from the assault, police said.

From there, the teen fugitives motored to the Georgia coast, where they were

caught.

Records indicated that deputies responded to the home July 10 to take a

missing child report but the child later was found. It could not be confirmed

At press time Tuesday, it was not known how Harvey became friends with Ketchum,

police said.

Hazel Thompson, who lives a couple of doors down from the Collier's

home, said neighbors had been talking about how Harvey "was always fighting

with her grandmother," but she had no personal knowledge of that.

"It's so sad because they were such a nice couple, you know," Thompson

said.

Mrs. Collier was known for her "little yard sales" which featured

antiques and knickknacks. She was very well-liked, Thompson added.

"We always call her Granny," Thompson said. "She was always

very pleasant."

Rodney McDaniel, who lives on the other side of the Colliers down the street,

said the killings caught him by surprise because the neighborhood is quiet

and peaceful.

"Who expects something like to happen in the neighborhood?" McDaniel

said.

"... It's a sign of the times I guess."