Chester Duane Price, Andrea Parsons cold case suspect appears before judge

 STUART, Fla.-- Chester Duane Price, a former Martin County resident, appeared before a judge Friday morning.

The judge denied bond.

On Thursday Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder announced Price's arrest in connection with the 1993 disappearance of then 10-year-old Andrea Parsons.
 
Investigators say she walked two blocks from her Port Salerno home to a nearby grocery store and never returned home.  

Witnesses say she waved to a local couple as they were driving by, and that was the last time she was ever seen.

Her body was never found.

Price was not physically in court Friday, but appeared via a TV link from the Martin County Jail.

A Martin County detective testified Friday morning that Price and Claude Davis abducted and killed Andrea Gail Parsons on July 11, 1993, and disposed of the body the next day.

"Chester did confirm that he did put her in the van, Claude Davis's van. Andrea Parsons bit him. He did not allow her to get out. He struck her in which she then became unresponsive. The following morning is when she was disposed of," said detective Yesenia Carde with the Martin County Sheriff's Office.

Davis told Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers that  he wasn’t involved in Andrea’s disappearance and doesn’t know where the girl or her body could be found.

“I wish they wouldn’t bring it back up,” said Davis, who now lives in Stuart. “People bring in their own conclusions about me. ... Now no one bothers me.”

Davis said he was heading to a park to pick up cans when he saw Andrea kicking at her alleged abductors, whom he described as four Hispanic males, before being put in the back seat of a maroon colored, four-door Oldsmobile. Davis said he didn’t intervene because he thought he would get hurt.

Davis was charged with false imprisonment but the charges were dropped in May 1994 for lack of evidence.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl said Davis “can never be prosecuted for anything related to the Parsons case. He was prematurely arrested in 1993 for false imprisonment, then the speedy trial (time limit) ran out due to insufficient evidence; and the one charge was dismissed. At that point double jeopardy attached, and he can’t be charged for anything else. ... Regardless of whatever his involvement in the abduction and murder might be, he’s immune from prosecution. ... Tell it to the Constitution.”
 
In June 1999, Davis was arrested for violating his probation by contacting a girl he was convicted of molesting in 1993. Prosecutors hoped he would exchange any information he had about Andrea’s disappearance for leniency in that case.

Sheriff Crowder says there is no closure yet in this case until there is a conviction. He hopes Parsons' body will be found, as well.

NewsChannel 5's Angela Cruz, Tyler Treadway and Keona Gardner of Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers contributed to this report.