CANDICE Parchment’s murder will be featured in a new TV miniseries, The Truth in The Diary.
The show will air on March 1, 2022, and will explore the diary that brought police to the killer after the case went cold.
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Who was Candice Parchment?
Candice Parchment was 15 years old when she went missing from her Georgia home in April 2010.
Her mother, Caffian Hyatt told ABC News at the time that she didn’t know why her daughter left that night but wanted her home.
It wasn’t until November 2010 when police uncovered Parchment’s remains beneath a mattress in a wooded and secluded area.
The scene didn’t hold many clues to point police in the direction of the killer and so the case ran cold.
“It’s over a year. It’s almost two years. The pain never goes away,” Hyatt said.
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How did the police catch the killer?
The Clayton County Police Department didn’t get a break in the case until two years after Parchment disappeared when Hyatt found her daughter’s diary.
Hyatt was packing her home to move when she stumbled upon her late teenager’s diary. Curious, she skimmed through the pages and came across something that would give police a break in the case and ultimately lead them to Parchment’s killers.
It was in this diary that Parchment described in detail an attack by two other teenagers, Marshae Hickman and Jermaine Robinson, on the evening of January 5, 2010.
The two teenagers lured Parchment to a house near her neighborhood and wanted to have intercourse with her.
The affidavit charging Hickman with Parchment’s murder said, “When (Hickman), Robinson, and the victim entered the abandoned house, (Hickman) told Robinson to hit the victim in the head with a rake and choke her, while (Hickman) blocked the door to prevent her escape.”
As the events unfolded, Parchment’s mother noticed she was missing and went searching for her. Hyatt was able to call her daughter who managed to get her phone out of her pocket to answer.
Hickman and Robinson fled the scene, according to Parchment’s diary, and she was able to escape – but in her diary, she said she still feared for her life.
The police found Hickman in their database showing he had been arrested for burglary and was being held at the Clayton County Jail.
Robinson testified against Hickman who he claimed told him to choke Parchment or he would kill them both.
Hickman pleaded guilty to the murder of Candace Parchment and in 2013, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 20 years.
He received a conviction of an additional 50 years in prison for attacking Parchment and trying to kill her in January 2010.
The jury found him guilty of twelve charges: malice murder, felony murder, false imprisonment, criminal attempted rape, involuntary manslaughter, four counts of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and concealing a death.
“I’m glad about the verdict,” Hyatt told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“At least the jury saw him for what he was.”
How did Candice Parchment die?
Police caught up to Hickman in 2011, almost one year after they found Parchment’s body.
But when they questioned him, he admitted to the murder immediately and told police officers he had choked Parchment and hid her body under a mattress.
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported that an autopsy showed Parchment was strangled and stabbed, although Hickman only admitted to strangling her.
Hickman read a letter during his 2013 trial and said, “I am sorry for what I have done. I was in the wrong frame of mind, and it still bothers me. I hope I could resurrect her.”
Where can I watch The Truth in The Diary?
The Truth in the Diary will air Tuesday, March 1 at 10pm ET on the Investigation Discovery channel.
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