Carlette Parker, an elder caregiver in Raleigh, North Carolina, was convicted of the 1998 drowning death of an elderly woman under her care. Not much is known about her early life; she was born on June 12, 1963 and began working as a caregiver in her 20s. Parker's first run-in with legal trouble happened in 1985 when she was tending to an 85 year old woman named Catherine Stevenson and withdrew $44,000 from her bank account. She was convicted and pled guilty to 16 felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. Parker struck again seven years later when she bilked another charge out of $40,000, pled guilty in August 1995, and received four years of probation. She had no history of violent offenses, however.

The offense that finally put Parker away was 86 year old Alice Covington of North Raleigh--Covington was not under her care but she resided in an elder independent living community in Raleigh and a male acquaintance and fellow resident was being cared for by Parker. On the morning of May 12, 1998, Parker and Covington were seen in a physical confrontation in a Kroger's parking lot. Although the octogenarian Covington, weighing less than 90 pounds, was at an obvious disadvantage against the 230 pound, thirty-something Parker, she fought back as much as she could and witnesses said she tried to hit Parker over the head with her purse. Later that afternoon, Parker forced the old woman to drive her '93 Mercury Sable to a bank in Smithfield and withdraw $2,500 from it. Parker went up to the teller's window and gave a withdrawal slip and Covington's driver's license. The teller reported seeing Covington in the passenger's seat of the car, leaning against the door and apparently asleep.

>Carlette Parker, a 34 year old African-American elderly caregiver, murdered one of her charges, 86 year old Alice Covington, in North Raleigh, North Carolina in May 1998. Parker had been convicted several times of theft from elderly persons she was caring for but did not have a prior violent history. She forced Covington to drive her Mercury Sable to a bank and withdraw a large amount of money. The old woman was found dead two days later inside her abandoned vehicle. The body had several bruises on it but, oddly, an autopsy failed to disclose any specific cause of death.

>Parker would later be found guilty of murdering Alice Covington and was sentenced to death. She is still on the Tarheel State's death row as of 2023.