area, where there was a lot of blood on the walls, on the door, on the floor. so this is suggesting a moving struggle. definitely. it looks like the homeowner came home and surprised a burglar in her house, and a struggle ensued where she was beaten. reporter: the bloody path led edmunds further into the house, to a bloody hand print on the door out to the parsons garage. and you can tell there was there was more beating goin on in the garage. there was blood spatter on the walls. so she was already bleeding before she got into the garage. reporter: and that s where this apparent struggle had ended. the deputies found 41-year old kay parsons lying there on the floor. had you ever seen a scene like that? nothing nothing that drastic, no. she was beaten so severely in her head, it was pretty bad. reporter: but amazingly, kay was alive. emt s hurried her to the hospital, her life hanging by a thread. she still had a heartbeat. but she was in a very bad way. ver
nothing to do with kay parsons murder. didn t even know her. dude, i m trying to be as straight up with you guys as possible. i mean well, and that and that s what i want. that s what i want. yes, sir. i m i m not gonna lie about it. i want you to catch the guy. i just i don t want you looking at me like i did the [ bleep ]. cause i ain t dude, i ain t real cool with you. i don t think it s a really you know, if you or me or or some guy got hurt, that s one thing. you know? but not a lady. you know? not somebody s mom. reporter: and he started to put the finger more on michael. he knows something. well, i don t but i don t rightly know. what do you mean? what does he know? i don t know what he knows. dude, look, you re not catching me up in something. he knows something. what does he he saw something, he did something, one of the above. i would assume if michael or any of his people had sumpin to do with it it s for dope. they re gonna have enough
reporter: so the investigator dispatched some deputies to check out the area just a few hundred feet from kay s house. we checked the woods. we didn t see any signs of anybody livin there, anything of that nature. and we really couldn t prove or disprove there was anybody that was livin in the woods there. reporter: so a potential lead, dashed. but investigators had another. unlikely as it may seem, tiny grovetown, georgia has a few usual suspects, including a young man who lived just around the corner from kay parsons home. we look at our neighborhood and see who s livin around there. and we, you know, we had a frequent flyer in there that a who? a frequent flyer, you know. that that s somebody that we deal with all the time. you know, that that commit the same type of crimes, you know. we knew this guy. we we ve arrested him several times for burglaries. and he lives close by in the area. so if a computer s missing or a piece of jewelry s gone astray? if
that s all. reporter: smokin weed, or harder stuff, michael? ah, smokin weed and a little harder stuff, pills, things like that. reporter: this is methadone? yeah. uh-huh. yes, sir. reporter: with michael s presence on the scene, and drugs now in the equation, edmunds team brought him down to their substation for questioning. now, i m gonna be point-blank with ya, if you knew anything about this you would tell me right? absolutely. when was the last time you took some methadone? today. today? uh-huh. reporter: so michael had used methadone on the morning of kay parsons murder. now investigators wanted to know more about where exactly he was when the assault happened. michael said his mom becky had dropped him off at a jobsite just before 7am to do some house painting. when did ya tell your mom you had this paint job? when did you tell her you were told her a little while ago. this mornin . reporter: but here s the thing. he didn t do any house painti
he had his team take pictures of kay, collecting any physical evidence from that confrontation in the house. and they came up with something, a bit of human hair found under kay s fingernails. it just might be from her attacker. she had defense wounds to her to her arms, to her hands. she was you know, bruises everywhere, all over her body. reporter: all indicating something else, kay had fought back. and whoever assaulted her had been on the prowl for something. deputies shot video of the upstairs bedroom. it had been looted, with jewelry and other valuables missing. and they found what seemed like a similar m.o. in becky s house next door. the master bedroom in that residence had been ransacked. so both houses had been tossed. both houses. reporter: becky s most valuable necklace and rings, gone. and as edmunds kept examining that grisly scene in the parsons garage, he determined how the burglar had assaulted kay, with a hammer, found underneath the car, and a