Candice Parchment’s murderer, Marshae Hickman, was caught because she named him in her diary: If I Should Die investigates

Candice Parchment named her killer Marshae Hickson in a diary entry as the perpetrator of a sexual assault. Pic credit: Family photoEpisode one of If I Should Die looks at the case of Georgia teen, Candice Parchment, who left her home in Clayton County, Ga. on April 28, 2010, and never returned.

The 15-year-old’s remains were found the following November under a mattress in a wooded area near her home. Her murder remained a mystery for almost two years before investigators finally got a breakthrough.

Parchment’s mother, Caffian Hyatt, made a chilling discovery on finding her late daughter’s diary. In an entry dating from January 5, 2010, Parchment had documented a horrific sexual assault she had endured.

She wrote that two teenage boys, Marshae Hickman, and Jermaine Robinson, had dragged her into an abandoned house and had attempted to rape her. They had also hit her on the head with a rake.

Candice Parchment had named her killer

When the police looked into the two teenage boys, they discovered they already had the 19-year-old Hickman in the county jail on a burglary charge. When confronted with questions about Parchment, he confessed to strangling the teen and hiding her body under the mattress.

An autopsy revealed stab wounds on Parchment’s body and signs of strangulation. Hickson never admitted to the stabbing and remains unclear if he acted alone in the murder.

Robinson pleaded guilty in the rape case but was never charged in the murder case.

In 2013 Hickman was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, causing a death by committing a felony, false imprisonment, criminal attempted rape, involuntary manslaughter, four counts of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and concealing a death.

He was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years for the murder and was also handed a 50-year sentence for the attempted rape in January 2010.

More from Investigation Discovery

Follow the links to read about more murders recently profiled on ID.

On See No Evil, the tragic death of 27-year-old Sasha Samsudean was examined this week.

The young professional came home from a night out in downtown Orlando only to have the security guard from her apartment complex enter her home and attack her. Stephen Duxbury attempted to rape Sasha before he strangled her to death.

Also on earlier this week, Diabolical investigated the bizarre case of Kwaneta Harris, who murdered her boyfriend Michael Giles and subsequently went to extreme lengths to convince family and friends that he was still alive.

If I Should Die- Unfinished Business airs at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.