BRYCE PARSON - 14 yo - Ormond Beach FL

Ormond Police say death is suspicious


Patti Wilcher is comforted Tuesday by her son Austin Wilcher on
the front lawn of the home on Mayfield Circle where a 14-year-old was
found dead. (N-J | Jim Tiller)




Bryce Parson was an avid fisherman and liked to sail and surf. He died Tuesday. (Parson family)


Editor's note: A woman at the home where Bryce Parson's body was found was misidentified in an earlier version of this story as the 14-year-old's mother.

ORMOND BEACH -- A 14-year-old boy turned up dead Tuesday inside the house of a woman who claims she didn't even know he was there.

Now Ormond Beach police are investigating the death of Bryce Parson and detectives are calling it suspicious.

No one has been charged in Parson's death; however, a man identified as Richard Newkirk was taken from 99 Mayfield Circle in handcuffs Tuesday afternoon. Police said he was only being held for questioning.

The woman who rents the house, 49-year-old Tracy Reed, sat on a shady patch of her front lawn occasionally crying and occasionally yelling out that she had no idea Parson had been at her home the night before.

She said Parson and her son, Charlie Reed, 15, were best friends. Reed said her son was not home, though, because he stays with his father the first three nights of the week.

The 49-year-old Reed also said Newkirk is a handyman and a friend who does occasional work for her and sleeps at her house.

Monday evening, the only people staying at the Reed residence were Newkirk and 18-year-old Geo Lebron -- who also lives with Reed -- and a 17-year-old friend of Lebron's identified only as "Ash."

Sometime Tuesday just before 11 a.m., Reed said she received a call from Lebron as he was running down Mayfield.

"He said something was wrong with Bryce, that he wasn't waking up," Reed said, her voice cracking. "He told me to call 9-1-1. I didn't even know Bryce was in my house."

Reed said she went to bed at 10:30 p.m. Monday. Apparently Lebron found the 14-year-old somewhere inside the Reed house and he bolted, Reed said.

As investigators questioned everyone who had stayed at Reed's, other teenagers began arriving; they hugged each other and cried in the middle of the street in front of Reed's house.

Parson's Facebook page says he attended Mainland High School. But Reed said the teenager and his three brothers were homeschooled.

A tall, thin man identified as Parson's father by other residents along Mayfield Circle told police to "turn over every stone" in their investigation.

The man, who stood with a couple of neighbors across the street from Parson's house, said he could not talk about the teen's death because he had too many "mixed emotions."

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/05/25/ormond-police-say-death-of-14-year-old-suspicious.html

Man Faces Charges After Boy's Death

Investigators: Man Gave Boy Drug Cocktail


POSTED: 3:02 pm EDT June 1, 2011
UPDATED: 4:45 pm EDT June 1, 2011

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. -- Richard
Newkirk, 32, faces a felony charge of delivering a controlled substance
to someone under 18 years old, investigators with the Ormond Beach
Police Department said Wednesday.
The charge was filed after the
suspicious death of Bryce Parson, 14. Police questioned Newkirk last
week about allegations that he provided Parson and another 17-year-old
boy residue from bottles of methadone hydrochloride oral concentrate.Police
said Newkirk provided the boys each a cupful of the drug. They said
both boys ended up feeling ill from the drug and passed out. Parson
died.If toxicology tests show Parson had methadone in his system, Newkirk will face manslaughter charges, police said.Newkirk
was temporarily living at the home of Parson's friend. Other boys were
spending the night when Newkirk, who has faced legal problems because of
drugs before, drove the boys to Whitney Labs on U.S. Highway 1, where
they manufacture methadone for addicts, police said.Police said the company puts used liter bottles of concentrate in plastic bags and discards them in a trash bin.Investigators
said Newkirk told the boys to grab what they could -- a total of 160
bottles. They brought the bottles back to the house where Newkirk added
small amounts of water into the bottles to extract residue, police said.Police said they do not know how much the boys ingested, but the number of bottles suggested the amount was significant.A
family friend said Parson's parents were too devastated to talk, but if
someone did something wrong, they want justice to be done.
http://www.wesh.com/news/28097707/detail.html#ixzz1k9bsv0PO

Police: Ormond 14-year-old found dead had ingested methadone

June 2, 2011 12:05 AM




Newkirk




Parson

Hours before a 14-year-old boy died at the Ormond Beach home of
his best friend, an adult with a drug conviction drove the teen and
another youngster to a methadone lab and told the boys to grab empty
bottles of the drug from a Dumpster, police said Wednesday.

Bryce Parson died the morning of May 24 at a house on Mayfield Circle, detectives said.

Unofficial results from an autopsy point to a drug overdose but police are waiting for results from a toxicology test.

A lengthy arrest affidavit released by Ormond Beach police Wednesday,
however, details a quick trip to a methadone laboratory in the early
hours of May 24. Bryce and 17-year-old Austin Wilcher were driven there
by suspect Richard Newkirk and told to retrieve empty bottles with
traces of methadone still in them from a Dumpster at the facility.

The boys and Newkirk then went back to the house at 99 Mayfield, and
in the garage mixed the drug residue from each bottle -- about 100 of
them -- with hot water. The trio drank the pink, syrupy concoction until
Bryce and Wilcher felt numb, became nauseated, and passed out, the
report shows.

Methadone is a synthetic opioid used to help heroin addicts avoid using that drug.

Just before noon that same day, Wilcher woke up in the Mayfield
Circle home owned by Tracy Reed. Bryce and Newkirk had also stayed
overnight. But Bryce never made it out of a back bedroom.

Tuesday afternoon, one week after the youngster's death, investigators arrested the 32-year-old Newkirk.

For now, he is charged with using a minor to deliver or sell a
controlled substance, a felony. He was being held at the Volusia County
Branch Jail on $100,000 bail Wednesday night.

If the results of the toxicology test show Bryce died from the
methadone, though, Newkirk will be charged with manslaughter, Ormond
Beach Lt. Kenny Hayes said.

The medical examiner found traces of drugs in Bryce's urine sample,
the affidavit states. Bryce had taken a Xanax pill the night before he
died, the report shows, but it's not clear where he got it. A close
friend of the Parson family said the teenager did not have a "history of
drugs."

When Bryce was found at Reed's home last week, the 49-year-old woman
told police she had no idea that he and Wilcher had slept at her house.
Reed's 15-year-old son Charlie is Bryce's best friend but he was
spending the night at his father's residence.

Reed told investigators Newkirk stayed with her occasionally when he
did handyman work at the home. Bryce, who lived at another house on
Mayfield, also did odd jobs around Reed's house for extra money, said a
Parson family friend, Kim Van Horn.

The night before he died, Bryce told his mother that Reed had given
him permission to sleep over because they were going to Lowe's home
improvement store in the morning to buy materials.

But sleep wasn't the plan, according to the affidavit.

Just after midnight, Newkirk, Bryce and Wilcher piled into Reed's car
and Newkirk drove the teenagers to Whitney Laboratories at 1095 N. U.S.
1 near Ormond Beach. Lt. Hayes said the business provides methadone to
methadone clinics.

Surveillance video from the Dumpster area at the laboratory showed
Bryce approaching the Dumpster with a flashlight. He waved at Wilcher
and the older boy climbed into the Dumpster, emerging with plastic
garbage bags filled with methadone bottles, the affidavit shows.

Wilcher said Newkirk told them he was not allowed on the Whitney
property, but if the boys got "caught taking the methadone from the
container, nothing would happen because they were juveniles," the
affidavit shows.

According to detectives, a Volusia County sheriff's deputy caught
Newkirk trying to steal empty methadone bottles from the laboratory
Dumpster in January 2009.

No one from the Whitney Laboratory's corporate headquarters in
Orlando returned a call Wednesday to comment on their disposal policy.

When detectives arrived at the Reed residence last Tuesday morning,
they found Bryce lying on Reed's living room floor. The boy was covered
with a blanket, the report states.

A crying Wilcher told police that he repeatedly tried to wake Bryce
up. He said he asked Newkirk for help but the older man refused, telling
Wilcher to throw water on Bryce, the affidavit states.

In a final attempt to help Bryce, Wilcher dragged the boy into the
living room so he could administer CPR. But then he realized Bryce was
dead.

"Richard did not care about Bryce," Wilcher told police. "He would not help me or call 9-1-1."

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/06/02/police-ormond-14-year-old-found-dead-ingested-methadone.html

Daytona NA Member Indicted in First Degree Murder of 14 Year Old Bryce Parsons

Posted on September 22, 2011





ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – A local man has been charged
with first-degree murder in the death of a teenager in Ormond Beach,
authorities said Tuesday.Ormond Beach police said Richard Newkirk, 32,
is facing first-degree murder charges in connection with the death of
Bryce Parson, 14.

Investigators said Newkirk gave Bryce and another teen
a mixture made with methadone hydrochloride. Police said Newkirk
provided the toxic cocktail to the teen in May, and Parson went to sleep
and never woke up. Newkirk had been staying with a family in the
neighborhood, and police said he took Parson and a 17-year-old to a
nearby laboratory where he instructed the boys to dumpster dive.

Police said Newkirk told the boys to get discarded bottles of methadone, and
when they were back home, Newkirk allegedly added water to extract meth
residue and then gave each boy a cup.

”It was definitely a lethal dose. It was over 1,000 milliliters or milligrams of methadone in the boys’
system, which is probably 10 times the lethal dose,” said Lt. Kenny
Hayes, of the Ormond Beach Police Department.

http://www.wesh.com/news/29031661/detail.html#ixzz1hD4fJF00

Ormond Beach, FL- 32-year old Richard L. Newkirk
of Holly Hill Fl, has been indicted on a charge of 1st Degree Felony
Murder in connection with the death of 14 year old Bryce Parson.

The suspicious death investigation was launched on May 24th, 2011 after
Parson was found dead at 99 Mayfield Circle in Ormond Beach.Detectives
determined that Newkirk drove Bryce Parson and another 17 year old boy
to the area of Whitney Labs at 1095 N. US-1 in the county area of Ormond
Beach in the early morning hours of May 24th 2011.

Newkirk instructed the boys on how to retrieve discarded Methadone bottles from the
dumpster. The boys went into the dumpster and retrieved two large bags
full of plastic Methadone bottles. The trio returned to 99 Mayfield
Circle where Newkirk extracted small amounts of Methadone from each
bottle, ultimately obtaining a quantity that he shared with the two
boys. The boys later became sick and passed out.

Bryce Parson never awoke and was discovered deceased the next morning.

Newkirk was subsequently arrested on the charge of delivering a controlled substance
to a person under 18.

Meanwhile, police waited for toxicology results
from the autopsy conducted on Bryce Parson. Newkirk was being held on a
$100,000 bond but just recently bonded out of jail.

Toxicology results recently received showed that Parson had a fatal level of Methadone in
his system at the time of his death.( Some reports state 10 times the
lethal amount. )

http://www.newsdaytonabeach.com/Radio/WNDB/WNDB-Latest/Holly-Hill-Man-Indicted-In-Death-of-Ormond-Beach-Teen.html

Daytona NA Member Sentenced to 24 Years In Murder of 14 Year old Bryce Parsons

Posted on July 21, 2012

Daytona NA Member Richard Newkirk was sentenced to 24 years
in prison in a plea deal after he was indicted for 1st degree murder in
the death of Ormond Beach 14 year-old Bryce Parson. Richard Newkirk was
well known to Holly Hill PD and he had a lengthy criminal history
related to drugs.

This is such a tragic story. Bryce Parson was an adorable child, who loved sailing and was
soon to go on a sailing camp adventure that he was so looking forward
to. My heart goes out to this family. I think it shows that mandating
Richard Newkirk to NA meetings was not the help this man needed. Yet
Volusia County courts including Drug Court Judge Will continue to send
the likes of Richard Newkirk to meetings, even when they know kids will
be at the same meetings.

When will they demand AA put in place safety
guidelines for minors and other vulnerable members that participate in
AA/NA? Right know there are zero.


Richard Newkirk at Sentencing

DAYTONA BEACH — The mother of an Ormond Beach teenager who drank
methadone had trouble containing her fury Friday as she testified at
Richard Newkirk’s sentencing hearing.

Patti Wilcher’s son, Austin Wilcher, was 17 and his friend Bryce Parson was 14 on May 24, 2011,
when Newkirk showed them how to drink the contents of used methadone bottles mixed with warm water.
Parson died. Wilcher lived but, at one point, no longer wanted to, his mother said.

“You are a predator,” Wilcher testified, looking at
Newkirk. “You might as well have given them a gun and had them play
Russian roulette with it, because they would have done it for you.
Because they loved you.”

Newkirk was sentenced to 24 years in prison after pleading no contest
to second-degree murder. He admitted that he had the boys drink the
substance after he drove them to a Dumpster near Whitney Laboratories,
1095 N. U.S. 1 in Ormond Beach, and had them get the bottles out so he
could make it.

The three brought the bottles to a friend’s home at 99
Mayfield Circle, where they mixed the contents with water and drank the
solution from Styrofoam cups and a gallon jug in the garage, Austin
Wilcher testified.

He said Newkirk told the boys drinking the stuff
would “feel like taking a bunch of (Lortabs).”

Newkirk has a long criminal history that includes 22
misdemeanor convictions and two felony convictions, prosecutor Ed
Davis said.

A grand jury indicted him on first-degree murder charges
but he pleaded no contest to the lesser charge as well as delivery of a
controlled substance to a minor as part of a plea deal. He had faced a
maximum penalty of life in prison. Austin Wilcher said Friday that
Newkirk, who was on probation, had the boys get the bottles “because
Richard could not do it because he was arrested there already.” He said
Newkirk told the children nothing would happen to them if they were
caught because they were minors.

He said Parson was afraid that he would die that night, but Newkirk reassured him he wouldn’t.


http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2012/07/21/ormond-beach-man-gets-24-years-for-role-in-teens-methadone-death.html