Springer
Murphy – Four-year-old twins allegedly drowned at the hands of their mother in late February or early March were put in their beds and surrounded by their stuffed animals after they died, according to a search warrant affidavit.
The tragic scene unfolded at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 2, when Clay Springer stopped by 75 Gooseberry Road in the Harshaw area to pick up his twins for his scheduled visitation. He found his children dead, likely drowned sometime over the previous three days.
He called 911, and as he talked with a 911 dispatcher, his estranged wife, Genevieve Ellen Springer, 44, put a handful of drugs in her mouth, chewed them and swallowed.
Springer survived her apparent suicide attempt and is being held in Haywood County without bail. A hearing was set for March 20 in Superior Court, but it was postponed until Friday, June 28.
Details about the case emerged in various court documents, including a half-dozen search warrant affidavits and from her initial court appearance before Judge Justin Greene on March 4, two days following her arrest. At that hearing, Springer was placed in the jury box, reminded that she has a right to remain silent and informed that she was entitled to a public defender.
Senior assistant district attorney John Hindsman said Springer admitted to drowning her sons, Kessler Clay Springer and Connor Thomas Springer, to their father as well as to paramedics transporting her to the hospital.
Hindsman said the father was “unable to gather himself” to attend the first court appearance. He feared for his safety and the safety of others if she was released on bail.
Hindsman said Mrs. Springer tried to communicate with Springer, asking him to put money in her jail commissary account. Hindsman asked Greene to issue a no-contact order against Mrs. Springer and continue holding her without bail, saying she posed a “substantial risk to the community.”
The judge agreed.
Search warrants
A search warrant was served on Mrs. Springer’s home at 75 Gooseberry Road on March 2, just hours after the homicides were reported.
Items seized under the warrant included notebooks, checklists, a “best wishes” card and a Christmas card, folders of pictures, a laptop computer, a broken iPad, burned notes found in the oven and numerous wet towels found on the floor of the master bathroom. Deputies also seized a wet pillow with red stains, a knife found on the master bathroom floor and several books including All I See is Part of Me – an award-winning children’s book – and The Empty Trap – a crime novel.
The initial search warrant led to five more warrants over the following days submitted by sheriff’s Lt. Sport Teasdale.
Teasdale said Mrs. Springer admitted to drowning the boys two to three days before she was arrested. He said she admitted to the drownings to her husband, to the deputy who was first on scene, to medics who treated her and transported her to the hospital and to medical staff at the hospital.
He said that following their deaths, the boys were placed in their beds surrounded by their stuffed toys. They were cold to the touch, and blood started pooling by the time authorities arrived.
Looking for clues
Among items sought in the search warrants were patient care reports and patient notes from Union General Hospital in Blairsville, Ga., where she was initially treated, access to her email accounts for activity between July 1, 2023, and March 2, 2024, access to a storage unit on Harshaw Road, plus access to her laptop and the broken iPad, several cell phones and other items.
Authorities were monitoring her telephone conversations while she was in custody and overheard her tell her father that there were numerous letters to her husband about the children and describing Springer as a “mean person.” A spiral notebook included a note she wrote about her calling the fraud department at Nantahala Bank accusing Springer of getting into her personal bank account.
Authorities also sought patient notes from her psychologist.
Mrs. Springer was assigned a lawyer, Waynesville-based Jann Allison, by the Office of Indigent Defense Services because of the first-degree murder charges.