Daniel Taylor, 1819 News
Sunday marked 20 years since Brandy Parker and her unborn son, Brody, were murdered in cold blood on a dark Albertville road in 2005.
Brandy Parker was driving home after a long shift at TS Tech in Boaz when she came to a stop at a four-way intersection on Buchanan Road. There, police believe her killer lay in wait before delivering a single shotgun blast to the back of her head. Investigators arrived on the scene after 1 a.m. to find her slumped over the steering wheel of her blue pickup truck after it had rolled off the road and into a fence of a nearby yard.
Brody Parker’s due date was just a few short weeks away.
Though several persons of interest have come and gone over the last two decades, no arrest has ever been made. It’s something that still haunts Albertville police Chief J.T. “Butch” Cartee, who was and still is the lead investigator on the case.
“I’ve lost sleep over this,” Cartee said. “This case means a lot to me. … As a detective, you want to solve every murder case because you speak for that victim… Somebody has to speak for her, and I’ll just be honest with you, I feel like I let them down because I didn’t solve it.”
Cartee keeps the case files of the Parker case within reach, compiled in multiple thick binders on a shelf next to his office desk, ready to be opened at a moment’s notice. He said he still finds himself driving by the crime scene, pondering what he might have done differently.
“I drive by there quite often and think, what did I miss? This is one I beat myself up over,” he said.
Cartee interviewed over 30 potential witnesses during his investigation so far, though he’s reluctant to dispense many details of an open, albeit cold, case.
He considers the death of Brandy and Brody Parker a double homicide, though the law at the time did not recognize the life of an unborn baby as a separate person. The murders changed that thanks to Brandy Parker’s parents, who lobbied the state legislature to pass what became known as the Brody Act, in honor of Brody Parker. Officially titled the “Unborn Child Homicide Act,” the law was passed in 2006, making it a crime to kill or injure unborn children. However, the law is not retroactive and does not affect Brandy Parker’s case.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who was the Marshall County District Attorney in 2005, helped draft the bill, though he gives the most credit to Brandy Parker’s parents.
“The thing that I take from that — It’s remarkably tragic to see what took place and the loss of two lives — was really the passion and the determination of Roger Parker, Brandy’s dad, who not only wanted to solve the case to figure out who killed his daughter and grandson, but the ability that he had to say, even from this tragedy, we want to do something that is positive and creates change,” Marshall said. “The Brodie Act was the vehicle to be able to do that.”
He continued, “I remember having a conversation with the Parker family about it at the time, and I know Roger was just dismayed to hear that Brody’s life didn’t have meaning under the law. And so to see his efforts and the work that he did to help get the Brody Act passed, I think is a testament to what he wanted to do, to still bring positive thoughts to the memory of his daughter and grandson and make sure that that didn’t happen to another family like it would have happened to him.”
The bodies of Brandy, 23, and Brody Parker now rest at the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Guntersville, but the love and memories they inspired still live on in the hearts of their family and friends and a community still searching for answers.
Despite the years of “twists and turns” and dead ends, Cartee is still holding out hope that the case will be solved.
“Somebody out there in this world knows something about this case,” he said.
Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Albertville Police Department at 256-878-1212.
