commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Although it is generally believed that men are typically the “evil beings” who brutally slay their children for no good reason (not that there is ever a “good reason” for murdering your kids), the reality is that a surprising number of American mothers are highly troubled and are completely capable of killing their little ones in an emotionally charged state. What is odd about this appalling syndrome is that in some instances, these same mother-murderesses will experience “buyer’s remorse” after completing the act and turn themselves in to the authorities.
A particularly disturbing example of this occurred in Athens, Texas this week where 25-year-old Stacie Marie Parsons brutally killed her 4-year-old daughter Victoria, possibly out of jealousy, and then allegedly marched down to the police station and turned herself in. When the police rushed over to investigate, they found Victoria dead in the trunk of Ms. Parson’s car with trauma to her head and chest at the suspect’s home in the 400 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Athens.
David Lohr at Huffington Post writes:
Police in Texas say a 25-year-old woman walked into a police station Monday and confessed to killing her 4-year-old daughter.
Athens resident Stacie Marie Parsons has been arrested and charged with one count of capital murder of a person less than 10 years old in the brutal slaying of her 4-year-old daughter, Victoria Wyatt. Parsons is being held on a $2 million bond in the Henderson County Jail, police said.
Parsons allegedly walked into the Athens Police Department at about 8:45 p.m. Monday and confessed to the murder.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Henderson County Sheriff Ray Nutt recounted:
“She walked in and [said] that she had just killed her daughter.”
In a scene so sad that one can hardly grasp it, at about the same time Ms. Parsons was turning herself into the police, her common-law husband, Gary Wyatt, had reportedly found Victoria in the trunk of Parsons’ car and was trying desperately to revive her.
“Oh, God it was awful. Foaming out of her mouth, her head was bashed in,” Gary Wyatt told KSLA through tears. “My baby’s dead, she killed my baby.”
Wyatt told KSLA he had told Parsons on Sunday that he wanted a divorce, which, as one might suspect led to an argument. Then on Monday morning, when he woke up, Wyatt discovered that Parsons was already gone with Victoria, which led him to assume that she had taken their daughter to enroll her in pre-school. Sometime later, when Parsons returned to the house, she parked her car, and walked away. When Wyatt and other family members tried to talk to her, she simply said, “I wouldn’t be in that car if I were you.”
The family then naturally rushed to the car, which is when they found Victoria in the trunk, wrapped in a garbage bag, and tried futilely to revive her in the front yard.
When interviewed, Wyatt said his wife was never violent towards the girl. He did, however, suggest that Ms. Parsons had harbored strongly negative feelings toward the 4-year-old.
“To be honest with you, I think she’s been jealous of that little girl since the day she was born.”
Family friend Randy Dyess thinks otherwise and stated that Parsons made serious threats just a few days before the slaying:
“She said I’d rather kill Victoria and spend the rest of my life in prison, than to put up with you.”
Although Sheriff Nutt declined to discuss a possible motive in the slaying, he made a further statement in which he sounds not unlike Sheriff Bell in No Country for Old Men philosophizing on the nature of evil:
“It makes you wonder about human nature. About why people do the things they do.”
Victoria’s body has been transferred to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science in Dallas for an autopsy, which may well match the preliminary examination which revealed trauma to the child’s head and chest.
The family was not insured, so a Facebook page has been created to raise money for funeral expenses.
* * * * *
This is a rough one and we have the utmost sympathy for Victoria’s distraught father. His statement about Ms. Parsons “being jealous of the child since the day she was born” would appear to be telling, for at least two reasons. First, it suggests she should never have had a child if she was going to resent the little one being “the apple of her father’s eye.” She presumably had some sense that Wyatt was fond of children, probably even before she got pregnant, and this is, of course, something that would please most mothers greatly.
Second, assuming that Ms. Parsons was prone to jealousy, it is possible that Wyatt made it all too clear that he doted on the little girl, and perhaps preferred her to his wife. In a perfect world, there would be absolutely no reason for him to hide his strong affection for the child, but this paternal feeling should probably not have dominated his emotional state to such a degree that he was unable to show equal affection to Ms. Parsons. Furthermore, she may 
well have sank into post-partum depression that never lifted after giving birth to her daughter.
I do not make any of these suggestions in an attempt to defend the wife and denigrate the husband; rather, I am simply pointing out that the 3-way relationship was clearly complex and became unhealthy and horribly imbalanced which, in turn, paved the way for the disastrous event that cost little Victoria her life.
Update:
On Sept 8, 2014, Rich Flowers of the Athens Review reports that Stacie Parsons has been indicted for the death of her child:
Parsons was indicted for one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted capital murder. She was arrested after admitting to Athens police that she had killed the child, Victoria Wyatt. APD went to the residence on MLK Boulevard, where the child’s body was found. Police learned that Victoria had been killed under a bridge on County Road 1500 and turned the case over to the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office which has jurisdiction in crimes that occur in unincoporated areas of the county. Parsons was booked into the Henderson County Jail with bond set at $2 million. She was still in jail as of Friday.
At present, I can find no further news on this case.