After leaving a Church Bible study class that evening, the family returned home and stumbled upon an apparent burglary.
[9] Carl Webster "Bubba" Parker was born on November 29, 1931, in Lyon, Mississippi and grew up on a farm.
[13] Bobbie Jo was a native of Huntsville, Alabama who was a piano teacher and secretary for Riverside Baptist Church.
The family lived on an isolated farm and resided in the quiet community of Walnut, Quitman County, Mississippi.
[11][12] On the night of Friday, February 2, 1990, the Parker family attended a Bible study class at Riverside Baptist Church.
Firefighters later reported that Carl had almost severed his own wrists struggling against the extension cord used to bind his hands and feet.
[14] After shooting the family, Carr and Simon set the farm on fire with a petroleum product in an attempt to cover up the crime.
[2] A passing motorist first spotted the fire about ten to fifteen minutes after it had been started and immediately called emergency services.
They found the bodies of Carl, Gregory, and Charlotte Jo in a rear room near the back door of the farm and removed them from the house before the fire could spread further.
[15] Carr and Simon fled the farm in Carl's pickup truck, which was found abandoned the following morning in Clarksdale.
[17] On July 6, 1990, Simon was sentenced to life in prison for the capital murder of Charlotte Jo Parker.
On October 13, 1990, Simon was sentenced to death for the capital murders of Carl, Bobbie Jo, and Gregory.
A Quitman County circuit judge determined that it was "too close to call" and chose to uphold Carr's death sentence.
Carl Parker's two sons from his original marriage to Betty, Dean and Scott, reacted to the decision with outrage.
In 2015, a federal judge ruled that Simon had faked losing his memory and placed him back on death row and in line for execution.
[7] The Attorney General of Mississippi, Lynn Fitch, did not provide an answer to Simon's rebuttal that he was intellectually disabled and thus not competent to be executed.
[8] A November 2023 report revealed that both Anthony Carr and Robert Simon were among the 37 condemned inmates remaining on Mississippi's death row.