Sarah Grace Patrick’s tearful eulogy that helped police charge her for parents’ murder

A US teen’s ‘tearful’ eulogy to her mother and stepfather helped police charge her with their murder.

Kristin Brock, 41 and her husband James Brock, 45, were found with fatal gunshot wounds at their home in Carrollton, Georgia on February 20.

Sarah Grace Patrick, 17, was arrested and charged with murder on Tuesday.

The high school student turned herself in after a warrant was issued for her arrest, according to The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.

Patrick, who was 16 when her mum and step-dad died, faces two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault and has been charged as an adult.

‘Mountains of physical and digital evidence’ led to Patrick being charged – including her eulogy at the funeral, according to authorities.

The speech was filmed and later shared with the Daily Mail, who spoke to James’s niece Krysten Dowda.

Ms Dowda, 34, said she thought at the time the crying seemed ‘fake’, with no actual tears.

She described the ‘feeling of being at a funeral to say goodbye to someone you loved and thinking to yourself, “am I actually witnessing the person that murdered them, standing up here in front of everyone and fake crying about them?”

‘Does anyone else see this person doing a crying voice but never shed a single tear?’

Ms Dowda said when someone shared the video she immediately saved it because ‘I knew one day everyone would get to see this for what it was’.

She said she first became suspicious of the teenager after the shock of the deaths wore off, and Patrick began sharing details of the deaths on social media and her story would change.

She also reportedly told a friend she didn’t hear anything unusual that night apart from the alarm of her stepdad’s heart machine, which would have been triggered by his death.

‘How do you not hear multiple gunshots in a small house?’, Ms Dowda said.

In the footage, Patrick stands on stage at the Catalyst church in Carrollton, where the Brocks family often attended.

As her voice appears to crack from emotion, she says: ‘For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sarah, and I am Kristen Brock’s daughter and James Brock’s stepdaughter.’

Her voice appeared to crack with emotion as she told the congregation: ‘This isn’t easy…I am really happy I get to do this but just bear with me because I stutter a lot.

‘I just wanted to say goodbye to my mom and James since we never got the chance to.’

Speaking directly to her parents, she goes on to say: ‘I was so used to you guys always being here that I…never would have thought that y’all would not be here and I didn’t have a single clue about how much I needed y’all until now.’

She thanked her mother ‘for all the life lessons you taught me’ and praising her mom as a ‘beautiful kind soul with so much gratitude’.

Speaking about her step-father’s congestive heart failure, she said: ‘Your heart will be finally healed in heaven and none of y’all will be in any pain anymore.

‘Although that gives me so much comfort, your life was not supposed to end there.’

Ms Dowda said she left the funeral as soon as it was over and didn’t really acknowledge Patrick as her apparent fake crying had made her mad.

She said she was speaking out now because people had bullied the family, describing Patrick as ‘just a little girl’ and she wants to make it clear that a ‘monster can be a little girl in a dress’.

Ms Dowda said she had previously known Patrick as ‘very sweet, soft spoken and polite’

Patrick’s father Doniel Patrick was with her when she handed herself in anddefended his daughter on Facebook.

‘I’ll always be in your corner,’ he wrote, adding: ‘Never dobt your place in this world. You were sent here with purpose, wrapped in grace and born to shine in ways only your soul knows how.’ 

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.